Despair... grief... pain... it's all Elsie Seymour felt. She couldn't feel happiness, any trace of hope as she lay there, having been mercilessly beaten by her brother. Her stomach clenched and her breathes were shallow, her lungs seemingly closing in upon themselves. Her eyes could not stay open, and a terrible pain flowed down her legs and neck.
Her room was cold, but it felt hot. The burning heat of the sun against her naked skin made her whimper and gasp, and she shifted back and forth in the hopes that she may find a cooler position. Sweat dripped down her forehead, down her neck, and down her entire body; she didn't know how much more of this she could take.
Allen Seymour, her brother, was fifteen years older than her. While she was merely ten years old, he was twenty-five. Grown, and able to take over the family company as soon as their parents died.
And Elsie doubted that would take long to happen. While she wished to warn her parents, she knew Allen was a power-hungry, dominant tyrant, who took every precaution to make sure she could never tell her- only her, he did not deserve to call them his parents- parents what he was surely planning.
Elsie's eyes shot open as a horrible scream was heard through the house. She turned her head and sniffed, only to find even more fear than she had before growing in her heart.
Smoke.
She couldn't stop the tears from collecting in her eyes and rolling down her face as she struggled to move, but somehow couldn't. Her legs felt so heavy, and her body was so weak, she was surprised she was even awake.
She knew Allen would kill them, but like this? Never once had she suspected it. Elsie struggled for longer, but when the heat in the room suddenly became more extreme, she simply fell limp. Surprisingly, she had not died of the smoke yet, for her walls and doorways had done a good job keeping it out. But she knew she would die, one way or another.
"My, my, what have we here...? Is little Elsie crying, hmm?"
Elsie meekly turned her head to her brother, who was standing with his arms behind his back, smiling at her from the side of her bed. She grit her teeth and shook harder, trying to gather up the strength to speak, even though she had not done so in a very long time.
"You... mother... father!" she croaked, hoarse and scratchy voice wavering and threatening to come shattering at any moment. She grit her teeth and chooked down her sob, burying her head in the pillow. She gulped down whateever fear she had and turned back up to him.
"You... how dare you... your own... mother... and father..!" she cried, trying to reach for him, but simply failing and falling limp on the bed again.
Allen simply laughed haughtily and bowed down to her at the waist, his face merely inches from her own.
"If you had let me speak," he said to her calmly, still smiling, "you would have known what I was going to offer you."
"Nothing could you ever offer me that I would accept!" Elsie cried, trying to scoot away from him. How he was wearing all that he was and still was somehow unfazed by the heat was beyond her. But she didn't want to know.
Allen frowned and looked at her for a second, then smiled sweetly again and stood back up. "Oh, well, I'll take my leave then. Mother and Father already have."
Elsie's eyes widened, and she couldn't deny that a spark of hope lit up inside her. If he was going to take the same leave as mother and father, then that meant they were alive! She knew Allen would never kill himself, or let himself die, so..
"They're alive? They're safe? Mother and father are safe?" Elsie whimpered, trying to scoot off of the bed so she could take to Allen. She could see the flames outside of the door, but there was a path that she presumed had been sprayed with water so it would not catch on fire.
Allen laughed and turned back to her, but instead of a smile like he had before,, it was a smirk. A dark, cruel, merciless smirk.
"They took their leave from this world, Elsie."
Elsie's eyes widened, even more so than they had before. She stuffed her face in the bed and heard Allen walk out of the room, his boots banging against her hardwood floor. But now every other sound was drowned out by the fire. Even her screams went unheard.
Elsie felt weak. She was scared, she was alone; she wanted her mother back, she wanted her father back! She wanted to hear her mother sing her lullabies again, she wanted to help her father pick the fruit off of the trees in the orchard a few miles away- she wanted to say "Good Night" to them every night, she wanted to hug them again, even if it was just one more time!
Just one more time...
"You... you.." Elsie whimpered into her pillow, and gulped in as much air as she ccould. The fire had spread into her room now, making it unbearably hot. But through the thick air and the nastiness of the temperature, eventhrough the roaring flames that surrounded the entire manor, anyone outside could hear her screams.
"YOU. BASTARD!"
She slowly turned over so that she was lying on her back, her face to the ceiling. Elsie shook in anger, her eyes narrowed and her pupils dialated by the light. Her strawberry colored red hair was splayed out around her head, creating something reminiscent of a shattered halo.
She clenched her fists, and her body slowly grew hotter and hotter as she laid there, absolutely rage wracking over her.
"I hate you, I hate god, I hate everything! You've all abandoned me! ALL OF YOU!" she screamed, tossing around as she desperately tried to cool herself off.
"Child, you are all alone, aren't you..."
Elsie froze, the room suddenly becoming cold. No longer were there flames around her, no longer was her body burning; instead, it was cool, which was soothing to her burned and bruised body.
"Where.." Elsie whispered, looking around. It was black, She was still on her bed, but everything surrounding her was black.
The voice that had spoken to her before chuckled. Elsie winced and tried to curl up, shocked by the darkness and cruelity she heard in the voice. She shakily looked around more, trying to find the speaker.
"I'm over here, child..."
Elsie turned to the foot of her bed and shrieked in shock, immediately struggling to back herself against the headboard. At the foot of her bed, there was a figure; obviously a male figure. It was nearly black, save for the faint violent outline that highlighted it's shape. It's eyes were what seemed to be a mixture of purple and pink, moving constantly in swirling motions so that it appears as if it was on fire.
