Prompt #10

The Prompt: “I never promised that life would be happy. All I promised was that you would never die.”

She stared at him impassively. She no longer cried. All the pain she felt and he had taken away her tears. Taken away her everything. “Death would be a blessing now,” she said, staring just past his shoulder. She never had the courage to speak frankly to his face. Eye contact with those bottomless pits left her too sick and terrified to continue.

He laughed cruelly and reached out with one long finger to run along her cheek. Shila stood still, refusing to flinch away from his touch. “A blessing?” He let out a high pitched laugh and she couldn’t stand it anymore, she had to move away.

Shila took a step back, her arms raised for protection. They would do no good if he chose to hurt her, but it was instinctual. “You tricked me, lied to me.”

“I never lied,” he said almost playfully. Even though she wasn’t looking, Shila knew he was grinning at her. They’d had this conversation before. “Would you like to reread the contract? You’ll find that I’ve broken none of the clauses, and in fact forgiven you the few times you did.”

She ignored this. “I thought you were here to help!” Emotion broke in her voice and that surprised even herself. She’d grown cold in the years since their agreement, since she signed the contract in her own blood.

“I don’t help anyone but myself,” he said. “You know this.”

She knew it now. If there was one thing Shila could do, she’d go back in time. Go back to when she was fifteen and slicing open her arm to sign the contract in blood. She’d tell herself how things would end up, how she was ruining her life with that one signature.

It was a stupid desire though. Even if she managed to find her younger self, nothing would change. She hadn’t listened to anyone when she was fifteen and hurting. A future version of herself wouldn’t have had any more luck than her peers or mentors, the people who at one point considered her a friend.

She was too wrapped up in her own personal drama and hatred of the world to take notice of anyone else’s thoughts or feelings. Which was how he had found her. He had preyed upon her weakness, offered her a way out and a way to hurt people who had hurt her.

But he ended up being the one who had hurt her the most.

Shila’s form grew still as she breathed shallowly. This time she raised her eyes to meet the holes where his eyes should have been. Those oceans of darkness stared back at her unblinking. “I trusted you,” she said, her voice hardly louder than a whisper. “I trusted you and you betrayed me.”

“Darling,” he said, his voice a slow drawl. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you trusting the devil was a dangerous thing to do?”