CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I knew he was right. I wanted to prove that I was more than this weak girl begging to be saved.
"The wound on your chest is not healing fast," he pointed towards me.
What was this?
He was really trying to divert my attention from my looming fight to the wound on my chest.
"Fight me, Ragal! Quit stalling!" I raised my fist, preparing to land the first punch.
"I don't fight scared girls," he continued walking without so much as another glance towards me.
Furious, I threw a punch — but surprisingly, it landed on my face and I fell down helplessly on the floor.
"I told you, you are powerless in this dungeon." Ragal turned to look at my fallen figure.
I struggled to stand up, but I kept on staggering, losing my balance. The blow pretty well knocked up my eyes.
"Now, you might as well lose your sight." Ragal hissed, unimpressed, as he walked away with the torchlight in his hands.
After minutes of trying, I barely managed to follow him. Many thoughts clouded my mind as I sluggishly followed him.
The dampness of the dungeon, mixed with blood, filled the air. I felt like going up.
The energy suddenly changed when we passed through a strange door with runes on it, exactly like the ones on the maid's hands.
It was like a complete change of energy into an invisible side. Our surroundings changed quickly. I was no longer hearing crying children or voices of the tortured ones.
Everywhere was quiet, and it disturbed me greatly.
*Will this be the end of me?* I repeated in my head.
*Why does it feel like my skin was overheating all of a sudden?*
"We have entered another section of the dungeon," Ragal replied to my thoughts as we continued walking.
What he said did little to quell my wandering mind as I watched the winged sculpture of a demon with its teeth wide open.
"Demon's Abode" was carved on the signpost. This place really looked different. The grass was dry and faded green with black smoke rising amongst the cottages.
The cottage stood in the middle, barely able to hold. It looked like we had just teleported in time to another place.
"How is this possible?" I wondered aloud.
"Magic," Ragal smiled as he made way to the fallen cottage. I stood solidly behind him, scared of how I got here or my mission to this run-down cottage.
"Magic??" I asked, not quite believing my ears or my eyes.
"My friend Annie lives here. She knows everything about demons, and she will help you." Ragal replied to my question with another.
"You know demon friends?" I asked, surprised. I literally thought he hated them.
He scoffed. "They ain't just my friends."
This was surprising. I never thought Ragal could be friends with demons.
Which led me to a more important question: why was he helping me all of a sudden?
"Annie," Ragal gently knocked at the door, "open up. It's me."
There was silence for a few more minutes, probably Annie was taking her sweet time before she opened the door.
I imagined Annie in my head — a winged creature with long claws and fangs, flying all over the place to get her stuff.
My pupils left my eyes when I saw Annie. Her eyes were the most beautiful I had ever seen.
She had long black hair with strips of gold on it, with feet and hands. Annie was a human. I gasped, staring at Ragal who rushed to carry her off her feet.
They hugged intimately for a few seconds while I stood at the cottage with my jaw dropped down.
"Did you miss me?" he asked, pulling her out of his embrace.
"Yes, I did," she pouted. Her eyes were big and had dark circles all over, but even with it, she looked really beautiful for a demon.
What in the world was happening here?
"Ehm…" I cleared my throat as both their attention turned quickly toward my direction. "Introduction, please?"
"Ariel, this is Annie." Ragal dropped her.
"Annie is a little kid," I glared right back at him.
"Don't call her that. She's lived more years on this earth than you!" he warned.
"What lesson are you trying to teach me here?" I laughed till my ribs shook.
"Oh, I won't be teaching you. Annie will teach you!" He smiled his maniac smile again.
I stopped laughing, seeing that his face was serious. "What would I possibly learn from a 15-year-old?" I folded my arms.
"Obedience."
"And this is who would teach me that?" I glared toward Annie's direction, surprised that I would be learning from her.
"You shouldn't underestimate her," Ragal replied.
"I am not a de…mon."
"Annie will explain everything to you," Ragal quickly cut in, turning to her. "She's my prodigy and a good tool for Daddy."
"I want you to teach her how to submit." He patted her long hair with care.
*Daddy?* my mind screamed. There really wasn't any resemblance between the both of them, so how was he the father??
Thousands of questions swarmed through my head, but one was sure I wasn't going to be locked in some place with a teenager.
"I'll try my best, Dad," she nodded gleefully, her bony arms and long teeth giving me a picture of a malnourished girl in need of help.
"Daddy will get a gift for you next time." Ragal smiled as he ushered me inside the cottage like some servant.
I stood still. I wasn't going to let my foot step back into this place. The smell coming from the cottage was twice as worse as the dungeon. The iron shackles on the girl's wrists also made me know she was some kind of slave to Ragal.
It was so sad to see that she didn't even know what love is — the way she looked up to Ragal was similar to the way I looked up to my ex-husband before he cheated on me.
"Ariel, get
inside!" Ragal barked orders at me, but I refused to be some tool to him. He would have to kill me here and now.