Azra, Rowan, and I cleared the floor of the ashes of deceased demons. We were cleaning in silence for a twenty minutes. Azra, unlike Keliah, was not the kind to yap, and Rowan was drowning in guilt for not saving me.

I only saw the fury of Death. He was on the verge of a mental collapse since Death saved me rather than him. It ate him alive.

I decided to break the silence.

"How do you kill a demon?" I asked as I swept the floor with a mop.

Azra stopped scoping the ash on a tray and looked at me intently.

"It's not because I want to kill you, of course," I added.

Azra laughed and continued scooping. "All celestial beings have a weapon designed uniquely for killing demons." He revealed.

"Even you?" I wondered.

He hummed, and after a few seconds, he replied. "We usually steal such things. Us, demons, we torture each other, but we can't be killed without the weapon. It's our curse." He explained.

I was intrigued to know more about their kind. But I didn't want to cross the line, so I let the topic go. Rowan's mind was still drawn elsewhere. When he turned back at me, I crept toward him, touching his arm.

He blinked repeatedly, staring at me. "Is something wrong?" He asked, looking everywhere but into my eyes.

My eyes moved to his right hand. The hand that killed my murderer. I wanted to thank him properly. To say how grateful I'm for what he has done.

"No, nothing is wrong." I gave him a quick smile and continued mopping.

We were done around nine o'clock. The floor was crystal clear; I could see my reflection in it. My whole body was in agony. Especially my throat, which was bruised. When I looked at the time again, something wasn't adding up. Something was missing.

Grandma.

Grandma is not yet home. She never comes home late, no matter what. I searched my pockets, looking for my phone, which I hadn't seen for days. I couldn't find it, and the panic settled in. Rowan suddenly came up to me, and he immediately knew something was wrong.

"I need to call Grandma," I told him with urgency. "She's never come home so late after work. What if the demons got to her?" I clutched my hair in my hands, pulling it from my scalp.

"Calm down, okay? Just breathe. She's fine; I'm sure of it." Rowan said, touching my shoulder. He handed me his phone, and I right away called Grandma. She didn't pick up her phone, even after the fifth try.

I called her colleagues, whose numbers I'd written in a small notebook, we had in the living room in case of emergency. The first woman knew nothing of her, and the second told me she didn't come to work.

This was all a bad dream.

"Vivienne, there's something I have to tell you." Rowan suddenly said, his gaze stuck to the floor, and his fingers fidgeting.

"Yes?"

A long pause followed. A long sigh after that.

"I couldn't- I promised her I wouldn't say a thing to you."

"Rowan, promised what? And to whom?"

"Your Grandma is sick. She's very sick, and I'm sorry I couldn't reveal it to you sooner because she wished it to remain a secret between us." His voice was so quiet, I almost couldn't hear him.

"W-What do you mean sick? She's just having a cold."

Rowan kept his silence, and neither looked at me.

I had to fall to my knees in order to stay still. My world began to crumble again. Hit by a tornado. I whirled in my piles of mess. This was the last thing I wanted to hear.

Grandma was the only family I've known of. She was the only one who cared for me and needed me. How would the world look if she wasn't in it?

"Maybe you should call the hospital," Azra pointed out.

I immediately called the only hospital we have in our town, and the receptionist told me that a woman with my exact description had come an hour ago after some people found her lying on the ground in the park.

Once I heard she was there and that she was okay, I began to cry like never before. I ran out of the door and sprinted to the hospital, which was twenty minutes away from our house. I got there in ten minutes.

Rowan wanted to come with me, but I refused to even look at his face. I sent Grandma to work. I threw her out of the house, and she only pretended she had to go. She had nowhere to go. She doesn't have any friends except for me. She must've walked around our town when she fainted. What a horrible granddaughter I am. To fail her like this. I will never forgive myself.

When I arrived at the hospital and asked the first nurse I came across about my Grandma, she right away pointed me in the direction I should go. I walked the stairs until I reached the second floor. I hurried to the first door on the left. As I opened the door to the room, I saw Grandma lying on a bed, her eyes shut. She looked too pale-too sick. A doctor was there, checking her condition.

"Uhm, hello," I said. He turned at me, eyeing me. "I-I'm her granddaughter," I said.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He switched his focus to my face and responded. "Hello, I'm Mr. Williams." He shook my hand to greet me. "Your grandmother's condition is currently stable. But she's not entirely healthy." He looked into my eyes.

I pushed back the tears and looked at her, peacefully sleeping. "What's wrong with her? What's her condition? Is it treatable?" I asked, hugging myself.

"Yes, it is. However, we need to perform surgery before she can take her medication. Her heart valve is not working as it should, so it has to be replaced. We'll run some tests first, and then we'll decide when we'll operate." He explained.

I nodded, my heart racing against my chest. How could I not know she was sick? She stopped going to work for some time. She looked different than before, and I was so caught up in my mess that I stopped checking on her.

"Thank you, doctor," I said, and he smiled at me.

"Don't worry. Everything will go well." He assured me and left the room.

I walked towards the bed, examining her. She had needles plugged into her veins. The hospital gown on her looked like a bag of potatoes, and I wanted to laugh at that with her. I wanted to tell her how ridiculous she looked. I wanted to joke with her, as I always do.

Tears flowed down my cheeks. The trembling in my hands continued. I was stuck in a loop of a nightmare. I just wanted to shout until my lungs gave out. To let the fury escape my body. To be released from the agony.

"Vivienne."

I snapped my head to the corner of the room. Death.

I immediately jumped in front of the bed. "Don't you dare take her away from me!" I yelled. "Stay where you are."

