ℂorruption➼ Devil Louis & Dark Angel Niall

❉ Chapter 24 ❉

"Are you sure you don't want to stay a bit longer?" he offered with a call.

"No thank you," I replied bluntly.

"Well then, let me take you back. You don't want to get lost, now. Do you?" He laughed shortly. Not even bothering to meet his eyes, I gave him a small smile as I listened for his nearing footsteps.

And as I waited, I simply stared at the darkness of the flower before pinching a petal with my forefinger and thumb. And just like that, I motioned a pull force as if I'd just pinched off the dainty little thing.

Then, I smiled.

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They continued to lurk. With wicked senses and apprehensive movement, they remained a great fear to humans. Glints in their eyes lingered for what seemed forever as they demolished their victims, one by one, in the most painful of ways. In the night, they would hover over the bed of a sleeping boy momentarily before corrupting his mind with abominable visions. And with just the twitch of a hand and the quickening pound of a heart, the spirits knew they snapped their victim's last shred of happiness; the happiness that had been so fragile it hung off a thin, vulnerable piece of thread.

Many humans wouldn't dare to believe such an idiotic, made up story of these creatures. There is no such thing, some would say. How absurd, others would laugh. However, the devil and these creatures sensed the fear. They absorbed every last bit of it, fed on it like their lives depended on it, and the ecstacy the moments brought them overpowered anything they had ever sensed in their existence.

I wasn't quite so sure if the devil and his followers had sensed fear in me, let alone use it to their own pleasure. I'd gotten used to hiding my emotions, and although fear lurked between subtle sadness and anger, I refused to expose it. But, one thing I knew for sure was that the spirits surrounded my being during every second as I tried to sleep. Whether they enjoyed watching me or they just had nothing better to do, they always seemed to be whispering awful threats in my ear. The devil, an unpredictable creature, may or may not have sensed anything in me, and if fear had even crossed his senses, I wasn't sure if he would use it to his advantage. Nevertheless, a young boy had been killed previously in his castle, so I wasn't entirely sure if he was as merciful as I had thought for even a second.

The longer I was cornered by the devil and the angel, the stronger my craving for everything became. I craved the knowledge; I craved to see my loved ones and to look in the eyes of my brother and tell him I was sorry. I craved the freedom to explore. I craved freedom in itself, but that wasn't something I could be ushered towards easily. I craved for emotions other than the negativity that blew around me on a daily basis.

I simply craved.

After several moments of lying in the dark, I decided to find myself some company. Although there were many creatures that would obey me and accomplish my commands in the blink of an eye, I didn't feel the need to take advantage of that, likewise I needed to see Louis and ask him a few things.

Louis.

I smirked to myself. I loved calling him by his name. Unlike his demeanour, it was innocent, soft on the tongue, and nothing like him. Calling him by his name gave him no status, no position in the authority grid and that I adored. It gave me even the smallest bit of power over him if I had ever attempted to call him by his first name, and that was something I deserved.

Yawning, I rolled out of bed and glanced down at my nightgown: silk, sheer and so short it could be classed as a t-shirt. And before leaving my room, I changed into the simplest, most comfortable piece of clothing I could find: a plain, flowing, chiffon dress in a navy colour. It ended just above the knee, and although it appeared simple to the royal eye, the shimmering pearls accenting the sleeves' hems and the collar annoyed me. I fidgeted with the dress as I stepped out the room and before I could even think otherwise, I'd ripped the pretty little pearls off, scattering them across the marble flooring under me.