Good Girls Don't Make Deals With Demons

"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. He 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.

"Here's the kicker." Sarah brought me back to reality. "Apparently she won the damn lottery 10 years ago and became super rich. I'm just saying if only you could make a deal to stop all the craziness in your life." Sarah reached over the table and grabbed her coffee to sip it.

"What, like a deal with the devil or something?" I snorted.

"Well there are some legends that say you could trade your soul for what ever you like. I mean think about it, would you sell your soul to save your brother?"

"In a heartbeat." I didn't hesitate to answer because it was true.
If a demon would save my brother and stop all the ridiculous bills then I would hand over my soul on a silver platter. I was probably going to hell anyways. I wasn't a virgin, I didn't always go to church and I did have a habit of swearing. I better stop thinking about this before I go to those old railroad tracks and see if I could strike a deal myself.

"So, on a different note, that little puppy I rescued hides under my bed cause he is afraid of the rain." I tried changing the subject.

"You still haven't come up with a name for him?" Sarah gasped in disbelief.

"Only cause I refuse to name him fuzzles but that's all I could think of when I look at him." I gave her my pouty look.

"Well I'll bring him out and we can see if we can figure out a nice name for him. Anything is better than puppy." She smiled and scooted the chair back before standing up.

As soon as she opened my bedroom door I could hear the puppy whining. She began talking to him as though he was a baby, telling him that he was going to be okay. I tried concentrating on the sound of the rain and the puppy but my mind kept going back to Sarah's question. Would you sell your soul to save your brother? It sounded ridiculous but I was very curious. Hypothetically, if this was real I would like to try it out. Come on Eliza don't think about it. You'll look like a fool if you go there. It's just some crazy girl who didn't know the difference between the hair on her head and the prickles on her legs.
That's it, I have to go just to put the theory to rest and see for myself that it was impossible.

"Hey Sarah, would you mind watching the puppy for a few minutes? I gotta go do something real quick." I called out as I grabbed my black hoodie. We may have been in Florida but with the rain in the middle of December it was actually a little chilly.

Sarah came out of my room, holding the small puppy to her chest. "What where are you going? It's weather is terrible! You shouldn't be going anywhere."

"To put a theory to rest." I pulled the hoodie over my head and grabbed the keys on the table.

"Are you crazy? Eliza, those railroad tracks are dangerous! That's why they shut them down." Sarah warned.

I ignored Sarah's advice and continued to walk out the door to my old black Porsche. Maybe I was crazy but at least then I could stop thinking about it. Maybe I was just that desperate to bring my brother back.

Living in an old small town in Florida had it's perks. There was always back roads to make trips quicker. There was a lot of distance between everything. My closest neighbor was like 2 miles away. I enjoyed the privacy. Granted it got really dark at night due to the lack of street lights, but the positive side of it was that there was always a beautiful view of the night sky.

As soon as I pulled up to the old railroad tracks I shut my car off and stepped out. The rain had finally eased off but the grey clouds still hid the sun. I looked around for any clues but I couldn't find anything. Just old railroad tracks that had ragged wood falling apart and rocks that filled the ground around them. There was an old sign that I couldn't get a good look at. I stepped inside the track and studied it.
The sign was rusty and a faded yellow color with a picture of an X on it. The rocks beneath my feet crackled and crunched as I stepped closer. There was something else on the sign written in small red letters. It looked like red paint. Maybe it was blood. Spine tingling.

"Here be it that I sign a contract?" I read out loud.

"You called?" A female voice behind me made me jump and turn around.

The girl that appeared behind me was very attractive with long brunette hair and forest green eyes. She was dressed in tight black pants with a very revealing black corset. As for me I was dressed in a simple pair of black yoga pants with a baggy hoodie. She actually made me feel a little self conscious, which didn't happen often. My instincts told me to run away and hide but I swallowed my fear and searched my thoughts for something to say.

"How did you get here? I didn't hear you coming up behind me." That was all I could say.

Her lips curved into a sinister smile and answered with only two words.

"From Hell."