Heart of Darkness

"My Lord, thank you for giving me your book. I enjoyed it greatly and finished reading it at once. I believe the book is special to you so I thought of giving it back." William held out the book he had given to him.

Rayven had regretted all of his actions last night, but he mostly regretted that he gave away his book when he remembered what he had written in it. Without hesitance he took it back from William.

Spending time with this boy was messing with his mind, so he left him this time before William could leave.

Rayven went to his chamber so he could be alone, but found Blayze waiting for him. Rayven gave him a questioning look.

"Have you asked Skender if he found a solution on how to deal with Lord Davis or will your punishment go to waste?"

Rayven sighed as he sat down on the bed. "He was willing to take the punishment to save him, so I am sure he is thinking of a way."

"Are you sure?" Blayze asked skeptically.

Skender was known to be negligent. Maybe he wasn't doing his job as he should. Again. Did he really have to talk to him? But then he had already received his punishment. What would talking change? Lord Davis could ruin himself if he wanted to. Why would he care?

"I don't care what happens to any of them." Rayven shrugged.

"Should I just kill Lord Davis and solve the problem for everyone?"

Rayven lay down. "You want to defy Skender's orders? Have you ever been burned by the Arch?"

The man always looked for trouble.

Blayze fell back down on the couch, looking frustrated. "All this because of a woman." He muttered.

"Don't underestimate the effect of a beautiful woman." The twins, Lazarus and Acheron, as Rayven liked to call them, teleported into his room.

Sometimes Rayven wished that all of them were human so he could lock the door.

"A woman can with a simple touch, a gentle smile, a soft laughter stir a man's heart." Lazarus preached. "Once you fall under a woman's spell, it is hard to get up again. But you two wouldn't know."

Blayze scoffed. "Women are your weakness. Not mine."

Lazarus chuckled. "Women are my weakness, but one woman is every man's weakness. You will see. I will say I told you one day."

"I am good without a woman." Blayze said.

Lazarus shifted his gaze to Rayven. "What about you? Do you want to go out and satisfy your desires?"

"I don't understand what you are talking about." Rayven said.

"You can't be that dead." Lazarus said with a frown as he went to sit down on the sofa in the room's corner next to Acheron. "Even you must look a little longer when you see a beauty. Or turn your head when you smell a woman's sweet scent."

Sweet scent?

"I actually smell a woman's scent in this room." He said, looking around.

The other men focused their senses as well and all of their gazes fell on the book on his bed at the same time. Slowly, the three men looked up at him, their eyes glowing with curiosity.

"That scent is familiar," Acheron noted.

"I… gave this book to William." Why was he even explaining himself?

They all nodded at the same time and their lips curved up into a sly smile. What were they thinking?

"Leave! I want to be alone." He told them.

They gave him a few looks, annoying him, before leaving.

Once he was alone, curiosity got the best of him and he breathed in to smell her scent. Something he regretted immediately again when he found himself liking the way she smelled.

Why was her scent on his book?

Rayven stiffened, realizing what this could mean. Did she read the book? Did she see his poems?

Feeling a little panicked, he opened the book to see how bad his poems were and how horribly he had described the truth about himself. If she read it, she must have been revolted by him if she wasn't already before.

He scrolled through the pages and found the first poem he wrote. He was about to curse himself when he found neat handwriting next to his poem.

Rayven was confused, but his eyes followed the words, reading it to his brain quietly.

Life is not a lot

Life is just a thought

As beautiful as I want

Does not have to haunt

It is full of ups and downs

Of highs and lows of different towns

With lights and nights of equal time

You live and die for every dime

I see the light that's not too dim

I see that it is not so grim

So, I try to light my world for me

I try to listen; not hear from me

To make me realize there's more to life

Make my life not something I strife

And I may still long for my death

As I will breathe my every breath

For my heart sometimes do break in two

But I do know there's a way or two

Rayven looked up from the book. A way or two?

There was no way for him. No way.

No way.

No way!

He looked at her poem again. What was this woman trying to do? How dare she write in his book? How dare she pity him?

Feeling extremely annoyed, he went to his home, to separate himself from the rest of the world. He went to his room and tossed the book on his bed. Then he paced, not knowing what to do.

He tried to figure out what she had been thinking while writing him that poem. Why would she write him a poem? Was she mocking him?

She could surely not have written it with good intentions. The woman hated him as he hated her.

He had seen that she had written a few more poems, but he didn't want to read them. He refused to read them. Before he could change his mind, he picked up the book and threw it to burn in the fire hearth, but a feminine hand caught it in the air.

"Tsk, tsk. Don't make decisions while angry. You will regret them most of the time." Lucrezia advised.

One woman annoyed him. Now the second one was here.

"I thought you had learned a thing or two from Blayze." She said, looking at the book. Then she brought it close to her nose and smelled it. "A female. Interesting."

Rayven ignored her.

"I'll keep this for you in case you change your mind later." She smiled.

But why was she here?

"Are you here to punish me?" He asked.

"Why would I?" She frowned but then lifted her eyebrows as if remembering "ah, the boy. You think I'll punish you because you told the boy about our secret. Don't worry. You just told him, you didn't show him."

She walked around his bed touching his things, "I see a change in you, Rayven. You don't know, I became excited when I saw the red dot in your heart."

"Of course. Now that I feel things a little more, you can enjoy punishing me even more."

She chuckled. "You really think I am your enemy. Nevermind." She turned to him. "You should think of how to make your heart beat if you want it back. Now that there is little color, if you allow yourself, that red dot will paint the rest of your heart red. And then it will sing the most beautiful song."

The thought seemed to excite her.

"What is the point of having feelings when I look like this? So I can suffer more?"

"Oh, so the scars are the problem. It seems like you still care about how you look." She shook her head. "The meaning behind the scars was to make you work on your character rather than your appearance."

"No one cares about character when you look like this." He said pointing at his face.

"It is indeed difficult when people only care about appearance." She said taking a dig at him.

Then suddenly her eyes lit up and Rayven didn't like that look. It often meant she came up with an idea that seemed great to her but meant disaster to him.

"I think I might take away your scars." She began.

Rayven couldn't believe his ears but at the same time he knew something horrible would follow this sentence that normally would have given him hope.

"If you manage to make a woman yours, not by force of course, then I will remove your scars." She grinned. "See, I am here to help. Now you have not only a chance to get your heart back but also your face."

Rayven blinked a few times, confused. What did she mean? How…

He cursed. He knew she would come up with something impossible. Why would any woman become his unless forced?

Ignoring her, he went to his bed to sleep.

"You disappoint me Rayven. I am giving you more chances than the others."

"Then maybe you should stop doing so. I told you, I am not the one to save."

"I am starting to believe it." She said with a sigh. "Hope you sleep well."

When he couldn't sense her presence anymore, he relaxed and after a while he fell asleep. That night, he had a dream, not a nightmare.