Third Eye

Sageview is a town near the shoreline of no place in particular. Somewhere in America that happens to be particularly appealing to trendy young people and tech companies. One of these companies is Innova, a software startup that develops applications for phones and desktops.

The reason we’re focusing on Innova is because at this moment, the three members of the programming team are about to perform their daily discussion ritual during their break.

As per usual, they met in the break room, at the counter near the island table, right in front of the coffee maker, where they made their hot refreshments. They’d chat about work or the news, in front of the chic wall art near the counter, but they saved the “good stuff” for when they had their coffee.

Each of the men poured themselves enough to nearly fill their mugs, leaving enough room to add their usual garnishes;

Two creams, no sugar. Rich doesn’t like the taste of sweet things, but he does like the way creamer makes the coffee smoother.

One cream, one sugar. Dave likes his things evened out, but he doesn’t want to go wild.

Two sugars, one cream. Ian actually only wants the two sugars but he feels somehow obligated to have cream too.

They leaned against the counter, shoulder to shoulder blocking off the nearly empty pot from anyone else that might have wanted some, and began the ritual in synchronicity.

They smelled that rugged, mature scent of the “Big, Sweaty, ‘Colombian’ Mustache Roast” the package promised was fancy.

They sipped, and let the bitter, acidic, taste perk up their senses.

They swallowed, pushing past the initial sting of the heat at the back of their throats, and savored the warm feeling moving to their core.

They sighed, letting out the steam of a kinda hard, part of a day’s work.

“It finally happened, boys.” Rich said, “The boss sent the email inviting his plus one to that fancy tech party next week.”

Rich usually started the break room conversations. He was the unspoken leader of the group by way of his natural assertiveness.

“Well damn, it’s about time!” Dave said, chiming in, “With the way you’ve been working you deserve it.”

Ian smiled and tapped the side of his mug, as if applauding in agreement. Rich soaked in the praise for a moment before responding. “Ya’ damn right, bud. I’ll give ya’ three guesses as to who the boss invited”

Dave chuckled and rolled his eyes before playing along with his friend’s game “Let me guess, is it you?”

“No.” Rich quickly responded with a smile, much to the surprise of his friends. They paused to consider this before Ian took a guess.

“... Me?”

“Nooooooo.” Rich said, his smile becoming more painful. Dave and Ian then gave the same answer, at a loss for any other response.

“uuuhh-”

“Freakin’ ALEX!” Rich yelled, almost slamming his mug on the floor. “I come in ta’ work every day, kickin’ ass like the should-be tech mogul I am, and who does Graves think to accompany him to the tech mogul ball? Some smarmy tool from marketing, just ’cause he brings in bagels every other week.”

“To be fair, they are good bagels.” Ian said attempting to lighten Rich’s mood.

“Well... okay, yeah, but he should be goin’ to the Bagel Awards. To talk to bagel people. Not a high-class shindig with the top brass a’ the industry. The kinda people I’m supposta’ be makin’ connections with. What’s Mister Bagel-guy gonna say when someone tries to talk to him about... I dunno, java script or somethin’? What’s he gonna say then, huh?”

Dave sighed “Probably change the subject with a quip about it sounding like coffee.”

“It makes me mad knowing how right you are.” Rich put his hand to his forehead and started grumbling, “I can already see that freakin’ guy kissing every ass in sight at that party with that stupid curly hipster mustache of his. Talkin’ about the fancy rich kid school he went to just so he can find the other jerks that went to the same school so he can go to even more parties I should be getting invites to- YEAH, I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT YOU.”

Alex from marketing stopped mid stride in front of the break room door with a box of bagels and a confused look on his face.

Rich swung his arms out and continued yelling at him “What!? You wanna start somethin’? You wanna brag about ya’ party invite some more?”

Alex simply gave a self-satisfied shrug in response and walked away. Rich put his arms down in defeat and began grumbling to himself.

“I swear ta’ god, I would give anything to have the kinda’ dumb luck that guy has.”

Ian stopped sipping his coffee and looked up at Rich, “You would?” he asked.

“Yyyyyup. Why, you got an invite to that party or something?”

“... nnooooo, I just... you know I, um... Dave! How’s your um... all of it... going?”

Dave jumped at his name suddenly being called. He looked to Rich, then back to Ian, apparently Rich had finished cursing Alex’s name, so it was his turn to talk about something.

“Like, in general?” he asked.

“Okay.”

Dave drummed his fingers on his mug while trying to process what that meant. He figured anything would do.

“The contractors are almost done with the fence at the new house, and from the pictures they sent of the place, I’m gonna be the proud owner of one gorgeous two-story house. That’s how all of it’s going.”

