The Deal Maker

Everything’s over.

Oh, he’s cold now. Darien hates to look, but he can’t help himself. He wants one last glimpse of Nate’s face, even in this setting. The bath water is still running over the edge of the tub, gone cold now and stained red. Everywhere is stained red. The floor, Darien’s knees.

Nate’s face seems haggard even in death. The dark smudges under his eyes, from days of little to no sleep, have sunken in, and he looks half a skeleton already. It’s all wrong. Darien wants to see Nate’s eyes, one more time, but he also can’t quite bring himself want to touch him. His meddling has hurt his lover enough, even though all Darien tried to do was save him.

Well, best laid plans, and all…

What should he do now? Part of Darien realizes that he should get up, call the police, do something except kneel here on his knees and watch the water spread farther over the floor. He should at least turn the tap off. Instead, Darien just sits there. A note is clenched tightly in one fist, Nate’s familiar scrawl across the paper uneven but recognizable. Darien almost hadn’t even looked at it, didn’t want to unfold the note when he saw it sitting on the kitchen counter. What would have been the point? He already knew what it said.

Still, Darien had picked up the note and brought it with him into the bathroom, only opening the paper after he fell to the floor. At least there was a note this time. He almost wants to think that this is better. That everything’s better this way. But it’s not. Nate suffered so much these last few months, and so many more people died than they should have. And Darien is responsible for all of it.

Even Nate’s death, now. And he can’t stand that thought.

“I know you’re there,” Darien says softly into the quiet. Because of all the things that he should be doing right now, there’s only one thing that he really wants to do. The one thing that he thinks he still has the strength to do, even after all of this.

“I’m always here,” a voice answers. A shape appears out of the shadows in the corner of Darien’s eye. He doesn’t know what it is, not really, only what it has done. Is it Death? It never introduced itself to Darien, only offered him a deal. That’s why he’s taken to calling it the Deal Maker in his head.

“Can you send me back?” Darien asks, tired.

“Again?” the Deal Maker asks. “Nothing will change. This is how manipulating the past always turns out.”

He nods. Darien understands that now. Slowly, he straightens up and stands. “I don’t want to change things anymore,” he admits. “I just want to stop myself from starting all of this in the first place.”

There’s quiet between them for a few moments. Of all the possible responses to what he’s said, Darien is definitely not expecting to hear the Deal Maker start to laugh. Softly, like the distant chime of bells. It should sound beautiful, but Darien feels like he can’t breathe again until the last echo stops.

“That is the correct answer,” the Deal Maker says at last. It sounds happy, of all things. “Yes, let’s make another bargain.”

Darien isn’t surprised that this is the only way, in the end. He has to fix everything. And in order to do that, he has to let Nate die the first time, when he was meant to. Darien has to go back and stop himself from interfering, from saving Nate’s life.

Darien has to let the love of his life die all over again.

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"Would you like to make a deal?"

Darien is devastated after his lover dies in an accident. Then, he is offered a deal to go back and change everything. But will it be worth the cost? What is Darien willing to pay for the chance to save his lover's life? There is a price to going against the natural order of things, and it may be steeper than Darien thinks...

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Want to find out what happens next? You can find this story here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GWN6T2G.