Adrien sighed to herself. After thirteen years a mistake was coming back to bite her in the ass. As it was now, she was smart, attractive, doing very well with her own business, and it had all happened for her virtually overnight. She glanced at the clock, barely aware that she would be thirty-three in less than four hours.

Unfortunately, her success had come at a price. She agreed to thirteen years of success in exchange for her soul. That was when she was twenty. Now, thirteen years later, she was expecting a visit from an old aquaintance. Not a visit she looked forward to at all, but a visit all the same.

"So you're saying that if I sell you my soul, I will be successful, I won't lose my looks when I get older, and I'll make better decisions?" Adrien looked across the table at the man before her, almost ready to laugh at his offer. Almost.

"I didn't say that. I said that you will have a chance at success, you won't get old, and you will be more likely to make smarter decisions. That doesn't mean that you will make better decisions, or even take the offer that will give you success, it just means that you'll think more about things before you agree or disagree. So what do you say, Adrien? Yes or no?" He flashed a dazzling smile that would make most women agree with anything he said right away. Adrien smiled back, thinking over the offer.

"You offer doesn't garuntee anything. For all I know those things will happen anyway, or this is all just a joke. Can you give me any reason to believe what you say? Like proof of what you are?" She sipped her coffee calmly, half-expecting him to admit to it being a joke, but the other half expected him to give proof.

"Little girl, I don't joke about my job. I've been doing this since before you're grandparents, Lisa and George, were born. Long before. I can tell you that when you were a child, you're best friend died in a car accident, you graduated high school a year early, and no matter how many times it was offered you never tried alcohol. You are going to be twenty tomorrow, and the way things are now you won't even get the offer."

"How.. How do you know all that? And why won't I get the offer if you don't get my soul?"

"I already told you how I know, Adrien. I'm a Demon, remember? Now, do you want to die old and poor or do you want success in life? Either way, I need an answer now."

She thought about his offer, the thought of dying old and poor scared her, but so did the thought of losing her soul. After weighing it out, greed won and she agreed.

"Well, I'll see you in about thirteen years."

The next day she was offered a position in a bookstore and took it. A few months later, after helping to make the store more profit through her suggestions, the owner offered her partial ownership for part of the profit. A year later the owner died, leaving it all to his only partner, Adrien. During that time she focused only on making the store more successful and turned down dates, lost friends, and was miserable by the time she turned thirty. No matter how she tried she couldn't make a relationship work, her friends left her, and her family stopped calling.

Now, at thirty-two, she had never had a decent relationship, she had no gamily willing to speak with her, and what was left of her friends had left her years before. She was a success at running a business, she was still attractive, and she had made enough money to live off of for a few years comfortably. She had everything she'd sold her soul for, but she was alone in her success.

"I know you're there, Arath. Stop hiding and face me." She turned around and faced the demon manifesting before her.

"Evening, Adrien. How has success been treating you? Are you happy?" He smiled that dazzling smile and she shivered.

"You knew this would happen, didn't you? You knew that I wouldn't be happy with the success. Why?"

"Honestly, you're happiness never mattered to me. You wanted success, I gave it to you. Do you want to know what you missed out on by taking my offer? Here," He stepped forward and touched her forehead, "Everything you traded away."

"I love you, Adrien. But are you sure you don't want to take that job? I know it's far away, but you could make twice what you do now." She smiled at him, "I know, but I would rather be with you. I'm happy here. Money isn't that important." She felt arms around her. "I thought you'd say that," He smiled, "Marry me, Adrien. I'll do everything to give you the life you deserve."

She heard music, saw her family, all smiling. Her whole possible life flashed in front of her. She saw children, she felt loved, and, even though she wasn't rich, she was happy knowing that she'd lived a life worth living. She had raised a family, and now her kids were grown and having kids. She smiled to herself and squeezed her husbands hand, briefly remembering the offer she had turned down when she was twenty.

Then she was back in her living room, with the demon who had tricked her out of that. She glared at him and tears filled her eyes, "Why? Why would you lie to me like that? Telling me that I would die old and alone." His smile only widened, "I never said you would be alone. I said poor. You were so terrified of dying without money you never once stopped to think that you could live a happy life with someone who loved you. Now he's with some woman he doesn't love who cheats on him with his older brother and you, well, you aren't doing much better are you, Adrien? In your greed you ruined not only your own life, but the life of the man who would have loved you."

"You let me do that? Why the hell would you let me sacrifice all that?" She screamed in his face, hating him more than she had ever hated anything. "Why would I let you do that? I think we've been over this, love. I'm a Demon. I ruin the lives of humans too greedy, or angry, or hurt to turn me away. You are neither the first nor the last," He checked his watch, "Well, I've got places to go, souls to take. Goodbye, Adrien."

Hours after the Demon had gone, she relaxed in a bath. The pain killers had taken effect and she couldn't fell her life draining out through her wrists and ankles. After seeing the life she could have had compared with the one she did have, it wasn't even worth the effort to get out of bed. She glanced at the living room clock through the open bathroom door and smiled, dizzy. Her head fell to the side as the clock chimed midnight, "Happy birthday to me.."