Rich raised his mug, “Hey, hey, look at you, Mr. Property investment. You tryin’ to show me up with the good news?”

“Maybe.” Dave said with a cocky shrug, clearly beaming with pride. “I think three years of renovations entitles me to brag about living the American dream a little. I’ll finally have the beautiful house to park my beautiful car in-”

“I wouldn’t say ‘beautiful’ when it comes to ya’ car, Dave.” Rich interrupted.

“It’s a very... vintage car, Dave.” Ian added.

“But not like wine.” Rich said

“Your car’s old, Dave.” Ian said.

“Aged like a damn shoe.” Rich rude-ed.

“My car is- I’m talking about the future! When I have a better, less vintage car, okay!?” Dave whisper-yelled, trying to not make as much of a scene as Rich did.

“Oh, yeah. Right. Sorry.” Ian muttered.

Dave cleared his throat and tried his best to get back in his dream headspace, “I’m going to have a beautiful car, and when I pull into my driveway and come inside my beautiful house, I’ll be greeted by my lovely family-”

“Your parents are moving in with you?”

“IAN.” This time Dave couldn’t help but yell, but he tried to save face by smiling while he did it. However, that only made Ian more afraid. “IN THE FUTURE. I will have a family of a beautiful wife, and two beautiful children, just like I’ve talked about FOREVER.”

Afraid of making things worse, Ian lifted his mug to his mouth without drinking. He just held it there so he had an excuse to stay silent other than not wanting to make Dave any angrier.

“Yeeaaah, a family.” Rich said trying to move things along. “You know what they say about families that got wives; Kinda gotta have a wife to do that.”

“Yeah...” Dave sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “That they do.”

“The contractor find a spouse in the attic of that house or somethin’?”

Dave started to yell again, but caught himself before the outburst. He took a deep breath before calmly responding with a relaxed smile. “Dating has been a slow process, but I’m taking the steps necessary to make everything work. I got the house, next I’ll have the car, then I’ll find the wife, and then we’ll have the children, and it’ll all work out because I’m following the steps. End of discussion.”

There was a brief pause, but it was in fact, not the end of discussion.

“‘S gonna be real weird for you, livin’ in a family house by ya’self.”

“Rich...” Dave said, slowly slipping out of his cool demeanor.

“Don’t people get married before they get a house?”

“Ian...”

“It’s like the middle part of a sad movie, but ya’ skipped the part where ya’ lose yer family.”

“Rich...”

“Do you want a roommate in the meantime? I wouldn’t mind moving in with you so it’s less sad and lonely.”

“IAN.WE’RE DONE TALKING ABOUT ME.WHAT’S NEW WITH YOU, BUD?”

Ian jumped back and put his mug to his mouth again. ... nothin’.” he muttered before making loud, fake sipping sounds for some reason.

Rich elbowed him gently in the side.

“Come on, tell us somethin’ good. You seemed real interested in what’s goin’ on with us. Makes me think you got a secret you wanna share with the class.”

“Uh, no it’s just... well actually I... okay, so the other day I was looking online for a new way to get back in shape real fast, ’cause you remember, the uh... the last site I looked at had me do the ‘Cave Buddies Chewable Vitamins Cleanse,’ and that was a... disaster.”

“I remember.”

“and I... I’m looking at the search results, but it’s all the other stuff I tried. The exercises, the diets...”

“The weird crystals?” Dave said

“The apple cider vinegar?” Rich added.

The three of them had a short laugh together. Ian was a regular patron of strange treatments for his problems, but his friends never judged him for taking a chance on something.

“Ha ha... so, I didn’t find anything new in the search, and usually I’d change the words I used but I felt... uh, daring, I guess? So I went to the second page of the search results.”

Rich almost choked on his coffee hearing this “You what?” he half laughed.

“There’s more than one page?” Dave asked.

“Yeah, yeah! I forget that too!” He excitedly pointed to Dave in agreement, “but it was just a... one of the results was a post on that message board, ‘Spoken’ that had someone with the exact same problem as me.”

“Well that’s fortunate. Did it help?”

Ian began to scratch his head nervously and fidget with his mug. He looked uncomfortable in his own skin.

“I guess? Sorta? Do you guys believe in demons?”

Dave unconfidently laughed at Ian’s question as if it was a weird joke, or a reference he didn’t get. Rich gave him a curious look and responded, “Well, that’s a fuckin’ question.”

“Yeah, uh... because the people on the thread told this person to uh... ask a demon to re- uh... reshape them to be better looking.”

