The Demon’s Bride

Clattering sound filled her ears. With a frown, Monica pushed herself from the bed she slept on with a deep frown marring her forehead. She wondered why it was noisy when she had keenly warned the maids to not disturb her as she was feeling very upset after seeing Elise retaliate to the rumors spread against her. The girl was supposed to feel ashamed and learned her own position, thought Monica, yet the incident turned to where Elise warned them as the Lady of Warine that only put further anger spark in the young woman's heart.

"What is it? Tch," Monica angrily pushed herself from her bed and went to open the door of her room. Her head snuck out to look the left and right side of the corridor only to frown when she noticed how the candles on the corridor weren't lit up when usually some candles would be left alight so the house wouldn't be too dark.

"Cosmos!" she yelled her maid's name for now reply, "Berty!" But then the two maids didn't seem to be around. Miffed and irritated, Monica closed the door with a loud slam and entered back to her room when she noticed how dark it was, not allowing her to see anything.

The girl with a sigh then walked toward the cupboard which she remembered to be somewhere on her right side. Finding the candle holder, she lifted the candlestick on her hand when a voice came beside her, "A match?" asked the voice, offering her as if he was offering to sell a spinach.

Monica who had just woken from her sleep, didn't find the offer odd nodded, "Yes." and the girl saw a flame of light popped on her left side, she reached out her hand to take the matchstick, lighting her candle when something finally dawned in her.

She was alone in the room, wasn't she? Then who was it that had offered her a matchstick?

Monica quickly brought her candlestick to look at the spot where she had heard voice from earlier; her eyes snapped wide when she saw it was a small yellow chick sitting on the edge of the desk with its legs crossed.

"A chick?"

"It's Hallow not a chick damn it. You're rude not to ask others name but call them by their race," said Hallow with a smile and he waved his wings for the woman to let out a piercing scream. 

"The chick! A chick is talking!" Monica continue to yell and she run toward the door like her brother did earlier to no avail as the door clicked close. At once the candles in her room begin to light up, one by one before circling her room to give the entire room a brighter light.

Monica was beyond surprised when she saw who it was, and fell on a momentarily daze as she watched Ian who had made himself a home by drinking a tea and crossing his leg on the couch, appearing as if he had come for a small chat while Count Gerald, his wife, and eldest son was on the floor. While Count Gerald and his wife was kneeling, Elijah was on the floor and pool of blood which Monica couldn't tell where it came from pooled beneath his brother's body.

"L-Lord Ian," Monica stuttered, a spine chilling coldness struck her back as she looked surprised by whom she had seen. W-Why was he here?!

"I guess you are still a little better than your father to remember that I am the Lord of this land, sit, Monica," Ian ordered and the woman looked fearful looking left and right without moving.

"It's better if you sit, you know. Your older brother wasn't able to follow the Lord's instruction properly and look what happened to him now," said Hallow from the side with a shrug of his shoulders that got Monica to start moving her trembling feet toward the ground next to her parents and kneeled down.

Ian blew the surface of the tea; without looking he asked, "I believe you got things to confess, Monica?"

Monica looked up at the Lord, noting his fierce red eyes that she always admired to look handsome and charming. But now the girl could only feel fear when she saw the glowing red eyes, "I-I am not sure as what you are saying, Milord," lied Monica and she didn't know it was her first mistake. At the same time she had uttered a lie, her mother scream in pain, but she couldn't speak as only scream could come from her mouth.

"M-Mother!" Monica crawled her way when her body froze.

"I don't remember ordering you to move, Monica. I really dislike disobedient children. Not only you had lied, you once again went against my order. Haven't I made clear in the Winter Ball that whoever tried to attack Elise, their names have been set to the gravestones?" Ian questioned, his words slow but the impact was deep to sent terror to the leftover three family. Elijah was unmoved and his heartbeat was slow.

Count Gerald closed his eyes, he didn't understand what had happened to his son that caused him unmoving. The Lord had asked them questions, more importantly asking his son who refused to tell the truth and all of a sudden, blood begun to stream out from Elijah's mouth as if his internal gonads had been damage even though there were no wounds in his physical body.

"I will give you one more chance, don't lie Monica. Tell me your sin," Ian said, placing the teacup aside to look at the younger woman whose eyes quickly met her mother's who looked in pain. 

Monica went in panic, her lips open to speak but her mother who seemed to know what she was about to say shook her head as if in warning, "I-I don't have a sin," uttered Monica unashamedly for her lies, causing a scream to erupt again from her mother's mouth and blood flowed from her nose. Monica's eyes widened, not knowing what to do and the cause of her action, her body trembled when she realized it was her who had caused her mother to be in pain.

"Lies again, tch," Ian clicked his tongue and before Monica could peel her eyes away from her mother who had laid on the floor, her neck was pushed in a sudden force and her back hit a harsh wall, causing her to crawl in pain as she felt a bone in her torso broke. 

