Marked by the Devil

Beelzebub

THE NONSTOP rain seems to sympathize with Cent’s mood as she watched the heavy rainfall from her room’s window. Ever since Madame Lira died, she knew deep in her heart that it was because of that incident during the class wherein she met the professor’s eyes with her lime green ones. Cent touched her bangs that obstructed her eyes from the people. She thought that it was enough to avoid the same incident that happened three years ago.

…

“MALEFICENT! Maleficent!” Only one person called her that, it was Steffan, the young volunteer who visited her foster home the other week. He took a liking to her ‘quirks’. He meant her eyes that had always dark circled like she spent weeks without sleep or the way how pale her skin was even if she played under the sun or how her eyes were so dark like they were some kind of bottomless pit. Steffan liked it.

Cent spun her feet away from the running sunshine. She was afraid that she would get burned with his sunny attitude, no matter how crazy that may sound for her. “Hey.” He was still able to catch up to her.

“What do you want? Don’t you have school or something?” She clutched her sketchpad to her chest which his cerulean eyes noticed.

The next thing Cent knew, her sketchpad was already in his hands. “Give me that!”

He must not see it. If he did, he would surely run away from her and never look back. Even though he pest her like no one else, it was hard to imagine him getting angry with her. It would truly break her heart because Steffan was her only friend, aside from the shadows.

Stretching her arms, Cent flailed to get back her sketchpad. But Steffan was too tall and too strong for a skinny gothic girl like her. She was almost in tears when Steffan’s words froze her. “These are awesome! Did you draw these, Maleficent? Dude, this is so cool!”

What? Did you call horned beings with ugly faces cool? Cent asked Steffan in her mind. The last time that some children of the shelter looked at her drawing, they ran away while crying. Hence, the words spread that she was a devil worshipper. It was not true though she had no religion.

Cent heard from the nuns in the shelter that every time she was about to be baptized, catastrophe would ensue thus leading to the cancellation of her baptismal ceremony. Sister Tasha proceeded to just register her, but Cent saw how the baptismal registration papers burned to ashes. Though it was kept a secret by Sister Tasha’s order, some nuns and kids in the shelter called her a Satan’s spawn.

“You are not afraid?” Cent’s wary reaction earned her a pat on the head from Steffan.

“Silly girl. This is absolute talent, I tell you. By the way, what are these? I get that these horned ones are demons, but what are these small creatures?”

Cent was about to answer him that she did not know and she only saw these creatures in her dreams, but she was stopped midway when the shadows hissed the name of the creatures. “Goblins,” said Cent.

Steffan whistled from her reply. “You got some awesome imagination, Maleficent. You keep on surprising me.”

His smiling face was addicting, that it also made Cent’s young heart smiled. She lived under the shadows of doubt and fear because of what she was. She struggled to convince herself that she belonged no matter how Sister Tasha kept on reminding her that the shelter was her home. For the very first time, Cent learned the feeling of how to be accepted truly as a person and not because of filial piety. She felt happy for the first since she was born.

Steffan tilted her head as he guided her chin to meet his eyes that could b compared to the depths of the ocean. Her lifeless-looking face felt hot for the first time as she felt his minty breath against her lips. Staring at his attractive eyes, Cent realized how different she was from him.

Her heartbeat quickened, hands clenched, and eyes widened as Cent waited for the magical moment.

Her fairytale turned into a nightmare in front of her. Black swirls of smoke that came out from nowhere covered Steffan who was now grasping her shoulders rather painfully. Whizzing his breath, Steffan uttered his last words. “Y-You monster!” Cent rushed to him only to be pushed away by the shadows that were not her own, it was as if the shadows hated the idea of her touching Steffan.

Cent was about to rush again only to be stopped by her reflection on the shelter’s windows. Her eyes were not cobalt-colored anymore; instead, they were shining lime green.

…

Cent realized through Steffan’s incident that if anyone looked at her lime green eyes, that person would die. It was as if death would come knocking on that person’s door. Since she could not control that ability of hers, she chose to obstruct her eyes from anyone thus her hideous bangs came into being.

Loud knocks snapped Cent out of her reverie. “Milly? Are you alright, dear?”

It was Sister Tasha, she was quite worried about Cent’s behavior since the latter stopped attending classes and was now planning to skip her birthday. Though little, Sister Tasha prepared a personally baked Chiffon cake for Cent, the celebrant’s favorite.

Cent walked away from her window but she did not open the door for Sister Tasha. Instead, she walked near the door. “Leave me alone, please.”

‘I don’t want to hurt you too.’

“All the more reason for me to stay, dear. Open the door, please.”

Sister Tasha became her guardian when she was abandoned by her real parents. Though the thought that maybe, her parents were looking for her, was just wishful thinking. Sometimes, Cent would think that she was an abomination hence why she was abandoned.

“Go away,” said Cent before she materialized as a flock of black butterflies, leaving the confines of her cramp room. It was her birthday today and she dreaded what ability she would get.

x-x-x-x

THE LOCAL ice-skating gym just two blocks away from the foster shelter became Cent’s second home through the years. She would always trespass when the rink was not in use or no one was renting it. The seventeenth birthday gift that she got from Sister Tasha was a pair of secondhand skating shoes that Cent treasured the most.

