I wiped down the counter to make sure it was spotless. Now, If anyone asked me if I believed in the supernatural before I worked as a barista here, I would laugh in your face thinking it as a dumb joke. Well, not anymore. I looked as the clock hit 3:33am. I looked around as the lights dimmed considerably and the air went stale and cold. I was prepared for this so I wore a thick jacket over my uniform to keep warm. Is it strange that after working here for 5 years that I'm actually used to this?

I could see my breath as I watched the wall near the entrance. A human like shadow appeared and out walked a devilishly handsome demon with bloody red hair. Mind you—he told me previously that this isn't his actual form but the one he uses when he crosses to the Earth's realm. The lights and temperature returned to normal. I took off my jacket.

" Vincent, How many times have I asked you to use the front entrance?" I asked with fake seriousness. Vincent is just what I call him. I don't know his true name. He won't tell me. Has something to do with demon culture apparently. At least that's what he told me.

The handsome demon gave me a pitiful look. " Don't be like that, you know I like flashy entrances."

I smiled and nodded my head in understanding. " So what will it be?"

"Ah, you know, same as always." As he walked up to the counter.

" Sure thing! I got started making a Carmel latte with extra Expresso." I got to work while the demon sat down and watched me with interest.

" Have you made any progress with that women you told me about yet? What was her name again? Claire?"

I almost slipped up what I was doing at the question and had to catch myself on the counter. I brought that up once like almost a year ago! How the hell did he remember something like that and bring it up now?

" Hey, I heard that. Don't say hell in vain, I get prickly everytime."

I stopped what I was doing and glanced at him for a moment.

"Really? That sounds rough. You must be really uncomfortable around people on earth."

" Tell me about it! it's insufferable! However, we are getting off topic, so?"

Tsk. Topic change has failed. I decided to be honest. Cause lying might get me killed.

"Uhh, no. Actually, she fell for some other asshole. So I lost interest."

I frowned in displeasure as I remembered that guy. Vincent looked at me with his ruby red eyes in sympathy and nodded in understanding. Then as if he thought of something great — he spoke energetically,

" Want me to curse him to death for you? It's the least I could do after all the lattes you served me." He looked at me eagerly.

If he had a tail I could almost see it wagging back and forth. Sometimes I forget who and what I'm actually talking to. Suffice it to say my malicious thoughts disappeared like smoke.

I spoke cautiously, " No thanks. It's in the past now. Please don't harm anyone for me in that way. Like ever." I reached for the Expresso.

Vincent shrugged, "pity." He sighed in regret. A moment past as I was finishing up with the first latte and started on the second.

" Do you know why women always fall for the assholes?"

"Why?"

" Cause assholes know what they want and go for it."

Am I getting women advice from a demon right now? This is unbelievable. I decided to move the subject along quickly.

" Makes sense, what about you, any demoness catch your interest lately?"

Vincent paused before laughing boisterously, " You have no idea who your talking to kid. I have a whole harem of succubus at my beck and call back home." He winked at me, " I can let you meet one of them if you like?"

Is this demon pimping his own women at me? No. More importantly, is he trying to get me killed?

I started sweating before carefully saying,

"No thanks, that probably wouldn't be good for my health."

The demon sighed again. "You're no fun."

I dropped two lattes in front of him.

"Here you go, enjoy!" I said with my best fake costumer service voice.

From what I know, one is for him and another is for some demon lord back home.

Vincent took a sip and moaned, " This tastes like heaven." He took another sip slowly enjoying the taste before standing up.

"Well, I best be on my way, wouldn't want the demon lord's latte to get cold now, do we?" He said rhetorically.

The lights dimmed again and the temperature dropped. I put my jacket on again.

"Cya later Vincent. Same time tomorrow?" I asked as I watched him put one foot in the shadow before stopping.

He turned as if he forgot to mention something. "Actually no, I told a friend of mine how divine this place was and she's taken an interest. She'll drop by in my stead tomorrow."

He smiled devilishly, "Don't worry she won't bite. After all, it would be annoying to have to find someone else that can make a latte as good as you." Then he disappeared into the shadow. The place returned to normal.

I walked to a nearby chair and collapsed into it. I looked at the floor blankly. I only had one thought going through my mind.

'should I quit?'

I blinked then blinked again. I couldn't believe my eyes. I ran my hand through my greasy hair. It worked? It really worked. Or maybe I've finally lost it? Too long have I been left to my own vices. It's definitely a possibility. There's a limit to the things I can do on this station to distract myself from the reality of my situation. Hopefully my eyes aren't deceiving me.

A demoness stood in front of me standing on a pentagram. Her ivory horns, black wings and tail gave away the fact that she wasn't human. Her face sculpted with inhuman beauty.

"A mortal dares summon ME? Rashka?" She looked at me intently. Her dark grey eyes glowed ominously. A power ran through me. It felt as if my very soul was getting violated. After a moment of this, she licked her lips as if she found something delicious.

" The stench of loneliness reeks off of you. Tell me, what have you been through to accrue so much?" She asked as she started to look around. The more she looked around the more curious she became.

