The Demon King's Virgin Bride

3 Spiders, Screams, Strange

"Just don't be difficult and he will be very kind to you."

"Joress Noreli is dead."

"What?!" We all exclaimed in dense disbelief following Riley's announcement.

"A RICI is dead, how? I saw him just yesterday." I was going to ask exactly that Amy. Deacon Smith High being a private school rarely makes it to the media with tarnishing news and every flaw and student-teacher s*x scandals are swept under the carpet and extinguished before they can leave the premises and make it to the public.

Other than our former principal who was blessed with eighty two years on earth and greedy for more, dying due to natural causes two years ago, we have not had any deaths here at DSH, so the news of one of the popular boys having died is extremely shocking.

Scarlett is a bit quiet and crestfallen, although their relationship was a train wreck and nearly got her a homicide charge to her name, I can tell that she still cared for Joress and must feel the need to mourn. I didn't like the boy, not the tiniest bit, but I sympathise with his family and I am a bit rattled as he was very young and the death of a youth is always a cold reminder of just how unbiased death is and how short and unpredictable life really is.

"From what I heard from Gania, they found him dead in his bed this morning,  unharmed, like he died in his sleep." Riley filled us in, like always. She is the always most informed about DSH affairs and she sniffs out a story before it is even born. Gania Noreli is Joress' older sister, the one I got to know when we had to defend Scarlett after she got into a catfight with her and needed to be alibied to avoid detention.

We always look out for each other and stand up for each other, no matter what, if anyone messes with one of us, they mess with  all seven of us.

"I thought you'd say he killed himself." Charlize said insolently and Seraya nudged her on the arm and scolded her for her disregard of the deceased.

"Have some respect for the dead Charlize." Charlize of course rolled her eyes before flinging an arm over Scarlett's shoulder, who mindlessly chewed on a piece of steak like a cow.

Speaking of the 'dead', I was about to tell the girls of the strange things that's been happening to me these past two days before Riley dropped that bomb. After that dream, the dreams only got more creepier and stranger and I am ashamed to tell the girls of the things I've been doing and done to in those dreams. They will laugh at me certainly, but I need to get this lingering fear off my chest, I am becoming more and more uneasy with every occurrence.

I did ponder a bit over the words of the man in my first dream, "I'm here." and had convinced myself that I shouldn't worry for it was just a dream, until, two consecutive nights, I had a dream featuring the very same man.  Although I can't identify him by his facial features because his face is never shown to me, I could tell it is him because of his deep, dark, moving voice. Other than the dreams, recently I have been feeling like someone's watching me, everywhere I go, i feel a pair of eyes on me and I always turn and see nothing to arouse suspicion. Just this morning I had a very uneasy shower, I couldn't even close my eyes for two seconds without them flying open at the fear of there being a presence behind me and you won't believe that just when I had managed to shake off my paranoia, a hand, or what I assume to be a hand, laid flatly between my shoulder blades and I swear I almost pissed myself! I was so scared I ended up not shaving, like I had initially planned. I would love to insult my intelligence and blame the girls for planting ideas in my head, and say that this is all in my head, a fragment of my imagination dressing as reality- but I can't, I can not deny the goosebumps that erupted on my skin, as quickly as the cold hand left my warm, moist skin, I can not deny the rapid beating of my heart every time I feel those eyes on me, invisible eyes. I really am believing that I am not imagining this.

Otherwise I would be able to find solace in my own company and not look around every minute, I would be able to sleep with only just the night light on like before. I do not want to admit anything to the girls, but the recent has been odd and somehow paranormal, and I am starting to think that maybe there is a ghost or supernatural entity after me- I just hope that whatever the man's intentions are, they are not sinister.

"I've been having these weird dreams that feel so real." I began, out of nowhere and the girls gawked at me, some of them out of disbelief, some out of confusion. Seraya must have connected the dots immediately since she was the first to comment.

"Dreams about a man, the same man?"

I nodded my head, "Yes, and they are creeping the hell out of me!"

Zoey gave me a knowing look, smirking suggestively, "Are you sure that's the only thing they are doing to you?" I didn't catch on to what she was implying, luckily I didn't have to figure it out myself, Scarlett perked up from her widower phase and answered my "What do you mean?"

"Have you had s*x with him? In the dreams? That's the preview we were talking about, how was it?"

