Pat; And my struggle for freedom

Pat1487 wrote:

The whole chapter is coming this week

Achilles.42 wrote:

Nothing but lies. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Technically its not a lie, this week is right now, this is the current week we are in
Next week will be this week once this week ends and last week was this week until this week started
So its always this week. we just label them for easier reference
Also if you read that without looking at the date on the post it is this week
Its all based on perception


I cant remember why i stopped with it though, i think i figured no one would read it as it was becoming long
I said 5 chapters when i started but i thought the chapters would be shorter then the first 1 ended up being and they were probably only going to get longer
And i found that writing dialog was alot harder then i thought it would be, i remember that i originally was going to have most of it in dialog, but realized 2 things
1. It was really hard to do without a 3rd person narrator, and i didnt want that
2. It becomes boring to read, like originally, the part when the characters are in the car on the way to the beach, i wrote "We talked while sitting there in traffic" that was an actual conversation that i wrote out that really had nothing to do with anything, so i looked at other parts i wrote, like the part at the beginning which was much longer in dialog, and cut most of the dialog out and added more inner thoughts to get the same information across much quicker

So i changed it to have it mostly as the main characters thoughts

I guess i could continue it, i have my ideas written down (for the most part) from when i was typing it so i know how it goes
But theres no time frame for when/if i keep it going

Pat1487 wrote:

But theres no time frame for when/if i keep it going

You should have said "But ill probably have it out some time this week" to continue fucking with us.

Finish the goddamn story...

After nearly a year i bring you chapter 2
You should re-read chapter 1 if you intend to read this: https://tmmm.forumotion.com/t1036-pat-and-my-struggle-for-freedom#12070
Unless you can remember everything from a year ago
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Chapter 2

There was nothing but a vast emptiness. Being an Atheist, this is what should be expected, but what I didn't expect was the ability to experience the nothingness. It was much different then I thought, I had pictured the experience of being dead as being like what you experienced before you were born. But this was nothing like that.

I couldn't move or speak, it felt like an immeasurable amount of time had passed since I arrived in this void. During that time all I could think about was Sarah and how she was doing after I died, I wanted to believe she was able to be happy even without me. I often fantasized about how things could have been if I never had that feeling of dread. I wondered what had caused that feeling and why it effected me so much. At first I was angry, I was angry at myself for leaving Sarah like I had, angry at my cowardice for letting a stupid feeling get the better of me. So much time had passed that I had no choice but to forgive myself. Mostly I just missed Sarah.

As this time passed the space around me felt as though it was closing in, getting smaller and smaller. I was afraid, but there was nothing I could do to stop it from collapsing in on me and really, what was the point of existing in this state. I eventually just accepted that I was going to be crushed and was waiting for the space to consume me. I could feel the space getting tighter and tighter as it closed on me, I began to feel pain, something I hadn't felt in a long time, it was a dull pain but began to grow. As the pain grew colors started to flood the void, sounds and smells came soon after. I could feel a warm wetness on my arm and side.

“Hey, can you hear me, you're going to be ok.” a muffled voice said.

The colors began to take shape and I could see someone over me. It was the hotdog vendor, still in his full pig costume. He was moved aside by a lifeguard.

“Don't try to move, there's an ambulance on the way.” the lifeguard said.

Ignoring him I turned my head and raised my arm to see what the wetness was, it hurt to do so but it wasn't that bad. I could see blood running down my left arm and covering much of my shoulder. I looked around and saw that a large crowd was standing fairly far back from me. I could see Sam and Dave standing closer to me, Sam was crying a lot. The van that hit me was to my right, I couldn't see Sarah anywhere.

The ambulance arrived and a paramedic started to examine me.

"Can you tell me your name?" the paramedic questioned.

"Pat." I answered.

“Ok, Pat, does this hurt?” the paramedic asked as he felt my neck.

“No, where is Sarah?” I responded.

He didn't answer me, I began to worry, so I started to sit up.

“Stop, don't get up.” the paramedic said trying to stop me from getting up.

