Crossroad Blues
Title: Crossroad Blues
Genre: Supernatural AU/crossover
Word Count: 2,089
Rating/Warnings: PG; some cursing, a demon
Summary: If you bury a box at the crossroads, you can make a deal with a demon.
Crossroad Blues
The knowledge of how to summon a demon wasn’t particularly easy to come by, but it was considerably less difficult than Alfred had assumed when he set out to find the information he needed. There were a lot of hokey shops and instruction manuals that claimed to know how to get a demon to do your bidding, but with a bit of digging and getting to know the cashier of a nearby occult store, Alfred found what he was after.
Though he was told it didn’t matter what time of day, Alfred chose to do it at night. Not midnight, because that was just too many supernatural things that could come together against him. But when the sun touched down in the horizon, Alfred could be found at an old crossroads, burying a box that held the bone of a black cat, graveyard dirt, and Alfred’s high school picture.
It was a quiet summer night, warm and pleasant despite the potentially evil goings-on with Alfred F Jones. He rubbed his arms to fend off the chill that came to him as the slight breeze stopped. For a moment, he panicked, thinking this would be yet another let down. The older man had sounded so legit, too. He’d hate to go back to the drawing board at this point. It’d been weeks already.
“Good evening.”
Alfred didn’t jump at the soft, masculine voice behind him, but he did freeze where he stood and took a moment to turn around. The sight that met him did not belong on the back roads of California at dusk. The man that stood before him was ash blonde with acid green eyes, dressed in slacks and a button up shirt. He was also smiling in a way that Alfred immediately knew the summoning had been successful. He had his demon.
“And what are you here for, lad?” the demon asked, one of his unmissable eyebrows raised as he looked Alfred over, and Alfred noted he’d summoned a British demon. “Surely you didn’t summon some evil like me?”
Alfred turned to fully face him and straightened his shoulders. “Yeah, I summoned you, demon. What? You think I’m too young to know what I’m doing?”
“Of course not,” he answered, apparently amused. The demon moved closer to him, tapping a thoughtful fingertip on Alfred’s shoulder. “Only wondering why you’d sell your soul so young. Though I suppose I can’t complain.”
He winked at Alfred, slowly retracting the fingertips that had been resting on his shoulder. “Nothing like a nice, pure soul ready for the taking.”
Strangely, Alfred felt as though they were discussing his virtue instead of his soul. And the way this demon was eyeing him almost made him ask if the demon would perhaps accept something a little less drastic than his soul. Maybe he’d settle for a body to use for a while.
“Let’s get to the point,” Alfred said sharply, not wanting to stray from the reason he was here. “You’re supposed to give me what I want before you take my…soul.”
“What do you desire?” he asked loftily, settling with his arms crossed and a hip slightly cocked out. “And do stop fumbling over the terms of the deal.”
Alfred scowled. “I want to bring my brother back,” he demanded. “You can have my soul if you bring Matt back.”
After a breath of silence, the demon started laughing. It made the hair on Alfred’s neck rise at the same time it made his stomach flip. This was a demon, sure, and definitely a bad guy, but his voice did things to Alfred’s brain that couldn’t be a healthy response to a demon.
“It doesn’t work like that, luv.” Despite his laughter, the demon looked completely serious. “We can’t bring people back from the dead left and right, or you lot would be overrunning the earth, even with the ones getting dragged to Hell to pay their price.”
He examined his nails, then sighed as if it was all very tedious. “You’d have to be worth a great deal more than any normal mortal for me to agree to give you back your dead brother. And even then, you’d have perhaps three years to live instead of the usual ten.”
The demon looked directly at Alfred and grinned. “Tough luck, kid.”
“It can’t not work like that!” Alfred shouted, fuming. “I’m giving you my soul. That’s a fair trade, you bastard!”
Alfred felt a hand close over his balled up fist, holding on in what he would call a comforting grip if it were anyone or anything else. The demon was quite suddenly within inches of him and looking curious, amused, and slightly confused.
“You think any one soul is worth another?” he asked frankly. “And in any case, you would get to live a while longer, with your brother by your side. Those years of life are costly. There would be an empty space in Hell just waiting for you, unfulfilled, and we can’t have that. Sorry to break it to you, but you’re not worth the hassle.”
Alfred shoved at him instinctively, and saw red flash in the demon’s green eyes for a half-second. He fell back gracefully, not stumbling, but backing away slowly, as though that had been his intent all along.
“Well, if you’re going to expect impossible things, then we’re done here,” the demon said flippantly. “Call me if you have something plausible to ask for.”
“Wait!”
The demon obeyed, and halted where he was in the shadows of the rapidly gathering darkness. Alfred bit his lip, thinking for a moment. If he couldn’t get Matt back, then he’d wasted his time entirely. He’d spent too long trying to do this for his brother and hitting too many dead ends for him to let go of the chance so easily. But if he couldn’t save Matt, then what else could he do?
“You can’t rescue your brother from death,” the demon told him. “But you must want something else. Mortals are never satisfied with what they have.”
“I’m not unsatisfied,” Alfred snapped. “I just- I wish I could have…”
“Could have what? Saved him?” the demon pried, looking almost gleeful.
