I trusted the Devil himself

I regret everything!

If I knew that would happen, I would never have done what I did. Nobody can blame me, truly. Nobody can understand what I have been through, truly. It was devastating.

My daughter was only seven. Seven! How could anyone judge me? If only they knew her. If only they understood the angel she was. Charlotte was a gift to the world. I knew it from the beginning, from the bottom of my heart, truly, that she would make this disgraced planet a better place.

When she first got sick, I tried not to panic. It was hard being a single mom. My husband had passed a few years ago. Cancer. Stupid cancer.

After taking her to the hospital, I imagined nothing serious would come from it. She had a fever, yes. She was sweating, yes. But it could have been anything. Something small, truly. I didn’t understand how terrible her disease was until the doctors told me. It was fatal!

Can you imagine? Can you put yourself in my place?

You can’t.

Even if you’re a parent, you couldn’t. Charlotte was special. She was unique. And I destroyed her. I see now it was my fault.

Day after day I stood by her hospital bed. I quit my job after two weeks. I couldn’t stand being away from her. My stupid boss didn’t understand, of course. I wish I would have killed her. When I think about it, maybe that would have changed everything. Maybe Charlotte would still be here, with me. Now I only know despair. Now I only know pain.

When that horrible day came, Charlotte, my baby, got worse. Her temperature went through the roof. Doctors had to physically remove me from the room. I couldn’t, I just couldn’t leave her! How could they not understand? I was a shadow of the woman I once was. Deprived of sleep, not eating, depressed. My body was so dehydrated I couldn’t cry anymore. The doctors tried to warn me, but I didn’t care.

I told them to forget about me and focus on my baby. My beautiful little girl. I sold everything. The bills were accumulating, and I had no one to seek help. No one to throw me light. I was in the dark, truly. That is why when he came, I was so easily manipulated. I was weak and vulnerable, and him… well, of course he knew.

I bet he was waiting. Lurking from the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. To get me at my worst. When I first saw him, I didn’t bother to look twice. There was nothing more important than my little girl. His charming, exotic and beautiful look did not catch my attention. Not one bit.

It was his words, instead, that pulled me into his trap.

“I can help you.” He spoke. “I can help Charlotte.”

I was so foolish and so desperate. I gave him my full attention as soon as he said those words. It was everything I wanted to hear.

“How?!” I stumbled across the hallway, running towards him. He wore a black overcoat dress. Impeccable. Clean. His hat, also black, had a thin red line across the base. A small detail that only added to that man’s eccentricity. His beard was full. It almost entirely covered his mouth. And his eyes… his eyes. I can’t believe I let myself be fooled by those eyes. Those terrible, penetrating yet empty red eyes. It was as though his heart was pumping the blood directly into his iris. The red was vivid. I was disturbed, but I stared him down, nonetheless. At that moment, nothing could scare me more than the thought of losing my angel.

I asked him again, louder. “How!?”

He looked at me, calmly, almost as though he couldn’t see how crazy I looked and sounded. I swear the people around us were staring. I can’t tell for sure, because I only had eyes for him, putting hope inside me.

“Come with me.” He said. Then, he walked away from the waiting room we were in. I followed. I truly did. I followed this man I had never seen in my life. I followed and grabbed onto the hope to see my daughter again. To help her. To cure her.

He turned right at the end of the hallway and kept walking. I kept following. He was taking me to a more isolated area of the hospital. The crowd and loud noises were fading in the background. It didn’t bother me. I was mesmerized, still, by the spell he had put in me. He must’ve.

Finally, the mysterious man opened a door to a room. He motioned with his head for me to enter first. For the first time since I saw him, I hesitated. Something inside me was telling me to not go in. Something inside me told me to go back, and that the doctors would save my child. But after months of hospitalization, and her case declining by the day, my hope in them was at an all-time low. Ignoring my gut feeling, I entered.

When I passed by him, I noticed how tall he was. He towered over me so much, it was comical. I couldn’t reach his face if I wanted to. He must’ve been the tallest man I have ever seen in my entire life. But oddly, that wasn’t what I feared the most. It was his aura.

When I passed by him, it was as though the temperature had dropped thirty degrees. I suddenly felt cold and unsafe. A shiver ran down my spine and I started shaking. I hurried inside and got some distance from him. It was a strange feeling. As soon as he was not so close, my body warmed up and I was not shaking anymore. One thing remained, however. I felt unsafe. I felt fear, truly.

The man closed the door behind him.

“I said I can help Charlotte, and I meant it.” He said.

His voice was so deep I thought he was using some kind of device in his throat. Maybe he wanted to sound intimidating. But no, it was his real voice. A voice of someone that had smoked his whole life. Packs and packs a day, no stop. I knew that because he had just pulled a cigarette from his pocket, alongside a lighter. He lit up the cigarette, and the dim light of the flame gave his face a tenebrous aspect. I was so scared of that man. But I wanted to hear him, still.

“How can you help her?” I asked, my voice shaking out of fear, not cold.

“I can cure her. With a snap of my finger.”

He inhaled deeply, and then let out a big puff of smoke.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused, terrified, but starting him down trying to get back to my senses. I was so unsure of what was about to happen, I forgot about my daughter for a moment.

“I mean like this.” He snapped his fingers. The noise was louder than what I am used to. It was dry and fast, like a lonely bullet shot across an empty landscape.

I looked at him, puzzled.

“All you have to do is sign here.” Out of nowhere, he pulled a sheet of paper and handed it to me. I grabbed it, instinctively. When the paper was out of his hands, he pointed to the bottom of the page.

“Sign there, and your child’s suffering will end.”

I didn’t look up. My eyes were quickly going through the words written on the paper.

