Cass walked away from the idling car causing him to cast a long shadow against the cars bright headlights. He never liked leaving it running like that for too long he didn’t after all want to get stranded overnight in the middle of the south Georgia farm land. He walked up to the center of the crossroads and unrolled the little canvas sheet. In it he had a group of eight candles, a stick for drawing in the dirt, and the same little black book from earlier. He looked down at the mound of items and sighed “I never understood why this part was necessary.”

He went about, setting the candles in a circle and drawing lines from each candle to the other forming a pentagram. Once done he drew strange symbols in the dirt around the circle and slowly lit each candle. He stood up and stretched out his back.

“And now we wait.” 

Cass paced away from the circle and produced a small leather pouch from his jacket pocket. From a small attachment he pulled out a small strip of paper. He pulled a pinch of herbs from the main pouch, carefully placed it in the paper and rolled it up. He lit the hand-rolled cigarette and took a puff and smelled the distinct smell of brimstone.

“Now that’s not right.” Cass stated flatly. “I ordered mugwort, not dog turds.”

Cass turned to greet the man who was now walking nonchalantly out of Cass's dirt circle. The man in black stood tall with an air of imposition just from the sight of him. He wore pinstripes that accentuated his height, even without the suit Cass was sure the creature would tower over him. His slick black hair led down to his straight sleight like nose set on each side by the mirror surface of the glasses he wore. He walked a few paces away from the ornate circle and leaned on his walking cane. 

“Well?” The man asked. He obviously hadn't even regarded Cass's little joke.

Cass just stared for a moment and puffed away at his cigarette. “I’d like to offer you a trade of sorts.” Cass started.

“I don’t do trades, my good man, I do deals.” and with that, the tall man turned and began to pace back toward the circle.

“Oh it’s much better than a deal. You can feel all of the souls inside me can’t you?”

The man in black stopped and peered over his shoulder at Cass.

“Of course I can. But you must think me a fool, or at the very least uninformed Mr. Cassidy.”

Cass stood firm, and the man in black raised an eyebrow, obviously expecting his reputation to be a revelation to Mr. Cassidy. It appeared however sadly that it was not. The man in black spun and rest on his cane once again to meet Cass’s Gaze.

“Your reputation precedes you sir, not an immortal, but something still salacious to myself. The survivor of Roanoke and all that drivel.” The man in black licked his lips as he stared at Cassidy, eyeing him like a side of meat. “And quite dangerous as well.” the man in black said making a gesture that told Cass any deal relied on him not getting too close.

“Over one hundred souls in trade for the soul of the kids in the car.” Cass said flatly puffing away. He nodded back to the idling car and returned to smoking on his hand roll.

 The man in black stood for a moment as if to appear thinking. “You think me a fool then?” 

“How’s that?” Cass raised an eyebrow to the man.

The man in black leaned off of his cane and began to pace around slightly. “Those hundred souls gets you well over ten thousand years on this dirtball before I can collect if you play your cards right that is. No I think not, that’s too much the long game for my taste."

The man in black tapped his cane in the dirt and began to walk toward the circle once again but stopped short. “But...”

“But?” Cass asked flatly, feeling done with riddles and mysteries today.

“Well if we were to come to some sort of arrangement. As far as the soul economy goes two for one hundred is a tantalizing deal, if the payment was rendered upon transaction completion of course.” The man in black waved a hand in front of his face, and as if by magic, was now holding an ornate rectangular box in his hand. 

Cass looked at the smile on the man in black's face. That was something he always hated about dealing with these types. So self assured and smug, the types that always thought they were three steps ahead of everyone else. The types that thought they had it all figured out before they even found out about it. 

The man in black tossed the box over to Cass and it landed at his feet with a soft thud in the dirt. Cass bent down and opened the box. Inside was a small parchment and menacing looking quill pen.

“Sign your name on that paper, seal it with a drop of your blood, and the souls return to them simply and clean. Once signed you’re heart will spasm and die, then I will collect my end.” The man in black said with fangy grin.

Cass unrolled the length of parchment to reveal a finely written contract. Print so small you’d need multiple magnifying glasses to even begin to parse it’s dense codes and subcodes. Binding. Cass sat for a moment and glared back to the man in black.

“If I die then who makes you follow up on your end of the deal?” Cass asked.

“Very good.” The man in Black smiled, he seemed to talk with strange respect for Cass. he waved his arm and the circle of candles and strange symbols behind him reacted. In an instant, the flat top of carved dirt crumbled away into an unearthly pit in the ground. Cass was too far away to see down but if he had Cass suspected that he would have seen a sheer drop with fire at the bottom. 

Cass stared for a moment as the man in black waved his hand in intricate and distinct symbols. If given the proper time he would have been watching, memorizing. Infernal Magic isn’t something most Thaumaturge got to see every day, even one as old as Cass.

