Two Sides Of A Coin

CHAPTER 3

Deal with the Devil

Sally’s POV:

[The Next Day]

I woke up with a very loud yawn. God, how I hate Mondays.

My phone rang loudly and grunted for some seconds before finally picking up.

“Hey Sally,” a female voice boomed before I could even speak.

“Good morning Mia,” I greeted, still feeling extremely sleepy.

Mia was my closest friend in college, and one of the few people who considered an awkward, poorly-dressed nerd, with social anxiety worth keeping as a friend.

“You remember today is the day, right?” She squealed.

“Day of what?” I asked confused.

“Our internship allocation, Duh! We will all be given a place to work as interns.”

“What! Is it today? Oh my God, I completely forgot. I had a lot on my plate.”

“Well, then hurry and get your ass over here, you don’t want to miss out on it.”

“Aaahh! What time does the allocation start?”

“Uhh! You have barely one hour.”

“s**t!” I exclaimed, jumping off my bed.

“Catch you in 30 mins.” I hurriedly said before ending the call.

In no time, I had showered and gotten dressed for school. I threw on my coat, scarf, and headset. It was a cold morning.

I walked past the mirror, then walked back to it to take a look at myself. I was back to being Sally. Sally was indeed a thoroughly different person from Marilyn.

Her hair was jet black, her nose wasn’t heavily contoured, she wore large glasses behind her brown hazel eyes, and barely made it to 5’4.

Sally wasn’t as confident as Marilyn, either. The character of Marilyn I was forced to play was who I wished my low self-esteem and introverted self could be every day.

I sighed as I hurried down to my old raggedy hand-me-down car and zoomed off to school.

***

“We both got the same company.” Mia squealed in excitement as we made it to an empty lunch table.

The cafeteria was buzzing with students trooping in and out in their numbers.

“The best part about interning at InterTech co is, you get paid weekly as an intern. Isn’t that crazy? I’m so excited.”

“Yea, I’m happy about that too” I said, not showing as much excitement as Mia.

Even though, in reality, I was even more grateful to have her in my group and excited to be interning at InterTech co, than she’d ever imagined I’d be.

“You don’t seem excited.” She noticed, giving me a look of concern.

“You okay Sally? You look tired, stressed out, wearied about something. Are you good?”

Am I good? I asked myself.

“Of course not. I have a brother lying in the hospital battling for his life and I had a chance to do one thing yesterday to get more than enough money to save him, but I flopped.”

Yes, that was the truth that lingered in my mouth, but instead I shook my head and said:

“It’s nothing Mia, I had bad milk this morning, and it’s making my tummy churn.” I lied, placing my hand on my tummy.

“Oh dear, maybe we could go to the clinic after lunch and get you some drugs,” she suggested.

“Ah! Uhm…no, no. No need for that.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ll be fine,” I said, pushing my oversize glass back up my nose.

“Hmm! Alright then,” she said with a smile.

“I’ll be at your place by 7 today. I still need help on that stupid ass project. I wish I were a smartypant like you.”

I laughed, the irony.

“Well, I wish I was as cool, carefree, and daring as you are.”

“Oh please,” she said, laughing with me now.

***

Immediately after school, I drove into the parking lot of the massive building with a long face. I hated the place with everything in me.

“St. Peteburgs Metropolitan Hospital.”

I read out the life-sized block letters inscribed on the top of the hospital building.

This was the place my little angel had laid for almost two weeks now.

The hospital bills were racking up, and I was left with little or nothing to continue keeping him for treatment at the hospital. I sighed.

“Good evening, Mrs. Mariam.” I greeted the elderly nurse, who handles visitors on the wing my brother stayed.

“Evening sugarplum,” I responded with a wide smile.

“Billy is asleep right now, but come on right in.” Mariam beamed, as she led the way to his hospital room.

“How has he been responding to treatments and medications?” I asked, looking at my sleeping angel from the doorpost.

“Quite fairly. On some days, there is improvement, on some others, he seems to be deteriorating.”

“Hmm!” I nodded, walking towards him.

“I’ll leave you two to yourselves now,” Mariam said as soon as I made it to my brother’s bedside.

