Lowering Abigail to the ground floor without lowering the ladder was extremely awkward. Ethan held onto her arms, braced by several of the other children, as Abigail lay on her stomach with her legs hanging through the trapdoor. The then lowered her as far as they could, but of course their arms weren't long enough to reach the floor.

"I'm going to drop you now," grunted Ethan. "You're only a foot or so up. Just bend your knees when you land, and you'll be fine."

Abigail glanced down. A foot wasn't far, but it sure felt far from where she was dangling. "Alright."

"Three, two, one!" said Ethan, and let go.

Abigail stumbled as she landed but kept her feet. As soon as she caught her balance, she whirled in place to face the demon.

She only got a brief sight of it, but its hands were a deep, wet red, and she recoiled, half turning reflexively to flee.

"Apologies!" called the demon, in the most normal tone of voice she'd heard it use so far. "Honest mistake."

Abigail turned slowly back to find the demon holding up its hands, which were now perfectly clean. A very faint russet haze expanded away from its body and dissipated into the air. Now that she had a chance to notice, Abigail realized that she could feel a broken clause in her contract with Jonathan; it was like a tooth whose ache had been slowly getting worse and worse and was now suddenly at its limit.

"I will work not to upset you…more," said the demon. "Go directly downstairs to the room with the ritual. I will find you there." Without giving her a chance to respond, the thing bounded down the stairs and was gone.

"Abigail?" whispered Ethan from above her, and Abigail took a large, shaky breath.

"Go on. See if you can find a way out of there. I—have to see this through. It's the only way we can get Jonathan back."

Ethan watched her for a few moments, then nodded. "Alright. Just—be careful."

Abigail shot a wan smile his way and turned resolutely down the hall so that she wouldn't have to watch him closing the trap door. She didn't think she could take that.

It felt like the longest journey she'd ever taken, the hall of the orphanage seeming completely alien to her, despite her years of living there. Abigail finally made it to the top of the stairs with no sign of the demon and paused. She could hear it moving around in the kitchen, but the entryway was completely empty. The only evidence that there had been invaders was that the front door standing open with the rain blowing in.

Before she could lose her nerve, Abigail forced herself downstairs and went straight to the room where she'd drawn out the contract ritual. She didn't bother closing the front door; the demon had said to go here straight away, and she didn't want to know what might happen if she disobeyed.

Abigail was only in the room a few seconds—just long enough to walk across it and put her back to the wall—before the demon strode through the open door and stopped on the other side of the chalked ritual.

The two observed one another for a moment. It was still incredibly disquieting for Abigail to see Jonathan's familiar features, except driven by such obviously alien intent.

"Well, little sn—Abigail," said the demon at last. "Let us not delay. I wish to make a contract with you."

Abigail frantically thought back to what her grimoire had mentioned about negotiating contracts with demons. "What exactly is it that you want, and what exactly are you offering?"

A grin split the demon's face, though it never reached Jonathan's eyes. "Ah, wise, wise. I offer Jonathan returned to primacy. All that I require is that should you find yourself in danger, should you be offered violence, you call me."

Abigail took a moment to think. That certainly sounded like a good deal in the short-term, but this monster had already proven it was not trustworthy. "What did you do to Jonathan? Is he alright?"

The demon made an odd swiping gesture through the air with one hand. "I did nothing; he pulled me to primacy on the tails of your fear and need. I cannot answer to his current state, though to the best of my knowledge he should be fine. For now he is merely…quiescent."

"Where did you come from? How did Jonathan summon a demon of the Infernal Abyss without a ritual?"

The demon cackled. "Ah, little snack, I have been here the entire time. Jonathan and I are two sides of a whole." The demon held up a hand, twisting it back and forth. "I was confined to the Infernal Abyss by the old agreements, but Anthrax saw an opportunity to exact a new type of confinement on my self when you summoned Jonathan. I never anticipated I might gain primacy so soon, but I find it…sweet." The demon licked its lips.

"Do you mean you were…confined within Jonathan somehow?"

The demon cocked its head. "How did you imagine a human could channel the energies of the Infernal Abyss without harm? I am the link between my home and his need."

"You've been watching us this whole time?" Abigail was getting more and more creeped out, and she hadn't thought that was possible after the experiences she'd just gone through.

The demon did its weird hand swipe again. "Not as such. I have very limited contact with the outer world when Jonathan has primacy."

Abigail frowned. "Then why by Anth—why would you possibly want to allow Jonathan to take control again?"