I dreaded this moment for 2 days but I guess it is high time I expose myself to the girls so they can get me out of this just just they signed me in. I have had two dreams, erotic dreams that I never thought I would ever in my life have. You've already figured that I'm not at all into the s****l and I am numb to carnal desires and what nots, so I was every ashamed when I woke up and recalled everything I had been doing in those dreams. The sounds, my needy movements, my words, the way my fingers dug into the man's broad shoulders as his lips ventured where no one has ever ventured before, the look in my eyes, a look of surrender, a pleading look, a look of pleasure - I cringe every time I think about it. I did try to console myself with the theory that as much as the girl wore my face, body and everything, that it is not me, I do not have control of what I dream of, of how I participate in those dreams, that I would never, in REAL LIFE, do such things, never.

I will find an explanation behind why every time I woke up my body was on fire, bothered, my skin felt hot and my breathing shallow, why the last dream left be feeling battered and tired. I wish I had magic powers, If I did, I would have controlled every dream I have, so these thoughts, doubts, about the dreams meaning something, stemming from a deep-rooted desire that I have been oppressing all this time, would not exist.

"Well not s*x, s*x, d**k, v****a s*x, but yes," The girls' faces lit up, but I was quick to kick them down from their high, "but it's just a dream, nothing special." I lied and hoped my facial expressions don't give me away.

"Are you telling me you felt nothing?" Seraya was in disbelief, and I confidently nodded my head, not knowing I'll trade places with her in a matter of seconds.

"She's lying."

"Yep, totally lying." Amy backed Zoey and I was keen on bursting their bubble despite them telling the truth.

"What did you girls expect? It's just a dream, not the real thing."

Seraya immediately jumped in to 'correct 'me, "It is not just a dream Reese, everything that you did with him happened." I threw her an unbelieving, incredulous stare and she continued before I could question, "let me explain, when you sleep, your soul enters different realms and you are teleported to different worlds but that consumes so much energy that you end up only remembering tiny details as a dream, but I'm sure you'll agree with me that these dreams are more lucid. So you are having s*x with him Reese, the greater part of you and everything you do, is exactly how your soul wants it be."

That's insane! I do not enjoy nor want a strange… strange... thing , touching my intimate areas and overpowering me. I am not that weak, I know myself, I would never act the way I did in those dreams, I would never let him win. Every time I ran and every time I ended up beneath him, breathless. I would never willingly enjoy having the hands of a man, a giant, strong man might I add, exploring every inch of my skin as if my body is its.

"Jokes aside, strange things have been happening to me, you need to tell me how to make them stop." None of the girls seems to be concerned, in fact they might just find humour in how serious I am.

"What strange things?" Olivia asked and I acknowledged the moment of silence we had to take when Jox, Riley's boyfriend placed himself in front of our table.

"Can I borrow her for a sec?" Riley's wotst choice in a partner grabbed her and pulled her away before none of us could tell him to get lost and return when it isn't our time.

"How I hate the little tussi!" Amy glared at Jox as they walked out of the hall and the rest of us clucked our tongues in agreement.

Riley might want us to wait for her, but who knows how long she'll be? With her, even a quickie misses the first five letters, and our lunch break is almost over so it's pointless not to continue on her account.

"I don't know how to explain this..but I have been feeling like someone's watching me, like watching my every movement, especially when I'm alone. I always feel a presence behind me and sometimes I feel this warm stream of air trickle over the back of my neck like someone's breathing onto it and I swear this morning while I was taking a shower, a hand touched me, my back and when I turned back I saw absolutely nothing… this is beginning to scare me."

"That's his way of validating his presence in your life, that he's with you, you might not see him because you have to ask him to show himself to you." Seraya really knows how to shoot down my hopes - just now I was hoping she'd tell me that I'm just imagining this or that everything that has been happening has no connection with the spell.

It really bothers me that something is watching me while I bath, while I sleep, while I brush my teeth, while I dress, that's just creepy on a whole other level.

"What?! Why must he spy on me ? Do you know how uncomfortable I feel- I can't even close for eyes for five seconds to wash my face without feeling like I'm going to get pounced on by something I don't know, my life is in danger!" Scarlett rolled her eyes at me, taking her eyes off her phone.

"He is not going to harm you, you are the chosen one, remember?"

"Yes," Seraya added on, "he is not going to harm you at all Reese….. just don't be difficult and he'll be very kind to you."

What is that supposed to mean? !

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"Reese, " I turned to my back and stopped in my tracks the minute I saw who was calling me, "wait up." Trent jogged over to me and I only resumed walking when he was right by my side.

After school, I had went home to change and then walked to a nearby park to soothe my mind, breathe in nature and have some very necessary time to self-reflect. I initially planned on spending an hour by the lake, but an hour turned into to two and I had consumed some of the time I'd allocated to studying.

I was walking back home when Trent asked to join me. Trent is in all my classes and although we rarely talk, he is a sweet and kind guy and I am glad to have him as my partner for the literature assignment Ms Dugoér gave us.

