Strings and Chains (The Frey, #1)

27. Real Deal

STRINGS AND CHAINS

CHAPTER 27

Does it hurt? Does it feel like it's ripping you? Tearing your skin and organs? Sucking your soul out of your body? No. I didn't feel any pain. I didn't feel anything. I fell into darkness. I couldn't see anything. I found myself alone. And then she suddenly came out from nowhere, wearing her freaking sexy lingerie, and exposing her true face, body, and identity; the true Lilith, a demon, the female devil. She was nothing but evil. She was born in it.

Did I saw beauty? No, it was a nightmare. I couldn't even forget it, her face, and what she looked like.

So where am I now? Where is she? Am I still in hell? No.

I am now back here in the human world. I woke up lying in the warehouse, where Jax and the others offered me to Lilith. There are no incubi. Wala sila Jax, Ynna, at ang iba pa nilang kasamang incubus at succubus.

So nasaan sila?

I can't help myself but to smile.

Nasaan na nga ba sila? They're now back to their master, back to the one who created them, sa impyerno kung saan ako galing.

Huminga ako ng malalim. The floor is cold. I am still lying here, looking up at the rusty ceiling, and thinking what should I do next. Hanggang sa natawa na lang ako sa sarili ko. Hinampas-hampas ko pa ang lapag sa kakatawa ko. This is hilarious. What I did, what they did, and what Lilith did to me. This is so fucked up. Do they even know that?

Do I feel different? Yes! I feel so different! I feel so crazy. In fact, maybe I am really going crazy.

"Is it funny?"

Ito na. Nandito na ang kamatayan ako. I heard his voice and he sounds angry, really angry. I will be too if I'm in his position. Pero wala, eh. Nangyari na. Nandito na. It's either I live with it or end it real quick. Just between the two.

"What did we talk about, Maru?" tanong ni Rai sa akin.

I smiled while still staring at the ceiling. "Not to act recklessly."

"And what did you do?"

"I acted recklessly. I was impatient and impulsive," sagot ko. Totoo naman. This is the punishment for everything that I've done. Kasi naniniwala ako na makakatulong ako. Naniniwala ako na may magagawa ako sa nangyayaring gulo. And I was so stupid to think that I could actually help with what's happening in the town and to the creatures living here. I was just a human and I should've just stayed to where I belonged.

Muli akong bumuntong-hininga. So did it work? My plan? Yes, of course. Wala na rito sila Jax. Wala na ang mga incubi. So what did really happen? Anong nangyari rito sa itaas while I was in the devil's den?

"You didn't listen to me. You didn't follow everything that I've said!" Isang malakas na sigaw ni Raiden kaya't nagulat ako. Nawala ang ngiti sa labi ko. Nawala ang tuwa na nararamdaman ko. I expected this already the moment I stepped here inside the warehouse. I walked in a trap and I willingly let myself fell for it. But that was the damn plan! I would act a decoy, as a distraction, while they position themselves outside the warehouse and begin a massacre here.

I didn't know na itatapon ako ni Jax sa isang demonic na magic circle! I was expecting na magiging prisoner lang ako! I didn't know Lilith or the cult na mayroon sila. I didn't know everything because he chose not to explain to me! I didn't know Lilith wants me to become like them, her fucking prodigy.