The Devil's Son ✔

Library of Congress

Walking along the sea shore to my aunt's cottage, a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts hit me - thoughts that had been in my mind for many nights but that I had numbed to ease my guilt and desperation. 

At the very end of the day, Lucian wasn't here to play a friend or even a potential love interest. He was anything but healthy, something poisonous that was taking bits of my life everyday but that I'd willed myself to overlook; the poisonous thorn in my side.

Looking past my shoulder, I spotted the demon, his eyes glaring at the barrier that shielded me from him and his arms crossed. Even in an angry state, he looked handsome. Even when he didn't fit the romantic picturesque spot of a beach, the figure dressed in black was more mesmerising than the sunsets people came here to watch.

It was a hypnotising beauty, one that would be my downfall and as I stared forward at the cottage that seemed to welcome me with open arms - I sighed.

Aunt Maria hadn't been in our life much, especially not after mother's death. I'd seen her at the funeral but we hadn't spoke much then - me too buried in my own sorrows. I had spotted her by the open coffin, murmuring soft words but she had left when I come close, intent somehow on staying out of my way.

After mother's death, she had perhaps shown up once. It had been a peculiarly short visit where she stood in the doorway of my room and we stared at each other for perhaps the longest of times before she gave a short affirmative nod - as if she were reassuring herself of something - before leaving directly after.

As a child I'd asked father once if she blamed me for her sister's death but he had been adamant on how that was certainly not the case. Maria was handling her grief differently but she would not blame a child for something so horrible.

To think that my stoic Aunt Maria lived in such a romantic setting seemed weird to me. The white cottage was painted with soft blues and wind chimes made of bottled seashells welcomed me when I walked up the creaky front stairs. A rocking chair had been set out front with cracked sea blue paint and a shiver ran down my back as I noticed the cobwebs that laced the armrests.

The curtains were closed and I rang the doorbell hesitantly, listening to the sound echo through the cottage before it was swallowed up by the wood. I waited patiently, rang the bell again when no one came to the door, then knocked.

'Aunt Maria?' I shouted, knocking on her door with my knuckles before moving to one of her windows and rubbing away the dirt. Through the sheer curtains there was an empty doorway with an umbrella that had fallen to its side, but otherwise; no one was home.

I bit my bottom lip, looking back at the barrier where Lucian was standing. He had his hand in his pockets now and was staring out at sea but there was no time to admire his form. My fingers closed around the doorknob of the front door hesitantly before I gripped it and twisted.

With a small click, it swung open.

☠☜◊✙◊☞☠

The cottage was empty.

I'd picked up the umbrella from the hallway and used it as a weapon as I moved through the house, trying not to pussy out and run back to Lucian empty  handed. No doubt he'd be mad at me and I wasn't exactly in the mood for his man period.

The cottage was a two storey, with a small attic that looked laden with boxes and even a few surfboards. It looked weird because Maria didn't seem like she surfed, let alone did any sport other than take walks.

The beds in the two bedrooms were made but the toothbrushes and any other form of family necessity wasn't there. Perhaps she had gone on a trip.

Her kitchen cabinets were empty except for a few canned goods and her fridge had been plugged out of the power socket. Wherever my aunt had gone, she seemed intent on an extended leave.