White-hot ash showered onto Jared's beaten body as he stumbled out of the charred bones of his house. The ash and smoke wrapped their fingers around his throat, squeezing as tightly as they could. He couldn't help but to cough violently, falling to his knees as his lungs searched for oxygen.

Standing before him was something draped in nothing but pure darkness. He glided over the brittle, scorched remains of the house, a pair of crimson-red eyes bursting from his jet-black face.

"You are a lucky man," the demonic entity said gleefully. "I honestly didn't expect you to live through that."

Narrowing his eyes, Jared staggered to his feet. Ribbons of scarlet trickled down from his burnt skin, dripping onto the singed grass. With all of his strength, he raised his head to face the monster that had set his house aflame - the Devil.

Like an anesthetic, the demon's mere presence paralyzed him to the very marrow of his bones. He felt wholly contaminated by standing a few feet away from him. This overwhelming emotion took him over and Jared could do nothing but utter a single word.

"Maria..." he whispered over the crackling of nearby flames.

"You are quite calm for just seeing your wife burn to death," The Devil floated closer. "Aren't you enraged? Distraught?"

Jared didn't hear his words. He was lost in his thoughts that swirled inside of his mind like a surging sea of raw emotion. Rage, anguish, despair. All of these uncontrollable emotions ran through him, but his face remained blank as he stared mindlessly at the skeleton of his home.

It was an ideal spot for newlyweds, a house in the silent confines of a forest, but now flames devoured the once pleasant haven. Not one thing was left unburned, even Jared, although he escaped the raging fire, had sizzling burns scattered across his body. The pain didn't matter to him now.

"Why?" he croaked.

The Devil, who was drifting around the debris, spun around to gaze at the man. The inferno illuminated Jared's sky-blue eyes, as if the flames were blazing inside of them. Not only that, but his sun-kissed hair looked like rows of yellow fire sprouting from his head.

It was as if he was part of the fire.

"Why what?" The Devil asked, inching closer.

"Why did you burn our house down?," Jared hollered, releasing all of his wild emotions. "My wife and I aren't sinners!"

A small giggle bubbled in the demon's throat."Don't you mean your wife wasn't a sinner?"

The faint red lights of police cars and ambulances gleamed above the tree line as they rushed to try to rescue the couple. The Devil peered towards the growing light, but Jared didn't notice it.

Maria was dead.

The Devil had murdered her.

With this realization, Jared's once buzzing mind went eerily silent. He was shockingly numb, not able to feel the heat of the flames licking the carcass of his house nor the Devil's toxic presence. He was, simply, hollow.

All he managed to sputter was, "She's dead?"

The Devil's giggle bursted into delirious laughter.

"She burned like the scum she was," the Devil shouted, eyes flaring. "All humans are sinners as soon as they are born! Your mere existence is a sin, so I'm trying to cleanse this plagued world," he explained, a small grin cracking across his shadow-cloaked face. "Besides," he went on, "I got bored of my usual duties."

"So...you killed an innocent woman just for... being alive?" Jared uttered, the words dropping from his tongue like bombs.

"Innocent?" The Devil hissed. "Didn't you just hear me? None of you are innocent! Humans are abnormal abominations that do nothing but sin. You start pointless wars. You betray your loved ones. You steal, rape, murder! All of you are far from innocent!"

Jared couldn't breathe. Every word that dripped from from the Devil's forked tongue polluted his entire being, his soul.

Soon, he fell speechless as his mind overflowed with warped thoughts.

The Devil, amused, leaned over him. "I had my fun, but now it's time to move on to the next insect to crush."

With that, he whirled around in a flurry of tangled shadows to leave Jared behind with the blackened remains of Maria, his home and his life.

Or so, he thought.

"Wait!" Jared suddenly shouted, taking a few steps towards the demon.

The Devil stopped, his eyes bulging. Twisting his body around, he seethed, "What do you want?"

Fear burrowed its bitter-cold fangs into Jared's entire body.

Hesitantly, but firmly, he replied, "I want Maria back! I'll do anything!"

Another cackle crawled from the depths of the Devil's throat. "You're willing to do anything I ask to be reunited with your wife?" He inquired, peering down at Jared who, slowly, nodded in response. "I'm not one for making deals, but I'll make an exception since there's something I...like about you."

The fangs of fear tightened their grip on Jared's mind.

He had never imagined that he'd meet the Devil, let alone the demon growing a liking towards him. It disturbed him, but images of his wife crumbling into a pile of broken bones surfaced in his muddled mind and pushed him towards sin.

"Anything, I'll do anything," Jared pleaded.

The Devil contemplated, his eyes squinting at the wounded mortal standing beneath his colossal stature. Jared wasn't the same man he had been before the inferno. The Devil could sense it through his presence, as if some darkness hidden inside of him had suddenly gushed to the surface.

