Jeremy Tyler was near death. It was a nice, quiet, painless death and not at all messy - undoubtedly the best kind. According to the many papers that carried the story, he was surrounded by a loving family and dear friends. It was a good death if there can ever be such a thing.

However there was something that was not reported. Jeremy had, many decades ago, sold his soul for money, fame and popularity, and he found it in enormous amounts. He had long since forgotten the debt he owed.

The demon sat in the corner, cleaning its nails with a knife and occasionally looking over the throng of grievers to the thin and pale man breathing his last. Its hand made Italian suit at odds with its horned head and blood red skin. It could wait; it had the patience of ages.

A distraught sob caught its attention and it rose on clawed feet, clicking its way across to the bed, tail swishing like a red serpent behind it.

It stood with talons clasped in front of him with an unexpected respect while a doctor moved forward to check the old man's heartbeat. Finding none he raised his head and shook it ever so slightly and placed his hand on the forearm of the freshly produced widow.

Tyler's life-force seeped away. A golden light first surrounded his body, and then coalesced into a throbbing orb before exploding with a silent blast; as its effects passed through the mourners they stopped in time for the briefest of moments.

The demon shook its shoulders like a boxer warming up and then with a howl surged through the crowd and grabbed the late Mr. Tyler with an iron grip and pulled his soul from his chest.

It flowed ghost-like from the corpse and was flung into the far corner of the room, where it stood shaking in fear. It was a ghostly carbon copy of the cooling body on the bed. It looked round and through itself then up at the demon, with rapidly dawning realisation.

'Oh...' it managed.

'Yes,' replied the demon and laughed, 'You owe us something I believe?'

'But I, I, um, er,' the soul made a visible effort to pull itself together. 'What now?'

'Eternity.' the demon's face cracked into a smile. 'Hell is other people Mr. Tyler. We have lots just burning to see you.'