"You just came out of nowhere, are you stalking me?" I scrunched up my face to a frown, teasing him.

"Maybe." He grinned widely, his smile reminds me of something. I used to like him, not that much, I had a little crush on him for some two years and it dissipated when I met Zack - I do sometimes regret having chosen that ass Zack over him, but I am not interested in trying anything with him even now that I'm no longer with Zack. I'm done with boys.  "I was thinking we should discuss how we are going to do Ms Dugoér's assignment…."

"I saw you by the tennis court, I thought you would say something, but you walked past me." Trent is a rich kid but he is not a RICI, in fact he is very reserved and his presence at school is very low tuned, so much so, we thought he was a mute in junior year - I guess that is mainly why I am attracted- used to be attracted to him, he is not a know it all and he is intelligent, he likes to observe, and he is not full of himself like most boys at school. But sometimes he scares me because he is so quiet, I am not used to hearing my own thoughts in someone's company since the girls are chatterboxes and I am not used to being a conversation driver.

"I couldn't, " he smiled nervously, and I wondered if he likes me, or he is just being himself- I can't tell, the girls have told me I am blind when It comes to spotting when a guy is flirting with me but i mean how is "may I borrow a pen, your pen." supposed to be a pick up line? Boys!

 "You were with your friends, I didn't want to intrude."

"You're scared of the girls," I nudged his arm lightly, playfully mocking him, "come on, they don't bite, well at least the rest of us don't, Amy is the vampire." The girls are intimidating, to say the least, we are on top of the food chain and everyone knows not to mess with any of us- Trent must have thought I'm the exception, until of course I humiliated Zack, rewarded him with a p***s fracture and didn't even make it to the principal's office and I was crowned the baddest b***h in DSH for a few days. Still that can't compare to the reputation Amy has, if anyone made Trent reconsider approaching me, it must have been Amy, her glare alone is enough one think hundred times before doing anything.

"I'm not scared of them, I thought it would be rude to interrupt you." Oh yes, pride, of course he'll never admit to being frightened by girls nearly a foot shorter than him.

"I was thinking I'll visit you after school everyday until we're done, It won't be a problem, I mean you don't live that far from me." I was raised by very traditional, conservative parents, so I do not feel at all comfortable bringing a boy over to a house that is not mine, even Zachary never got to set foot in my home, my parents can't even put a face to the then boyfriend I told them I have- so I would rather walk for fifteen minutes everyday for a week to Trent's home than to disrespect my parents.

"That's fine…" he suddenly went quiet and only continued after seconds of thought.." but I don't have your numbers..to communicate, so you know when I'm home and when I'm not and we can share ideas as well..for more flexibility." Cute.

"Okay, give me your phone."

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After Trent and I parted ways, I helped to prepare dinner and then retired to my room to study. I do not usually worry a lot about exams and procrastinating studying has been working for me so far, I perform very well in quizzes and exams with the aid of just my memory, from the content I grasp on to in class and usually never refer to my books to strengthen my understanding and my ability to think-some things just  require common sense and the ability to rationalise.

That said, studying is a torture to me and I always find an excuse to delay reading those tedious textbooks and making notes- but I have decided to make a few changes since its my senior year and I am aiming for the best marks since I want to be accepted by the best university in the country and they only take in the best of the best. That explains why I am sitting on my bed, with headsets plugged in my ears, an open textbook to my face and all I'm thinking of is the tub of cookies and cream with carrot cake ice cream in the freezer, that is so calling for me.

My phone keeps vibrating as messages come in and I am so tempted to ditch Laspeye and Paasche and see what my girls are getting up to. Taking a read of the time, I frowned, how is it possible that I've only been 'studying ' for twenty minutes? I thought I've at least taken an hour going over the economic cycle, inflation, variances and what nots. I am sooo bored, I have been one line over and over again.

I need to focus.

Maybe Psychics will hold my attention for longer. Turning up the volume as my favorite song plays, I reached for the bulky book and flipped the pages carelessly. Five minutes in and I'm amazed by well I'm doing, i haven't lost focus for a second and I am being one with Sir Newton. Sir Flair will be so proud of me once I reclaim my rightful position as best performing student in psychics- if only I didn't lose interest so quickly.

"Queen."

I removed one headset plug from my ear and looked around and of course, as usual I see nor hear anything… but I could've sworn I heard something...maybe it was my dad going to his room?

