Chapter 5

A small surprise

Knock-knock-knock

Charlie was interrupted from his sleep by the sound of a knock on his door, he stood up from the couch and went to the door to see who it was.

The opening of his front door was followed by a loud yell from Stacy. "What the hell happened yesterday? And why do I suddenly have to become your bride? Why do I have to become a demon?!!!!"

Panic and fear was written all over her as she spoke.

"Come inside Stacy, I'll explain everything to you."

Even with his assuring voice, Stacy didn't take any steps further into the house. She was reluctant.

"If you want to make it out of this alive, you have to trust me," Charlie said. "I saved your life last night, so you have every reason to. And now, I'm the only one who can help you out of this, but first, you have to calm down and listen to everything I have to say."

His words might or might not have helped her realize that he truly did want to help her, but Stacy's mind was too distorted to think of anything. She then nodded and entered the house with Charlie following behind her.

"Have a seat," he offered as they both entered the living room.

Stacy was distraught. She'd never believed in demons, let alone expected that she would come across any in her lifetime. She sat down and Charlie went to the fridge in the connecting kitchen, bringing out two bottles of coke.

"This is going to be a long discussion, so you might want to relax."

Stacy sighed, how did this happen? How did she get herself into all this? She wondered as she took the coke Charlie handed to her.

"First off, you're going to tell me how you found the portal that brought you to the ritual ground, that portal has a very strong spiritual energy that only attracts demons, but somehow you managed to locate it, even though you were far away."

"I don't know. I just saw it, I never even knew it was a portal."

Charlie shook his head. How could you walk right into something when you had no idea what it was? Stupid.

As if reading his thoughts, she continued;

"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking straight, I'd just had a bad break up and I wanted to get away from everyone and everything, that was how I ended up in the old house and found the portal."

"Sorry about that," Charlie told her, but you landed into something a million times worse than a breakup last night, and if it wasn't for me, you would have been dead by now."

"I know, thank you for saving my life," she continued, "but I don't think it'll make much of a difference when they find out that I'm not really your bride."

"And that's the reason why we're here, to figure out how we can get away with this because if the elder finds out the truth, you're going to be killed and I'm going to be in big trouble."

"So, what do we do now, is there a way for me to escape or something?"

"Escaping is not an option; you can never run away from a demon. No matter where you go, it won't take long before they find you, and kill you."

The sound of getting killed made Stacy shiver. Charlie continued. "It's either we fight or we trick them. The first one is hard, and the second one even harder.

"The third option, which is the easiest, and what I think we should do, is that you transform and come to live in the demon world, just like I told him you would."

"No way!" She objected, "how can you tell me to give up my life just like that?"

"You gave up your life the moment you walked through that portal, and besides, I've studied you. What you have here on earth is not much of a life anyway."

Stacy scoffed at his harsh statement. "And even if I decide to transform, would it change the fact that I have to get married and live with someone I don't love???"

"Demons don't love. We can still proceed with the marriage and live our lives the way we want."

"Well, I'm not a demon, and I'm not interested in your offer. It would be better for me to die than not find love and live a happy life!"

After feeling like this conversation was leading no where and only doing more to upset her, she got up and went out of the living room, headed towards the front door.

Before she left, Charlie called out to her,

"Stacy!"

"What?" She turned.

"No one must know about what happened at the ritual ground yesterday, no one!"

The nerve of him to still be telling her that after what he said. Stacy rolled her eyes in response and left his house in anger as she headed home.

***

For Stacy, love, and happiness were an end goal. The day her parents died in a car accident, she was taken to an orphanage, as she was only fourteen then. Her parents had no living relatives that could be located as they had both ran away from home when they were young, with her mother having her when she was just a teenager.

The accident led to Stacy dropping out of high school, and all her parents' plans for her to go to college afterward died with them in the car crash.

The same day they died, she was taken to the orphanage, and that was where she met Kale. He was the son of the music teacher and he used to tease the other orphanage girls except for her. She grew fond of Kale, as he was the only person who had shown her so much love after the death of her parents.

She was never adopted, so she left the orphanage as soon as she turned 18 and went to fend for herself in this cruel adult world.

At first, things were very difficult for her, she first found work at a motel where she got food and accommodation in exchange for unpaid labor. She was comfortable with the job but got fired when the manager started making sexual advances toward her and she refused to oblige.

After juggling several jobs for a year, she got a job as a salesperson in a supermarket in the city. There she remained ever since. She had always wanted to move to a higher position, maybe even get a promotion or a raise, but these were just fantasies for someone who hadn't even completed high school.

She still kept in touch with Kale after leaving the orphanage, never realizing how weak their relationship grew as the years passed. He was always her source of happiness and encouragement, and now she didn't have him anymore.

She sighed as she went home. remembering that she'd dropped her bag containing her purse and her phone on the ritual ground after the demons grabbed her.

Betty and Sophia would have been calling her by now, and she wouldn't be able to go to the mobile store until Monday.

As she neared her apartment, she spotted a pregnant lady, a few months down, about her age, waiting for her at her doorstep. She wondered what this person was doing there.

Upon seeing Stacy on the doorstep, the lady stood up, greeting her with a smile, "Hello Stacy,"

"Hello," Stacy, replied, staring at her strangely, "do I know you?"

"No, you don't" she answered, "my name is Emma. I'm Kale's girlfriend."

"Wow," she rolled her eyes. At this point, nothing could surprise her anymore. Is there anything more alarming than stepping into a magical portal and almost being killed by a clan of demons?

"We were having an affair, even when both of you were dating," she stated proudly, not minding Stacy's nonchalance. "The child I am carrying belongs to him. And as he didn't have the balls to tell you about it, I decided to come to tell you myself. I'm sorry if we hurt you, I just think he's lied to you enough and you deserve to know the truth, even if it's from me."

She watched to see what Stacy would do. All she got was a blank expression, different from what she expected.

"Kale said he didn't tell you about our relationship. That's why I came. I know this is hard, especially after what happened yesterday, but I just thought it would be better if you swallowed the whole pill."

"Thank you for being so considerate, Is that all?" Stacy asked.

"Yes," Emma responded, a bit surprised that she didn't get any major reaction from Stacy like yesterday as Kale had described.

The last thing Stacy wanted was to lose her mind and walk through another strange portal, so she knew she had to take things rationally. She needed to calm herself down and put aside the things that were meant to bother her.

After Emma left, Stacy entered her house, threw herself onto her bed and went back to her daydreaming.