A young man finds himself in for a devilish surprise.

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There is a stereotype that says all hard core gamers are overweight men who live in their parents' basements, though that is certainly not true. For one thing, I live in my Mom's attic not her basement, and for another, I am certainly not overweight. I'm actually quite fit and make a habit of running several miles a day.

My name is Desmond Rogers, Dez to my friends. I graduated from college a couple years ago but found that the job market wasn't quite what I'd hoped for. I'd originally returned home to my Mom's house, intending to stay for a couple months at most, just long enough to find myself a job. Unfortunately, things didn't go the way I'd intended. It looks like that degree in psychology I'd earned wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.

Of course, I had been able to find a couple jobs since then though none of them lasted long enough for me to be able to move out on my own. The last one had paid the most, though unfortunately, it hadn't worked out. For one thing, I'd been completely bored off my ass the entire time and for another, my manager had been a complete dick. That was a bad combination for someone like me. One day he'd left his office door open when he'd run off to talk to someone so I'd taken the opportunity to send an email out to the entire company from his account, announcing that he was coming out of the closet. Needless to say, he was pissed, and once someone told him they'd seen me leaving his office, I was out the door.

At the moment, I was sitting in front of my computer playing World of Warcraft, a game that I was somewhat addicted to. I didn't have a lot of ambition in most aspects of my life, a fact some would say was proven by my being 25 years old and still living with my mom, but when it came to leveling my character I was willing to work hard to level him and earn achievements.

My main character was a troll rogue, a fact which always amused me since I not only thought of myself as a bit of a rogue, but also because one of my favorite things to do was troll other players on the game. I grinned and looked at the vicious argument raging on general chat, an argument I'd started when I'd made a pointed statement on a controversial political topic five minutes ago. I added new comments ever once in awhile in order to throw more fuel on the fire but most of the fun was watching all the other players screaming at each other. Sometimes, it could be fun just to get the ball rolling and then just watch everyone else do the work.

I absently scratched at my arm, feeling itchy and uncomfortable as I had been for the past two days. I wasn't quite sure what was causing it but suspected I was having an allergic reaction to something. It was probably the result of mom using a different brand of dryer sheets or something like that.

Just then, I heard my Mom calling my name. "Are you decent Dez?"

"Am I ever decent?" I called back with a grin.

Mom came up the stairs into the attic with a plate of food in hand and set it down in front of me. She was a good mom, probably a little too good in some ways. She was always nice, sweet and friendly, usually coming off a bit like one of those old TV moms like Mrs. Cleaver. Unlike most of my friends growing up, I never really got yelled at since she usually took the attitude of 'boys will be boys'.

"Thanks," I told her, grateful for the sandwich. Mom was always so thoughtful about this kind of thing so I could never bring myself to say no when she asked me to perform chores around the house.

Mom noticed me scratching my arm and gave me a look of concern, asking, "Are you all right Dez?" She put her hand on my forehead and exclaimed, "You've got a fever..."

"I feel fine," I told her, "Just sort of itchy."

"Feeling fine or not," she responded in a firm tone, "I'm getting you some chicken soup."

"But that's just an old wives tale," I pointed out. "Chicken soup doesn't magically cure anything."

Mom just smiled at that and told me, "Perhaps, but it certainly can't hurt either."

Once mom was gone, I looked at the general chat on my game and sighed. It looked like the argument had finally died down and I'd been too distracted with my mom there to keep it going. That was all right though as I was getting a little bored. Maybe tomorrow I'd try it again with some religious comments. Those were always good for stirring emotions. Then with a shrug, I logged off the game so I could spend some time in the real world.

I leaned back in my chair and considered calling one of my friends to see if we could hang out for a bit. Unfortunately, I couldn't call my best friend Pete. He was still pretty pissed off over what had happened with his girlfriend. Sure I slept with her, but it had been completely willing. Of course, she'd been completely drunk at the time and had called me by Pete's name, suggesting that she thought I was him, but that was beside the point. Unfortunately, Pete had taken it pretty personally and had damn near broken my nose.

"Maybe Mark," I mused, then paused to remember that he was still pretty unhappy after that peanut butter incident.

After a minute, I realized that I no longer had any friends who were even moderately close to me. I'd screwed all of them over in one way or another, often with practical jokes that had gone a bit too far.

I'd never thought of myself as a bad guy but I couldn't help but feeling a strange pleasure at being able to mess with other people. I was pretty sure I wasn't a sadist since I didn't like causing physical pain, but being able to make to make other people angry or conning them into doing something they might not do otherwise always did it for me in a way that even sex couldn't.

