Role Play Board: cont...

cont...

Posted by Songbird on 8/26/2008, 4:08 pm, in reply to "Songbird #12 (issue 12, vol. 1) - The Devil and Miss Gold"
68.109.232.53

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Later...Metro Chicago Hospital...
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She sits at his bedside. It's of little comfort to Melissa and even less so to Abe. All she knows is what the doctors have told her. His vitals have been restored - heart, lungs - though niether can function without the assistance of machinery. And even then, having a complete lack of brain activity, it will prove only to be a stop-gap measure before his body decides to entirely shut down on it's own. She holds his hand - cold, lifeless - and takes an upward glance at the clock...

"It's half-past eleven," a devilish voice comes from behind, turning to see the mysterious trench-coated figure sitting casual in a chair in the room's corner, "The clock is moving swiftly as is his chance of survival."

"How did you get in here?" Melissa glares, "I didn't call you. He's dying. My friend is dying! Why can't you just leave us alone!?"

"You have the power to change the outcome, Miss Gold," his eyes flare red, "All you need do is speak your wishes."

"No!" she shouts in response, "I'm tired of everybody making the decisions for me! I'm tired of everybody directing the way my life goes!"

"Is this really about you, Melissa?" he responds calmly, "Perhaps you're not as pure as I initially had thought. Your friend's life hangs in the balance and all you concern yourself with is what you want. As if your life is more important than his. He stands at the steps of death's door and all you can think about is what you want. The "hero" putting themselves before others. What a novel, albeit absurd, concept."

"It's not like that," Melissa holds back her tears, "You know it's not. That's not what I meant."

"Then prove it!" he stresses, "Prove you're the selfless hero you long to be. Pure in heart and flesh. Save your friends life!"

"You can bring him back?" she looks at Abe, his vitals slowing, "What do you want from me in return?"

"Your answer first, Melissa," he grins.

"So help me," she begins, "If this is some kind of trick, I'll..."

"...be able to do nothing about it if it was," he finishes her sentence, "I assure you, Melissa, this is not a trick. Abe Jenkins will live again if you wish it to be."

She looks at Abe, his vital signs continuing to decrease the closer midnight approaches, his hand cold and clammy within hers...

"Alright," she says with a defeated sigh, "Do it..."

His sharp teeth reflect under his large brim as he grins devilishly, "Very well, Miss Gold," a portal opens within the room and the stranger walks to it, "In the future I will ask of you a favor. It is all I ask in return for your friend's life. I cannot tell you where or when that favor will occur but it is all I ask."

"Just do it," Melissa says sternly.

"Ofcourse," he steps through the portal, "It is done."

The mystical portal closes behind him leaving Melissa alone in the hospital room. All is quiet until a sudden - and weak - cough breaks the night silence...

"Abe," she turns to see him weakly stirring, coughing some more, "Abe, you're alive!"

"Mel," he weakly replies.

"Shhhhh," she says, "Don't talk...just rest. There will be plenty of time to explain," she smiles and kisses his forehead, "It's good to have you back, Abe."

...She's grateful now...She saved her friend's life...She's elated...Happy...But there is one simple truism to everything in life...Nothing comes free...She revels in the comfort of her friend's continued existance...but I wonder...would she still feel the same...the same joy...the same relief...if she had known she made a deal with the devil himself...

He watches through a portal from the throne of his firey realm....

...If she had known she is now in debt to.....MEPHISTO...

The End