Have you ever wanted something so badly you were prepared to offer anything for it? Needed it so intensely that you felt that you could will it into existence and reality by the very force of your desire? I wanted something just like that. I yearned for it with a flame I couldn't ignore. Each day, every moment, all I could think about was Derrick.
I'd had crushes before. This was more than that. It was as though the very definition of myself depended on him; I was not quite Aurora without him.
So it was unfathomable to me that he could not see that. That, to him, I was but a friend, a passing acquaintance. A being that he cured without any knowledge of the love shining behind her eyes. A person whose every exhale held promises he didn't hear.
The mantras ran though my mind without my consciously thinking it. If I experienced something amazing, I'd wish he had been there with me. If I wept alone, all I could imagine was how much better it would be if only I had Derrick. Any time I saw two people holding hands or curled into an embrace, the thought would rise unbidden: "I wish Derrick would love me the way I love him." Until it became the silent truth in every exhale: "All I want is Derrick's love."
It came down to making mental deals with fate or God or the universe. Not intentionally, just silently promising my life and future if only I could have Derrick.
And one day, someone—something—answered.
He offered to make my deepest wish my reality. I was hesitant, suspicious. How could he even grant my dearest desire? And would my wish even be my true wish if it had to be forced by some kind of magic? If Derrick wouldn't love me of his own volition, if it were all a lie, could I even accept it?
But could I risk refusing it?
So I found that I was willing to accept the proposition. The alternative—that I watch him marry another, have children with her, grow old with her as I withered into obscurity and old age with only crumbling memories for company—was unbearable.
I just hadn't fully considered what it would cost.
(image credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/flowers-roses-blossoms-withered-7769955/)
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Paying the Piper
Teen FictionDeals with the devil are always tricky, especially when it was someone else who sold your soul to the devil. Faye Wulfgaar has always had bad luck. She figured it worked like a genetic trait: red hair, shy, conscientious, and unlucky. She never t...