"Damn," I muttered in annoyance, feeling angry at myself for the way I'd sabotaged nearly every relationship in my life. I think the only person I'd never really done that to had been my Mom, and heaven knows, I've certainly caused her enough grief over the years.

Since I was tired of gaming for the moment and had no friends to hang out with, I had no excuse not to do some more job hunting. After all, it would be nice to make some cash again and get out on my own, even if it did mean that I wouldn't have my Mom's home cooking.

Several minutes later, my itchiness grew stronger and I was even starting to feel warm. I was beginning to get concerned that I really was coming down with something and that it wasn't just some kind of allergic reaction. After scratching at my arm a bit more, I looked down and was startled to notice that my entire arm was red, like I had a really bad sunburn. A quick glance revealed that my other arm was the same way.

"What the hell?" I demanded.

I quickly got up and ran downstairs to the bathroom, pausing to stare in the mirror. My face looked just as red and sunburned as my arms, and in fact, a quick look revealed that my entire body did. Strangely though, I didn't feel sunburned, just itchy.

Then I noticed something else that surprised at worried me. I had two bumps on my forehead, each about as wide around as a quarter. I gasped and hesitantly touched them, finding that they were both hard, almost like it was bone right beneath the skin. Now I was really getting concerned about what was wrong with me.

"I think I need to go to the hospital," I called to my Mom as I went to the kitchen. "There's something seriously wrong with me."

"I'm sure it's nothing that some chicken soup won't cure," she responded, setting a bowl of soup on the table. "Now eat up."

I just sighed and sat down, knowing that it was pointless to argue with my mom when she was like this. She was usually very sweet and patient but she could be oh so stubborn in her motherly way. I'd learned long ago not to confuse her normally kind and easygoing nature with being a push-over.

Mom put her hand on my forehead again and then pulled it away with a yelp, "Ouch... You're burning up..."

Suddenly, my hand caught on fire or at least a flame appeared and danced across my fingers. I could only stare in surprise and confusion, not feeling any pain or burning at all. I dunked my fingers into the soup to put the flames out but then another flame appeared on the back of my other hand.

"Oh dear," Mom muttered from beside me.

I jumped up and staggered back as the flames quickly spread over my body, burning through my clothes but not seeming to actually be hurting me any. I held my hands up and stared at them in stunned confusion as my skin actually started to blacken and flake away, all without hurting in the least.

"If you're going to do that," Mom said with a sigh, "please do it outside so you don't burn the carpet."

It figured that I was spontaneously combusting but my Mom was more concerned about the carpet. My clothes had already burned off but for some reason, the flames weren't spreading beyond my own body. Mom would be happy that her carpet and drapes appeared to be safe.

I felt a strange mixture of horror, confusion, and curiosity as I continued to burn. Not only was I not feeling any pain from this but all the itchiness was going away, being satisfied almost as though I was getting a full body scratch. As my burned and blackened skin flaked away, fresh new skin was revealed beneath. However, this new skin was bright red, not like the sunburned red from before but like a fire engine red. Moments later, the flames all died away and the rest of my burned skin all crumbled off as well.

It was immediately obvious that my body had changed far more than just turning a bright red. For one thing…or more accurately two…I had a big pair of tits jutting out from my chest, each one about the size of a volleyball.

“Holy shit,” I exclaimed, staring at my hands which were now more slender and feminine, with black fingernails that were sort of long and pointed almost like claws.

Then I felt something bumping up against my leg and looked down, surprised to see that I now had a tail as well. It was long and thin with a sort of barbed triangle at the end so that it looked like a classic devil’s tail.

I stared at the tail for a moment and then reached up to my forehead with a bad feeling. Where I’d had the two bumps on my forehead, I now had a pair of horns that stuck out about two inches and had sharp points.

Since my clothes had all burned off, I got a full look at my naked, red, and obviously female body. From what I could see of it, I had some damn nice curves.

As shocking as my suddenly transformation was, the most surprising thing was that I didn’t feel at all uncomfortable. In fact, I felt pretty damn good…better than I could ever remember feeling in my life. I felt…right.

The only comparison I could think of was that I had been wearing a set of clothes that were uncomfortable and just didn’t fit right. However, I’d been wearing those same clothes for my entire life so didn’t realize that this wasn’t how clothes were supposed to fit. Now it was like I was suddenly wearing a set of clothes that were not only a perfect fit but were also more comfortable than I’d ever been able to imagine clothes being.

