MARRIAGE CONTRACT WITH THE MONSTER

CHAPTER FIVE: THE SECRET ROOM

The mansion was quieter than usual that night.

The guards did not seem to be as alert as they usually are. The cameras also appeared to be paying attention to what was going on.

Elara walked down the hall with Marco. Marco had a steady walk and he seemed very confident. Elara tried to walk like Marco.. Her hands were shaking a lot.

Marco said that I am nervous and he said it softly.

Elara said "I am". She spoke quietly. Elara did not know what Elara and the others would find.

Marco said that you will find the truth. The truth is a dangerous thing. Marco said this because the truth is something that can hurt you. The truth that Marco is talking about is really dangerous.

Elara stopped. She looked at the person who was with her. Said "Why are you helping Elara?"

Marco said "I am not doing that". He told me that he is testing me. If I make it through I will learn something. If I do not make it I will be gone. Marco said that is all there is to it. Marco wants me to know how it works with the test that Marco is giving me.

Elara swallowed. The word disappear did not sound good to her. She really did not like the sound of disappearing.

Marco stopped in front of a door that Marco had never seen before. The door was made of wood. It was locked with a heavy metal key. Marco thought the door looked really old. The dark wood on the door was very dark.

Marco said this door is special. Not many people have gone inside. Dante always keeps it locked. That is for a reason. The reason is that Dante has a secret, inside this door and he does not want anyone to know about this secret.

Elara looked at him. She said "Why is it happening now?"

Marco said that because he thinks you are ready for this. He also said that Dante wants to see how you will react when you find out the truth about something. Marco told him that you are ready now. Dante is really curious to see what you will do when you know the truth.

Elara's stomach got all twisted up. She said "What are you talking about, what is the truth?"

Marco smiled a little. "You might be more important than you think you are, " he said, talking about you and what you can do and that you yourself may be more important than you think.

Elara shook her head. "I do not understand what is going on " she said, looking really confused about the situation, with Elara feeling like she was missing something. Elara just did not get it.

Marco said that I will do something. He told me to open it.

Elara's hands were shaking really badly as she took the key that Marco gave her. She put the key in the lock slowly. Then the lock made a clicking sound. Some heavy air came out. Elara opened the door that had the lock Marco gave her the key for.

Inside this room it was really small. The room was dark. It was also very dusty. It looked like nobody had been there for a long time so it was forgotten. There was a lamp hanging down from the ceiling. It was the light in the room. On a table, in the room there was a box. The box was old. It was black. The box was locked so you could not open it.

Elara looked around her. What is the Elara place she was in, she thought to herself. "What is the Elara thing that is going on here?" Elara asked out loud.

Marcos' voice came from behind her. He said "The key is what you need to open the box. That is all you need to know about the key and the box."

Elara got down on her knees. She put the key in the lock. The box made a clicking sound. Opened. Inside the box Elara found some papers. There were also some photographs and letters. Elara looked at the photographs and the letters that were in the box.

She picked up a photograph of Dante. In the picture Dante was smiling. There was a girl standing beside him. The girl was. They both looked very happy. The photograph showed a moment in the life of Dante and the girl.

The woman wanted to know who this person was. "Who is she?" she asked, her voice was really quiet you could hardly hear it.

Marco looked at her. He said "His sister is the reason for this". The one that everyone thought was dead. Marco said "She is the reason why Dante became so bad".

Elara looked at the photograph. She thought to herself. Why did they hide the photograph? The photograph was really important to Elara. She wanted to know why someone would want to hide the photograph from her.

Marco said, "You see monsters will always keep the things they love hidden away.. The people who love these monsters well do not usually live for very long. Monsters hide what they love. That is just the way it is. People who love monsters rarely live."

Elara put the photo down carefully. She was really nervous. Her hands were shaking a lot. The photo was taken down. Elara could not look at the photo anymore because her hands trembled. Elara did not like it when her hands trembled like that. Elara was trying to calm down so her hands would stop trembling.

Dante's voice came from the doorway. It was really calm and his voice was cold. He sounded very controlled.

You finally found it.

Elara jumped. "You really knew about this?"

Dante said " course". He took a step closer to me. The shadows moved with him. "I wanted you to see the thing, " Dante said. "I wanted you to understand what the thing is."

"What are you talking about?" she said. The Human part of you is what you mean? You were human once is that it? Can you really care about something?

Dante looked at her. His eyes were really dark and sharp; they looked empty. He said "You are a human maybe.. The thing is, love is very dangerous. It hurts people. It can even destroy families. I just cannot let that happen with the people I care about. Love is not something I can allow to happen. Dante thinks that love is not a thing because it breaks people and it destroys families so Dante cannot allow love to happen.

Elara frowned. "Then why did you show me that?"

Dante said this slowly. He told me that he sees something in me. This thing that he sees is something that his sister had too. I am talking about courage. I am talking about intelligence. I am talking about strength. These are things that a lot of people do not have. Dante sees these things in me. That is what he likes. He likes that I have courage, intelligence and strength.

