Seducing His Legacy

MIDNIGHT PACTS

“What?” I gasp. “No! No, I can’t marry you!” I retort, pushing my hands back from the two men trying to drag me out the front door.

No! This isn’t how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to believe the child is his and ask for an abortion, or perhaps try to convince me to leave him out of it.

It wasn’t supposed to include anything to do with a ceremony, nor a whatever Arcadia.

My once dry cheeks start to wet up again, tears running down my face with snot along my nose. I don’t even care as I try to scream at these men, beg and protest, but it all falls on deaf ears as they push me out the door and into the back of a black SUV.

I can’t tell where we are going or what time it is yet. I don’t seem to care either, because my mind is obsessed with what will happen in the next few hours.

I couldn’t get married! I... I haven’t gone to college yet.

I... just finished sending money paying off my rent for the next two months upfront.

I AM ONLY TWENTY-THREE!!

“You can keep crying and yelling all you want, but just so you know, you caused all this for yourself,” one of the men in the front seat retorts, chuckling at his statement in the process.

Faster than I expect, I hear the car and the ones following behind come to a stop. The men all step out and one opens my door, gesturing for me to follow him.

Against my will, I silently take one step at a time out of the SUV before standing next to him.

A cold night breeze hits me immediately, followed by a weird scent. Weird, but in a good way. Like lilies, but with a hint of white roses and blood? A fresh , metallic smell that makes my stomach curl in a bad way hits my nose too.

From where I am, I can see the entrance of a forest and a large, stone looking building. It looks like the kind of place that served during the civil wars. It has a symbol up at the top, but I can’t tell what it looks like from how far away I am.

Before I know it, Russel walks up to me, grabbing my hand and dragging me across the oddly shaped yard towards the stone building.

As we get closer, the symbol above the wall slowly starts to become noticeable.

It is a statue of a young woman with thick locks of red hair flowing around her neck and all the way to her lower back. She is seated, holding something in her hands that looks circular in shape, as if a ball. Her eyes look desperate, worried like whatever she is holding is fading away from her, and it makes me unable to take my gaze away from her.

For a second, it almost feels like I am her, feeling and having that same exact pain. The pain of losing everything, and even the small amount you have left is being taken away too, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Who was she?

The doors in front of us pull open with a loud cracking noise, raising dust around them in the process. I try to take a few steps back, avoiding the dirt, but Russel just pulls me forward, practically dragging me inside.

It is so dark as we enter that I have to blindly trust Russel as he pulls me forward.

It’s like he can suddenly see in the dark.

“Arcadia?” Russel grunts, his voice vibrating across the walls with slight echoes.

Suddenly, candles start to light up, one at a time, blue and red flames dancing all the way to the entrance. It feels so magical in the moment, like someone had miraculously asked them to ignite.

With the light, I can finally take in what kind of place this is. It has beautiful red roses growing all around the walls, creeping up to the roof and creating massive stalks of flowers all through the aisles.

The floor of the building seems to have frozen water below, but with plants growing beneath it too. It's like someone had an aquarium, but instead of animals, it had lilies, roses, and daisies scattered all around underground, causing the crystal light of the water to reflect a beautiful blue glow all around the building.

It took my breath away.

Whoever was hired to do this surely nailed it.

I am so busy admiring the space that I don’t notice Russel pull out a knife and utter words in a foreign language before cutting at his wrist.

I gasp, staring at him like he has completely lost his mind.

“And now her,” a person speaks from beside us, and that’s when I realize we are standing in front of an old looking man with a red gown and a circular pendant around his neck, almost resembling that the woman in symbol outside has.

He is holding a large black book, reading from it while instructing Russel.

“Wha... what’s going on?” I ask, suddenly afraid of the weird looking guy.

Behind him are three round stones, burning on wood with fierce red flames all around. The priest like man turns around, mutters a few words, and sweeps the knife Russel used into the flames. They erupt, like they have suddenly been fueled, taking on a white shade before returning to their original red color.

Russel grabs my hand and I stare at him in fright, silently begging him not to sacrifice me.

“Please, I will do anything. I'm begging you,” I whisper, loud enough for him to hear but low enough so that the man in front of us doesn’t.

.“He isn’t sacrificing you,” the priest looking man retorts, turning back towards us before placing the blade in Russel’s hand.

Before I can even react, Russel cuts at my wrist and gives it to the priest. I didn’t expect it to be so fast, but it sure is painful. He does the same thing to the flames and they erupt once more, producing a black flame this time around before returning to normal.

The priest and Russel give each other a knowing look, like something was on about me.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” he says, smiling at us both like he had won a trophy.

Tears threaten to spill as Russel drags me out of the building, my legs growing much weaker with each passing second.

I didn’t want to marry a man like him. He ain’t my type, for crying out loud! He is old, old for me to marry but hot for his age, but that doesn’t mean anything.

“I can hear you, by the way. Now that we are married. So be careful with what you think!” he grunts, before walking off, pissed off.

What? How... how?! That wasn’t possible. He is just messing with me.

Walking to the car, I open the back door, desperate to get out of this place and hopefully wake up from this agonizing nightmare but a loud bang startles me, making me whip my whole body towards the direction of the noise.

In front of me, towards the forest, I see something strange. golden burning eyes standing there in the dark, staring at me. It's like it is daring me to take another step.

“Can we go, please?” I yell at whoever can hear, but I get no response.

Russel is at the back talking to one of his men, and the other two just seem to have disappeared ever since we got here.

I feel the hairs on my arms start to raise and a thick wave of shivers runs all over my legs and back.

And that’s when I fully see it. It is slowly walking towards me, its eyes golden, like fire melted there. It emerges through the trees and out into the open plane.

A gasp escapes my lips as I try taking weak steps back. The animal is huge, almost the size of the SUV.

It is covered in red fur, its ears sharp and pointed, and its teeth menacingly out like it is ready to bite me.

“Russel,” I whisper, and somehow he seems to notice before rushing to my side.

“Open the car, we need to go now,” I whimper, suddenly unable to feel my legs anymore.

.“Relax, Red. That’s your new sister-in-law. Lucy,” he grunts, a chuckle escaping his lips in the process like this was the funniest thing in the world.