There was a decorative mirror hanging on the living room wall so I went straight to it, pulling it off and using it to get a look at myself. What stared back was a beautiful and sexy looking face, though one that certainly wasn’t quite human.

Of course, my skin was all red but that wasn’t the only thing that was odd. I had pointed ears, black horns on my forehead, and eyes that had become black and gold. My lips were puffy and very kissable looking but also looked almost as though I was wearing black lipstick. And then there was my hair which had grown down to the middle of my back and had changed from its previous brown color to a raven black.

I ran my hands over my big boobs and then into the empty spot between my legs. I made my tail wave back and forth, finding that I could control it quite easily. This was extremely strange to say the least.

"What the hell happened to me?" I demanded.

Mom just sighed and shook her head. "That certainly looks to be the right question."

"No kidding," I blurted out, looking down at my bobs and frowning. "I look like some kind of devil chick."

"I always said you took after your father," Mom said as she looked me over, frowning just slightly. "I just hadn't expected it this much."

"What?" I responded, feeling more than a little confused.

My Dad had taken off long before I was born and mom almost never talked about him at all, though she had mentioned once or twice that he was hung like a horse. The fact that she was bringing him up now really caught my attention.

I gestured down at myself and asked, "What does my dad have to do with this?"

Suddenly, another voice said, "Everything."

I snapped around and saw a man standing a short distance away, wearing an expensive looking black suit with a red tie. However, what really caught my attention was the fact that he had bright red skin, pointed ears, and a pair of horns on his forehead, not to mention a tail very much like the one I now possessed. For a moment, I could only stare at the newcomer in surprise but what happened next surprised me even more.

Mom suddenly snapped, "You promised that you'd call me..."

The red skinned man had looked confident but suddenly became a little uncertain looking. "I meant to," he responded awkwardly. "I just kind of got distracted..."

"It's been over twenty-five years," mom pointed out with a steady glare, the kind that had made me immediately stop misbehaving when I was a kid.

"But Maddy...," he started to protest.

"You're the Devil," I finally blurted out, confused by the scene playing out in front of me.

The Devil gave me a quick look of thanks for the timely distraction and then responded with a grin. "Why yes I am. But you can call me Daddy."

I just choked at that and then glanced to my Mom who nodded confirmation. "Yes dear," she told me with a sigh. "This is your deadbeat father."

"Madelyn...Maddy," the Devil protested again. "It's not like that..."

"Don’t Maddy me," Mom responded, crossing her arms, raising one eyebrow, and tapping her foot on the floor. "Go ahead and explain... And while you're at it, what about the all the back child support you owe...?"

I was still a bit flabbergasted by their exchange, feeling almost like I'd stepped into the middle of a surreal dream. Then I looked at the Devil and asked, "You're really my Dad?"

"Of course," he responded, looking almost a little hurt.

"You do have his eyes," mom offered.

"Not to mention all the rest of this," I muttered, swishing my new tail back and forth. "Then, does that mean I'm the antichrist?"

"Not quite," the Devil responded with a chuckle. "Your half-brother is a banker in Hoboken. He makes these fabulous mojitos like you wouldn't believe." He paused to lick his lips before adding, "And that subprime mortgage thing he started really does a father proud."

I just stared at him for a moment and then at my mom, still having a very hard time absorbing the idea that the Devil was my Dad. Of course, almost as difficult to believe was that my nice and sweet 'Mrs. Cleaver' type Mom could have possibly hooked up with the Devil.

"Um...how did you two meet?" I asked awkwardly as I tried to gather my thoughts.

"It was a dating service," Mom answered, giving the Devil an almost dreamy smile as well as a look of appreciation. "He was so handsome..."

"And you were so beautiful," the Devil said, staring straight into my mom's eyes. "You still are you know..."

If things were weird before they became even more so as my Mom and the Devil made goo goo eyes at each other. I was getting a bit queasy just watching it, not to mention frustrated. After all, I had some serious problems that neither of them seemed to be concerned about.

"Um, excuse me mister Devil," I said, trying to get his attention again.

"I already told you," the Devil reminded me with a gentle smile, "Call me Daddy."

"Okay...Daddy," I responded carefully then gestured down at myself. "Why did you do this to me?"

He gave me a blank look before saying, "I didn't do anything to you. That's just who you are."

