2

As promised, Lyrk gave her adventures and protected her from all the other creatures in the forest. He also told her that once she was done with the adventures in the forest, he would take her to some other place in search of more adventures.

One day when she was walking in the forest after what seemed like a month or two, she saw a group of men wandering in the forest. She recognised the insignia on their capes as her family's insignia. She walked towards them and greeted them. However, there was no response. She waved at them, but it was as if they couldn't see her. She then tried to touch one of the men, and as she did, she passed through him as if she was a ghost. Seeing this scared her so much she started screaming. Lyrk heard this and came to her. "What is it?" he asked, "I- I- I passed through him- he can't see or hear me- why can't he see me." "Hmmm. When we are around people related to you, you don't exist. Did I forget to tell you?" he replied. "What do you mean I don't exist?" Lily asked. He walked and wrapped his hands around her. "I mean you don't exist," he said, kissing her on her cheek. "What?" "It Seems I have to spell everything out for you," he said then he started reciting their promise and when he was done he added, "You are mine. So definitely I have to take measures to make sure you stay that way. I can't just let them take away what's mine, now can I?" Lily was terrified, she could feel her heart rate increasing rapidly. She looked up at him. He had a nostalgic smile on his face, and as she looked in his eyes, she began calming down. When she was calm, she asked him, "So since you said you'll give me everything I want, what if I want them to see me?" "Hmm, that one's simple. I can make them see you." "Really then I want them to see me." "Fine but mind you when they see you they'll die. Do you still want it?" "What if I want them to see me and don't die." "Sacrifices must be made, my dear Lily. If they don't die, someone else will." "Oh... okay, then I guess I don't want it. I want to go home." "Good girl," he said, kissing her on her forehead.

A few days after her encounter with the castle guards, Lily and Lyrk left the forest and went into the city nearby. Lyrk had taken the form of a human male, but he looked beautiful with his eyes still red. When they got to the town, she didn't talk to anyone because she thought she couldn't be seen. "Are you hungry?" Lyrk asked her. "I could eat," she replied. "What would you like to eat?" "I want to eat what you want to eat." "Fine then, steak?" "Hm hmm. Sounds nice."

They stopped in a small restaurant and ordered steak. The owner was the one who brought the food to them then she said, "Wow are you two newlyweds?" Lily was shocked because she wasn't aware of the fact that people could see her. Lyrk chuckled and said, "Well... it has been quite a while since she became mine." The restaurant owner smiled and walked away. Lily still looked shocked, so Lyrk asked, "Did you want something else? What do you want?" "Oh sorry," Lily replied and started eating. "Is something wrong?" Lyrk asked, trying to find her gaze. "Oh nothing" she replied, focusing on her food. "I just didn't know they could see me. You know you said so in the forest." Lyrk laughed as he heard this and then used his hand to raise her gaze to meet his and then said, "Only people who might want to take you away from me. Not everyone. Else that would be lonely, right? Or... would you prefer that? For me to be the only one who can see you? I like it." "What? No. This is fine," she said, drawing her face from his fingers and returning to her food, "I was just surprised is all. Oh! I want to use the bathroom." "You could try and find it yourself or ask the owner." "Okay, so I'll go with the first option." She got up and almost immediately found a sign leading to the bathroom. On her way back from the bathroom, she overheard two ladies talking about an abusive relationship, which apparently, one of the women was in. She stopped to listen but after a while, she could no longer keep up with their discussion, so she decided to return back to her table. When she got back, she told Lyrk how easy it was to find the bathroom, and how it lacked any adventure. She took a bite from her food, she found that it was still hot. "It still warm?" she asked, surprised. "Yes. I kept it warm for you." Lyrk replied. "Thank you," she said, standing up and stretching to kiss him on the cheek. "Oh, and yes, those two ladies over there were talking about something I did not understand. Could you tell me what it means?" "Hmm? Okay, what were they saying?" "Well the one on red is married, and she was telling the other one that she wanted to leave her husband because she didn't like the fact, that he always gets angry when she does things he doesn't like. What I don't understand is that her friend agreed with her. I mean it's normal for someone to get angry at what they don't like, right?" Lily looked up to see Lyrk making a face she had never seen before. It was scary. The face was only there for a second, and then it reverted back to his regular angelic face. "Hmm, I don't know. They must be sick. Don't worry about it." Just then, there was a sound from where the two women were sitting. She heard the other customers saying 'what?' 'Are they dead?' 'They're dead.' Lily tried to look at the source of the sound, but Lyrk stopped her. "It's unsightly," he said, "you are still eating." "Oh, I'm tired of this already," Lily said, still trying to look at what was happening but to no avail. "Do you want to eat anything else?" "Erm... yes. I would like some sweets." "Fine, let's go get some sweets." They stood up, Lyrk left some money on the table to pay for the food. As they were about walking out, Lily caught a glimpse of the bodies on the ground. It was of the two women who she was talking about. They were a weird shade of purple and had boils on their faces. She concluded that Lyrk was right and they were really sick and sadly their sickness had caught up with them.

The sweet stall was in front of the restaurant. They got sweets there and asked the shop owner if he knew of any town with mysteries. The shop owner told them, and at night they set off to go to that town.