Contract with the devil

"All done, sweetheart" Sophia's excitement-filled voice spilled into the bridal suite as she finished zipping up the wedding dress.

Emily stepped in front of the full length mirror, her ethereally beautiful face showing just how awed she is. The makeup glowed in unison with her pristine skin, and the dress is just as perfect.

It's a masterpiece of lace and silk with delicate florals and intricate patterns that shimmered in the light. The fitted mermaid silhouette hugged her curves, accentuating her waist and flaring out in a dramatic train that cascaded down.

A warm smile graced her face as she turned around, hugging Sophia dearly.

"Can't believe you're finally getting married to Sage, he's so lucky to have snatched my sweetheart away" Sophia gushed, breaking the hug to hold Emily's hands.

"I'm the lucky one, Sophia. Five years with no single day of pain? He's my lucky charm, and I definitely can't wait to walk down the aisle with him. I'm impatient!" Emily gushed right back, her happiness over the top as the veil swirled on her hair bun.

"Just a few more minutes, sweetheart," Sophia reassured.

"I have you to thank. All of these wouldn't have happened without you" Emily's eyes filled with respect as she spoke.

Despite Sophia's pregnancy, she took it upon herself to prepare this wedding hall and even paid for it herself. She did Emily's makeup too since she's a cosmetologist, and Emily's shoes were also gifts from her.

They've been best friends since they were teens, and they did everything together, relying on each other as they're both orphans.

While Sophia is a door-to-door cosmetologist, Emily is a model who's only just starting to gain recognition in the Glamour Models Industry (GMI)

She met Sage in the last year of highschool, and it's been rainbows and unicorns since then. Sage might be from a poor family, but at least...he loves her dearly, and she'd do anything so far it gets a smile on his face.

"You're my best friend, and I've been dreaming of doing this for you. You only have to prepare for my baby shower after your marriage" Sophia said sweetly, and Emily's laughter bloomed.

She brought her hand down to Sophia's protruding tummy, rubbing it carefully.

"I can't wait to meet the father. You've always been avoiding the question anytime I asked"

"You'll meet him soon, trust me sweetheart" Sophia carefully backed out, picking her phone out of her bag that's sitting on a chair.

"Will be back in a jiffy. I need to make a call" she said.

"Don't take long" Emily replied warmly, and Sophia exited.

With another sweet smile, Emily faced the mirror again, checking herself out and imagining how smitten Sage would look when he saw her in this dress.

He's probably waiting by the hall double doors already, and she's starving to set eyes on him too.

For a second, she wished her parents were here to witness today, but she brushed the thought away as fast as it came.

Her eyes suddenly caught Sophia's bag on the chair, a white paper is peeping out of it, about to fall off.

"So clumsy" Emily purred, taking the paper with the intention of tucking it into the bag properly, but what she saw on the other side of it stopped her.

It's not just a paper, it's a picture.

A picture which made sudden sweat roll down her backline, a picture which made her throat go dry.

It's a picture of Sage, her husband-to-be, and Sophia.

In the picture, Sage is on a knee, kissing Sophia's baby bump while Sophia stroked his hair with her hand, her lips heavy with laughter.

Emily staggered involuntarily, and her ankle twisted in her right shoe, making a sharp sound.

She's seeing things, isn't it?

She blinked her eyes, but the picture still stood there in her hand, looking the same.

Her breaths coiled in her lungs, and her chest tightened as sweat soaked her face.

The room suddenly felt like it was closing her in, and she ran out of it, her twisted ankle the least of her problems.

Her dress was sweeping the ground as she ran down the silent white hallway, looking for Sophia.

Where is she?

She needs to tell her this is her own imagination, that it's fake.

Emily ran past a washroom, but the voices she heard inside made her stop, then she took two steps back.

The words came loud and clear.

"Are we really gonna do this today again? I already explained things to you. I have to marry her if we want to live fine for the rest of our lives. You're pregnant, and we need money for the baby to come alive"

Unmistakably, that's Sage's voice.

Emily felt a sting in her head, and it became hazy, but the second voice ruined her more.

"I understand she's starting to rise to fame in the industry, and that's why you need her, but I'm scared. What if you fall for her after this wedding"

The voice was Sophia's.

"No silly way, how could I fall for her? She loves me more than herself and it's stupid. You're the woman for me, Sophia, and I can't wait to welcome our baby with her money" Sage replied.

Emily's breaths turned sour, and her insides burned with infernal betrayal. A volcano erupted, and she fell deep into it.