Rich and Dave looked at each other, then back to Ian.

“It was… was a Spoken board for people who talk to... demons… and they ask them for uh... favors… in exchange for their souls.”

Immediately, Dave guffawed, but then tried to hold it back.

“Sorry, I’m not laughing at you, it’s just... what!?” he said, this time letting his laughter come out freely once he heard Ian join in. “The only people who believe in demons and fairies are the kids that play ‘Dungeons and Ogres,’ right?”

That’s not a cute, in-universe version of “Dungeons and Dragons.” Dave’s knowledge of pop culture is on the level of your dad’s.

“I thought the same thing! I figured it was some teens roleplaying or something, and I figured I could use a laugh, so I started reading what people were posting there...”

He stopped and started pushing his fingertips together nervously. Rich raised his eyebrow inquisitively, “aaaand?”

“It was... very detailed if it was fake.”

Rich cracked a light smile, he started waving his hand, gesturing to Ian to give him more details. Ian wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing, but he continued on.

“Well... uh... so everyone there was talking about the deals they were going to make, or they already made with these demons. Like um... there was this guy who wanted to get a promotion that their co worker was getting, so he asked a devil to have him get it instead, and he did. … And it worked. …And now that guy’s… he got a promotion.”

Ian wasn’t the best story teller, and he knew it, but he was telling Rich exactly what he wanted to hear. He could tell because of the distinct scheming face he was making.

He continued, “there were even these kids who were big nerds I guess, so they got a devil to make them super popular at school... and it worked.” The other two expected that one to go longer, but Ian wanted to get to the real reason he brought this up. “So, I was wondering... with Rich wanting to go to that party, and Dave’s family thing...” He realized asking them this in the wrong way, he would sound crazy, so he hesitated for a moment to rephrase his question, “...do you guys think you would want those things bad enough to sell your soul?”

“Absolutely.” Rich said immediately, and very matter of fact before Dave could even speak.

“Really!?” The other two responded with varying levels of surprise.

Rich took a sip from his mug, trying to look cool in front of his friends.” You’re askin’ me, if a little guy in pajamas, with horns and a big fork came up to me and said they could get me into that party, and all I gotta do is give him my ‘soul,’ would I say yes?”

“Well it... it does sound less scary when you say it that way.” Ian said, once again feeling relaxed by his friend’s logic, and the goofy way he said “soul.”

“Exactly. If I can get what I want, he can have all the ‘souls’ he wants. Ain’t no skin off my back.”

Ian nodded enthusiastically with Rich’s unbridled confidence in what he thought was a pretty terrifying prospect. Dave on the other hand was still concerned.

“Rich, you don’t actually believe in all this stuff do you?”

“Do I believe in what? Souls? No. Success? Yes. Demons? Eh... Easy opportunities? You bet’cher ass. You don’t say no to success. When you get a chance to have everything you’ve ever dreamed of handed to you on a silver platter you say ’gimme gimme.’. In fact, I’m thinking we should call up one ‘a these demons ourselves and get in on this deal makin’ service before it goes big and they start charging a real fee for it.”

Dave and Ian had known Rich since college, and in their experience, they have never known him to joke about money or deals. He’s always had a do or die attitude when it came to a chance to get ahead of everybody else as fast as possible.

“If there really are people comin’ outta Hell to give out free miracles, I’m takin’ ‘em for all they got. Screw the party, I’m getting my own damn company! Then I’ll be the one throwin’ the bigass fancy parties.”

“Y-yeah! You should do that! Absolutely” Ian said before Rich jolted his finger into his face.

“Don’t think I’m the only gettin’ somethin outta this. Whadd’ya want? You wanna lose a couple pounds, or do you wanna go bigger?”

Ian started laughing nervously, trying to get out some kind of answer, but could only get out a sound that sounded kinda like “haahagaaggaahhh. Aaahhgghhh. Buh. Hee hee heh.”

“We’ll start with the weight loss and go from there.” Rich said, patting Ian on the shoulder. He then looked over at Dave. “David.”

“I don’t believe in any of this.”

“But you believe in the American Dream.”

“Yeah, because my parents were living it. And their parents, and their parents, and guess what? None of them talked to demons to do it.”

“Were any a’ them married to a demon?”

“Of course not.”

“What if you were?”

Dave got ready to make another scene in Rich’s face before actually thinking of the prospect of having a loving wife that was also a cool demon lady. Rich took this opportunity to press advantage.

“A smokin’ hot demon wife, Dave. An’ you two have some adorable human-demon kids. All after you two have a fancy-ass demon wedding.”