The demon's eyes glinted. "I miss the mortal realms, little snack. The needs, the fears, the sweet scent of—" It paused and licked its lips. "I have been denied these pleasures for too long, and although my time here has been short, this arrangement promises to provide me with that which I crave. I would not call it a weakness, but I have—difficulties resisting temptation. Even so short as it has been, this has been my longest stint in the mortal realms since long before my confinement. I do not wish to give up this chance, but every moment we spend here increases the odds that I will do something—rash. Better to retreat now and return, than give it up forever." The demon twitched, grabbed one arm with another, and stilled.

Well, that sounded like a very good reason to hurry things along. The demon had seemed almost reasonable ever since she'd come downstairs, but if that was because it was actively fighting against its own nature…Abigail shivered. She needed to do this. She could do this. She pushed herself away from the wall. "Stand in the center of the ritual. Don't touch the chalked lines."

The demon smiled again, mouth stretching unnaturally wide, then clacked its teeth together. "Excellent." It moved with liquid grace, daintily stepping over the chalked lines and into the main circle of the ritual.

Abigail moved far more clumsily around the edge of the ritual, trying to stay as far away from the demon as possible, until she took a couple steps into the contractor's circle. As soon as she was in it, she began channeling magic into the ritual to empower it. To the best of her knowledge, there were no safety features in this ritual, unlike a standard summoning, so there wasn't really anything to stop the demon from attacking her aside from the fact that she was quickly doing what it evidently wanted.

"State your terms," she said, once the ritual was fully activated.

"When you are physically threatened and in need of violence, you will call me—Ebola—out to primacy. Should you fail to do so, I will be granted primacy by our contract so that I may do whatever is necessary to rectify the situation."

Abigail frowned. He hadn't mentioned anything along those lines before. "I don't agree to that last requirement. What if I'm unconscious or unable to call you?"

The demon glowered. "Should you fail to call me when you otherwise could have, I will be granted primacy by our contract to rectify the situation."

The vagueness of that was ringing all sorts of alarm bells for Abigail, based on all the advice in her grimoire. "I don't think I can agree to this."

The demon snarled. "I will have an outlet, or there will be no agreement."

Abigail held up her hands, palm out. "Fine, fine, let me think. Should I fail to call you when I otherwise could have due to being under physical threat, the contract will grant you primacy so that you may aid me in removing the threat."

The demon shifted back on its heels. Abigail hadn't realized it was primed to move toward her. "Well enough. Your terms?"

Abigail swallowed, her throat feeling suddenly dry. "Once our agreement is finalized, you will relinquish—uh, primacy—to Jonathan. When you gain primacy, you will not harm me, Jonathan, or Jonathan's other contractors physically or emotionally, and if you do so or are behaving in a way that threatens violence or emotional harm, any of us will be able to banish you to the Infernal Abyss without a ritual."

The demon cocked its head once more. "You realize that will kill Jonathan."

Abigail swallowed again. "Even so. We need to be able to protect ourselves from you, and it sounds like Jonathan's current contracts don't have the teeth for it."

The demon suddenly smiled. "Well said. I like teeth. Do we have an accord, or do you have further stipulations?"

"One more: when you've have prevented me from coming to physical harm after I call you, you must relinquish primacy to Jonathan or be banished to the Infernal Abyss."

The demon frowned. "That—"

Abigail interrupted it, heart in her chest. "This is my outlet. I want Jonathan back every time, not just this one."

The demon clacked its teeth together, this time without the smile. "Very well. Do we have an accord?"

"I think so—yes." Abigail took a breath, took another, and tried to steal herself for what she knew she had to do. She held out her hand, and the demon's arm swiped out, nails digging just slightly into her forearm briefly before the thing flattened its fingers out into a solid grip. Abigail gingerly gripped its forearm in response. "You first."

The demon huffed a laugh. "I agree to relinquish primacy to Jonathan upon making this contract. I agree that when I gain primacy, I will not offer intentional bodily or emotional harm to you, Jonathan, or his other contractors. I agree that if I do offer bodily or emotional harm to you in a way that is clearly not accidental that you and the other contractors will have the right to banish me to the Infernal Abyss without a ritual. I agree to grant primacy to Jonathan after removing the threats I have been called to eradicate or be banished to the Infernal Abyss."

It was Abigail's turn. "I agree to call you—Ebola—to primacy when I am physically threatened and a violent solution is required. Should I fail to call you when I otherwise could have in such a situation, you will automatically assume primacy so that you may aid me by removing the threat." This felt like the contract was heavily in her favor. She sure hoped she wasn't overlooking something, although at this point…

They both said in unison, "As the Infernal Abyss is our witness, our contract is sealed."

…it was too late, anyway.

The demon pulled her closer, sending a spike of fear through Abigail as she tottered forward off-balance.

"Until next time, little snack. And just so you know…one of those men attacking you earlier successfully ran away."

The demon collapsed bonelessly to the floor, taking Abigail with him.