The Complete Crimson Forest series

Onyx: Chapter 2

          

The long-haired man stares back at me, then he glances behind him as if he's not convinced that I'm talking to him.

"No, I see you. You with the long hair," I point out and he still seems confused, checking behind him a second time.

"You see me?" he asks, pointing to himself.

I nod once. "Yes."

His eyes widen slightly. "I need your help. My name is Robert. I'm stuck here. I have been for a very long time and I want out."

How long exactly is that? "Why should I help you? Aren't you a demon?" I ask him skeptically.

The man nods slowly as if debating a lie. "I am, but I don't mean to hurt anyone. I just want to get out of here I swear. If you'd rather kill me, that's fine, just don't leave me here any longer. I can't take it anymore."

I gulp. "Why are you trapped here?" My heart finally starts to slow its racing.

He grimaces before answering, "My wife trapped me here, so that I couldn't stop her from giving up her life."

Is he serious? "Why was she giving up her life?" She committed suicide?

"So that her son could live," he continues sadly. "She made a deal with the demons."

My heart stops. No way.

"I watched her son—your father—grow up here, and you after, and I've been unable to reach any of you since your father passed away. He was the only one who could see me until you. Please, if you're not going to free me, just kill me. Don't leave me here any longer."

I can't help but wish Kade and Henry were here to help me make this decision. "How do I know you won't hurt me?"

"I never hurt your father," he attempts cautiously and shifts his weight from one foot to the other. "I'd never hurt any of your family."

There must be a reason my father didn't free him though. I clasp my hands together nervously. Is this man telling me the truth? "So why didn't my dad free you?"

He considers this. "His mother left his father for me, a demon," he explains but I'm not completely convinced because something is missing.

I tap a finger on my chin. "So instead of releasing you or killing you, he kept you in the house with his family, where you were a danger?" Just because we couldn't see the man, doesn't mean he couldn't harm us at all. My mom. "You're the reason my mom went crazy and tried to kill me," I realize.

He swallows and looks away from me. Part of it, yes. "I didn't do it in purpose. I can't help that I'm stuck here, but it wasn't all me."

He does have a point about not being able to help it, but I'm still not giving up. "If my dad knew about you and what you were doing to the family, why didn't he get rid of you?"

The demon paces around the hallway. "Because if I'm released, all of the demons your grandma captured are released. I'm what holds her wards strong to this day. They feed off of me. If I go, so do the wards, but May, you don't live here any longer so that's not a problem."

"What are you talking about?" I clamp my hands together tighter. "There aren't any other demons here besides you."

He crosses his arms and turns back around. "Every time I give the signal, a pulse radiates through this house and throws every single demon near it into an entrapment like this one."

"That's what the thumping is," I finally understand. Then panic settles in. "Kade and Henry..." I trail off.

The man's eyes widen slightly. "The vampires you came with?" he asks, sounding unsurprised.