Silence filled the living room. Kieran walked back and forth in the small space he had. He stopped and stood still. He looked down at the floor intensely. If that floor had a soul, it would have dissipated. He closed his eyes and held his hands together from the back. He tried to stay calm and wait patiently but his foot was restless. He tapped his right foot lightly. As lines formed on his forehead, his foot hit the floor with greater force.
"Kieran?" Kieran's eyes turned directly to the door as he made his way to it. He opened the door by pressing a round and red button, it resembled an emergency button found on the earth.
He carefully examined Leila's face. Her face was as pale as death. It was as if her soul vanished.
"What happened?"
After a deep breath, Leila gave him a small smile. What did it mean? She walked across from him to sit on the sofa.
"Come. Sit down," she calmly said.
"What is it?" he said weirded out by the situation. She seemed like a different person. "Leila?" he called wondering if someone else was in his apartment.
"If I don't become a witch, I die." Hearing her words, Kieran closed the door and sat across from her. He watched her trembling fingers as they relentlessly tried to stay still. Soon enough, her fingers reached her palms and she formed two tight fists.
"I'll help you-"
"Of course, you will!" she exclaimed rising from her seat. "I'll read all these books tonight and I'll give up sleep! We'll practice for as long as we need and I'll become the baddest witch in Hell!" The colours had returned to her face but maybe a bit too much. Her face was as red as the fire burning in Hell.
"She's back..." he muttered under his breath with a chuckle.
"What?"
"Nothing, I said I'll help."
The burning energy growing inside of Leila almost made him forget the burning questions he had for her.
"Wait! Did something else happen with the prince?"
"Yes," she sat back down. "I saw his eyes."
"You what?" His voice was the loudest she had ever heard since having met him. "How are you okay? How are you here? What happened after that?" One answer led to more burning questions.
"He must have not used his powers on me. He needs me, remember?" she said unperturbed.
"That's true but still..."
"His eyes are truly incredible. He burned a demon without having to look at him in the eye," she said reminiscing the moment. "I have to admit that it was scary and shocking but now that it passed I find it... Incredible." Kieran did not know how to react to this.
"How did his eyes look?"
"They're sharp and his pupils are red. And I have to say he has a very handsome face," she said with a smile.
"Who are you?"
"What do you mean? I'm Leila."
"I give up, you're probably right, he purposely chose not to use his powers on you. But never do that again."
"Alright..." She lied. His eyes were too beautiful not to look at.
"We have some training to do I guess..."
"Yes, but reading the books is too slow. Can you teach me a thing or two yourself?"
"Sure," he sighed. "We'll start with the basics, tarot. I'll get you a deck."
"A deck? My own tarot deck!" she had said excitedly. 'It's finally getting fun,' she thought.
Kieran went back to his office and in the midst of the cluttered closet, he was able to find a large carton box. He brought it out to the living room.
The box looks as if it had last been opened a century ago.
"Are tarot cards that big in hell?" she teasingly asked.
"In this box, there are many tools for witchcraft. The cards are somewhere in here," he said putting his hand inside it. He struggled to find the deck amongst all the other items. Leila took a quick peek inside the box and discovered all sorts of candles, some cups, blades, crystals and many other objects that she couldn't identify.
"Why do you have all these objects, they look old and used so you surely didn't buy them for me. Are you secretly a witch?"
"Found it!" he exclaimed after taking out a smaller box with 'Mad Tarot Deck' written on it. "Huh? I'm not a witch, my mother was. This box is all of the items she used in the past."
"Was?" Leila questioned.
"My mother was killed in the witch attack that happened in the past."
"Oh, I'm sorry..." Leila hadn't known this about him. But at the same time, she couldn't help but question this fact. "So people that are in Hell can be killed? Where do they go after?" she slowly said trying to not cross a line she shouldn't.
"They can't go anywhere. Night creatures who are killed in Hell simply disappear forever along with their soul."
The silence had come again. Kieran didn't mind talking about his mother or the incident, it happened so long ago that he was fine now. He was perfectly independent.
"For tarot cards, you need to memorize a couple of things but the rest is intuition." Kieran handed her the tarot deck.
"Take out the cards and look at them. There are two types of cards. There are the major arcana and the minor arcana. The major arcana is simply all the cards with names such as the wheel of fortune, the lovers, death or the hermit. The minor arcana is the 4 elements, you have the cups which represent water, the wands that represent fire, the swords that represent air and the pentacles that represent the earth."
"Slow down, I need to write this down." Leila looked at the cards one by one trying to understand them.
"That's right, you should keep a study journal to keep track of what you're learning." Once again, he put his hand in the large box. He took out a dark purple notebook from it along with a ballpoint black pen.
