“Oh, that’s a name I haven’t heard for a while. It will do”. The snake bobbed its head indifferently.

Danny was pretty sure now that the legend from his mother’s country was based on the very being that stood in front of him, and its response only strengthened his belief. Like it said so itself, most stories are based on a smidgeon of truth.

Danny didn’t know what was and wasn’t true, but he was glad that the demon really appeared to not care what Danny called him. If the legend truly referred to the monster, then ‘it’ or ‘he’ has been around for a few centuries at least.

“So, Tutu, about this deal we struck. What happens if I accidently break it? Like if I get injured or something like that”.

“If you fail to pay me in time you will die no doubt. Of course, it has a little bit of wiggle room. You will not explode if a second beyond the deadline passes, however you will start feeling a growing pain in your mind. It will keep growing faster, and faster until it becomes so unbearable that it inevitably kills you, or you do what you are supposed to do”. Danny shivered at the idea, but he already pretty much expected it.

“I can also relieve you from a payment or delay it, but it will depend on my mood, so don’t count on it”.

“Then, if you don’t answer my questions, you will die as well?”

The snake stopped drinking and focused on Danny, before it literally exploded into laughter. The sound of laughter in many different voices and volumes permeated the room while tendrils of shadows wildly moved about in the room, immediately giving Danny a scare. During the whole commotion, the chalice stood suspended by a black trembling cloud, threatening to spill its contents.

The demon reformed itself in the shape of a horned ape after 30 seconds, before it took back its cup and slowly controlled its impulses to start laughing again.

“Oh Danny, such humor! I knew it was the right thing to keep you around. I haven’t laughed like this in decades! You truly are the best medicine for boredom”. The ape sat on the ground and took a sip of his blood before continuing. “Of course, I won’t die, if I break my part of this deal, which I won’t by the way, since I have my pride and you are so much fun. I would suffer a minor injury instead”.

Danny’s face immediately darkened. He knew that this what not an equal arrangement and he expected there to be a difference after witnessing the vastness of the demon’s soul or whatever when they were connected. Hearing about it still dampened his mood all the same though.

“Don’t be so sour about it Danny-boy, although minor injuries are not a big deal, we are not talking about physical damage. Those types of injures are a pain to deal. So why would I want to do that?”

Danny’s mood recovered a bit with this news. At least there was some drawback that would hopefully discourage the demon to dispose of Danny when it got tired of him. All this was based on the assumption that what the demon told him was the truth though, so Danny took it with a grain of salt.

Although the demon definitely could not be trusted, Danny felt like he could trust the sensations and the intent he felt when they were striking the deal. If he doubted everything all the time, he wouldn’t be able to move forward, so he kept a trust but verify mentality.

“So can you answer my questions now?”

“Sure. Make your questions”.

“I guess the most important thing right now is for you to tell me about whatever you said was going to happen then. What is it?”. Danny steered the conversation towards the reason of this all and waited with bated breath for whatever terrible news were to come.

“I cannot speak about it just yet unfortunately. Ask again”.

“You can’t speak about it?! Wasn’t this the whole point of this fucking agreement, and now you are backing out?! You fucking shit-faced morphing…”. Danny was about to explode in anger when he stopped himself realizing what the demon meant. “Wait a minute, the way he phrased that… it’s way too strange. He can’t talk about it just yet? Is it because he is forbidden from spreading information for a while? Maybe he has no way of telling me anything about this thing that’s going to happen until it unfolds or right before it occurs…”. The ape merely sat there enjoying his drink with an amused expression while staring at Danny’s pensive expression.

“No, that can’t be it. When the demon came to me yesterday it clearly said it had information for me, and that my survival depended on it. Why would it say that if he couldn’t tell me anything? Just to trick me? Was it all just for the sake of making me accept the deal? It doesn’t make sense. If I am to assume that the massiveness of ‘it’ was real, there is no way such a powerful creature would need to trick me into a bargain. My life was in its hands from the very beginning. If this is the case, then Tutu would definitely tell me what I supposedly need to know the first opportunity he got after our pact was made in order to keep me alive longer”. Danny stroked his chin while lost in thought.

“But now Tutu is saying he can’t talk about it. Is it because I will only be able to ask the important questions further ahead, but before anything happens? Did the deal came through before he expected? No. That’s not it either. The demon said he would have killed me if I had not agreed to his terms today. Why would it say that to me after the deed was done? It had no reason to. Then what it said was definitely the truth and my life would have ended today if not for the agreement. Therefore, time must not be the issue here, but let’s ask to be sure”. Danny ignored the fact that he came very close to dying and kept trying to unravel the mystery.

“Will you be able to tell me about whatever is coming before it arrives?”

“Nope. Try again”. Tutu merely swirled the chalice. Before taking another sip.

“As expected,”. Danny continued to organize his thoughts. “If time is not the way to get the information, then there must be another angle to this. Think about the way the demon said it, Danny! ‘Try again… try again’. Maybe it’s not that he does not want to tell me, it’s that he literally can’t. Tutu said he had his pride and that his kind took deals very seriously, maybe that’s why. Maybe he made another deal with someone else… or something else…”. The moment this thought crossed his mind Danny felt as if he just dropped in a freezing river.

“Wait… wait, wait, wait. A deal with something else? Something like him, or SOMETHINGS like him?”. Danny lifted his head, terror marrying his face. What would be the worst possible thing he could imagine? Of course, it would be his nightmare given form multiplying. Tens of times. Hundreds of times.

“Is there going to be more of you around soon?”. Danny asked with a trembling voice.

“Hehehehe, keep going kid. I can’t talk about it, try again”. The demon smiled a terrifying smile and encouraged Danny to keep going forward in this dreadful train of thought.

“Oh shit. Okay, calm down. Panic won’t help you now Danny. What will be, will be. Focus on what you can control. Answers… right, you managed to uncover something at least, monsters are coming. Great! What else? Tutu said to keep going, so that’s not all. It now makes sense that Tutu wouldn’t say anything directly, he made some sort of deal with something that probably held way more sway than little me”. Danny took a few steadying breaths before calming himself enough to continue thinking about the situation.

One should understand how hard this was for Danny. Imagine that your most dark inner fears, the source of the anxiety and despair you have been struggling against for years, just suddenly multiplied tenfold, hundred-fold or even more, and that too just when you saw hope of changing your situation, of improving your fate. It was a tremendous blow.

Danny had cultivated a very firm willpower since a young age. A determination to face hurdles tempered through suffering and sustained by the memory of his mother. Even then, Danny was human and thus, he had feelings and emotions. In addition, Danny was still young. Certainly, he was forced to mature early due to his special circumstances, but even then, he couldn’t help but falter and momentarily give in to Helplessness.

That was the inexorable chain of being human: to be flawed. Humans were not machines, they were not ruled by efficiency, nor could they work as usual, undeterred by the events around them. They could not replace broken parts nor be unphased in the face of death. Instead, they could grow, they could evolve.

Just like a lobster had to leave its shell to grow, exposing itself to the dangers around it to become something better, so had Danny improved his whole life under the threat of the demon. That made him more resilient than others, but in no way immune to fear. Like the lobster, every time it found itself exposed to the perils of the world, it felt fear. When encountering a much more powerful predator, it felt despair.

Most of the times it found itself in a hopeless situation, the lobster would die. But sometimes, it survived. Be through luck, wit or grit, it found a way in the abyss of desperation to carve a path forward, growing even more from the experience.

That was what Danny did. He did not let the desolation set in. He chased away his depressing thoughts and instead looked for some small crack in the bleak future that allowed him to pass through safely and reach the other side. There could be no courage without fear after all.