The Deal by One Dead Man

It was a stormy night when she caught my eye, standing at the bus stop in the rain. My God she was beautiful. I took a chance and asked her if she wanted to use my umbrella, she smiled and took it, she thanked me. I told her she was welcome, and I continued to introduce myself. “I’m Gabriel, my friends call me Gabe. “What a fucking stupid thing to say” I thought to myself, she knew it as well, but she just laughed and replied “Well then …… I’ll call you Gabe”. That’s the first time I met Angeline, I knew right away my life would change forever and man! was I right……..


We’d been together for a few weeks. We’d go out most nights to eat and then go back to my place to drink cheap wine and make love until the sun came up. I began to feel trapped, and suffocated by Angeline, I would love her when she was there, but by the next morning I would just want her gone. I was beginning to have doubts, thinking I was missing out on something, something better, so I just ended it, no explanation, just like a coward, I told her I wanted out. She was devastated……


I would see Angeline around at all the same bars, when I was out with my friends. I knew as soon as I saw her that I’d made a huge mistake. I’d spent the best part of that month telling myself what an idiot I’d been.

One night at my local bar, I started chatting to a guy I’d never seen around before, we drank a few and I told him my story, and all about Angeline, how she had been the best thing that had ever happened to me, and that I needed her back, and I would do whatever it would take to do that…… “He said he could help me, I didn’t take him seriously, thinking it was just drunken bullshit. He offered me a deal ……… her love for my soul ………. I took it........what's the worst that could happen.

When I called it off with Angeline, she was crushed and her life had fallen apart. She had been out drinking ...... a lot. Every night she would visit different bars, flirting with different guys, just to make herself feel better, or at least to feel something. Then one night she was talking to familiar dark and mysterious stranger who listened to her story. The stranger said he could help her out, he offered her a deal...……... her soul for her revenge ……... on me.



Angeline came back into my life, she called me up, said she forgave me and wanted me back. I couldn’t believe my luck, I got what I wanted. 
I got her love back, but I didn’t realize it was “his” doing and that he knew me better than I did. It was only only a few weeks later, and sure enough I had grown weary and doubtful of the relationship ….. again! I broke Angeline’s heart……again!

 It appears however, that she got what she wanted also, the deal she had made with the stranger, revenge!. The Devil got my soul and I was bound for eternal damnation.

So there you have it, two souls, two deals, two desperate people. One desperate for love and one desperate for revenge.



It was then, the Devil came to collect…..

I deserved what I got, I accepted my fate with humility. I was deceived by the 'daughter" of the Devil, but she had been deceived by the Devil himself and we were both damned in the fires of hell together.

One Dead Man is the creation of Michael Baxter.

The Deal (Album) is a concept album/rock opera about the anxiety and the extremes of relationships. Based around the idea of selfishly making a deal with the devil and the power of attraction and revenge.

The album was conceived through New Zealand's lockdown in 2021, after unashamedly listening to the dramatic, over the top, work of Jim Steinman.