A Bittersweet Deal

"This is Me"

"This is me," Veronica states. Joey stares at the projection. It shows a painting of a beautiful young woman, maybe mid twenties in age.

She has black hair that falls down her back except her hair in the painting is slightly curly. Instead of the green eyes she has now, she had big round blue eyes. Her face is more round than the one she has now and darker skin.

"You're beautiful," Joey sighs.

"You think so?" Her cheeks turn red.

"Absolutely,"

"This is my family," The next painting shows her with a young girl, and an older man and woman. "We lived in England many many years ago. Before your great-grandmother was born. The woman is Mary, my mother, and he's Walter, my father. The little one is Annette my young sister." She clicks a bottom and the wall shows a big beautiful house with a lot of land.

"We were wealthy, and quite powerful." Another painting, it's of her and a man. "I was betrothed to him, Sir William Kelling. He was wealthier than my family and a bastard." Veronica spits. Her eyes are filled with hate. "Sayuri, my best friend from China, told me to leave and run away before I was to marry him, but I didn't listen."

Joey grabs her hand across the table and squeezes it gently. She continues.

"William beat me. No matter what I did, I could never do it right and he beat me. I went through it for five years before I snapped." She pauses.

"Please continue," Joey urges.

"I met Lucifer and we made a deal. He would kill my husband and in exchange he would collect my soul in ten years. Those ten years were the greatest time of that life. I packed my things and had Sayuri pack hers and we came to America. I lived my life to the fullest." She clicks again.

It's a picture of her and a Chinese girl at the beach and they look so happy.

"Then decades later, I became this thing." She flashes her eyes to black. "This girl was living on the streets. She was half dead when I took over. She had no family or friends so it didn't matter if she went missing. And I've been working for Lucifer since!" She smiles.

"That's a very interesting background." Joey comments.

"I guess so," she shrugs. "What about you? What's your past?"

"Not much to tell really," Joey states.
"I was born and raised in Alabama. Never made any friends growing up. Both of my parents died when I was seventeen so I lived with my aunt. She died when I was nineteen. I moved to New York for college then got my boring ass job and lived a boring ass life, still making no friends.

"My life was boring until five years ago, when I made a deal with the Devil. Now I'm best friends with satan and I like this beautiful demon." He smiles shyly.

"That's interesting cause I happen to really like Satan's best friend." She smiles ruefully. Joey leans forward and kisses her.