I Read Stories: The Genius And The Devil by Stephanie Feldman

The Genius And The Devil by Stephanie Feldman in Catapult

When she was in college the Genius sold her soul to the Devil, asking to be the greatest artist of her generation. Now she is dying, the greatest artist of her generation. She asks a favour, that her sister and two friends stand watch over her body for three days, keeping out anyone who wishes to see it.

The Friend needs time, a year, to get back to her own painting, time that she can’t make, due to teaching and family and everything. The Genius will pay her for that time (her flat, enormous, rented to her by the university costs five times less than the Friend’s 2 bed house at the end of the train line). So she agrees. She might have agreed anyway.

The Genius dies and she will have to spend the night with the body, and her memories.

Read This: Because the devil will try to take the Genius’s soul and maybe all the Genius needed was time
Don’t Read This: You have had enough deal with the devil stories