I pushed him back and stood up, my left shoulder hurt but other then that I felt fine. I walked toward the van looking for Sarah. Another ambulance had arrived and 2 paramedics were putting someone on a stretcher in front of the van.

“Sarah!” I yelled as I started running over to them.

I was stopped by another paramedic

“Don't... I'm sorry, we did what we could, but shes gone” the paramedic said.

I paused not knowing what to do. I noticed the driver of the van talking to a police officer outside of her mini-van, her face showed no emotion, she was just calmly talking to the officer.

“You bitch!” I yelled at her as I ran up to her, pushing the officer down.

I picked her up by the throat with both hands and held her off the ground choking her with all my strength. I didn't know what I was doing but her emotionless expression made me think she didn't care what she had just done and threw me into a rage. I've never done anything like that before, I'm not normally a violent person. I've never even been in a fight.

“Hey!” the officer I had pushed down yelled as he got up

Two other officers ran over to help him get me off the driver. The pain in my shoulder from holding her up like this became too great and I dropped the driver to the ground as the officers grabbed me.

“I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.” the driver said while coughing, she sounded sincere, but I was still angry.

“We are going to have to take you in.” one of the officers said.

They put me into the back of a patrol car, they didn't handcuff me. As I got in I looked over to Sam and Dave. Sam was still crying.

“We'll meet you there.” Dave said.

We drove to the station, on the way there I didn't want to think about what had just happened. I wanted this to be some kind of nightmare and that in reality Sarah was happy. To keep from thinking about it I started inspecting my left arm. I had a large bruise just below my elbow which didnt hurt unless I touched it. My shoulder looked fine even though it still hurt. The paramedics cleaned off the blood but my shirt had blood stains on it. I couldn't find any cuts or scrapes on my arm or anywhere on my side. I took my shirt off and put it on the seat next to me and looked out the window for the rest of the ride. I needed to avoid thinking about what just happened.

We arrived at the station, I had calmed down by the time we got there. They took me into an interrogation room. As we walked in the hotdog vendor was at the front desk talking to an officer there, he was still wearing the full pig costume.

“What's that guy doing here?” I asked while motioning towards the vendor.

“He's giving a statement about what happened this afternoon since he saw everything.” an officer responded.

I asked for a shirt as I sat down in the interrogation room. They made me wait in there for about a half hour before someone came in. I wondered how the hotdog vendor could have gotten here before I did. I didn't see him after he talked to me when I woke up from whatever that void was so he must have been asked to go to the station right after that.

I started thinking about that void. I guessed that was what a near death experience was like, but I wasn't near death. Maybe it doesn't matter, I thought I was going to die so my brain did everything it does before death. I've read that near death experiences are just the brain releasing chemicals and causing hallucinations, that must be what that void was.

The man that came into the interrogation room was wearing a suit, a blue tie, gray jacket and dress pants, and white shirt. The suit looked cheap except for the tie, it was of significantly higher quality then the rest of his suit. He handed me a white t-shirt that I put on.

“I'm Detective Crabshaw. I know this may be hard for you, but I need you to tell me what happened this afternoon.” he said.

May be hard for me? Of course its hard you jackass.

“I'd rather not, could we do this some other time?” I asked.

“I'm sorry, but we have to do this today.” he responded.

“Well I can't talk about it right now, I just want to go home.” I said.

“We have several witnesses that say you pulled your girlfriend into the street as the van came speeding through the red-” he said before I interrupted him.

“Hey! Are you trying to say I pulled her into the path of that van on purpose?!” I said in a loud voice as I stood up quickly.

“Did you?” he asked in a calm voice.

I wanted to pick up the chair I had been sitting in and beat him to death with it for accusing me of doing something like that, but I know that would only make this situation worse.

“No! And I can't believe you would accuse me of that, it was an accident.” I said as I sat down again.

“Then why did you grab her hand and run into the street like that?” Crabshaw asked.

“I didn't grab her hand, we were holding hands, and the light was red, we had the right of way to cross, the driver of the van should be in here, not me.” I responded.

