Marie's Choice

On a chilly, windy night on the north end of Chicago, no street lights, just darkness due to the blizzard. Marie stayed in a lovely little loft decorated with the finest silks and embroidered furniture from over seas, some pieces seemed more ancient than others but nonetheless they were true gems. Marie had traveled the globe wanting more and more items to collect for her lovely loft, one that she spent countless hours trying to perfect. One ding, two dings and the elevator comes up, there was a man with a dark green fleece and wool beanie hat, he called her name more than once with a slight cough to follow, "Marie, I have a gift for you, my love. I think you'll really enjoy it", he spoke. Marie graciously walked out of her bedroom towards the gentleman in wonder. The gentleman pulled out a silver box with a bronze key attached to it, a box that Marie thought resembled one from her youth. " Thank you Jimmy" she stated as she reached out to grab the gift, Jimmy held back the box a while and wondered if she truly knew what was in the box. "Marie, do you remember this", he questioned while holding the box firmly, Marie was confused on to what Jimmy was asking. "It reminds me of a box I once had back in Russia, my husband had given it too me before his death", she stated. Her mind was puzzled on to how Jimmy could have possibly gotten a hold to a box that was years old, as he was just thirty years old.

"Marie I know who you are and why you've been her for centuries, you've been looking for this box haven't you, answer me" he yelled, his demeaner was now frustrated and he had wondered who Marie truly was as he had been her lover for five years. Marie started to frown, in sadness and still in confusion. How could he possibly know what was in the box, he couldn't have as the box was more than three hundred years old, still jeweled and shiny as if it hadn't been buried along with her husband. She questioned Jimmy on how he received the box but Jimmy stared at her and still in silence. The lights shut off and Marie scrambled to the breaker box, "Jimmy I'll be right there, I just, I just" she stumbled with her words as she finally got the lights to come back on she noticed Jimmy standing behind her from the mirror. "Marie, its time to face your reality, the time has come to pay your debts", Jimmy said, his voice had changed into a deep tone that was haunting to her ears. She slowly bypassed Jimmy back into the kitchen where she poured herself a drink. In disbelief she questioned why the last payment wasn't enough, why now after years. "You told me he would stay dead, not come back Lucifer. You told me I wouldn't have to repay anything after the other two payments. I gave you two children was that not enough for my salvation. Every year its a different person you dress up as and play this game, now the box, I wont go, you guaranteed five hundred years", she screamed.

Jimmy stared and laughed at Marie as if her words didn't matter, her words were nothing to him as the payment was now void due to a newer deal. " I have to bring him back, a trade has been made relatively quickly", he continued to babble on while she was still in a disarray, not knowing that her husband had made a better bargain with the devil himself to see her suffer. " That night you came into my room, was the night I couldn't take no more of his beatings, his violent appetite I could no longer bare. I knew this night was dark for a reason, the worst storm we've had in years is because of you". Jimmy stared at Marie as she continued her lecture, it was time for Marie to get into the box, her soul for a soul was the deal. Her husband made a better deal, one that Marie could never fulfill, more souls for one soul to suffer, hers. "Well Marie, the sex was amazing I must say, I know that we'll see each other more often now. But since the agreement was for you to suffer, I think some pleasure deserves pain". Marie broke down into tears as Jimmy approached her opening the box, a song began to play from it as the item began to appear from it. Marie couldn't sit back and let him take her back to more suffering and pain, just to see her husband happy for hundreds even thousands of years.

Marie stood up and began to pray, asking god for forgiveness and to receive her soul. She opened her balcony doors and stared at Jimmy, the words slipped her cold lips as she leaped over the balcony, "forgive me". Jimmy yelled as she threw herself from the balcony into the blizzard snow, he could not see her body as his vison had became blurry. Marie's body laid in a Chicago parking lot covering with snow by the minute. Had God received her soul or did Jimmy actually receive it after the jump? As Jimmy closed the balcony doors, one ding, two dings and the elevator came up.