THE DEVIL'S HANDMAIDEN DARK REALM SERIES BOOK 1

Chapter 7. MASQUERADE

As Allesandra walks through the doorway hand in hand with Satan she is purely disgusted by what he just whispered to her. The mere thought of him trying to seduce her later tonight nauseates her. As he leads her through the winding dungeon-like hallways toward the ballroom, she remains silent, making the already awkward feeling in her gut much more difficult to hide.

Even though she despises the sight of him, she feels more at ease with his new appearance and is able to tolerate the situation she's in a little better. She notices that he's actually putting a little more effort into trying to charm her a bit. However, with everything he's done to her, she knows this is all just an act and she's not foolish enough to fall for it.

After walking for several minutes, they finally arrive at a very steep, concrete stairway. He pauses for a moment and turns to look at Allesandra as if he wants to admire her standing there beside him in her sparkly high heels and long, beautiful gown before they ascend the stairs. She glances over and tries her best to make eye contact with her depraved date, knowing that this is what he is waiting for, but as tears start to fill her eyes, she quickly looks away and can't seem to force herself to do it. Having noticed her disobedient behavior, he jerks her arm forward and continues up the steps, dragging her along with him as she stumbles and nearly falls. At that moment, something comes over her and she jerks her hand away from him and he doesn't try to stop her. She goes flying backwards and tumbles down the steps and lands flat on her back. He doesn't utter a word or try to help her, but instead, motions for her to get back up and take his hand again.

Just to spite his obvious attempt to punish her defiance, Allesandra manages to get to her feet without his help, purposely ignores any eye contact with him, takes his hand and they continue on. This time, he's much more patient with her, which surprises her after how he treated her earlier.

As they are walking, she can feel her hand starting to sweat inside of his and although he still hasn't spoken a word to her, she knows it's moments like this that reveal a little too much about her mental state. Sometimes, mental games like the "silent treatment" can be worse than a forced conversation with someone you despise. Allesandra knew games like these very well. She had played them before with her ex and grew to be a master at them. She could go days without speaking to him. This time however, she is at a big disadvantage and she knows it.

Even though she's exhausted, she somehow finds the energy to keep trudging on and as she adjusts the black lace mask that keeps slipping down her face, she smirks, knowing it shields her from his frequent glances.

She tries desperately to dismiss the continuous flashbacks from her terrorizing "welcome to Hell" as they occupy her mind. By instead, replacing them with wonderful visions of herself as a movie star, all dressed up in a designer gown, walking hand in hand with her very handsome costar and getting ready to walk the red carpet. Allesandra gets so caught up in the moment that she doesn't even notice their arrival and when the giant, iron doors swing open with a load Clang, it startles her back to reality.

When they step inside, Allesandra can no longer pretend that her fans are there cheering for her and the paparazzi are waiting to blind her with a barrage of camera flashes. For, all around her as far as the eye can see, there are fiendish-looking creatures bowing before them. Even though she can't see what they truly look like because of the masks, an ominous feeling comes over her and she's truly frightened just by being in their presence.

As the crowd stands to their feet at their arrival, they part to make room for Allesandra and Satan to walk through to his awaiting throne. He still doesn't speak and makes no eye contact with anyone and continues walking with a commanding presence down the red-carpeted path, dragging poor Allesandra along with him.