Chapter Eight

Darkness and Silence filled the room as Fidal walked around shutting the curtain to prevent any light from coming in.

She cleaned up the melted candle wax that stuck to the floor and seated new ones in the place of the previous ones.

She picked a black jar from atop a shelve and a small knife before pulling the lighter from her pocket. she lighted the candles and poured a handful of the powdery content from the black jar into each candle causing wisps of black smoke to rise as the fire became black.

She used the small knife to cut the tip of each finger on her left hand for each candle and she dropped the blood on the now black fire.

Her blood floated atop each flame individually before merging in the middle and disappearing into the sea of black smoke.

The flames turned bright red and her flesh slowly pulled together with her skin covering the exposed wound like the cut was only a mirage.

She pulled a small piece of paper with the name ' Lilibeth Maxen ' and placed it under the red flames watching the flames consume it as she murmured a string of words under her breath and a red void opened in the middle of the candles and showed Lilibeth in her house, typing on her laptop with a glass perched on her nose bridge.

Fidal eased on her jacket and stepped into the red void letting it pull her right into Lily's study.

Lily rubbed her hair worriedly, clearly confused about what was in her laptop.

She sighed and rested her back on her chair.

"That looks hard," a voice said.

Lily sighed and complained bitterly "of course it is. It's e..."

She felt her hairs stand as she swallowed turned her head and gulped.

Fidal flashed her an insincere smile. "Let's go," she ordered and without delay, yanked Lilibeth to her feet and pulled her into the portal.

Lilibeth only felt herself stepping into nothingness. Her heart dropped and many questions flowed through her mind. Right before she could get accustomed to the weightlessness, they stepped on the wooden floor and Fidal let her grip loosen causing Lily to drop to her bottom.

"Ouch," she cried out in pain before her eyes widened. She quickly scrambled onto her feet and her head whipped towards Fidal who had taken off her coat and was watching her every movement.

Lily frowned. Wasn't this the woman who threatened to kill her?

Her eyes turned wary, a lot of things that had happened in the span of the latest few minutes of her life were questionable and now that it was beginning to settle, her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach.

Without waiting, she lunged forward at the only door she could make out in the faint darkness illuminated by red light.

Just as she stretched her hands to turn the knob, Fidal appeared right in front of her with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

She slammed right into Fidal and ricocheted backward, slamming harshly against the wall.

She groaned from pain as she slipped to the floor, her head buzzing.

Fidal's pupils turn silver only for a fleeting moment before they regained their ink-black color.

Lily grunted as she stood up, her heart pounded in fear but she tried to make her face devoid of it.

She didn't want to alert Fidal till she knew what she was dealing with.

Fidal watched the young woman's movement. The dormant sadist in her was gleeful at the pain Lily was feeling.

It was better if she quickly understood that escape was pointless.

"What are you and how did you do that?" She asked

Fidal took note of her use of what instead of who when questioning her. She answered "I'm Fidal. I.."

"You're the woman who threatened to kill me" Lily interrupted with no thought of an apology.

She turned apprehensive. The crazy woman wasn't ordinary and apparently, she can easily just take her away. No wonder she was sure that nobody can find her.

Escape was the most important now, she'll figure out the rest when she gets out of this damned place.

Her head felt better and without another look, she lunged for a curtained window.

Hope filled her face when she realized that the window was open.

Just as she got to it, the window shut in her face with a bang then it clinked and locked.

Her lips trembled and her elbows pressed into her sides as she turned to face Fidal who was leisurely leaning on the wall behind her, an amused smile playing on her lips.

' Mother fucker' Lily cursed in her head despite her fear.

Her eyes didn't hide her hate for Fidal, instead, they were so fierce it can be said that they were burning holes in Fidal's face.

"I don't intend to kill you. Although I did have such thoughts at the beginning." Fidal said, her words not doing anything to help the matter on the ground.

The honesty in her words irked Lily. This woman was a sociopath.

"Look," Lily begins " I don't know who you are or what you think I have but this is crazy. I'm just a teacher. There's nothing I have."

It took Lily all of her self-control to not yell and cry at the same time.

"I want to find the scattered pieces of the devil's orb and I need you to help me do so."

Fidal said simply.

Lily rubbed her forehead, reigning in her rising anger, "those shits don't exist! There's no such thing as the devil's orb!"

"Your grandfather has seen it before and he's..."

Lily interrupted again "Look, whatever my grandfather said before he died was his illusion. He was already a certified mentally ill patient before he died." She said harshly.

Fidal took a breath. This human was crazy and stubborn. Two irritating qualities in one equally stupid person. The truth is right before her eyes and she refuses to believe it.

"I brought you here from your house in less than a minute and that's just a pinch of the mystery that this world holds. The world isn't as ordinary as you think it is. Alongside humans are many creatures that even the history books haven't discovered yet.

Have you ever thought that this world was inhibited by the gods before, then how ordinary can it truly be."  She said to Lily.

Lily was flummoxed, Fidal was right but there was no way in hell she'll be stupid enough to help someone who threatened her life.

Most importantly, if the world holds vast creatures and secrets, she'll rather be ignorant of it than become her grandfather who was labeled insane.

But she couldn't escape, at least not when Fidal was watching her every move with a scary smile despite her varying countenance.

Her mind was running as much as her gears were turning.

If she wanted to escape, it had to be outside the house, someplace where the odds were in her favor.

It was easy to notice that Fidal had full control over everything here.

Lily tried to make herself look convinced, hoping that her acting skills were good enough to fool Fidal.

" Fine, but it doesn't change the fact that you threatened my life, then how do I trust you?" she asked the question she was truly interested in knowing the answer to.

If she was in no harm now, she can calmly think of an escape.

"The ball is in your court and the rules to play are known. You help me and I'll return you home safe and sound." Fidal said and pointed at the wispy red void between the candles, "that is a find and link spell. I used my blood for it. It serves as my witness. I will not kill you, I no longer have the intention of doing so. If I harm you, I will die too. Moreover, you're a human, which makes you useless to me."

"What..."

"You won't be foolish enough to say that, you can tell the link death symbol on each candle. I will never tell lies." Fidal interrupted rudely.

Lily pursed her lips. The link death symbol she was talking about was the skull wrapped with red thread burning in the flames of each candle.

As fascinating as it looked, she wasn't in the mood for such. She needed to plan her escape.

This Fidal was something else. Although she wasn't speaking more than necessary, her eerie smile made Lily feel that she knew everything going on in her mind and that she might just be walking into another trap.

Moreover, Fidal easily believed her which was suspicious on its own after all she hadn't stopped looking at her like she was just an ignorant child.

Fidal moved around her and pulled a similar white jar from the same shelve.

She poured the white content into her hand and threw it on each flame, killing the flame.

Having thought of her plan of action, Lily decided that for now, it was best to make Fidal believe she was on her side. Whether or not Fidal believed was now dependent on how Lily acted.

Since what she wanted to find was the devil's orb and she believes it exists, then she'll just lead her on her way.