The Mark



He checks himself in the mirror once again. The Mark is still as visible in reflection as it was to the naked eye.
He sits at the foot of his bed to contemplate the meaning. Over 24 hours had passed since he had made the Deal but the world outside was as dark and empty as it had before.
"How much longer do I have to wait?" he whispers to himself and the one he had made the deal with. He longed for some comfort from the only one he knew who could give him the answer. He could almost see the sly face of his sinister Demon giving false hope and trying to comfort him.
Maybe if I try and remember the Demon's face, it would appear in front of me, he thinks, shaking his head to clear his mind.
He remembers how the Demon's face used to leer at him, everywhere he looked. It had a confident smirk on it's face.
"I can make all the pain go away." it had hissed at him. He had chosen to ignore the face and kept on walking away. But every corner he turned, he had seen the same diabolical lips, curled in satisfaction at his utter confusion.
He shakes his head, just to get a sense of reality and looks around his empty room, partially wary of another presence. He knows the Demon won't be summoned at will, it was far too powerful. He knows the only way is to while away time till the Demon realizes its end of the bargain. He looks at his Mark and then outside his window. How could a world, so full of people, be so full of darkness, he wonders.
Thinking of how irreversibly damaged his reality is, gives him a new wave of confidence in his Deal. He walks over to the windows and looks outside. Had he been any normal person, he would've been looking at a scenery as mediocre as they come by. A twitch and a chill down his spine remind him of the Void which is slowly gripping the world unbeknownst to its inhabitants.
He had known of the Void the same day he had met the Demon. He'd always known there was something wrong with his world, but since no one spoke of it, he had ignored his more paranoid thoughts.
That's when the Demon had appeared in his life.
"I can make the pain go away." he heard, from every direction. When he went outside, the Demon's face was  everywhere.
"I can make the pain go away."
He had tried to find refuge at home, only the Demon found a way to find him through the TV, his laptop and even Dad's morning newspaper.
"I can make the pain go away."
The only solace he had received was shut in his room, breaking contact with everyone, even his family. He used to think to himself about the Void that surrounded him from all sides. He used to think about the Demon's face. 
Whether it was morbid curiosity or his will power giving way, he finally acknowledged the haunting face.
"I can make the pain go away."
"But how? My world is so big?"
"Have faith in me child. All I ask in return is one small possession of yours. Something which you'll hardly mourn once it is gone."
He had almost chuckled to himself just before he had made the Deal. Of course, the Demon wanted his soul. After watching all those movies, he knew the drill. Yet, he still asked the Demon what it wanted.
"I think you already know." the Demon began coyly "To make your pain go away and make the world a better place, all I ask of you is your identity."
"My identity?"
"Your identity."
"That will make the pain go away?"
"That will make the pain go away."
Once again, he had decided to go ahead with the Deal without consulting someone wiser. He had made the biggest decision in his life. He had made, the Deal.
"How will I know you will keep your end of the Deal?"
"I told you to have faith in me", the Demon had maliciously whispered into his ear "but to do away with your concern, I shall mark you. For days, you can gaze upon the mark and think about the Deal. Let it be a reminder for you."
And before he could raise a protest, the Demon was gone. The next day, he could no longer find the Demon's face lurking behind every corner. All that remained in the streets were empty shadows which only bore a vague semblance of the monster that once was. But the Void remained and loomed over the world like the stench of death itself.
Now, he sat alone in his room, refusing company and food, waiting for when the world would change for the better as his Demon had promised.
He looks at his Mark once again, this time, a bit more closely. He tries to erase it away with his other finger but to no avail. He notices that the Mark reminds him of something, something familiar, something vicious. He focuses more and more closely on the Mark, till the whole world surrounding him vanishes and in his Mark he could finally see it.
The dark Mark is exactly like the Void that surrounds him. It feeds off him. It lives off him. It is him.
He stumbles back in horror when he comes to the realization that the Mark is the same as the Void and the Demon. His world will never be rid of the Void and he will never be rid of the Mark.
"Fuck!", he sighs in a defeated tone "I should have just stayed home on election day."


Image courtesy: http://obsidianentity.deviantart.com/art/Creepy-Smile-357757047

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