The Devils Deal

chapter 2

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Isabelle.

I parked my car the usual space I usually did when I got home. I got out of the driver's seat, fishing my shopping from the back seat, before making my way to the front door of the house I've lived in for nearly a decade, half expecting Lauryn to magically appear on my porch. But she surprised me by getting out of the car physically.

I watched her from the conner of my eyes as I fumbled with the bunch of keys I always carried with me. I watched as her bare feet - I just noticed how she had no shoes on, I guess it wasn't a requirement in hell or wherever she came from to wear shoes. She tested the ground like a shy baby, careful and slow at first, once she was sure she could stand physically without Landing on her ass, she marched over gallantly, with a slight bounce in her step. She walked like the sister I knew, but still didn't feel like it.

I still wished she could feel like my sister, even though I thought it was impossible. My sister was dead, the woman I knew was dead, you just don't come back from the dead. You could never be the same, if at least that was possible. I knew enough to know that we pay the price for everything. Something as big as coming back from the dead would demand a big price, not necessarily favourable. What price did Lauryn pay to get back alive? What deal did she make with the 'devil' just so she could come home?

In the car ride home, we had talked. I had told her almost everything about my life post her death, and she had taken it in casually, like none of what I had been about was significant. Not the fact that my ex best friend and my ex boyfriend are now a couple, or that I had stopped college because I couldn't afford to pay for my education anymore and now worked as a waitress, in between so many other odd jobs. No, she had even yawned, basically labelling my whole life boring, and had quickly changed the subject to how hot the devil's real face was.

I didn't bother to ask if there was a 'fake' face.

My point is, my old sister was never this insensitive, she cared. She cared so much, she cared too much.

This one looked about as unfeeling as a plastic cup.

I opened the door to my home, breathing in its scent and allowing it to surround me like a protective cocoon.

I took off my shoes at the entrance, before continuing into the house, not bothered whether Lauryn would follow me inside. I added left the door open, of that wasn't as glaring as an invitation, I don't know what is, after all, it was her house too, or it used to be.

I dropped the groceries on the dining table, turning only to catch the absent air of my sister.

Panic gripped my heart immediately, as I gazed around widely, searching for her, but she was nowhere in the house.

Oh God, no.

My breathing increased, as the only logical conclusion I came to was that she was gone, again.

No! I wretched.

She couldn't have. She was my sister, she can't be gone again. If I had been just hallucinating, now, I didn't care. It doesn't matter I thought, I want her back. I want my sister back.

Yes, she wasn't the same, yes, she was cold and detached, and insensitive, and looked the closest thing to evil I have ever seen in my life, I still wanted her back. She was my sister, I'd take her anyhow.