"Pity, I would have pardoned you for today and let your family live if you had said the truth. It reflects how bad one's parents is when their children could easily spit lies even at the cost of their own family's life, isn't it?" asked Ian while looking at the human whose face marred with fear and terror. "How do you think you would die, Monica for telling all those rumors despite my warning? Will it be a quick death or a slow one?"

Monica didn't want to die, she shook her head; tears fell from her eyes and she looked at the Lord with pleading eyes as she was unable to speak to beg for her life with his hand around her neck.

"M-Milord!" Count Gerald, who finally regain back his ability to speak then yelled. "Please forgive us. I-I don't know what my daughter have done but please spare us another chance-"

"No, no, there is no other chance, Gerald. I have warned you," Ian said, shaking his head while looking at the older man. "Yet you took my warning like something cheap and bargainable. I was present in the room during you entire conversation. Casting me aside by digging my felony?"

Gerald felt his throat run dry, cursing his terrible timing for reading Lord Garfon's letter without knowing that Ian was present in the same room. Damn it! But he didn't want him or his family to die. With a light courage, the man spoke, "M-Milord, a word of advise. Lord Garfon have been searching for you mistakes. If you kill us now-"

"Do you think I am scared by such a threat, Gerald? Working under me doesn't seem to teach you anything, does it?" and Ian tightened his grip, causing Gerald to panic when she saw her daughter's body begin to convulse. "Don't worry, your family is still alive, Gerald. I won't kill them this easily," his eyes then turned to look at Monica. "I know you have been wondering how I have never been punished by the Church, haven't you? It's a simple answer, no one in this mortal would could judge me. Only Hell could. It's time to suffer the consequences."

Monica shook her head, trying to loosen Ian's fingers only to find it tighter than before, "M-Milord! Please forgive me, Milord! I have never meant any harm to Lady Elise. If you would be so mind to spare me another chance..."

"Do I look like an Angel to you, Monica; that I will grant you another chance?" Ian asked with a cruel smile on his face. Monica had always been a fan of Ian since the first time she saw him when she was still fifteen. It was since then that she had put herself in the thought of marrying Ian but never comes the day she ever imagine to be at the receiving end of his anger. Nor ever she expected that under the shell of a handsome man lies a Demon called Diablo. "Look at me," Ian said, and Monica's eyes that shook slowly looked at Ian's red eyes, feeling herself sucked inside his eyes, "What do you think I look like?"

Count Gerald wasn't able to see how Ian looked but he heard her daughter's scream once Ian had reveled just a fraction of his demonic side. His horns slowly appear from the sides of his head, causing the shadow on the wall to shift and Gerald who was behind Ian couldn't help himself but yell.

"I-It's a D-Demon!!" Gerald, who was frightened but what he saw crawled himself to run and accidentally pulled the tablecloth of one of the cupboards in the room. The candlestick that was placed on the top of the cupboard begun to shake before it fell when the tablecloth slipped away from the surface of the cupboard. It didn't take soon for the flame on the candlestick spread to the nearest burnable item.

Monica saw how fire quickly spread from behind Ian, while her eyes were still stricken in fear while watching Ian's face that had shifted into something so gruesome to look at and his horns that were on the side of his faces curled, "Do you know why I won't every chose you, Monica? Because I knew women like you; women who love beautiful things. But you should know all beautiful creatures are deadly. What you saw is just a shell of me."

"Y-You are a Demon," Monica said in disbelief. Both horror and disgust marred her face which came as expected to Ian. Instead of feeling angry, finding the expected expression from the human, cause his lips to curl higher. He might have seemed to walk on the right path beside Elise but the truth was, he enjoyed watching raw fear from humans's expression before they died. It never cease to make him amused like a Demon he was. 

"I will look forward to meet you again in Hell. I will have fun handing your punishment there. Don't think it's the end yet," Ian marked his words before snapping the neck of the younger woman and threw her body across the fire, letting it engulf by the fire.

When leaving the room, Hallow who was escaping the fire, climb toward his clothes. Gerald who was let alone alive, went to chase the door that's as about to close.

"Please wait Milord!" Begged the man as he didn't want to die in fire and Ian offered him a smile which the man took as the last kindness. At least that was how it appeared to Gerlad's eyes until Ian kicked him by the face and shut close the door.

"Is this alright?" Hallow doesn't know how the human's rule work but it was the basic that humans don't condone killing. 

"More than alright," Ian said after leaving the house that was burning well like a log placed on a fireplace. He pulled up the letter that Gerald had just received and snapped his finger for a similar envelope to manifest from his magic. "When one doesn't want to get caught dirty they only need to shift the blame to someone— an eyesore who doesn't know his place," Ian remarked coldly before throwing the letters behind him, letting it to be caught on one of the statue built in front of the house's entrance for the Church members who came to investigate find the letter.