The Demon's Bride

Beelzebub watched Esther as she fell asleep. He pushed himself then from the bed, making his way out of the room without waking Esther. As she was tired, she wasn't able to notice the disappearance of Beelzebub from her bed.

He left the house, stopping when he saw the elderly woman who seemed to have spent all her time sitting in front of the house, staring at the sky above the abyss longingly.

"You are waiting for someone, aren't you?" Beelzebub started the conversation. The elderly woman didn't reply as a respond to the tacit confirmation.

"How could a soul stay here? Did you also escape the abyss's clutches?" Beelzebub asked again. He could tell by the first time he had seen the elderly woman that she wasn't a demoness. If she was, she wouldn't be here, hiding in the abyss which was avoided by many demons due to its terrible solitary condition.

With another few occasion, he could tell further more that the woman was simply a soul that could cease to exist soon.

"Also?" The elderly woman raised one eyebrow while looking at him. "Have you met someone else who had escaped the abyss?"

"I did," Beelzebub used a past tense on his words. "I thought when I was younger that it is impossible for humans to escape the abyss. I even thought it was strange. Why would they try to burden themselves with an impossible mission to leave the most secured place in Hell like abyss? Then I learned, when there is a person who matters the most to you, whatever it is even if the place you are leaving to is the abyss or hellfire, you would still step on it for them."

The elderly woman laughed all of a sudden under Beelzebub's watch. "You looked cold and realistic. I wasn't sure you would be such a sentimental person," the woman uttered. "You are right and I suppose now you know how it feels?" She looked into the house which Beelzebub then followed.

"Yes." He confirmed with a wide smile on his lips. "They said a person you love can be a burden but I think she's my weapon."

The woman grinned, "I didn't escaped the abyss. I suppose I did but not in a way where I have to sacrifice and lay my life for. During the time I was about to escape, there was another woman. I don't like to call her a woman. I respect her as a mother. A mother for her son."

Beelzebub had been staring at the walls of the abyss which consists of nothing but dry rocks. His eyes widened slightly but didn't want to put much hope as he couldn't be sure the woman whom the elderly woman mentioned was Welyn.

"What happened to that woman?" He carefully asked.

The elderly woman huffed, "She seemed to die in order to meet her son. She was waiting for her soul to be taken by the grim reapers and placed into the abyss. She was a human but I suppose she had a faint demon bloodline in her. Perhaps it was her mother who was half demon. The woman knew that there was a legend of a certain book—"

"The book that could reincarnate a dead person back to life, giving them a second chance to redo their life" Beelzebub continued, taking the woman by surprise. "Did she escaped with you?"

The elderly woman was still startled, "You know her? Yes, I did escaped with her. There were many who chased after us, the creatures from the abyss and we had no choice but to part our ways."

So it was her indeed, his first human friend, Welyn.

Beelzebub recalled the last moment when Welyn had pushed him away so he could safe himself from his uncle. He remembered how difficult it was for him to run back to his house only to find it had been grind to dust by his uncle with fire.

He overheard his uncle's men discussion, saying how they had killed the previous head of the house, rejoicing on their triumph which further add insult to his injuries.

Whenever Beelzebub remembered that time, how he wished he could kill his uncle once again and relished his deep rage to the man who was his blood related family.

He recalled Welyn's unsuccessful achievement and felt guilty for being unable to help her with his weakness.

"How is she now?" The elderly woman asked. Beelzebub didn't reply. Not because he didn't want to but the words were heavy on his mouth. At that, the elderly woman silently accepted the answer.

"You found someone important to you now. In life, there would be many things that you could not protect, choices you made that you regret, and words you said that you wish you could retract. Which why my only advise as a human who made so many mistakes in her life to live a life that you won't regret and as for that you have regretted, accept it and forget it."

Beelzebub scrunched his eyebrows together, "I am sure you are younger than me but knowledge never comes from age, does it? Thank you. What will you do now?"

Beelzebub had been looking at the small case beside the elderly woman.

"The person whom I have been waiting is dead now, I have fulfilled my promise to her which why I would leave now. I thought leaving abyss was a good thing but then I have died already. There is nothing and no one I could wait for," The elderly woman stood from her seat, taking out the book that she held toward Beelzebub. "She asked me to wait for her here but now that she is gone, I trust that she would like you to have this instead."

Beelzebub took the book on his hands. The elderly woman took her leave, disappearing slowly until completely. Beelzebub untied the string that bind the book, reading to see it was a diary from Welyn which contained her human life in the mortal world.

Beelzebub read the book words by words, understanding that the elderly woman seemed to have done the same thing as he while waiting for her dearest friend.

Esther's hand brushed to her left side where Beelzebub had been sleeping in. When she felt nothing but the soft cushioned, at once, she raised her body.

"Noe?" She whispered. Hearing no response, fear quickly seized her. Esther pushed herself from the bed and rushed down, making her way outside the house in haste to find Beelzebub.

She felt relieved when she saw him sitting on the wooden bench in front of the hut. She thought it would be dangerous to call him by his true name and resorted to call him with his title, "Beel?"

Beelzebub closed Welyn's diary. He finished the book at the same time Esther walked out of the room and turned his face to show her a smile.

"Did I woke you up?" Beelzebub gently questioned.

Esther shook her head. She didn't remember wearing her clothes but it seemed Beelzebub had done it for her. She sat beside him, her eyes falling on the book. 𝙛𝐫e𝚎wℯ𝗯𝒏𝗼ѵ𝙚l.𝒄o𝚖

"Where is she?" By she, Esther meant the elderly woman who live in the house.

"She's gone," He replied simply, causing Esther to question with a faint huh that conveyed her thousands questions.

"And what is that book?" She could feel the solemnity Beelzebub held while reading the small tattered book on his hands.

He quietly offered her a smile, "It is from my friend. Back in the time I had so many questions but I learned that she was simply a normal human with a son and a husband."

Pulling her eyebrows together, Esther whispered, "I don't understand."

Beelzebub laughed aloud, "I will tell you all about it. When you are ready should we leave?"

Esther didn't forget that their priority was to find the man disguised as Beelzebub's uncle. She immediately nodded her head.

"Will you tell me about your friend while we talk? I realized that I don't know anything about you," and during those time she was alone, she regretted not knowing much more about him. With the chance she received, Esther didn't want to miss the chance.

"We have so many time ahead of us, of course."

Esther agreed to his words. Pushing herself from the chair, they then prepared to leave the house. Esther didn't notice but as they left, the house slowly crumbled to dusts and disappeared along the wind as if it had never been there before.

Only Beelzebub noticed this. He showed respect by bowing his head and leaving beside Esther with their hands linked together.