Melvin Burgess Stuff

A young girl sits looking out the window at an ugly housing estate.

She doesn't like it.

She doesn’t like her parents, she doesn’t like her school. She doesn’t like anything.

“If only I could be fabulously rich,” she sighs. “If I could have that, I would give anything.

Then - a ring at the door. She runs down to open it.

A young man stands there. He smiles. “I,” he said. “Have come to make your dreams come true,”

She opens the door and lets him in.

Years pass. The girl, in her twenties now, is sitting in her room, looking out of her window over New York. She owns many such windows, in many cities.

There is a noise behind her. She looks up. There stands the young man.

“So soon?” she asks. “You haven’t aged at all.”

“You have,” he replies. He takes two steps forward and seizes her by the neck.

“I own your soul,” he hisses. He reaches inside - and shudders.

Calmly, the girl removes his hand from her throat. For the first time, she smiles

“Did you imagine,” she asks, “that the King of Heaven in all his Majesty could create nothing worse than you?”

“Did you think that?”

“Or did you suppose that he would never dare?”

The young man groans and takes a step back.

“Who are you?” he hisses.

For the first time, the girl smiles.

“I alone, in all creation,” she says proudly, “have nothing to fear. I alone, have been created in the true image of the living God.

“I alone, have no soul.”

The young man groans and turns to run.

But he can never run fast enough.