Jake sighed, taking a seat at the kitchen table to rest while the small pastries in the oven were baking. He puffed his cheeks out and put his head down on the table.

Baking was hard work.

Jake was just your ordinary high school student, but there was one exception to that - Jake summoned demons to do work for him. Not anything big, but little works and he paid them with treats as a thank you. It was rather surprising at first when they revealed that they were suckers for the sweets rather than requiring something like life or a soul.

Recently, though, the store bought treats were not proving to be of satisfaction for the small demons he called upon. So, he had gone to the attic and searched through box after box for his grandmother's old cookbook that she had used so frequently when he was a child.

As a kid he hadn't thought anything of the book or any of the things that were baked from the instructions. Reading through it now, there wasn't much that separates it from other cookbooks. But, it had worked for her, so he pulled it out and began to bake.

Now, he had two cakes on the counter and the pastries in the oven.

After a long moment, Jake sighed and stood once more, deciding he may as well call for a helper to help do some simple chores, but he wanted to try a new circle. Sometimes horrible monsters would emerge but sometimes from the experimental circles, but he figured he could handle it, so he began to draw.

Using the simple chant he had memorized, Jake called upon the demon.

Immediately, there was an overwhelming amount of smoke that filled the room, causing Jake to cough, though it was more like a fog than something suffocating. This was unusual, but he wasn't ready to spring into action yet. He had to see what was behind the grey fi-

"My God," Jake breathed as the smoke lightened.

Standing tall before him was the largest demon he had summoned yet, orange eyes glowing and pointy teeth bared. The rest of him (presuming he was in fact a he) was merely a silhouette in the room, which Jake had only now come to realize had gone quite dark. It was as if a cloud loomed around this one. He was powerful for sure.

Jake was so distracted by all of this that he jumped when the demon's voice roared, jumping back only to fall on his bum.

"WHO ARE YOU TO SUMMON ME? ARE YOU UNAWARE OF WHOM YOU CALLED UPON?"

Jake nodded dumbly then shook his head profusely. He didn't know who the demon was! He'd seen scary creatures from hell before, but this demon topped all. He was intelligent, unlike the monsters, and that had Jake frozen in fear.

After several seconds of staring idiotically, Jake began to open and close his mouth like a fish, searching for what to say for he wasn't prepared to be killed. Not a second later, all of the darkness vanished.

Jake's jaw dropped.

Standing there now was a six foot two male with beautiful blond hair. He was sturdy, but not necessarily buff, just large and muscular with all the features that a god may have. Of course, that was expected. The way he dressed, he was probably a ruler of the demon world, and Jake immediately wished he had dressed better. Of course, the more human demons were all hot, but this one was just better by far and he wasn't sure why.

The demon sniffed the air. "What smells so good?" he asked. His voice was softer now, though monotone in a way that cut through the air and made his voice very enhanced like it was edited. He was on a whole nother level. However, his voice had a warm quality to it. It was… so odd.

"I made sweets."

Once again, Jake found his voice. He also found his strength, standing up at last only to have the demon tower over him. Jake was five foot five and that was a considerable distance between the two, not to mention the glasses and the hair and the still slight overbite, though the braces he had just gotten removed had fixed most of the issue.

The demon nodded, face stoic. "And what did you call me for?" He stepped towards Jake. "To become strong? Get a girl? Destroy an enemy?"

Jake shook his head. "I need help with some cleaning."

"WHAT?!" The darkness came back suddenly, but Jake tried not to flinch. "YOU CALLED ME FOR HOUSE WORK?! THE PRINCE OF THE DEMON WORLD?!"

Jake nodded meekly this time and shyly grabbed one cake from behind him. He timidly shoved it before the demon and the shroud of shadows went away again.

"Fine."

Jake's grinned. "Great!" He scurried to set the cake on the table before grabbing some paper to write down what he needed help with. "It really shouldn't take long! I just have a few things that I need help with! You're tall enough to help me dust which is great!" He quickly wrote it down. "A-And I'm Jake by the way."

The demon said nothing.

"And your name?"

He was now obviously irritated, probably at the suggestion of telling someone so puny and worthless by comparison his name. "Dirk Strider," he huffed.