Page 66 of Architecti
But I sold my soul with nothing but the dead and the stars to witness.
He turns my wrist to display his mark.
“You’re mine now, Midnight.Ten years.”He glances at his watch as it ticks past twelve.
“Oh, and happy birthday.”
Then he’s gone, and I’m left standing in the graveyard hoping and praying that I made the right decision.That Aurelia and I can make the most of the next ten years.
I thought I’d be elated, that I’d run home singing and screaming and full of hope for the next decade.
But my fingers have turned cold.My stomach has dropped, and there is an immeasurable weight pressing on my chest that I can’t seem to get rid of.
When I walk through the door, Aurelia bounces off the sofa.
“It’s a miracle.I’m healed!”she says, running to embrace me.
“I know,” I say, my voice monotone.
She halts mid-step.
“What…?What do you mean ‘you know?’”
I open my mouth to tell her, but no words come out.Only a breathy scream.
“What the fuck did you do?”Aurelia says, her expression darkening.
“I told you… I wouldn’t let you die.”
I pull my sleeve up and display Ignatius’s mark.
“No,” she says, stepping back as if I’m diseased.She shakes her head, pulling her hands over her face.“Not like this.”
“You’re going to be okay, that’s what matters.”
“How long?”she barks.
“Does it matter?”
“Of course, it fucking matters.What the hell is wrong with you?Does life mean so little to you?”
“No, Aurelia, it’s that you mean everything to me.”
“SO YOU’D GIVE UP A LIFE TOGETHER?”
“You were going to die.Now we get ten years.”
She goes still.“Ten years?”Her eyes fill, tears spilling down her cheeks.
I reach out to clasp her wrist and pull her to me.But she snatches it away.
“Don’t touch me.Who are you?Who does that?Who sells their soul like that?”
She leaves me alone in the hallway with nothing but the clock on the wall and the tick, tick, ticking.
It’s louder than before.
Just me and the clock.
