Summary: Long ago I sold my soul and doomed myself to an eternity in the Underworld. I did everything they wanted for centuries, but no more! I'll find a way out of my destiny or die trying! I leave you my story in the hope that someone else can succeed if I fail.

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We met again long after the factory closed its doors and after I'd been through several masters.

The Lynch brothers may have been long gone but the invisible scars still remained. Some even to this day. For years I couldn't look at a cotton sheet without drowning in anxiety, but as time passed (and new problems replaced my old ones) the memories gradually faded, until my life there felt like a horror story that happened to somebody else.

I was in a different industrial town. Far away from Azaelia and probably long gone now thanks to poverty and war. It was full of large townhouses, factories, and people who barely talked to each other. In those days tall brick furnaces burned for days on end, sending thick black smoke and ash billowing into the sky. No one had seen the sun in years and most of the town's children had never seen a clear day.

All that ash would gradually float down to the ground like grim black snow. Accumulating on every surface, dying the streets gray. Even if we wiped it away it would soon return. Again and again until I had to give up and resign myself to being constantly covered in soot.

I found him in that place. Foreman, or what was left of the guy.


He stood on a cobblestone street corner selling red roses from a small battered wooden cart.

"Two for one coin!" He called out in a voice which lacked the power it once had.

You'd never believe that it was the same man who used to terrorise over one hundred souls. He was wearing an old grey coat full of holes along with a tattered top hat. His feet were bare, his face was smeared with dirt, and he was covered in ash like he hadn't left that spot in days.

"Hey," I said as we stood face to face. The tormenter and the tormented meeting again after so many years.

Back in the factory I wouldn't have dared say a word, but things were different on that day. The factory was gone and he couldn't control me. I wasn't Girly Boy anymore. I was Napoleon, or Fluffy, or Tom, or whatever stupid name my new master decided to give me. I had slowly pieced myself back together after all his abuse and I finally had the courage to face him again.

I looked him straight in the eyes (he was shorter than I remembered) and searched his face for any acknowledgement. I was so certain that his mouth would curve into a grin and he would shout insults at me like he had in the past, but Foreman's face remained blank and he continued selling those damn roses like I wasn't even there.

"Two for one coin!" He called out again.





"Hey!" I cried to grab his attention. "Don't you remember me?"

"Two for one coin!"

I began to wonder if I'd made a mistake. He was certainly dirtier and less lively than the Foreman I knew, but the face, the build, the voice, it was all the same as the sick bastard who ruined my life and made me want to disappear.

"Two for one coin!" He said again like clockwork. An elderly woman threw two coins at his feet and snatched a bunch of flowers from the cart without looking at us. "Two for one coin!"

"Hey! Can you stop that already," I growled. "It's me, Girly Boy," I despised saying that name but I wanted him to know exactly who I was. "Drop the act already! I know there's no way you'd forget me."

I pulled my hood down to expose my face and hair, but there was no change in his expression.

"Two for one coin!"

"I was in the Lynch brother's factory."

"Two for one coin!"

"Every day you made me want to die."

"Two for one coin!"

"You gave me to that sick bastard and left me there."

"Two for one coin!"

"You took my best friend and turned her into a monster."

"Two for one coin!"

"You made me do terrible things to myself and others for your own sick entertainment."

"Two for one coin!"

"Hey I'm talking to you, Foreman!"

"Two for one coin!"

That's when I lost my patience and punched him.





I directed all my hate and anger into that one hit, but it was only enough force to push him backwards. His feet tripped on the street curb and he collapsed onto his side amongst the ash covered stone. His face still expressionless like being hit meant nothing.

He didn't get up. Instead he let himself lie there like I had many years earlier when he tossed me aside. Muttering "Two for one coin," again and again under his breath like he didn't know how to stop.

That's when I saw the truth that I failed to notice though all my hate and pain.

Foreman was broken.

The all mighty soul overlord had finally met a master who he couldn't manipulate through charisma and lies. He'd been beaten down and screwed over so badly that he'd lost all sense of self. He didn't know who I was. The soul before me was just a shell of the man he used to be. I'd seen it plenty of times and I could tell that there was no going back for him.

I gritted my teeth in frustration.

It wasn't supposed to be like that. I was supposed to make him suffer. I was supposed to inflict all the pain he dealt me tenfold, but instead someone else had already beaten me to it. Leaving nothing behind for me to break.

My fist was still shaking but it was meaningless to continue. I felt empty, then angry at myself for holding onto that hate for so many years.

I quickly covered my head and hastily walked away before I could attract anymore attention. Cursing a man who was already long gone.

The next day that soul was still there. Repeating the same words over and over again (nothing else) as he sold sooty flowers for a master who only came to restock them. I tried talking to him several times, but no matter what I did nothing changed.

He was there the following week, and the following month too. Until the man I resented more than anything just became another part of the scenery that I took for granted.

Next Chapter: Back on the mountain top!

What do you think of Foreman's end? I know it was a bit sudden, but this is the end that I imagined for him.

The next chapter will return to Ethan on the mountain top so please follow for the most recent updates. You can also follow my twitter at m_c_queen.






Obake are spirits and monsters that take the form of animals to blend in with the natural world. A secret organization exists to protect mankind and eliminate all Obake. Its agents are commonly referred to as “exorcists.” My name is Daisuke Matsumoto and this is my story.

Tales From A Land Of Gods

They say life flashes before you in that moment before death. I could see it all reflected in the blade. I was standing under the cherry blossoms at my school entrance ceremony, eating cake at my sister's wedding, standing outside praying the monster wouldn't come tonight. I might not be dead yet but I can see what's coming, this is the story of how I was murdered by a fox monster!