It was so dark. But you had earned your way here.
As it turns out, there is a limit to what the human psyche can take. Now you were surrounded with a darkness that felt inescapable. There were no stars. There was no moon. No lamp or night light.
"Oh dear. You seem to be in a bind."
When the voice resonated out around you, strangely articulate on each symbol, the darkness around you responded. Each spoke word send out a flurry of silver tones, glittering. When the voice was silent, the darkness reigned again.
Perhaps on a brighter day, and there is no pun intended, you may have been wary. Perhaps you may have withheld your thoughts. But you were in this dark place for the reason that you had given up.
"Yes." Your voice was hardly a whisper, and was a feeble whisper at that. To your surprise, for the first time in your life, you managed to sound as broken as you felt. Your voice did nothing to the darkness.
"To come here, you must be. I can feel your sorrow as present as your heartbeat. What is it you want?"
Again, the voice sent the darkness into spasms, which grew in intensity for the duration of the sentence.
"I don't know." You took in the fact that you were floating. You hadn't realized until now that you even had a body. You had felt too distant to be alive, but you understood that you were afloat in this dark expanse.
"Of course you know. You need to dig deeper to deliver the truth."
"I want so many things," you responded now, louder, feeling a burst of frustration. "I want to feel happy when my life is going well. I want family who I can trust. I want friends who have time to love me. I want dreams that actually go somewhere. I want, I want, and that is all I ever do." You took a deep breath now.
There was silence, and then,
"What do you want the most?" He pressed.
What did you want?
A silence of your own followed. In this black space you pondered everything that would come to mind. And the truth of that moment followed.
"I want a companion for life. A friend, a lover, an advisor, a protector. I want to feel like I am not alone anymore."
An electric pulse ran through the dark as you finished your sentence, followed by the same voice again.
"Are you willing to sacrifice for this?"
"Sacrifice? All I do is sacrifice... What do I have at this point that anyone could want." It was not a question, but rather a statement born in defeat.
"You have a soul."
You stared into the dark.
"Take it."
_
"How shall I present myself?" As he spoke now, a very faint light began to glow throughout all of the darkness. From what was presumably above fell feathers of both white and black.
"As a butler. My butler."
"And what will you prefer my title?" The light continued to illuminate the shadowy space, but this made it feel even more endless.
"Please choose your own name. If I selected one, it would be suspicious. I'm predictable." You'd have chosen one of your favorite names, and you already had to explain this new found butler. Better for him not to have your favorite name as well.
"Then it will be Sebastian Michaelis. Well then, (Y/N), the deal simply needs your verbal permission. Do you accept our arrangement."
"At the end of my natural lifespan, I owe you my soul. I understand and accept this."
At this moment, you sank down to a floor you didn't know was beneath you, only a few feet. You found yourself on your knees, with footsteps approaching.
The room continued to brighten, but you got one glimpse of the man as he kneeled before you. You reached out to you, gently rubbing his fingers over your cheek before sliding them behind your head to cup the nape of your neck.
The light suddenly grew quickly in intensity, until blinding, and you felt a burning in the back of your neck.