"Wouldn't the notebook be already full since it was used by your mother?"
"No, she always burned her books after they were full. In this box, there would only be blank ones that she hadn't used yet."
"Is there a rule saying that you have to burn them after usage?"
"No, it was just her preference."
"Thank you for all this but are you sure it's okay for me to use your mother's objects?" Leila felt bad for using objects so important to his family. Judging from the box, he probably wasn't able to open it. He might have been forced to look at objects with sentimental values.
"What else do you want me to do? I don't want to spend my money on you." Reality had come back to Leila. She thought he was caring and thought of her as someone special, but it was all for monetary reasons.
"Repeat again what you said about the cards so I can write it down," she said stiffly with an unnoticeable pout. "Slowly this time."
Just like that, they had spent hours talking about tarot. Kieran did most of the talking as Leila wrote everything down. There was the occasional bickering and the never-ending questions of Leila.
"How am I supposed to use intuition to interpret the cards?" she said angered.
"With practice." Kieran has had enough of this and for the first time in a while, he wanted to take a nap.
"Leila, I'm tired," he said rubbing his sluggish eyes.
"A demon is tired?"
"I told you we take naps sometimes."
"But you said it's a waste of time."
"I think I've already wasted time today."
"Hey!" she exclaimed offended by his words. "You need me to become a witch too. If you don't you'll be punished right?"
"I'm already being punished," he said with a smile.
"I give up, alright have your nap time." Leila closed her book and brought back the scattered tarot cards in the box. Now that everything had been cleaned up, she crossed her arms and stared at the wall.
"What are you doing?" Kieran told her.
"I'm waiting for you to finish your nap."
"Why don't you sleep too? You need it more than me after all you're human."
"About that,"
"Oh no, not another question."
"Oh yes," she smiled. "If I become a witch, am I still human, would I still need sleep?"
"It depends on where you are and how good you are. If you are on earth, you'll still be human and in need of sleep. If you're in Hell, it'll be easier to gain and form dark energy. Thus, the more you train and gain power, the less human you become. You won't be as weak as humans and you will lose that smell of yours. You'll be able to walk freely without a zombie trying to eat you."
"Well, that's cool."
"You know what would be even cooler, a nap. Lay down, close your eyes and sleep."
"Alright, but it'll be hard." Leila laid down and covered herself with the blanket that remained on the sofa. "You sleep with the lights on? I didn't know demons could be afraid of the dark." Kieran scowled at her remark.
"I couldn't possibly turn off all these machines and I don't usually sleep." He laid down on the sofa, crossed his arm closed his eyes hi.
"Tell me."
"What?" He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He doesn't sleep often thus it is hard to fall asleep as well.
"Is Hell such a scary place?" The quiet and cozy ambiance had brought out Leila's vulnerability.
"Not that much. If you get used to the night creatures, it's a nice place."
"On earth, I only heard bad things about Hell. They say that people who come to Hell will be tortured. To be honest, I didn't even believe in Heaven or Hell before I came here."
"They do torture people here."
"They do?" she said sitting up.
"Didn't I tell you already? Humans that die and deserve to be in Hell are kept in a prison. The night creatures who work there torture them every day."
"I see but do they really deserve it? How bad are these people?"
"I don't know, I've never been near this prison."
"We also have prisons on earth."
"You do?" Kieran wasn't expecting this fact.
"Yes but they're not tortured by night creatures. They do labour such as cleaning I guess. But sometimes the prisoners fight each other and some die in the fight."
"How long do they stay there?"
"It depends on their crime. Some stay for a couple of years, some a couple more and some even stay for life. The judge decides the length of their stay in prison. Is there a prison for night creatures here?"
"In the kingdom but they rarely capture someone. In Hell, it's hard to break the law as there aren't many laws. How many laws do you have on earth?"
"Too much to count. You could easily break a law that you didn't even know existed."
"It feels scarier than Hell."
"I haven't seen Hell enough to share my opinion. Weirdly enough, I can't wait to visit."
"Soon enough you'll be able to hide your human smell. I see the potential in you."
"You do?" she said surprised by the sudden praise.
"Yup now sleep!"
"Good night."
He looked at her all confused "Good what?"
"On earth, we wish each other good night before sleeping and good morning when we wake up. Do you say something like bad night and good nightmares in here?"
"Night creatures don't dream."
"Lucky, I hate dreaming. I always have weird dreams."
"Good night," Kieran had told her before dozing off.
"You're starting to like me," she said with a smirk before she realized he was asleep. "I hate you for falling asleep before me." Leila quietly murmured. She tossed and turned in the tight space she had. She clutched the blanket close to her as she took a deep breath. She stared at a certain red light on the wall until it brought her to sleep.
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