Good Girls Don't Make Deals With Demons

Chapter 1: Desperate and curious

"Eliza, are you listening to me?" My friends light voice caught my attention.

I turned away from the window and faced my red headed friend. It was hard to concentrate on her voice with the sound of heavy rain drops smacking a tin roof. There was an unsettling gloomy feeling in the air. As weird as it sounded I wanted to run out of this house and walk in the rain. Even if it was only for a few minutes. Anything to escape the thick tension in the air.

"I'm sorry I didn't hear you." I looked into her beautiful emerald green eyes and accepted the cup of coffee she was offering.

"I said you should consider selling the house and staying with me. How else are you supposed to pay off all your brother's hospital bills?" Sarah repeated those harsh words that I didn't want to hear. "The bills are only going to keep multiplying unless you. . .ya know."

I nearly slammed the hot coffee mug on the counter, anger filling every ounce of my body. "Don't you dare suggest that I pull the plug on him. He is my only brother!" I hissed.

"Who has been in a coma for a whole year. The doctors say he isn't waking up. However, I wasn't suggesting that. I'm just saying you can always stay with me. I need a roommate anyways."

I let out a harsh sigh and looked back at the window that was covered with raindrops. As much as I wanted to deny it; she was right. I was up to my ass in debt and the doctors did say it was very unlikely that my brother would wake up again. How was I supposed to kill my own brother knowing that there could still be hope. I may just be a sliver, smaller than a quarter, but I couldn't give up, not yet. The near thought of it made me want to hurl.

It almost seemed impossible how in the blink of an eye you could go from laughing and joking behind a steering wheel to a complete vegetable. Je was the only one who survived the crash, that day. Both my parents were dead long before any doctor could help them. I once thought such a tragic thing could never happen to me and my family but a drunk truck driver sure woke me the hell up.

"I'll consider it, but can we please talk about something else? It's my day off and I can't think about this right now." I seated myself at the rectangular kitchen table.

Sarah shrugged her shoulders, making her red curls bounce. "If only that lady wasn't so crazy."

I raised an eyebrow and began playing with my dark brunette hair. "What are you talking about?"

"This weird lady came in the retirement home mumbling something about her time was up. She said she made a deal at the old railroad tracks and that she had to pay."

I let go of my hair and listened carefully, intrigued by Sarah's words. "Wow, what did she do next?"

"She started screaming like some psycho and kept saying these big black dogs were after her." Sarah broke out in a fit of laughter. "My supervisor called a mental institution and she ran faster than a rabbit."

I let out a fake laugh, trying to hide my curiosity from her. It sounded silly but I wanted to know all the glory details. There were so many holes in the story, A deal at the railroad tracks? Her time was up? To top it off there were some big black dogs chasing her. It sounded like a low budget horror film.

"Did they catch her?" I asked.

"No but they did find her in the woods dead. The police think it was some Florida panther cause her whole body was torn to shreds." Sarah scrunched her face as if she imagined it.

Her little story made my spine tingle. I shivered and folded my arms over my chest in attempt to keep myself warm. That was just plain creepy. Maybe the girl was being hunted by big black dogs, but why? Perhaps it was a pack of wild dogs that thought she was an all-you-eat-buffet. Yes, that had to be it.