Lois Loses her Soul

Lois: 2♦ 10♥ A♦ 6♥

Blaze: K♥ Q♦

The reporter stared at the cards on the table. She knew that she should feel something...anything. A sense of loss, relief, depression...but instead she just felt...nothing. Blaze took the reporter's soul chip and weighed it in her hand. The soul chips representing the four missing women erupted in little black-and-gold sparks.

"The women are free. Your soul is mine," the demon said. "How do you feel?"

"I...don't," Lois Lane knew that should upset her. It wasn't that she was completely emotionless, it was just that she felt so...not exactly empty or dead inside, but like something was missing. Something vital, some piece of herself that she couldn't touch or even name, but now it was gone, and it was as though a shadow had passed over her life. The women were free, but that didn't give any sense of elation or satisfaction. It just was.

"That's what a soul is, really," Blaze said, running her fingers over and over the chip. "A bit of nothing with your name on it...but it's the essence of you. The **** and drive. Without it, you might still be alive...breathing...you'll enjoy the taste of a good steak, the feel of a good fuck...but fleeting, temporary things. You won't dream. When you die...all that you are, all that you were...will be mine."

Lois Lane swallowed. She wasn't sure she quite understood...but it felt like there was a part of her missing, and as much as anything, Lois wanted that back.

"You said you'd give me a chance. To win it back."

"I did," the demon smiled. "But I set the game, and I set the stakes."

"So what is the game?" The reporter asked. "What do you want?"