~ 21: The Mystery Man - Part 2 ~

WARNING: This chapter contains mature content (16+). Please proceed at your own risk.

"How would you know anything about me?" I answered, gulping unnoticeably. But his eye must have noticed it as a small smirk settled on his face.

He gritted his teeth at my delicate question and removed the band across his eye. I covered my eyes for a second as I didn't want to see right through his skull. When courage returned in a small amount, I saw him through the slits of my fingers.

He had a terrifying eye — a black eyeball on which a blood-red iris was embedded. For a moment, I thought I was hallucinating, but that eye had me frozen at my place. Seeing weird forms of magic in any place was supposed to be more than just a hallucination. I found it hard to believe that such things even existed in reality until I had to face it, starting with the pendant and then this eye.

"As you can see, this eye is hidden to keep people away from staring at it like they are hypnotised," he said quietly. "But I can decipher every truth and lie that one speaks with it, whether veiled or not. Before I run out of my patience, I hope to find your truthful answer to my question. Where the hell were you headed?"

"My friend is being tortured here," I replied, without releasing that my tongue was moving on its own accord. "I just came to save her from her misery. And I don't want anyone to come even an inch near to such a haunting place."

"And you thought that nobody would ask for any payment in return for your friend?"

"What payment would they need when they already have taken her spirits away? And if they needed it, I was ready to give any small price that they truly deserved."

He put his slender fingers around my neck, pressing them firmly but not to the point of choking. He looked me dead in the eye and said, "Remove your little jacket. If I'm satisfied with your work, I will let you get to your friend."

I had an idea in my mind already, but if things failed miserably because I didn't have a backup, then I was screwed for life. I would end up losing all my self-respect and self-esteem just because of this one incident.

I got up and turned around to remove my hoodie, which I placed on the chair. Then I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. His hands went under my shirt and rested on my hips, while he snuggled his head in the crook of my neck. He rubbed his nose and kissed passionately along the sides of my neck. I was disgusted but I didn't say anything yet.

When his fingers proceeded to clamber up to my breasts, a cry escaped my mouth. I felt him smile and continue to lure me in by kissing down my nape.

"You smell really lovely... like wisteria," he hummed, still rubbing the tip of his nose on my nape and drawing circles with his thumbs on my waist.

His hands stopped moving once they reached the bandaged zone. The fracture had cured a week or so ago, although I kept it on to avoid any suspicion. He slipped one of his fingers under one strap, scanning the region. Then he slid his fingers on top of the bandages right through the middle of my upper body. I gasped, turning my head away and readying the knife in my hand. I couldn't let his games get the better of me.

He licked my exposed collar bone, cringing me to the bones. Was he going to nip and suck my blood away? I held the knife tighter. Unable to control myself, I placed my other hand on his that was hovering aimlessly.

If he crossed the limit before I received the crucial information of where Mel was or how to get through, I wasn't going to think twice before I ran it to his heart. Yet it was a dilemma that I either had to wait and suffer through this pain from one person to get the knowledge, or pass through a hundred guards and get tormented alongside my friend by a ten-fold increase.

He traced his spare hand along the depressions of my breast until it stopped right over it. He touched the pendant and inclined his head over to see it.

"Looks like I have no right to touch you," he said with a hint of annoyance. "How upsetting."

I turned around to ask him, but, to my immense astonishment, he kneeled before me with a bowed head. "Welcome, Honoured Descendant of Astoria."

"How can you say that?" I asked when I was able to speak again.

'This must be some kind of hoax,' my voice echoed in my head. 'Where is this land and what do I even have to do with it?'

"The pendant," he replied eyeing it without a break. "Only a true descendant has it. It would never glow, even in the dark, if the true owner wasn't wearing it."

"What does it even matter, whether I am the descendant or not?"

"You'll find the answers soon enough. May I rise?"

"Yes, you may. After that, I want you to tell me how do I release my friend."

He stood up and moved his giant frame until it stopped in front of me. He buttoned up my shirt where it was undone. Then, instead of going around the chair to fetch my jacket, he put one hand on my back and stretched the other to reach it. My mind nearly collapsed at his way of doing things.

"Before anything, I pledge my sincere allegiance to you," he said, as he put the hoodie on me. I was surprised at his kind gesture and more at his oath.

The next instant, a bright red ring appeared on both of our fingers before it vanished.

"Why are you even doing this?" I said with a sigh, pressing my temples. "I thought there was a test I was supposed to pass, with you dishonouring yourself and I."

He pushed me down on the chair and combed the misplaced stranded on my hair back. He pulled up the hoodie, crouched down to have a glimpse at my face and held the armrests.

"I was going to check what creature you are that you were able to lure me so easily with your aura," he answered mysteriously. "You have great potential that you don't know of yet. One's future is vague, but I'm sure this loyalty will be extremely beneficial to you when you shall need it the most.

"As for the dishonouring part, it wasn't my intention to be a bad guy. It is just something I'm being made to do."

He must have read the questions in my eyes because he only smiled and gave his usual response through his eyes: 'You'll find your answers soon enough.'

That made me go crazy. Just what was going on right now in my life that I had involved myself with magical beasts? I didn't want to harm anyone unless they had truly earned it for themselves.

But the horror was yet to come. The last thing I wanted to hear him say was, "Do what you were going to do."

'You knew it all along?' were the words that my heart cried. 'And yet, after everything, you are asking me to do it, you heartless beast?'

He released his grip on the chair while I sat in it, frightened out of my wits to commit such a sin. He hadn't harmed a strand of my hair, and here he was asking for a death wish.

"I'm not doing it. It'll be injustice," I declared and turned my head away. This had to be the last straw before I wished for my own death.

He pulled me up by my wrist and repeated his request. I refused it every time he brought it up. Time was ticking but this would be an injustice. He had shown me the truth about him, that almost no one knew. Otherwise, he wouldn't be hiding it, be it hypnotizing people or not. And he had promised his allegiance and to save Melissa.

Seeing no way out, he brought out my hand with the knife. I was it coming and restrained myself. However, his strength was far more than mine. In a second, the hand was brought to his side, stabbing and twisting it until the dripping blood reached my feet.