The Blowback Chapter 2

A deal with the devil.

Funny, he didn’t seem to think I was a monster when he was begging me to make those deals for him.

I never told Ethan about the prices I paid. I didn't want him to know. The sacrifices were mine to make, a private testament to my love. I loved him, so I bore the pain gladly.

Now, with a few cruel words, Ethan had shattered that illusion.

Before I could even process the wreckage of it all, Veronica signaled to a guard, who unlocked the cage. She stepped inside, a smirk playing on her lips.

“Honestly, darling,” she said, circling me like a shark. “You’re about to be sold like cattle, and all you care about is whether he loved you? Ethan was right. You’re pathetic.” She paused, running a perfectly manicured hand down his tailored suit jacket. “Then again, he does cut a fine figure. If it weren’t for me dragging him to the gym every day, he wouldn’t have this body, would he?”

The pieces clicked into place. The two hours every night, religiously spent in his private gym. The way he always refused when I asked if I could join him. He had company all along.

A cold sensation on my cheek snapped me back to the present. Veronica was holding a small, gleaming knife, tracing its edge along my face.

“I’ve always hated this perfect little face of yours,” she purred. “The way you’d look at him, all wide-eyed and innocent. Like a goddamn siren.”

Just as the blade was about to break the skin, Ethan’s hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.

“Veronica. Don’t ruin the merchandise.”

“Are you defending her?” she spat, her eyes flashing.

Ethan simply smiled, a cold, empty thing. “Of course not. But if you scar her face, how will we get top dollar? And how will I buy you that diamond you wanted?”

He snapped his fingers. An assistant scurried forward with a long, velvet-lined box. When he opened it, my breath caught. It was filled with hundreds of long, slender silver needles.

“They say for a creature like her,” Ethan said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper as he leaned close to my ear, “it takes nine hundred and ninety-nine silver needles to seal away her power.”

He pulled back, his voice now a soft, intimate murmur that made my skin crawl. “Don’t blame me, baby,” he whispered. “Your gift… it’s terrifying. It scares me. I lie awake at night, terrified that one day you’ll just… take it all away.”

His eyes met mine, devoid of any warmth. “Don’t worry. I’ve already found the perfect buyer. When this is all over, you’ll still be mine.”

His words were a demonic promise. He was insane.

He stepped back and gave a sharp nod. Veronica grinned, a predatory flash of white teeth, and plucked a needle from the box. She drove the first one into my arm.

The pain was sharp, electric, a violation that seemed to pierce straight through to my soul. She was heavy-handed, brutal. One after another, she plunged the needles into my flesh, expertly avoiding any vital organs but choosing spots designed to inflict the most agonizing, debilitating pain.

“Monsters like you, who make deals with demons,” she hissed, her face close to mine, “you don’t deserve to exist in this world.” She drove another needle in, this one into my thigh. “You should be grateful you’re still worth something. Otherwise, I’d make you regret the day you were ever born.”

She worked with a feverish intensity, pausing only to admire her handiwork, to watch my face for the agony she expected to see.

But she was disappointed.

From the moment I made the third wish, my body had become a landscape of phantom needles. This? This was just a Tuesday. A familiar torment I had learned to breathe through.

As the nine hundred and ninety-ninth needle found its home, a laugh bubbled up from my chest.

Oh, Ethan. You accepted the gifts so freely. You let me bear the cost without a second thought. You have no idea how this works, do you?

Everything has a price. Every action has a consequence.

The moment I am harmed by the one I wished for, the pacts begin to unravel. Everything you were given will be taken back, piece by painful piece.

My laughter grew louder, echoing in the cavernous room, a wild, unhinged sound.

Ethan, I can’t wait to watch it all burn.

The laughter stopped abruptly as the world tilted and went black. I had finally passed out from blood loss.