Finally released from the hospital Casey took me back to the appartment. The apartment had a really homey feeling that washed over me as I walked through the door. Annie ran ahead and bounced up and down on the couch. She seemed different, older.
"Casey, I have only been out for a week right?" I turned around and looked at him as he walked up behind me and slid his arms around my lower waist.
"A week too long." He kissed my cheek and then picked Annie up. I could have sworn that she changed. I knew she did. This wasn't the same little girl who was with us when I went out was it?
Casey saw me staring. "Annie go pack your bag like we talked about OK?" She shook her head and ran to the opposite side of the room. Casey walked over to me and I was even more confused than before.
"Where is she going?" I asked as I watched her throw a barbie into a bright pink back pack.
"We, are all going to hell." The bluntness in his voice would have made the situation comical if I hadn't known that he was being serious. Images of a hot, dry, and firey place took their proper panic position in my brain.
"H-h-hell!?!" I shouted. Casey shushed me and pulled me by the arm to his room. Closing the door he began to speak calmly.
"Yes. Hell. Or, well, our part of Hell anyway. Its not all that bad. I already called my father and he will be expecting us. They will be throwing this huge gala in honour of our engagement and Annie's return." He forced a light smirk and wrapped me in his arms. The weird thing about him not having a heartbeat was that when I learned my head on his chest, there was nothing go listen to but the sounds of his slow shallow breathing. I looked up at him and took a deep breath.
"Case, I can't go to Hell, I can't meet your parents I can't do anything. This is too much, I-I..." Casey, being the romantic that he is, stopped my pity ramble with a short but much needed kiss.
"Hey, your going yo be fine. And right now, Hell just might be the safest place to be. No angels ever come down there for fear, and," he pulled me closer and our bodies became smooshed. He leaned toward my ear and I could feel his hot breath. " And in hell, we won't have to watch Annie all the time." His pink iris's started to appear again and I backed up a little bit.
"Oh yeah? Then whose going to watch her? Hmm?" I wrinkled up my nose and he gave me a strange look.
"Lizzie, we have servants. I was raised there, and I'm sure that we will still have servants that will take care of her there." He lightly brushed his fingers across my face and smiled. "Its going to be OK." We kissed and he went go finish packing our bags.
We packed lightly. According to Casey, we could get anything we lacked at the castle. It was strange cause I never really pictures him as the rich type that would have servants that would take care of him and pamper him like that. But he told me that he was raised to be a King. That he was raised to never expect anything less than the best. So I just nodded my head like a good little girl as we started driving away.
After about an hour passed I finally spoke.
"Casey can I ask you something?" I gazed out the window and pretended to be nonchalant about it.
"Of course darling." He grabbed my hand and intertwined our fingers together. I looked at him as if to tell him that the sarcasm in his voice had been noted.
"Why did you leave Hell?" His eyes flashed black for a moment and he took his hand away from me and put it on the wheel. Feeling awkward, I looked back out the window. "Sorry." We drove in silence for what seemed like hours I looked at the clock. It had only been 8 minutes.
"I lied to you Lizzie." He kept his eyes on the road and didn't move much. But I could tell that his eyes were black in sadness. "I lied."
"About what?" I looked over him and watched how he seemed to contemplate what to say next. "Casey, about what?" I made sure that my tone was serious but all I got was a single glance from him.
"About Anne." He paused and took a long breath in. "She's not my sister." He looked back in the rearview mirror at her. "She's my daughter."
I sat there and let the shock of what he said settle in. Anne was his daughter. I watched the clock in silence. Waiting to see if he was ever going to tell me the rest. It took him awhile but eventually he broke the long weird silence.
"Anne is my daughter from my ex-girlfriend. Her mother, the one you saw, was her grandmother. I watched Anne's mother,Levi, die. Levi was my servant girl and we, you know. And when we found out that she was pregnant, we ran to the mortal world. Levi wanted Anne to have a normal life. So we bought an apartment, we were going to do everything right by mortal standards." He took a breath in. "One day, Levi was taking Anne for a walk, and it was dark. Levi loved sunsets so she would often go to the park near by with the baby. Anyway Jason had followed her home. I had gotten there when he was cutting her flesh inch by inch. I heard her screams, I saw her tears. I was out shooting pool that night. I could have saved her. But I was busy dicking around with my idiot friends. Jason forced me to watch her die. It was slow, painful. I had to listen to her screaming out my name. Begging for me to help her. But I couldn't because I was too weak. After Jason left. I found Anne hiding behind the sofa. I found Levis mom and told her that I couldn't take care of her anymore. I bought a new apartment in a demon town; and I get a call saying that Ldvis mom had been murdered by Jason's dad. My source told me that Anne's body couldn't be found so I figured she was dead." He paused again and I saw the tears running down his face. "When I saw you two, I knew that was my baby. Demon children develop and age quickly when they are being fed properly. Then when they become 10 they start growing like normal children. Right now she's at seven. But she will be at her 10 in a few days. I promise you, that was the only lie and half truth I have ever told you. And I begg you Lizzie, I beg for your forgiveness." He looked at me as we slowed to a stop.