“Oops,” Cent mumbled as she manifested her human form again. The enormous ice rink was empty which made her smiled. “Go get it,” said Cent to the shadows that had been noisier than usual.

They obeyed her words like the Holy Grail as the smoky shadows transferred from her shadow to the shadow of the benches and the other shadows located in the rink. Cent hid her baggy skating shoes at the back of the locker.

Cent remained still, bathing the darkness that engulfed the eerie skating rink. She saw how her pair of skating shoes looked like it was floating towards her as the shadows brought it to her. “Thanks.”

She moved with ease as she closed her eyes while following the hymn of a nostalgic lullaby. A melody that etched upon her very core, in her nightmares, this song would guide her out of its darkness. If anything, she could almost hear the sweet voice of a woman. But Cent was sure that she did not hear such sweet voice of a woman, did she?

Memorized in her heart and mind, Cent moved as she followed the notes of the lullaby. She did the triple axle with eyes closed followed by a double axle. On the skating rink, she felt that she was free and that for once in her life, her existence mattered. Like a bird being freed to the forest, Cent let loose. She danced and hummed without minding the eyes of people around her.

‘I don’t want this to end.’

She was about to perform the triple axle only to be stopped midway by the stabbing pain in her head.

“f**k,” uttered Cent as she navigated on the rink to make it through the benches but was stopped by the excruciating pain on her back. Cent tripped on the ice, her body rolling like a potato, and was stopped when her back hit the glass that surrounded the rink.

The world around her felt ethereal, Cent stopped feeling the coldness of the ice or the feverish heat of her skin like her skin was breathing some steam. Cent would not be surprised if she saw her body on fire, her chest was heaving with the difficulty of breathing, and her eyes were blurred. Her back throbbed together with her forehead. The gravity pulling her body down felt like it doubled for her as if there was a force that kept her from moving.

‘Is this my end? Is this some sort of limit? Figures. I read this type of plot in Chinese web novels wherein a character got the ability in exchange for a limited time. Well, that sucks. But at least, I got to rest. No more hiding my eyes. No more wishing to fit in.’

Staring at the ceiling was the only thing that she was left to do as she waited for death to come. Instead, a silhouette appeared.

‘Who are you?’

x-x-x-x-

“DUKE ZEL, it is time to cast the spell of awakening to the princess.” Gukasho, a millennium-old goblin and the assistant of the Grand Duke, warily disturbed the green-eyed great demon. The latter was invested in staring at the lonesome figure who was dancing on a rink.

Gukasho knew how the Grand Duke of the Demon World spent his free time just watching his daughter that he abandoned. He did not know if what he felt was sympathy, but Gukasho knew that Duke Zel had an attachment to the Halfling named Maleficent. Grand Duke Beelzebub, the demon of gluttony and the only demon with wings among the seven great demons, was the second most powerful being in the Demon World next to King Lucifer.

“Do we share the same blood with that being? I do not see any traces of evil, Gukasho. She looks so human like Aurora.”

‘Aurora? Oh yeah. The human who besotted the picky great demon. Aah, that Aurora. How lovely she was.’

Gukasho cleared his voice before answering carefully. “She is, my lord. We were both there when the nun took her in. So please, my lord, we already stalled enough, please conduct the spell awakening to the princess or King Lucifer will send a naraka to her.”

‘We don’t want to add more fuel to your dispute with the king. The very thought of those narakas crawling here in the middle world is fearful enough.’ He continued in his thoughts.

The narakas were the type of demon in the demon world that served only King Lucifer. Gukasho hated interacting with them since those creatures only wanted one thing, human flesh. They fed on the flesh of the women. And knowing the king, he would surely spark a fight with the Grand Duke Beelzebub the Glutton by sending a woman-eating demon to her Halfling daughter.

The Grand Duke continued observing the Halfling. “My lord, please do not forget the number one rule of the Halflings. They should stay in the middle world until their eighteenth birthday and after that, the demon father must take the Halfling. “

The purple-colored goblin turned white as he paled when his red eyes met the warning on those shining green eyes. “Do not cite the four laws to me. I am there when it was sealed. Know your place, Gukasho.”

The loyal goblin immediately kissed the Grand Duke’s feet for forgiveness. “Forgive this impudent demon, my lord. I only worried for the princess. Should she become late in the entrance ceremony, Headmaster Kirk would punish her greatly.”

Gukasho’s vision flipped. “My lord!” His eyes widened when he saw his headless body in the hands of the Grand Duke. The infernal color of his flame which was identical to his eyes sparked, threatening to burn his body into cinders. “Forgive me, my lord! I only cared for the princess!”

Gukasho lost count of how many times his limbs or head had been severed from his body. But his temper became unstable when the princess was the one being talked about. Now he realized why the fourth law was made, the recently made law by King Lucifer in consideration for the Grand Duke when he refused to let go of the Halfling.

‘King Lucifer created the fourth law of the Demon World and that is to never show love to your children.’