“You didn't answer the question, why did you run into the street.” he said.

If I told him that I had a bad feeling I don't think he would believe me.

“The light was red, what does it matter if we ran or walked.” I said

“It matters because you ran into the path of an oncoming van while pulling her behind you and now shes dead.” he said forcefully.

I had pulled her in front of the van, that part was true. It was my fault... if I didn't do that she would be fine. The van would have just passed by through the red light and she would be safe. My eyes started to tear up.

“It was an accident, just an accident.” I said weakly.

Detective Crabshaw looked me over for a minute before sighing.

“I believe you.” he said. “But you did assault a women and an officer, so we are going to have to hold you.”

“For how long?” I asked.

“Well the women and officer aren't pressing charges so you aren't under arrest, we can only hold you for a few more hours.” he answered.

“If you believe me and I'm not under arrest why are you holding me at all?” I questioned.

“Well you did try to choke someone, the only reason you aren't under arrest is because you voluntarily let her go before the officers had to stop you, we just want to make sure you've calmed down” he responded.

Detective Crabshaw left the room and an officer came in to bring me to a cell. All the cells were identical, they had a toilet/sink and 1 small bed. The cell next to the one I was put in had someone laying down on the bed with his back to me. It smelt terrible, I was glad that I only had to spend a few hours here. A clock in the hall above a phone outside of the cell said that it was almost 3pm.

“Can I make a phone call?” I asked

They had taken my wallet, keys, and phone when I came in.

“Yeah.” an officer said.

He let me out and I called Sam, she said she and Dave were in the station and that they wouldn't tell them anything. I explained that I was being held for a while and asked if they would pick me up when I called again, she agreed. Her voice was quiet and shaky.

I sat down on the bed, it was more of a cot really, and looked over at the guy in the cell next to mine. He was still laying on his cot with his back to me, he had the blanket over him.

It was my fault...

We were the only 2 there, and I tried to focus my attention on him. I started to wonder what he was in here for, maybe he was a thief, going from town to town robbing banks and taking hostages. I could see him as the leader of a ragtag crew of bank robbers, all robbing banks for their own unique reasons. There was the guy that just wanted money for his family but got mixed up with the wrong people.

I pulled her into the street...

Then there's the computer expert that hacks into the bank's security system from his basement to help the others get in. He's in it just because he's looking for something to challenge his hacking skills.

If I wasn't there she wouldn't have died...

“Damn it.” I said as my eyes teared up again.

I couldn't avoid it anymore, Ill never see her again and it's my own fault. I started sobbing. I began to replay the events of that afternoon in my head, but my thoughts were interrupted.

“What's the matter?” the guy in the other cell asked without moving.

“Nothing” I responded, trying not to sound like I was crying

“You shouldn't blame yourself for Sarah's death.” he stated.

“What?” I asked surprised.

“You heard me.” he said.

“Who are you, what do you know about it?” I asked in a demanding voice.

He threw the blanket off over-dramatically, got up quickly and spun around to face me. It was the hotdog vendor, still dressed in his pig costume. This was the first time I got a good look at the costume. It was pink, had a curly tail and was pretty baggy on the guy, the shoes were small, like a pigs feet, they looked uncomfortable to wear. It had a giant pig head, he could see from the mouth of the head, the mouth had that black screen that you cant see into so I couldn't see his face. The eyes of the pig looked mean, like the head had an angry expression. The top had a bit of brown hair and the ears looked too small in proportion to the rest of the head. The hands looked like pink mittens that were attached to it.

“I'm the reason you had that feeling of dread.” he said smugly.

