DEMENTED | Ethan Dolan

CONTROL

"Ethan, come here."

Lucifer beckons the demon, paid a visit by his sole Father who bounded him to this wretched house. Seeker Ethan begrudgingly follows, walking into the dark basement of the home where he especially likes to hide. He should be mad at Father for doing what he did to him, not letting him stay in Hell where he belonged, but he knees he had a plan for him.

"Yes, Father?" Ethan questioned, facing Satan himself who took form of his beautiful human complex, rather than his terrifying nature. Not that it was scary to Ethan or anything.

Lucifer eyes his son, and smiled fondly. "I witnessed your Dark Soulmate in a dream."

Ethan gaped, feeling his heart drop to his chest. He does not want a Dark Soulmate. Quite like a regular Soulmate humans refer to, Dark Soulmates are lovers to the hellish creatures such as him. It is a rare occurrence, and only Satan detects them when he is asleep (another rare occurrence), but when a Dark Soulmate appears, the demon is in danger. As hard as he'll try not to, he'll fall foolishly smitten with them and give them a chance at prosperity. A chance for them to clean themselves of their dirty sin and escape the evil that is Satan. It's much like a death sentence, to all demons who have Dark Soulmates. It's almost like Him giving them at second chance.

Ethan, clearly not happy, huffed, "Is that why I haven't seen you in a month?"

When Satan rests, he rests for months.

"Yes," Lucifer confirmed. "I saw her. She is the epitome of purity. She is God's Child, to be put on Earth and in this home to capture your soul."

He grimaced. "I won't let her take it."

Lucifer sighs. "You say that, but all my demons become enamored with their Dark Soulmates the moment they lay their eyes on them."

"Not me," the Seeker said determinedly, with a confidence smile. "I will not fall in love with her no matter what."

"Ethan, it is not something to control. Demons are unfortunately not void of emotions. If we were, we wouldn't contain the passion we have for destroying Him," Satan lectured. "This is your destiny you must accept. However, I do know a way to get around this tragedy, so I do not have to lose you as my Son."

"What is it, Father?"

"You must taint her. Make her put faith in me, the Devil. You will be sent Holy Temptations from Him but you must repress them, understand?"

"Yes Father, I understand," Ethan spoke eagerly. "When will she arrive?"

"She will arrive in a century from now. Please be prepared Ethan. I may despise mortals, but I could feel this one's power in my dream. She is strong."

Ethan smirked. "But I am stronger."

-

Every single priest refuses to step foot in her home. Every single one.

Y/N begged. She begged and cried and pleaded and bribed for them to bless her demonic home, but they all said no. All of them expressing their desires to stay far away from that house. The Seeker's Chambers. Some took pity and offered her a place to stay if she were to move out at once, many of them not wanting anything to do with the desperate woman in the first place. They all deemed her as cursed already.

So Y/N is forced to take matters into her own hands.

Fortunately downtown, there was a shop that sold sage and good luck charms. The shopkeeper, who recognized her as the new town resident, was not surprised at all to see her buying things to keep certain spirits away. However, he did inform her that they wouldn't work anyway, not strong enough to work against the demon's strength and that she should just leave. Y/N did not listen, and went on her merry way.

Y/N started in the living room, waving around the sage and scrunching her nose at the odd scent that permeated through the air. She travels all around her house, chanting soft verses of the bible to cast any sort of negativity out of her home. Once she's done with everything upstairs, she soon decides to go downstairs to the basement - an area she has avoided since she moved it. It just seemed point blank creepy to her anyway. She wouldn't be surprised if that's where the demon hides.

"I come in peace," she whispers to herself, listening to creak of the floorboards under her feet as she walks down the old, spiderweb-covered steps. "I hereby banish all negative and evil spirits in the name of God, please leave my home at once..."

Then she hears it. The sound of a deep man's voice laughing.

Laughing at her.

"Who's there?" Y/N gasps, wondering if she was hearing things as she turned her head, paddling her feet through the dark and grimy basement. It was truly a fixer-upper; and it'll stay a fixer-upper until she can afford to renovate it.

Suddenly Y/N stopped in her steps when she found herself unable to move. Not from her own will, however. Someone, or something, was holding her in place, its energy keeping her glued to the floor as its presence creeps up from behind her. Then, she feels the familiar grazing of claws trailing up the back of her forearms, gripping her from behind as its mouth planted itself to her right ear, whispering in a deep, mocking voice...

"Nice try."

Suddenly the sage disappeared from her still hand. And then, she felt pain. An agonizing pain, as if her body was ripping into pieces. Skin torn apart. Organs spilling to the floor. That sort of pain. She wanted to open her mouth to scream and cry, but she couldn't. She began to take steps, but again, she wasn't controlling them. Something else was controlling her. It made her exit the basement promptly, leading her body up the stairs and through the kitchen, where the lingering. smell from the sage was completely gone. Y/N started to whimper as her feet forced her up the stairs, moving towards her bedroom. Then everything started fading from her vision, the moment her body began to twitch and stumble to the bed.

Everything went dark.

-

Ethan pulled the comforter over her sprawled out unconcious body from the bed, tucking it around her nearly before resting a fluffy pillow behind her head. She was always most beautiful when asleep, he decided, but hilarious when she was terrified. Well, not hilarious - cute, maybe, but he couldn't but feel some sort of guilt for possessing her body. Then again, he had to punish her somehow, for trying to get rid of him and speaking His name under this roof. In his mind, she honestly deserved a whole lot worse.

He heard the sound of the front door slamming shut, and a feminine voice shouting "thank you" from behind her. Ethan creeped up the stairs and around the corner, to find a woman smiling at all the brown cardboard boxers scattering the floor. The woman radiated purity, his nostrils could detect it with a simple whiff, but he could also see it in her smile. She is a Child of God. But also, his Dark Soulmate.

He's waited so, so very long for her. He thought Lucifer was bluffing when he said it was inevitable for him to fall for the mortal girl. But now that he's watching her, he feels a strange inclination to protect her, adore her, love her...

Mark her.

Ethan grinned fondly at the memory of seeing her face for the first time, and feeling the imminent desire to taint it so badly. To take away her Godliness. To show her a much darker path. But he knew he had to give it some time... However, he's waited long enough.

So he sits. Constantly watching her on a day to day basis, until she awakens. It's become an addiction of his, which is bound to lead him into trouble with Lucifer for not having a plan of action entirely. Ethan, for some reason, does not feel the desire to hurt her in anyway. Even though he already has; it's in his nature. And there's a reason she hasn't taken off from this house yet either, ignoring everyone's pleas to run off for her own safety, yet she stays.

Maybe subconsciously she knows she's bounded to this house... and bounded to him.

Her Dark Soulmate.