[ Obsession ]
"Why"
I was always a hard-working man. Perhaps that was my greatest strength, but maybe it was also my deepest flaw. I did what I felt was necessary, always, even when it hurt.
I thought I was doing the right thing. But looking back now, I wonder if I ever really knew what that was.
She was the reason I worked so hard and the reason I pushed myself beyond my limits. It was costly, but I didn''t regret it. I couldn''t bear seeing that frown on her face as she looked out that window, so sick that she couldn''t even do what she wanted to do on her own.
With the earnings I had worked so hard to gather, I was finally able to arrange for the finest physicians and most skilled healers in the Kingdom to perform a leg transplant for her. At the time, pride swelled in my chest, and I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement, knowing I had achieved something so meaningful for her.
“So why….. WHY!!! I did everything! Why did you forget about me!
The pain in his chest was unbearable.
“You forgot about me. All the happy times we had together were for nothing. You only wanted the cure, and now you''ve completely forgotten the one who gave it to you. But fret not, I''ll make sure you never forget about me again… EVER.”
“Hey, old man, are you all right?”
Archibald stood in the doorway of the rustic wooden cabin, his tall frame silhouetted against the soft golden light of the setting sun. His dark, wavy hair was tousled, as if he had just woken from a restless nap. His sharp, usually stern face was etched with confusion, his thick brows furrowed, and his gray-blue eyes darted across the treeline outside the windows of the wooden log.
Archibald stepped further into the cabin, his boots thudding softly against the creaking floorboards. "You’ve been pushing yourself too hard, old man. You keep staring into the forest like that, and you’ll start seeing things that aren’t there.”
“Perhaps you''re right.”
Meanwhile, unseen by the living, a shadowy silhouette simmered in the shadows, its presence clinging to the air like a cold mist. Standing in the doorway was a grotesque creature, a nightmarish amalgamation of bat, man, and lizard. Its mismatched features seemed cobbled together in a macabre design, each element jarring against the next in a twisted parody of life. One of its clawed hand gripped the doorframe, its sinewy body tense and motionless as it lingered just outside the cabin.
<hr>
(Time: 11:50 am)
"Fetch my staff and leather satchel. The satchel should be by my bed, and the staff is near the closet where I keep my collection. Don’t touch or take anything from there. I kept a demon in there as a guard, and it will report back to me if you so much as lay a finger on something that isn’t yours.” Caesar commanded, his gaze leaving Ursula as he turned to the floor and grabbed what appeared to be a wooden doll underneath his bed.
Ursula froze mid-step, her hand hovering near the doorframe. "A demon?”
“Yeah”
Ursula''s eyes widened, her voice dropping to a whisper. "You’re serious? You have a demon guarding your belongings? You know what the church would do if they found out? Why would you—”
“don’t question my methods, girl," Caesar interrupted sharply, his tone brooking no argument. He inspected the wooden doll in his hand, turning it over as though searching for something. "Demons are excellent watchdogs if you know how to control them. And I do know how to control them. And the church would be fine with it; they''re the ones that actually gave it to me.”Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“And it won''t harm you. I placed a lot of protective wards around this place to keep it safe from any monsters, especially demons.”
Ursula hesitated, glancing nervously toward the direction of the closet. “And what if it tries to trick me? Demons are known for their lies, aren''t they?”
Caesar smirked, his eyes glinting with a mix of amusement and what Ursula presumed to be condescension. “It will try to trick you. That’s in its nature. But it’s bound to my commands, not yours. If you don’t engage with it, it won’t have any power over you.”
Ursula swallowed hard, her throat dry as she nodded hesitantly. She stepped cautiously toward the bedroom, her boots barely making a sound on the worn floorboards. Her fingers hovered over the latch of the closet door, her heart pounding in her chest as she took a deep breath before opening the door altogether.
“Please,” the voice of a woman said, Ursula''s blood running cold as she took in her appearance. The woman''s voice trembled, barely more than a whisper, as Ursula stared at her. Her face was pale, almost ghostly under the dim light, and her wide eyes seemed to shimmered with something between fear and disbelief.
“Help me! That maniac has kept me trapped here for ten days without food or water. I’m weak, and I can’t break free from these bindings. Please, get me out of here!”
Ursula’s breath hitched in her throat. Her fingers tightened around the closet’s wooden handle as she took a cautious step back. The woman before her was bound by three iron chains, her wrists and ankles bruised from an apparent struggle. Her once-fine dress was tattered and dirt-stained, and the desperation in her eyes sent a shiver down Ursula’s spine.
