Bound by Prince of Darkness

The Truth

Maya awoke with her head pounding, each throb like a hammer striking her temples. The pain in her back was unbearable, a pulsating, searing sensation as if something was alive and moving beneath her skin. She groaned, trying to shift her position, and realized she was lying on a soft mattress.

Muffled voices, tinged with tension and urgency, reached her ears. They sounded distant, like an argument taking place underwater. She forced herself to focus, to push through the fog in her mind, and slowly, painfully, she managed to open her eyes. The light was harsh, causing her to squint as her surroundings came into view.

Her pink dress had slipped down, exposing her chest. Startled, she grabbed it with both hands, holding it close as she tried to sit up. Every movement sent sharp jolts of pain through her back, but she was vaguely aware that the pain was slightly less intense without the fabric pressing against her skin. Slowly, she turned her head, wincing as the room spun around her.

She blinked several times, her vision gradually clearing, and saw the familiar faces of her family gathered around her. The room was filled with tension, the air thick with unspoken words. The events of the night before slowly came back to her in disjointed fragments; her 18th birthday, Kaian’s dragon powers awakening, the intense pain that had ripped through her, and then... nothing.

Maya’s heart raced as she looked at the faces surrounding her. There was something wrong, something deeply unsettling in the way they all stood there, somber and silent.

Her father, King Kai, looked as if he had aged years in the span of a few hours. Her mother, Queen Elena, had tear-streaked cheeks and eyes red from crying. Even Kaian, who had always been her pillar of strength, seemed shaken, his usual confident demeanor replaced by something she had never seen in him before, fear.

And then there was Alex, the joker, the one who could always lighten the mood with a well-timed prank or sarcastic remark. But now, even he wasn’t smiling. He stood stiffly, his arms crossed, eyes darting between her parents and Maya as if waiting for someone to break the silence.

Maya’s voice was shaky as she finally asked, “Why... why does my back hurt? Is it part of my dragon transformation? Did I have any cool abilities?” she asked, full of hope.

She tried to inject some levity into her words, hoping to ease the tension, but it fell flat. No one responded with a laugh or even a smile. Instead, her words hung in the air, met with a heavy, almost oppressive silence. The concern etched on their faces deepened, and Maya’s heart dropped.

A cold chill ran through her as she realized something was terribly wrong. Her gaze flicked from one family member to another, searching for answers, for any sign that this was just a misunderstanding. But all she found were expressions of sorrow, of pity.

The tension in the room was suffocating, and just when she thought she couldn’t bear it any longer, her father finally spoke. His voice was steady but laced with a sadness she had never heard before.

“Maya,” he began, his eyes locking onto hers, “there’s something you need to know …, something we’ve kept from you for a long time, hoping it would never come to this.”

The weight of his words hit her like a physical blow, and she instinctively clutched her dress tighter, as if it could protect her from whatever was about to be revealed. The pounding in her head intensified, and she felt a wave of nausea rise in her throat.

“What do you mean?” she whispered, her voice barely audible.

Her father exchanged a glance with her mother, who looked like she was on the verge of breaking down. After a brief hesitation, he continued, his voice thick with emotion. “When your mother was pregnant with you and Kaian, she was... taken. By demons.”

Maya’s breath caught in her throat. Demons. The word alone sent a jolt of fear through her. Her mind raced, trying to comprehend what he was saying, but the pieces didn’t fit. None of this made sense.

“She was kidnapped and taken to the Underworld, where she was tortured,” Kai continued, his tone heavy. “She managed to escape and save her pregnancy and herself, but not before... not before making a deal.”

Maya’s heart pounded in her chest, each beat echoing in her ears. She stared at her father, trying to make sense of his words. “What kind of deal?”

Elena stepped forward, her voice trembling as she spoke. “Maya, I... I made a deal with a demon prince. I didn’t know I was carrying a daughter, only that I was pregnant. They told me it was a son. In my desperation, I... I promised him the soul of my unborn daughter in exchange for our safe return.”

Maya felt the room spin around her, the walls closing in as her mother’s words sank in. “You... you promised him my soul?” she choked out, barely able to believe what she was hearing.

