𝐚𝐤𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐚 [𝟏𝟖+]

Chapter 23

┈┈┈┈․° ☣ °․┈┈┈┈
𝐃𝐚𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐚 hummed a quiet tune to herself while inspecting the office, until settling her gaze upon the bookcase she'd never been allowed to look through. One book in particular, that is. The mysterious book with the ominous Roman numerals engraved into the decaying leather. She carefully picked it out of the bookcase, and tried her best to read the strange language written on the back of the cover.

She blew some of the dust away, and trailed her finger along the spine of the book. It was intricately made, but Gerald hadn't bothered to upkeep it throughout all of these years. If it wasn't for his carelessness, the book would've been beautiful and one of a kind. However, it was currently a relic. An unintelligible, unkempt, cryptic, relic. 

Skimming through the pages, she took note of the yellowed paper, and the fragile leather that flaked off and crumbled in her hands. The dry, red flakes, and the gritty microscopic dust from the pages effectively coated her fingers. She wiped her hands on her pants and carried on, furrowing her eyebrows as she tries to read the small dialect. Completely abandoning the words, she shifted her attention to the hastily drawn pictures. Illustrations of demons, demonic sigils, and flummoxing creatures, were painted onto the bottoms of the thick pages with a red ink. 

Some of the creatures looked like nightmarish versions of animals from the human world, including dogs with three heads, meanwhile the other creatures looked like nothing she'd ever seen before. "Cerberus?" She furrowed her eyebrows, trailing her finger along the ink. The book looked hand-written, and only further confirmed her suspicions.


'Is this... The summoning book?' She thought to herself, 'But why would he keep it here in plain sight?' Thoughts raced through her head. She carefully placed the book back in the bookshelf, making sure not to disturb the other books. She paced around the room, until she found a file cabinet. Reaching into her pocket and pulling out the make-shift lock-picking kit she previously made using her bobby-pin, she struggled to open the cabinet. After a few more unsuccessful attempts, she heard the cabinet open with a click.

The brunette flipped through each file, and each one had a different name. The names were similar to Lucien's, and she imagined that they were all previous demons. 'Mortimer Balthadore' was the file that caught her attention, and shortly after, she found 'Lucien Balthadore'. His file was incomplete, and a small column read 'Attempt unsuccessful.'. 

"What the hell.." She mumbled, placing Lucien's file back and opening Mortimer's. His 'Attempt' was successful, "Does this mean he successfully killed him?" She questioned, squinting at the papers. The rest of the papers were riddled with analysis results, diagnoses', and other medical jibber-jabber. One thing that caught her attention in particular though, was that his results were inconclusive. It was never specified whether or not the serum killed him, and his cause of death wasn't written down. 

"Weird." She muttered, gnawing on the inside of her cheek. Was that all Gerald was trying to do? Kill all demons? Was he trying to kill Lucien, too?

She imagined Lucien's death, and a horrible dreadful feeling pitted in her stomach. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if Lucien ever left her life, and she was dedicated to stop Gerald from killing him. Lucien had endured so much pain, and torture. He was weakened, not only by his enslavement, but by the endless tests and injections they had put him through. She quickly panicked, and placed Mortimer's file back in the cabinet before slamming it shut.

She practically darted out of the room, and slammed the door behind her. As she ran through the hallways, she thought about Lucien. All the feelings he evoked in her, all the things he had done for her, and she imagined the unlikely. 'What if I love him? And what if he can learn to love me?'

However, these thoughts only furthered her aggravation as she frantically paced to the lab. She wanted to make sure he was okay, she wanted to see if it was too late, she wanted to be there with him. Never in a million years would she ever had imagined developing such feelings for a creature labeled as an 'evil spirit', but she felt a way about him that she'd never felt about anyone before. Not Finn, not anyone. She never felt so strongly, she never had such a strong need to be in someone's presence.

The way he looked at her as if she were the only person in the world, the way he made her feel otherworldly, the way he was able to fit himself inside her heart, her heart that was previously only filled with loneliness and grief, he made everything seem like it was going to be okay. He made her feel safe, protected from all the cruel dangers of the world. And heaven knows she wasn't going to let him go.

She panted roughly and made her way into the lab, but before she could turn on the light, a shadowy figure pressed her into the wall.