Curious

The taxi picked me up after school, per usual, I'd decided to report Lucian tomorrow. The air was grim as my sulky Caucasian driver drove me home and accepted my VIP Taxi card, something my father had been able to get since I was the only student of Peril High who used a taxi every single day.

With a short thanks and a grunt the taxi disappeared in a distance and I walked upstairs to take a shower.

To my surprise, Sarah wasn't in the living room. No one was.

Dad had gone on another business trip and would be back on Saturday. Which meant that I had three more days to myself.

Frowning I dialled Sarah's phone number but it only went to voicemail and my frown deepened, she was supposed to come everyday. Did dad make arrangements I didn't know of?

Shrugging the creepy feeling off I stripped for my shower.

There was something that I really loved about my own bathroom. Maybe it was the thick lush carpet, or the way there was always central heating so I felt like being wrapped in a warm cocoon every time I entered. Maybe it was because of my seashell toilet seat and my very own bathtub.

Most likely it was because of my shower. I could choose radio stations during my shower and control the water to make it flow like I were standing underneath a waterfall.

The bathroom was the only place I had let my father fully invest in.

Mama had died in a bathroom.

Back in our old house, no one had let me see her, no one allowed me to enter the bathroom but it was bad and I knew it. I remember catching glimpses of blood.

From then on, I felt like my bathroom had to be spotlessly clean, everything had to be perfect, had to be safe.

Stepping into the shower I turned the channel to my favorite pop music and closed the double doors.

As the water thundered down onto my body I washed my hair and soaped myself in, occasionally singing along with whatever artist was playing.

It was halfway through my shower that my radio started going wack. Annoyed, I turned it off and back on, skimmed a classical channel before reverting back to my favorite one. But there was only a crackling, as if wires had been cut.

Turning the water off I reset my radio again, this time there was sound, but not the music that I'd wanted to hear.

'Can you come out now?'

I screamed, jumping back and hitting my head against the glass door, but the radio started to play music again.

Had it been my imagination? Maybe it was just the ending to another song. Maybe the commentator was talking to someone else. Maybe...

I gulped, and slowly made my way out of my shower, wrapped myself in my bath robe and tried to shakily tie the cords together over my waist.

'There is nothing wrong,' I whispered to myself, 'You're just paranoid, you're just freaking paranoid...' I continued, trying to laugh but failing.

When I finally had courage to step out of my bathroom, I sighed, relieved that there was no one inside my room. Trying to calm my thumping heart I dried my hair.

It was halfway through when the warmth of the hairdryer seemed to have gone cold.

'God damn it,' I muttered, switching the warmth and cold button on my hairdryer continuously, but the air stayed cold.

It was then that I felt it. That tingling up my spine, that coldness that seeped into my bones.

I turned around, heart pounding, but again there was no one.

Reluctantly I switched the hairdryer off and sat onto the bed, taking my robe off to put on my pj's.

'Boo'

I screamed like a banshee and fell back against my headboard, naked and utterly bewildered.

Lucian Black was standing in my room, totally at ease, as if showing up in girls' rooms when they were naked was very common to him.

I struggled, trying to pull my robe over my naked body, 'W-What the hell are you doing here?' I shouted at him, half stuttering.

The fool had the decency to look slightly awkward for a moment but remained silent as he looked over my room, as if he were browsing.

'YOU'RE NOT IN IKEA,' I shouted at him, this got his attention and I shrunk back when his face grew darker.

'Elizabeth de Baptiste,' he sneered, his lip curling up to reveal the row of white teeth, canine teeth that had me gulping like a fish on dry land.

I watched him pick up my student ID, which was on my desk and stared at it. I could only imagine the crazy haired me at the beginning of the semester staring back from my student ID photo.

'Get out of my room,' I hissed, 'You're trespassing. How did you get in here anyway?'

Lucian continued to studiously ignore me, flipping my student ID over in his long fingers.

'Did you hear me? Get out of my room!' I shouted at him, pulling the robe better over my naked body.

The student ID was placed back onto my desk and I watched as he moved, walking, walking towards me.

