I dove a weak hand into my pocket,

hoping to find more than a dime,

but all I touched was the broken locket

from the depths of this hollow socket

to remind me I was low on time.

I handed over the trinket to the jeweler,

and say that payment is soon to come,

but despite my efforts I could not fool her,

her gaze as dark as a nun and the ruler

that would punish the wicked I would become.

She nodded to the doorway in the back

that cast a shadow unto the light

and so I followed her into the black

where I feared a brutal attack

but instead received a new plight.

She leaned forward into my ear

as if stooping down to my level.

She whispers “You have nothing to fear

but I can make payment disappear

by telling you how to find the devil.”

I thought to run far away,

because I knew that it was wrong,

but still I could not make myself stray.

I listened intently to what she had to say

so that no longer would my pain prolong.

For deep within the lockets heart

is where my lover reigns,

A ghost of the one who had to depart.

The picture and I cannot be apart,

for it is all I have that remains.

And so to the crossroads I went

where I buried a box in the soil

then the ground furrowed into a dent

where a servant of the devil was sent

to the surface that bubbled to a boil.

The demon that spawned before me

had offered me but one choice,

to sell my soul for a guarantee,

one last chance where we could be

together again and rejoice.

So I handed over my freedom

and with it my broken heart,

he gave back a heart no longer numb

but brimming with a chance to become

happy with a brand new start.

It is here I made the mistake,

when caught in my darkest hour.

A short satisfaction too tempting not to take,

to fix the horrors of my greatest heartbreak,

all to end when the devil comes to devour.