“Yes.” Alfred looked him dead in the eye. “I wish I could have saved him. And if I can’t save him, then I’ll save everyone I can. I want to be a hero, big enough that people actually notice.”
He gave a surprisingly dignified snort of laughter. “Do you want the spandex as well, luv?”
“Don’t be stupid,” Alfred said, frowning. “I mean I wanna be able to save people from getting hurt, and know when they’re in danger so I can save them.”
“How noble,” the demon sighed. “Disappointing, really, that you could have anything you ever wanted in the world, and you choose to make yourself a slave. And, of course, I can’t give you the full ten years of life. Not with you saving so many customers from us.”
“I want to be able to rescue people,” Alfred insisted. “If I can have anything I want in the world, maybe I just want the fame. You don’t know me.”
“If you really believe that,” he replied, “you’re more naïve than I thought. It’s my job as a demon to know what your silly little mortal heart longs for. Yes, you’d like to be famous, but more than that, you’re out to help people. You know, it’s your kind that makes my job so hard.”
“We got a deal or what?” Alfred asked hastily. The demon was smirking at him again, and it made Alfred’s skin crawl with both apprehension and something else he didn’t want to name. It figured he’d summon some kind of succubus or whatever. At this point, he wanted to get away as soon as possible, but he wasn’t leaving empty handed.
“Yes, yes, alright. Impatient.” The demon grumbled, as if Alfred were ruining his fun. Which, this being a deal for his soul, how could it not be fun for a demon?
“So the deal is this,” he started. “You will be given the means to rescue those around you that you will be able to perceive are in danger in the immediate future. In return, at the end of seven years, your soul is mine. I’ll give you seven just because it fits my schedule. You’re lucky it’s not only five.”
Alfred nodded numbly, the reality sinking in as the demon’s eyes went red again and he stepped imperceptibly closer to Alfred.
“Now this can be approached the easy way or the hard way. Either you can come back here in seven years and we can have a companionable trip down to the pits, or…” He paused and a smile stretched over his face that made every instinct in Alfred’s body scream at him to run. “Or you can try to run or hide, and the hounds of Hell will drag you down, screaming the whole way. Sounds fair?”
“Um.” Alfred fiddled with his fingers, trying desperately not to look at the red-eyed demon inches in front of him.
“Now, now.” A firm hand caught Alfred’s chin, holding him in place so that those eyes were staring straight at him. “No buyer’s remorse. You’re saving lives here, luv. Saving innocent folk like your brother so other little boys like you don’t have to grow up knowing death.”
Alfred swallowed hard. There was probably a loophole in there somewhere, if demon lore was right, but what other choice did he have? He couldn’t bring Matt back, but if he could keep other people from getting hurt who deserved to live… There was no way he could say no. Not if something like this would have kept Matt alive.
“Do we have a deal?” the demon asked, giving Alfred’s earlier question back to him.
He tried to tug away from the demon’s hold on his chin, but he apparently wasn’t letting go until Alfred made his decision. Annoyed at being manhandled, Alfred glared right back at the red eyes glowing out at him.
“Deal.”
“Excellent.” The demon’s smile spread wide, looking like it was pretending to be innocently pleased, but coming off like an animal spotting its next meal. “It’s been lovely doing business with you, Alfred."
He didn’t have time to wonder how the demon knew his name, because in the next second, the hand on his chin shifted into his hair and pulled forward. Warm lips were pressed against his mouth, and Alfred realized belatedly that he was kissing a male demon in the middle of an old unused road in the dead of night.
Despite his delayed reaction of inhaling sharply and flailing, the demon stayed where he was for a moment more, the connection between their mouths heating until Alfred flinched, almost feeling as if his lips were being branded.
The demon let go of him and rocked back on his heels, eyes closed and expression pleased. His eyes opened slowly, showing bright green again, dancing in malevolent glee.
“What was that?” Alfred asked before he could stop himself. A second later, his face screwed up as he tried to rub at his lips as if it could erase the trace of demon on his mouth.
“Just sealing a deal,” the demon answered, patting him lightly on the back in an awkwardly friendly manner. When a hand closed around his wrist, Alfred’s movements halted and he watched, bracing himself as the demon’s free hand came up to lightly touch the corner of Alfred’s lips.
“It’s the signature on the contract as well as a mark that this-” He tapped Alfred’s mouth lightly. “-is mine to collect in seven years’ time.”
“You’re gonna leave me alone until then, though, right?” Alfred wasn’t entirely keen on having this demon pop up in his life again if he could help it.
“So long as you don’t have anything else you want to bargain for in the next few years,” he answered. “And keep in mind, it will only be a few. Seven years is shorter than you think.”
“Are we done here?” Alfred grumbled. “I wanna make the most of my next seven years, if you don’t mind.”
“Yes, of course.” He released Alfred’s wrist and took a step back. “Be good to that soul of yours, luv. It’s my property now.”
With that, the demon was gone, evaporated into the night and leaving Alfred with only the memory and his stinging lips to prove it had all happened.
-
A/N: So, all my fellow Supernatural fans, am I the only one who saw "sealed with a kiss" and thought of the crossroads demon? Title taken from the Supernatural episode, by the by, so props to them and I am terrifyingly unoriginal.