Cass carefully reached the quill down to his sleeve and pricked out some red gooey ink to use on the contract. He held the blood soaked quill above the page expectantly catching the eyes of the man in black as he finished off his intricate spell.

Two balls of light shot up from the pit and in an instant closed back into a magic circle drawn in the dirt. The man in black held the orbs of white light in his hand and Cass stared on intently.

“You begin your signature and I will release them, that is how this is going to work.”

Cass began to sign a name.

“It is done.” The man in black-eyed the souls in his hand. For most in his profession it was physically painful to let go of such young souls, but what he had coming was better. He tossed the souls toward the car with a flick of his wrist and began to stride toward Cass.

 Cass finished the signature, and In an instant the paper disappeared in a puff of flame and smoke like someone had held a lighter to it.

The balls of white light buzzed and zipped past Cass and phased themselves through the front window of the car. The interior of the car flashed with two bright lights and with that Cass knew it was done.

He nonchalantly pulled out his pouch again and rolled another handroll. He gingerly placed the thing to his lips and with a snap of his fingers near the tip produced a fire and lit the stick of herbs. He took a few drags and shot the man in black a catty grin.

The man in black loomed over Cass and looked like he was ready to have a heart attack, go mad, or both.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING!”

“Oh.” Cass jumped a little and looked over to the man in black shooting him another sly grin. “You’re still here? I thought they would have gotten you by now?”

“What are you talking about!?! I saw it! You signed the contract with your own blood--”

Almost to end his tirade, almost to goad him on even further Cass produced a small vial of blood from his sleeve and dropped it to the ground. The sickly red goo spilling into the South Georgia dirt.

The man in black stood stunned for a moment and started. “The who!?-”

“And it is done.” Cass stood smoking his cigarette and mockingly waving his hand as the man in black collapsed holding his stomach.

“Grrh, what is--?” The man in black sputtered and spat as he clawed at his stomach writhing on the ground.

“Didn’t they teach you in little soul auditors school that you never sign a soul twice, and you never just give a soul back for free? Oh, and the constant reminders that you don’t want to get fired.”

“Explain yourse--- gack” The man in black spit out thick black ooze from his mouth and the same ooze began to pour from every orifice. He collapsed to the dirt kicking up dingy clouds that made Cass cough a little. Cass was thankfully used to the more disgusting parts of the job and he looked down on the once towering man almost in pity.

“Viktor Petrovich, signed in his blood, the double contract signing makes both null and void. I figured the boys downstairs would overlook the little discrepancy of different handwriting considering how badly you messed up. You let old Vik sign for Anna? Wasn’t smart, those codes of conduct are there to protect pissants like you from people like me after all.” Cass chuckled and took another puff as he nodded toward the circle of candles. "The shock of his soul re-entering his body should have jolted his heart back on. Thanks for that by the way, forgot my first aid kit at home."

The pit opened again and the man in black began to slide towards it pulled by some unseen force. Which seemed to allow him to brush past the pain and regain some faculty. His leg jutting into the air and his arms flailing wildly clawing at the dirt and gravel. Cass could could hear the sound of the demon’s skin suit ripping against the gravel.

“You can’t just give a soul back for nothing.” Cass said looking down on the terrified creature.” that might make it look like you’ve got some kind of outside deal going, you know? That sounds like a fireable offence.”

“I’ll-- hurk--- get you for this Cassidy!” The man in black sputtered as his feet dropped into the pit. He clawed even harder Cass could see thick black blood coming from under his nails as the gravel tore at his skin suit's hands.

He finally fell down the pit with a howling curse, and the earth healed itself back into the southern dirt road. Cass walked over and kicked the candles off into the field next to the road, and destroyed the simple dirt circle with a brush of his foot.

"Get in line pal." Cass said to himself with a grimace. 

Cass walked back to the old Plymouth still smoking on his hand roll. He walked up to the car, opened the door and peered inside. Anna was asleep in the back, that kind of energy transfer is gonna knock the wind out of anyone, especially someone so small. Viktor sat bewildered in the passenger seat looking down at his hands. His eyes shot up as Cass opened the door, he looked afraid, which Cass thoroughly understood, and kind of enjoyed.

“Who are-?”

“Relax.” Cass interrupted and tossed the punk one of his handrolls. “We’ve got a lot to talk about on the drive back to the city, chiefly payment. But first we need to have a little chat about selling things that aren't yours.”

“What, I?” Viktor stuttered and looked around the dark night outside the car.

“It’ll come back to you eventually, unfortunately for you, it always does.” Cass held his hand out the side window as he pulled away from the old dirt road.

They didn’t talk much until they’d reach the civilization of the interstate, and Anna didn’t wake until they’d fully reached the city. But Cass could live with tonight. No one died... provided you count infernal entities as “no one”.