He took a step forward and said, "Vivienne, listen to me-"

"No! I don't want to hear it." My voice lowered as if I were being possessed by a demon. "Don't come any closer," I commanded.

He chuckled in his gravelly voice and took another step. "You think you can command me as if I were your pawn? Don't be mistaken, kitty, to whom are you talking to."

I gripped the hospital's bed rail to keep myself steady. Death was the darkness in the shadows. A nightmare in a fairytale and a curse in my miserable life.

"I did not come to take Eleanor's soul. It's not her time," he shifted next to her. "yet."

I turned my head in his direction. "A-Are you saying she will be alright?" I wrapped my fingers around the cold steel, leaning my body against it because I couldn't rush to the Grim Reaper, grab his collar, and demand an answer. I had to stop my feet from moving. I had to turn my feet into stones.

"Yes, she will be fine after the surgery." He said quietly, staring at my Grandma.

"Did you know she was sick?" I wondered.

"No, I didn't. If I knew, I'd tell you." He replied, turning his hooded head toward me.

I cupped my face to not reveal the hot tears running down my face. I almost killed my Grandma. Rowan could've prevented this by telling me the truth. I loathe lies and secrets. And he did exactly what I asked him not to do. Death's betrayal pained me, but Rowan's betrayal shot an arrow through my heart, and it kept bleeding.

"Vivienne." Death called my name. I hated the way he said it. So desperately that he could die from it. My name was like poison coming from his mouth. I moved my hands from my face to see him right in front of me.

"Remove your pendant and take my hand." He extended his charcoal arm to me.

My heart jumped at his request. I felt a sense of fear grip me as I realized what I really wanted. I clutched the pendant in my hand, losing my sanity. Why would I want to remove it? Why would I want to touch his hand? Why would I want to curl up in his arms-

The devil was luring me down the wrong path.

"Do as I asked of you." He spoke quietly, his voice silky and compelling.

I have no clue why I took the pendant off my neck in the next second, but I did. I didn't even glance at it before I placed it on the nightstand.

I was pulled into the darkness. To him for some strange reason. I wanted to be enveloped by him. To lean my forehead against his chest. I wanted him to comfort me and tell me everything would be fine.

I extended my hand to his. His claws immediately locked my wrist. His skin, though, was soft and cold. The grip around my wrist tightened, and my breath quickened.

"What are you-"

He tugged me towards him, and I lost my balance. We dropped to what I thought would be a firm floor, but it wasn't. We hovered over a thick, hazy cloud. We floated slightly above the floor. I couldn't see anything through the black mist. We were so isolated by it that, for a second, I thought we were in a different room.

Before I could utter a single word, Death's hands coiled around my body like a serpent. I was pressed against his hard chest and sitting on his lap. The smell of his musky scent hit my nostrils.

His lips brushed against my ear, and butterflies exploded in my stomach. "There's just always something in the way." He began. "I want to have you to myself, finally." His lips immediately pressed under my jawline, and I let out an unintentionally soft gasp.

"I knew you would melt for me, Mademoiselle. You want my lips to trace your body, don't you?" He slipped his hand onto my thigh, squeezing it and scratching it with his claws. His lips traced a path down my neck, and when he suddenly stopped, his tongue licked me.

I wanted to moan loudly from all the excitement building within me, but I strained to admit the igniting desire. I liked what he was doing to me. How delicately he touched me and licked me.

"D-Death." I stuttered when he bit my neck, still gripping my thigh. His other hand traveled under my oversized t-shirt, and I was slowly losing control over my body. It was like he hypnotized me.

His lips broke from my skin, and he whispered, "I warned you, kitty. You truly should've avoided me. Now, I will never let you separate yourself from me." He kissed the nape of my neck, and I shivered. "You belong to me." Then he moved his lips to the crook of my neck. I closed my eyes, my heart racing. I felt his cold breath against my skin, and my body trembled with fear. I knew that I couldn't escape him. I couldn't escape the aching feeling in my thighs when his lips attached to my skin. I craved more.

"This- is so wrong," I whispered with breathiness.

His claws moved over my bottom lips, and the tips of his fingers pressed against them. "Tell me you hate it. Tell me you want me to stop touching you, Vivienne." He turned my chin to meet his shadowy face. A pair of crimson-red eyes peered at me.

Then the realization kicked in.

Oh god, what am I doing? Why am I doing this with him?

I stood up from his lap, and the mist disappeared in a second, and I was back in the hospital room with Grandma.

"I told you, I won't ever let you separate yourself from me. Stop backing away." He walked like he was on a hovering cloud toward me.

I glanced at the nightstand to grab my pendant back, but he was no longer there. I looked back at Death, and he started to laugh.

"Give me back my pendant!" I shout-whisper.

He exhaled and raged towards me, and my back slammed against the wall. He grabbed my hands and pinned them above my head. My breath was shallow and uneven. My pulse drummed in my head.

"Do you like being touched like this?" His face was just inches away from mine. "Has he touched you like this?" He said against my ear and let his right hand travel to my hip as the other locked my wrists tightly together against the wall.

I shook my head and whispered, "N-No."

His grip tightened around my hip. I could feel his breath on my face as he whispered, "Lying is a sin." He slipped his hand under my pants and found the hem of my panties. He pulled them by the band just so slightly that I took a sharp breath. He played with it, until I couldn't stand on my feet any longer from the pulsing pleasure.

He caught me right when I started to slide down the wall. He placed his left hand on my back, and his right hand slid to my butt. I forgot how tall he was, and I was reminded of it when he was towering over me.

"No one's fingers will ever touch you here, except for me. Remember that." He slapped my butt so strongly that it left a burning sensation afterward.