WARNING: DOUBLE UPDATE. THIS IS THE SECOND PART. GO TO CH. 18. TAEYONG AND ARA.

                  There were thirteen prisons in the Shadow world, scattered across different territorial owned by different clans. These prisons were known through legends and myths, and some stories were so horrible that it sounded unrealistic but terrifying at the same time. Each prisons was guarded by monsters of myth; sphinx, Chimera, Gorgon, Hydra, Minotaur, and worst of them all; Balor.

                  Balor.

                  The name that brought doubt to my Lord.

                  As he put it nicely, ‘nobody saw Balor and survived’. Legend said that Balor was killed by his grandson. But that was not the case. Lugh, Balor’s grandson had asked Lucifer himself for a favor he found hard to resist. After the short defeat, the Lord plunged him into the Water Prison, hoping that he would rot there until the world ended.

                  Until now. Until Irene, the daughter of Ashmodeus sealed a deal.

                  Perhaps I was more worried than him. Lord Chanyeol was indifferent about almost everything. After he had returned to his body, he seemed to be in trance; going into a 36-hours deep sleep was never a good sign for an Immortal.

                  “How do you feel?”

                  When Baekhyun opened his eyes, I noticed that the dull grey eyes were back. Not the green tint that I grew to love on him because of the Lord. He was still Baekhyun. Still the person I liked. But things had changed when he was asleep, and I didn’t know how to explain it all.

                  “Bad,” He replied groggily and tried to get up. I patted him on the shoulder and motioned him to stay on the bed. His body must be sore and pained. Baekhyun groaned and massaged his head. “Could’ve been worse. How long was I out?”

                  “A few weeks,” I handed him the drink on the side. Sweet honey water. He looked happier. I didn’t know where to start. Like always, I stayed quiet. There were so many things I wanted to say. I wanted to ask him, to scold him for being so foolish, to tell him perhaps I missed him. But then I was too preoccupied with the Lord and the guilt of it came back when I saw Baekhyun’s gaze. “How does it feel like? Sharing your body with him?”

                  Baekhyun scowled, “It feels like I have no privacy at all. He could access everything that I have. My memories, my knowledge. He knows everything I know about you.”

                  “Isn’t that stalker-ish?” Forgetting that Baekhyun was less familiar with the humane term, I turned around and shook my head in disappointment. “So he knows. About everything. About us. About me and you, and… our relationship.” It was odd, talking about whatever we had when we had never spoken of it before. It was sort of a taboo topic because we felt more comfortable without defining the kind of feelings we had for each other.

                  Baekhyun didn’t reply. He stared at the ceiling like a dead man.

“Every little things.”

I was on a dead end.

“You know… When I was dormant…” He started and paused, and I felt like he was coming out with something troubling. Or else he wouldn’t have looked so restless. “And I was watching at the side… It was odd.”

“How odd?”

“Like I was dead. Buried,” I sensed the word ‘forgotten’ but he refused to spill it out. “And I saw the way you looked at him. Talked to him. Touched him.” Baekhyun sighed and halted again. I, on the other hand, was tongue-tied. Frozen. Stuck. Because I knew where this conversation was leading.

“Baekhyun,” I tried to open my mouth but it sounded like pathetic pleading. I should have thought of something. But maybe I knew this was going to happen anyway. That one day, he would question me on this. Flirting with him was fun. It really was. Call me cold-blooded, but Baekhyun had been the longest ‘question mark’ and I genuinely liked him.

“Can you… Can you leave me alone?”

This was going nowhere. He would be stuck waiting and I would keep on running. In the end, both of us got hurt.

I stared at him. At the dullness in his eyes I was used to. But now this male was no more than a stranger. And I’d hate to think that I had somehow lost him.

“I need time to think.”

I grabbed my blade by the side of his bed. One last look. I was by the door. It felt like goodbye. Like the moment I walked out of the door, we would be nothing anymore. And perhaps… If it was best for him…

“I’m going, Baekhyun.” And I might not come back. “I’m…” I swallowed my pride. “I liked you… I really did.”

I twisted the doorknob. The wooden door closed in heavily and I started walking aimlessly.

“You’re not crying, are you?” Unfamiliar voice. I turned back and saw Lord Chanyeol, waiting by the side, hands folded, eyes cold and calculative. I shrugged and kept on walking. “You know that I can release you of the signed contract right?”

I stopped at my steps. Did I want him to?

His figure closing into me.

“I’m not crying.” I stubbornly replied and faced him. Unlike Baekhyun, Lord Chanyeol’s height was towering, and he easily overshadowed me with the tall build. His left eye was almost covered by the ash brown hair, and I had this sudden urge to swap it out of his face.

“Sure, your eyes are just a little glassy,” He sarcastically replied. Then he cupped my face. His hand bigger than Baekhyun’s, and warmer, and gentler. My heart thumped and I cursed it. The Lord leaned in closer, and I couldn’t tell whether he was just being the tease he always was or if he was really serious about it. “I want to look at you.”

“You’re being weird,” I tried to pull away, “Let go. I can’t stand it.”

The Lord heaved a sigh and tilted his head to the left, “You know, sometimes… It’s good if you can be sentimental like other girls. Be a bit gentle. Cry if you want to. Be honest with your feeling.” He pulled away his hands and I already missed the velvety touch. “I know that he loves you. Do you, to him?”

I looked down, bewildered.

“If you do, I will release you from the signed contract. You can be with him and I will give you my blessings.”

So that was it. The way he said it. Like everything he did, every word he said were nothing but a lie. I looked at him again, and this time, I didn’t care if my expression betrayed me. Pain. Pain. I spoke in a voice so foreign that it didn’t sound like me, “Don’t bother. I don’t need your blessings.”

He called my name. I ignored him.

He called my name again. I continued walking.

A sudden despair crept onto my heart. And it clenched me. Fear that he might never love me back. . What kind of deep did I get myself into? Yes, I had signed a deal, I needed to repay it. But my feelings were never included. I was not supposed to fall in love with him.

“Would you listen to me?” He angrily pulled me back and turned me around. I was so stunned when he pulled me into a hug, tight and affectionate. “I know you. I know you more than you think I do, okay?” It was a rhetorical question and I could almost sense the possessiveness in it. “I know you hate it when people see you cry.” And he hugged me tighter. Maybe he was trying to suffocate me, “Because you’re stubborn as hell. I don’t know how else to crack on that thick skull of yours.”

Tears. Fear. They all mixed together. And in no time, his shirt was wet.

“I don’t want you to think that I am limiting your choices of lives. Your parents signed off the deal, not you. I don’t want you to be forced into something that you do not want to,” He sounded breathless, not affectionate.

I stayed still, not returning the hug. I was almost limp in his arms.

“I can’t breathe,” I mumbled and sniffled. He immediately pulled away, and his eyes searched me while I looked away at the window. There was a storm outside. My reflection had red, ugly eyes. And she was biting her lips. Contemplating about everything too complex to be figured out.

Urgh, I hated myself sometimes.

“Are you happy now that I’ve cried in front of you?” I quickly wiped away the tears and put on the tough façade like I usually did. I had poured out more feelings by crying. Tears were sometimes words better left unsaid.

The Lord knew. He understood.

“Well… At least now I know that I am making a progress,” His smirk slowly returned. “And I also know that you are not completely heartless, either.” His wink sent flutters of indescribable feelings into the pits of my stomach. And the heart was burnt in flames.  

“Shut up,” I remarked and tried my best to glare, “I’m getting chills because of you. It’s disgusting.”