[ WP ] A lonely teenager makes a bargain with the devil one night ; their soul in exchange for meeting their true love . Nothing happens and they forget about the bargain . Years later they do meet their soulmate and live a long , wonderful life . They are now close to death ...

`` I told you.'' said the elderly gentleman to his dying wife. 
 
 She could barely speak anymore. The oxygen running to her nostrils was her only source of breath left. 
 
 `` Told me what...?'' she managed to utter. So much of her was gone. Her love of her husband was one of the few things she had left. 
 
 `` I told you not to make the deal.'' he said. `` I'm not heartless, you know. I warned you. I tried to get you to change your mind. But you signed yourself away anyway.'' 
 
 She was confused by his words. The bluntness and rapidity of them was unusual for him. 
 
 `` Michael,'' she said. She wanted to say more, but she only managed to say his name. 
 
 `` I'm not Michael and I never have been. I do n't love you, Nor have I ever.'' he said. 
 
 `` Michael,'' she repeated. She was still confused, but his tone sounded familiar, like a voice she knew long ago. 
 
 `` I'm not Michael. I never have been. I do n't love you.'' he said again. 
 
 She recognized the voice now. Decades worth of regret washed over her. She could feel herself getting cold. Her eyes started to well up but there was n't enough life left in her to cry. She pictured herself at seventeen. She vividly remembered the pain and loneliness of that time. It snapped right back into her as if it had never left. Her misery was returned to her tenfold. 
 
 She could feel her heartbeat weakening, her breath shortening. This moment was worse than anything she could have ever imagined, and she wished death would n't take its time killing her. 
 
 `` We're not done.'' the man said, as he took an unmarked vial out from his inner jacket pocket. He grabbed a syringe, filled it with the liquid, and mixed it into her IV drip. 
 
 With a large gasp she shot up in her bed. Her heart started pounding. She felt more lucid and awake than she had in years. 
 
 `` No...'' she said with bewilderment in her now wide open eyes. 
 
 `` Oh, yes.'' the man said with an uncomfortable looking grin. He grabbed her wrist and twisted it back towards him sharply. She let out a yelp. He took out a tool she'd never seen before and pressed it against her arm. She cried out as it seared her flesh and imprinted a strange branding on her. 
 
 `` Why are you doing this to me!?'' she asked. 
 
 He looked at her and held her gaze, the smile gone from his face. `` Because you asked me to,'' he said with seriousness in his voice. 
 
 `` Come on, let's go.'' he said as he quickly changed out from his clothes and into scrubs. He put another liquid into her IV, different from the one before, and she found herself paralyzed, unable to move or talk. She watched the ground helplessly as he wheeled her out of her room. She watched him press the buttons on the elevator, she watched the numbers on the door change. Members of the staff walked by and she found herself pitifully unable to call out to them for help. She felt the bumps and jostles as he loaded her into an ambulance, the rumble as the engine started. She had the awful feeling that she would n't die -- not for a long time. She dreaded that this was the start of a new life for her, one much longer and more painful than the one she had just finished living.
