The Pendant in the Notebook

My wife’s cat sat atop the armrest of the couch, lazily basking in the lone lamplight. Silence rang throughout the house, at the exception of my footsteps when I entered the front door. Elizabeth, the blonde angel who is also my wife, was on a work trip. Only the cat and myself would be sleeping in the dwelling for the next week. I wasn’t a huge fan of the cat, which was named Riana, but that wasn’t her fault, merely my distaste for felines in general. She dropped like a smooth marauder onto all fours and scurried into the kitchen as I closed the door behind me.

My usual evening routine started with cooking or waiting for Elizabeth to cook, as we took turns every day. She had cooked me enough food to eat as leftovers for the entire week. I pulled out a plastic container of beef casserole from the fridge, deposited some of it onto a plate, and placed it into the microwave. Next part of the routine, I fed Riana. The cat looked suspiciously up at me and sniffed at her food for a long moment before licking at the wet slop.

I ate my dinner and washed the dishes before settling onto the couch to watch television for an hour. Once I started to feel myself dosing off, I made my way into the bedroom and shut the door so Riana couldn’t enter and disturb me. I dragged myself into bed and slipped off into sleep, the space between spaces. Someone breathed into my left ear. I smiled. It was Elizabeth putting her head close to mine.

But it wasn’t.

“Greetings, Rylee.”

It was a deep, dark voice that I felt in my chest as well as inside of my left ear. The words seemed to echo off of every wall of my body. My eyes were fixed shut and I was blind to everything. My arms were solid at my sides. The only piece of me which was not paralyzed was my heart, crazily pounding like the hooves of a thousand horses. I commanded myself to scream, but only managed a half-hearted moan. I struggled maniacally on the inside, making absolutely no difference to my current bodily position.

The creature had never spoken to me before. Why had it spoken to me this time?

My eyes opened wide and I was inside an old barn, strewn with hay. Tiny rays of sunlight dimly lit up the vicinity. A blurry blackness was on top of me, in a barely humanoid form.

“My name is Dyanitus; I am your sleep paralysis demon. I have caught you in my talons for what is to be… the last time.”

Every single word hit my core like stacks of guitar speakers erupting noises at a death metal concert.

I tried to scream again. No sound escaped.

“I have come to you six times, and now is the time I feel it is fitting to end it all.” Dyanitus stood up and walked a few paces away. I could only see it as darkness in my peripheral vision, and I could feel myself hyperventilating. “You cannot argue or cry out for help, you’re forced to cooperate while you slumber. But I have suspicions you may like the deal I am about to offer you.”

The black blur walked back over to me and hunched down onto my chest. I was suffocating. The ambiguous, feral black head closed in on my face. I tried to close my eyes but couldn’t.

“Oh. Yes. I believe you will take a fancy to what I am about to offer you. You, Rylee, are my ticket away from this place. I am fed up with the dream world, fed up with the lord of sleep, but most of all I am revolted by humans.”

I had no control over my breathing but I could feel it slowing down to a more comfortable pace. There was a sense of catharsis after I heard that last bit.

“We are going to help each other out, Rylee.”

Dyanitus stood up, reached a hand down, and lifted me up by my hair into a standing position. I felt no pain, though I braced myself for it.

“You will help me escape my duties of this wretched occupation, and I will make you rich beyond your pathetic dreams. When you awaken, a black book will set atop your chest. Read it, and do as it says. Don’t double-cross me, Rylee, or you will pay dearly the next time you sleep.”

I touched the notebook as I awoke, picked it up, looked at the cover. It was so small and plain.

A mutually beneficial deal with a demon. No one will ever believe me.

I sat up, lifting the notebook up and down several times. It weighed nothing, like it was merely air. I opened it to the first page. Out of the notebook dropped a pendant, which fell into my lap and weighed at least a couple pounds.

The first page read:

“Rylee, you must do exactly as I say. Take the pendant to Pawnscapes, the local pawn shop. The clerk there goes by the name of Belphegor. He owns the only hammer that can break the pendant. Once it is broken, so too shall be the seal that keeps me held in the dream world. After you do this for me, Belphegor will reward you with twenty thousand dollars.”

After I fed the tiny beast, I called my boss.

“Hi, this is Rylee. I’m really sorry, mister Little, but I’m going to arrive late this morning on account of massive stomach pains.”

“I’m really counting on you today,” said my boss, Chad Little. “Travis is in a meeting and the phones have been ringing like crazy. Feel better, get here as quick as you can.”

