I should have known it was too good to be true. It was when I reached the Vice-Presidents office that the Demons truly sat up and took notice. Of course, by the time they contacted me, it was too late to save myself even if I’d tried. Like anybody else, I didn’t notice the damage at first. Minute changes in my character profiles that made then easier to kill, weaker, and with faster energy drain. Then, I lost items I’d previously “won” as a result of my “tweaking” the system. Soon, my characters were all female, and I was pulling my brown hair. My system was so corrupted the merest movement of the mouse would set my computer to hiccuping and flickering. It was with no surprise when the “snow” on the screen finally resolved into a hormone fantasy image of an exotic dusky woman.

If you’ve ever heard that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, you might be right, but his hormones are something else. Trust me when I say that the demons didn’t miss a trick. I’d seen this particular one before, but that’s another story from when I’d actually been a pile of adolescent hormones. Now, I was secure enough in my masculinity that I just nodded at her and mockingly raised one auburn eyebrow.