Complicated ties

'Is she suspicious?' Caio looked over the menu and enjoyed the sight of the three women. Taking their time to choose what they were going to order, they seemed to be on a stroll.

Caio hadn't expected this when he contacted her. His fingers got distracted, tapping rhythmically on the table.

How would he bring up the subject with two strangers there? He wasn't worried about them finding out, but...

'It would be strange, if they kept forgetting the whole conversation.'

The supernatural world wasn't something that just anyone could hear and take home.

"Right. Why did you bring me here."

'Yeah... those eyes have changed.'

The image of a crying girl flashed through his mind. Back then, even he was worried, it ate away at him to imagine meeting that pathetic girl years later.

But the world really did spin in strange circles... the eyes he saw were anything but like the ones in his illusions.

Blind and lifeless?

No.

They seemed to hold the brightness of a star. Enough life for two people.

"Straight to the point, huh," he sighed, his eyes falling into melancholy. It was his job to be as charming as possible.

"I didn't remember having your number, but you suddenly appear... Out of nowhere."

"I took the liberty of asking someone I know, sorry if that bothered you, I needed to talk...", her fingers didn't stop, Diana had already noticed.

"Get straight to the point," she cut him off.

Caio raised an eyebrow.

When he realized he wouldn't get an explanation, he straightened his posture. His back touched the cold chair. The atmosphere followed his action. He didn't have time or patience.

His father could come in his place, if he wanted.

He opened the association's text on his cell phone and slid it to the other side. Diana read the file in silence, until she realized where this conversation would lead.

"It's not natural for someone to have contact with 'them', especially so young," she didn't know, but she had enough of what she heard from Nero to guide her.

"My clan, my father found out about you. And well... we were once engaged."

Diana didn't like where this was going. In her best thoughts, she just wanted to get through this with a light heart.

"They want me to create a 'bond' with you," Caius lost faith in the negotiations as soon as he saw that face. Today wouldn't be the day he would receive compliments.

"It's an alliance, you know, it would be good for both of us. They want us both together, that way we would have different perspectives of the world..." Diana sighed. Her heart was anything but light. However, she was fine.

She could feel the girls looking at her, but it couldn't be better. Diana remembered those years, the first time she was left. Sick, lost and stolen. Her wound of insecurity was ripped open by a hook.

Nero cleaned the wound, but never stitched it up. It wasn't his place to call it quits.

She knew that better than anyone. But she finally realized something else.

"You just want to use me, you dirty idiot," there was no pleasure in saying those words. And maybe that's why the truth in them hurt more than angry insults.

Caio was speechless. His expression froze as Diana corrected her posture. She leaned in, the table was short.

"Is that all you have to say?"

"... Do you know how hard it is to find support on the other side?", his voice was soft, dripping with venom to the point where she could hear it rattling.

Diana decided to play along.

"No."

He took it as an invitation. A dance of words, for the first time she was there.

"My father only met one person. Someone worthy of luck... So, imagine my surprise when I found out that you did too," his expression was unresponsive, Caio decided to be cordial. "I don't know your situation. But without support, no one goes anywhere. It's a dark alley with no way out, you know."

"No, I don't know. I went in and I've only seen light so far... I've been told about that too. A little. You're one of those 'little dogs', aren't you?" Diana had never liked to irritate anyone so much.

Her pulse and face twisted. They were an arm's length away and Diana could feel the darkness in those eyes.

"Someone crushed your ego, didn't they?" she smiled. "Poor thing..."

Her questions went unanswered. But she had everything she needed to know.

"Don't look for me anymore," after seconds of silence, her words were lighter than her heart.

Diana ended that conversation in an instant. Before the attendant even arrived, they had already gotten up and left.

"She changed," Caio tried to put his thoughts in order. His father's request and his pride were fighting each other.

The memories of the time they were together wouldn't leave him alone either, until a single memory made him decide.

'No, I don't know. I entered it and I have only seen light so far...', ironically, it was not a sentimental memory that made him happy.

It was her trust.

The complete and innocent trust in those few words left him paralyzed.

'Is she being deceived?...'

It was a possibility. Maybe someone was using her while pretending to be a good guy.

'No... The association does not move for cattle. She found someone of high standing, probably fell in love, and is being taken care of. But why?...'

His mind could not understand. He could not conceive. An immortal swallowing someone so naive and foolish into his life.

His memory came back in stanzas. Images of a pair of red eyes that only held coldness and emptiness, no love for life, let alone for an insect that lived less than their pets.

They were not human, they had no duty or the slightest bond with such a community.

They were cold and eternal. Not shaken by the death of a thousand or millions.

Caio saw them that way. His father and his leaders had an even deeper vision.

Due to a small mistake, he had been living hell for the past few months. Tortured, raped and consumed like a low-quality product. Only to be healed and caressed like pure gold.

His mind was giving in.

But was there anyone here who said they were seeing light?

Caio imagined the world he was in now. In a luxurious restaurant in the city center. With a card, capable of buying the entire building and its employees.

And yet a world so empty, far from the content and mystery that a few words of hers could bring.

There was no light in this world, that was why everyone was blind. Greedy to fill that void.

With stories, money, fame and pleasure. Life.

The other side was darker. It was the blank canvas. No light, only purity.

The strongest survived.

The strongest. Caio was strong.

But then why did Diana seem to be winning in the dark, without family, without him.