END OF CHAPTER 2
--------------------------------------------

This time was mostly dialog, it feels shorter because of it but looks longer
Chapter 3 is almost done so it shouldnt take another year for the next chapter, maybe some time by the end of the week
I actually split chapter 2 up because it seemed to be getting long. So chapter 3 is really just the other half of chapter 2
The line i split it up at felt perfect to end a chapter on anyway so it worked out

Also the part where the main character goes between thinking about the guy in the other cell and his guilt went on much longer then i intended it to, i wanted to make it like when you want to avoid thinking about something but its always in the back of your mind never letting you forget about it
There was a mini story about bank robbers in there that just derailed everything until i cut most of it out, it still sorta derails it, but it was the minimum i could put to do what i was trying to do, even though i think i failed at what i was trying to do

I told you it wouldn't take a year for the next chapter this time
Although i do wish someone posted after i posted chapter 2, feels like no one has even read it yet
----------------------------------------
Chapter 3

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You know, that panic you felt on the way to the beach and right before your girl went splat.” he said as he chuckled.

“Fuck you asshole!” is all I could say as I tried to reach him through the bars that separated our cells.

“Don't be like that, think about it, you haven't told anyone about that feeling, so I must be telling the truth.” he said.

“Who are you!” I yelled.

“Whoa whoa, no need to yell, I'm a business man.” he responded. “I'm here to make a deal with you, one I know you'll like.”

“A business man? You're a just a hotdog vendor.” I said.

“Being a hotdog vendor requires business skills, it's not as easy as you would think. Besides if I was just a hotdog vendor how would I know so much about that feeling you had or your girl's name.” he said.

“You saw me before we crossed the street, you probably saw the fear on my face, and you were talking to the cops before so you could have heard my girlfriends name from that.” I responded.

“Fair point, but what about the empty void that you were in, hmmm” he said.

How could this guy know about that void, I didn't say anything about it. I don't remember falling asleep and this doesn't feel like a dream. Maybe there was never anyone in the other cell and I'm just hallucinating.

“Officer!” I yelled.

“Yell for them all you want, they can't hear you.” the pig said happily.

“Detective Crabshaw!” I yelled louder.

The pig hummed the jeopardy final question music.

“See, no one can hear you.” he said after he finished the tune.

“You aren't real” I said as I sat back down on the bed.

“Really? That's the conclusion you came to?” he asked in a mocking tone.

“I haven't told anyone about that void so I'm the only one that knows, and since I'm stricken with grief and guilt my mind made you to cope with it.” I stated. “It's the only explanation.”

“So your explanation for someone else knowing about the void is that you've gone insane.” he said.

“Maybe this is a dream or a nightmare.” I said while laying down on my back. “Whatever this may be I'm done talking to you.”

“But you haven't even heard what I'm offering in my deal” he said tauntingly.

I didn't respond.

“You think you can just ignore me?” the pig said as he laughed.

The room began to shake, the bars that separate our cells started to collapse and the pieces that fell off blew away as if they got caught in the wind. I sat up and held onto the cot, the shaking got more intense. The floor around us fell down into a black abyss the walls and ceiling fell down putting holes into the floor that was still intact between us. When the shaking stopped parts of the floor and the cot I was on were all the remained, we were surrounded by a black void.

The pig costume seemed to change, it got tighter, the belly got fatter, the cloth became more like skin. The head of the costume became more realistic and grotesque, the mouth becoming deeper and filling in with jagged teeth. The nose became more defined and wrinkled with mucus leaking out of it, drool ran down it's chin. The tail got longer and more twisted, the feet got smaller. The pink turned to a dirty brown and filth covered it's body. The mitten like hands shriveled into deformed stumps and the eyes became bloodshot.

“Now then, about that deal.” the pig said while smiling with his mouth.

“Fine, whatever, this is just a nightmare. What's the deal?” I said.

“I assure you this is real, you need to know that this is real or else you can't agree to the terms of the deal” he responded.

“Yeah, sure, just tell me the deal.” I said impatiently.

“You know that this isn't a nightmare. The pain in your shoulder is still there and has been this whole time. How often have you had a dream or nightmare where an injury from the real world carried over?” he said.

He was right, this didn't feel like any dream or nightmare I've ever had before. I was trying to think of all the dreams and nightmares I could remember, and I couldn't think of 1 where I felt pain from a real world injury like i do now. Any pain I did feel in those weren't like this either, this felt real.

