​

“You’ve done a very bad thing, Michael.  Very bad.”  The disembodied voice seemed to be circling him.  “Good little boys, like you, shouldn’t play with big bad things.  You knew better.”  It came from everywhere.  And nowhere.  Around and around, like seeing a familiar face in the crowd while on a carnival ride, he could just get a brief glimpse of a location every now and then.  “I could forgive you though, Michael.  Do you know how?”
Michael shook his head, but it only made the dizziness and nausea worse.  It was too dark to see anything, and he was too disoriented to be able to figure out his situation.  “I can help you make things right.  I can help you make things so much better.  No one will even know you were gone.”
Gone, Michael thought.  Where did I go?
“Not a soul, but you.  And me.  And I’m not telling anyone.  Who would listen to me even if I did?  I’m a very simple man, Michael, and no one trusts the simple man.  Would you like to go home?”  Michael tried to answer but nothing came out.  His throat was too tight; his tongue just sort of dangled from his mouth.  “I don’t offer this deal to just anyone, definitely not.  You’re special, Michael, very special.  You wouldn’t be in this mess if you weren’t.”
The carnival.  I remember being at the carnival with Tiffany.  She looked beautiful in her black dress.  She kissed me at the top of the Ferris wheel.  We were having a great time.  But something happened?  “Don’t worry about what happened at the carnival, Michael.  It’s not important right now.”  Had I been talking out loud?  “What’s important is that you listen to me.  I can make things better.  You just have to agree to help me with one little task.  It’s easy.  Do you think you could help me out?”
Michael tried to answer and failed, so he shook his head.  The effort was painful and once again made the sick feeling wash over him.  He tried to cover his mouth with both hands, but they wouldn’t move; nothing seemed to move.  Am I paralyzed?
“Great.  Here’s what you have to do.”  The voice was so close to his ear that he could all but feel the man’s breath on his face.  It was a sweet voice full of promises and wisdom, but not old; it could have been someone in his class.  “All you have to do is say my name.  You know it in your heart and your mind.  It’ll be difficult to say it with all of your injuries, but you can do it.  You’re very special, Michael.  Only a few others in your school could have brought me back.  Just say the name.”
A gurgling sound dripped out of Michael’s mouth.  His throat hurt so much; it burned with the effort.  He gasped for air, trying his hardest to just get it out.  “Hurry, Michael, before it’s too late.”  A light appeared from somewhere.  It somehow felt peaceful.  “Come on, Michael.  That light is them, the ones who hurt you.  Just say my name and everything will be okay.  I’ll make it better.”  He tried again as the light approached.  It didn’t feel evil as it neared, but someone had hurt him, terribly.  He couldn’t remember whom though.  All he could remember was the name.  The light grew brighter, more beautiful with every second.  How could something so nice be from something so bad?  “All the nicest things are bad, Michael.  You know that.  Candy is bad; kissing is bad; drinking is bad; but they all feel so good.  Right, Michael?  Just say the name and I’ll make the bad thing go away.”
Michael tried again and felt the contents of his stomach rush up to the back of his throat.  The pain was immense.  The light was almost on him; it was bright enough to force spots into his vision, but it didn’t hurt.  “Come on, Michael.  The name!” the voice growled, growing angry with impatience.  Michael felt fear in that moment, from both the voice in his ear and the light.  He gasped for air, felt his stomach settle for a moment, and blurted out, “Belial.”  The light disappeared and everything settled back into darkness.  He suddenly felt horrible, like he had lost a loved one.  The voice was different now, more high-pitched and less pleasant.  There was a certain serpentine quality to it, a hiss.
“That’s right, Michael.”  Its glee was unhidden, unmasked.  “That’s right.”  He felt a cold damp hand patting his head.  The pain in his throat settled.  He wasn’t dizzy anymore or sick to his stomach.  He felt much better, but something still felt wrong and sad.  And he was very hungry.  “I’ve been waiting a long time for someone like you, Michael, someone who could hear me but someone who was also weak, so very weak.”
He started to remember.  The carnival came back to him.  It had started getting windy and then cold, so he had gone back to his car to get their jackets—his and Tiffany’s.  He tried to hurry, but there had been a lot of cars in the parking area and he couldn’t remember where his was.  It took a while but he had found it.  At the car, he took a moment to enjoy the smell of hers, a faint whiff of vanilla.  He ran back to the lights and looked around.  He had seen Jason with a group of their friends from class and asked about Tiffany.  Jason told him he saw her go into the funhouse.  He had gone in, coats clutched in his hands, a smile on his face.  He went through the mirror maze, the hokey bats and vampire exhibit, the spinning walkway, and up the stairs.  When he got into the darkest part, he had found Tiffany.  But she wasn’t alone.  She was with Mark Davis, a senior.  And they were kissing.
He hadn’t said anything, just dropped her coat and ran back to his car.  He was driving too fast, his vision blurred with the tears in his eyes.  The dog came out of nowhere; he swerved to avoid it.  Then…darkness.  “Where am I?” Michael whispered, feeling better with every passing second.  “What happened?”
The voice was distant now but still joyful.  “You died, I’m afraid.  And I brought you back.  And now, you’ve brought me back.  Things are going to get rough here in town for a while, Michael.  But a promise is a promise.  Tiffany and Mark will pay for their trespass against you, and you will be my servant.”
The truth stung but felt right.  Michael was special, and he accepted these circumstances better than most.  “I never agreed to be your servant.”
“Oh, but you did.”
“You said to say your name, and I did that.  That’s all I agreed to.”
The sinister voice cackled with laughter, a sound that sent shockwaves of terror through Michael’s spine.  “You should have read the fine print, boy.  You agreed to a whole lot of things when you said my name.  But first things first, let’s get you home.  Your parents will be worried.”  Michael felt his eyes open.  The scene in front of him was a fatal car crash.  He felt himself stand up.  He felt himself start walking away from the vehicle.  And when he screamed, the only sound that escaped his mouth was a chuckle.​