Arun hoisted his wife's lifeless body onto his shoulders, kneeling in desperate prayer within the shadowed nave of the church. Anna had succumbed to a merciless new fever, unknown to humankind, her once-vibrant form now a cold, unyielding weight against his trembling frame. Tears streamed down his face as he wailed, his fervent pleas snatched away by the swirling gusts of wind that rattled the ancient bells overhead.
As Arun lifted his chin in anguish, his gaze locked onto a towering figure—tall, crimson-skinned, and rippling with unnatural muscle. Neither man nor beast, the entity bore two jagged horns curling from its brow, a frayed tail lashing the air like a whip, and a physique that screamed infernal power. With an air of absolute dominion, the devil smirked down at him. "Human."
Terror gripped Arun's heart, yet a forbidden curiosity stirred within him. Clutching Anna's corpse tighter in his arms, he stumbled back a step, but his feet rooted to the stone floor as if chained by invisible bonds. The devil extended a clawed hand, its razor-sharp nails hovering inches from Anna's pale cheek. "I can ease your torment, human. I can breathe life back into your wife."
Arun's lips parted in a stammering whisper, his mind reeling. "H-how... how will you help me?" He mustered every ounce of his shattered resolve to form the question.
The devil's eyes gleamed with wicked amusement. "Hmm, your god offers no solace. But I can." With a crack like thunder, the air before Arun split open, revealing a dark red stone, the color of fresh-spilled blood, carved in the throbbing shape of a heart. It tumbled to the floor at his feet. "Take it. Its power will ignite the spark of life in her once more."
Arun's hand trembled as he reached for it, but the devil's voice halted him mid-motion. "One condition, human: Each time you wield the stone to resurrect a woman, one year of your own life will be devoured."
"I accept," Arun blurted without pause, his fingers lunging toward the gem.
"You seem eager, human." The devil's laughter echoed like grinding bones. "But there's more. For every life you restore, you must claim her—fuck her deep and raw, flooding her womb with your seed. And from that union, she will swell with my spawn... a devil's child, birthed from her body."
The words hung heavy in the air. Arun froze, his eyes darting to Anna's serene, deathly face. He drew a ragged breath, the weight of the pact coiling in his gut like a serpent. "So... if I bring her back, I have to mate with her? Fill her... and she'll carry your child? Give birth to it?"
"Yes," the devil purred, savoring the hesitation.
Arun's only anchor was the woman he loved. Swallowing the bile of revulsion, he nodded. "Okay. I accept."
In a swirl of acrid mist, the devil dissolved into the shadows, leaving Arun alone with his wife's cooling corpse and the cursed stone.
He scooped it up, the gem nestling perfectly into his palm like a lover's grasp. The instant his skin met its surface, a jolt of electric fire surged through him—raw, primal energy that made his cock twitch and harden instantly, straining against his trousers. His muscles tensed with unnatural vigor, a delicious stiffness flooding his limbs, while a deep, insistent ache throbbed in his hips, urging him toward release.
Tentatively, he pressed the stone to Anna's chilled flesh. Warmth bloomed beneath his touch, her veins pulsing with renewed blood, her rigid body softening like wax under flame. She gasped, her eyelids fluttering open. "Arun..."
Joy exploded in his chest, tears blurring his vision as he crushed her against him in a fierce embrace. Anna rose unsteadily to her feet, her hands roaming her own form in wonder—tracing the swell of her full breasts, the dip of her waist, the flare of her hips, her beautiful curves alive and quivering once more. She stepped closer, her eyes dark with a hunger that mirrored his own, and claimed his mouth in a searing, passionate kiss. Her tongue danced with his, her body pressing flush against the rigid bulge in his pants, grinding with a need that promised ecstasy.
As the night deepened, they stumbled back to their modest two-story home, the stone's power still humming in Arun's veins, a siren's call to the forbidden pleasures—and horrors—yet to come.