The Demon's Curse

Chapter 7

It's 5 pm when we arrive at the trainstation, where Iris' cousin Elliot is greeting us. He pulls Iris into a hug and extenses his hand towards me, a smile on his face.

"Hi. I'm Elliot. The circumstances could be better but it's nice to meet you."

I take his hand, smiling back.

"Tiana."

"A beautiful name."

I blush at this unexpected comment and look to the ground.

"T...thanks..."

Suddenly I feel a stinging, burning pain at the top of my chest. I sank to the ground, holding my necklace. It feels scorching hot.

Iris and Elliot run towards me but when Elliot reaches out and touches my arm, the scorching heat gets so unenduring that I scream out in pain.

"Tiana! What's wrong?! Iris! What's with her?!"

Elliot shakes my shoulders, trying to calm me down but the pain is too much. I feel like I'm suffocating, my breathing becoming unstable. Iris pushes Elliot away from me.

"Elliot stay back. I will handle it."

She says and with this Elliot moves away from me. Slowly the pain gets less, still leaving me feeling uncapable to breath though, my lungs feel like they're gonna burst.

"Shh... Tiana... it's all good... It will stop... think about the feather... it's all good... Shh..."

Iris pets my head, talking to me in the same way she had just a few hours ago, the same way she always calmed me down.

I slowly regain control of my breathing and the pain fades away. I slowly get up to my feet with Iris' help and look into their worring eyes, scratching the back of my neck.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm not good at dealing with the situation."

Iris eyes, still worried, look at me, frowning.

"Tiana. Come over here for a second."

I tilt my head in confusion and look  over to Elliot, he nods and turns around, giving us space to talk in private. I smile at his nice gesture and turn to Iris.

"Tiana. What was that about just now?"

Her eyes serious, knowing it wasn't just me being heartbroken over the situation. I look down at the ground, shaking my head.

"I... I don't know... all of a sudden I felt a stinging pain in my chest, followed by heat, it felt like I was burning up from the inside..."

I pause, still feeling the pain slightly.

"When you started screaming... Elliot approached you. And it seemed to get better when I told him to go. Is that right?"

She tilts up my head and I nod.

"It... felt like my necklace is made out of scorching hot metal..."

She looks down on me onto my necklace.

"Tiana. Is this necklace... from him?"

I nod.

"He gave it to me as a present yesterday morning..."

Iris seems to be in thought but then her eyes open in shock.

"T...Tiana look."

She's pointing towards my skin around my necklace. It's red. I look up to her, fear spreading inside me.

"Wh...what is that?"

I feel my vision getting blurry from tears but she cups my head in her hands.

"Shh. It's all gonna be fine. I promised you. I will protect you from him."

She reaches out to the back of my neck, wanting to remove the pendant from me but soon as she tries, she pulls her hands back, a pained look spreading on her face.

"Iris!? Are you okay!?"

I scream, making Elliot turn around. Iris just nods, looking at her hand.

"Yeah... I'm fine..."

I look down at her hand, a burning wound slowly appearing. We both look at each other and without having to exchange words, we know exacly what's going on here. Luke set a curse on this necklace to control me.

"My naughty little kitten. You are mine. Mine alone. You're not allowed to show this face of yours, this body of yours in so much ecstasy to anyone but me."

I remember his words from yesterday evening. Was that... a warning...? A threat? Did he knew we're onto something? My head is spinning but I can't get to any conclusion as I say my goodbyes to Iris, promising her I would call her as soon as I felt bad and head off with Elliot.