Tears fell down her eyeballs, and her two hands dropped beside her, her fingers shaking.

The sound of Sage and Sophia's kiss reached her, and she had to cover her mouth so the sound of her cries would be muffled.

Everything Sage has till now, she got for him, ranging from the first to the last decent wear in his wardrobe.

She paid his rents, fed him and took care of his final year college tuition, all from her modelling gigs.

After college, she discovered she was pregnant for him, and Sage sweet-talked her into abortion, saying they still had a long way to go.

The abortion landed her in coma for half a year as she was unlucky to meet a quack doctor, and she almost died.

Now Sophia, her best friend is carrying a baby for him? They've been fooling her?.

Her world crashed in devastation, and her heart followed, shattering with the pieces burnt away.

She looked at the door again, the haunting kissing sounds still persistent.

The venom sank deep into her soul, and she wiped the tears.

---

[Twenty minutes later]

The double doors to the main hall opened, revealing the bride and the groom to the waiting eyes of the guests who welcomed them with applause.

They're Sage's friends and parents, and a few models from GMI who came for Emily.

Emily had always dreamt of a loud, grand wedding, but for Sage, she was ready to go low according to the size of their bank accounts.

Her hazel eyes shone radiantly as her smile reached her lids, but the redness in the corner of her eyes was unhide.

She had gone back to the suite to retouch her makeup earlier before coming back to meet Sage by the door entrance.

Her freesia bouquet sat dutifully in her right hand while the left hand is linked with Sage's arm.

Sage's tailored suit made him look expensive, all thanks to Emily's hard-earned money.

They're the same height, so when he looked at her and gave her a wide smile, their eyes mirrored, and she returned the smile, staring deep into his soul, the soul she can't wait to rip to bits.

As they walked down the aisle with clapping guests left and right, Emily's eyes roamed the hall, landing on Sophia who's sitting on the front row, her tummy bulging in front of her as she clapped louder than everyone else.

Sophia's eyes were giving that fake look she always maintained whenever she called her 'sweetheart'

Bloody sweetheart.

She should have seen through her facade, but her smiles were too well presented to be suspected.

Now that the truth is out, she'd make sure the baby ends up fatherless no matter the price she has to pay for it.

Sage doesn't deserve the air in his lungs. He's better dead.

From her peripheral vision, she sighted a man in black, wearing a black cap too in the middle of the guests.

He's definitely not part of Sage's circle of friends, and he's not a model from GMI either.

His eyes are solely on her, and he looks intentional and fierce with his obviously buff build which bulged through his shirt. Who's he?

Emily shook her mind off it, deciding to concentrate on her mission.

Nothing would make Sage live to see the light of another damn day.

She held the bouquet tighter, refining her smile when she finally arrived at the front where the officiant was waiting with the vow books which were engraved with gold foil letterings.

The clapping stopped, and the officiant passed the first book to Sage who took it gleefully.

The second book was passed to Emily, but instead of taking it, she took that as her cue to strike.

Her eyes moved away from the officiant so fast, and she slipped a knife out of the bouquet in her hand.

She had taken it from the wedding cake.

'Shocked' is an understatement for what the guests and officiant felt when she faced Sage whose eyes already turned pale in terror.

"Em. . .Emi. . ."

"Go father the baby in hell," She spat, sinking the knife into his chest before muttering;

"Bastard"

"No! "Sage!" Sophia sonorous scream pierced through the hall walls as blood poured out of Sage's stab, spreading on his white dress-shirt in an uneven circle.

The knife is still lodge in his chest, and his painful eyes are locked on Emily's who pushed the knife deeper inside.

The guests let out horrified screams, as his parents began running up the stage together with Sophia whose stomach is hindering her pace.

She almost slipped and fell but Sage's father Mr brown held her quickly.

"Careful, don't hurt our baby" He said and that lightened another spark in Emily's burning skull. Her eyes widened to the end of their widths.

They know..

They are aware. His friends are definitely aware too, and yet...they received gifts from her.

She has been the fool afterall. She has been scammed for love.

The intense anger made her pushed the knife deeper into Sage's chest, making sure all the blade went in.

Sage fell with a heavy thud, his blood colouring the mable ground of the hall.

Most of the guests scurried out, and the officiant dialled the cops.

"Sage!" Sophia knelt beside him with his parents and friends, his blood staining them too.

"Sage!!" She repeated, but the man didn't make the slightest move. His eye lids are tightly shut. And his heart stopped beating already.

A stabbed heart can't beat anyway.

