Closed cage world

chapter three

        On the third day of Aaron's time limit Lacey was back in college. She wasn't fully recovered but during their close hospital skinship he transferred healing energy into her. The hospital checked her out the other day. She was free to visit anyplace as long no hard work was included. Eric stayed near all the time and explained everything that happened.

            Aaron was a type of demon that was feeding on the life force of victims. He would kill and feed on their accumulated energy which kept them going on during their lifetime. The souls would lose an important element and were forced to stay in their current world or would dissolve, disappear to an unknown place about which only one thing was certain, it wasn't meant for souls to end up, those lost people's souls will never reach a happy end. Lacey was supposed to be one of his victims. Aaron targeted lonely girls, made their greatest love illusions come true to make their life force stronger. He appeared as a nice friend at first, when the victim fell in love he would use a heartbreaking technique, after that he would get close to the girl again and establish a love relationship. The method helped him collect the maximum life force. Since Lacey discovered his true nature and the previous relationship could no longer be maintained or improved he quickened the process and tried to kill her. Eric crated a barrier around her soul so that Aaron wouldn't be able to steal the life force, but that didn't save her. The demon broke the barrier around her soul but still found nothing. Lacey's alive corpse like way of living hid her life force in the deepest part of her soul. Aaron didn't search carefully because under normal circumstances it was the first thing to appear after a near death experience, a lucky coincidence made him miss her vital body ports. The only thing he saw was her soul filled with sadness ready to disappear, without a life force. The love illusion he used wasn't strong enough for her to break free of the things that taunted her. It wasn't enough to truly erase her deep loneliness. Losing life force meant losing a chance to be reincarnated, the soul was meant to stay forever the same.

            Eric didn't want to explain his circumstances of being a ghost. The only thing that Lacey knew is that she pulled him back to this world during her near death experience and since then they have been stuck together. He said that he wanted to stick around with her until all demons leave. Interbreeding between humans and demons wasn't something new, it was happening since the beginning of the world, Aaron surely deemed Lacey as a special human due to his thoughts that she lacked a life force. He wanted a powerful child with special powers to establish a better ranking in his clan. From an eating target she became a tool gather more power, and therefore Lacey was to be a demon's bride. 

            As she looked in the classroom it was half-empty, there was no sign of her demon enemy. Eric told her to act normally today until they find a way on how to escape Aaron's influence. She sighted in relief but then a voice called her.

            "Lacey sweetheart, come here, I saved you a seat." Aaron showed up in the front rows, he was behind some guys so she didn't see him at first.

            "No!" She almost yelled and ran out in the hallways.

            There was no way of acting normal around him, first he tried to kill her and then marry her. Eric followed but there wasn't anything he could do. She panicked, not knowing what to do Lacey wanted to run straight ahead, far away from the place he was at. Running never solved anybody's problems, it only delayed the decision. She knew that well, but her opponent was a demon, there wasn't anybody to consult. A normal person couldn't go against a demon. She didn't want to die or comply with Aaron's wish, since another chance was given to her. Eric was supposed to help her start life anew. After a while she stopped to look if Aaron followed. Luckily he was nowhere to be seen.

            "We managed to escape." She said.

            Eric looked down and said no.