Page 7 of Hexes From Exes

Stephanie smiled. “Well, there you go.”

“How do you propose to convince me these men are at fault and not you? I won’t take your word for it,” he said.

“But you’ll take theirs just because they paid you in what…crypto currency? A first born child? Insider trading information?”

He blinked at her blandly and she sighed, rolling her eyes. “Fine. I’ll go on a date with my exes, I have a few that I suspect were part of this bullshit. If you think the date is going well, that these men are truly blameless and I’m the problem, then you can enact your punishment as you see fit. On the flip side, if you see what I see and realize they’re absolute pieces of shit then…” She waved her hands.

“I will adjust the punishment to be lesser. As I said, the magic is already in motion, I only have so much control,” he allowed.

“What a shitty system, what do you even do, anyway? If the magic exists and is set in to motion independent of you, what’s your purpose?”

The demon man blinked at her, his expression unreadable. “I have a lot of purpose,” he said after a long silence, his voice low.

“I see,” she replied, sitting back in her chair. She hoped she’d mollified him enough to leave her be. The minute he left her office, she was calling security. They could apprehend him at the door. Maybe a nice restraining order after a psych eval would do the trick, or at least a big enough bond to crush whatever business he was running. Dressing as a demon, sneaking into an office with a woman at night while she was alone…read the fucking room, pal.

“Well, is it settled then?” she asked.

“Fine,” he said, his voice still terse.

“Fine what?” she pressed. She’d listened to plenty of audiobooks about fairies and demons and how they played tricks with their deals and bargains. No loop holes.

“I will follow you on a few dates with these men that are your exes, and if they prove to be at fault and not you, I will change the punishment to lesser. If you are at fault, the punishment will be in line with your crimes,” he allowed reluctantly.

“Wonderful. I didn’t catch your name, as you obviously know mine,” she said.

“Rick,” he replied.

“Rick? You’re a demon named Rick?” she said with a laugh.

“My real name holds power a puny human like you could never understand, and so you will never learn it,” he shot back, standing up. At his full height he towered over her.

She was glad for the high ceilings. In a normal office his horns would have done serious damage to an older popcorn ceiling. “Are you leaving now?” she asked, unable to keep the note of fear from her voice.

“I am,” he said. He closed his eyes, and to her absolute shock and horror, he disappeared.

One minute there was a giant red scaled demon man in her office with yellow goat eyes, and the next minute he was gone.

She jumped from her desk, her heart racing. His seat had no evidence of red paint on it, and it was still warm from his body. She waved her arms around the air, trying to find a string or a projector or something. She even stood on her chair and felt around the top of her bookshelf and along the top of her curtains, trying to find evidence of some sort of camera. It wouldn’t explain why the seat was warm, why his voice was coming from him but…god, anything. Something!

At 8:56pm, Stephanie sat on the floor of her empty office, her hand on her chest to feel her racing heart, accepting that she’d just been visited by a fucking demon and had been cursed by her exes.

Now, she thought, anger replacing her fear. To find out which one of those fuckers did it.

Chapter Four

At 5:30am, Stephanie’s alarm went off, but she was already awake, staring at the ceiling. She’d replayed the events of the previous night at least four hundred times, each time convincing herself that she hadn’t actually been visited by a revenge demon.

On her lap was a pen and paper filled with more logical conclusions that read as follows:

A) Someone is playing an elaborate prank on me (see: exes in question, with a list of possible candidates)

B) I’m in a coma from an unfortunate accident, and none of this is really happening (seemed less likely, though how would I truly know?)

C) There’s a gas leak in the office (I’ve already called the security office to do a sweep, they found no evidence of a CO2 leak or any other sort of strange chemicals)

D) A revenge demon visited me at my office and was sent by an ex to truly and fully curse me

She threw the paper and pen down in frustration, watching as her clock ticked on from 5:30am to 6:30am, and she still hadn’t come to a favorable conclusion. So, she did what any normal person would.