“Did you pay yet?” The raspy voice gasped into my ear.

I opened my eyes again and saw the demonic apparition was floating in lazy circles around my confined box.

It was mostly obscured within the cloud of red, while you could catch a glimpse of the facial features in brief moments. The details however were ever changing apart from its relatively smaller mouth.

The face shifted towards the right while it was questioning me. It picked up a new steady rhythm while it floated. The head choosing in spin in circles and voice around slowly.

The eyes were trailing behind the movement of the face and continued to hold my own eyes locked in position. Staring at the abominable being before me questioning what it wanted from me.

The mouth opened once again. Slowly it seemed to crinkle and form crevices on the now lacquer surface of the face.

“Did you pay yet?”

The voice was more gravely now and I could feel the invisible pressure within the question weigh on my forehead like a heavy damp towel.

“What are you doing to me?” I managed to barely whisper in response.

The arm which was floating above me descend suddenly upon my chest. Pressing down and pushing the air from my lungs.

“I am trying to find your uniqueness.”

“This planet was surveyed for potential and you were quick to try and connect across the boundary before you were given access.”

“You were not the first to try and access this by a long shot, however you seem to possess unique qualities rather than affinity with the system.”

It took me a while to process what this thing just told me. The system spawned something like this? What is he trying to really test me for?

Do I have a choice in any of this?

It shook its head slowly. “You did not pay”

“Pay for what?”

“Capacity”.

What?

How does that relate to his mention of a uniqueness.

He gestures lazily with his arm for me to stand up. The red walls around me disappeared and the figure within the cloud floated backwards giving me space to recover.

I slowly get up being mindful of the creature which had me pinned a moment ago.

It smiled watching me and the eyes seemed to glaze over after a short period of time.

Grabbing a chair I looked for the closest thing I could use to help me ward of this demon if it tried to trap me like that again.

Half a minute later the creature blinked away the dazed look in its eyes and started to extend another fully formed hand from a deeper part of the cloud.

Holding a blank Manila envelope.

Opening the envelope led to a file cabinet expanding from the lip outwards. Files of various sizes were arranged within.

A pair of round reading glasses materialized on the now ridged bridge of the demons face. At least 5 eyes focusing through the two lenses onto the paper.

It began combing through the files before it seemed to reach the C’s.

“What do we have for Chaser?”

It plucked the folder from the shelf and the eyes began to move slowly but surely down the page.

“Okay it seemed like you have a lower capacity that usual and will be required to make payment in a different form.”

“Decide now, physical or contract based payments?”

Its gaze instantly focused on me as my heart began to pound. The glasses shined with a bright light as the now fully corporal demon started walking towards me.

By no means fast the demon seemed quite slow and was only really active when it came to shifting its various features.

Leaning towards me it started me through its very large glasses.

“I choose physical payment?”

The light within the demon started glowing and preceded to hum.

“What sort of currency do we use in the deal?” Asking the important questions far too late in hindsight.

“An arm and a leg in your case”.

I blinked.

What the fuck?

Was that a metaphor?

The reach for my limbs proved that assumption wrong.

Long arms of the beast turned into mist as I cocked my arm back for a punch.

A smile spread on the face of the demon which was wider than any other form the mouth had appeared as yet.

I punched the bridge of the it’s nose and shattered the frail reading glasses which had only grown in size throughout our earlier conversation.

The shards of glass hit its face and I saw blood leaking from between 3 now shut eyes on the face.

The eyes morphed back into fog and left the demon with the original two eyes it started with.

“FUCK YOU!”

The mist started to corrode my left arm and right leg before I could say anything else.

I crumpled to the ground as the pressure within the rose rose significantly.

I heard laughing and looked at the now intangible demon.

“Damn, I almost felt that one!”

My head started spinning.

All I could remember after that was the strange incantation which was performed on my body before I finished blacking out.