5 Chains

Aisha.

The burning that runs through my body is unbearable. I try to stand up, looking for support with my arm on some nearby object, but when I reach out my hand to grab the object, it is stopped by something.

I open my eyes with difficulty and see what is stopping me. A huge chain wraps around my wrist. Immediately, panic takes hold of me. Perhaps I take the expression too lightly, "you will be tied to the chains of hell".

My first reaction is to scream, hoping that Everette will hear me and come and set me free. My second reaction is to be completely silent, hoping that Everette won't notice me and won't come near me. Personally, I think he's very insensitive, being down here takes away feelings from anyone, I can understand that, but he saw that I was devastated to be down here with no way out, and he just left me all alone in the middle of a place full of monsters.

I had no idea where to go or who to turn to, I was so scared that I wandered aimlessly until I was irretrievably drawn to a distant force. I walked and walked until I reached a huge castle, the only thing I remember is feeling a lot of fear and pain, then his brown eyes staring at me with something I can't distinguish between hunger and pleasure.

I really don't know what to expect from him. I mean, he is the son of the Devil, he is a demon and he is proud of it, he hates humanity and I am still very connected to it, to have a peaceful coexistence will be a miracle.

"I feel you since your thoughts were activated." his voice resounds from the darkness of the room.

I see nothing, I know it is empty, but I also know he is there.

"Go away." I ask in a serious voice.

"You still don't understand that the orders here are given by me." his typical proud tone makes my eyes roll.

"You hate me, why don't you just leave me?"

His laughter gives me the creeps.

"Do you think I hate you?" his voice contains a sinister and mocking fusion. "Do not give yourself so much credit, no one is worthy of my hatred."

I see how from the darkness, his red-tinged gaze stares at me, his body emerges from it, he simply appears out of nowhere, as if darkness and he were one.

"Just go, Everette." I beg in a weaker voice.

Finally he walks towards me and the chains fall. I stand up and for the first time I feel how different our height is, for the first time I feel really intimate with him.

For the first time, I feel fear at his side.

"The desire you will feel for me will be enslaving." he declares.

"I don't want to be near you."

He comes even closer.

"Of course you do, you belong to me. Your whole body belongs to me and cries out to be by my side."

"Just leave me alone!" I exclaim, feeling suffocated and pulling away.

"You will become a demon, I will turn you into the monster I want you to be."

"What is wrong with you? Just a few hours ago, you didn't want to know anything about me, and now you come and tell me that I want you and that I will finally be what you want from me. You can't play with everyone, as if you were the lord and master of everything around you."

"In fact, I am." he smiles flirtatiously.

"You can't play with me like that."

"You belong to me." he bows until his height equals mine and makes a gesture of the obvious.

"Everette, you're really acting strange..." I grimace.

He sighs and walks away. He raises his hand and the whole room fills with light, the walls are black, I can't see the ceiling. There is a huge Victorian piece of furniture and abstract paintings on the walls, the chains that held me up are in a corner next to several blades that make my hair stand up.

I hear his steps going in my direction, when my eyes focus on him, he stands in front of me and takes my hand which starts to fill with pink fire, panic quickly sets in, I try to pull my hand away, but his grip becomes firmer, preventing it. Surprisingly his fire is not like the blue fire of that horrible room, it feels fresh instead of burning, it feels delicious.

The wounds that were on my arm disappear quickly on contact with his pink fire, once they are all healed, Everette lets go of my hand.

"I'm sorry you were tortured." he says, surprisingly. "But you must admit that if you weren't so irritating, none of that would have happened."

"That's your idea of an apology?" I just sit back and do nothing.

"I'm not in the habit of apologizing, Aisha. That's because I'm right most of the time, but this time you got hurt."

"And that worries you?" I raise a confused eyebrow.

He puts his fingers on his hundred and sighs with weariness.

"I think your limited human perspective doesn't help."

"Now you are going to start your offenses against humans."

"All right, I realized that I have to remember something. You are not a human, but the truth is that when I am with you, I feel that I am with one. I suppose that you have been here only a short time, but I will make you become a demon, so I am sure that I will not want to destroy you every moment."

"I want to return to my world." I demand him.

"This is your world now. It is the only place you belong, no longer with humans, much less with the Celestials. You are now in hell, and you will be a demon."

"Can I really never see the light of day?"

"There are very powerful demons that can go to the mortal realm, if you become one you can even look like a human, but to become so powerful you really have to be willing to be what I want."

To be what he wants, a cold and heartless creature.

"If you were going to tell me all this, I don't understand why you put those chains on me."

Why does he always laugh like he's about to kill someone?

"I put them there so that you would understand something. The chains that bind you to me..." he goes to them and takes one in his hand, it's so thick that it covers it completely, it's impressive. "They are much stronger than these chains. Unfortunately, the moment you stepped out of the frontier of life and death with me, you joined me for eternity."

