The Demon’s Bride

Elise and Ian strode over the path. Regardless of the thick mists around them, they arrived to the only house that was built in the abandoned town. The fence on the sides of the path made it seem as though they had been welcomed and only the mists covering the house had begin to retire from the sight while they were kept blinded from their surrounding.

It was strange, Elise thought. It was Ian's and her first time to pay a visit to Ernest's hidden base and yet their feet had taken them as if it had its own memory and knowledge on where to go. 

"Feels like a mouse following the bread crumbs until its trapped in a cage," Ian remarked, "He seem to believe he would win again."

Elise held Ian's hands tighter, "Stop me if I ever tried to kill you again." The last thing she wanted was to kill Ian by her own hands again. "Promise me."

Ian leaned forward with one of his brows lifted. He then reached out his hand and flicked her forehead, "My silly wife. You don't think I would ever come back without a plan to beat him don't you?"

Elise trusted Ian's intelligent mind, but she was worried of another trick pulled by Ernest again as the man had proofed to be someone who is adept in creating one trap after another to his enemies. When they stopped over the house, she noticed how simple the house appeared, though the way the corner of the house was hanging by a thread before it completely crumbles due old age, it felt as if the place had been abandoned for years. 

"Do you remember ever seeing this house?" Elise questioned and was replied with Ian's lack of knowledge by shaking his head. 

"I made sure to destroy all houses in this land and waited until wild trees filled this place," Ian said to her, "I wanted to make a grave for my mother. It's said that soul would be at better peace if they were buried in a place they love. But she had been locked in the tower for decades that I never get to know where the place he loved the most. Therefore, I turned this whole place as a grave as she always dreamed to step out of that town."

Elise who didn't know this can only think how much guilt Ian shouldered to see his mother's last moments while unable to do anything. 

Ian reached out his hand to turn the door knob when the wooden door had pushed itself backward, paving a path for them to see the inside of the house. At first Elise thought they had been welcomed with magic again only when she noticed the small child who had opened the door knob. A smile was on the boy's lips while his eyes didn't look at them but pass through his forward line of sight as if he didn't know where they were standing at. 

Seeing the boy's lifeless eyes, Elise noticed he was blind. Meanwhile, Ian narrowed his eyes seeing how the brown-haired boy seemed so familiar yet not at the same time. 

"Where have you gone to?" The boy asked, his smile widening. "Hm?" He asked when he heard no answers as Ian and Elise studied him closely. 

It appears that the boy had mistook them for someone else, Elise thought. 

 "We are here to meet someone, boy," Ian was the one to reply. 

"Someone?" The boy tilted his head, "If you are searching for my brother please come in, sirs."

Perhaps because Elise didn't speak, the boy had mistaken her as a man. Elise turned around to see Ian with questioning gaze and he nodded, implying to play along for now. As the boy had pulled the door wider for them to enter, Elise's eyes ventured to see the beautiful furnitures inside the house. While the outside seemed as if the house would break in any second, from inside, the walls seemed to be freshly painted. The flowers that were placed in the vase was scarce but they seemed fresh, making the household welcoming to the guests. 

It was strange as Lady Caroline had predicted the house to belong to Ernest yet the dark sorcerer Lord was no where to be seen. "Is this him?" Elise asked, referring to the boy being Ernest. She can only suspect the boy to be a disguised form of his as he was the only person who they had seen.

Ian narrowed his eyes, "Do you feel the difference you felt when Gabriel was disguised as him?"

Elise pursed her lips and shook her head in answer. Before, she had noticed Ernest's disguise as she begin to smell an odd scent from the angel before noticing a dark mists exuding from Gabriel's back. But no matter how hard Elise stared at the boy, she noticed nothing from him. 

"I'm sorry sirs, but as I cannot see, I won't be able to serve you two any tea or refreshments," said the boy with a little apologetic look. 

"That's not necessary," Elise answered and the boy's smile widened that the guests didn't take offense from his lack of greetings. 

"Where is your brother, boy?" Ian questioned. If the boy wasn't Ernest, then it could be the brother, he thought. 

"I'm not too sure where he had gone to. He said and promised that he would come early but it would be difficult to know at exact time he would come back home," the boy answered fluently. For his age, the boy was not only composed and calm but also dependable and brilliant. 

The boy then looked nervous when she asked, "May I ask what you two kind sirs need from him?"

"Sirs?" Elise murmured in question.

"Oh, do you not like to be called as sir? Would you like mister better?" The boy asked her.

Elise furrowed her brows, looking back at Ian who stared at her with the same questioning look. While the boy was blind, Elise had a womanly voice which is difficult for anyone to think she was a male. Yet the boy had thought of her as one. Elise who felt gradually something was off, pulled a mirror from her pocket, noticing how she still looked the same but Ian had tapped her fingers.

"That," Ian pointed his finger to the window adjacent to her shoulder. 

On the mirror, reflected a tall man with caramel brown hair, blue eyes and freckles around his nose. Elise was taken aback and was more surprised to see how the reflection of the man had moved in a similar way when she had raised her hands to touched her face.

"We are no longer in the real world, Elise," Ian then explained to her as his own reflection had changed in the mirror. "We have entered Ernest's world of illusion."