Creatures of the Light

Eighth Light

Eighth LightCreatures of the Light

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##### Eight Light #####

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Follow the path to heaven,

Because only in light’s embrace that I can rest.

Follow the path to love,

Because only in his arms I can’t resist.

“This is impossible,” I try to put some senses into it, though very much still in disbelief. “I have performed the spell. You should not be able to interrupt my life anymore.” Though when I try to look down on myself, at least I can still feel slight relief by the fact that my long hair has turned back to black from the corner of my eyes, spreading around my head on where I am forced to lie down.

“Such a shame, don’t you think?” he asks as he takes a strand of my black hair and places it above his cold lips. “That form of yours that simply looking too much of a Blancort’s... It was just so.... reputable.” His words send chills down to my spine. “But I prefer this version of yours better, still.” He smirks down at me. I can feel its spiteful curve.

“How did you break the spell through? Am I.... weakening?” I ask as I stare down my hands, which fingers are now shaking in fragility.

“Oh, you are nowhere near a weakling. It is just a simple fact that you forgot to remember at the moment when you decided to take away your life. Your soul is now belong to me, since you are now dead. You should be able to return to your original body, if I had not decided to take it away.”

So my attempt should have worked? And why could not I remember this small rule before? Have I been so desperate that I did not even overlook the consequences of my actions? Why did I let this happen? Was I that despiteful by the thought of looking like a member of the Blancort family for the rest of my life? And now, how I can escape from the very grasps of the hands that I do not want to get trapped back in?

“Don’t bother with your attempts to escape, though,” he answers my thoughts, knowing just what I desperately try to figure out. “I have made sure that you will never get away. And by sunset, your body will die.”

“You mean.... my physical body? The one I left behind when I took my own life away?”

“Correct. And after sundown, you shall never be able to go back to it anymore. You will never be alive after today, trapped in Hell with nowhere else to go. And finally, your soul shall be mine for eternity. Don’t you just think that it is just simply wonderful?” His words sound like acid to my skin, sinking in from the edges until it reaches my core.

“No! That can’t be!” I cry out despondently, though knowing that it will be no use. But even my reaction surprises me. I am on the edge of eternal death, and I still have not leaked a single tear. This means that I have truly returned to normal. I am delighted by it but also feeling downcast by it at the same time.

In this dark place, only in my Blancort appearance that I can move freely.

“Don’t even bother to escape. If you let yourself fall from this stone chair on purpose, you will be greeted by a bottomless pool, which its end will be so dark, I do not think you can even find yourself conscious for quite some time.”

And I know for a fact that the term ‘quite some time’ for a being that has been around for as long as him will be more like countless centuries for me. So for this time only, I will listen to his warning and stop endeavoring to test the risk.

I can see him reaching out to the side of my head, making me flinch by his gesture. But he is only grabbing something that is placed near me, which when he retreats, turns out to be a small blue-emerald stone. He holds the small stone between his thumb and index finger, before extending his hand towards the pool and dropping it.

My dark senses are telling me exactly just how deep the pool really is, by hearing how the stone never touches the bottom. My whole body trembles nervously even by the thought of never getting out of there, unable to move, and keep sinking until I can not even remember my own name anymore.

“What are you planning to do with me?” I finally ask him after a while.

He does not answer right away, but playing with the strand of my hair that he is holding. My eyes are still locked with the midnight strand, which is almost looking discreditable to me, in his claw-like fingers that are pale beyond boundaries.

“I believe you already know the answer to that question, Arsene. My purpose remains the same ─ to make you my mistress.”

“This is not something you can trick me into agreeing. I won’t betray my husband for anyone or anything,” I tell him in a stern tone.

“I know. Which is why....”

The freezing fog that has been covering his face for this entire time begins to melt, showing much more solid features. His high cheekbones are supple. His rosy pink lips are displaying, curving into a smile that makes my insides turn. His skin is not showing demonic paleness, but a lively and healthy shade of milkiness, which color somehow seems to spread fast through the rest of his body. And it does not take long before a pair of very crystal blue eyes that I know so well that I can even close my eyes and create by imagination are staring back at me. Those eyes are so clear and pure that I can even see my own reflections in them. I want to look away, but I know that I can not. I am hypnotized and bound to their owner. I am linked to the owner of those features. And what I am looking at currently.... is not.

“....I will appear in his form for you.”

“No! Please change back.” I close my eyes so that I will not be able to look at him. I do not want to look at him while he is looking exactly like Valline. I refuse to stare back at him like the way I stare into Valline’s eyes. I deny having my heart beating so hard for Valline, while I know that who I am looking at is not really him.

“No? Then perhaps a little more adjustment might do,” he says like a cat who already gets a hold on a mouse for his dinner.

“Arsene.”

I can hear my name vibrating from a voice I know so well.

It is not The Devil’s, or even hinting malice.

It is the sound from the Heaven-like sanctuary, sheer and infernal.