"No," I told him, giving him a cold glare as I insisted, "An hour ago I was a normal guy. Now you've turned me into some kind of busty devil chick. Why?"

The Devil...Daddy shook his head and let out a sigh. "I told you, I didn't change you. This is just who you really are. This is who you've always been."

"Well she certainly didn't look like this before," Mom pointed out, giving me a speculative look. "Not that I really mind you understand. I've always wanted a daughter and you make such a lovely devil girl."

"Mom," I gasped in protest.

"Perhaps I should explain a little more clearly," Daddy said with an amused look. "You were both with a demon soul which was buried inside mortal flesh. Your demon soul is the real you...your true self. That mortal flesh was just a costume you wore to keep you safely hidden while you grew up. Now that you've finally grown strong enough, that mortal was no longer able to contain you and your true self burned through it."

"But I'm a chick now," I exclaimed, grabbing my naked breasts.

“And a very lovely one,” Mom added pleasantly.

"Deep inside, you always were," Daddy told me. "Remember, that flesh you just burned off was just a costume...a protective layer. This is who you were underneath it. Now you've come out of it like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon." He paused to give me a look of pride.

"Oh shit," I whispered. Then I hesitantly asked, "Does this mean I have to go to hell?" I gulped. "Is that why you're here...to take me there?"

"You will have to go eventually," Daddy told me. "Just not today. You see, the reason I'm here is to both see my daughter’s coming of age and to explain your situation to you. Being who you are...being what you are...you will eventually go to hell regardless of your behavior. You could spend decades living like a saint and it still couldn't change that. Fortunately, hell isn't what you think it is and I assure you it's not nearly that bad. In fact, things can be quite pleasant when you're in management...and as my daughter you will be."

I was a bit shaken by the casual way that he'd just told me I was going to hell regardless of how I behaved. I know I'd done some rotten things to people but I'd never thought of myself as a bad guy and I sure as hell didn't think I deserved to go to hell. Then again, I couldn't help but remembering some quote about some famous person wanting to go to hell because that's where all the interesting people were.

"You said eventually," I pointed out.

"You were conceived and born on Earth," Daddy explained. "That means you have free passage here until you die. And since you don't age, can't get sick, and can heal from injuries far faster than any mortal, that can be quite a long time. Of course, the more powerful you become the faster you'll heal and the more resistant to damage you'll become."

"More powerful?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, so you're interested in power," Daddy said, looking pleased. "Ambition is good. It will help you adjust much better." He paused for a moment and then put a hand over my shoulder. "Desmond...or perhaps I should call you Desdemona from now on. It is more appropriate."

"Dez," I corrected him.

"Dez," he agreed pleasantly. "Since you are a gamer, I'll explain this in terms you might understand. Don't be offended, but at this moment you are a noob."

"Don't go calling her names," Mom told him with her firm motherly tone. "It isn't very polite."

"Noob just means I'm a beginner," I explained to mom, though most gamers did look on that as an insult since calling someone a noob also suggested that they didn't know what they were doing.

"As a...beginner devil girl," daddy said, "you start off with some powers that are useful but of limited strength. As you gain experience, your power level increases, strengthening your abilities and even allowing you to develop new ones."

That immediately caught my attention and I asked, "What kind of powers?"

One of the things I loved most about playing video games was exploring the abilities a new character possessed and then leveling that character, gaining new abilities and making them more powerful. The thing that gave me the most satisfaction, other than trolling the other players, was to level my character as high as possible, get the most powerful gear, and then show it off to everyone who hadn't gotten there...usually by kicking their asses in PVP...player versus player. It was a bragging rights thing.

"Immunity to fire and a small ability to create it," Daddy began with a proud smile. "You also possess a limited ability to create illusions around yourself so you can hide what you really are. This isn't very strong though and the illusions all fade when exposed to strong light, especially sunlight. There are other things too but I won’t go into them at the moment.”

“You said I’d get more powers with experience,” I urged him to continue.

Daddy just grinned at that and responded, “Oh, a few things like full illusions, teleportation, creating a raging inferno and even shape shifting. But of course, you have to build up to those powers.”

“How?” I asked with a burning curiosity. “How to do I get experience?”

“Just by doing the same things you already do,” Daddy told me with a shrug. “As a devil, you gain strength by tempting mortals into doing things they wouldn’t do otherwise. There are plenty of ways of doing this, making them angry, jealous, or tempting them with things like sex or money. Every devil has a different way of doing things though I have noticed that you have a particular talent for pissing people off.”

