Dark Path to Heaven [Demon Romance]

Chapter 5

Image: Astaroth inspiration #2: "Shadow" from the otome game "Seduce Me 2: The Demon War"  

He couldn't believe his eyes. It had been a long time since something had startled him. For a few seconds, he was standing dumbfounded staring at the woman who had collapsed on the couch in front of him.

It can't be, he thought. She is nothing but a common human. How can it be that my magic worked so drastically on her?

The new refreshing feeling inside of him was only confirming the efficiency of his spell. Sophia had clearly been drained from most of her energy before he even realized it.

Astar focused his eyes somewhere straight ahead of him and thought of a certain person.

"Send a doctor," he demanded, without speaking or having the need to explain himself further. "The schedule will be delayed by some days."

And then, having no more business there, he left the apartment not caring about what would become of her.

~~~

I was told that more than two weeks had passed since I lost my senses. None of the doctors who visited me expected it to be so long. Neither them nor the professors. It was not the first time something like that had happened but, apparently, that was still uncommon.

After waking up, I had seen many professors coming and leaving my room. I was not so naïve to think that they were worried about my own good. I could very well understand that I was being treated like a guinea pig for their science. Not only was I human, but I also came from another world, almost completely unrelated to magic.

One person I hadn't seen was the one responsible for my current state. Mr. Astar didn't seem in the least interested in the whole situation. Of course, I couldn't stop myself from feeling mad at him once more. I didn't know whether he cared about his 'science' or not but he should at least have come to apologize since he was the reason I had been confined to bed for days. I also hadn't found out whether he was right or not. At least, I was right about one thing: He was an insensitive and arrogant man, not giving a damn about the consequences of his actions.

As I was looking around in my room, I noticed an unexpected change in my left wrist. A thin black tattoo like the one I had spotted on Ms. Meredith's wrist. How did that happen?

"It's fake," said a doctor who had noticed me staring at my hand. "We gave you this so that you'll be able to walk freely everywhere inside the academy."

"Oh, thank you," I said, feeling a little safer for some reason. I wouldn't want to worry about not letting anyone see my arms. I had enough concerns in my head already.

As for the way I passed my time until I was ready to leave the bed, my options were limited. After memorizing every detail of the lie I had to go along with, the only thing I could use to entertain myself was my thoughts. I wasn't allowed to watch TV (I needed magic to turn it on anyway) before obtaining the necessary information from my courses so that I could properly judge what I could see and there weren't many things in my room that I could use to make these days more fun. 

As a result, I ended up feeling lonely most of the time, almost missing my days back home. At least then I was free and I had technology which allowed me to do a variety of things on my own. Music, movies, games, learning a new language were habits I had to abandon not only because I no longer had the instruments to enjoy them but also because I now had to focus on adapting to a new reality, completely foreign to me. None of those merits would matter unless I somehow earned my independence in this world as well.