Claude origin story. Used Goethe's quotes. Cinderella rewritten. Do not hold back with the criticism. I shall update soon.
The brown blanket of dead leaves was crackling under his feet as he treaded the forest floor with them. He was being attracted, called by a faint scent of a cry for help. It resonated trough his body and triggered his ancient instinct , that little fragment of the Devil that has been beating within every demon like a heart ever since their birth.
Who knows how or when did they enter the world of living – by accident when a clan of witches tried to summon the devil or being released by Mephisto himself? Nobody knew anymore. Though many of them still remember the times before the contract was established as a regular practice. The demons roamed the earth freely, tasting any kind of flesh they could get their claws on. Some or most of the souls were not feasible enough and their mundane taste did not satisfy the demons, especially because of the length of their lifespan. Not to mention the fact that they probably wasted more energy for hunting than they acquired as they devoured a soul that wasn't even satisfactory.
Thus they've let the humans cuff them down and follor their orders until the pact has been fulfilled. And just for that purpose Claude Faustus followed the cry, craving with every fibre of his body for the promising taste.
In the murky light of the forest, a pitiable frame was sitting on a tree sap and wept bitterly. The man clad in black stepped out of the shadows and laid his golden eyes upon a poor aged woman, dressed in scruffy clothes and with tears streaking down her face. She blinked and wiped her face with the dirty sleeve, uncertain whether the man was merely a figment of her imagination or not.
„Who … are you?" she stuttered. „Why are you here?" It was certain that Claude was not a nobleman or even a servant, since people of that kind usually don't look at her that way, they don't devour her whole with their eyes.
„Your heart. It brought me here," he replied with a colorless voice.
The woman shook her head, seemingly given up on who he is. „My peace is gone, my heart is heavy."
After a moment of awkward silence, the demon decided to take the initiative. He will entangle her into her webs as per usual. The only thing neccessary right now was a little bit of sweet-talking.
„But things that matter most should never be at the mercy of things that matter least. What weight do your shoulders bear?"
„My promise," the woman replied. „I am a godmother to a girl. I promised I'll watch after her if anything happens to her mother." The man listened. She continued.
„Her mother died. She lives with her stemother and her step sisters. I … can't take care of her. I barely survive on my own … I can't …" she stuttered and buried her face into her hands.
„Ah, but to be pleased with one's limits is a wretched state," he said with a more appealing tone of his voice. „Yet," Claude stepped towards the woman, kneeled before her so she raised her pale blue eyes and looked at him. „he who grasps the moment's gift, he is the proper man," he stretched out his hand and swiftly shaped into a fist, as if he just suddenly grabbed a chance that was floating in the air.
The woman looked at him in disbelief and then finally gave in. „Help me fulfill my promise. And then …"
„And then I shall devour you in one hell of a bite," Claude picked her sentence up and raised. He picked her frail body up and carried her away.