i spoke to the devil in miami, he told me everything would be fine.

​Summer of senior year. The days pass by quicker and quicker, as the countdown begins to freedom. I have worked my whole life not to be free, not to be able to get away from boredom, but to be safe. I have put my heart and soul in to school since Dyfs took me away from my parents. I knew what I had to do, to escape Chicago. I mean, I’m lucky I survived this long. 18 years of drugs, violence. My brothers dying. My parents, nowhere to be found. I am excited, for something new. Perhaps, something I can love.
                I am attending the University of Miami this upcoming fall. I picked the furthest place away from Chicago I could have out of the colleges I was accepted in to. And as the final week came to a close, I knew what was coming. A new beginning. A place where my burns may look like beauty to others.  A place where the past 18 years simply doesn’t exist.
                I always loved the piano, but for some reason I’m going to be an engineer. I figured, in the long run, I would probably be rich. The engineering department of Miami University was the only portion of the school I got accepted to.
I thought this way, until one day.
I had a roommate there. He was a really cool dude, but really liked acid. It seemed like every other day he was tripping. But he was never obnoxious. He’s not an idiot, or he wouldn’t be going to this school. He was very, very intelligent. Not intelligent in the ambitious, confident, natural way. Intelligent in the, he may know something that I don’t, kind of way. He was constantly reading, constantly talking about soulmates, and constantly writing of heartbreak. As tough as he was, as much as I’d never fuck with him, he had an oddly blatant soft side. He said he grew up around here. This dude was the most complex guy I have ever met. I never knew how to feel about him, besides that I wanted to be him. I guess we will get back to that.
It was the first party I’ve ever been to… in my life. I wasn’t a loser, I was always just too busy working around the foster home or selling drugs to get away from the foster home.  Maybe it’s the typical college love story, but my life is a bit different from the average person. As is my mind, and when a girl as beautiful as this one bumps in to me the way this one did, and then looked at me the way this one did, and then spoke to me the way this one did. It broke barriers bro.
Long story short, man we fell in love. She changed my life.
I dropped out of college. You may think I’m a whipped idiot, but I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do. This girl taught me to live freely. She taught me how loosely and jokingly life was meant to be taken. That nothing really matters, besides the love you give. I chased music, with her as my soul, my singer. I would play the melodic, lovely flow of the piano and her soft heart would belt out music effortlessly.
It was 2 years, of my first love. My life had been revolutionized. A life of loneliness, extraordinary pain, drugs, violence, and pure chaos, now evolved in to a life of love, music, and creation. This girl, was my world. I will never forget the beginning especially;
All the stressful nights where I did not know what to do for college, all of the nights where I was scared to love.
She always used to say, “Everything, will be fine.”
It doesn’t seem like much, but this girls voice dog….
I roam the city. The moon beams fully, radiating a soft light upon the city. My girl and I were walking to the open mic at the local bar as she was scheduled to perform and light up the room again. The weather was beautiful. I remember looking at her face in the reflection of the windows we passed, and just thinking about how lucky I got in this life shit man. Not only do I have a cool story to tell, but I got a hot girl ready to take on the world with me too.
She sang our most popular song. I don’t mean to brag, but almost a million views on Youtube. The chorus exploded like a calm tide amongst the room, peacefully chilling the audience’s skin.
I played the piano, focusing so hard as usual. I wouldn’t ever let myself let this girl down.
But I guess, there is some things you cannot control.
I saw my former roommate from a distance. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe he was still alive, and I didn’t think he was a fan of us! I ran to him, pushing through anything and anyone in my way.
“What’s up, man? I haven’t seen you in forever!”
“Is that your girlfriend up there?”
“Hell yeah dude. What brought you out here?”
“Her.”
It was a certain crazy I’ve never seen in anyone’s eyes, and that says a lot, because I grew up around a lot of crazy people. His eyes striked me, as if he had already hit me.
He raised a gun from his pocket and shot it in the air. I knew what was about to happen.
“Megan! How could you be with somebody else, we were soulmates!” he terrifyingly screamed toward her.
I tried to play hero, I swiftly snuck over to her and covered her. If anything was being fired, my body was protecting it from piercing Megan. I whispered to her, and asked what was going on.
“I dated him back in high school. When his dad shot his own mom, he didn’t want to let me go. He couldn’t let anything go,” she frantically panicked in to my ear.
Something told me to say it;
“It will be okay, babe. Everything, will be just fine.”
I stood up.
“You can take me homie. Don’t do this.”
“Okay,” he calmly said.
He shot me, twice. The bullets penetrated my shoulder and chest. Everything inside of me burned and throbbed. Blood was pouring out of my body as I laid down. I looked over. She was so scared man.
She cried out for help, begging him to stop. But he approached her. He raised the gun to her skull.
“Any last words?”
“Nicholas, I love you. Everything…”
That is all she managed to get out. As much as I wanted to hear her voice for as long as possible, I did not want her to lie to me again.
He was eventually arrested. I survived. She, laid dead somewhere in Miami.
I met the devil in Miami.
I trusted the devil in Miami.
I spoke to the devil in Miami, and he said everything, would be fine.
That night, I became the devil in Miami.