The Cursed King

"Okay," Elise finally agreed. "But we better have something like a code to let me know when you need to bail your date or if it's going so well that I can go home. I don't want Loriel to get too worried about me."

"Of course, let's plan it all out." Alex smiled and then hugged Elise back. "Thank you so much."

"It's the least I could do for my friend. I want to see you happy as well," Elise said with a smile.

***

The next day, Elise told Loriel about her helping out Alex on her blind date. The man had heard a lot about how Alex had been working hard to do all the tasks he assigned to Marc, and in the end, helped him to be with Elise now.

So, in a way, he owed Alex that much to let Elise help her get a boyfriend. To Loriel, whatever made Elise happy would make him happy too.

So, he was understanding and supported Elise to accompany Alex on her date. 

"You are a sweetheart. I will eat outside and you don't have to cook for me tonight," Elise told Loriel. "Don't wait for me."

"Very well."  The man nodded. He kissed her on the lips and walked her to the door. He could find something else to do tonight while waiting for his wife.

He understood that he needed to let Elise enjoy life outside of their relationship, so she wouldn't feel suffocated. He believed it was healthier that way.

***

The location of the blind date happened to be in one of the finer restaurants in NYC and it was where the two women, Alex and Elise headed there after their work together. The two took a cab to head there in advance.

"I'm really excited," Elise said.

"Me too," Alex admitted with a nervous laugh as they stepped inside of the restaurant. "Gosh.. I hope he is at least look half as good as his pictures."

"I'm sure he does," Elise tried to reassure her. "If not better."

"Ahahaha.... you make me feel hopeful. What if he is ugly?"

"Jeez, Alex... don't be so superficial," Elise hit her shoulder jokingly.

"Well.. easy for you to say that. Your boyfriend is gorgeous and hot. You've got everything covered. Good looks, wealth, and personality." Alex chuckled and continued. "Ahem... and he looks like he is great in bed too. What a steal!"

Elise lowered her head and smiled sheepishly, "Well.. you are right in all of those but..."

"But what? Wait, is he not good in bed?" Alex asked Elise curiously.

"No-no... not that, jeez...." Elise hit Alex's shoulder. "I mean, he is indeed handsome, wealthy, and has a good personality... but the reason why I decided to accept him and want to marry him is that he is really kind and attentive. I feel so lucky to have him in my life."

Alex took a deep breath. "Stop throwing dog food at me. You make me feel so jealous... hahaha."

Elise only laughed at Alex's words. She knew Alex wasn't serious.

***

Both Alex and Elise spent the better hours before the day ended inside of the bathroom as Alex tried to spruce up and look prepared for the date. They even redid her makeup to make her standout.

Alex looked espcially beautiful today. Since she came ten minutes early, she sat at their reserved  table and waited for her date to arrive. While waiting, she kept chatting Elise to ease her nervousness.

Now, Elise was sitting at a table all by herself, except it happened to be at the spot where she could see Alex and Alex could see her. However, Alex's date couldn't spot her at all.

Elise was actually excited for this event.

It was strange for her to act as a matchmaker, but she was enjoying the role of supporting her friend. The man seemed nice and gentlemanly, as far as Elise was concerned. He came five minutes early, with flowers in his hand, and he also dressed impeccably. 

The man looked like he was a banker or law firm, seeing how serious his appearance was. However, once he sat down and they started to chat, he seemed friendly and amiable.

One could even see Alex laughing a bit, talking animatedly, and explaining things.

Elise could see and realize that everything was going smoothly and there was nothing to be afraid of. Alex was at ease with this guy she was talking with and it only took about half an hour before Alex sent Elise the signal that she was free to go.

Maybe it would have come sooner if Alex wasn't so busy laughing, but Elise was more than happy to stick around a little longer just to make sure that everything was going to be great.

Now that her work was over though, Elise took her leave. Now she was sure that Alex was enjoying her date and didn't need her anymore. She thought Alex and her date looked good together. She hoped Alex could finally her own happiness too.

Elise paid for her drinks, tipped the waiter, and then went out of the restaurant. NYC was once again booming with traffic and it was hard to call for a cab. The stations also seemed far away.

"I could take a train but that would take me longer than going on foot," Elise whispered to herself.

It didn't take much consideration for her to come to a decision. Elise started walking through the city to head back to Loriel's penthouse. There was nothing for her to worry about.

Elise was actually excited to get home to tell Loriel about all of the things that happened today. There wasn't much occasion for Alex to lighten up, so Elise was proud.

However, what Elise didn't expect to stall her was the sound of retching.

It was a horrific sound that alarmed her ears.

Elise glanced to one of the alleyways and saw a man currently bent over and puking his guts in one of dark corners of the street. 

The man looked like he was in horrible shape, and yet he clung to a bottle of alcohol.

Elise hesitated at the sight.

Until the man noticed her presence and raised his head. Bloodshot eyes looked up at her and the man suddenly snarled. "What is it to you? Do you think you're better than me?"

"No, not at all…. Sir." Elise found herself frozen in her tracks when she should have been running. The way that the man threw the spittle out of his mouth was horrific, but she knew that it was all the influence of alcohol.

Elise tried to move again, but it was at the same time that the drunk man made a move towards her. He raised the empty bottle of alcohol…

"You good for nothing, bitch!"

Elise spun to her feet, bit back a scream, and instinctively threw a gust of wind at him. The man was thrown backward and then hit himself against a wall. The man was splattered like a bug.

Elise froze and heard the way that his head cracked against the cement wall of one of the old buildings, she saw the way that blood gushed and poured against his head.

It was such a horrific sight.

"No no no." Elise fell down to her knees at the sight.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. She didn't mean to hurt him. Elise only wanted to defend herself, she didn't want to kill him. He was still alive, wasn't he? 

The shard of broken glass lay across the dark alleyway, but Elise didn't care about it at all. Instead, she moved towards the man and looked anxiously everywhere across the city's streets. 

All of the cars seemed to be moving and not one bothered to stop. Did anyone see this? How could she fix this? How could she heal this man? Tears pricked Elise's eyes.

"I didn't mean this to happen…"

"No, of course not, Miss. You didn't mean to kill him." A voice suddenly spoke.

Elise raised her head and found a young man staring down at her. "W-who are you?"

"Well, you can say that I'm just someone like you." The man was tall and buffed with long ash hair. His blue eyes studied her expression but then moved on to the body that was now on the dirty alleyway. "Is this the first time that this happened?"

Elise hesitated. "What do you mean - someone like me?"

The man's calmness was something that made her stop from immediately trying to run away and blast him away, but surely the man didn't mean—

Fire suddenly flew out from the man's hands, even better than Elise could do herself, the swirling flames shot out and latched onto the man's body. It consumed the person and turned them to ashes.

The body was gone, charred, and burned to the ground.

It was now as if there was no person at all.

As if everything was merely a form of her imagination.