“Alright.” I sighed. “Ill ignore how impossible this is for now and say that this is real.”

He paused for a moment as if waiting for something.

“Good.” he said. “Now let's get on with business.”

A table appeared out of no where, on it was a rolled up sheet of dirty looking paper and a pen with red ink.

“You make tables appear from nothing and expect me to believe that this is real.” I quipped.

The pig laughed.

“You're taking this better then I thought you would.” he said, “Unroll that paper.”

I walked over to the table, stepping over the holes in the floor along the way. Upon picking the sheet up I immediately wanted to drop it, the paper felt greasy and disgusting, just wrong. It had no lines and the edges were torn, it's size appeared to be about the size of a normal sheet of notebook paper. I unrolled it and as I did so there always seemed to be more to unroll, the size the the paper just kept getting longer and longer as I unrolled it.

On the paper were names written in faded red ink, none of the names were written next to each other. I recognized the first name on it. George Straut. George and I went to high-school together, we met in freshmen year but never became friends. We saw each other often at beach parties in the summers but rarely ever talked. I continued to unroll the paper, I didn't recognize most of the names but every now and then I would see one I remembered. I started unrolling the paper very rapidly, the top of the paper was well beneath the floor through one of the holes. There were 100's, maybe 1000's of names here and it just keeps going.

“You're going to have to roll all that back up you know.” the pig chuckled as I unrolled the paper even further.

“What is this?” I asked.

“That's a contract.” the pig answered.

“Why does the contract for our deal have all these names on it?” I questioned.

“That's not the contract for our deal, that's the contract for the deal you have with all of the people listed there.” he responded.

“I have a deal with these people?” I asked confused.

“Don't you remember?” the pig said, “Maybe this will remind you.”

The table was violently thrown off the floor into the void, the floor started to crumble away until the only floor left was what I and the pig were standing on. The blackness of the void started to swirl around us mixing in with colors, the colors started taking shapes and the void became a beach. The floor we were standing on crumbled into sand, mixing in with the sand of the beach. The sound of the ocean was behind us and the light from the sun was blinding. As my eyes adjusted to the light I could see George dragging a heavy cooler up to the water.

“What's going on?” I asked.

The pig was no longer next to me, I looked around, he was no where to be found. As I looked around I saw myself sitting near the water.

“Hey! I could use some help here!” George yelled out to the other me.

I remember this, its the summer after my freshmen year of high-school, the first beach party I had gone to. I didn't know if I should hide or just talk to them. I decided to walk up to the other me. He was looking out over the water so I slowly passed in front of his line of view, but he didn't seem to notice me.

“Come on, Pat, help me out here.” George yelled to my younger self.

I picked up some of the sand in my hand and let it fall through my fingers, I smelled the salty air. It felt so real.

“It can't be that heavy, I'm sure you got it covered.” Pat yelled back.

I just realized that Sarah would be here, I could see her again. The younger me hadn't started going out with her yet, he wouldn't even meet her until later this summer. I started looking around for Sarah, the party didn't start yet, it was still being set up, so she might not be there until later.

“It's heavier then it looks.” George said.

I started walking down the beach looking for Sarah.

“Alright, Ill make you a deal, I'll help you out... in exchange for your eternal soul” Pat said jokingly

I stopped walking away and started listening to what they were saying while still keeping an eye out for Sarah.

“Yeah, yeah, sure thing, just take that end and bring it over there.” George responded while motioning to where he wanted the cooler.

I remember that joke, I've used it more then once, with different people. I've been an atheist since i was about 13 and I started to joke that I would collect souls as bargaining chips in hell just in case I was wrong. That was the first time I used that joke. I haven't used it in over a year.

“Wow you signed your soul over pretty quick.” Pat said. “I wonder how many would do the same.”

“You said it and I made it reality.” the pig's voice said.

The sand of the beach swirled around me like a tornado. It was as if I was suddenly in the middle of a dust storm and wasn't able to see a thing. As the wind stopped the sand settled and I was back in the jail cell with the pig. The bars that separated the cells were missing and there was sand all over the place, but the rest of it looked normal.