"Where are we? Speak, Human!"

" We are on station 23." I said plainly.

" Elaborate. " She snarled.

" It's a orbital space station that's been sent off course and abandoned after...well...it doesn't matter. I'm the last man on this station and there's no way off. I'm—we are stuck here." I paused as I gathered my thoughts. It's been a long time since I spoke to someone. I felt as if I was learning to speak again.

" Thankfully this station is self-sufficient and has everything I need to keep living for 200 years. Everything else on the other hand doesn't work anymore. The only thing this station can do is drift across space indefinitely. I guess you could say I was messing around out of boredom and I somehow summoned you." My throat felt dry and I was out of breath. Why is it so hard to speak?

" I see. Space you say? Fascinating." Rashka walked up to me and brought her face close to mine until we were inches apart. My heart quickened as she traced her long nail down my cheek and neck.

"And what is it you want from me?" She demanded softly with authority.

" Can you keep me company? I asked, " As you have already surmised, This orbital Station is so lonely."

"Ask and you shall receive but be warned that a contract was signed the moment I was summoned and your soul belongs to me After I fulfil your wish..." She paused as she digested what I said and raised her eyebrow inquisitively.

"That's it?"

"When you've been here alone for as long as I have there isn't really much else to ask for. "

She laughed while she started walking towards the exit into the hallway.

" You are a weird mortal. Never have I've been asked to just keep someone company before. So be it. How about giving me a tour of the place..what's your name human?"

" Kyle, and sure." I smiled warmly. I caught up until I was walking side by side with her and began the tour.

It's time for extreme measures as I stepped on the circular platform. The ground lit up slowly as it charged.

"Me, a father?" I scoffed.

My EQ is about as low on the scale as it can get and then some. Tell me how to make a time machine from scratch and I will tell you. I break physics for breakfast but...I don't know the simplest things when it comes to raising a child. If I want this child to grow up properly, I will have to cheat a little. What the child doesn't know won't hurt him right? I know at least that much and know matter what people think of me there is one thing I'm not, a failure. I will succeed and so will my son.

Flash!

20 years later...

I opened my eyes and jumped in surprise at the person front of me. It looked like a younger version of me when I was twenty. Hmm, but he has his mother's eye's.

" Uhh. Dad?"

I couldn't speak. What do I even say? He caught me red handed.

I waved awkwardly, "hi, son." I said simply.

My kid looked me up and down. Then laughed.

" I get it, this is just like you." He said mockingly as he stared me right in the eye.

"How so?" I asked curiously.

"you came here before I was born to see how I turned out."

"You are correct, so tell me how did I do?"

My kid shook his head. "Wouldn't that not only ruin the timeline I'm in but also spoil things for you? Part of the fun of being a parent is growing up with the kid. Why ruin the surprise on how I turned out?

"Bu—"

"No buts dad. Turn back and don't worry. I came out just fine. After all, Im the son of the greatest inventor earth has ever had. That's all you need to know right?" He smiled confidently.

Me and my son shared a moment of silence. Yeah, looks like it turned out alright. I couldn't help but smile in relief. Even if other people only see me as a emotionless bastard. At least my son turned out alright.

" Alright, I've seen enough. Send me back son." I said proudly.

"Sure thing. " I watched my son set up the time machine to go back to my original timeline as if he was familiar with it as much as the back of his hand. He really is my son.

As the machine was charging up I spoke.

" I'm proud of you son."

My son looked up from the monitor Into my eyes.

" I'm glad, but father."

"Yes?"

" Try not to screw up what you have with Mom. Give her the attention she deserves. Your inventions can wait."

" Alright, I promise."

Flash!

A few moments passed before the son pressed an invisible button on his shirt and suddenly turned into a much older version of the guy that just left. He sighed. I hope this works. The man thought back to the son he never got to raise as he left the lab slowly and turned off the lights.

Back to present day...

I have returned. I sat down on the floor where I stood. This time travel business gives me a serious case of nausea. I'll have to take note and fix that later.

" Honey! Dinners ready!"

My son's warning went through my head again. I have a promise to keep.

" Be right there!"

I smiled contently as I made my way up. I'm excited for the future.

I've always admired heros when I was a kid. I would smile everytime I saw a hero on TV and laugh when the villain got his butt kicked. Even though Heros are so powerful—they never terrified me. Why is that? You would think seeing a person catching a bus would be scary no? Especially when you imagine what that hero could do to a person. But no, no matter what power a hero has It never scared me. So When I was blessed with powers, I wanted to be a hero. But out of all the powers I could have gotten why did I have to get this one? For the first time, a power actually scares me and it just so happens to be my own. This isn't a power a hero should have, so why do I have it? Well...who cares? As they all say it's all on how the power is used. If it is used for good then no matter how scary it is, people will come around and understand eventually right? Wrong. I was dead wrong.