But something felt… off.
The woman''s presence was unexpected, and for all of Caesar’s talk about a demon, he had not once mentioned a captive.
"Who—who are you?"
If Caesar were hiding someone in his closet, why would he tell her to go to his closet? Perhaps it could have been his memory failing him at such an old age, but she doubted that. Such a crime would have surely gotten him killed, and there''s no way he would have forgotten that there was a captive here.
The woman''s eyes darted behind Ursula toward the door, her face twisting with panic. "There''s no time! If he finds out you spoke to me, he''ll punish us both! Just free me, please!”
"What’s your name?" she asked.
The woman''s lips parted, but for a fraction of a second, she hesitated. Then, her expression shifted so subtly that if Ursula hadn''t been watching closely, she might have missed it altogether.
"My name is… Evelyne.”
The name felt hollow….
It wasn''t just that, but the voice and the way the woman said it carried little to no emotion at all.
Her blood ran cold.
"You’re the demon, aren’t you?" Ursula whispered.
For a long moment, the thing did not move. Then, slowly, her lips curled into a smirk, the fear in her eyes completely gone as she began to grow in size. The false visage it wore, which was meant to replicate the appearance of a Middle Nordic woman, faltered before sliding off and falling to the ground with a meaty thud. As she stepped forward, chunks of her body fell to the ground. Her arms and legs elongated along with her neck, and her eyes glowed as the surroundings twisted and bent.
Ursula’s breath hitched as the air in the room grew thick with the scent of sulfur and rot. The thing before her was no longer a desperate woman but an abomination, a shifting nightmare of writhing limbs and glowing, pupil-less eyes that bored into her soul.
“I hate humans. If that punk hadn''t warned you about me earlier, I would have been out of here and ripped you to shreds,” the demon sneered, its grotesque grin stretching unnaturally across its face. Its elongated fingers flexed, claws scraping against the iron bindings that kept it trapped. "Not before I had some fun with you," it added, its voice dripping with malice.
“''I''ve gathered all my things, so we''re set. And don''t worry about him; he can''t harm you, not without my permission. He''ll just watch as you collect what I need from my library. Now, step into the closet. The dimensional magic I''ve placed inside will handle everything, organizing exactly what I instructed you to get for me”
“Be a good little dog and don''t cause Ursula any more trouble,” Caesar said as he waved his hand in the air, dismissing the demon with a casual flick of his wrist. “And remember your place.”
The chains constraining the arms, multiple legs, and neck of the demon tightened, digging into its dark, rough skin. Its eyes widened as it gasped for air, its chest heaving in desperation. Its body was forcefully lowered by the chains, the weight pulling it down as the demon plummeted to the floor in a violent crash. “Cursed—you!” The demon’s voice was ragged, its growl a mix of fury and fear.
With that, Caesar stepped out of the cabin, the door creaking softly as it shut behind him, leaving Ursula alone with the demon.
<hr>
Caesar exhaled, leaning back in his worn wooden chair as he gazed out at the dense forest before him. His hands rested on the armrests, fingers absently drumming against the rough grain of the wood.
The afternoon sun bathed the treetops in a golden light, but he hardly noticed the beauty of it. His mind was elsewhere.
Not in this world, but beyond it. The normal senses and eyes tend to focus only on what is in front of them, but when your vessel completely shatters, all that remains is… a void. And in that space, something was watching him back.
His surroundings completely shifted; the world bending and ripping apart as the chair he was sitting on completely disappeared, with grains of sand clinging to his skin. His eyes opened slowly as he took a look at his surroundings.
No longer was he seated in his cabin, but he was now on a beach. Near the water, a woman displayed features so beautiful that they nearly defied the beauty of any woman he had ever gazed upon, including the elves of North Castle, who were pretty renowned for their beauty.
But this was no woman.
“Caesar, you have 10 days”
The voice that echoed through the air wasn’t one that came from the woman—no, it was something far deeper, as if it emerged from the very core of the world itself.
Caesar’s heart skipped a beat, his body jerking upright as he instinctively took a step back. His gaze remained fixed on her, yet a chill gripped him as his peripheral vision caught the fleeting image of a skull, its hollow eyes staring at him. Her eyes were as cold as her soul, and she spoke in a voice that seemed to echo from everywhere but nowhere at once. “My sands eagerly await your arrival Caesar.”
“Caesar… I got what you asked for,” and with that Caesar fell onto the ground, his face pale and strained as consciousness began to seep back into his body. His hands gripped the earth, claws digging into the soil as he got up from the ground.
End of Act 3