Emily stood there, watching the mayhem with satisfied eyes and bloodly hands. She is ready to bear the brunt, so far he is dead.

Sophia looked up with tear-streaked eye. Her hatred for Emily finally getting uncovered, shimmering in every inch of her gaze.

"Stupid bitch! "I will kill you! Read my lips! I will end you!!!" She yelled in an all heated rage.

Emily's lips curled into a slow smile which spread as fast as a wildfire taking over her face.

"You are welcome, Bloody betrayer"

~~

Walking out of the wedding hall in a bloody wedding dress with cuffed wrists and reporters from various stations photographing her in a scene. Emily never imagined for herself in this lifetime.

She didn't even imagined it this morning while she was happily throwing her wedding dress on, but it is happening right now.

She didn't get a warning before her life crashed with no landing in sight.

The flashlights from the reporters camera nearly took her sight away as they struggled to capture her face.

The face of the first lady to stab her groom to death on the altar.

She'd surely make the news headline interesting throughout this week, or even throughout the month.

She became a celebrity, not even in her modelling field but in the murder world. A sickening smile appeared on her dry lips since the lipstick has been wiped with her hand.

No single tear fell out of her eyes. She has promised herself not to cry. Even when Sage's stupid friends are busy throwing hate at her from the crowd, even when the models from GMI are cursing her.

She didn't blink as she got dragged out by the cops towards the waiting van, and the door was opened.

She resisted when she was about to get thrown inside, and she looked back at the crowd.

The cameras captured her face closely this way, and she smirked, decipting nonchalance.

"If y'all think I'm mad, then try sharing my point of view by finding out your best friend is pregnant for your groom on your wedding day. The man you once aborted and nearly died for" she said simply.

She was finally pushed into the van where two cops hooked to their middle, and another one drove the van in the front.

Her promise not to cry got broken immediately the van engines roared to life, driving down the tarred road.

The piping tears ran out of her eyes, crushing her bravado at her feet.

Rising to absolute fame in GMI, becoming the highest paid model in the industry and spoiling herself with new cars every week. Going on monthly vacation with Sophia and having the best date nights with Sage.

Quiet the dream, right?

But the two people she embroidered with her dreams turned out to be absolute curse, her doom.

Her tears poured in large rivulets, and the cuffs made clanging sounds on her wrist, reminding her of her situation again.

She looked down at the cuffs, and her tears poured on the metal in drops, making her sniffle.

"We finally have our own apartment. But you'll have to pay the largest part of the rent, since you earn more than me. Let's make it 60/40"

Those were Sophia's word when they got an apartment together during college.

"Of course! Who would pay the largest, if not me? I'm like your big sis"

That had been her own reply, and she could remember they had a booze that night together with Sage.

Just how fast the night changes. She was just a pawn in their twisted game. A foolish pawn!

A sudden clash jerked her out of her thoughts.

Something clashed with the van body outside, making her jump on her seat with the cops beside her.

"What is the situation?" The one on the right asked.

"There was a sudden collision" the driver replied, stopping the van with the aim of going out to check the cause, but that was it.

A truck appeared from the intersection, intentionally crashing into the van.

The collision was so unexpected, causing the van to somersault.

It flipped a number of times before finally landing upside down with flames emanating from it's body.

Everyone in the van went unconscious with injuries to their body, including Emily.

She got wounded on her forehead, and her blood was wetting her hair as her head is upside down.

The trickling blood made her eyes open, but she was dragged out of the van forcefully, making her shoes pull off her foot.

She was pushed into the truck by masked men she couldn't even see well because of her haziness.

The truck moved, screeching down the corner

~~

The sudden downpour of water made Emily's eyes open slowly and a gasp escaped her gummy throat.

She must have passed out completely after she was thrown into the truck. And now, this environment is unfamiliar.

She felt restraints, and that's because her arms are tied behind her. She is laying on the ground with her right side, her mouth gagged.

The place smelt like sawdust with a mix of dung. Is this a stable?

There's a small dim light shinning directly on her face, and just when she was about to start wondering where it's coming from, she was pulled to her knees by strong arms.

She wasn't surprised when she came face-to-face with Sophia.

Sophia sat like a vice on a chair, right in front of her. There are still streaks of tears on her face, and that only confirmed something.

Sage is dead.

Despite her gagged mouth, Emily smiled in victory, and the smile graduated into a shrill laughter which annoyed Sophia to the deepest core.

She roughly pulled the gag away from Emily's mouth, and Emily let out a breath.

