II | Lousy Death

「In her last moments, Avyanna's knees scrapping on the rough wooden floor with broken joints throughout her bruised body, tongue lacerated hindering her to protect herself from blasphemous accusations of the Kathars against her, tears have run dry, and she could no longer feel the pain from being ridiculed and tortured, she find herself numb every bit of emotions gone and thrown out the window. Eyes tired, dried lips, and pale skin, she looked down on everyone in the plaza, soon her rolling head will be the one everyone will be looking at, commoners and nobles, even His Majesty himself, would watch the "Villainess" meet her end.

She remembered how she led her life, times she tried to gain her father's - the Emperor - favor, but until the very end, he never cared to his daughter, up until the day of her being judged by the law, her father not once heard her plea, never gave her the proper audience for her side to be listened, after all, in the eyes of the empire, she is the one who poisoned the beloved son of the Emperor, Cahill, the Crown Prince.

Her neck was placed on the wooden guillotine as the shining shears were near to end her, before sparkling jewels of all shapes were around it, now all that's left is for her neck to be cut.

She remembered Cahill, the doubts she gave to her half-brother, in each of his actions towards her, she remembers it all, she wishes she trusted him but still a bitter feeling surrounds her and chills reach her spin whenever she thinks about it, how can she trust the one that is constantly compared to her? The only one who can threaten her authority? The one who is favored by the aristocratic factions. The one who is favored and loved by the Emperor? How?

"Avyanna!" It was the warm voice from his brother- Cahill, the only one who showed her warmth. Yes, she should not have doubted and pushed away the Crowned Prince, she should've appreciated him, because until the end, he loved his sister, the daughter of the witch, the Empress, and the heartless villainess- Avyanna.

- End of Chapter 43 - 」

Claris re-read her masterpiece once again, reminiscing the time when she felt alive.

When the Sunflower Wither, a story she had written in a span of one summer, that became her supposed path for success as an amateur writer, but she gave up too soon. Not even giving it a proper ending it deserves, no, she never actually outlines anything after that chapter - she can't. After all, that character was inspired by the writer's life, and she just killed herself.

Looking at the comments, everyone has different opinions about the death of the villainess. Some think her death was too lousy, not enough to give satisfaction. Others say that the reason for the sudden execution of death in the story was only because of poor writing of the author and only thinking of giving pleasure to those who wanted to behead the character. And they were not wrong, pressure drove Claris in the edge of her seat, many had requested for it, their thirst for blood blinded her with the success that can come along with it. But that success, only turns out to be a disaster, her downfall.

The buzz startled alarmed Claris, "Shit, it was probably the owner." Throwing the butt of her cigarette somewhere in the balcony's apartment, chewed a peppermint gum before opening the door.

Expectations of someone doesn't mean it has to be fulfilled nor to be met. "Oh!" A relief came to her, her messy hair, dark circles, graved cheekbones and tattered lips welcome the delivery man. The one in her doorsteps is an old man, a deliveryman to be exact, with the order she has been waiting to arrive for ages.

The man handed the package and asked for a signature on a piece of paper. Claris finds it amusing since it has been ages since she has signed in a paper instead of the usual tablet. The man left without saying a word which is normal but she shouted thank you to the man before he even entered the elevator.

Slumping on the floor in the only room of the apartment. The moment upon opening the box, styros started scratching to each other creating an eerie sound and bubble wrap ensures the safety of the product that has been delivered, a scroll. It was from an entrusted shop online where Claris is one of their most valuable customers since she often places orders whenever she finds anything that caught her eye, and last month, they gave out fifty-percentile off to all of their top buyers that includes her.

The scroll has good reviews, it also has various designs that customers can pick. In a brief description about it, the scroll is supposedly a contract with a demon, but obviously it's just part of the product to attract certain perks of customers, and now from being attracted to shipment, it has arrived and in the arms of a well satisfied customer.

In the bottom of the contract, a name was written, Claris Perez. 'Oh, it's personalized!' She pictured the product spontaneously, "Satisfied customer here." And rate the product and services ten, a perfect one. Subsequently, noticing a strange scripture across her name.