“This certainly is a lot for you to learn,” Mom said, giving me a worried look. “But I’m confident you can do it.”

I looked at Daddy and frowned. “It would have been nice having some kind of warning.” I grabbed my boobs and added, “Maybe some warning about these.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I meant to come by and have a little talk with you but I’ve been so busy in the office and it never seemed the right time.”

“You had twenty-five years,” Mom pointed out with another raised eyebrow.

“Maybe,” Daddy responded. “But you have no idea how much paperwork I have to go through. It used to be pretty easy but then they formed the Damned Souls Union… Do you have any idea how much trouble they cause when they go on strike?”

Mom gave him a sympathetic look, exclaiming, “Oh you poor devil. You look like you could use a nice relaxing massage…”

“You always gave great ones,” he told her with a wink.

“I still do,” Mom winked back.

I just blinked at that then tried to get the conversation back on topic. “About these new powers…” I said.

“Oh yes, of course,” Daddy responded with a chuckle. “I don’t have time to teach you more at the moment. I’m afraid I have a racquetball game scheduled with Bill Gates in just a little while. But these should help.”

With that, Daddy snapped his finger and couple books appeared in his hand. He gave them to me and read over the titles, ‘Tempting Mortals for Dummies’ and ‘Evil Made Easy’.

“Those should answer all your questions,” Daddy told me. Then he looked me over with a proud expression before adding, “Oh yes, one more present.”

Daddy snapped his fingers and suddenly I was wearing clothes again, though certainly not like anything I owned before. I was now wearing a pair of tight black leather pants, a black shirt…if you could call it that which just barely contained my boobs and which left my midriff completely exposed. I was also wearing a pair of black stiletto heeled shoes, a black choker around my neck with a big ruby sitting at my throat, and there was even a gold bracelet around my wrist.

“Just a little something modest to get you started,” Daddy told me.

“You call this modest?” I asked wryly, giving him a look with one raised eyebrow which I’d learned from my Mom. “I’d hate to see your idea of slutty.”

“Well, I have to get going,” Daddy said. “I have a tycoon to meet on the court.”

Daddy was just about to snap his fingers when Mom exclaimed, “Oh no you’re not. You’re not going without me this time.”

A moment later, Mom threw herself at Daddy, wrapping her arms around him firmly right before he vanished in a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, there was no sign of either Mom or Daddy.

I just stood there for a moment, staring at the empty spot where the two of them had been. It looked like my mom had chosen to go to hell with the Devil. And knowing my Mom, I couldn’t help but feeling just a little sorry for him.

“Sorry Daddy,” I mused, “but whatever bachelor pad you’ve been living in is bound to have throw pillows and new curtains before you know it.”

Then I looked down at myself, at my big boobs and my sexy red body. Daddy had said that this was just my true self, what I’d always meant to be. And after considering how good I felt and how comfortable, I had to say that I believed him.

“I wonder what Amelia would say,” I thought aloud as I considered an ex-girlfriend of mine. I could just imagine the look of shock on her face when she found out that I had bigger tits than she did. “It might be worth telling her about this just for that…”

I glanced to the books Daddy had given me, knowing that I was definitely going to have to read through them when I had a chance. However, I’d always preferred figuring out a new game by myself with a little trial and error.

“This is one hell of a new game,” I muttered, holding out my hand and concentrating. A flame appeared in my palm, enough to light candles and maybe get a fire started but not much more…at least not yet.

A moment later, I grinned as I considered my new powers and what I was going to have to do to make them strong enough to really be interesting. All I’d have to do was get people pissed off enough to act on their anger, something that I’ve always been good at. Now I was just going to have to step up my game a bit and go professional.

“Where should I start?” I mused, my mind already swirling with ideas of nasty jokes I could perform which would really piss off a lot of people.

While I was considering my options, I went back to my computer and logged onto a couple of chat rooms and began posting controversial and inflammatory comments. It only took a minute before I had several flame wars already started.

To my amusement, I could feel something…a sort of tingling inside of me that told me I was already earning experience points towards my advancement. It wasn’t much, but if a couple flame wars could do this, I knew that I was going to be doing a lot more trolling online than ever before.

“Now it’s time to really go level up,” I said with an evil grin. After all, this was almost like a video game and I’d just started as a new character. I’d always made a point of leveling my characters as fast as possible and didn’t see why this should be any different. “This is gonna be fun.”

THE END