Aristotle and Dante discover their future.

The devils deal

Dante

I walk alongside the starry night, the streetlamps the only light in the street. My hood covering my face, this part of the neighborhood everyone is a target. No matter what you did or do, there is always a mark. And I walk into the danger zone, alone.

I debate whenever or not to wake Ari, but this is something I need to figure out for myself. No one else can know about--not even Ari.

Ever since I left the house, I shudder at a feeling of someone's eyes on me. When I see a person walking on the same street as my heart starts beating fast. Did that person come to kill me?

Mr. Martin passes with ease, tipping his head back to acknowledge my night walks. Strange to see me at this hour, my mother perhaps will still be awake, rocking Esperanza to sleep. Newborns hate sleeping as much as teenagers. I don't notice Mr. Martin's dog churro sniffing past my fear until he barks, flinching away from my thoughts. Far off from where I walked, I could hear Martin scolding Churro for his late interruptions.

I turn the corner of the street going to the pool where Ari and I met. The spring winds send a chill through me as I tried to climb the fence. Only to find the door open. Fate is not on my side this time around.

The smell of chlorine lingers on my nose, the same filthy waters sit through the rainstorm. It seems strange to be here, alone and no one but the shadows and the moonlight as a company. Maybe Ari should have come with me. But I don't want to worry him enough then he does already.

I stand to wait in the dark, for sure that the immortal god already spotted me.

I just need one normal day...

"You should be at home."

I don't turn to see who the voice belongs to. "I don't take orders from foreigners. Especially a lunatic who tells nothing but lies, Natalia."

Natalia squirms in the light, her black leather gloves glint in the light, her face shadowed by hurt. Since the day I woke from the surgery, I suspected she was on something. No one just offers anything without something in return. "I know you don't trust me, Dante. And maybe I am strange to you, but I do want to help you. With all the pain, eternally and physically--what is it that you repeated all night? To have order and be normal, right?" She stepped closer, her heels clicking against the cement. "I'll make a deal with you. Let me destroy the god and after that, you'll drink a potion to make you forget. Return to your life and be a normal student, live life just in time for graduation."

"I don't trust you."

"I never said you should. I just meant I could."

"Still, Ari--"

"Ari what?"

"It feels like I am betraying him."

"Trust me, you're not. If this is what you want, then take the opportunity."

"I came for some peace--not to make deals."

Silence.

I stepped back to observe her, the long wool jacket dragged on the floor, her curls pinned in swirls like starlight mints. "Then take this amulet for protection if you don't want to make deals."

I stared at the piece of false jewelry, a ruby-encrusted into a gold chain. It looked ancient, too valuable for a stranger I barely knew to give it away. "I want to be normal again, Natalia. Can you do that? Will this silly amulet give me my life back!"

Natalia didn't know how to respond and her silence was enough to give me an answer. Walking away but nothing but a piece of jewelry I decided that this war between the gods and was over. No matter what the consequences were now, I needed my life back. And I am going to take it one way or another. 

And then, I can have a future with Ari. I could finally have my happily ever after.