But what had scared Elsie the most was it's mouth. It was, like the body, simply a faint glow. But it was curled up much more than a normal mouth would be, and it was grinning.
She couldn't stop shaking as she gulped and spoke again. "W-who are you?" she said as strongly as she could, but it came out as a whisper.
The figure chuckled and tilted it's head, eyes temporarily getting obscured by something that she noticed was hair.
"Not even I know that," it said, still grinning as a honey like coat practically oozed off of his voice. "That's for you to decide, if you desire."
"What do you mean? Wh-what are you talking about..?" Elsie whispered, still leaning back away from the figure.
"A deal..." the figure tilted it's head back to it's upright position and smiled wider. "With the devil!"
Elsie's eyes widened and she forced herself against the headboard, shaking. "Y-you don't mean that literally, right..?"
"Oh, of course I do!" the figure said, slowly turning to walk around the side of the bed. Elsie immediately scooted to the other side, but when she looked off of the side of the bed, she screamed and backed up against the headboard again. Below her she saw flames, endless flames, burning forever and ever, always growing higher and hotter. Her face was lit up by the fore and she felt a tear trickle down her cheek.
She lifted up her hand shakily to whisk it away, and when she looked at her finger, she screamed.
"It's blood!" Elsie shrieked, covering her face with her hands. When she pulled them away, she just saw blood; more blood. She looked down to her clothes and saw the same, blood slowly seeping outside of her clothes.
"You are dying in your world, Elsie..." the figure said, leaning towards her and putting his- it was obviously a he- hands on the bed. "Burning to death. Your body is being scorched by flame as we speak." It's smile grew.
"If you make a contract with me, I can save you... I will save you, and help you get revenge on your brother."
Elsie looked up wearily at him, tears flooding down her face even faster. She didn't want to die, she knew that, and she did hate Allen, but killing people was wrong. She shouldn't...
"I can't-"
"He murdered your parents, child," the man growled, face uncomfortably close to her own. Elsie leaned back and whimpered, shaking her head. "But-"
"I saw it, child... I saw him do it..." his expression turned back into a smile. "I saw him carve out their hearts with a knife.. I saw him laugh at their pained expression... and I saw him run out of the manor.."
"It's alright, the police will take care of him!" she cried, trying to edge away from the creature.
"Oh, no, child. They wouldn't dare. He ran out of the house with tears in his eyes. He's crying because he saw you murder his parents, and he tried to save you as well, but you are trapped and burning to death right now.."
Elsie's eyes started shaking. "He... lied..."
"As easily as he beat you and killed his parents," the man added.
Elsie looked down, shaking. At first it looked like she was crying, but when she looked back up, she had a grin on her face. A grin that was far, far too joyful and gleeful to belong to the girl in her right mind. Her eyebrows were slanted and her eyes narrowed.
"This contract... what are the terms?" she asked, tilting her head to the person.
"I will serve you all your life, or until your revenge is achieved. I will be dutiful and obey your every order. In return, at the end of the contract, which has to be proclaimed by both sides, I will get your soul."
Elsie looked down at the bed, pondering for a moment.
"Your skin is burning-"
"Okay, then do it! Do whatever you have to, just let me live!"
The figure smiled even wider and tilted his head. "You need a mark to signify oour contract... the more visible it is, the stronger it is..."
Elsie pondered this as well. "Eye?"
"You would have to cover it most of the time, meaning you could only see out of one eye."
"Where do you suggest..?" Elsie asked, tilting her head at the man.
"How about your neck... easily covered by cloth, but you rip that cloth away, and then it becomes visible."
Elsie thought of this for a moment. She then nodded her head and her grin faded away to a small, worried frown.
"Will it hurt?" she whispered quietly.
"Yes, I'm afraid so," he replied.
Elsie nodded and stiffened, especially when she saw that her entire body had blood rolling down it. "But how am I not dead yet.." she flinched at the site of the gorey color.
"Technically you should be, however, I snuffed the flames around you. But you will feel it, when this is done.."
"I understand, but I will live?"
"Yes."
"Alright, then do it already!"
The creature's eyes glowed even more, if that was possible. Elsie tried to shrink back with fear, but it quickly shot its hand out and wrapped it around her neck. Elsie screamed in agony as a feeling over a thousand burning knives shot into her, then felt as if someone decided to pour a bucket of lemon juice on it.
But as quickly as it had started, it was over. Elsie was panting, grasping her pillow, trying to get over the shock. A seconds afterwards, she felt a cool hand touch her shoulder. She slowly turned her head to look up, and noticed she was in a room that was not in her mansion; but it was richly decorated, as if it belonged to a queen.
Even more surprising was the person who had touched her shoulder; a beautiful, beautiful man, wearing a butler's uniform.
He was tall, extremely tall. Possibly six foot three, Elsie thought. He had beautiful, pure snow-white hair that fell to his shoulders and curled a bit at the bottom. He also had a few bangs falling over his left eye, which was a beautiful pale blue; nearly white.
His skin was more pale than she thought possible. While there was still color to it, he was so unearthly pale. But it was beautiful, and Elsie didn't know how that was possible, considering how much he looked like he may have just died.
He gently smiled and sat on the side of her bed, rubbing her shoulder kindly. "Are you alright, my Mistress?" He asked softly.
Elsie's eyes widened. "YOU! YOUR VOICE! YOU-YOU YOU'RE-"
"Yes, my lady. I am." He smiled.