I open my eyes slowly, my sight welcomed by Valline’s face. I know that he is not really here. I know that the body that I am feeling against me is not his. But I can not help but answer his calling, even when I know that the voice is not even his. I can not refuse him at the same time as well, though. And even after struggling so hard in the inside, I still can not peer my eyes away from him. My brain is warning me, but my heart does not comprehend.

“Valline....” My lips tremble just by saying his name. His appearance never fails to take my breath away. He is the most handsome male to me, and he is the only one I will ever lay my eyes on with such a loving and passionate habitude.

Valline smiles down at me with his usual angelic vein. He leans down to seal our lips with a kiss.... when I turn my face away when his lips are about to make contact with mine.

“Please.... I do not wish to betray him,” I plead to the only creature who has no mercy upon anyone.

“Oh really?” he asks, his voice echoes back to the way he usually talks. “And how exactly are you going to put the term ‘not betraying him’ when you are asked to explain why exactly were you naked inside the prince’s chamber?” His question makes my blood runs cold. “How exactly are you going to explain to him when he finds your body, lifeless and wearing another man’s robe?” My entire body becomes stiff. “What will you say to him, when you are finally dead, and have your body wrapped around mine?”

“That will never happen!”

“Not yet. But you will be. Soon, you will not even remember his name. And when he sees you, he will cry painfully by the torment in his own heart, caused by none other than the one he loves the most.”

“You can hurt me as much as you want, but please, just leave Valline alone. Your grudge is on me, not him. Stop trying to avert it to him. Just cause me pain as much as you want and get it over with!” I beg desperately that my shaking fingers are even able to cling onto his top. I just can not stand the thought of Valline being in pain anymore. He can do whatever he wants with me, just as long as he does not hurt Valline.

“Is that a yes, then?”

Silence.

“I know that I am the type that does the deal.”

I can feel his hands all over me, tearing my clothes off from my body. My heart is hammering in panic as his cold fingers begin to brush my bare skin.

“But this one chance, I might as well let it slide.”

He starts to plant kisses on my belly button. His lips are icy, making me chill right to my internal organs. He then moves his lips higher, planting kisses up until it is dangerously close to my tattoo.

If his lips do as much as touching the outline of the inked mark, I will be as much as gone. My body is already dead, and it will be very official that my soul is on its way to never being able to return forever. What kind of punishment will I receive when he kisses me there?

Nothing.

Yet, I remain on having no heart in deluding my love for Valline.

And just when The Devil is about to kiss my tattoo ─ the white symbol that Valline has got on my skin ─ I push him away as hard as I can, causing me to fall out of balance.

And then I sink.

It feels like a long ago before I can blink my eyes again. And once I do, I find myself not sinking in a bottomless pool, or even in someplace dark. Instead, I find myself resting on the stone chair, alone.

When I can move, I raise myself into a sitting position, before feeling a presence from afar.

Next to the stone chair that is floating in the middle of the pool, across the water, is The Devil himself, sitting on his own stone chair. The two chairs look like small islands, as the pool signifies the ocean.

“You know, I really envy your husband. No one is ever that loyal to me. Not my oldest subjects. Not even my previous wives,” he admits, and I can not believe that I am able to hear a hint of sadness in his tone. But he seems relaxed, somehow calm as if telling that he has stopped on trying to restrain me. And it does not appear that he wants to haunt me anymore.

“Well, that’s because you can not force loyalty on someone. It is either one is loyal to you, or one is not. You can’t change one’s trust. It is the same acquiescence in love.”

“Still, it does not restrain me from trying to find someone who might just do the deed.” His tone sounds dangerous, almost teasing. Yet my gut is telling me that he is not planning to strike.

“I am not the one that you are looking for.” It is still quite a surprise to me that I am having a decent conversation with The Devil himself for once, instead of him trying to make deals or me trying to find my way out of the mess.

“Yes. Sadly, you aren’t.” Even listening to him agreeing on my words is unimaginable. “I have all the powers a creature ever needs. Yet I must admit that among all the creatures that have ever existed, I feel like I am the one that is unable to completely fulfill his ultimate purpose of existence.”

“At times like this, you can not do anything, but patiently wait,” I sigh. “You might not believe my words, but even I have proved that love does exist. It does not matter how long. I have distanced myself away from any possibility of ever falling. I have sworn to never be weak. Yet it came to me on its own way, crumbling my defenses like they were nothing. And it shines the brightest, more than any stars or suns. Until that time comes.... that is when you will truly be happy.”

“I have waited for so long....” he heaves a respire, sounding lost in dysphoria.

“Then your wait will be worth it. After all, you existed longer than any of us creatures. And in exchange of time, your turn of finding that someone who will be completely loyal to you and you only, will come later on as well.”

“It is truly such a waste. You have everything I have ever needed. You possess powers, strong will, and boundless mercy.” He spares one look at me, before blending in with the atmosphere and disappeared out of sight. And soon, I find myself getting sleepier.