He quickly turned to look at her. Her eyes were wide with shock, as probably were his own. The keeper of the dead began to laugh. When Estevan turned back to look at him, the silver coin was sitting on the ground at his feet… upright.
The Devil continued to laugh. “If you flip a coin often enough, for long enough, eventually it will land on edge.”
Alicia and Estevan continued to stare at him, and at the coin. He continued. “I never renege on my deals – ever!! But I don’t always give out all the details of every deal. Only I know ALL the details of the deal. For this particular deal – which was the same for both of you – each time I come, you have a choice, heads or tails… give me your life or the life of someone who loves you.”
“Those whom you have given over to my keeping are dead, but they are only dead. I take them to the place of the dead, like all others whom I escort from this realm. But on the day that you give me yourself, you come with me to the depths of what you like to call ‘Hell.'”
He smiled a very cruel and evil smile. “You return to my home with me, because by willingly giving yourself to me, you have become my eternal slave and plaything.”
“I make my deals very carefully knowing that eventually, you will fall in love. Eventually, you will find someone whom you cannot betray. And when that happens, you will give your life for theirs and you are mine. It’s just a matter of time and the odds as I keep flipping the coin of choice. Sooner or later it comes up tails.”
He laughed once again. This time it was the sound of true laughter. “But there is always that infinitesimal possibility that the coin will not be heads or tails. Impossible as it seems, a coin can land on edge… and stay there. The chances of that are very, very, very small, but the impossible will happen occasionally when you flip coins through all eternity. Tonight the coin has landed on edge. You have each given your lives for the one whom you love.”
Looking at both of them, he smiled and continued, “Estevan, because you have given your life for Alicia, I cannot take her. Alicia, because you have given your life for Estevan, I cannot take him. That means that you are now both free from your agreements. The deal is off.”
He shook his head and smiled a wry smile. His voice took on an unusually soft tone. “You will now age like normal people, and the day will eventually arrive when I will once again come to collect you to the land of the dead, but that is where you will go. You will not accompany me back to Hell… because the coin of choice has laded on edge.”
He picked up the silver dollar from the ground and tossed it to Estevan. “Keep this as a remembrance that one Halloween, one couple very much in love with each other beat the Devil at his own game.”
He laughed again and said, “That doesn’t happen very often… about as often as a coin landing on edge and staying there.” Turning back toward the fire he concluded. “Now I must leave. Even I can suspend time for only a short while and I have many other appointments for tonight. I have deals to make, lives to collect, and maybe even a soul or two to take back with me to the deepest depths.”
As he disappeared into the fire Alicia turned to Estevan, kissed him and said, “It looks like we have a lot to catch up on about each other’s lives.” She blushed slightly and added, “I hope you don’t mind that I am a little bit older than you.”
When Estevan looked puzzled, she added, “I didn’t sell stones to Cheops either, but I did occasionally watch from beneath a silk canopy as the slaves sweated to push them into place.”
Estevan took her hand and led her slowly into the darkness away from the temple. Within their clasped hands, still warm to the touch from coming through the fire, they held the coin of choice which this night had determined their fate.
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END OF STORY
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