"Are you okay?"
Always the same question.
"I'm fine."
Always the same lie.
—Internet
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"Oh, my lord! Are you okay Evangeline? Did he touch you anywhere?" asked Heather, checking her body worriedly for any marks or injuries.
Eva sniffed, shaking her head with a smile. "I'm fine. He didn't harm me." she ensured but Eva didn't tell her how he had threatened her and accused her family of poverty. Vanessa was right: she was only making her mother's condition worse as she got older.
Looking down on the hard ground, Eva felt guilty for everything that was happening. She took it as her fault and felt ashamed for wishing to seek comfort from her mother. Did she even deserve it, she asked herself.
No.
"Mama, I will be okay. I'll manage to find some sort of way to earn more. Please don't worry for my sake, your health will worsen."
"What's wrong with me?" snapped Mrs. Blythe. "I might be getting older but that doesn't mean that you have to take up everything on yourself. Until I'm alive, you will not take up all the burden yourself alone. I will not let it happen!"
Internally, Eva noted this point down in her head. If she was going to try something... risky, then telling her mother would be difficult to do. She hated being secretive but all she wanted was to see her mother and sister living happily.
If somebody asked her if she preferred the simple town life or the luxurious grand high life, Eva would choose the village life without thinking twice. She was well aware of the problems of the elite society and had no plans of mixing herself into those issues. Her sister longed for such a life and Eva would try her best to give her everything she wanted.
"Mom, you're also earning money side by side. It's ok, nothing will happen."
Hugging her mother, she looked up to see the dark midnight blue sky shining with billions of stars decorating it. Her eyes caught the Moon glowing the brightest and she smiled. Somebody in some part of the world was staring at the same Moon, talking to it, and sharing their problems with it. She was not the only one with marriage problems or money issues. She had a lot to be grateful for and while going to bed that night, she silently prayed that whoever was on the other side of that Moon, would remain happy for the rest of their life.
——
On the other side, the Moon had also shown up in the kingdom of Xandria shining its light through the dark, night sky.
A man stood on the balcony of one of the chambers in the castle. If somebody had seen him from far away, they would've mistaken him to be a lonely, heartbroken man who had lost everything. What they didn't know was that he was the cause of driving men to depression and heartbreak.
He closed his eyes as the breeze blew his jet black hair back, making it look a dark shade of brown. Beauty could be deceiving and the man was a perfect example of it. Men and Women both could be spellbound by his face but it was just a disguise to make people fall for his traps.
The aura surrounding him was suffocating, it would make somebody want to drown just to get away from it. The darkness enveloped his body as if it couldn't let go of its master.
The man slowly exhaled, his lips parting, and at that very moment, his eyes caught sight of the Moon's warm milky glow.
He hated that Moon. It would take just one swipe of his finger to cut it into two but... he sighed. Handling the causalities after would be a troubling business. His obsidian eyes glared at it but deep inside those emotionless orbs, a thin lining of despair could be seen faintly if one looked closely.
"My King?"
The man slowly turned his head around to see his trusted Advisor standing on the doorstep.
He had already heard the door open and sensed the man's presence. "What is it?" he spoke in his deep voice which sounded bored and dull.
Theo sensed a feeling of nervousness in his Advisor which was peculiar, Leon wasn't scared of his aura and spoke his mind openly on every occasion. Something serious must have happened to make him feel uneasy and it excited the King who was feeling bored less than a minute ago.
Leon felt the King staring at him and tried his best to calm down his shocked nerves.
"Your Majesty, Gareth just arrived with a thorough report about the happening inside the Abyss. According to what he said, King Asher has been making frequent trips down into the Underworld. One of the spies reported that he is busy training an army in there for battle."
Theodore smirked, cocking his head to a side. It made him appear devilishly alluring, a look unique only to him.
"Let him do whatever he wants. It'll be more fun to beat him if he gets a little stronger." mocked the King and Leon silently palmed his face in his mind. My King, you might be able to crush him into a pulp in a minute but it is hard for the rest of the men! They can't twist a neck in less than a second!
Leon would've rolled his eyes if it was anyone else. Who was so freaking over-confident!?
But this was Theodore Blackwell. King of Xandria. He was the man who had managed to scare the living hell out of every being under a hundred decades of ruling. Nothing was impossible for him.
"Should I send more spies to keep an eye?" he asked, not daring to look into the King's eyes.
"No need. What's the least Asher could do? Throw a rock at my window?" taunted Theo, glancing at the casement beside the balcony.
Leon smiled weakly and bowed low, before taking his leave and closing the heavy door gently behind him.
As soon as the door closed shut, Theo leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. When he opened them a minute later, the pitch-black orbs had gotten a shade darker. The whites in them had gotten black making him look like an actual demon straight out of the depths of hell.
He shook his head slightly. Why was his demon raging out of control? Had something occurred to trigger it?
It was most likely the Underworld acting up again, it was the only conclusion that he could come up with. His demon could feel the power leaking out from it but Theo did not go berserk. After all these years, he had learned to cage his demon inside and trained himself to restrain it.
Taking a deep breath, he jumped down from the tallest tower of the castle and a small smirk took place on his lips. The devil had fallen to the surface with a bewitching smile.