Elena nodded, tears streaming down her face. “I never knew that I was carrying you as well, otherwise I would never have agreed to it. The shock when I delivered you wrecked us. All these years we tried everything to break this bond, this contract. We thought, we hoped, we prayed, that he would forget, that he wouldn’t come for you. But...”

Kai spoke up, his voice filled with anguish. “But tonight, when you collapsed, we saw the marks on your back. The contract. It’s unbreakable, Maya. It means... it means he’s coming for you.”

Maya’s world was shattered. The room, her family, everything she had known and trusted felt like it was slipping away. She wanted to scream, to cry, to run, but she was frozen in place, paralyzed by the horror of what they were telling her.

“So... I belong to a demon?” she whispered, her voice barely audible, as if saying it out loud would make it real.

Kaian stepped forward, his face a mixture of anger and despair. “No, we’ll find a way to break it. We’ll protect you, I swear.”

But Maya wasn’t listening. Her mind was reeling, trying to process the impossible truth. The burning pain on her back. Her fate had been sealed before she was even born.

The feeling of betrayal slashed through Maya's soul like a jagged knife, cutting deep and leaving her raw and bleeding. How could they? How could her own parents, the people she had trusted most in the world, have lied to her about something so fundamental, something that now threatened to tear her life apart? A red-hot rage engulfed her, fierce and all-consuming, directed squarely at the people who had kept this monstrous secret from her for eighteen long years.

“How could you lie to me like this!” she screamed, her voice shaking with a mixture of fury and anguish.

Her mother, Queen Elena, stepped forward, tears streaming down her face. “Maya, I swear, I didn’t know I was carrying you... I thought I was only carrying a son—”

But Maya cut her off, her voice rising to a pitch of hysteria. “It’s not about the deal! It’s about the fact that you hid this from me for eighteen years! How could you?”

The room fell into a stunned silence. The gravity of her words hung in the air like a suffocating blanket, heavy and unyielding. Her older sister, Kaia, tried to intervene, her voice gentle but firm. “Maya, please, we will find a solution. We always do—”

But Maya laughed bitterly, the sound harsh and broken, tears streaming down her cheeks. “A solution? All of you have been lying to me my entire life! Mom, I understand that you had to do what you had to do to survive, that without that deal, Kaian and I wouldn’t even be here. But you lied to me! You hid the truth from me, all of you! It all makes sense now: the overprotective behavior, the constant checking on me, the way you always treated me differently from Kaian. How could you?”

Elena felt her heart shatter into a million pieces at the sight of her daughter’s pain. She tried to approach Maya, to offer some comfort, but Maya recoiled, holding up her hand to stop her. “Don’t come closer,” she hissed, her voice trembling with a mix of hurt and rage. “I can’t look at any of you right now.”

“Maya—” her father, Kai, started, his voice heavy with regret and desperation, but she cut him off with a scream that reverberated through the room.

“Get out!” Her voice was raw, torn from the depths of her soul, filled with an agony that none of them could comprehend.

“Maya, please,” Elena pleaded with tears flowing down her cheeks, taking a hesitant step forward, but Maya's eyes flashed with a wild intensity as she repeated, “Get out!”

The force of her demand was final, leaving no room for argument. Kai, his face pale and drawn, put a hand on Elena's shoulder, gently pulling her back. They exchanged a look of shared pain, knowing there was nothing more they could say, no words that could heal the wound they had inflicted.

One by one, they turned and left the room, their footsteps heavy with sorrow. Kaia lingered for a moment, her eyes filled with helplessness, but she too eventually followed, leaving Maya alone with her rage and despair.

As the door clicked shut behind them, Maya collapsed onto the bed, her body wracked with sobs. She buried her face in her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks, her entire world crumbling around her. The pain on her back was nothing compared to the pain in her heart, a deep, aching void that consumed her entirely.

She felt utterly alone, betrayed by the very people who were supposed to protect her. The trust she had in her family, the love she had felt for them, was now tainted by the bitterness of their deception. How could she ever look at them the same way again? How could she ever forgive them for keeping such a life-altering secret from her?

The darkness that had been lurking on the edges of her mind for so long now closed in around her, suffocating and relentless.

Maya curled up on the bed, clutching her knees to her chest, her sobs echoing in the empty room. She felt lost, her future a dark, uncertain void, and the only thing she knew for certain was that nothing would ever be the same again.