Taking in everyone"s incredulous expressions, Sia couldn"t help but laugh heartily. The only person with a nonchalant face in the room was Cain. Even the fun-loving Arthur was completely flabbergasted.She was observing Will"s expression when suddenly she felt a slight pang on her waist, which was then followed by another. Well, Cain"s pinches did get her attention back from Will but his jealousy only worsened her laughter.
After seeing that his face started to turn sour, she leaned closer to him and gave a peck on his cheek as a sign of consolation. She then finally calmed herself down and continued,
"You guys don"t need to be so surprised. You know, when all you want is to die, as living is but a torture to you, people who claim to want to help you by making you do some breathing exercises or counseling sesssions are nothing but mere hypocrites to you.
At that point in my life I felt like I was surrounded by darkness and with every simple move I made I would be hurt by something invisible in that same darkness. Cain"s words, that he would free me from my sufferings, were something akin to a source of light that illuminated in the room of nothingness I was in."
She suddenly felt Cain"s hold getting tighter: she could tell he wasn"t happy that she ever had to go through something like that. But his small gesture and the protective hold on her made all her previous bad feelings vanish to a different kind of nothingness. He was right when he had whispered to her: if not for those events they might have never gotten to know each other.
So, trying to think positively, with a much lighter heart she happily gulped the rest of her wine and started to recall bits from their "encounter",
"So, I was skeptical and made him swear that he would do just as he had promised, and swear he did. So for the next few days, instead of wanting to go to sleep and never waking up again, I was looking forward to waking up and messaging him all the details I could remember about the culprits from the lab.
However, he wasn"t satisfied with wordy descriptions and asked me to draw the culprits as he somehow knew that I am pretty good at drawing. So, I did what I was told, not even realizing that he was making me face my inner fears and undergo a unique type of therapy. Drawing helped me calm my agitated nerves, while telling him all the smallest details made me retrain my mind.
Next, he convinced me that being as smart as I was I could fasten the procedure by helping him hack different government and underworld files on those people. So, I once again felt the thrill of learning when he taught me coding and hacking. He had all kinds of books delivered to the ward for which he gave me deadlines to learn.
It was hard in the beginning as the experiments had somehow messed up with my learning abilities. But I didn"t like the feeling of not being able to do something so I didn"t give up. After some time my abilities were back to normal but I still refused to talk to anyone other than The Devil King, who now felt like a savor to me.
The one thing I failed to recognize back then was that with the amount of different materials he was forcing me to learn I didn"t even have time for suicidal thoughts. If I finished a book, he would find a thicker one for me to read. If I finished that one as well, he would make me practice my skills by hacking something easier.
Why he was so invested in helping me is something I came to learn later. It is his story to tell and I cannot mix his story with mine or ours."
She started to inch closer to him, placed her arms on his chest after which she once again fell into his strong embrace. She happily inhaled his unique masculine smell that had a slight peppermint smell to it. It made her feel so much safer.
After she was done getting used to her new position she continued, albeit a bit sleepily:
"After a month of making me do one thing after another I thought of my initial aim for which I signed up to help him. That was when I started talking to The Devil himself about death. It started just as a probe, but his view on the topic and the way he described so many things slowly made me question my decision," she yawned and continued in a m.u.f.fled voice,
"Neither him nor I didn"t love the other in the beginning: our love is the fruit of countless conversations we had with one of them being of special importance," she smiled in the end while continuously rubbing Cain"s chest like a naughty kitten would do.
Arthur, who was silent all the time, couldn"t help but ask,
"Hey! Are you going to sleep? What was the topic of the conversation? Can you tell us a bit?"
In response, Sia slightly raised her head and just gave him a sarcastic look. Pouting, she turned to Cain and said in a childish way,
"King, he wants to know the way to your heart as well! Does that mean he is a love rival or something? Do I need to fight him now?"
Everyone couldn"t believe what they had just heard. Arthur"s jaw literally fell from her questions: what love rival? What fight? What way to heart? Why was this girl bringing him to his own demise?
"Shhh, it"s alright. You don"t need to fight anyone. My heart is already yours. As for him, he is leaving us in a moment together with the other two intruders," Cain coaxed her like a child, in a voice so gentle one had a hard time believing it was him even though they heard it with their own ears. Moreover, he was rubbing and patting her back all the while with so much tenderness one wouldn"t believe he was the same Devil King who wouldn"t bat an eyelid when killing someone.
On the other hand, satisfied with her lover"s answer, Sia nodded at him happily and fell back into his embrace to continue her sleep.
With no choice left, the three men looked questionably at Cain, hoping to get some answers as to what just happened.
This time Cain talked in his usual apathetic and commanding voice that didn"t leave any s.p.a.ce for argument;
"You heard me. The story time is over. She is already drunk and needs sleep. Feel free to leave right now."
The men looked at him with disbelief: wasn"t she alright moments ago? When did she get drunk?
They suddenly shifted their gazes to the empty wine gla.s.s on the table. Will and Alex couldn"t help but be reminded of something she had told a while before:
"Neither: I just can"t hold my liquor."