“Okay, well now I know you’re messing with me.”

“If I was messin’ with ya, I’d talk about how she’d have bangs.”

“So you’re not serious, okay, ha ha, very funny.”

Ian then quickly spoke in response to where the conversation was moving, “Actually they do have a thing for having you uh.. meet demon... partners.”

He said it like a reflex without realizing he had let his friends know where his mind was. Rich and Dave turned to him and said at the same time, “They what?”

“Uh... well you know there... The devils do stuff for people, but if you want someone to do something... to you... I guess, then you call a succubus.”

Hearing this, Dave and Rich lurched forward, then back, trying to hide their excitement and keep from looking like two middle school boys eager to hear what a boob feels like.

Ian’s face curled into a timid smile as he continued speaking, now with all the anxious enthusiasm of a middle school boy who lied about touching a boob. “They, uh. They’re pleasure demons that’re supposed to know all your desires, so whoever you call up comes out looking like your ideal partner. And they’re not picky about, uh, whatever you might need.”

“Okay, I’m sold let’s try it.” Dave said, now free of skepticism. Rich laughed while slapping him on the back.

“That’s what I like to hear! Best case scenario, we end up on easy street, worst case scenario, we lose a bit of an afternoon we can spend the rest of gettin’ drinks. All good, right?”

“Y- uh...” Ian started looking away from his friends and pushing his fingers together again.

“Uh? Uh, what? What’s ‘uh?’”

Ian tried to hold in what “uh” was until the guilt building in him burst out. “Okay, so the people on the board have these names for people that give up their souls and they’re based on how their lives are going after their deal goes through.” He blurted out all at once, waiting for a moment to see how they took it. “If your uh... your deal goes good and your life’s better, they call you a ‘stark’. Everyone wants to be a stark. Uh, but there’s the chance your life just... doesn’t get better... or worse. And then you’re a void. It’s like being a sucker, ’cause you lost your soul for nothing.”

“Well, that’s not that bad.” Dave said with a shrug.

“Yeah. An’ we’d only be suckers if we got scammed out of somethin’ valuable. Far as I know I ‘aint usin’ my soul fer nothin″ Rich added.

“Yeah!” Ian tried to leave it at that, but the guilt started to well up inside of him again. “...but there’s also, uh… ‘husks,’ and those are the people whose lives get worse when they lose their soul.”

“How the hell does yer life get worse from gettin’ whatever you want?” Rich could feel his perfect get-everything-he-ever-wanted-quick scheme crumbling apart in his hands.

“Some people say that they, uh, they can’t enjoy the stuff they get... or anything after they sell their soul. Some of them even said they don’t feel anything at all anymore.”

“That’s.. maybe something you should have led with before you had us agree to talking to demons, Ian.” Dave said

Rich grabbed Ian by the shoulder and shook him back and forth, “I can’t wine an’ dine people if I can’t enjoy the wine, or the dine, or anything ever again!” He seemed particularly disturbed by this news.

“I think... souls might actually be... important?” Ian laughed, meaning for that to be humorous, as to relieve Rich. It didn’t work. “S-so I guess... the real question I wanted to ask you guys was, did you want those things bad enough to risk ruining your life?”

There was a moment of silence between the three friends. Each of them considered how much they wanted to achieve their ambitions, and how much they were willing to lose for it. They all had to consider the question differently and personally.

Dave always wanted to live the happy life he saw his parents living growing up. He wanted to get married to a beautiful woman, live in a two story house, have two kids he could be proud of, and live a happy little life with all of them. But at the rate things were going, he had already passed the age his dad met his mother, and was fast approaching the age they got married at. It meant a lot for him and his parents that he start his own family, and his fear of failure was almost as frightening as the idea of having a family he couldn’t love back.

All Ian wanted was to have things go back to the way they were in college. Back then, things were going pretty well for him, but afterwards he could never shake a constant string of misfortunes that seemed to come one after another. He thought if he at least looked the same like he did in school, maybe everything else might move back the way they where as well. A demon could probably do that for him, but what if that’s just the next misfortune in his life?

Rich had aspired to become a big shot on top of the world since before he met Ian or Dave. He wanted to live like the people in his fortune magazines and do all the things they did; live in smooth, cube shaped, four-story house, fly around the world to meet with other people in their smooth, cube-houses, and have fancy dinners with beautiful people in the large, cube-shaped penthouse of a large, 5 cube-rated hotel. Ironically, he always assumed they had to make some kind of deal with the devil to get where they’ve gotten, and now he had the chance to do the same thing.

