She Belongs To The Devil

2"I have to protect her… I have to protect her…" Damien found himself in the dark abyss. He was sitting down while hugging his knees. His head was between his knees. And he was continuously rocking back and forth while chanting the same sentence over and over again. "I have to protect her…"     1

Damien suddenly lifted his head when he felt tremors coming from the ground below him. The tremor kept on getting nastier and soon, he found himself spiraling down the bottomless pit.     

"No! I cannot die here! I have to get out!" Damien screamed and desperately tried to hold onto something… anything.     

However, he couldn't grasp anything at all. And he kept on falling deeper and deeper.     

"Damien?"     

Suddenly, Damien perked his ears when he heard someone calling his name.     

"Damien? Are you okay?"     

He heard the same voice again. He looked around at the dark surrounding and tried to spot the source of the voice. "Who is that? Why do I feel like I have heard this voice countless times?"     

"Damien!"     

He suddenly felt a sharp sting on his cheek, prompting him to abruptly get up on his feet. "Hah! Who? What happened?" he exclaimed in confusion.     

Damien's eyes landed on Kenneth who was sitting in front of him with folded hands and a guilty look on his face. "You!" he exclaimed once again and then massaged his left cheek which was still stinging like hell. "You slapped me, didn't you?" he leaned forward in a hostile manner and shouted.     

"Yeah, so what?" Kenneth knitted his brows together and looked at Damien through his brows.     

Damien scoffed and then asked with fury, "So what? So what? Why would you even do that when I was sleeping peacefully?"     

"Peacefully?" Kenneth pushed Damien on the forehead with two of his fingers and shoved him back to his seat. "You were moving your arms and legs as if you were swimming in some invisible pool. And you were grunting like a pig. I don't know how demons sleep in hell, but that's definitely not how we peacefully sleep here on Earth."     

Damien aggressively folded his arms in front of his chest and pouted. And he asked in an angry yet softer voice, "Who are you calling a demon?"     

Kenneth paused to think for a while and mumbled while frowning, "But you are a demon. Aren't I allowed to call you what you are?"     

Damien opened his mouth to argue further, however, he decided to put an end to that meaningless banter. He looked out of the window and said in a low whisper, "Well… My mother takes pride in calling herself the first demoness. So, I guess you can call me whatever you want."     

Kenneth gazed at Damien's face. His face had a subtle glow. Kenneth guessed that it was because of his mother and said a little enviously, "You have a very good relationship with your mother, don't you?"     

Damien looked back at Kenneth with a subtle smile on his face. He nodded his head and answered, "Yes, she loves spoiling me." He recalled how his mother always loved to surprise attack him during their daily training sessions. The smile on his face widened when he further added, "She also loves to beat me to a pulp."     

"Huh?" Kenneth was caught by surprise when he heard Damien's last sentence.     

Damien laughed at the face that Kenneth was making and clarified, "I meant, she loves to give me a good beating when we duel."     

"Oh!" Kenneth pressed his lips into a thin line and smiled. "No wonder you are so strong."     

Damien felt a hint of sadness from Kenneth. So, he tried to divert the conversation. "Oh, by the way, I wonder how that fox is doing. The one that Ariel…" He realized halfway that he had unintentionally brought up another topic that was to be avoided, but it was too late to stop, so he finished his sentence anyway, "…had picked up from Heaven."     

Unlike what Damien had thought, Kenneth laughed and took the bait, "I bet he is being a pain in the arse for Arion." He further teasingly added, "He kind of reminds me of you though."     

"What?" Damien furrowed and exclaimed. "I am nothing like that brat! He is too hot-headed, rude, and doesn't even know what he should and shouldn't speak."     

"Yes, exactly!" Kenneth laughed again and cheerfully said, "You were a lot like him, at least when we first met."     

"No, I was not like him. YOU were like him." Damien frowned and accused Kenneth instead, "And you are being rude to me right now."     

Their banter kept going on for quite a while until the coachman decided to stop the carriage.     

Both of them questioningly looked at each other when the carriage halted. And when the footstep approached the door, they looked a little cautious.     

The coachman informed his passengers while unlocking the door that was loosely being held to its place by a few bolts, "We will be stopping here for a while, Milords. You may eat something and get some fresh air."     

"Sure," Damien answered as he got up from his seat.     

Kenneth also got up on his feet, ready to follow Damien out of the carriage.     

The coachman watched his young passengers dragging a suitcase from under the seat. He wondered why he didn't notice their suitcase when he met them in the morning. But he simply brushed it off and further said, "We still have a long journey ahead of us. So, make sure to eat a lot. We won't find many decent places on the road ahead where you can dine because it's mostly forest that lies ahead of us."     

"Oh!" Damien got off the carriage and then said to Kenneth, "Shall we buy some extra food for you?"     

Before Kenneth could answer Damien, the coachman interjected in between and warned them, "Milords, since this is your first time traveling this road, I think you don't know the norm here. I suggest that you don't bring any food with you."     

The coachman was starting to emit a different aura after he said that. So, Damien asked while slightly raising his brows, "May I know the reason why?"     

The coachman gave a nervous laugh and scratched his head. "Er… It's just that the smell of food sometimes attracts all kinds of animals, especially at night."     

"Huh!" Damien turned to look at Kenneth.     

Both of them had some guesses as to what kind of animal the coachman was warning them about.