The phone hung up on the other end.

I felt down inside my pocket at the pendant, sitting heavy but not too heavy. I poured coffee into my travel mug and walked into the garage to the car.

In under a couple minutes I pulled up in front of Pawnscapes and exited my car.

A great big whale of a man stood inside the store, behind the counter. His skin was lobster red, and he smelled like sewage. Belphegor.

“Good to see you, Rylee,” the big man said. His voice was deep and muffled, like he was talking through a mouthful of food.

I felt like I should have been terrified by the man’s hellish appearance. I suppose when a person has been paralyzed in their dreams multiple times by a sinister black fiend, it takes an awful lot to scare them when they are back in the real world.

“I am Belphegor, demon of sloth and gluttony. You’re quite lucky, meeting an actual demon in the flesh. Enough small talk, I don’t like talking, it’s just a lot of work. You got the pendant for me?”

“I do,” I said. I tensed up, fearing I was about to be conned somehow. “You got the twenty grand for me?”

Belphegor held his hand palm up, where a stack of cash materialized.

I set the pendant onto the counter and snatched the money up quickly from the red hand. Before the fat demon could change his mind or get hungry and try to eat me, I waltzed on out of the store. I got into my car and saw my gas tank was almost empty, the needle hovering just above the yellow area indicating ‘empty.’

At the gas station, I parked by the pump and found my stomach rumbling. It seemed the gas tank wasn’t the only thing about to be empty. I left the gas pumping into my car and went inside. I ended up buying the entire selection of donuts inside the case, summing up to eighty five. Seven boxes of twelve, plus a bag with one. I slapped a one hundred dollar bill onto the counter and walked off, because waiting for my change and carrying extra coins in my pocket just seemed like a lot of extra work.

“Sir?” The cashier called after me as I started walking out. I looked back, all seven boxes and the bag held up with my right arm, and a two liter of root beer in my left. “Sir, do you want some help with those?”

I smiled and said, “I got it,” before I walked out.

I opened my car door by pulling the handle with the bottle’s top and sat inside, tossing the boxes lazily onto the passenger seat.

Without pretense, I crammed twenty donuts into my mouth.

The car started up and I drove off. I adjusted my seat so I could essentially lie down while I was driving. Why hadn’t I thought of this before? I could actually lie down and drive at the same time. Sure, I couldn’t see the road or anything in front of the car, but damn I was comfortable.

Two days went by before I finally decided to drag myself into work.

I stood inside my boss’s office with my hands in my pockets. He talked a lot. I got bored and couldn’t pay him any attention. I looked down at my stomach and waist, both of which had grown drastically.

I could feel where this conversation was going, the endpoint closing in on me like the shadow of an alley mugger. My boss sipped his coffee and put the cup down without even the slightest clink upon his desk. It was a beautiful motion.

“I have big plans for you, huge dreams,” explained Chad Little. “We can definitely afford to keep you here as long as you follow our standards and continue to make successful contributions, as you have been… until this week, that is.”

“Completely understandable, mister Little,” I started.

“Rylee.” My boss looked at me, not with anger but passion. “Now is the time. It’s your time. You’re going to have to sacrifice if you intend to succeed.”

My head bobbed up and down heartily.

“You know what I mean, Rylee. You are one of my star employees. Now get out there, and I want to see you kick ass again.” He smiled at me, such a handsome smile. The man should have been a celebrity with that face. I wished I could have had such a perfect jawline. His hand extended over his desk and I shook it.

I walked out of his office and pondered his words. What he said radiated through me while I could still smell the musky cologne. I was going to have to sacrifice in order to succeed. It was cryptic, but I felt like I had some sort of an idea of what it meant.

I thought about my handshake with my boss. Then I pictured a couple days ago when I acquired the twenty thousand big ones from the fat demon. I vaguely remember my hand brushing his.

Standing outside of my boss’s office, I froze. I closed my eyes, I could feel my heartbeat rise.

I left work immediately, without notifying anyone.

I needed answers, and went to the only place I thought I might find them.

The notebook lay buried under piled up empty donut boxes, beckoning me. I slapped and kicked garbage to the side and picked up the notebook. I opened it and let the pages split to their own will and read. It said:

“You have my deepest gratitude. I am a free demon now. Apologies for the sacrifice you had to make in order to close our deal. You are now a glutton, having touched the hand of Belphegor. It’s a sacrifice we had to pay for our reward. My regards -- Dyanitus”