First time I used my powers to stop some random thugs, a few people saw, and you know what happened? Those citizens thought I was a villain! Yeah, They called the superhero hotline and sent heros on my ass. No matter how much I tried to plead my case to the hero chasing me, she didn't believe me. I barely escaped and was forced to use my powers on a hero! I'm officially in the hero data base described as extremely dangerous. How messed up is that? I could complain All day but this doesn't change the fact that I still want to be a hero. Real Heros don't care about this kind of stuff. They just do what needs to be done. So that's what I will do.

I looked out at the skyline, my legs dangled dangerous off the ledge of a tall building. This city is beautiful at sunset. The way the sun shines on the glass is something to marvel at. The red clouds in the sky today seems to compliment it as well.

Ring ring.

I checked my phone. I had a friend hack into the hero network to pick up news of villains that are on the loose. "A villain named Slitherhead is on the loose down town, heros are advice to seize and capture on site. Slitherhead is mid tier on power rankings. Caution is advised." Time to get to work. Hopefully I get there and handle it before a hero arrives.

I looked out at the city one last time before walking back towards the stairs. What? You think every hero can fly or jump down without getting hurt? I guess I could, but I'm lazy.

(Random persons perspective)

It felt hard to breathe but I kept running anyways. How did it come to this? I was just walking my dog! Now my dog is gone. I turned a corner and ran down an alley. Everyone else seemed to have already disappeared. I'm on my own.

Rumble

I didn't dare look back. Where are the heros? Why aren't they here yet?! Is this it? Is this the end?

"Someone, anyone...please help!" I yelled as hard as I could in-between my laboured breathing.

"Kehehe, Boy just give up. You realize I'm just toying with you right? Just like I do with all my prey." A low grumbling monstrous voice spoke from close behind.

'NO! I refuse to die like this. If I'm going to die then I might as well go out my way!'

I stopped and turned around, I had no choice since I hit a dead end. I shook my head then looked at this monstrosity in it's glowing blue eyes defiantly as it's slithered towards me. From the slick scaled black green tail, all the way to it's half human-like face with that predatory smile. It looked like a snake and human mixed together in some kind of inhuman like harmony. If I'm going to die then I at least want to haunt this guy's dreams by starring into his soul. 'I'm done running.'

The snake human-thing tilted it's head inquisitively. "Oh? What's this? Your done running? Well that's boring. That look...I've seen that look before." It licked it's face with it's forked snake tongue as if finding something delicious.
"Well, now that playtime is over I worked quite the appetite, I hope you don't mind?" It laughed at it's sick joke as it's tail grabbed hold of my foot. Next thing I knew I was upside down. That didn't stop me from staring at him as I was lifted above it's head. I kept silent and glared as I watched the monstrosity open it's mouth wide enough to fit a whole person. I started sweating. No matter how brave I tried to be, I'm still scared of death.

'I don't want to go this way.'

"Hey ugly." A distorted voice called out from a distance.

The snake-human froze and looked back towards the alley exit. It's eyes glowed ominously. "who dares interrupt my meal?!" The ground shook as it spoke. I was facing the wall so I couldn't see who it was. I looked back up or down depending how you look at it. I caught a glimpse of the snakes eyes. They looked...Nervous??

"Tap, tap, tap." I heard slow steps creeping closer. " Put the guy down." The distorted voice replied casually. The snakes tail wrapped around my foot harder. The monster spoke. "You, I know you. You're that new guy. You made quite the impression the other day. Even got away from the hero Athena." The snake-human frowned. " Why does a new villain care about what I eat?" Slitherhead paused as if he just thought of something.

"Actually you should join me later. I'm sure we can have a lot of fun together." It laughed.

Silence

"Nah, I'd rather kick your face in. You might look a bit better that way."

It took a moment for the snake to catch what he meant before snarling. He flung me with his tail. I thought I was going to splatter against the wall only to slam into something soft but incredibly dark. 'I'm..fine? What was that?' I looked ahead and finally got a look at my savior. My first thought was...terrifying. A human like being wrapped in shadow... or is that black fire? The more I looked the more terrified I felt. The more I observed the more I realized that that isn't just a shadow. The shadow had demonic eyes. And a gleaming smile full of rows of teeth. My instincts screamed at me to look away but I ignored it. First it was just one pair of red eyes. Then two. Then three. Each pair of eyes were a different color. Each eye a stuff of nightmare's. Soon the shadow was full of eyes and teeth that seemed to move around the shadow.

The snake-like human also seemed startled. But it quickly got ahold of itself before swinging it's tail. "Die!" The tail tried to flatten the shadow. The shadow stuck it's hand out towards the tail. when the tail touched the shadow It was as if the tail was getting sucked into an endless black hole. Space itself seemed to collapse.

The snake-human screamed in agony as the black shadow consumed it from the tail up.

" Ahhhhhh! No stop! Please! Mercy! Mercy!"

I watched in horror as the snake slowly disappeared.

In the end, nothing was left. Then the eyes gazed at me. I closed my eyes. I felt like I would go insane if I continued to look. " No, please!" I cried out. I heard a distorted sigh. " I just saved your life man...whatever." A few seconds past by before I dared to open my eyes. Gone. I let out a huge sigh of relief I didn't know I was holding.

This was my first shot at a [WP]