Gentle Eyes of Evil

Chapter 10: Trapped In Loveless Luxury

Leo and Sophie themselves were currently upstairs in Leo's office. He was trying to fill out paperwork for the damages and figure out a way to fix things whilst Sophie just nagged on in his ear. As much as he still loved her, Leo had taught himself by now to drown out her voice. Her stupidly mild complaints didn't even go in one ear and out the other, they went directly over his head and drifted away through the open window behind him. He was looking at a paper to his side and tapping his pen on the blank notepad page directly in front of him.

"LEO!"
Sophie yelled as she slammed her hand down on the blank notepad, glaring down at her husband with a cold stare that Leo had grown all too familiar with.

No matter how many times Leo saw that glare on his wife's face, it never failed to send his blood running cold. He jumped as she slammed her hand down causing him to jolt his hand backwards and grip tighter to the pen before he slowly looked up to her.

He looked at the woman he was supposed to love with fear in his eyes, fear that acted as a cover up to any love he used to feel or somehow still felt. A fear that Sophie knew all too well, and loved to cause him. Having a member of royalty so easily wrapped around her gentle finger, what a silly thought! A man of such power succumbed to something as weak as a promise of love. A promise that was no longer being followed through on, and hadn't been for a long time.

"Yes, darling?"
Leo asked, with a slight shake in his voice.
"Have you been listening to a DAMN THING I JUST SAID?"
Sophie yelled at him, her eyes full of rage and nothing more, or less.

"Yes, yes of...of course I have!"
Leo stammered, a phoney smile now plastered onto his face as he felt his heart rate increase.

"Then what did I just say?"
Sophie asked him calmly, reaching her hand down and taking hold of Leo's chin. Her skin was soft, yet her grip was rough. It felt like being clawed by a cute animal, so Leo couldn't be mad even if he wanted to be.

"I...I..."
Leo stuttered helplessly, the fear building in his voice as small tears of red began to blur his vision.

"If you were listening to me, like a good husband should, then what the hell did I just say?"
Sophie's grip tightened, but her voice remained eerily calm.


"I don't...I don't know..."
Leo whispered shamefully, squinting his eyes as the tears began to run down his face and sting his eyes. His voice began to break as he spoke.

Sophie's face contorted into one of disgust, she quickly removed her hand from Leo's face and looked at him like he had just ruined her outfit.
"Ugh...are you crying? Over something THAT small?"
She cracked a wicked smile as her twisted yet beautiful laughter entered Leo's ears again.
"How fucking pathetic!"
The woman laughed, covering her mouth with her hand.

Leo's head fell back down to his desk, hanging just above its surface as he looked down. The paper below him was now stained with red droplets from his tears as the faint patter of them falling mixed with Sophie's laugh. A laugh that Leo only heard at his own expense, but still found so beautiful.

"I'm sorry..."
Leo muttered under his breath, not daring to look his wife in the eye.
"You should be."
Sophie snapped back without a care in the world.
"Just get your fucking papers done and meet me outside, you're taking me shopping for that embarrassing display."
She told him as she walked out of his office, swaying her hips from side to side on purpose and finally slamming the door behind her.

Leo just watched her leave and wiped the tears from his eyes. He sighed and got a fresh piece of paper, throwing the old one out. He picked his black ball-point pen back up and got to work on the rest of his papers. Meanwhile, Sophie was sat outside in the palace gardens smoking a cigarette.

The argument between the pair had taken around 20 minutes total. So outside, with Sophie, was Eclipse. She was knelt down by the fountain with her hand in the water, just taking a calm minute to herself to reflect on the battle and everything that had taken place as of recently as well as her broken horn. Sophie was looking up to the bright red sky of Hell's afternoon, various shades of red going from lighter to darker the higher up you looked. She pinched the cigarette with two fingers and removed it from her mouth, blowing the neutral grey smoke into the calm afternoon breeze.

