Chapter 6
380words
A woman so beautiful she couldn't possibly be human.
Her name was Lilith—golden hair cascading down her back, blue eyes radiating Madonna-like compassion, dressed in flowing white as if she'd stepped from a Renaissance painting.
But I knew better.
The moment she approached, I felt that unmistakable chill of hell.
That aura was too familiar; I could never mistake it.
She and Carlos were the same kind—a high-ranking demoness.
Her eyes, when they fell on Carlos, brimmed with naked adoration.
And when her gaze turned to me, behind that seemingly kind smile lurked the contempt one reserves for vermin.
Carlos ordered me to my room, but I crept to the second-floor balcony to eavesdrop on their garden conversation.
"Carlos, your emotional fluctuations have been extreme lately." Lilith's voice was soft as the evening breeze yet carried undeniable steel. "Going to such lengths for a human—is she worth it?"
Carlos remained silent.
"I can sense your anger over that human boy, Aaron. You've developed jealousy—actual jealousy—over premium 'food.' Carlos, isn't that absurd?"
Lilith sighed. "Darling, don't forget—our nature is to prey, to devour, not protect. Save your tenderness for your own kind, not these fragile, foolish humans."
Carlos remained silent for a long time.
So long I thought he might actually defend himself.
But in the end, he merely replied with a weary sigh.
"I understand."
Lilith's "friendly reminder" proved devastatingly effective.
From that day on, Carlos became colder than ever before.
He withdrew all pretended affection, maintaining only the most basic courtesy even before the servants.
That deliberate coldness hurt more than his previous false affection ever had.
In the calmest voice, while I ate, while I read, while I played piano, he would repeat the cruelest facts.
"Evelyn, remember your place. You are property I purchased with a contract. You are not my sister."
"Your only purpose is to offer me your soul on your eighteenth birthday—a soul I've cultivated for eleven years."
"Beyond that, everything about you—your emotions, thoughts, dreams for the future—all meaningless and frankly ridiculous."
With his sharpest words, he severed the tentative connection that had begun to form between us after Aaron's appearance.
He succeeded.
That foolish dream of "light" in my heart was strangled by his own hands.
