I stood just below the altar, hands shaking as they clasped around the talisman. My eyes bore holes into my well worn shoes, staring past them to the marbled floor as if the polished tiles held the answers to my prayers. The shadows danced and played tricks on my eyes as they shifted in perfect synchronization with the wavering flames of the torches.

"Approach," called the voice, as old as time and as sinister as thunderclouds. I shuffled my feet, not daring to look up until I practically stumbled onto the steps. Finally, my gaze shifted and I glanced nervously at the dark form that loomed before me. The silhouette of a man was outlined with an almost golden halo cast by the blazing flames that danced behind him. The dark man was all in shadow, only the barest outline of his features were discernible in the dim light. What was clear though was the demon's smile; as welcoming as a mother's hug and as vile as a serpent. "What is it that you desire, human?"

Shivers went down my spine and it was several long moments before I could speak. "I… I want you to save my friend." My hands crumpled the paper that was grasped between them and I flinched as if I had been struck. Coming here was wrong and I knew it. But what choice did I have? "Please."

"Very well human, but there is a price." My head shot up and desperation clouded my expression as my voice rose in pitch.

"Please, whatever it is, I'll pay it." Even to my own ears I sounded like a frightened mouse, barely able to make the syllables out as they slurred together into a quick ramble. The demon's smile grew in force and the burning furnace behind him increased in intensity until it practically burned my eyes.

"Your life." I had been expecting this. It was a price devils always asked for in the stories. It was a price I was willing to pay. Will was my friend, no more than my friend. Will was like my brother from another mother. We had been together in diapers, had seen each other through the hard teenage years and gone to college together. Everything I was I owed to Will. But Will was dying; slowly and painfully. Will, who had been so active and full of life, was bound to a bed and dying. Will, who had loved to run and climb and hated to be kept inside, was confined to a single room as his mind became trapped in a body that refused to function.

I nodded; slowly, but without hesitation. "Which friend shall I save?" That question had me stumped. I only had one friend that was dying.

"Which… you say?"

"Yes. I see three you can choose from." My breath caught in my throat, stuck there as I tried to figure out who else was in danger. I only had one life to bargain with. Or was this a trick? "It's no trick human. Will, Chirsta, and Martin. All three will be coming down here soon. So which one will you choose?"

Christa, beautiful Christa with a mind that could bring shame to the great philosophers of old and a heart as gentle as the breeze. Then there was Martin, my other brother from another mother who completed their merry band of misfits. All three were vital parts of my life and all I would be more than happy to give my pathetic life for any one of them. I shook my head. "Martin and Christa are healthy and they-"

"Are going to die. Christa has a malignant tumor that sleeps within her body, quietly poisoning her. She won't last the year. And Martin is scheduled to meet with a truck, head on in the crosswalk."

"You're lying!" I screamed.

The demon laughed, a cold sinister sound that echoed in the chamber. "Now what would be the point in that? I have no reason to lie. Either way, your life is mine." How was I supposed to pick? If the demon told true ,how could I pick one friend over the other? My mind became a swirling and confused mess as it went around and around in an endless circle of thoughts.

"Would it make things easier if you found out their future?"

I looked at the demon, stared at its smiling face for any hint of the answer that I was so desperately reaching for. "…Yes."

The demon in the shadows waved his hand and suddenly I saw Will before me, standing tall and proud in his uniform. "This one will be cured of his ailment as if by a miracle. Everyone around him will be astonished and amazed at his spectacular recovery. Everything that he loved to do will be possible again." As the demon spoke, visions of Will flashed before my eyes. Will was smiling as he sailed on a huge boat before the vision shifted to Will diving from the sky. I saw my best friend climbing great mountains and laughing along side a beautiful girl. Within the vision I caught of glimpse their children and grandchildren. Each of his children made an astounding life for themselves; one even went so far as to become the president that brought about a new era of unprecidented peace. Yet as the years rolled by, Will never seemed to change.

"Your friend's wish to live is the strongest and will be granted in its entirety. He will never grow old and never die. He'll walk the earth for an eternity and be forced to watch everyone he loves and cares about wither and die. Over and over again, the same scene will play out until your friend is nothing more than an ever living shell of a man." The sight of Will, bent over as the world around him dissolved, broke my heart into a thousands pieces. It made me want to cry, to shout and scream at the creature who was showing me such tragedy.

Before I had time to fully react, the scenes shifted and beautiful Christa stood before me in all her radiant glory. I wanted to reach out and touch her. To let her beautiful locks get trapped in-between my fingers and pull her close. "Christa, lovely girl. Choose her and she won't even feel the effects of her cancer. She'll grow to become even more radiant." I saw her, as the last of her teenage looks pulled away and she became a woman in the peak of her prime. I watched walk down the aisle, dressed in her graduation gown and awarded the PhD she had always dreamed of. The smile on her face could have put the sun to shame.

"She's a beautiful one isn't she. Smart too. She'll know what you did for her and the guilt will overwhelm her. Oh, she'll try." The room shifted to her crying on her bed, tears streaming down her cheeks as her body rocked back and forth. "She'll save thousands of lives with that brain of hers in an attempt to make herself feel better. The drugs she creates will ease their pain until she finds a way to cure the very cancer that would have claimed her life. Her cure will change the world forever. But it won't be enough."

Christa, who was so beautiful, sat before me in a dump of an apartment. Her hair was a washed out color and her skin had a sickly yellow tint to it. Dirty laundry and empty liquor bottles littered the room as vomit stains created discolored patches on the carpet. A needle was pressed into her whispy arm and all the light in her eyes was gone. "It'll be a week before they find her body." Shock passed over me as I tried to convince myself that what I was seeing wasn't real and couldn't possibly happen. Yet, why did it look so real and feel right? How could something like that, feel right?

Once again, the scene change and this time it was Martin who stood before me. Instruments surrounded Martin and the young man sat in the middle of a room, singing and playing in perfect peace. "He has the voice of an angel and his music will take the world by storm. People will laugh and cry and find their courage thanks to this man's songs. He will change the way everyone thinks about music. But that kind of talent doesn't come from happiness."

I saw it all, every horror that Martin would live through: rape, adultery, robbery, identity theft, beatings, poverty, and so much more. Every time Martin seemed to climb out, something worse knocked him down. His life was pure misery. "And so it shall remain, until the end of his pathetic days."

Horror filled me and me shouted at the shade in pure malice, "That's not part of the deal!" Yet the demon only laughed and the flames flickered in mockery.

"You think your life is enough a price to save another? Don't be so haughty human. They must pay a price too. It's time to choose. Who will you save, who will you curse, and who will you allow to die?"