'W-What are you doing?' I stuttered, watching him near me, 'D-Don't come near me. Dont you d-dare come near me,' I continued, trying not to bite my tongue off as I gurgled my words like a fool.

Lucian stopped by my bed and grabbed a handful of my bathrobe.

Before I could register what he was doing he had pulled it off and flung it behind him.

I screamed bloody murder.

☠☜◊✙◊☞☠

In desperation I started to clutch at my blankets, simultaneously trying to stumble away from the sadistic rapist, but he caught my ankle and pulled me back towards him.

I continued screaming, screaming until my lungs dry, praying that my voice would reach out to someone. Anyone. Neighbors. People on the street.

I started sobbing, my feeble attempts at crawling didn't help and when I turned back, Lucian stood very calm, his long fingers around my ankle like a brace.

When his eyes met mine, I sucked my breath in, the palest blue eyes I'd ever seen in my life trailed down my neck, over my ribcage and over my waist. My breathing hitched as I felt the ice spread over my body, when it past it left a tingling feeling. The feeling you get when your hands are ice cold and you hold them under hot water.

'Leave me alone,' I sobbed, knowing very well how pathetic I looked but Lucian was strong, even now I felt like he was crushing my ankle in his hand.

'Can't,' he muttered, nearly to himself as he pulled me closer, I screamed even harder as he flipped me on my back, 'Hold your mouth,' he hissed venomously and for some reason I shut up, I just wanted him to go away, just get it over with and go away. My muscles were tired of kicking at him, trying to punch him but only punching air.

He pulled up my arm, either side of my legs then flipped me over onto my stomach. I felt his cold eyes roam over me, coldness made me shake and I sobbed more snot into my favorite pillow.

Then he let me go.

'Curious,' he whispered to himself as I whipped around to face him, clutching my blankets to me, desperate to regain some of my dignity after he examined me like a laboratorium animal.

'I'm going to call the police,' I whispered, the most I could muster after screaming like a banshee, my body shook like a leaf and my heart was about to bounce right out of my chest, 'I'm going to call the police,' I repeated again.

Lucian didn't seem fazed, in fact, he sat onto my bed, 'You shouldn't'.

Like a lunatic I flipped form my bed and reached my bag, pulling out my mobile phone and trying to dial the emergency number with shaking hands.

'Do you want them to die?' the silky cold voice asked and my eyes flickered up to the menacing man on my bed, lounging, relaxed as he looked at me with cold killer eyes, 'If you call them... I'll kill them,' he whispered now.

The line was connected, on the other end of the line I could hear a police woman, 'This is the Pemia Police Station, how may we help you?'

I stared at Lucian who stared indifferently back at me, then he smirked, that cruel cruel expression that chilled me straight down.

'Hello?' the police woman repeated, this time with concern in her voice.

Lucian rested his chin onto his palm as if inviting me, daring me, to call the police over.

'I-I'm sorry, wrong number,' I whispered into the phone and hung up.

'Good girl,' the sadist cooed at me, a devilish twinkle in his eye, he knew he had just won the game.

'What do you want from me?' I whispered, after what seemed like an eon of silence.

I was sitting on the floor, in the corner, farthest away from him as possible. Lucian was on my bed, leaning back against my pillows as if the room were his.

Again he regarded me with cool eyes and took something out of his leather jacket. Amazingly, it was the Grand Grimoire, 'Do you know what this is?'

I knew he was playing with me, I knew he knew the answer was yes, he just liked scaring the actual crap out of me.

Lucian played with the book, fingers stroking over the cover, flipping it over at random intervals, 'Do you really know what this is?' he asked again.

'It's a spell book,' I grumbled, 'a mumbo jumbo thing made up by some weird gothic cult'.

He laughed, the sound was so dark and intriguing that I had to brace myself against the wall, 'So... stupid,' he sneered at me, his face turning slightly dark before he opened the book for me, at the part about souls, 'I know what you did Elizabeth de Baptiste,' my name rolled off his tongue so natural it made me shiver again.

'How?' I mumbled, confused as I curled up into the corner.

