The Demon’s Bride

While the fake Esther took her place, the real Esther was had just woke up from her deep slumber. She looked around herself, seeing the darkness enveloping her, fear suddenly crawled under her skin in a way she wasn't prepared of. Esther tried to knock the place with her head and leg as she was placed inside a narrow box where she was in a sitting position.

The darkness was akin to a large bloodthirsty monster. The longer Esther stayed in the dark, her blue eyes turned wider in fear. She kicked the place by her leg but with it, her hands, and mouth bound, her attempt to let people know she was inside turned out to be futile.

On the back Esther's ears she could hear the faint laughter from her past memories.

'She seems to be good,' whispered one men, the other two men were pining her on the ground. Esther struggled to get out. She was still young, still fifteen. Her mother had turned out to be a human who marry a demon who inherited a faint bloodline of Satan. 

The young her was born in the worst part of Hell and she grew up watching her mother weeping for her wrong decision to fall in love with her father and moving to Hell. Since then, Esther could only see people who fall in love as stupidly hopeless. She didn't wan to become her mother. She wanted to be a person of herself, not bound by whatever fleeting emotion called love.

In Esther's entire life, she had been in the darkness. There was no light and she yearned for the Sun. She heard from her mother about the mortal's world, the place where the land was painted in green on the ground while the sky were bright and pale blue. A large ring of light protected the sky in the morning. It must have been why human doesn't have wings, thought Esther. 

But soon enough, her mother had died. She knew that sooner or later her mother would die. Unlike her who had the bloodline of demon that overweigh her human's blood, her mother was a human, the air in Hell wasn't suitable for her body. Her illness started by causing her to nosebleed, vomit blood, limping, and finally she wasn't able to move on her bed, withering away just like a plant that had been forgot to water.

She didn't remember where her father had gone and she didn't care as well. The person left all of a sudden, saying he needed to find a cure or her mother. It sounded sweet; yes, but Esther knew that when the man turned his body and exit their house, there was a look of relief. The man didn't came back and even Esther knew that there was no cure for her mother other than to bring her out of Hell. The man also knew. But he didn't do it which was already on its own explanation that he didn't care about her. 

Living the worse place, to go to the gate between hell and the mortal world wasn't an easy feat. Unlike all the high demons who can leave and go as will, she couldn't. The price to leave Hell was twenty humans' souls but Esther couldn't pay the price. Searching or hunting human world was difficult in the place she lived at. Her only method was to steal the human souls from the trader.

But it wasn't easy for a small and slender girl like her. When she was still fifteen, due to not eating enough, she was as thin as a twig and as short as a wine barrel. Esther was caught multiple times and she managed to shake the people who tried to hunt her until one day she couldn't

Just when she wasn't able to escape the death penalty, a young man appeared in front of the trader. A faint smile on his lips, "I want her."

"She is not for sale! This bitch stole our items!" Shouted the demon who had the face of a boar. His body was so tall that he almost looked like a hill and hold in his had was a wooden club like the rest of his followers.

"How much?" The young man asked. "Take this. It must be enough for the souls she stole and her."

"Huh?" The demon wasn't pleased but when he felt the weigh of golden coins that weighed on his hand, his eyes widened. "T-This much is..."

"If it is not enough you can come to my house. It is located in the Nevernight mountain, near the lake of oblivion," said the young man only for the face of the demon which was brown in color tone to turn pale white. "Satan's house is my house."

"Prince Leviathan!" The demon saluted immediately, letting go of the wooden club he held and Esther watched how when the wooden club hit the floor, the ground breaks. She gulped thinking it was her head that almost squashed like watermelon.

Leviathan appeared tired by the demon's noisy reaction and waved his hand, telling them to go away. He then went toward the younger girl who was similar to a twig, so much that he wondered if she would be alright if a wind blew over her as it seemed breaking her will need him no effort.

"You are brave. Work with me," Leviathan offered his hand to Esther who was on the ground. 

Prince? Esther could feel the word ringing like an alarm in her words. She had seen how bastardly can the people in the slum get to be. Can one expect the royals of Hell be better than them?

Without thinking, Esther threw the dry soil she had been clenching on her fists and threw it offer him before running away. Leviathan who had covered his eyes by his arm was taken aback by the last bite Esther had given to him and a chuckle set from his lips. 

The demon who had taken Esther earlier hurriedly came toward Leviathan. "M-Milord! I will make certain that she would come back to you without her limbs—"

"You know her?" Leviathan tipped his chin, shrugging what the demon had said and only saying what he wanted to know.

"Y-No, milord. We only know that she is the thief who is well known around here. If a person is holding a human's soul, it will be definite she came here to steal them."

"Human's soul?" Leviathan repeated, "That's amusing."