Eclipse noticed her mother sat down, or more specifically she noticed Sophie's cigarette. She got up from the fountain, shaking the water off her hand and watching it ripple the water for a moment before making her way over to Sophie. She didn't utter a word to the woman and reached down, quite literally plucking the cigarette from her hand and taking a drag. Sophie's eyes widened as her mouth fell open in disbelief at what her daughter had just done.

Once Eclipse had finished her smoke, she dropped the cigarette to the floor and stamped it out underneath her spiked platform boots. This filled Sophie with the same rage she was just trying to cool down. She glared up at Eclipse.

"I WAS USING THAT YOU LITTLE BITCH!"
She yelled without a care for who heard.

Eclipse almost looked confused as to what she was talking about, she then shrugged and smiled.
"Ah well, sorry 'bout that!"
She then walked away from Sophie slowly
"GET BACK HERE!"
Sophie screamed. Eclipse looked back to her mother and stuck her middle finger up, as well as sticking her tongue out. Sophie looked appalled, as if she was much better.
"YOU DISRESPECTFUL LITTLE-"
Eclipse headed inside, cutting her mother off. She walked with a similar sway of her hips that Sophie did. She was bored now.

Harriet, Josephine, Luna, and Jace, were all still asleep upstairs. Not a whole lot had changed with them, they were all catching up on many nights of stressful sleep.

Once inside, Eclipse headed into the kitchen to check on their staff, and because she was hungry.

"Y'all doin' alright?"
Eclipse asked as she looked around to the three members of staff in the kitchen. Nova, Rose, and Aultier.

Rose was a pink haired woman, brighter than the siblings' hair, with similar bright pink skin and eyes. She wore a traditional black and white maids outfit on her body. She was the second staff member to join the Ezerath family's workers, and wasn't a demon at all. Rose was made from Leo's magic itself, she was made from smoke. She could interact with objects and be interacted with as normal, but she could also be called upon and summoned to Leo whenever he needed her, he controlled her very existence. Rose was also never given a last name. She was a very quiet girl in nature, similar to that of Josephine, and only spoke when spoken to. She never started conversations and always stuck to the rules that Leo had set for them all. Rose also got along quite well with Josephine when the two did interacct. Leo created Rose so that Nova didn't have to work alone, this was before the arrival of Aultier.

Aultier Dilwar was a fallen angel and the last one to join the Ezerath family as a servant. Previously working as a Priest on earth, during the Mediaeval Period, and cleansing people of their sins. He then went on to become tempted by Lust once in Heaven and cheated on his partner with a fellow angel. Aultier and his affair partner were then banished to the Lust ring where Leo found him, but never her. He heard the man's story and had never heard of one quite like it. Most men cheated when alive or once in Hell, very few if any cheated once past Heaven's gates, Leo was almost impressed. Aultier was quite obnoxious in his personality and very extroverted, he was clearly the joking kind and got along well with Eclipse as the two were quite similar.

Nova Yukama was once alive, much like Aultier. He lived as a common villager amongst the townspeople. He actually lived in the same town as Aultier growing up, not much else was known about Nova as Leo didn't exactly do background checks. As he was royalty and knew none of the lower demons could kill him even if they tried, and he could get new staff whenever, he didn't feel a need to be worried. The only reason why Leo knew that information was because Aultier had recognised Nova when he joined as a servant for the family and didn't exactly keep quiet about it. Nova kept to himself and was a very closed off man, he got his work done, and rested, he came when called upon, nothing more and nothing less. If you asked him who he 'got along with' he would likely tell you Leo, not because the two get along, but because he spends the most time

The Ezerath family did have various other maids and servants working for them, however these three had become something of a favourite amongst both the parents and children. Sophie mostly liked the males for obvious reasons as they were both rather attractive. Leo liked each of them as he felt they worked the hardest out of all their staff. The children liked each of them, too, for similar reasons as their parents. Eclipse preferred Aultier to the others as he was much less strict and shared a cigarette with her from time to time in the gardens.