Devil Doesn't Bargain (Completed)

Prologue: The Enchanting Kiss

My Dear, Sweet Reader,

If you would like to hear a fairy tale, let me tell you one. One that you will remember forever. A fairy tale about a beast enchanted in the body of a Prince and Cinderella Man fighting not to lose his precious heart. A story of passionate love and even more passionate hatred. A story about cruelty and the rule of power, but above all a story about the human heart and what it really wants.

But I must warn you, Dear Reader, before my story begins. This fairy tale will not be as magical as others you have heard in the past, because there are nooks and crannies in our hearts so dark that even the devil is afraid to invade them.

So be brave, my Stranger Friend, and consider whether it is worth plunging into this cruel world. Are you ready? Already decided? Then sit back and I'll tell you a story.

Once Upon a Time...

~*~

The great ballroom was packed with guests to the brim. Huge tables filled with foreign and local food were set up against the walls, and waiters were sneaking around carrying trays with champagne-filled glasses. Huge gilded chandeliers gleamed on the ceiling, casting a harsh light on the dancing couples below. A woman in a neat, black dress stood on the prepared stage, passionately singing a sad, romantic song, and the people hidden under the masks, tightly hugged, swayed in the rhythm of it.

I've hide myself on the right side, near the carved figure of a naked woman innocently hiding her charms. Tall, slender brunette with eyes dark as night. That's me. I've wore a tailor-made black suit with a silver, black-stitched mask over my innocent but right now pale face. I was holding an empty glass in both hands and I jumped nervously from one leg to the other.

I did not feel right here. After all, I was just some Pete, simple man, raised by my grandmother in the countryside, not an elite man who had been invited specially for the birthday of one of the ministers. I was a security guard working for mafia. So how exactly I've ended here?

Still nervous, I loosened the gently squeezed bow tie and exhaled loudly, wanting to calm down stiff muscles. It was not a time to feel sorry for myself, I had to work! So I pulled my mind together and secretly slipped out into the corridor. It took me a while to find the room that functioned as an office, but as soon as I found it, I slipped inside, quietly closing the door.

The place was dark, only the light radiating from behind the glass gave a soft glow that allowed me to move without bumping against the furniture. I walked over to the large mahogany table and quickly began leafing through the pages, looking for signs of a clandestine deal that had been made between the minister and one of the mafia families, but I couldn't find anything. I fidgeted, flipped through the papers, and focused so hard on the task I had at hand that I didn't hear a click from the door. Someone secretly entered and quietly retreated to the back of the room where the couch lay. The body deftly fell on the cushions on the furniture, making no sound, and dark, almond-shaped eyes dug daggers into mine figure.

A dissatisfied sigh pierced the silence, and the papers stretched out on the table began to be tucked into the open shelves. Dissatisfaction bloomed on mine face, and my cheeks flushed slightly from the sudden, strange feeling of heat. As soon as I focused on surroundings, I sensed something disturbing about it. I raised face to look around and saw a pair of cold, almost dead eyes fixed on me like two gun barrels. My throat was dry, but once trapped in those chocolate pupils, I couldn't look away. As if under some unknown spell, I got up and left the table, still seeing only that alluring bronze mingled with gold.

I had never seen eyes so beautiful and terrifying at the same time. There was a darkness in them, so thick it might have swallowed my entire world, but there was also a promise in it. A promise of something I didn't yet understand. Something alluring and so tempting that my knees trembled. These eyes are the eyes of the beast itself.