The Faustian Love Bargain (COMPLETED)

Volume 2, Chapter 22

One year later.

Kaela sat next to the bed where Nick laid. He was still as beautiful as ever. His hair glistened in the sun. His skin was clear and it was as if blood still ran through his body. However, he was as cold and frozen as a statue. No one could put his body next to other stone dead souleaters because he looked too alive and beautiful.

Jean came into the room and found Kaela sitting there again. She sighed. Kaela believed that he would be alive again but Jean knew her son was dead. 

Things had finally settled. Anthony and the aristocrats had went into the other universe to kill all the evil ice souleaters. Brandon killed himself shortly after the tragedy. Micheal was never found. Stella had vanished from them and she was last known to have found a job as a shop assistant. It was about time that Kaela started anew.

“Kaela, I appreciate that you come here everyday, but I wish that in the future, you could stop coming here,” Jean said and took Kaela’s cold hand.

“I feel better just looking at him,” Kaela replied. 

“I feel that too,” Jean sighed and looked at her son’s rosy cheeks, beautiful lashes and moist lips.

“I feel that he is alive, somehow,” Kaela said listlessly. Kaela suddenly stood up and left.

For a number of times, she had stood outside the bakery, watching Stella as she worked. Kaela’s eyes brimmed with hate every time she saw Stella. She knew that she should not blame Stella but she could not help but see her as a murderer.

This round, she thought that she no longer hated Stella. She found her pitiful. Sometimes, Stella would be cleaning the door and suddenly break into sobs. Today, she was beating her chest as she stifled her tears.

Kaela walked towards her and said coldly, “Stop.”

Stella looked up and her eyes were red with tears. She said nothing as she bowed to Kaela.

“You don’t have the right to feel sad.” Kaela gave her a look of reproach.

“I’m sorry,” Stella mumbled. Kaela hated to see her in this state of painful resignation.

“I’m going to marry Isaac soon,” Kaela said. Stella looked at her in silence and was about to ask her why when Kaela continued, “I love Nick and I will always love him. Isaac knows that too. Isaac is Prince now so my parents want us to marry each other.”

Stella gave a quiet nod. They stood looking at each other in stillness until Stella mustered her courage to ask, “How is he?” She could not say his name in case she broke down again.

“As beautiful as ever,” Kaela answered. She had been waiting for Stella to ask her that. Stella nodded again and she was about to turn to leave when Kaela asked, “Would you like to come and see him?”

Stella’s eyes lit up but they soon dimmed again. “I have no right to see him,” she muttered. Kaela felt obliged to take her, so without caring whether there were people looking at them, she teleported them to the room.

Stella was shocked to find herself suddenly in a brightly lit room. Kaela told her that she was giving her ten minutes with him, and she left the room. She stood a meter from his bed where he laid. As her eyes fell on him, his beauty and goodness melted all her pain and guilt away. It was true that his beauty had been preserved. It was true that he looked like he was unnaturally alive. She sat on the chair next to his bed and continued to stare at him.

How happy he looked! She wondered what were his thoughts before he died. Were they happy thoughts? Or did he hate her till his death? For the entire year, she had dreamt that his spirit was by her bed while she slept. Sometimes he looked like he was sad and sometimes, he was happy.

“Why did you feel sorry to die?” she whispered. Tears started to fall from her eyes again as she recalled his last words. 

“If I were to be reborn, I would love you again. I would love you forever even if I were to be reborn into a life of suffering. I would love you as much as the angel who loved the souleater. I would love you as much as the concubine loved King Fredrick. No, I would love you more than they did. Please God, forgive me for my sins. Grant me mercy. I wish for nothing but to love him. Even if I should forget him after I die, let me love him in my next life. Even if he should never love me, let me love him for all my life.” She did not know what she speaking as the words flowed out of her mouth. 

She was afraid to kiss him because it was her lips that had killed him. But she did not know what had propelled her face forward as she placed her lips gently on his. 

She soon found herself in a passionate kiss with him. She thought his lips had moved as well.

THE END.