She Belongs To The Devil

"Damien? I heard you were back. Are you still awake?" Theodore knocked on Damien's door and asked in a loving voice.

Damien's heart skipped a beat when he heard Theodore's voice coming from outside his door.

He gulped to moisten his parched throat. However, he didn't reply. Instead, he held his breath as if that would make him vanish from the face of Hell.
Your next journey awaits at empire

Theodore gently knocked on the door again and said in a sad voice, "Ariel has been worried sick for you, Damien."

Theodore waited for a while to get a reply.

But when he didn't get any, he rested his forehead on the door and pleaded as Ariel's father and not as himself, "It would be a great help if I could tell her that I talked with you. She hasn't even been eating properly since your disappearance. I hope you understand how desperate I am to talk to you."

Theodore finally heard the light footsteps getting closer to the door. He waited for Damien to open the door.

But instead, he heard Damien's guilt-ridden voice, "How is she? I hope she isn't too hung up on a loser like me."

Damien was sitting down on the floor while resting his back on the door. He didn't even have the guts to see Theodore face-to-face. So he preferred to talk like that.

Theodore pressed his lips together because that wasn't how he had expected to talk. However, he didn't complain. He was relieved to hear Damien's voice.

"She isn't doing very well, Damien. You were gone for almost a month. And she blames herself for taking you to Mihir that day."

Damien pinched his throat and gulped. His eyes were glistening with tears. He took in a labored breath and whispered, "Why? Why would she even blame herself for the things that I did? I don't understand how anyone can still care about me."

"Because you are precious to all of us," Theodore replied without missing a beat. "She has long forgiven you. And so have I and Adeli–"

"I don't want to be forgiven!" Damien shouted in an almost irritated tone. And then he whispered as he wiped the tear drops from his cheeks, "I don't deserve it. Please. Please let me be. Please let me repent for my sins."

Theodore took in a deep breath very shakily. He was resisting not bursting through the door, kidnap Damien, and throwing him in front of Ariel. He was thinking that maybe Damien would stop drowning himself in sorrows once he saw Ariel again.

However, he couldn't do that.

Theodore looked lost when he thought to himself, "Maybe I came to talk to him a little too soon. I should give him some time to sort things with himself first. Ariel can wait a little longer."

So Theodore said in a soft voice, "Damien, it looks like you need to get a good rest first. I will tell Ariel that you have been found. She will be happy to hear that for now. And I will come back again after a week. If you are mentally prepared to meet Ariel by then, then I will take you to meet her. Ariel would love to see you."

Just when Theodore thought that things couldn't get any worse, Damien mumbled, "Prince Theodore, please let Ariel know that I was serious when I said I didn't want to see her ever again."

"Why?" Theodore minced out the word.

Damien then gave the answer which Theodore had never thought that he would hear from Damien's mouth.

"Because I hate her."

Theodore furrowed his brows and asked, "What? Where did that come from?"

Damien pressed his fists over his chest and crouched down. And he lied through his teeth, "I hate her because she is overly excited about everything. She is the one who manipulated me to go there to Mihir and pushed me into this shithole that I am in right now."

Damien held his breath for a second and wiped his runny nose. He breathed in through his mouth to ease his burning throat and tried his best to sound rude, "And she is too clingy. Just forget me already! All of you! And you don't have to come back here ever again. I am tired of pretending that I like Ariel and that I like to go there to that little Palace of yours."

Theodore clenched his fist and controlled his anger. He knew that Damien was lying but that didn't make it hurt any less.

He slammed his fist on the door and said in his stern voice, "I will pretend that I didn't hear those lies. And I will be back next week."

The moment Damien heard Theodore whooshing away, he rested his head on his knees and cried. He hated saying all those awful things about Ariel.

But he said it so that Theodore wouldn't come to get him ever again. He didn't want to face Ariel. He wasn't ready to do so after all those terrible things he said and did to her.

---

"Dad!" Ariel ran to Theodore as always with hopeful eyes. And she asked him the same question, "Did Uncle Luce find Damien?"

Theodore gave a wide smile this time.

And Ariel's happiness knew no bounds. "He's been found?" she raised her brows and laughed. Her eyes were full of tears.

"Yes, Lucifer brought Damien home," Theodore replied while trying to sound happy.

Ariel jumped and hugged her father. "Oh, I am so happy!" she giggled as she shed some happy tears.

And then she asked a barrage of questions, "How is he? He isn't hurt anywhere, right? And where was he all this time? Did he try to hurt himself? Is he still mad at me?"

"Calm down, Ary. One question at a time." Theodore smiled and put his daughter down.

And he gave answers to most of her questions, "He is fine. But he needs to rest to recuperate his energy. Uncle Luce found him concealed in his illusionary room."

He didn't think that telling Ariel how that room wasn't a room but an endless prison would bring any peace to her. So he modified the truth a bit.

He then smiled at his daughter and assured her, "But now he is back. All will be well." He said that although he himself wasn't sure if all would be well.

The two of them talked with each other for some more. Theodore also omitted the part where Damien had deliberately said all those bad things about Ariel. He was going to get Damien after a week as he had promised. He was sure Damien would change his mind by then.

---

A week passed by in the blink of an eye.

Ariel had been excitedly waiting for this day to come. She wanted to spend time with Damien like she used to.

She wanted to tell him all the new things that had happened in his absence. Niylah was now a werewolf. The Zobekker plant turned out to be a helpful tool for Joyce. And Ariel herself was able to produce a spark of fire from her fist not long ago.

"I can't wait to see his reaction when he finds out how many things he missed," Ariel smiled to herself and excitedly waited for her father to go and bring Damien along with him.