Lucian's face turned impatient and annoyed before he sighed, it felt like a cold wind had just been released in my room, the temperature dropped, 'This belongs... to my... ' with disgust, he looked at the Grand Grimoire, before dropping it unceremoniously onto the floor, 'father'.

My eye twitched, 'You're saying your father is a looney cult leader?'

The silence that ensued was painful but Lucian started laughing, cackling like an evil imp, the sound was enough to make all the hairs on my body stand up in defense against the evil thing on my bed.

'You could say that,' he said, after he was done with laughing, there was something that was supposed to resemble a smile on his lips as he looked at me, 'Have you heard of ... Satan?'

I quirked an eyebrow, 'The Devil?'

Lucian nodded, lying down onto my bed, his face at the edge to stare at me, 'It's his book'.

This time it was my turn to snort with laughter, but something on his face withheld me from full out laughing. Was he serious? Break into my room. Play some stupid game. The Devil?

At my face he frowned again, 'It seems that you have no idea what you've done Elizabeth,' he purred my name like an animal, like a predator before it killed its prey and I shrunk further back into my corner, 'You sold your soul for... Jack Isle'.

He started laughing again, as if there was something so tremendously funny about this bizar situation. My heart had turned cold.

'What do you mean?'

Lucian rolled his pale blue eyes, marbles made of ice, 'You made the trade didn't you?'

I frowned, 'First of all, how the hell do you know what I did in my own privacy? And second... what does that have to do with you?'

Lucian Black tsked multiple times before he swung his legs over the edge of my bed, 'You have my father's book. It has everything to do with me,' his eyes glowed slightly, a blazing icy cold before he tilted his head, 'You are clueless'.

'No I'm no-' I started to argue but he held up a finger.

'It was a statement'

I was going to bite off that stupid finger, once I had clothes on, once I had the strength to stand up. Testing my leg I bit my lip, the muscles seemed to have gone pudding.

There was nothing I could do but play along. But what if he were telling the truth? Satan's son? Seriously? I gulped, how did he know about the chant then? How did he get into my room? How-

'Was it you on the radio?' I whispered, scared because I knew what his answer would be.

Lucian smirked, a near smug look, 'Of course'.

And then I fainted.

☠☜◊✙◊☞☠

'Oh Elizabeth,' the taunt came near me, it made my body freeze, 'Wake up Elizabeth,' it continued, playing, teasing.

My eyes slowly opened and there he was, Lucian Black, in front of me, looking at me with total disgust.

When I opened my mouth to scream again he covered it with a hand.

His touch burned me. I writhed and he seemed to be having a hard time keeping his hand over my mouth, in fact, he seemed to be in just as much pain as I was. He let go abruptly and stared at his palm.

His skin was red, like a rash, but in the blink of an eye, it disappeared again.

'What the hell is wrong with your hand?' I demanded, looking at his hand then back at him.

'For some reason, you burn me,' he muttered, as if he were talking to himself instead of answering my question.

I frowned, 'What-'

'Shut up,' the growl was enough for me to clamp my mouth shut, immediately.

'Now listen... you... snottering human,' his nostrils flared as if he I stunk, 'I'm going to tell you something, so shut up and listen or I'll cut your tongue off,' something in his eyes told me he'd really do it. So I listened.

'When you chanted that spell yesterday, I felt it. You traded your soul for Jack Isle's heart,' he seemed to hold in another laugh here, 'I've come to collect your soul but there seems to be something wrong...' he clucked his tongue, 'You didn't follow the instructions well, plus, there seems to be some kind of a protection spell on you. Very curious since most spells don't work on me,' Lucian drummed his fingers on his cheek.

Was he kidding me?

'Listen, I don't know why you're pulling this prank, but it ain't funny ok?' I whispered, pulling my knees up, 'I really don't know what you want with me, you scare the living crap out of me in the library, show up randomly in my room and wire my shower radio? Stop harassing me'.

Lucian sighed, obviously irritated, 'You sure you don't want me around?' his voice seemed innocent enough but somehow I felt like he was doing this on purpose.

'Of course not,' I retorted, watching him.

Lucian smirked, 'Very well then,' and in a moment he disappeared.

I fainted again.