Chapter 5

   The room was a lot nicer than I had anticipated, especially while still partially in the dungeon. The walls were hard cement, but the floor was a soft beige carpet, soft beneath my feet. There was a chair beside the door, and a dresser. The dresser drawers were empty, which I had expected. There was a lamp on the dresser and a notebook and pen, completely untouched at first glance. I went over to investigate, but just as I was beginning to open it, Rayne snatched it away. I looked up at him quizzically.

    “Sorry, that’s um, mine.”

    “What’s in it?” I asked.

    “Nothing.”

    I didn’t press the subject. Rayne struck me as someone who could get angry easily. I continued to look around the room. It was small, but about the size a regular room should be. There was a bed over on the far wall, the sheets all made. The sheets were silk, which was pretty, but it wasn’t guaranteed to keep me warm at night.

    “This is much nicer than I expected,” I said, running my fingers along the polished wood of the bed headboard.

    I heard him smirk. “Nice? This is nothing compared to what’s up there.”

    I turned to look at him, a frown coming to my lips. “I’m never going to leave am I?”

    He stared back at me for only a second before looking away and down at his notebook.

    “I don’t think so.”

    I bit my lip to stop the tears from coming and sat down on the bed, staring down at my feet. I was never going back home. I wasn’t going to see the orphanage anymore, or my friends, or even little Josh. I was even starting to miss Eric. I let out a shaky sigh.

    “I kind of assumed, I guess I just didn’t want to believe it.”

    At first I thought he had already left, and I was just talking to myself, but then I heard the door shut and the sound of someone sitting in a chair. I looked up to see Rayne seated in the chair, the notebook in his lap.

    “You’re worried about not seeing the humans?” He scoffed.

    I glared at him. “I don’t care if you hate the humans, but they were my family. I miss the people at the orphanage who raised me, and my friends. I miss all the people who didn’t hate me for my eyes or for who I was.”

    He sighed. “I forgot humans have different colored eyes.” He licked his lips and sat up. “Constance, I know that it may seem like you aren’t going home, but really isn’t this your home?”

    “This? Being your world or this room?”

    “Our world. Really this is where you belong, right?”

    “Belong?” I answered. I shook my head. “Belong doesn’t mean should be. I should be in this world, because this is where I was born and this is where people like me are. But I belong in the human world, where I grew up and where I really want to be.”

    Rayne shrugged and slumped back in the chair, opening his notebook and grabbing the pen from the dresser. I furrowed my eyebrows.

    “Where’s Christian?”

    “Taking a break.”

    “From guarding?”

    He smirked. “From your voice.”

    I turned red. “Oh.”

    “He warned me that you would talk a lot, and ask a lot of questions. So far you’re not holding up to his expectations.” He looked up at me under his eyelashes and raised an eyebrow.

    “It doesn’t matter whether or not I ask questions, you’re never going to actually answer them for me.”

    Rayne laughed softly. “You judge me too soon Constance.”

    I gaped slightly. “You mean you’ll answer them?”

    “Well don’t get too ahead of yourself,” he chuckled. “It depends on the question.”

    I sighed. “Why am I here?”

    “Because you broke rules,” he answered, his eyes now on his notebook again.

    “What rules exactly?”

    “Being in the human world without consent from the queen and the counsel. You also interacted with humans without their consent, and could have given them information about us.”

    “But I didn’t!”

    “That’s not the point,” he replied. “Next question?”

    “Why aren’t you letting me go?”

    Rayne laughed. “I thought I shared this answer with you the first night. We, and let me say I’m speaking also for the queen and counsel, don’t trust you back in the human world where you could speak about this to anyone. We also don’t trust you here either.”

    “Why don’t you trust me here?” I asked.

    “You were dearly fond with the humans,” he said, finally looking up. “Just because they’re not your species doesn’t mean you still don’t ‘love’ them, like you said the other night. You could still be on their side, even though you’re one of us. You could do anything dangerous here as well.”

    I scoffed. “Like I would be able to.”

    He laughed at that. Then his laughter was cut short. He straightened up and shut his notebook, throwing it under the dresser along with the pen. Then he got up and stood against the wall, turning to look at me quickly.

    “Don’t speak unless she asks you to speak.”

    I was terribly confused until the door opened and in walked the queen, two guards behind her. She stopped them with her hand.

    “You two can wait out here.” She flashed me a deadly look. “There’s no danger inside these walls.”

