The Devil's Mistress

Chapter 6

Calysta could hear the screams of the lawyer as she descended down the dark stairs which she could feel to be metal under her feet.

“When did you first come here Frederick?” asked Calysta as Frederick showed her the way lighting up a torch.

“I don’t recall that exactly Mistress but the first time I came here was with Mistress so that she could show me the way and teach me the ropes in order to do things and keep things in control so that I could be able to manage every thing in her absence. It was before you were born,” said Frederick as Calysta smiled. There was so much that she did not even know about her own ancestral home, the fact that this belonged to her mother and her ancestors was something which had shocked her to the core but it did nothing to diminish her hatred for her father.

“Why did he beat her up Freddie? I still don’t understand, she gave her everything that he could ever want and still he did not love her. Why was he a monster to her Freddie?” asked Calysta as Frederick let out a deep sigh and nodded his head. This was not his place to say and he would never be saying anything at all.

The dungeon was close and Calysta could understand that from the trickling of the water and the scurrying of the rats. The rats here in the darkness seemed to have attained the size which was bigger than those of cats.

“The rats here are unusually big,” muttered Calysta as Frederick chuckled.

“Watch your step here Mistress,” said Frederick as he showed the light to her feet and she found that she was going to step on a trap door which would have caused a havoc and led her to some place else.

“Where does this trap door lead to?” asked Calysta once she had safely passed and walked behind him following his footsteps.

“Trust me, You would not want to know that. From here you must go alone Mistress. I am not allowed to step over these boundaries. There is someone inside that room who has not seen the light of day ever in her life. And the doors have not been opened since the night your mother passed away. The door opens only with a key which I suppose ought to be in your possession. I shall be waiting here itself, when everything is over I shall accompany you back to the manor,” said Frederick as he handed over the torch to her and Calysta gulped once.

She was not scared. Once again fear found her. It spoke to her in its cackling voice. It told her legs to go weak, her stomach to lurch and her heart to ache. Calysta’s mother once told her that there was nothing to fear but fear itself, but still she could not silence its voice. She knew that it was going to be pointless waiting for her errant heartbeat to come under control but she could do nothing else except pray that she was not scared when she met the person whom she was intended to meet.

The adrenaline floods my system like it's on an intravenous drip - right into my blood at full pelt. I think my heart will explode and my eyes are wide, letting in every ounce of the fading light.

She opened the chain from her neck and placed the key in a small hole in the left side of the door and put it in. The door seemed to absorb the key in its entirety and then a small enclosure opened, enough for a small sized child to get inside but she had crouch in and get inside. The moment she stepped inside the key fell on the floor with a soft clang and the door locked itself behind her.

She was going to pick it up when a voice stopped her from doing so.

“It has been a long time since I have heard your steps on this side of this door, Star,” said the raspy voice of a woman.

Calysta did not know what she was supposed to tell to the woman and then she said,” I am not Star, I am Calysta. You have mistaken me for some one else.”

“Oh no no dear!! Not at all. The last time your mother Gemma had brought you here you were just a year old. I doubt that you are going to remember that,” said the woman as Calysta placed the torch in the holder at the upside right hand corner of the room and found that the entire room was covered with mirrors to allow the light to reflect. Calysta gasped out in surprise as she saw the beauty of the room and then she gasped out even louder when she saw the woman standing before her.

“I know, I am ugly. But when it comes to attaining power, then I am going to take power over beauty any single day,” said the woman as Calysta felt peering in two orbs of darkness where her eyes should have been.

“How did this happen?” asked Calysta as she came closer to the woman to find that her hands and feet were shackled with long chains of iron which were connected to the wall.

“Well I was given a choice before I was born, when I was supposed to descend to earth, rather ascend to earth from hell, that if I would like to have the fruit of knowledge which gives me the knowledge of the past, present and future and I had said yes. I was asked to handover my eyes as the sacrifice for gaining eternal sight for an eternity. It seemed like a fair choice to me at that time thinking that I would have eyes which would not be able to see. Did not know that I was making a deal with the Devil and to trust his word was like trusting lies itself,” said the woman as Calysta could only hear her voice and her increased heartbeat.

