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To Dance with the Devil
“You can’t fuck the Devil, Keres.”
Thea leans on the vanity I’ve just vacated and fixes me with a worried glare. I offer her a bright smile in return.
“You can if you aren’t a coward.”
My older sister throws a tube of lipstick at me and I dodge out of the way just in time. It smacks into a peacoat I hope I never have to wear again.
I probably shouldn’t have told her my goals.
Most of the people I’ve heard whisper a similar desire don’t actually mean it.
Most of them don’t have the chance.
I ignore the open door as I strip off my robe, hiding the writing on my left thigh from her. My brother-in-law has taken their children out to trick or treat. So, I’m safe to change without bothering to close it.
“I’ve left all the information you’ll need in the cabinet.” I say as I pluck my dress from its hanger and arrange it so I can step into the silky black fabric.
The cabinet in question is on a time lock. If I’m not back by noon tomorrow, everything I have will be hers.
But if I’m not back by sunrise, I won’t care what she thinks of what she finds locked away with my secrets.
I know Thea thinks I’m crazy for planning this out, for wanting it.
I understand that she doesn’t understand.
That’s why I try not to talk to her about it.
Born over a Hellmouth, all of us were cursed to play a good and evil game. The difference between my sister and I… I want to win it.
“Will you help me close this up?” I ask, holding the front of the dress to me as the back sags away, the cold chains on my bare skin.
“It is beautiful.” She said it when I found the dress in April and has come in to pet it at least once a month since then.
“You should find a reason to buy a pretty dress of your own.”
Because she’ll never dance on All Hallows Eve again.
The Hellmouth beneath our city opens once a year, and only holy matrimony will save a person from the Devil’s dance.
It’s why she got married as young as she did—removing herself from the game.
She doesn’t regret it, and I love my nieces and nephews, but no matter how many well meaning blind dates she springs on me, it is not the life for me.
Hell, not even the basically-unfriendly-roommates-with-a-pastor’s-signature setup my youngest sister has is a big “no thanks” from me.
I know she did it because she was scared.
I won’t blame her for that.
Thea is the only one of my siblings who married after she turned eighteen.
Not that it saved all of their spouses….
That contract can’t save the sinners of our world. And not everyone was raised by a mother who taught us every way to keep ourselves from stepping over the line to incur the Devil’s wrath.
She’d made Thea wait to marry. Made sure that one of our sisters had danced to add credibility to our bedtime stories.
