Damned By His Touch

3. Chapter

Unknown

The click of the lock cut into me like an axe.

When the heavy iron door closed, the world stopped existing. Only I remained, the darkness, and the silent unmoving walls.

"Let me out," I screamed, pounding my fists against the cold metal until my knuckles split open and bled. "Lucifer. You damned animal. Let me out."

I shouted until my throat burned raw, until my voice turned into nothing more than a hoarse whisper.

No answer came.

The ruler of Hell had left me in that damp hole as if I were nothing more than a discarded object.

The anger that had kept me alive slowly drained away. In its place came something far more terrifying.

Emptiness.

I do not know how much time passed. Down here there was no sunrise, no clock. Only silence.

Sometimes that silence became so loud it made my head ache.

The walls felt closer with every passing moment. When I closed my eyes, I felt the stone pressing down on me, as if it wanted to bury me alive.

Then the cold arrived.

At first I thought it was only because of my wet clothes. But even after the torn fabric dried against my skin, the trembling did not stop.

It grew worse.

This was not the cold of winter wind. It came from inside.

It felt as if icicles were growing where my bones should be, as if my blood were slowly freezing inside my veins.

"Help..." I whispered.

My voice died in the corner of the cell.

Every day a bowl of food and a jug of water were pushed through a small opening in the door. I barely touched the food. My stomach twisted at the thought of eating.

I sat on the straw mattress with my knees pulled to my chest, trying to wrap the rough blanket around myself.

It did nothing.

It felt like trying to fight off a glacier with a piece of paper.

Panic came in waves.

Sometimes I stared at the corners of the cell for hours. The shadows seemed to move. As if something was watching me from inside the walls, waiting for the moment I would finally break.

"I don't know my name," I whispered to myself again and again so I would not lose my mind. "I don't know who I am, but I don't belong here. Not here..."

On the third or fourth day, I was no longer sure which, I reached my breaking point.

My body no longer just trembled. It shook violently from the cold. The sound of my teeth chattering echoed through the cell.

No matter how much I rubbed my arms, my skin remained ice cold, turning pale and almost blue.

Then I heard footsteps.

Heavy. Slow. Ominous.

I knew that walk.

The hated, burning presence of the one who had thrown me in here.

When the lock scraped open, the torchlight from the corridor blinded me. I curled deeper into the corner, wrapped in the blanket like a wounded animal.

There was no defiance left in me.

No strength to throw sarcastic remarks at him.

I only watched from the corner as his massive silhouette filled the doorway.

I saw the runes glowing red across his skin in the darkness.

That glow looked warm.

So warm that every part of my soul longed for it.

Lucifer stood in the doorway.

He said nothing. He only stood there, frowning down at me. He was probably waiting for me to shout at him again or try to escape.

But I could not move.

I only stared at the shadows of the cell, terrified that if he left again the walls would finally close in on me.

"What happened to that big mouth of yours, little girl?" he asked.

His voice sounded less cruel now.

More confused.

I did not answer.

I only trembled and pulled the blanket tighter around myself. The cold had reached my lungs. Every breath felt like swallowing shards of glass.

"Look at me," he ordered.

Slowly I lifted my head.

I must have looked miserable. My hair was tangled, my face hollow, and the only thing left in my eyes was panic.

Lucifer’s expression darkened.

He stepped inside the cell.

His presence... God.

His presence felt like a campfire in the middle of a freezing night.

Every instinct in me wanted to crawl closer to him, to touch that burning skin I had hated only days ago.

"Why are you so cold?" he muttered, and I saw genuine shock in his eyes. "This cell isn't cold."

"Please..." I whimpered.

I barely recognized my own voice.

"Just... don't leave me here... in the dark..."

The walls moved again.

At least that is what I saw.

I had lost control of my mind. The stone walls seemed to close in on me, ready to crush me.

Lucifer bent down toward me.

When his hand touched my shoulder I let out a weak cry.

His skin was hot.

Brutally, painfully hot.

But it was the most beautiful warmth I had ever felt.