SOLD SOUL

LOS ANGELES

MIA NOVA

The land of vanity requires a level of shamelessness to navigate when you don't own a ten thousand dollar pair of earrings to clutch. This is your friendly neighbourhood thief, and my one goal in life is to survive by any means.

From a corner, I watched my victim very closely. He fit the description of what I was looking for. Geriatric, possibly senile.

I was dressed in a cloak of disguise that set me apart from the haughty echelons. Oversized coat covered in mud, and pig dung, chapped lips, fake synthetic wig drenched in a drunkard's piss, and my face smeared with coal so I could look the part of a homeless person.

The old man with trembling fingers ended his call, and buried his phone back into his front pocket.

That was my cue because at any moment from now, he would be on the move.

I crossed the busy street quickly, my eyes never leaving my target that was already on the move.

Patience was all I needed. The timing had to be precise or I risk fumbling pure gold.

Despite the busy city humming around me, I walked to the beat of my focus.

He was coming my way now, as I was going towards him. It happened in a split second.. We clashed. “Sorry sir,” I muttered.

The old man didn't respond to me. It didn't matter because my hand was now clasped around the gold watch that just seconds ago, covered his frail, wrinkly wrist.

“Hey, the girl is a thief!”

My upper body froze for a few seconds when I heard those words, but thankfully, my feet continued to move.

It couldn't be for me. I was too smart. Too careful. I had done this too many times for it to fail now.

There was no time to look back, and confirm, so I broke into a run. The sound of heavy footsteps behind me answered my most dreaded question. I had become the target, and I needed to run for my life.

I crossed the road without looking. My lungs burned, but I couldn't stop. I needed to keep moving.

A car suddenly screeched to a stop beside me, and the passengers door flung open. I didn't think twice before jumping in, and slamming the door shut.

It could have been the very people who were on my tail, and I would have just surrendered myself to them on a platter.

But in that moment, all I could bank on was my survival instinct, and it had led me into this strange car.

“Thank you so much sir. Thank you for your kindness. You just saved my life.”

The driver kept his head straight on the road. Not once did he turn his head, or answer me. I could only see a side profile.

Although, that side profile made me double stare.

A hint of a tattoo travelled from the small exposed side of his neck into his shirt. The suit looked expensive. My nose flared, as I sniffed the expensive leather of the car.

Something was off. Something – I couldn't complete my thoughts as my brain turned foggy, and my vision blurred.

“Open–” a thickness clogged my throat, making me unable to tell him to open the window.

I brought one hand to my chest, as my head began to sway behind. “No!” I kept screaming inside.

The gold wristwatch fell out of my other hand, and just before my eyes closed, I heard the sound of the door clicking.

*****

When I woke up again, it was with a jolt, as if my body was still fighting from just before it shut down.

My head wasn't resting on an expensive car seat this time. It was pressed against a rug.

Above me was a chandelier made of pure diamonds. Surrounding me was the scent of lavender and Arabian oud.

“Is this heaven?” I questioned out loud, sniffing the pure opulence.

Despite the weakness still covering my body, I managed to push myself up. In the process, I remembered everything.

“Hello?” my neck turned as I rose to my feet, and my eyes stumbled on a broad back belonging to a tall figure. “Hey, are you the guy that helped me escape? What did you do to me? Poison me? Who are you? Do you traffic young girls?” I gasped at the thought of that. “Don’t let my skinny frame fool you. I’ll be twenty four in a mon–”

He turned around in the middle of me rambling, and the rest of the words I had not said yet, disappeared from my mouth and my brain.

His eyes were as dark as the devils, and they held an intensity that pierced through one's soul, revealing the content in it.

“Wow! You are one handsome man!” I blurted out, never the one to keep my thoughts to myself.

His gaze dimmed, and I could tell he was accessing me. I tried to smile brightly, so that perhaps he would see past my ugly disguise.

Then I remembered I had coloured my teeth with yellow paint.

“Oh Mia!” I mourned internally.

“You talk a lot and you steal. Very worrying combination.”

He finally spoke, and just like I assumed, his voice was like alluring thunder. Not in a loud way. In a deep blue sea way.

“So why did you help me?" I was only too eager to know.

“Your soul was sold to me,” he replied in a heart beat.

I stared at him as if he had lost his mind. Sure he had that devilish look about him, but it didn't translate into an actual devil right? What exactly did he mean by my soul being sold to him?

“You don't believe me. Your father sold your soul to me to pay his debt. I would say I am disappointed though. Sick as your sister may be, she is a stunning girl. What happened to you? How do I make money off you?”

Realization flickered in my eyes. It didn't sting that he practically called me ugly. I was too stuck up on what he said just before.

“You’re not lying. Sounds exactly like what Mr Nova would do. Anyway, I can't change anything right? So here I am. You have my soul. What do you need it for?” I shrugged, accepting my fate.

His forehead wrinkled at once. It seemed like the self proclaimed devil did not see my response coming.