To be honest, at that moment, I wasn't sure if I should have forgives him or not. If there is one type of person that I hated more than all rest, it was a liar. But I could see why he did it. I would have done it too. But I couldn't just forgive him. What if it happened again? Or what if- what if next time its worse?
"I forgive you Casey. But if we want this to work, there will have to be no secrets between us." I took his hand back in mine. "I love you. So I don't care what deep dark dirty secrets you have. I wanna be with you and I won't let anything get in the way of that." He went to kiss me but as soon as he got close to my face, the car behind us started beeping the horn at us and the driver was flipping us off through the window. Casey laughed and kept driving.
"So now what?" He asked while I was fixing the braid in my hair.
"I guess now we go to Hell."
We were driving for a while after that when we came to a beach on the edge of the island. Not too far off there was a small dock that was about 4.5 feet above the water. Casey looked at me with a mischievous smirk.
"You ready?" He asked and shifted gears.
"Um, where are we? I thought we were going to hell?" I looked around but there was nothing but water, sand and the dock.
"We are." Casey spoke excitedly and the car started picking up speed. I glanced over at the speed monitor thingy and we were passing 115. Still building up speed, Casey drives faster and faster towards the dock.
"Casey- Casey?" I started getting scared and Caseys smiled started getting brighter and brighter. We started driving on the wooden planks of the dock and Casey only picked up speed. "Casey stop this isn't funny! Cas-!!!!!" Over the edge of the dock we went and I closed my eyes as the car dove into the water.
Opening up my eyes instead of being under water, we were still driving but in a much nicer area than before. Around us were Japanese cherry blossoms and a beautiful orchard surrounding a lake almost completely covered in blooming water lilies. I looked back to where we just entered and instead of the ocean, a huge waterfall stood in its place.
"This used to be my favourite place in all of Hell. Its where I would go if I had any problems." Casey looked as if there was more to it. As if this was his special place. I became happy at just the thought of him sharing this with me.
Annie woke up soon after we arrived.
"Daddy, can I talk now? Oopps!" Annie spoke in a complete sentence and quickly covered up her mouth. She looked over at me and smiled shyly.
"Its okay I just told her everything princess. You can talk now." He smiled at her and her smile lit up the car.
"Where are we?" She asked and started swinging her feet back and forth.
"Well sweetie, this is where you were born. This is the nicer part of Hell. Its the part of Hell that God created for the demons who don't have a choice in life. Its the one place that God made so people like us can have piece." His voice trailed off. Annie looked at me.
"Are you going to be my new mommy?" She asked. I noticed that her eyes were normally light blue, but this time her iris's shone a lovely light purple. I paused and looked at Casey for help. But, like usual, he only smirked and left me to face the 7 year old on my own.
"Wha- what makes you think that I'm going to be your mommy?" I studdered and looked dumbfounded at her.
"Well, if you are going to marry my daddy and every daddy needs to have a moomy or another daddy. So are you my new mommy or are you just some chick who doesn't believe in my daddy's love?" It was weird how confusing a little 7 year old could make things. But she did have a point. I looked over at Casey again, but this time even he appeared to be awaiting my answer.
"Look sweetie, when your dad proposed to me I didn't know that he was your dad. I honestly don't think I'd be a good mother." I watched as her eyes turned black. They way that Casey's would. "But I promise you that I will try. Cause I've been taking care of you since you were a little bitty baby. I loved you then, and I will continue to love you until after I'm gone. " I smiled at her and her eyes perked back up to a bright purple as she got a barbie doll from her back pack. I looked back at Casey who simply wore a smile on his stupid lovely face.
10 minutes later and the scenery becomes unrecognizable. The trees and orchards are gone and in its place a hot, desert like place surrounds us. There appeared to be no trace of water anywhere and what little plant life there was, looked as if it could catch fire at any given second. Casey turned up the ac and we passed and elderly woman with pure black eyes. Her clothes were filthy and they clung to her body due to her sweat. We kept driving and we passes a group of little girls hitting a teenaged boy with thin whip like branches. The boy was yelling as he ran trying to get away from the little beasts. Casey took my hand and squeezed it lightly.
"Welcome home guys."