Elara said "I am not like her". She is a girl who signed a contract so that the girl could survive. Elara is a girl who did this to survive.

Dante said to me "You are learning." He told me that this is what makes me different. This is what makes me a danger. I am a danger to our enemies.. I am a danger to Dante himself.

Elara's stomach did a flip. She said "To you?"

"Yes, " Dante said. He took a step closer to her. "I married you because you are like a piece in a big game.. Even small pieces can become very powerful. Queens are powerful.. Queens can bring down entire kingdoms. Pawns, like you can become queens. Queens can destroy empires. You are a pawn. You can become a queen."

Elara's hands were shaking badly. She asked "Why are you telling me this?"

Dante said, "If you are going to live in this house you have to get something. The thing that will help you is fear. It is like a weapon that you can use. Then there is knowledge. Knowledge is like a shield that protects you.. Then there is trust. Trust is something you decide to do.. With trust you have to be careful. You might not always get to choose if you can trust someone again. Trust is a choice you may never get to make because once it is gone it is really hard to get back. Fear and knowledge are important. Trust is something you have to think about carefully because it is a big decision. Dante wants you to remember that fear is your weapon and knowledge is your shield and trust is something you have to be careful with when you are living in this house.

Elara looked at the letters that were sitting on the table. She picked one of the letters up. This letter was for Dante. The letter was really old. It was torn in some places. It also had smudges on it from tears.

The woman wanted to know who wrote this thing. She asked this question. The question was who wrote this.

Dante said "your sister”, in a voice. His voice was different now. It was a little softer. He said "she wrote this before she died". The sister wrote it before she died. She asked Dante to forgive the world. The sister begged Dante not to become the monster that everyone was afraid of. The sister failed to stop this from happening. Dante said the sister failed.

Elara swallowed. "Then you are the monster because you lost Elara's sister?"

Dante nodded. "Yes.. I have lost many friends since then. That is what it costs to stay alive in this world."

Elara's hands were shaking badly. She said "I do not want to lose any of my friends. I want to make it through this thing called survival. I want Elara to survive."

Dante said to me "You will do it.. You have to be smart. You have to know the rules of the game. You have to be brave and not let fear take over the rules and you or you will not make it. The rules are what matter here."

Elara looked at him. She said "Am I supposed to love the man in front of me?"

Dante's lips moved a little. It was not a smile. It was not anger either. It was like he was thinking something was funny. "No, " he said. "Do not think that just because you need me to survive it means you love me. You may never actually love Dante.. Dante may never let you love him.. You have to get Dante or you will be in big trouble. You will die if you do not understand Dante.

Elara nodded slowly. She took a look around the room again. The letters were still there. The photograph was still on the table. The shadows on the wall seemed to be moving. Elara thought about the letters. The photograph was really old. The shadows made her feel weird.

She looked at him. Said "You kept this secret for how long?" She wanted to know how long he had been keeping it from her. The secret was something that he had not told her about for a long time. She was surprised that he had kept it from her for so long.

Dante said "That is long enough." He meant it was long enough for him to become the monster that people see. It was long enough for him to survive. The time that passed was also long enough for him to marry the person he loves to marry you.

Elara's heart was beating fast. She looked over at Marco. "He is a bad person, " she said in a quiet voice. She looked at Marco again. "Marco is dangerous, " she whispered.

Marco said this in a voice. Now you know something about Dante Russo. Dante Russo is a person because of the bad things that happened to him.. It is possible to teach bad people to respect others.. It is possible to make them afraid. Marco was talking about Dante Russo and how Dante Russo can be taught to respect people and also be afraid of them.

Elara's hands were shaking really badly as she closed the box. She said "I do not know if I can really do this" and her voice was full of doubt. Elara was not feeling very sure of herself at that moment.

Dante said that the house will do something to you if you do not do what it wants. The house will break you first, Dante said.

The rain outside got really heavy. The lamps in the room started to flicker a lot. Shadows from the rain danced on the walls of my room. The rain kept falling. The lamps kept flickering. Shadows from the lamps danced over the walls.

Elara felt something was different inside of Elara. It was like a shift had taken place within Elara.

The woman knew what fear was. Fear was something she understood well. She had seen fear. She had felt fear. The woman understood fear.

The woman knew what it meant to be in a spot. She understood danger. It was something that she was very familiar with. She knew that danger was not something to be taken lightly. Danger was a thing.

She knew that the man she married the monster was not done yet. The monster she married still had a lot to show. She was aware that the monster she married was still going to do some things.

And neither was she.

She stepped back. Her eyes met Dante's eyes. She looked at Dante.

The man nodded his head.

For the first time she saw a flicker of something, behind the man's eyes. She really noticed this thing behind his eyes. The man's eyes had something that she had not seen before.

Something soft. Something dangerous.

Something human.