“You can't be serious.” I said as I held up the list. “The people on this list had no idea what they were agreeing to when I helped them, and there is no way I helped this many people.”

“Every miniscule thing you've done that has been even the tiniest bit beneficial to anyone counts as you helping them. Everyone that is helped when you throw your spare change into the donation box at the register of a store because you're too lazy to count loose change. Any time someone is helped by anything you post online. Even just holding the door open for someone means you've helped them.” the pig gleefully explained. “With the contract I wrote up, the one you hold now, you are the rightful owner of nearly 1 million souls.”

“They didn't know what they were agreeing to.” I repeated.

“Trust me, their souls belong to you, it wasn't easy, but that contract is ironclad.” he responded.

I examined the contract more closely, all I could see were a list of names, no terms or conditions you would expect to see on a contract.

“Where is the legal part, the part that you wrote up” I asked.

“Its all written under the list, good luck unrolling it all” he chuckled. “You should be proud, you're the first person to do something like this, with my help of course. Now can we move onto our deal.”

“You want these souls don't you.” I said

The pig smiled and nodded. A table appeared in the between us, a sheet of paper and a pen with red ink sat on top. The pen floated off the table and stabbed through the pigs deformed stump of a hand. It wasn't red ink he was writing with. He moved with incredible speed and after a few seconds he ate the pen, chomping off part of his stump in the process.

“I think this will do.” he said grinning ear to ear.

I picked up the contract he had wrote for our deal and unrolled it, just like the other one it was much longer then it appeared. It didn't make any sense parts of it were in another language. Math symbols were used seemingly at random, and there were just doodles of objects in the middle of sentences.

“What is this supposed to be.” I asked.

“Basically, in exchange for the 913, 838 souls in your possession, I will return your girlfriend, Sarah, back to exactly the way she was on the morning of the day she died.” the pig answered.

END OF CHAPTER 3
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Chapter 4 will take much longer then the time between 2 and 3, don't expect it anytime soon

Its been more then a year since chapter 1 and its just now on chapter 4
Ill try to put a chapter out at least once every 2 months from now on
But dont hold me to that time schedule
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Chapter 4

“What time of the morning.” I asked.

I was seriously considering accepting his deal right there, I didn't care what the cost was, if there was even a slim chance I could get Sarah back I would do it. But I can't be too hasty with something like this, I need to be smart about it.

“11:00 am Eastern time, I sweetened the deal a bit by choosing the moment where she wants to make you breakfast, so you should get more pancakes out of it.” the pig laughed.

I thought about it for a few minutes while sitting on the cot. A lot of crazy things had happened so quickly that I was still trying to make sense of it all.

“Wait, you said you gave me that feeling of dread?” I asked.

“Yes.” he responded.

“You son of a bitch! You set all this up so she would die to force me to trade you these souls!” I yelled as I got up to punch the pig in the face.

As I went over to the pig the floor beneath me collapsed into the void. I barely managed to catch onto the ledge as I fell.

“All I did was give you a feeling, nothing more then an emotion. You're the one that killed her by choosing to react the way you did to that feeling.” the pig said calmly. ”And its your choice to give me these souls, I can't force you to do anything.”

I pulled myself back up and went over to sit down on my cot.

“Although you are right about me setting this up, its some of my best work if I do say so myself.” he said proudly, “I was going to wait until you were over 1 million souls to put you in this position, but I just couldn't contain myself anymore.”

The pig's voice became excited as he talked.

“Normally I only get one soul from deals like this, but you presented me with an unprecedented opportunity that I just couldn't resist.” the pig exuberantly explained.

“Why should I pay such a high price when you would normally do it for one.” I stated.

“I don't normally bring people back from the dead.” he responded.

“What do people normally get for one soul?” I asked.

“There's too much to list, but the most common stuff would be fame, money, power, sex, love, information, to be more attractive or material possessions, but never what I'm offering you.” the pig replied. “ And I've had people beg me, crying on their hands and knees, to bring a loved one back from the dead. So don't think your getting a bad deal, this is the best deal anyone has ever got.”

