The Demon’s Bride

Satan stared at Caroline as he tried to wrap his mind around the words the demoness said. In a moment of haste, he had destroyed the object he held, forgetting the third clause of his contract to Elise where he could not harm the people or items that Elise had.

But his frown appears while he looked at Lady Caroline, "She is making a mistake." And by she Satan was clear to say he meant Elise. 

"For not choosing to take your hand of help, your highness?" Beelzebub questioned, making his way toward the field.

"No!" Satan looked surprised as what he did, and realizing that it was too late. "We had an agreement. If I break the rule and Elise received the penalties. She cannot request to resurrect her husband again!"

"Try to see the bigger picture here, Satan," Lady Caroline answered. Now standing on the ground, she flicked her fingers for a new dress to adorn her body. "Elise is smart she won't forget the promise she had made to you. Which mean she had made you to take that penalties not to resurrect Ian White rather something else."

Satan pressed his palms over his forehead, feeling his veins twitching. "Why can't no one understand a word I am uttering? Haven't it been clear enough? No one can resurrect a dead person without a sacrifice! And this sacrifice is not something Elise nor Leviathan would be able to give."

"You mean there is a payment needed to be seen for the resurrection?" Lady Caroline's eyes too widened when she knew this. "What is the payment?"

Satan's red eyes glowed as he said, "A soul of someone close to the person performing the ritual."

Meanwhile Elise who was in Ernest's memories, later saw the seasons passing by in a single slide of black screen. When she realized, she was standing near the snow in front of a large and vast mansion-like building. However, it wasn't a mansion and rather a large boarding school that had been mentioned by both Mr. and Mrs. Lone.

Dalton stepped out of the gate, bidding a warm and friendly greeting over the guards who were standing on the two sides of the gate. With a smile and his reddened cheeks, Dalton quickly entered his family carriage. Unlike before, Dalton had grew up into a magnificent gentleman. Perhaps at the time he was still eighteen or nineteen, about Elise's current age. 

There was excitement on the boy's face to come back home, expecting to see his brother and family again. When reaching to the gate of the house, he hopped down. The butler of the family stepped out and reached out his hand to carry Dalton's small trunk.

"Where is Ernest?" was Dalton first question to the butler.

At the question, the butler looked troubled and the smile that was once on Dalton's face quickly fell from his lips. His dark brown eyes narrowed and with no further exchange of words, he made his way to enter the house, bursting his was through as he did so.

Mrs. Lone who had been waiting for her dearest son's arrival back home was taken aback with the loud thud coming from the door. She then saw it was her son and quickly run down the staircase toward Dalton.

"What's wrong dearest?"

Dalton looked at his mother and the frown turn deeper. "Do you really wish to ask this mother?"

Mrs. Lone looked at him with a confused gaze. Dalton had thought his mother to be a beautiful and gentle woman but not until his younger brother died and they brought Ernest to stay with them. The problem was not Ernest, no. It was his parents who then clouded themselves in the hope that they could resurrect the dead.

"I don't understand. You have just come back home after four years with such an upset look. I won't know what makes you displeased all of a sudden," Mrs. Lone argued.

"It had been four years. That time I was still fifteen and there wasn't much that I could do to stop you but haven't I warned you enough and told you on what you did was wrong? Nine years mother, nine years!" Dalton raised his voice, "Ernest had been locked in that goddamn room for ten years. In the darkness. Alone!"

Mrs. Lone was suddenly enraged, "Ernest isn't your brother! Jeremy is! And he... do not you remember how he died? Falling from the attic and his neck pierced by broken ladder! He was still young, still small, still naive, and yet he had to die in such a terrible accident." Tears begin to drench his mother's eyes and Dalton felt a sting in his heart.

He didn't forgot how Jeremy died. Never. He saw his his brother had died and had been the sole witness to what had happened. Regardless he shook his head, "Jeremy had died mother but Ernest? He is still alive. He is lively and a person with a bright soul. When I saw Jeremy died mother... in front of my own eyes. I was terrified. Like any other I want to resurrect him from the dead if I could ever do such a thing but at the cost of other's life? Or their pain? I cannot."

"Dalton!" His mother raised her voice as if doing so would make him understand her point of view.

"No!" Dalton stressed, "Since that day. Since Jeremy's death I have sworn to myself that I should never lose my younger brother again. Whether or not we are blood related don't matter. Ernest is my younger brother. Forget it. Talking with you won't help," Dalton turned away.

"Where are you going?! Stop! Stop!" Mrs. Lone's scream echoed in the corridors but Dalton pays no heed. He quickened his steps toward the end of the staircase where he then enter the hidden room that was stored at the most lifeless part of the mansion.

The servants hadn't been the help when he asked them to open the door, resulting to him using a chair to break the door knob by himself so he could enter. Once he entered, his brows eyes met the black ones in the deep darkness.

"Ernest?" Dalton asked, his voice changed as he became mature but his tone was the same.

Ernest didn't answer that scared Dalton. Bringing the oil lamp, he entered the room. Upon finding the unconscious Ernest, Dalton didn't wait. He brought his brother and carried him by his arm, not noticing the smile the unconscious person on his hand had as he did so.