No idea what the gag was, but it stank.

Sophia threw her hand forward hitting Emily vengefully in her face.

Emily cheek stung, and the bun in her hair went loose, letting her long blonde hair cover a large part of her face.

Sophia's hand flew forward again, giving her another hit, harder than the first one.

The third hit came almost immediately and Emily's mouth bled from the intensity.

"I can help you send the baby to him too, in hell. Pretty sure he's long dead!" Emily spat.

Sophia raised her hand to slap her again, but Emily ducked her head forward, slamming her forehead on Sophia's tummy.

An earthshaking scream tore out of Sophia's mouth as she staggered and fell, holding her stomach which began hurting like hell.

Her gangsters rushed in to help her up. They are three, plus the two who hijacked the van.

"I trusted you! I respected you, Sophia! I gave you my all and what did you do? You threw it to the dust! I can't count how many times I borrowed you money! But you never paid back with our friendship excuse! I even bought you a baby walker and a cot already, intending to gift them to you after you put to bed, but what? The baby belongs to Sage?" Emily said, laughing at herself.

"I should probably get an award for foolishness at this rate" She grinned painfully.

By now Sophia is back at her feet, she came closer again, picking a plank from the ground which she hit on Emily's head mercilessly.

Emily's skull made a loud noise as blood ran down her face, and Sophia grabbed her by the hair, forcing her to face up.

"He doesn't want you! You're a fool! Is that too hard to grasp? He only want your money for us! You've been so kind funding the two of us for so long. What's bad in continuing? Huh?" She shamelessly said.

Emily's head is still a mess from the plank hit, so she couldn't even give a reply as she wriggled in her hold.

"Now that you've killed him and rendered my baby fatherless, I am going to end you too like I promise" Sophia barked, releasing her roughly.

Emily fell back to the ground, almost passing out as Sophia took a Glock Gun from the gangsters.

She slid her fingers under the trigger, aiming for Emily on the ground.

"Bye sweetheart-" She muttered, and the scenario experienced a swift and unexpected change.

The dim lighr in the room which came from the bulb suddenly went off and someone definitely entered the room.

The sound of trashing was the only thing that could be heard for the next three minutes.

"What's going on?! Who is it?!" Sophia shaky scared voice boomed as she stood alone in the darkness.

The light came back on, and the gory scene that greeted her made her freeze in place.

Four bodies are down in pool of their blood. The bodies of the gangsters.

The fifth one is in the grip of a guy who is wearing a cap.

He is holding the gangster in a dangerous chokehold, ready to sniff life out of him as his determined eyes fell on Sophia.

"Who...who are.... you!" Sophia gasped as the gun fell from her and she shifted back in trepidation.

Emily's eyes opened on the ground, and she managed to raise her head a bit, taking a look.

It's the same strange guy she sighted in the wedding hall earlier. The buff guy.

He snapped the neck of the fifth gangster in ease, dropping his dead body on top of the other four.

Sophia let out a deafening scream, and she fell unconscious.

Emily pushed herself to a sitting position, viewing the man clearly.

He's not moving from his position, and he's giving her that intentional look again like he's on a mission.

"Who are you? And why did you save me?" Emily asked slowly, her head throbbing and her body aching.

"The boss has an important business to settle with you" he replied, his voice firm.

"The boss?" Emily tried to open her eyes wider as the headache got more intense.

The man stepped aside and the powerful scent of pine and wood confiscated the air as another man stepped into the room.

Even in the dim light, his halo is too strong, and his walking steps are calculative. With a hand in his pocket and the other hand firm beside him, he advanced.

His bolrado suit is best described as 'perfect', and the sharpness of his jaw is obvious from the distance. His hair is slick back and when the dim light hit his eyes, the heterochromia showed.

The color of his two eyes differ, and it only added to his commanding aura.

Who's this man?

Emily shifted back on her butt, fear suddenly clawing her the closer he got.

She couldn't escape though. Her back hit the wall after a few shifts. She gasped, swallowing nothingness.

The man crouched in front of her, the smell of his aftershave wafting through her nose as their eyes met.

No jokes, she could die in fear right now. Whoever this man is, he's definitely a powerful force.

"Who are...you?" She stuttered.

This is the second time she would be asking that question today though from different people, and she's hoping he's not here to make her life worse than it is already.

The man eyes twitched, burning embers through her skin, before he spoke in a rich dulcet voice.

"Ever heard of Lorenzo Vasquez?"

Emily's heart got hooked in her throat, and her breath seized.