She Belongs To The Devil

Theodore held Niylah's hand and asked Ramon, "Ramon, hold your sister's hand. We are going to travel to the cave."

Ramon held his elder sister's hand and asked Theodore, "To the cave? But weren't you saying that you would take us to see the demons?"

"Yes. That is exactly what we are going to do." Theodore gave a smile to a confused Ramon.

And immediately after, the dark mist enveloped all of them. When the mist cleared, they all found themselves in the garden of the cave.

Theodore then put Ariel down from his arms and instructed the children, "Wait here for a minute, okay? I will be right back."

The children nodded their heads and watched Theodore vanishing from the garden again.

Ariel was eagerly waiting for her father to prove to her cousins that the demons were real and that she wasn't lying.

Since his uncle had told them that they were going to meet the demons, Ramon believed him already. He believed that the demons did exist. And he was excited to see how they looked like.

Niylah, on the other hand, was curious as well as a little scared. Even Ariel had told them that the demons were scary. And she wasn't sure if she could keep the promise that she made to her uncle saying that she wouldn't get scared upon seeing those demons.

And Niylah asked Ariel in her scared little voice, "Ary, didn't those demons try to eat you when you met them?"

Ariel thought back to the time she had seen all those demons looking down at her as though they were really going to eat her. Then she remembered Damien covering her with his wings. She glanced at the pillow that she was still hugging and smiled.

And then she answered, "They tried to eat me. But Damien hid me under his wings. And then he took me to his Palace. So they did not eat me."

"Damien is the name of your new friend?" Niylah asked.

Ariel gave a huge grin and nodded. And she described how he looked, "He is tall like you two. And he is as beautiful as you two. And his wings are very large. His wings are also beautiful."

Ramon nodded his head after hearing that description of the demon. However, he didn't think that demons could look beautiful like how Ariel was describing him to be.

And a question was disturbing him. "If he is also a demon then why didn't he hurt you or eat you?" He further said in a whisper, "The demons eat children like us. Maybe he asked you to be his friend so that he can eat you."

Ariel felt a pang in her heart after hearing that. The thought of Damien eating her hadn't even crossed her mind.

But now that Ramon mentioned it, the seeds of fear and suspicion got planted in her heart. The corner of her lips turned downward.

And she tried to defend Damien's intention even though she herself wasn't so sure about it. "But… but… but dada was also there. And Damien's mother said that my dada was her friend. I know Damien will not eat me, just like how his mother has not eaten my dada."

"He might not eat you but what if he eats other children? Will you still call him your friend?" Ramon asked again without realizing that he was scaring Ariel. "He is a demon, Ary!"

Ariel was now on the verge of breaking into tears. She didn't want her new friend to eat other children. She wanted him to be a good boy so that she could keep on being friends with him.

Even though their first meeting was a short one, she really liked him. He had wiped her tears. He had held her hand. He had protected her from other demons. And he had taken her to his home.

She didn't want such a good boy to turn out to be someone who would eat children. And she tried defending Damien, "He does not eat children. He is different than other demons. That is why he didn't look scary."

"Hey, little ones." Theodore appeared behind the kids all of a sudden and since they were so focused on talking about why Damien didn't eat Ariel, he happened to scare the soul out of them.

"Aaahhhh…" all three of the children screamed in cohesion. Ariel even threw the pillow at Theodore as a reflex action.

"Ouch!" Theodore raised his brows and looked at the children. They had terrified expressions on their faces. And he asked them in a much softer tone, "Uh… Are you sure you all want to see the demons when all of you are already trembling?"

"Yes," Ramon stiffened his back as he replied so that Theodore wouldn't see him trembling.

"Uh-huh," Theodore squinted his eyes and kept on looking at the kids. He was reconsidering if letting them see some of his followers was a good idea or not.

But then he gave in because the adults were already planning to introduce the new generation to all the supernatural things slowly.

"We can start by letting them see a few samples with their own eyes, I guess," Theodore thought to himself.

And then he knelt down in front of the kids and said, "Okay. Let's see them."

He picked Ariel up and put her on his shoulder. "Hold onto dada, okay?" he instructed her and Ariel immediately held his ears as if they were some handles.

Theodore then picked both the twins, one in each arm. And rather than teleporting, he started to walk towards the door that would lead them to the common room of the cave.

"Do you know why we never allowed you to walk past this door?" he asked the kids.

"Because there is a cliff outside that door? And we will fall?" Ramon guessed that because that was what he had thought until now.

Theodore laughed and said, "I like what you thought, but wrong."

That huge door creaked open in a very creepy way when they stood in front of it. The kids were already scared by the dramatic sound that the door produced. Ariel clutched Theodore's ears even tighter and the twins also tightened their hold on Theodore's clothes.

Theodore stepped inside the long and dark corridor and said, "We never allowed you to walk past this door because this is where the demons live."

"De-de-demons live here?" Niylah asked in an almost inaudible voice. "Why?"

And Theodore answered, to the children's surprise, "They live here because they all serve me."

The twins gave a bewildered look to Theodore as if to demand more explanation from him.

And Theodore further briefed them in a softer tone, "They are good demons. You don't have to be scared. I have known them for a long time. They won't hurt any one of you."