Then, he knew.

"I will bring back your dead wife in exchange for your services," The Devil began, a shower of embers spraying behind him as a beam of Jared's house collapsed. "I want you to kill 999 evil men; men who have abused, assaulted, killed what you call innocent people. I will appear before the last kill, who will be the worst of them all, and fulfill your request as I see my deal's completion." He extended his sleek hand, eyes blazing. "Do we have a deal?"

Tears stung at the corner of Jared's eyes.

He shook the Devil's hand.

-

The velvety black sun sunk into the horizon.

Stumbling over his feet, Eric crashed chin-first into the dirt. A stream of blood oozed from his fresh cut, but he ignored the pain as the voice echoed once again through the thickets to remind him of why he kept running.

"Eric...," the voice cooed. "It's useless. You're dead!"

An icy chill numbed Eric's body from hearing the stranger's words.

Breaking into a sprint, he hurried into the heart of the forest where shadows engulfed him. Sweat rolled down his face, trickling over his trembling lips as he continued to race through the trees.

Fear controlled him. It pushed him to the edge of his physical capabilities as he continued to run from the stranger hunting him down. And fear was what killed him, too.

Eric stumbled into a clearing, rays of moonlight slipping in-between the canopy of trees. He glanced over his shoulder to see if the man was still in pursuit, not noticing the dark figure looming by the edge of the woods.

"Not quick enough."

Before he could react, a silver blade hurled into Eric's chest. He hollered in raw pain, fingers clawing at the knife's hilt. His life was slipping away between his bony fingers in rivers of red, dripping onto the crisp grass beneath him as he fell to the ground.

Raising his head, he met the eyes of the stranger who had hunted him down - Jared.

Fear rippled through every fiber of Eric's being as Jared stepped out from the rim of the thickets, his frost-blue eyes blossoming in the flourishing darkness.

"Your days of raping women are done, 998," Jared said, kneeling down next to the dying sinner.

Eric opened his mouth to scream, but only a gargle full of blood spewed from his mouth. Jared, mildly amused, wiped the crimson specs off of his skin as a faint smile stretched across his lips.

"This was fun while it lasted, but now it's time."

Eric said nothing.

A heavy silver object rested against his head.

It was Jared's gun.

He pulled the trigger, a wall of blood exploding in the air.

Fragments of skull and bone rattled onto the grass and leaves.

Leaning over the corpse, Jared extracted the knife from his chest and wiped the blade across his ragged jeans.

"I never thought you would complete our deal, Jared," boomed a voice that infected Jared's mind with a vile darkness; a darkness he had not felt in over twelve years.

Hesitantly, he turned around. Lurking in the darkness was the Devil, who looked the exact same as he did the night of the fire with his shadow-veiled body, scorching-red eyes and crooked fingers. He glided over towards Jared, eyes glittering cruelly.

"I wasn't joking when I made it," Jared responded as he sheathed his knife.

A grim smile slipped up his face. "I'm very pleased with your progress. You adapted well to the life of a...vigilante," He went on as he glanced at Jared's fresh kill.

"Enough of the small talk," Jared stated, peering up at the demon. "I know who my last target is, and I'm ready. Are you ready to bring her back?"

The Devil's eyes blazed, a familiar cackle slithering out of his lips. "Oh, how foolish you are!" He shouted as his cackle erupted into hideous laughter.

"What are you talking about?" Jared growled, a parasite of fear creeping into his mind.

After composing himself, the Devil declared, "You are the last kill!"

Not a hint of oxygen reached Jared's lungs as the parasite of fear multiplied into millions. All of his dreams of a beautiful future with his beloved wife had decayed into nothing but a dying wish.

He had promised to kill 999 evil men.

He was the last.

Jared swallowed hard, glancing down at the man he had just killed. "So... if I kill myself, Maria will come back alive?" He questioned, his voice trembling.

The Devil nodded, "Of course. A deal is a deal."

Silently, Jared felt the weight of his gun in his bloody hands. He took in a deep breath, feeling the air flow into his lungs to calm his nerves. With tense hands, he lifted the gun and placed it against the side of his head.

"I will admit," the Devil began, "I will miss you. It was pleasure doing business."

Without a word, Jared scanned the forest for the last time. Silence embraced his mind like the blue haze of dawn, and soon he sunk into the darkness that poured from the Devil, who waited for his deal to be completed.

He had fallen for the Devil's trick.

And for that, he wanted to die.

"I love you, Maria," he whispered.

And just as the dawn broke over the horizon, he pulled the trigger.

A geyser of blood spewed in the air.

Jared's corpse crumbled to the ground.

The Devil laughed.