Devil's Soul

Chapter 49 (a short-lived idea)

What would you have done? I'll admit my plan was ill formed, but I didn't have any good options. Maybe you would have just killed her. I probably should have. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. I think I may have been able to if I had opened the trunk to find a feral monster, revived and ready to kill me. That's not what I found, though. She was just as I'd left her: bandaged but still broken. Even without my interference, there was a chance she would die, but there was also a chance she would live. I couldn't bring myself to be the one to take that chance away from her. The problem wasn't that I wanted her to live. The reason for my hesitation was more selfish than that. I didn't want to become a cold-blooded murderer. I wasn't about to phone a friend and ask them to commit a cold-blooded murder either.

So I took her to the police station to turn her in. I did realize at the time that this plan was fatally flawed, but I didn't have much of a choice.

The Devil reappeared as soon as I opened the trunk. Arabella seemed strangely shocked to see him.

"You," she hissed, recoiling into the depths of the trunk.

He ignored her. "Mavis, you need to stop messing around and kill her."

Arabella's eyes widened in horror. "Why are you siding with her?!" she demanded. Her voice had gained a small amount of strength during the short car ride. "I've been providing you with souls for twenty years! You promised me immortality."

The Devil's gaze cut to Arabella. "I promised you eternal youth. There's a difference. Your body can still be destroyed, just not by age." He narrowed his eyes. "And I don't owe you an explanation for my actions. You've always been disposable, and now it just so happens you're in the way."

I wanted an explanation too. Why did he care more about having me than about having her? I didn't dare ask, though. "I'm not killing her," I said, and I began to gently help Arabella out of the car to prove it.

"So your plan is to hand her over to the police?" he asked. "What do you think you're achieving by doing that?"

"I'm fulfilling my contract."

"Are you?"

"Yes." I hefted her arm over my shoulder. She let me lead her to the police station. She didn't have the energy to fight me.

"Don't play naïve," he retorted, falling into step next to me. "The only way out of that contract is by killing her."

"Why don't you do it?"

He stepped in front of me and grinned from ear to ear. "Are you asking me to?"

I paused, a chill passing over my spine. Would he kill her if I asked? I didn't want to know. "No. Now can you please get out of my way?"

"Well, since you said please," he drawled, still smiling. He was mocking me. I didn't care. I wasn't going to be embarrassed for saying "please," even for saying it to the Devil.

"Thank you," I said, smiling back defiantly.

He stepped aside and made a dramatic gesture to indicate my now cleared path to the entrance. "Just remember that you brought all that's to come upon yourself." His grin made the warning particularly eerie.

"You can't see the future," I said.

"Anyone can predict the future, given enough information. Even you have enough information to figure out how this one will end. Denying the truth won't change anything."

He turned and started to stroll away.

"Wait!" Arabella called, straining to look at him over her shoulder. "What if I ask you to kill her? Will you do it?" She sounded so desperate. Pitiful, even. No, why did I think that? It's such a horrible thing to think about someone, and this was the second time tonight it had crossed my mind.

He didn't even stop to look at her. "Trying to take the easy way out, Arabella? Pitiful." Then he rounded a corner and was out of sight.

She let her chin fall to her chest in disappointment. Or maybe she'd used up her last bit of energy to crane her neck around.

"I don't know what you expected. He is the Devil," I told her. "He doesn't do favors." I said it like I was some kind of expert, like I knew how to handle him.

If I knew, maybe I would have listened to his warning.

***I'm back in action! A lot has happened since I last posted...I graduated, started an awesome job, moved three times (all within the Boston area), and (most importantly) I GOT A BABY BUNNY!!! I got him a week ago and he just turned two months old! He's a great writing buddy.***