    I almost wanted to shoot her a glare, but I figured that wasn’t such a good idea. I gripped the edge of the bed so tightly my fingers began to go numb. The queen was wearing a long red gown that accented her red eye shadow. On her feet were black slip-ons. She stepped inside the room and the door automatically shut behind her, the guards disappearing from view.

    The queen gave me one last look before shooting one at Rayne.

    “Rayne, would you care to tell me why she’s in this room and not back in her cell?”

    “She was sick,” he answered. I could notice his voice sounded a bit different when he spoke to her and not me or Christian. “The cell is ruined now.”

    “So you didn’t take her to another one? You know just as much as I do that we have plenty to go around.”

    There were more cells? I looked quizzically at Rayne, but he didn’t seem to notice.

    “They were filled,” he replied, keeping his back straight and alert. “Some of your guards found violators of the law and threw them in the remaining cells.”

    “Why wasn’t I told this?” She screeched.

    “My queen, it was late at night. We rather would have not awakened you for something of such low importance.”

    Her look softened. “Well get rid of them. I have no patience for people who disobey me.”

    She wasn’t even going to hold them to court. I gulped. Then she turned to look at me.

    “Rayne? Why exactly was she sick?”

    “Not enough liquids in her system,” He replied. “That’s what my mother said.”

    “Yes well knowing your mother she’s probably just made a mistake. I don’t want this stupid demon that’s been hanging around humans to spread a plague.”

    Rayne’s cheeks turned a bit red when she had insulted his mother, and I suddenly wanted to blow up in her face.

    “What was your name again dear child?”

    Dear child? She was only a few years older than me it looked.

    “Constance.” I noticed my voice was a lot stronger than it had been the first night I was taken.

    “Do you understand why you’re here?”

    “Yes.” My answer was blunt. I didn’t want to make small talk with her.

    She looked surprised, as if she had expected to tell me herself. Behind her Rayne closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. A bad feeling rose in my gut as I realized what I had just revealed.

    The queen turned to look at Rayne. “Does she now?”

    He opened his eyes. “I didn’t think it was something I needed to keep secret. Even as a prisoner she had the right to know.”

    “You shouldn’t jump to conclusions and assume so much,” she snapped. “For all I know you could have turned your back on me and told her everything.”

    “I may be fast to conclude but I’m not an idiot,” he growled. “Perhaps, my queen, you shouldn’t be so fast to assume either.”

    She looked like she was about to smack him, but I knew she could see the anger flare in his eyes like I could.

    “I want Christian to switch back with you for guarding tomorrow. At least I can trust that he can keep his mouth shut.” Then she opened the door and strode out, closing it behind her.

    “What a b***h!” I screamed.

    Rayne gave me a look. “You shouldn’t have said yes.”

    “Well you didn’t tell me to lie.”

    He sighed. “I expected you to have at least some common sense.”

    I glared at him. “I noticed after I had said it.”

    “Yeah after doesn’t really help me.” He knelt down on the ground and grabbed the pen and notebook from under the dresser. Then he sat back down in the chair.

    I took a deep breath. “I have another question to ask you.”

    “Oh no,” he replied, opening the notebook. “You’ve lost all your chances.”

    “Oh come on!” I protested. “It’s not even something you have to keep secret!”

    Rayne looked up at me. “What’s the question?”

    “If not all demons can change into animals, what makes a demon different from a human?”

    He half smiled. “You’re the first person to ever truly ask that question.”

    “Don’t I feel special,” I said sarcastically.

    “How old are you again?” He asked, straightening himself up in the chair.

    “17. Why?”

    “Just curious.”

    “Okay, well can you answer my question?”

     He laughed. “Not in a million years.”

     “I can wait that long,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

     "I suppose you can, now that you're back in our world."

     "What's that mean?"

     "Demons don't age fast, at the age of 100 we look like this. You were in the human world so your body aged like a human. Now that you're back here, your body ages normally, like a demon."

     I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, normally."

     "You'll have to accept it."

     I groaned.

    “You know,” he said, moving his pen across the paper, “for a 17 year old you sure act a lot like a 7 year old.”

     “Whatever,” I grumbled. “There’s nothing to do in this stupid room. What am I supposed to do?”

     “I don’t know,” he said. “You’re smart, figure something out.”

     I was only quiet for a minute before I spoke up again. “What are you doing?”

     He exhaled roughly and looked up at me. “I’m drawing.”

     I raised my eyebrows. “Drawing? Can I see?”

     “No.” He went back to his art.

     “Fine,” I said under my breath, laying down on the bed and staring up at the ceiling. I had a feeling this was going to be a very long forever.

 

 

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