The Demon’s Bride

Elise watched Ian leaving to take a hairbrush and came to sit behind her as she thinks what to say, "I didn't know that you have been watching me. That you know I am on the quiet side."

Ian pushed his hand on her hair, brushing her soft hair gently, "Everyone will know if they look at you well, on my side, I just stared at you a lot more than others. How did you find your first talk with a ghost like?"

"It was not as frightening as I thought," replied Elise. Ghost was still scary to her but much better than before. "Do you have siblings, Ian?" she asked, wanting to know more about his past.

"I did," replied Ian and Elise was surprised despite being the one to ask. She had thought to ask every single family member to have a better picture of Ian's past.

"Did?" questioned Elise.

"He died," Ian answered, unlike the time he has spoke about Maroon, his tone brought no emotion or nostalgia which had Elise to guess that maybe Ian didn't had a good relationship. Her thoughts were strengthened when Ian continued, "He was the son of my father from his second wife. Growing up in my teens, I didn't live with my father."

Curious Elise's eyes shifted from the bed cover to Ian when he hushed her and bring her face back to see front, "Where did you live without your father?" she asked.

"At a different house, in a small village that couldn't be find anywhere on maps anymore," Ian answered her question in ease despite Elise knowing it shouldn't be an easy story to tell.

Elise pulled one strand of her hair that had dried, "Is the village gone?" 

"It did," and before Elise could ask why, Ian enlightened her, "I was the one who did that," this time Ian let her face to look at him, surprise was there on her face but she didn't judge which was a quality Ian had found to be the most beautiful from her that others normally wouldn't have. Elise wondered why and she continue to hear Ian speak, "I live in that village briefly with my grandmother, who wasn't really my grandmother. I didn't remember much as she died a day after she took me in."

"Did she die naturally?" Elise saw Ian shaking his head.

"Out of sickness, was what the doctor said when the truth was different. I found it later that my father had poisoned food for my grandmother to eat. It was a slow acting poison that work five hours after taken. But I didn't sympathize with her death. She was not a kind grandmother, but a brazen and a greedy one. She agreed to take me in for the sake of money my father offered without knowing that he had planned to kill both of us using the poison."

Elise didn't know what to say. She found Ian's life not to be smooth as one would expect from him. She somewhere felt that they didn't had too much of a different lifestyle, seeing that their family both betrayed them. She felt her heart closer when she learn new things about him and it made her more curious.

"Was it a terrible childhood?" she questioned.

"I didn't feel so, I was someone who didn't complain even if I was stabbed, it was taught to me by my father in the past, before I leave the house to stay with my grandmother," Ian let his hand through her hair, seeing how it felt smoothly which was to his liking. "Could you guess why I didn't eat the poison that my father gave through a pie?"

Ian stared at her and Elise tried to think why, she took a guess and ask, "Because your grandmother ate the pie before you?"

"Worse than that," Ian answered, pulling the corner of his lips when he pulled the memory he almost forgot, "My grandmother gobbled the entire pie. It was a comical death to behold you know. And although my father's plan to kill me using the cheap trick was foolish, it was also unexpected which why my grandmother died."

It was said that if one had been betrayed multiple times by others, they would begin to lose trust to anyone, and it also set the person's heart to ever believe the goodness in others's, making them to be distant, which was the case to Ian. Elise didn't judge Ian for feeling no remorse over his grandmother's death because that was what most people would feel if they were on his place, and possibly what Elise would feel to like in case of her aunt.

"And at that time, I had a goal in my mind, I had no time to waste feeling sorry for others," Ian spoke, and he placed hairbrush aside.

Feeling his hand away from her hair, Elise twist her neck, "What was the goal?"

"To avenge my dead mother. Come closer," Ian pulled her body to lean with her back pressing on is chest. Ian had moved back in a way so pillow rest behind him, becoming his support. His body was larger than her, making him to be able to take every expression Elise had even when her back faced him. 

Elise felt his finger pulling her hair, and he brought it to his nose, "You smell like lavender all over. It's a very exciting feeling to see that you are in a scent that I choose."

Elise could feel her breaths stopped at his words, "Is there anything I should do?"

"If I say no, would you run?" she questioned and Elise shook her head. 

"I want to stay," she whispered, her voice coming to be the bravest by far in his room.

"Then stay," Ian pulled his finger bellow her chin, bringing her lips to him. Elise felt his tongue sneaking in her mouth, her mind turning muzzy with how Ian had kissed her. He kissed her lower lips slowly, taking a bite which earned him a sigh from Elise. Her hands on his slacks tightened, and by the time Ian pulled his lips from her, he watched her eyes going tears. "Do you know Elise?"

Elise wondered what he was speaking of and shook her head. "I was wondering how could you know which button to push and turn me on," he whispered, his words turning her sky around, "Come closer."