“Please, let me know if you need anything,” she continued and she walked back to her duty post.

“My baby,” I whispered as I rubbed his forehead in tears.

“You do not deserve it, no ten-year-old orphan deserves this,” I continued in fresh tears.

“I will fix this, I promise. I will not let you go without a fight,” I added, wiping her tears.

***

The bread toaster went off, distracting me from the little cardigan I was crocheting.

I stood up and went to the make-do kitchen. I had made tea and toast for the night because Mia was going to be at my door any moment from now.

After I had everything set up, I settled back and continued from where I stopped.

The little cardigan was meant to be for Billy. I had faith that he was going to be fine, and I had knitted a collection of clothes to surprise him when he recovers.

I needed to find the money for his brain surgery before the month ran out, because by then I would not have any left to still keep him accommodated in the hospital.

“How do I get my hands on 3500 thousand dollars? Mmhhh!” I sighed in frustration.

I remembered the plan I was asked to put into action last night and how terribly it had fallen apart.

Low-key, I was grateful I didn’t end up poisoning a human being like me.

I sighed, what the desperate need for money does to you.

Who knows, I could have gotten caught if peradventure, the billionaire died and the matter was investigated into.

Regardless of how much the mysterious man who lured me into this shenanigan assured me that I wouldn’t even be a suspect if anything went south, it was still really difficult to trust him.

It would be silly of me to trust someone who had intentions of taking down another person through someone else.

I wasn’t going to affiliate myself with something as shady as that anymore, no matter how desperate it gets.

My phone began to ring, and I ran over to pick it up. It was a number I did not have saved to my phone.

Mmh! I wonder who it might be.

“Hello, am I speaking with Miss Sally Jackson?” A well-articulated voice questioned.

“Uhh, yes. Anything the problem.” I asked, walking over to where I was seated earlier.

“Yes Miss Sally. I am Dr. Hakeim from St. Peteburg’s hospital.”

“Oh! "Doctor,” I said in recognition.

“Everything okay?” I asked as my heart pounded loudly in my chest.

“I’m afraid your brother has fallen into a very critical condition and will need surgery done as soon as possible, or else I’m afraid we might lose him.”

My vision blurred as I sank onto my sofa.

“How much time do we have?” I asked as tears trickled down my cheeks.

“We have 5 days at most.”

“Alright. Get your team ready. I’ll send in the money tomorrow.”

“Okay dear. Have a good night's rest.”

I stood up and paced round my living room. My hands were shaking. I needed to do something, anything.

Do I get a loan? No, I tried, and I was denied twice. Maybe I could sell something. I looked around my little dingy apartment. Even if I sold everything in here, I still wouldn’t be able to come up with half the money.

Or perhaps I could call a bunch of people and borrow some money. I unlocked my phone and went into my recent call log and read through the names.

“Mia, dispatch guy, Dave mechanic, Mia again” I sighed.

My eye caught another name.

“Unknown.” I read it out before swallowing hard.

Don’t do it.

The voice in my head warned, as my fingers were contemplating hitting 'call'

I had just promised to keep myself far from the strange man who wanted me to possibly take the life of someone last night.

What’s the worst that could happen, though? I asked, continuing my inner monologue.

I could get in trouble, get caught, probably arrested and would lose both my freedom and Billy. I answered the question.

But in life, you have to take risks for the ones you love.

The voice that seemed like the devil on my shoulder whispered to me.

All the things I could do with the money. Would it be worth the risk? I contemplated.

It was either this or I lose Billy, and I couldn’t risk that.

I looked down at my phone, I had made a decision and I knew it was definitely the right one.

My face hardened as I hit call and watched it ring. I knew the demon on my shoulder was probably rejoicing.

“Hello,” I began as the receiver picked up.

“I'd like to give our deal another shoot.”

I could almost feel the obvious wide smile coming from the person on the other end. And cold shivers ran down my spine.

“Good. I’ll let you know what I need you to do as soon as possible.”

With that, the line went dead. So did my soul. I had once again soul it to the devil.

Ding-dong,

I jumped as my doorbell rang.

“Ah Mia.” I remembered, then wiped off my tears and I ran off to the door.