Watching countless movies and reading, she felt excited when she noticed it, taking out the camera of her phone and waited for magic to happen. Instead of being magically translated, a certain tablet like a block of stone appeared on her screen "Unable to detect, try again later. Tthey do put effort into their products." So she started deciphering the letters, one by one, in her most focused attention and cautiousness. Blocking any other senses she might need to have properly working at the moment.

Usually a sensitive nose in any type of smoke, even from afar, is one of the downsides of Claris' nose. But her being too focused to be distracted, olfactory nerves that should have sent signals to her brain must have been a hindrance for her to notice that a fire has broken out in the living room.

"Azrael." Muttering with no voice in it. The other texts are in language that she could understand, and she find her favourite part is :

「Say my name and I'll grant you your greatest desires. I'm the demon that has come and saved you.」

She looked at the piece of paper where she wrote the name she had decoded a while ago until she finally smelled danger.

'Where is it coming from?' She left her room and saw the entire balcony on fire. "Oh my God, what the hell?!" Remembering her cigarette butt, 'wait, it's just because of that tiny cigar, oh my god!'

Tried to extinguish the fire with a couple of scoops of water only to make the fire bigger than her, reaching the ceiling wall. When she looked up, her amusement and disappointment grew at the same time. "Why the hell did the fire alarm didn't discharged?!" She finally called the emergency number and alerted them about the fire, because a smoker can't blame her tenant for a not working fire alarm when smoking in the place is not even allowed in the first place.

Claris turn her head to the door but it also had caught fire already, "I'm gon'na be so dead after this." She'll need to compensate for the whole building or even get imprisoned for not following the policy of no smoking or because she caused a floor with a single cigarette. The thought of her father appeared, "No, I can't ask for his help, not after all this time!"

At the age of eighteen, she left the rural province, announcing her independence through moving out and living in the city. And this apartment is a gift from her father that was named after her, making her escape easier.

Couple of years have passed, not a single call nor a penny has been exchanged between Claris and her father. From education to day-to-day expenses, she relied on herself, both a student and a partimer. So no, she can't ask him now, nor ever.

"This suck, I suck." No other contacts on her phone to call. Step Mom equals to Father, Brother means the same thing. Manager in the shop, surely will decline. A professor that does nothing but to give her random tasks. End of contacts. She has no one to call.

A voice echoed in Claris' head, reminding her the contract from the scroll. She has someone to call, a demon.

Subconsciously, she went to her room and the room is still untouched by the slender fingertips of the fire, the scroll is in her bed. "Sure, it is super detailed, but that is because it has to look real. For customers approval to it. This is just for decoration, right? Right!"

Absurd, ridiculous and desperate. She convinced herself she has to distract herself before the firefighters arrive. Believing that she must survive, that she wants to live. From her window, colors of blue and red, and the siren can be found, but she could not see this, the wood that surrounds the glass window has already caught the fire. She shifted her attention to the scroll and to the name that is written in strange letters. "Right, calling devils or demons need sacrifice or blood. Yeah, yeah. I will not be calling evil spirits, I will be just uhm, waiting for the rescuers. Calming myself. Let's just say it."

Enlarging fire caught Claris' virgin Asian hair toast, she picked up her phone and the scroll, hurriedly locked herself in the bathroom, hoping the water will save her from further burned hair.

"Azrael, hear my call."

Looking down at the scroll to cheat on what she was supposed to say, she strangely muttered uncanny words, never-before-heard ones, out of this reality language and from brown and grainy paper, the paper glowed and the scriptures rearranged themselves.

"Thy shall exist, as I use my desire to call upon you, Azrael, Prince of Demons and Underworld, hear the plea of your caller, Claris, and I shall grant you to live! To you who once desist, I shall offer my life," Claris isn't speaking this with her mind intact, she was merely speaking what she has to say, what the scroll and the world's gravity to pull her tongue and control her, desire to overcome the unspeakable. It was said in an authoritative voice, as if being muttered by thousands of spirits, but the message did not only echo in the four corners of the bathroom, but extended to all that has risen and fallen, defying life and time, stretching to all reality.