"Does that displease you?"

His eyes look intensely at me and once again he smiles sideways, but on this occasion he bites his lip.

"I am not used to company." he admits. "The souls I possess guard my abode, but those are simply chosen human souls; you are a soul that will become a demon, so you are entirely different. Once you are really powerful you can't get away, we are stuck like this, so I think we should get used to it."

At that moment, deep inside, I knew that I did not dislike the idea of being stuck with him.

"I understand..." I mumble "Guess you are right."

"I'm glad you're willing to cooperate. For now I will leave you here, you can lie down and rest."

"Do I need to sleep even if I'm a demon?"

"You're not a demon yet." he reminds me. "When you are, you won't have to unless you want to. For now you really need to,

"Shameena will come soon, so rest until then."

"Is she your girlfriend?" I ask, unable to stop myself. "You act differently with her."

Her smile widens.

"I have known her for about two thousand years and she is an incredible lover, but no. She is not my girlfriend. I don't think I've ever had such a relationship with anyone."

"She said that love was forbidden here."

He laughs and denies.

"The demons do not love."

"Have you never loved anything or anyone, not even your father and mother?" I don't know why, something inside me would feel better if at least he wasn't as cold as he seems.

"I think we classify it as something different. You can get to want someone to the point where they become a necessity. For us love is something that humans use to make sense of their miserable existence." he rolls his eyes in disgust at the mention of humans.

"You really hate them." I say, self-consciously.

"As I told you, no one is worthy of my hate, they simply disgust me to unimaginable degrees."

"So love here is classified as desire and need towards someone." I analyze.

"Exactly," he nods.

"So I can assume that you have never felt the need to be with anyone."

He runs a hand through his hair, fussing over it, a gesture I've noticed he makes occasionally when he thinks of something.

"The idea of being dependent on someone to such an extent makes me sick. My father is like that with my mother, they are from different worlds and both are miserable when they are not together. But my mother is a Celestial one, she cannot be in hell, and my father is the most powerful being of the darkness, he can never be in the Celestial kingdom."

"Your mother is a heavenly one?" I ask in amaze. "How did she meet your father if she can't be down here?"

He sighs and grimaces.

"It's too long a story, I'll tell you someday, for now sleep, I have some things to do." He turns and walks to the other end of the room where there is a huge door. "May the darkness be in your path."

I heard him say the same thing to his father, but as much as I try, I don't remember what his answer was.

"I..." try to answer in shame.

He laughs.

"You will soon do well"" he promised before leaving the room.

(...)

"You are insane." a female voice makes me open my eyes and sit up.

I examine the room, it is empty, the voice is coming from outside.

I stand up and walk to the door Everette left through. Well, actually I don't even know how time passes in this place. I walk down a corridor that is lit by gothic-style candlesticks. I arrive to another corridor that connects with others, a knot settles in my stomach, I never had a good sense of direction, I'm sure I will end up in a very deep pit like last time if I don't call Everette.

Just before I call out his name, I hear a laugh, which makes me stop.

"I think it's an amazing idea." says a male voice I've never heard before.

"Are you serious, Asmodeus? He wants to turn that brat into one of us." I finally recognize Shameena's indignant voice.

"She came here to be a demon." the tone of the subject answering for Asmodeus sounds obvious.

"Everette should throw her into the river of lost souls." she replies, poisonously.

"Are you jealous because you are no longer his favorite?"

"Go to hell."

"Hello? We're here!" psycho laugh.

"Can you shut up? You are making too much of a fuss about this, it's a decision made Shameena, I won't change my mind."

I sigh with relief knowing that I am not alone with the demon that wants to throw me into that river.

Immediately I feel someone beside me, turning and startling as I see Everette standing next to me.

"How did you do that...?" I ask.

"You woke up." he replies, ignoring my question.

He materializes us in another room, with the same Gothic decoration, with black Victorian furniture, with a style similar to the room I was in, many paintings, tables containing gold pieces and diamonds.

In front of me, a redhead with emerald green eyes analyzes me with a certain amount of emotion and Shameena rolls her eyes when she sees me.

"She has a spy complex, it seems." she says sarcastically.

"But she's beautiful!" the redhead comes suddenly and invades my personal space. I back away in fear until my back hits Everette's chest.

"Calm down, Asmodeo, you're scaring her."

"By the demons of antiquity, she really is very beautiful, my friend, and I regret having given her to you." The redhead tries to come closer again, but Everette materializes him on the other side of the huge room. "Possessive, uh?" he laughs.

"Like I told you, she's very fearful, don't do that kind of things."

Everette moves away from my back and surrounds me until he is in front of me.

"She's pathetic." Shameena says.

"Could you stop feeling superior to everyone else for a second." the redheaded man asked, glaring at her.

"I don't feel superior, I am."

Everette rolls her eyes and smiles sideways at me.

"Ready to be a real demon?"