Their silence lasted for what felt like hours, contemplating the worth of their dreams. They only stopped once Nick finally chimed in with his anwer.

“I would probably do it, Seems like it’s worth the risk if you had something you’ve wanted your whole life, right?”

Oh wait, shit. I forgot to tell you about Nick. Ah, damnit, I done goof’d.

Okay, so there are actually four members of the Innova programming team, Rich, Dave, Ian, and Nick. It’s just that Nick isn’t a part of the trio of college buds, so he’s never fit in with them. He’s like a fourth wheel.

... to a thing that usually has three wheels.

Nick had been listening to the three friends discussing demons and souls for a good while now, staying quiet since he wasn’t a part of the circle of friends. He didn’t plan on adding anything, but he thought he could help them make up their minds if he gave his perspective. Also, he was getting uncomfortable watching them contemplate the worth of a dream and the weight of the human soul in complete silence.

“If it’s your life’s dream you’re talking about, doesn’t it make sense that you would take a risk on your life to do it? Not like a stupid, dangerous risk, but a calculated risk. If you’re not willing to do that, then how much is your life’s dream really worth to you?”

The vibe of the break room started to move back to normal with Nick’s reasoning. His logic made things less mysterious and uncertain and more perceivable.

“If I was given the chance, to make a deal with a devil for what I want, I’d...” Nick stopped and started contemplating dreams of his own for a moment. “Well, actually I guess it’d have to be with a succubus for what I want. I haven’t really met a lot of people since I moved here and I can’t do it alone so I... uh...”

Nick realized that he had begun to ramble on in a conversation he wasn’t a part of. The alienating gaze of his co-workers made it clear to him that he stepped into their business uninvited. However, he did put Rich back into a position to flaunt his confidence.

“Ian.” he said, cooly leaning his head over to his friend while keeping his eyes on Nick. “What would you say is the over-under on becoming one of those husk guys?”

Ian straightened up and scratched the back of his head. For him, this was his own way of showing confidence. “Um... there’s this thing they say on that board about that; ‘for every stark that posts about winning, there are a hundred husks that don’t talk about losing.’”

“mmm.” Rich took the last sip of his coffee, “So, like a 1 percent chance to live the good life, versus a 99-percent chance to ruin everything. Yeah, I’d say that sounds like a stupid, dangerous risk to me.”

Dave crossed his arms, “Exactly! It’s like I was saying this whole time, hard work makes the man. Not shortcuts or beveling in stuff out of ‘Lords and the Ring.’” He said this all in a very I-told-you-so manner.

“Yeah, it was just a hypothetical thing. I didn’t actually think we should do it, I just wanted to- I was just curious. Let’s not do it...” Ian said taking their empty mugs and rinsing them out in the sink, dropping them in his hurry and breaking only his.

“Yeah, neat little philosophy experiment Ian, but break time’s over.” Rich began to walk out the door, but stopped as he passed Nick, still sitting at the island table. He turned back around and leaned on it. “Listen, lemme tell ya’ something that should make things easier fer ya’. If yer ever thinkin’ a’ doin’ something crazy and risky, just remember, ‘if I wouldn’t do it, then you shouldn’t do it.’”

Nick looked back at him in silence, confused.

“‘I’ in this case is me, not you. You’re the ‘me.’ ... no wait you’re the ‘you,’ I’m the ‘me.’ He started to really think it over for a second. “if i wouldn’t do it than you can’t do- You’re the ‘you’ I’m the ‘me.’ There. Good talk, bud.”

He and Dave marched out of the break room, starting up a new conversation that faded out of earshot as they left. When Nick finished watching them leave, he turned back around to see Ian still at the counter writing something on a napkin. When he was done, his eyes met Nick’s and he jumped a little, not expecting anyone to be watching him.

“I was gonna... I was writing this for you because... if you really want... I was gonna leave it but the guys already left and... um. here. bye.” Ian quickly slid the napkin in front of Nick and walked out the breakroom. He had written down the name of the Spoken board, just in case he was serious.

Those three friends each had an unremarkable rest of the day, and a slightly above average weekend. Rich bought some new shoes after work, Dave talked to a woman at the farmer’s market on Saturday, and Ian swallowed a grape with a bolt in it on Sunday, but aside from that, nothing worth noting.

Nick on the other hand, had a contentious rest of his day, and an abnormal weekend that led to a batshit stupid chain of events. It was more interesting than shoes or swallowing bolts, but it did involve a woman, but she was way more interesting than the one Dave met.

This story is not about Rich, Dave, or Ian. I’m sorry I spent so much time focusing on them. This story is about Nick, at least partially so.