[ wp ] Years ago , you made a deal with the Devil to be granted a single wish . All your memories of the deal were then wiped . Years later , your wish is fulfilled and you are about to find out what price your younger self was willing to pay to make it come true .

`` Everything was on the up and up. My future simply could n't look any brighter.'' 
 
 Well, that's how these things go, the voice in my head told me. I looked into the mirror, bloodshot eyes and disheveled Mohawk hanging off my head. I was a god damn rockstar! Not in the conventional way. I was a Video Game designer, and a damn good one at that. It was all coming to fruition. I was head of a major build for a fantastic game, PC Enthusiasts were foaming at the mouth, and console peasants were screaming `` WHY NOT US OH CHOSEN ONE!'' Hell, I'd been having meetings with The Gaben himself the past few weeks. He's a laugh riot, kinda like `` Oh Africa, Brave Africa.'' 
 
 So why could n't I sleep? Sure the crunch was on, but I was used to it. Sure, the heat was boiling, but there was n't nothin' as hot as me, baby! I could n't be stopped. 
 
 Except for the damn scratching. 
 
 There was a spot on my hand, not a large one mind you, but a spot all the same. Red, blood red, something must've bitten me. Wonder if the guys put something in my apartment again... Nah, could n't be. I fired all those guys, and hired a whole new art team. It needed to be done. Still, that little voice in the back of your head sibilantly whispering every comedown it could. Except, it was n't trying to bring me off Cloud 9. It was more a `` 32nd and ground floor'' kinda voice. 
 
 I looked into the mirror, and the mirror looked back into me. Deep. But it did n't take the mirror long to see through my BS, I was a pretty shallow character. `` In the end, we all dry up eventually,'' my reflection told me, a cocky smile on his jerk face. I stared at him, at me, at us, at the dick in the reflection, however you want to picture the scene. `` No, I do n't think that's true. We get washed up, sure, but drying out? Only if someone hangs you.'' My mirror laughed at me. The gentleman there pulled out a rope and started fiddling with it. `` Fortune, power, success... They all leave you eventually.'' I shook my head. He was obviously wrong. It was like he did n't even know me. Hell, I did n't even know me! 
 
 The knots in the mirror got a whole lot clearer, the rope taking form. He was good at what he did. Well, of course he was. He's me, and I'm fucking amazing. Overnight success, I sold ideas worth millions, and God damn I wish my hand would quit itching. 
 
 Looking down, the hempen rope I keep around was turned into a really, really nice noose. I mean seriously, high quality craftsmanship. `` Color me impressed,'' I said to the douchebag in the mirror, `` Really, did n't even know I knew how to do that.'' The mirror gave me a sidelong glance and a shrug of his shoulders, `` It's what I do.'' He was relaxed and mixing a cocktail. Why he was putting pills in it was beyond me. `` Shaken, not stirred.'' he said and went to pass it to me. I look down at my out stretched hand offering myself a drink. Must be something in the water. Or they put something worse than last time in my apartment. 
 
 Nooses like party streamers were hanging from my rafters. I must have been much more out of it than I thought. I mean seriously, where the hell did these bones on the floor come from? I do n't have a dog. And they look way too human for my taste. Perhaps I got a cannibal werewolf roommate? Nah, that's just way too out there. Besides, I was rich! I would n't have a roommate! But wait... I did. 
 
 Ah, speak of the devil, here he comes now. 
 
 `` Fantastic party last night.'' I said to myself. I have no idea how. A mirror reflection, but much more handsome. `` Huh?'' I did n't remember a party. He strolls over to me, across splintered bone and torn up hardwood floor; Hell of a dog it seems, and pats me on the shoulder. `` Almost time! Cheer up!'' I look at myself, deep in the eye, and wonder why my hands itching worse now. `` Ah, do n't worry about that. You'll forget it's there.'' I glanced up from my hand, intent on making a snide remark. `` What? Like the dog?'' NotMe laughed, and said `` There's no dogs, silly! I said `` Out damn Spot'' and he went home. You should be headed home soon too...'' I stared at the impostor, dumbfounded. `` I am home.'' The doppelganger laughed, all too damn suave for his own good, `` Well that's simply not true. You were here for a short term lease,'' he lead me over to the window. I had a fantastic view of the fountains in the square, but from way up high. The carbon copy looked out the window with me, patted me on the back, and said `` And to think, you had all of this, and gave it up.'' 
 
 The fountain was getting closer. And closer. I did n't know how, but at least my hand stopped itching. I got one last closeup with my reflection, who winked at me and said `` Time to remember your end of the bargain.'' I did, I remembered it all. When I signed the paper in blood... It ended with a splatter.
