She Belongs To The Devil

Nigel was slowly and cautiously walking in the direction from where the scent of blood was coming. The closer he got, the more his claws and fangs elongated. Deep in his heart, he knew that he should have just run away but the curiosity to find out that source of blood was not letting him run.

He was taking deep breaths in and out so as to control his emotions. He was trying his best not to think about the blood and was trying to divert his mind by thinking about how his wedding reception was going to be.

His happy thoughts were disrupted when suddenly his foot stepped on something wet and sticky. He looked down and saw a pool of blood. His breathing got heavier when he saw the rest of the scene. There was a bloody track ahead of him as though someone had dragged a dead body somewhere. He followed the trail left by that blood while pinching his nose and holding his breath.

But after taking a few steps, he came to a halt. With his sharp eyes, he saw a mangled body of a girl lying on the ground a little far away. He couldn\'t see the face clearly but he saw one thing very clearly, a head full of silver hair. And a single name came to his mind… "Adeline!"

Nigel shook his head violently and shouted to himself for having that thought, "Nigel! Stop thinking that. That is not your sister. That cannot be your sister. She is even stronger than you, you know that. She would have fought with you if you were trying to hurt her. That is someone else… that should be someone else."

And then another horrible thought entered his mind, "What if someone else from the pack did something… Oh, God!" And he ran at the top of his speed towards that body to see who she was.

Back inside the cave, though Adeline was in excruciating pain, she was still pushing that Ghoul\'s head away from her body. She was not going to let that Ghoul sink its fangs on her body and tear off her flesh. And though she was bleeding profusely, she was holding onto her dear life. She didn\'t want to die here in some unknown cave. This was not going to be her end.

In between the struggle for survival, Adeline tried to recall what Theodore had told her about the Ghouls. Theodore had made her memorize the weak spot of each and every creature of Hell so that she could fight them off if she ever came face-to-face with them.

She finally recalled Theodore\'s words, "The Ghouls have a very sensitive nose. A blow to their nose will buy you enough time to run away from them if you are ever attacked by them again."

Adeline clenched her fist, gathered all of her strength, and hit that Ghoul right on his nose.

"Argh!" he covered his nose with both of his bloodied hands and tumbled back on the floor while groaning in agony.

Without taking a second to look at that Ghoul, Adeline picked herself up and turned on her heels. She covered her wounds with her palms and even in that pitiful condition, she managed to run. "What do I do? There isn\'t any exit! He will catch up in no time. I have to get out of this cave somehow." And something clicked in her mind.

"The ring!"

Adeline wanted to punch herself in the face for not remembering the one thing that could have taken her out of this cave a long time ago.

She quickly brought her palm close to her lips and then kissed on the ring. She looked around and waited for Theodore to appear. But he was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, come on Theodore! What\'s taking you so long? I don\'t think I can use that same trick again if that Ghoul catches up with me."

She began to run again while anxiously looking back in the direction where she had left that Ghoul. And suddenly, she bumped into someone. She quickly took a few steps back fearing it was Izel but she was relieved to see that it was actually Theodore. 

"Theo!" Adeline ran and gave a tight hug to Theodore. Then she looked at him and complained, "What took you so long? Izel is after me, I don\'t know why."

Theodore scratched his brows and sighed, "Ah! That useless bastard!"

Then he looked around and talked as though Adeline was not even there, "He had one job… one! I ordered him to finish this irritating woman off but he could not even do that one task. Tsk! He is a disgrace in the name of Ghouls."

He looked down at his blood-stained clothes and shouted, "Ugh! And now my favorite cloth is ruined because of this woman."

Back at the King\'s Court, Edwin was so angry at his father for saying he would never give the throne, that he jumped towards the throne to kick his father down the throne. And this time, somehow he was able to get closer to the throne.

However, just when he was about to land a kick right on the King\'s head, Adeline appeared out of nowhere and kicked his foot away. And while he was still in the air, she landed another kick on his gut and sent him flying onto the floor.

Edwin grunted and glared at Adeline but she just gave him a mocking smirk and sat down on the armrest of the throne. She hugged the King and he could not believe what happened after that. She took the crown from the King\'s head and put it on herself. And the King kept on smiling without saying a word. He was unbothered even when she dared to steal the crown from his head.

And she mocked Edwin again, "Wow! This crown fits on my head perfectly, don\'t you think so, brother?"

Edwin got up from the floor and clenched his fists. "How dare you put that crown on your head? Take it off or I will sever your head."

Adeline cackled very maliciously and teased him even more, "As if you can! You can\'t even touch a hair on my head. Don\'t even dream about killing me. You know you are weaker than me, brother. I have won each and every fight against you."

"I am not weak! Stop calling me weak!" Edwin was now furious.

"Really?" Adeline gave a pitiful look to Edwin and sighed. Then she slowly stepped down from the platform and inched closer to Edwin, "Just take a look at yourself, Edwin." She ran her finger over Edwin\'s cheek and grasped his jaw. And she whispered into his ear, "Look at your reflection in the mirror."

And out of nowhere, a huge mirror appeared in front of Edwin. He took a step back when he looked at his own reflection. He saw that he looked like a corpse whose bones were merely covered by a thin layer of skin, he could literally count his bones easily.

He touched his face and whispered, "No, this isn\'t right. My mother had already cured me this afternoon. I shouldn\'t be looking like this."

Edwin heard a burst of soft laughter from behind him and heard someone saying, "Dear, however you look, I will always love you."