Lyon ✓

Chapter 30

Amara's POV

To say that we were taken aback would be an understatement. After all, it's not everyday that you see your supposedly dead bestfriend rise from his grave and stand in front of you in the very blue suit that you buried him in.

The fact that his eyes had a fire in them didn't help either. Just not figuratively, literally as well. The eye balls were fully black with flames of hellish fire dwelling in them. His face still as expressionless as it was when he laid in his coffin. But there were changes in his features. There was a certain roughness but at the same time sharpness in his looks. He looked more primal than human.

"Theo?" There was a certain cautiousness when Elias called out his name.

Theo's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he angled his face to get a better look at Elias. "Elias, is that you?" His voice came out as a whisper as expression turned into that of confusion. He then looked at Rome, Damien and then me. He continued to look around at the world as if he could not believe that he was back. Well who would? "Is that what he meant?" If it was not for our heightened hearing, we wouldn't have caught those words, they left his mouth as if they were spoken to only reach his ears.

The flames inside his eyes were burning even brighter now as if displaying his anger and confusion. Instinctively, we all stepped back. It didn't go unnoticed by him. "You're scared of me?" He asked, looking directly at me, his voice dripping with sorrow.

Elias was the first one to walk up to him. He smacked Theo's head. "Never in a hundred years." He then proceeded to laugh at his own joke.

Walking to him, I spoke. "Scared of you?" I scoffed. "No offence Theo, but I could easily beat you up." When I was finally in front of him, I gave him a toothy grin to which he replied with the curving of his lips into a small smile.

We had practically surrounded Theo by the time Rome and Damien were at his side. "So what's up with your eyes?" Rome was the one to ask the question we all had in our minds.

"What's up with my eyes?" Theo repeated after him, raising one of his eyebrows.

"There's fire in your eyes." Damien stated which seemed to confuse Theo even further.

I went to fetch my bag and pulled out a small mirror which I then handed to him. He angled it so that he could have a clear view of his eyes. When he saw them, his hands shook slightly. I couldn't tell whether it was because of anger or fear. His mouth curved up into a snarl as he looked at his reflection, barring his canines. They seemed to have elongated more than one could imagine.

"So this was his parting gift." The anger in his voice was evident.

"Who? Who did this to you Theo?" I questioned.

"The devil."

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It was difficult to believe what Theo had enlightened us with that day. Even though I was his friend it would be ridiculous to think that if heaven or hell existed, which I was now certain of that it did, that Theo would be the one to go to heaven. Hell, I don't think that i'd be allowed there either. (A/N: Me neither.)

And that was what had exactly happened. Theo had been through hell, again literally. The word I had used to describe the flames in his eyes , hellish, had been accurate. They were the flames of hell.

So it was confirmed that hell had flames. But they weren't exactly using it to punish the sinners by frying them for eternity.

For punishment, they made the sinners go through the lives of each of their victims. The sinners would forget who they were and fully immerse into those lives, reliving through whatever their victims had been through. Their happiness, sorrow, regret and the pain that they had inflicted upon them and the results of their actions. That is what happened for an eternity.

The devil or whatever you may call him was a master manipulator of minds. He was the one who bore the responsibility to deliver the punishments. He would, every once in a while, appear in the visions of the sinners. This would make the sinners go crazy as they would get reminded of what was going to happen, they would get reminded that they were not really living, that the body they thought was theirs certainly wasn't.

According to Theo the devil had taken a certain liking, if you must say, towards him. It was because Theo would tell that he was in a state of illusion. He hadn't gone insane like all of the others. That made the devil notice him more. It made him interested in playing mind games with Theo. Theo never told us what they were about.

Before coming back to the world of the living, Theo had met him. The devil had told him that they would meet again and parted with him but not before informing him that he had a gift for him, as a reminder of the promise. We all were now sure of what it was.

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Theo hadn't been the same. He would still smile and joke around with us a little but he had become distant. He sometimes wouldn't talk for several days and stayed locked up in his room. He wouldn't tolerate strangers at all. Even when the ladies hit on him, he would just let out a low warning growl.

I couldn't see him like that. I knew that if he was in my place, he would rush into my room and smack the hell out of my head. I did barge into his room during one of his hibernations but didn't smack his head. I admit I was a little intimidated of him.

He was sitting at the window, staring at the distant view. Even on my dramatic entrance, he didn't whip his head to look at me.
"I could almost hear the conflict in your mind to enter the room, Amara." He spoke as he traced a drop of water that was dripping down the window due to the rain outside.

"What's wrong, Theo?" I almost slapped myself for asking him that. The man's been through hell and you're asking him what's wrong. "Let me rephrase it, umm, no I really can't rephrase it."

He chuckled. "It's not the living through hell part that is eating me alive."

"Then what is?" I asked, hoping to be able to somehow find a solution to what the problem.

"Technically I died." Came his reply. "It should've created some loophole."

"A loophole?" I repeated. "A loophole in what?"

"In the nature, in magic. The curse ended when I died."

"Do you mean to say-?"

The fire in his eyes brightened as he spoke. "I might have a mate out there."

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