I, Johanne Madison, hereby exchange my life for my daughter’s. She shall bear no more pain, no more suffering. The effect shall be immediate, and her life shall be guarded, as long as I honor this contract.

When I finished the reading, I didn’t look up. I was paralyzed. I couldn’t stare that man in the eyes. I was shaking so nervously, the noise of the paper bouncing back and forth in between my fingers was audible.

“Do not fear, young woman. There shall be no harm nor pain to you too.”

His deep voice woke me up from the nightmare my mind was going through. I started picturing his big hairy hands around my neck, slowly preventing oxygen to flow properly inside my body.

“Johanne.” He touched my shoulder gently, and I freaked out. I jumped back and fell on a cabinet. It fell alongside me, and a strenuous deafening noise traveled through the room. Someone must have heard it, truly. But nobody came. And for some reason, my body was not the same. I could not gather enough energy to scream. It was everything I wanted at that point. To scream so loud my lungs would explode. But I couldn’t.

“Don’t be afraid.” He said, taking another puff of his vicious piece of drug. “I did not come here to harm, nor shall I, regardless of your decision. Say the word and I will be on my way now.”

I opened my mouth. Even though I doubted he would leave me alone, I was ready to tell him to piss off. To get away from me and go as far as humanly possible from that hospital. My mouth opened, but the words didn’t come. Somehow, that oddly comforting statement washed down my fear. And without the fear, the only thing in my mind was her, Charlotte. My little angel was in pain, screaming, asking to die so she could be in peace. I could not let that happen.

The contract was still in my hand. I read it again and then looked at him.

“How?” I asked. His answer was the same.

“I told you, with a snap of my fingers.”

I was going crazy. Why was I even there? Why was I listening to that man!? Worse, why was I considering signing that piece of paper? How truly desperate was I, to even think about it. To even follow that man into that room. You would not understand. I don’t expect you to, not anymore.

I looked around, looking for something that I can’t even say it out loud. I just want to give it a shot. I want you to show me what you mean. I want you to give my baby a second chance, even if it means taking my life in exchange.

“There is no need for a pen.” The man said, reading my mind somehow.

He approached me, and with a quick move, grabbed something from inside his overcoat. It was a very small, but very sharp knife.

At first, I was taken aback. I moved my body back, trying to get away from him, but my back hit the wall. I was still down, feeling minuscule to that man’s huge body.

“Give me your hand.” He said, and his penetrating eyes met mine. They were still red, vivid and with the weird sensation there was blood moving inside his iris. I don’t know how, or why I extended my hand to him. All I wanted was to give my daughter the chance she deserved.

A little pinch came, and there was no pain. There was a little discomfort, but it was quick and almost undetectable. The blood on the tip of my finger dripped down the paper. It hit the bottom of the page, exactly above the line where he wanted me to sign. As soon as three drops landed, he pulled the paper off my hands and put it back inside his overcoat.

“Very well.” The man said. And just like that, he snapped his fingers again. “You will be hearing from me again.” After that, just as fast as he entered my life, he was gone.

I couldn’t believe what had just happened. What kind of game was that? I lost myself in thought and disgust, but it did not last long. My mind was back to the only thing that mattered, my daughter.

I ran back to her room, quickly arriving at the waiting area I first met the weird tall man. The same people were still there, and they all looked at me with suspicious weird eyes. I ignored them and kept running. Passing by nurses and doctors who stared at my frantic pace. I finally reached the room my daughter should be in. When I burst the door open, the doctors inside were in a small circle talking. They were taken aback by my sudden appearance, and all held their breath to stare at me.

“Where is my daughter?” I yelled, but none of them said a word. They almost looked like they feared me.

It didn’t matter. I could see her, laying down in the hospital bed. I approached her quietly. She seemed so at peace. Lately, not even in her sleep she seemed to have any comfort. But at that exact moment, there was no twitching, no screaming, no pain. Just her, lying peacefully in bed. I stroke her hair with my left hand gently, in love with the beautiful angel I had put on Earth, truly. That tiny, short moment was the best moment of my entire life. And then it ended.

It ended because of the noise. Or the lack thereof. There was nothing in the air. No conversation coming from the doctors. No breathing of any kind besides my own. Only a single continuous note coming from the hospital machine. My daughter’s heart was not beating.

I could not take it! I did not want to believe it. It was a nightmare. It had to be.

The bad men burst into the room and grabbed me violently. They dropped me to the ground, my face touching the cold floor.

“You are under arrest!” One of them said.

It was the last thing I heard. After that, my world went numb. Nothing made sense anymore.

___________________________

“That is just half the story, Ms. Madison.”

“What?”

“What did you do to the people in the waiting area?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“What about the doctors and nurses in the room? The people that were doing everything they could to save your daughter?”

“They were not! They left her to die! They condemned her!”

“Security!”

Ms. Madison was going under another episode. I had to call for security to medicate her. This had been the farthest we ever got, however, so I am glad about the results. Still uncertain of what kind of mental psychosis she experienced and is probably still experiencing. It is still intriguing how a 120 lbs. woman killed seventeen people in less than two minutes, with a small knife. I wish the video recordings of that day were not corrupted. In any case, her daughter passed while in surgery, and all the personnel in that room was murdered in cold blood by Ms. Madison, which also includes the innocent bystanders at the waiting area. I will be conducting another interview soon, hoping to get more data on her case, especially about the tall red-eyed man.

___________________________

“They are gone.” Said the tall, red-eyed man. “It is just you and me.”

“Is she safe? Is she at peace?” Ms. Madison asked.

“As long as you fulfill your part, she will always be.”

Ms. Madison smiled, happy that she ended her daughter’s suffering.