The Divine Monster

Chapter 3

It had been a week since Daniel was rescued from the cellar,he felt much better,many of his bruises & cuts were healing nicely.
Azual would visit him in the infirmary every day,they'd just talk for hours until Azual had to leave.
Daniel had other visitors too,a doctor came every day or two to speak to him,as well as Julican came when he had free time.
Azual told him that it was uncommon for Julican to act in such a way,so he must think Daniel is interesting somehow.

"Hey Julican!How are you?"Daniel spoke as the tall man walked in, Julican looked over at him blankly.

"It is going quite well for such a busy time of the year"He spoke calmly,Daniel thought of him as the type of guy who it would be hard to make loose control.

"Busy time of year?"Daniel tilted his head slightly in thought,he really didn't know what the date was,he had lost track in the cellar.

"We throw a huge ball around this time of year!Since Julican is the King's left hand man,he is going to start getting very busy soon"Azual jumped into the conversation,he had a big goofy smile of his face, which made Daniel assume he likes this ball.

"Indeed,which means I won't be able to come visit as often,my apologies"Julican slightly bowed, this made Daniel chuckle.

"That's alright!I'll be out of the infirmary soon anyway!Besides, I'm suprised you kept coming to visit!Azual told me you usually don't do this type of thing,so I'm happy you did at all!"Daniel smiled at Julican brightly.

Julican hadn't expected that answer,or anything even remotely close to that,he stared at Daniel in awe.He thought Daniel would be upset,that he'd yell at him to get out or say he wasn't a good person because he left him alone.He didn't think he'd be happy he was there at all,most people got mad & upset,but Daniel was just...glad.
"You're weird"He said bluntly,still staring at the younger boy,Daniel looked up at him confused.

"What?What do you mean?I just said I was happy you were here" He pouted,puffing his cheeks out & scowling.

Julican sighed,he thought for a moment before deciding to bring up another topic he wanted to discuss with the boy.
"Daniel,the King has been wishing to see you recently."Julican felt a pang of guilt,it was his fault the King had taken interest in the boy.

"The King?But why?It's not like I've done anything great enough to attract his attention,right?" Daniel asked,confused as to why HE would want to see him.

"My apologies,he seemed to get curious about you once I started to continuously come here.It is my fault..."Now he expected him to 100% be mad,no one wanted to see the King,especially for such an idiotic reason at that,most were scared of him.

"Interesting,I've been here for a little over 2 months & I don't even know what this "King" looks like.I guess I finally get to see him. Y'know when I was alive I would sometimes think to myself,what does the devil actually look like?I mean,we have different guesses as to what he may look like,but I doubt those are anywhere close to what he actually looks like!"Daniel chuckled at his thoughts, forgetting there was others listening."I guess that may be why everyone thought I was weird,I'd think about these strange things!" He smiled,his eyes soon glazed over & that smile disappeared,his face went blank.
"Sorry...I'm...not used to having other people...around..."He mumbled,looking down,anywhere but at the two in front of him.

"I expected you to be mad,not intrigued.You are an interesting person"Julican sighed,looking at the smaller boy blankly,though in his head it was much less than blank.

"I...guess you could say it's kinda harder to get me mad compared to some people"Daniel chuckled, he then thought back to what they were discussing before.
"So when does he want to see me? I get out of here tomorrow but I bet I could convince the nurse to let me out a day early if he wants to see me sooner rather than later"Daniel gave a blank look before a smile replaced it.

"I think he can wait,you need to fully heal.Especially since you'll be meeting the King,knowing him, he'll probably try to toy around with you.He's quite manipulative" Julican sighed,the King saw most people as pawns,puppets even, only those close to him were considered otherwise.

"Hmm,I've heard as much."Daniel smiled at him.
"But I think I'll probably be okay as long as you're there!It'll keep me calm even under that much pressure"He looked up at Julican,a moment later the nurse came in with the doctor that had been visiting Daniel recently.

Julican looked in there direction, just to see who it was but stopped when he saw the doctor.
"Doctor Kaylo,what are you doing here?"Julican asked,suspicious of his reasoning for coming to Daniel's room.

"He's been visiting me a lot lately,I didn't know his name till now..." Daniel whispered half to Julican & half to himself.

"Julican!Just the demon I wanted to see!I wanted to ask if you found Daniel's book?"He avoided the question smoothly,making it seem like it wasn't asked at all.

This was a topic Julican had been trying to avoid,he had been searching the library the last few days,but found nothing.He'd double checked everything,which made him think maybe Daniel wasn't his real name.That,or there was serious problem going on that no one was aware of yet.
"No..I haven't found it yet."He spoke coldly,Kaylo narrowed his eyes.

"Aren't you the best when it comes to finding a certain person's book? If you can't find it,there must be another problem...like the name" Kaylo looked over at Daniel,who was staring at Julican.
"Daniel...what's your real name?" He asked coldly,he had an idea of what was going on but he had to be sure to do anything.

Daniel looked over at his confused.
"Daniel Cryst Heartfell"He said, staring into Kaylo's eyes.

Kaylo had the power to tell when someone was lying,so this confused him,Daniel wasn't lying but he wasn't telling the whole truth...or he didn't know the rest of the truth...?

"Daniel,will you tell me about your life when you were alive?" He asked,still staring at the boy but less coldly.

"Hm.I lived in an apartment building,my best friend lived in the apartment above mine.I worked at a gym,I spent a lot of my time working out there.At home I would usually just sit around doing random things like draw,write,or listen to music."He smiled as he thought back to it, Kaylo hummed.

"How did you die?"He asked next, this caught Daniel off guard.

"I think that's a little personal..." He bit his lip & looked away,Kaylo internally grunted.This kid willingly told him what he did in his life but won't tell him how he died?Was it really that bad of an experience for him?

"Who was your best friend?"

"Risa Nolan"

"Julican,can you find her book?If they were best friends than he should partly be in her book" Kaylo looked in the direction of where he was,but he was already gone.