“What do you do with the souls?” I continued my questioning.

“Are you going to keep asking stupid questions or are you going to accept the deal, I don't have all day.” the pig said with an irritated tone.

“I just want to know everything I'm getting into, I -” I said as he interrupted me.

“What's the point, we both know you won't refuse the deal, so shut up and accept.” the pig said impatiently.

“No, I refuse your deal.” I said with the best poker face I could muster.

I was bluffing. He was right, I couldn't refuse the deal, but I figured he wanted these souls too much to just let me refuse. I needed to keep asking him questions so that I could find a way to accept the deal without having to sign over the souls of 900,000 innocent people. No, that's wrong, they aren't all innocent I know for a fact at least 1 person on the list isn't. I started coming up with a plan.

“You refuse!? You can't refuse.” the pig laughed.

“I just did, now return everything to normal and leave.” I continued bluffing.

The pig looked at me, his eyes getting narrow. He put one of his stumps up to his chin and started tapping. He stood there like this looking at me for what seemed like hours. My heart felt like it was beating 1000 times a second. His stare was beginning to make me worry that he was going to call my bluff, but I didn't waiver.

He continued to stare and I started thinking about what would happen even if he didn't call my bluff. If he wanted these souls badly enough and thought I wasn't going to give them to him there's no telling what he might do to me my friends and/or my family. I didn't think this through.

“Look, I have something you want and you have something I want, we can do this.” I said. “I won't ask any more questions, I have a better idea.”

“Your idea had better be to accept the deal.” he said menacingly.

“It's better then that, I want to make a smaller deal first.” I said.

“The only souls you have to trade are already coming to me, why should I let you make another deal.” he said.

“They aren't guaranteed, I did just refuse, all I'm asking for here is a small deal, maybe 2 or 3, just a couple souls. After that we can talk about the big deal.” I responded. “It might make it more interesting for you and it gives me the chance to see how well you deliver on your end of the deal.”

The pig thought about it for a moment, smiled and said, “Yes, that could be interesting, alright, what do you want.”

All I wanted was to know every detail of the contract that he wrote up for the deal that would give me Sarah back, and I knew exactly who's soul to trade for that information. There was only 1 person that I knew would be on the list that deserved to have his soul owned by this pig. His name was James Crane, I remember him because he was in the news for the murder of his mother.

When I saw his picture on the news I recognized his face from a couple of parties during my senior year of high school. He was home schooled and wasn't wanted at the parties I saw him at, he was always causing trouble. He was short and scrawny but acted like he could beat anyone up, no one liked him because of his attitude. Once at a party he got everyone's attention by saying he could jump off the roof and into the pool. The house was 2 stories tall and the pool was an above ground pool that was in the backyard, very far away from the house. He jumped and missed the pool landing on part of the sidewalk. He wasn't moving and no one knew what to do since no one wanted to call 9-1-1 to explain what happened, so I suggested that someone carried him into the street while I called 9-1-1. I left right after I called and heard later that he was fine.

Sarah was at that party with me. The only reason I made that suggestion was because she said we couldn't just leave him. Trading his soul for this was perfect, but it was the only one I knew I could trade. I might need to make more than one deal like this and once I traded Crane's soul away I wouldn't have any way of knowing if the next soul I trade is innocent.

“First, I want the contract that gives me ownership of all these souls copied exactly as is into a digital format, onto a smart phone. I want the list to be searchable and sortable. I want the names to be color-coded, black for those that are alive, gray for those that are dead, red for those that are criminals. I also want it to give detailed information on everyone that is listed when you touch their name, including their picture, how I helped them and details on any crime they are guilty of.” I stated trying to pick what I said carefully. “In exchange for that I will give you the soul of James Crane.”

The pig chuckled, “A soul for a fancy phone, you'd be surprised how often I get that these days.”

Another sheet of paper and a new pen appeared on the table. Just like before the pen flew up and stabbed the pigs stump. In no time at all he comped down and ate the pen.