The electricity went off in the entire city, before it even returned a ball of electric flow current was formed and exploded, that blew Claris to the tile wall. From a dark smoke, a hand guise in it reached and prevented her from being hurt any further.

Blood from her upper head flowed in, covering one of Claris' eyes. "No, no, the smoke has entered the bathroom." She said waking herself up. Her coughs were inevitable even with both hands covering both mouth and nose.

"I am Azrael." A warm, comforting voice had said.

"Oh my God, I'm hallucinating. I'm really high now. The smoke- the smoke talked!" She alarmed herself in her weakest state. I must've hit my head hard, I just heard a warm voice speak

"Insolent human. I am Azrael, the Prince of Demons and Underworld!" And the smoke let out a horrifying laugh in the four sides of her bathroom.

"Why is the voice so loud and clear, it felt so real." She reached out her hand to the smoke and she felt a skin, a grained and rough one.

"What is your desire, whatever it is I shall grant it to you."

"What the hell? Are you for real?"

Finding everything unbelievable, Claris looks back and forth to the smoke and her hand, 'why would an online shop have a real demon contract? And did I really just call him out?' Her memories started to get blurry, everything happened so quickly, the fire, the scroll, the explosion and the smoke talking.

"Shall I let you leave this place? That way you'll survive." He said as if boasting, but it was the truth, because he used the power of insight.

Survive. It echoed in her ears. "There's no way those tiny human beings will save you with those... ladders."

"The fireman already arrived?!" Hope started to occur in the spirits of ranging fire and illusion, that is what this is for Claris.

"Fireman? Oh that's what it's called. Now, decide. Human."

"What should I decide? The fireman will be here soon." She might be thinking she's hallucinating, she continued talking with the smoke, her nerves finally calm down. She still hasn't even noticed the blood that covered one of her eyes.

"Do you entrust your life with those low beings and not with me?!" The dark smoke turned darker and thicker, fuming his anger.

"Why would I entrust myself to a demon?!" Crossing arms and raising eyebrows, her question makes sense. Demons are evil, well in this reality it is.

"Because whatever effort they make, I can assure you they can't save you from your doom!"

"I'm gonna..." Blinking eyes, calculating ones. Wasn't sure where to look, she faces the demon-smoke. "Wha-what?" Claris was driving Azrael at the edge of the room, "I will die?" Their eyes were locked to one another, he finally saw her.

"Mmm, mmm." He answered. Azrael was suppose to feel confident, after all, humans are scared of death, so why? Why is the human in front of him is so fearless? Instead of holding in the tip of the edge of hope, death feels peaceful with her. The stillness of water after arriving in the ocean after the long travel. As if death is where she has been leading her life until now.

Claris saw the picture as clear as the still water. She does not need to compensate the owner of this complex, she'll turn to ash and the funeral won't even be held, because no one would cry for her. She does not need to attend morning classes for a program she does not even want to take. Also, she does not need to face the wrath of her father.

Tears escaped from her eyes, the dark smoke flinched and panicked until she smiled. "No need to save me." She chuckles, those were not sarcastic but the most sincere and relieved statement, in a warm voice, it was what she wanted, and he knew, because beforehand he entered her body to know his soon-to-be-contractor.

"No." He muttered to himself, in disbelief.

"You can't just call me and leave me." He whispered but in every word his voice got louder and louder as the smoke from the fire found its way to enter the bathroom. "You can't!"

She does not think anymore, she already accepts her fate, she'll die now. 'Finally!'

He is losing hope, he only existed for a couple of minutes, but soon, he'll perish with his caller. Moreover, a clear memory from her appeared, he could see it clearly, his contractor was sincerely happy in that memory. It's not like he can turn back the time for his contractor, because it needs a great power to perform, so he did his second best.

"Hold tight." He formed a whole hand and held Claris' hands tightly. "I won't let you die. I won't let you!"

「News flashed appeared on the televisions all over the country, an apartment complex caught fire and the origin of it was from a cigarette butt. Only one death was recorded, a female student in her mid 20s, no body was found, only ashes as remains of a poor young woman.」