Chapter Text
"You can't go in there." The nurse barred the way with an arm, but the tall man with the dark eyes and slicked-back hair pushed through.
"Go away," he said quietly in her ear as he passed.
She turned on her heels and left immediately.
The man went up to the bed. His prey was there, a tube running up her leg and disappearing under her short hospital gown and another tube running from a bag to a needle stuck in her wrist. He clucked and pulled the needle out of her wrist. Immediately, the machine it was attached to started to beep shrilly. He waved a hand at it and it stopped in a small puff of smoke.
"Janine," he whispered, but his voice filled the room.
She shuddered and her eyes fluttered.
"Janine," he called again and her back arched in a way that her withered frame shouldn't have been capable of. Her cracked lips opened in a moan.
"No," she said barely audibly.
"Oh, yes." He lowered his lips to her wrinkled neck and kissed her softly. He slid his mouth up to her ear and whispered again.
"Janine, for the 3rd time and last, I call thee."
Her eyes opened and she saw him. She tried to shrink back, but the hospice bed left her nowhere to go.
"Ah, finally awake, I see, maybe for the first time in thirty years." He smiled and she tried to scream, but only a wheeze came out.
"Time to pay." He trailed a finger down her neck.
"I want to die," she croaked.
"Oh, no, not yet. You have to pay your debt." He kissed her and her body arched again. She resisted at first, then melted into his kiss.
When he pulled back, color was returning to her lips and her pallor lessened,
His hair, now streaked with gray, visibly thinned as she watched. He ran a hand through it and sighed.
"My penance is almost over and yours yet to begin. Dark power requires a dark cost and it's your turn to pay." He kissed her again, longer this time. She could feel her body getting stronger, but the pain of the cancer was still there; the dull throb in her back and side.
"You can feel it now," he said, but now his voice was wheezing.
"Yes," she said in a strong voice she hadn't had in years.
"What do I do? How do I pay my penance?" she asked.
He laughed.
"You'll have to figure it out for yourself, just like I did."
He kissed her again, this time holding it until his body turned to dust and fell on her, now glowing with health.
She pulled the catheter out and sat up, relishing the burn of it for just the moment it took her to realize that the pain was still there.
She touched her side and back where the cancer had been and felt the heat of an infection.
Was thirty years of power worth this? Was anything worth this?
She wiped the dust of the genie, or warlock, or devil, or whatever he had been and she now was, off her and slid her legs over the edge of the bed.
The nurse stuck her head around the door and looked in.
"Come to me," Janine commanded and the nurse entered, blank-eyed.
"I'm completely recovered and am checking out now; do you understand?"
The nurse nodded.
"You will find me some clothes that fit and return; also all your money, your debit card, PIN and car keys."
The nurse nodded again.
"Go." Janine ordered.
When the nurse had left, Janine put her head in her hands and sobbed.