[Music recomndation: Eternal Eclipse - Born From Ashes]
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A couple of days back, Jacob had been sitting in his apartnt after disposing of the body of yet another woman. He had killed her in a blind fit of rage following the press conference where Aliana’s marriage to Gavriel was publicly announced.
His brain had been frantically working to craft the perfect plan... not only to sabotage the upcoming wedding but to get the woman into his possession once and for all.
While he was lost in deep thought, he suddenly felt the temperature dip drastically around him, accompanied by a heavy, suffocating presence lurking in the darkness of his room.
Alerted, he looked around but couldn’t see anyone, but an ominous, deep voice of a man suddenly echoed directly inside his head.
"Yes... you are not imagining it. I am present here."
Jacob shot up to his feet, growing deeply wary.
"Who is it?" his dull yellow eyes continued to frantically search the space to spot any intruder. To his frustration, he couldn’t see a single soul.
"You cannot see , human... but I am present." When the dark presence spoke inside his mind a second ti, Jacob stumbled backwards in sheer fright.
A dark, echoing chuckle rang out in his head, the voice dripping with amusent. "Relax, human. I am here to help you. I am not your enemy."
"Wh-what do you an? Who are you?" Jacob asked after a stunned, breathless silence.
"I am soone who is going to help you claim the woman you so desperately desire," the voice continued, causing Jacob to pause.
"You are not going to get her with your current thods. Not when she is under the direct protection of the man she is about to marry," the voice added.
"W-what do you know about him?" Jacob demanded.
The voice snickered again in a dry, rasping sound. "More than you can ever comprehend, human. Just know that he is not soone a fragile creature like you can handle."
This caught Jacob’s imdiate attention. "Why do you... say it like... he isn’t human?"
"You caught that, huh?" the amused voice rasped. "All you need to know is that he is not soone you can trifle with. And I am the only one who can help you."
Silence stretched heavily across the room as Jacob tried to calm his racing heart. What he was currently experiencing was sothing he never could have imagined. For a fleeting second, he genuinely wondered if he was finally losing his mind.
But to his stunned surprise, a small grey object materialised out of thin air, settling onto the surface of his desk. Jacob reached out with a shaky hand to inspect it, but the object instantly floated away from him before he could make contact, forcing him to halt in his tracks.
The sinister voice continued inside his head, "That is sothing you will only receive if you accept my terms."
"What terms?" Jacob asked, gulping hard against the lump in his throat.
"Simple. My paynt. I will help you claim the woman you are so deeply obsessed with, and you will get the life you desire with her. In return, I can watch that man squirm... and I will get your soul."
Jacob’s eyes went as wide as saucers upon hearing that final condition.
In a quiet, trembling voice, he asked, "Are you... the devil?"
The voice suddenly burst into a booming, dark laughter before humouring the human. "Perhaps. So... what is it going to be, human? Do you accept the terms?"
Jacob’s temples throbbed as he tried to process everything he was hearing.
His gaze drifted back to the small grey object resting on the table, and he found himself wondering whether he was truly willing to take such a step.
Every plan he had co up with until now had seed like a high-risk, low-reward gamble with very little chance of success.
Then his thoughts drifted to Aliana.
The re idea of her marrying another man made jealousy, rage, and obsession surge through his veins.
If this was the price he ultimately had to pay, then perhaps he was willing to pay it. At this point, the concept of his soul felt distant and vague to him. It was sothing he neither understood nor valued enough to protect.
But if it ant having Aliana all to himself...he would do it.
Taking a deep breath, Jacob finally replied, "Yes. I agree."
"Good." The voice sounded pleased. "Then let’s seal the deal, shall we?"
Without waiting for Jacob’s response, it continued, "Cut your skin, let your blood fall onto the object before you, and say, ’I give myself to you, Mord.’"
Jacob didn’t hesitate.
He sliced open his palm and let the blood drip onto the grey object. The mont the first drop touched its surface, the blood was absorbed into it and vanished without a trace, sealing his fate.
The sa grey object had later been given to him by Mord, who had explained that it possessed the ability to teleport its user from one place to another. It was the very object Jacob had used to reach this location where Aliana had been held captive.
It was the first ti in his life that he had experienced sothing truly supernatural.
And yet, as unbelievable as that had seed at the ti, it paled in comparison to what was unfolding before his eyes now.
The woman he desired, his obsession... the one who had been at his rcy and bound by heavy tal chains only seconds ago, was now standing right before him.
She was staring up at the ceiling as though she were no longer present in this room but sowhere else entirely.
Her arms were spread out wide on either side, the heavy tal restraints that had once bound her now shattered into useless pieces on the floor. Her head was thrown back, her long blonde hair whipping wildly behind her as if caught in an invisible vortex.
Surrounding her entire body was a dense, dark blood-red aura, making her look less like a fragile human and more like a destructive entity that did not belong to this world.
Yet, she looked as if she were in imnse pain.
Her muscles were completely taut, and the veins along her slender neck protruded sharply, as though her body were enduring an unimaginable amount of physical strain.
’Just what the hell is happening?’ His own pain-filled brain scrambled to grasp the situation.
But more than anything, for the very first ti in his life, a wave of primal, paralysing fear coursed through him, triggered by the exact woman he had obsessed over for years.
"A-Aliana," he whispered her na in absolute dread, but no response or sign of acknowledgent ca from her.
Then the corner of his eye caught a subtle movent.
In the darkness of the room, illuminated sporadically by flashes of lightning, his wide eyes picked out sothing dark slithering across the floor around the woman. It hissed and coiled like a living thing, moving with unsettling purpose as it slowly gravitated toward her.
Before his horrified gaze, the shadows began circling her feet, winding around her before beginning to slowly wrap themselves around her body.
Jacob’s breathing hitched in his throat as he watched in utter horror.
The shadows continued to spread over her, creeping higher and higher as though they were swallowing her whole.
Panic exploded in his chest at the terrifying realisation that he might lose her completely.
Summoning every ounce of strength left in his lungs, Jacob finally scread, "Aliana!!"
The instant he did, a violent torrent of blood splattered across the entire room.
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