Thanks to a dare gone wrong, Maggie Brumfield finds out the hard way that Heaven and Hell are real.
Prince Laudon, Lucifer's son and the current ruler of Hell, has locked Maggie into a sinister deal that grants him temporary ownership of her soul...
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MAGGIE'S POV
Laudon is gone before I can open my mouth to ask him to stay.
I raise my trembling hands to my face and touch my cheeks, finding that they're still on fire. My mind and body continue to buzz from my almost-kiss with Laudon.
While using my powers on Johnny, I felt confident and powerful. I felt utterly euphoric. With Laudon's sweet encouragements, I felt that anything was possible at that moment. I felt like I could do whatever I wanted if only I put my mind to it. And what I wanted after successfully healing my friend was a kiss from Laudon.
It felt like something that needed to be done, so I did it, or at least I tried to do it. Though, much to my surprise, Laudon wanted the kiss just as badly as I did. He wanted me as badly as I wanted him, and that means something. It means everything.
It changes everything.
"I'm coming in!" Krista calls out. "And I want an explanation for what I just fucking heard."
I look around the room and, I'm not sure how this is possible, I can feel that Laudon is no longer here. He returned to Hell and left me behind to deal with Krista and her loud mouth.
"A-An explanation for what?" I ask apprehensively after hearing the door to the room open and close. Krista turns the corner looking extremely pissed off.
"You know what, Mags."
"I actually don't, so please tell me what you thought you heard."
"Don't you dare try to paint me out as being crazy," Krista snaps. I swallow the nervous lump in my throat as she closes in on me. "I got here a while ago, by the way. I didn't come in because I heard voices in here that I didn't recognize, so I was about to call Katie to ask if Johnny had any new visitors until I eventually heard your voice, and then that's when all the weird shit started happening."
I grip the bed rail for support to keep from collapsing onto the floor. "I-I don't understand what you're trying to get at. What weird shit?"
"I heard his name. Whatever you and this Laudon person did in here, it affected the entire hospital," Krista says. "I don't get how you didn't hear all the chaos out in the hall. It was like I blinked and got transported into a horror movie. The lights were flickering, the nurses couldn't get their computer screens to unfreeze... But after a few minutes, it all stopped, and everything returned back to normal."
"None of that stuff happened in here," I slip up and confess. "Everything went according to plan."
"So you admit that I'm not crazy and everything that I just said literally happened?"
"Damn it, Krista. Can we not do this here?"
She cuts me off and begins to search the room for Laudon. When she's doesn't find him, she comes to stand directly in front of me—way too close for comfort—and I can't help but brace myself for a slap or a punch. Her eyes hold anger and sadness, both clearly directed at me. I'm not sure what expression is on my face because it's hard for me to feel anything other than sheer panic. This is so not how I wanted to break the truth to her about everything.