The age of this woman could not be ascertained but it was clear that she was related to this family in some way. Calysta could understand that from the cut of her face.

“You belong to this family, don’t you?” asked Calysta and the woman laughed out loud at her words. Her laughter echoed in the room of mirrors and the effect was horrible.

“Dear girl…I wish that was the truth…Unfortunately, this family belongs to me. This family and its ancestors and its blood every single thing has sprung from me. That is the reason I am the one who is going to be here long after you are gone and I was here even before you came. But that is not true, is that Star?” prompted the woman with that smile still hanging on her lips.

“I don’t understand…and why are you calling me Star?” asked Calysta as the woman started inching towards her and she moved backwards.

“You are not yet ready. You are of age, but you are not yet ready. You are the one that this family has been waiting for since centuries to be born just to take away the curse on this bloodline. You are the one that is going to be the salvation of the most feared creature in the entire existence. You have yet not understood that your father was never the reason for your mother’s sacrifice,” said the woman as Calysta’s eyes widened at her words.

“What are you saying?” asked Calysta in a loud voice. She was too enraged and angry to be scared of this woman any more.

“You will understand everything in time dear Star. You are the one who is going to light up the darkness and cool down the raging hell fires…you are the one whom he had lost so long ago…and for you were not there he has been searching you in every woman and destroying them inside out. You are going to shine, but your time yet has to arrive,” said the woman as she started walking back turning to other side.

“But wait, where are you going? I am not done talking to yet,” said Calysta as the woman paused for a moment.

“It does not matter what you want dear. Your destiny has been written long before you were even born and it is now just a matter of time that you realize what you need and who you actually are. Things have been already set in motion,” said the woman as she started walking again towards the darkness.

“But I still don’t know anything about my mother. I need to know about her, every single night her death haunts me and my dreams…please you have to help me out here…I beg you,” cried Calysta as suddenly the woman was before her face watching her with those endless dark hollows and then sniffed her skin.

“You are honest. But that is going to take you nowhere,” said the woman as she stood back and again waited for Calysta to get her bearings right.

“What do you mean?” said Calysta in a strange manner as she found that she was suddenly floating in the darkness and light.

“Your mother was the most prolific liar of her family, and that is the reason she was given the privilege of bringing you to earth where you have no business being at all. But it has been more than long that you have been displaced of where you should be. Now if you want to go back home then you need to know who you really are sweetheart. Everything your mother did or told you was a lie. And that is the only truth that you should be knowing as of now,” said the woman.

“What is your name?” asked Calysta as she did not know what more to ask her. Whatever she was saying it rang of truth, something she wished that she had never even come to know.

“Dear girl…you truly are the one who you are….no one ever before has asked me that in this family..but you did….you are not scared of me…and that is strange. Why?” asked the woman as she again sniffed Calysta and this time she knew the answer.

“If you had to do anything then you would have and could have done a lot of things by now but since you did not I am hoping that you are wishing that I am going to be alive. And I have lost everything in my family, you are the only one left. And I have stayed back silent and scared for a long time in my life. I was forced to be scared into hiding for a lifetime. It is time that I come to terms to the fact that I have to accept my position in the society and the world. And I cannot do that if I am scared, can i? You have given me the best gift that I could have asked for from anyone,” said Calysta smiling, not at the woman but at herself and the weirdness of her own position.

“You said that I am your family?” asked the woman in a shocked tone.

“Isn’t that the truth? You asked me to come to terms with who I am and I am beginning to do that and I know that you are the closest thing to family as I have of now. But you have still not told me your name,” said Calysta and the woman smiled at her.

“Have you heard of the Oracle of Delphi? The one who was supposed to do things and say things in her time?” prompted the woman and Calysta nodded at her words.

“I am Delta. The mother of Oracle of Delphi,” pronounced as Calysta gaped at her.