D R O P D E A D {Completed} (UNDER RECONSTRUCTION -- 2018)

(ii) - 'The iTunes terms and conditions of your soul.'

'The iTunes terms and conditions of your soul.'

"What the fuck is that?!"

Well, that was what I wanted to shriek, but my uncle was downstairs, and because I was very clearly imagining that voice, he would think I was crazy. I clamped my fingers over my mouth, hissing through them. "Get out! Go away!"

"Andrea, sweetheart, I thought we were friends."

"Who is that? Who's speaking to me?" My room was in darkness, so I scrambled to my feet, pelting over to the light switch and giving it a vicious punch. It snapped on.

The young man from the hospital was sat on my windowsill, legs crossed; it was open, and there was a breeze blowing in behind him, messing with his tousled hair. He smiled pleasantly at me.

"You're far stupider than you look, you know that?"

"Holy shit, you're – you can't be in here. How did you get up my – "

"I have my ways." He stood, dragging his hair from his eyes to reveal the full, terrifying force of his deeply black irises. I couldn't even see a pupil in there, the depth was that unnatural.

"Okay. Why are you in my room?" I took a deep, wobbly breath, and felt for the door handle; trying to calm myself down. If I screamed again, questions would be asked, and I would be dragged off to the hospital.

"Here to watch you. Make sure you don't misbehave, make a mess of things." His tiny grin was filled with malice.

"Me?"

"Mhm. So that you don't break the contract. Our contract. I signed, too, remember?" He was still in the scrubs that he'd worn earlier – and moved to tug the piece of paper I'd signed from his pocket. I lunged towards him, to try and rip it out of his hands, but he danced away from me with a wag of his tongue. "Naughty, that's mine –"

"Oh my God, what have I done?" I could feel tears bubbling to the surface, panic beginning to set in again. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real, it was some Buffy the Vampire Slayer shit or something. "No, no – that's not fair, you didn't even let me read it!"

"Let's just agree to call it the iTunes terms and conditions of your soul." He cleared his throat, pulling the scroll out to full length – it was a lot longer than I'd remembered, and even more twisted and burned than before. "Right, let me just run you through our deal, really quickly. Okay. So, we've established the non-disclosure end of our agreement." He pulled out pointed black glasses from nowhere, and positioned them on the end of his nose. "I don't tell, you don't tell. A mortal gets wind of this, I have to kill a load of people, and you receive instant, eternal Hellfire for your troubles. Alright?"

"What do you –"

"Shh!" He held up a single finger, and suddenly, I couldn't breathe. Sitting down on my mattress and looking delighted with himself, he continued.

"Okay... in exchange for the complete recovery of your mother's health, as soon as you die, we get your soul. You have agreed that I may stand watch for the rest of your hopefully short life; however, we are not permitted to touch each other physically, at all. You come near me – again, eternal hellfire. If you die by supernatural means, the contract is cancelled, and we take it up with the angels, so I can't harm you in that sense, either. Note that you can't take a breath, but you are still, very unfortunately so, alive. Cool? Okay, questions will be taken now."

"Souls do not exist," I coughed out, as soon as I could get some air into my lungs again. He arched his eyebrows.

"Well, clearly they do, and we own yours now, so." And a little roll of his eyes. God, I wanted to punch him. "It's like a hire-purchase sort of thing. Wait, no -- barter. We need souls. You clearly felt that you needed that pathetic woman. Everyone gets what they want, until you reach the eternal hellfire portion of our agreement."