A few seconds pass without any suspicious activity and I carry on reading. I am becoming my own worst enemy- I think I am beginning to invent the odd, strangeness even where there is none : just this afternoon when I was walking with Trent, I felt those eyes on my back the entire time and for the sake of my stand as one of the sane, mentally healthy people in the community, I made sure to refrain from turning and looking around. I even felt like the thing followed me home and I must have looked insane when I bolted inside the house following the rustle of a rose bush. I think I have gotten so used to expecting something unmentionable, unspeakably evil and blindingly hideous to attack me, that I am on edge all of the time- since when do rose bushes scare me?!

I know Seraya, assured me that it won't harm me, I am still fearing for my life because I am at a great disadvantage- I mean if things were to go down, who do you think would win between a...a 6'7 tall, 250lb demon who has the power of invisibility and a 5'8 girl who weighs just 125 pounds, is purely human, with not giving a f**k as her only superpower ?

I might be exaggerating and making life miserable over a trifle matter, but I am a pessimist, I always anticipate the worst and I have little faith in people. People are evil, they can't be trusted, even a priest, a supposed 'man of God' rapes and kills, you can never trust someone has good intentions, you can never think you're safe.

I have it worse, I am facing an invisible enemy.

Even though the night has been quiet and nothing paranormal has happened, the creak of my own door hinges still alarmed me to a point of closing my door and mom's slippers  scrapping against the floor sound like a knife sharpening another.

I can not continue to live like this. I had planned on staying in this weekend, but I need to talk to the girls about, no matter how much it is going to paint me out as a coward.

"There is nothing after you, stop being a sissy." I scolded myself and took a deep breath, pouring all my attention to the book in front of me.

My curtain.

It is shifting. I am not imagining it. Please don't tell me-

It is. My window is wide open and I am one hundred percent certain I had closed it. This is f*****g creepy. Taking a look outside, my vigilant eyes detect nothing out of the ordinary. I'd love to lie to myself and reason with, "it must've been a raccoon." But we all know that raccoons don't open windows.  Slowly I receded from the window and turned away from it and I only took one step in the direction of my bed, before freezing, with a loud gasp.

Oh my god!

Oh my god!

I swear I felt something sweep past me so quickly I could have missed it. My eyes darted to every corner of the room and guess what, nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a shadow!

"It's all in your head Reese, it's all in your head." Those are the words that guided me back to my bed and ignoring the wild pounding of my heart, I plugged in my headsets again and began pressing my phone, answering Trent's text before going over Riley's.

"Queen."

It's all in your head, all in your head.

"I'm here."

The headsets flew off my ears and my eyes widened, I could've sworn I heard…. "Am I imagining this?" Like a mad woman, I questioned myself.

However, I was not a reply.

A deep, dark chuckle rumbled around the room, followed by two words, "You're not."

I am surprised I didn't die on the spot!

My stomach clenched and I was so shocked I couldn't even scream. I was shaking as I looked around, he sounded so close to me. I thought that would be the end, as it always is, until I heard my bed springs creak and a depression formed on the edge of my bed, as though something heavy was climbing onto it.

"I've come for you, my love." 

Dents formed on my bed leading to me and my comforter creased. Before it could grab me, I jumped off the bed with a scream and I was surprised when a second after my father barged into the room with a look of alarm.

"Daddy!! Oh my God! Ohh my god!" I threw myself into his arms and hugged him tightly. I felt my heart beating in my ears and only my strong will was keeping the tears at bay.

"What's wrong sweetie, why did you scream like that?" My dad was very concerned and I didn't know what to tell him. "You're shaking." He wrapped his arms around me and tried to comfort me. "Reese, you're scaring me."

"It's...It's...I swear I saw it and it…" I removed himself from his chest and pointed to my bed, my arm fell to my hip and my eyes bulged out in disbelief-

My comforter had not even a single crease on it! It even looked like the wrinkles have been ironed out and it was just laid neatly over the bed, just now.

I shook my head. This isn't happening to me. What am I going to tell my father?!

"What's wrong? Why are you staring at your bed like that?" Dad eyed me  questionably, very confused and I had to conceive a convincing lie on the spot.

"A..a spi..a spider jumped on me...It was soo big, an..and..and it's gone, it disappeared, it's going to bite me in my sleep." Wow! I've never sounded more like a child, pathetic, but at least dad bought it.

Dad chuckled humorously, tossing my pillows aside and hunting on the spider I made up. "All that fuss for a spider! You were trembling, it must be a real big one."

I rolled my eyes, my heart finding normal pace. "It's not funny, what if it bit me and it's very poisonous?"

"Bring me the bug spray on top of the medicine cabinet and let's slay this monster." He continued to mock me.

I tried to rub off the goosebumps on my arms as I shuffled down the hall, realising that things are only going to get worse from here onwards.

He's here.

For me!