Tempting evil

The Didler
3 min readJul 24, 2021

Prologue 
The wind howled around the bandit as the sun sunk behind him. He sat upon a rock waiting on the man who had called him at such a rush, but he couldn’t complain. The man made him a deal he couldn’t refuse and the only way the deal could be carried out was at the precise hour. Of course the bandit had retired a few years earlier, maybe a little rusty but he was still the finest bandit the country had ever seen. The weather was not particularly in his favor, but the bandit saw it was worth it, he needed the money and the buyer was especially willing to pay almost everything. 
The bandit was 90% sure his buyer was late. It was at least 15 minutes after sundown and the bandit could hear the wolves running amuck. The bandit sighed and stood up from the rock and patted of the dirt and grime. “Another jokester,” he groused to himself. He began to walk when a low grumble shook the earth he stood on causing the bandit to fall. The trees shook old branches off, rocks tumbled down a nearby hill, and a poor squirrel fell out of a nearby tree causing him to lose all his acorns. Then it stopped. The bandit looked around and was blinded by a piercing light. The bandit shielded the light with his arm and leaned back. Finally, the light dimmed and in it’s place was the buyer or what the bandit believed was the buyer.
The strange man was dressed head to toe in black. His slick back hair and dark eyes showed the bandit exactly what he was afraid of, demon. The demon wore a long black leather jacket, his face half covered by the hood but the bandit knew demon when he saw it, and this was no ordinary demon.
The devil blew out a breath and dusted himself off, “ Sorry for being late, had to talk to one of my contractors about my new house and it took awhile.” 
The bandit cleared his throat,” Of course there is no need to apologize I practically just arrived here.”
The devil’s smile showed his pointy teeth,”Wonderful! Yes, most wonderful. I would hate for you to wait on behalf of me, I’m not normally tardy you see, but the matter just had to be fixed promptly.”
The bandit felt a cold shiver traveled up his spine, which he quickly ignored. “No need to worry, all is well. Better late than never I always say.” The bandit chuckled nervously.
The devil grabbed a log and studied it,” Well that is a good motto to have, I’m sure it comes in handy when you are late.” The Devil smiled another toothy smile and the log bursted in flames. The flames licked at the wood until the bandit could see only the outside burning away. Finally the flame disappeared leaving a well carved staff. 
“Ahh, much better.” The devil…

The Didler

Imagine this: You're 23, broke, still living in the same situation you did 3 years ago not making any progression in life. Do you: A)