“Here it is, do you accept the terms?” he said.

I looked at the contract but like the other one it was non-sense. I wanted to ask questions about this contract before accepting but I had said I wouldn't ask anymore, so I had to trust that the pig wouldn't try to screw me on this. I figured that since I said I'm using these small deals as a test of his services that he would make sure they turned out great so I shouldn't worry.

“I accept the terms in regard to the contract involving the phone.” I said to ensure I was accepting the terms of the right deal.

The contract burst into flames that quickly extinguished itself. In its place on the table is a phone, I picked it up. It looked exactly like the newest i-Phone model except on the back was a silver pigs head engraved on it where the Apple logo should be, and there was no text printed on the back.

“You didn't say how it should look so I took the liberty of adding some style to it.” the pig said as he watched me inspect the back of it.

I turned it on and it immediately loaded the list of names, color-coded as I had said. There was a search box in the top right and a button in the top left that allowed me to sort alphabetically or by color-code. I tapped George's name and the screen changed to show his information and picture. There was even a video showing how he got on the list, I played it and it was the scene from the beach with me helping him with that cooler. I tapped the back button to go to the list and between the search box and sort button was the number 913, 849 which must be the total number of names on the list, it increased to 913, 850 as I was looking at it.

I tapped the sort button and put red names to the top and tapped the first name. I didn't recognize the name or the picture, the crime information said that he robbed a convenience store with a gun but that no one was hurt. The video of how I helped him was just him sitting in front of a computer screen that I couldn't see, he must have read something I posted online that helped him. I went through the next couple of red names but the crimes they committed were all very minor, unpaid parking tickets, failure to show up for a court date, indecent exposure. I should've been more specific with what type of criminals I wanted to have red names or with how they were sorted.

“Well, is it everything you wanted?” the pig questioned.

“More or less.” I responded.

“Then lets get on to the main deal.” he said.

I continued looking through the red names for a criminal that was guilty of something worthy of having his soul sold. I finally found one, the crime details said he was a rapist.

“Not yet, there's another deal I want to make.” I said.

“I hope its more interesting than a phone.” he responded.

“I want information, I want to know everything there is to know, every little detail, involving the contract that can bring Sarah back.” I stated.

I told him the name of the guy whose soul would be traded in exchange for that. The pig smiled and another paper and pen appeared on the table. Like before he quickly wrote up another contract.

“I keep telling you, this deal isn't going to screw you over, there's really no need for this.” the pig said still smiling. “But if you really want to know everything about it, here it is, do you accept the terms?”

His smile worried me, did he plan for me to want to make a deal like this the whole time, was there something in the contract that once I knew would cause me to just sign away the souls without getting anything in return like some sort of mind control. I did basically just tell him to implant thoughts into my brain. Maybe he was trying to make me back down by pretending to be happy about this when really he doesn't want me to do it.

“I accept the terms of the contract that will give me complete knowledge of the contract that can bring Sarah back.” I said as I was trying not to confuse myself with my word choice.

“Are you sure?” he said in a higher pitched voice his smile growing bigger.

I hesitated, he didn't ask if I was sure last time.

“Yes, I'm sure.” I said as more of a question than a statement.

The contract burst into flames and the fire jumped off the table at me. It quickly surrounded my head and swirled around. Vast amounts of information started filling my brain, it was so fast that I couldn't understand most of it, it was impossible to even focus on any 1 piece of it. My head started to hurt and the pain just kept growing, it felt like my brain was going to blow itself out of my eyes, ears and nose. My nose and ears started to bleed as the pain increased even further, it was unbearable agony.

“You were right, this is interesting, I've always wondered what would happen.” the pig said as he laughed

I fell to the floor, my vision was blurring. I could barely hear what he had said over the ringing sound that echoed through my head. Information was still flowing in, faster now then before. I couldn't take it anymore and blacked out.

END OF CHAPTER 4
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Chapter 5 isnt even started yet so you probably wont see it for awhile