To Hell, With Me

Belle’s breath was gone as someone had held her arm. She knew she was alone, who is this man?!

The other person seemed to be staring at her and noticing how she didn’t look at him, he released her arm. For a moment, Belle felt a wave of relieve wash over her as she tried to run again but instead this time, the man used his long fingers to capture her chin, lifting and tilting her face to meet his.

Belle didn’t expect the bloody red colored eyes from the man standing in front of her. Her breaths were taken away by the sight as chill covered her spine when she stared at the man’s deep look while gazing at her features.

His appearance was of a handsome man, strong arched brows and a long black hair that slipped from his firm shoulder. Even though his fingers were slender and long as it hold her chin, Belle could tell the mighty power it hid by gazing at his large forearm. The veins on his arm seemed to twitch when he moved his arm to tilt her chin.

“This is not bad. I was expecting an old man to greet me but not such a lovely deer like you. Seems very gullible, but my taste,” his voice and words were sweet but every time he spoke, Belle felt the chilling air passing by her skin, making her shudder.

“W-Who are you?!” Belle snapped, she tried to push the man away. His hold on her chin seemed to be weak but when she tried to pull away his arm, she confirmed he was indeed much more stronger than what she ever imagined. It was as if she was moving a solid, unmoving, good-looking wall.

The man pulled one side of his devilish lips. His grin made his red eyes glow brighter than before, “As the one who had called me out, you don’t know me?”

“Called you? Let me go! I don’t know you!” hissed Belle. She didn’t know who this handsome man was. And even if he was handsome, she could tell he was as frightening as charming he was. She wasn’t one to be fooled by the good looks; and how did this man enter the chapel?!

“You keep crying like a cat,” the man rolled his eyes, “Would you like me to shut your mouth or would you arrange yourself to talk to me in a tamer attitude… lady?” He added his last word gently as if he hadn’t threaten her aloud.

Belle was scared what the man was going to do to her. Not to mention, she was still baffled by what had pulled her into the altar. She stared at the man and glared warily. When she nodded, the man smiled and released his hand.

Belle hissed at the pain on her back. Blood still trickle down from her skin and she couldn’t understand who had pulled her across the floor earlier. Even though this man in front of her seems to be the suspect, no matter how rational she was trying to be, she know the creature who had dragged her wasn’t any humane being.

She lifted her face to see the man walking down the small staircase of the altar. His black shoes, coat, and gloves that didn’t cover his palm entirely, made him more mysterious under the night sky.

Belle was sure, he didn’t had a shirt on him before, how did he wear a coat now?! As she stared at him more, her blood went cold. This man… he wasn’t a human!

The man stared at his hand and tied his long hair behind, letting them to scatter all over his wide back. He then looked back at his prey and Belle flinched, scurrying behind to the table as if wanting to hide inside it.

Apprehensively, Belle questioned, “What are you… what are those things? How did you enter the church. This is not a place anyone could come in—” her words were cut off when the man snapped his finger.

“One question at a time,” he said, demandingly. There was the authority in his words that warned Belle, she should follow his request or she would lose something at a cost.

“How did you get here?” she asked, bitting her lips as it continue to quiver.

“From there, beside you,” He responded, his eyes narrowed as she looked at him in a confused expression. “Did you call me out, by accident?”

“Call you?” Belle shook her head, “But I don’t know you.”

“Hm?” The man’s lighthearted attitude all of a sudden drop. A chillingly icy air filled the room, pushing Belle on edge. She couldn’t see the man’s face anymore as half of his upper face was covered by a deep black shadow.

“I thought it was weird, such a tiny little being like you calling me from where I belong,” his voice that was already deep felt deeper on Belle’s ears. His words resounded and echoed from the room as if the floor itself and the ground beneath her was trembling in fear from his words.

“You cursed the god’s name, bring out such a lovely feast of soul for me. I was here to thank you for it, but you said you do not know me?” An anger seemed to seethe out from his words, “Yet strange, strange, so strange,” slowly black fog filled the man and what appeared from the fog became a large black wolf that made it way toward Belle, scaring her beyond her reasons.

“I am sure, no very certain, you are the one who had denied god’s existence. Your soul called out for me.” Belle jumped from surprise when his voice appeared against her ears. The wolf had disappeared and a crow landed on her shoulder.

The crow disappeared once again into a fog and now a black snake slithered toward her leg, crawling in a smooth transition.

“You have sacrificed lives, after lives, but the most interesting is your last sacrifice didn’t you? For what you had given to me, the price you offered in exchange for my help— a demon, your life is now bound to mine. You have the chance to have your wish granted with my help.”

Belle tried to shake off the snake that merge again to the darkness, leaving no trace on her skin. She gasped and her eyes turned wider as she stared at the darkness where the man would always appear.

A demon…

Her grandmother once spoke about demon, the being who want human soul to fall down to the abyss with them.

“The sacrifice,” she gasped, “I never sacrificed anyone. I never called you out! What do you mean by my last sacrifice I didn’t—” Belle gasped as even though she he had never killed or sacrifices anyone life, she had lost her sister not long ago.

At the time, the man chuckled, the sound of heavy wings flapped alongside his voice, “Indeed, the live that you have sacrificed, the soul that became the catalyst to call me here— the soul of your sister.”

Belle was in shock as the man appeared again but this time, in the appearance of her sister Rachel. Rachel walked toward her and extended her hands. As Belle tried to hold her hand, Rachel disappeared into a fog.

“To send off your sister’s soul to be offered to a demon, I have to say it is a very extreme determination you have there. It was what that had beguiled me to come here.”

“No!” Belle shouted, she cannot see the man anywhere near her but on her surrounding darkness, she knew the man was in fact, merging into one with the shadows in the chapel. “Th… There is no way… I didn’t kill my sister! I did not take her life… how can I ever sacrifice her for you— a monster?!”

“I am a demon not a monster,” the man fixed her words. “You might not believe what comes to my words,” his voice appeared again on her left ears, this time he had a bat form, “But with me being here, beside you, after you had activated the summoning circle meant you have sacrificed your sister’s soul for me, darling.”

“No way!” Belle pushed herself from the floor. “I never wished to call you! I never wished for a demon’s help! Give me back my sister!”

A loud laughter filled the chapel, the belle was tolling but no one came for her, it was as if her surrounding couldn’t hear the ruckus that happened inside the church.

“What have been done, is done. You sacrificed your sister and your sister is dead, that is all, the truth that is unchanged. Wishing for her to come back alive when her soul is no where in this world, is impossible, no matter what,” the demon answered. He stared at her from the darkness and the fear that covered her face and unable to hold his devilish chuckles.

“How naive. You gave me the delicious souls but it seem, you are just too naive. If you wish for me to be gone, that can be easily said in the contract. Although if I leave, I will not leave alone.”

Belle gasped when fingers wreathed around her slender neck. The demon had crouched next to her, his lips brushing over her ears, “You will be coming with me to hell, darling.”