--XIII--

I woke up in the middle of the night, out of breath.

Cold sweat trickled down my brow as I turned to look at the now-open window. The heart monitor still beeped in a regular but quickened pace.

Reluctantly, I clasped a hand on my chest just to make sure that my heart was still beating.

I was alive.

Dad's subtle snores filled the room as he slumped sound asleep on a chair.

Intently, I listened to every sound.

Nothing seemed to be off so I closed my eyes. The beeps from the monitor doubled when the door opened with an eerie creak, like rusty knives being scraped against each other.

When I peeked through the narrow gap, I saw Vincent staring at me from the dimly lit corridor. He wasn't wearing his adaptive glasses and I could only gasp in horror when I saw a pair of silvery eyes piercing right through me. They were so vivid, so mystifying and yet, so abnormal. As if those eyes could not belong to a human.

With a nod of his head, Vincent started to walk away.

Impulsively, I removed the probes attached to my chest and ripped the needle from the back of my hand. Muffled whimpers escaped my mouth as I pressed my fingers on the tiny puncture.

I ran after him, leaving a trail of blood behind me.

The floor was icy against my bare feet. And all I could hear were Vincent's silent footfalls echoing throughout the seemingly empty hospital corridor.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

His steps slowed down. He was deliberately waiting for me. There was a grim look on his faultless face when he turned to face me. His silver eyes were so intense with a sinister force that seemed to pull me like a magnet.

An otherworldly chill in the air penetrated the white hospital gown I was wearing, making my body tremble.

I could not move a muscle or even breathe. Even when I tried, I couldn't look away.

The gap between his brows furrowed as his eyes examined the blood on the floor trickling from my hand. All of a sudden, his shoulders tensed. Then he took a step toward me, his pale metallic eyes smoldering when he snatched my bleeding hand.

"I didn't save your life just so you could try to kill yourself again." His voice rumbled through his teeth.

From the chest pocket of his coat, he pulled out a crimson handkerchief and tied it around my hand.

I winced, opening my mouth to speak, just to close it again when nothing came out. I was so distracted by his eyes that it took me a while to realize that he was wearing a black tuxedo, just like Lindsay had described.

"Thanks... for saving me," I started to mutter, still wide-eyed, unable to tear my gaze away from him.

Vincent's expression hardened. "Don't thank me just yet. You still don't know what I need in exchange."

"I—in exchange? I don't understand, Vincent." I shook my head.

His grip tightened around my wrist. I could only flinch when he lowered his face closer to me.

"Eternal servitude." His voice was low and ominous, loud enough so that it bounced off the walls.

He raised his free hand as if to catch something from the air above his head. Blue flames suddenly sputtered from his palm, engulfing his whole hand in a fraction of a second.

He didn't cringe in pain or even look at his burning hand. He just let it burn like it was something that happened every day.

When the flames died out, a smoldering piece of parchment appeared in his hand. He unrolled it and showed it to me. The edges of the parchment slightly crumbled with his touch, white smoke emanating from its center.

At first, I could not understand what it said. It was written in a language new to me. After a few seconds though, the letters began shimmering, slowly morphing into English.

AETERNUS PACTUM

This serves as a confirmation of my everlasting servitude and fidelity to my master, The Thirteenth Heir of Pilgrim Reaper. In all circumstances shall I put my master's welfare before my own and along with this, I shall be Bound to him and only to him until the end of time.

Signed,

Aramis Rayne

I let out a muffled gasp when I saw my name written at the bottom.

"What is this?" I writhed away from his grip, but he was too strong for me.

Vincent's eyes shifted left and right, seemingly distracted. He tugged on my bleeding hand and in a fraction of a second, it too was already blazing with blue flames.

I stifled a cry and thrashed, but he didn't let go.

The scorching pain shot up to my arm, to my nape, like thousands of glowing hot embers being scraped onto my skin. A desperate scream left my lips as my whole body was engulfed by the flames. My skin grew hotter and hotter it turned red.

Silent mutterings filled the air, several voices reciting in a language I could not comprehend.

Vincent's lips were moving so fast, his voice barely audible through the chorus of strange voices. There was something in his eyes that made me want to fight the unbearable seething pain all over me and look at him.

Was it the look of satisfaction? Pity? Guilt?

I watched all those hidden emotions fill his eyes while I drew in a lungful, inadvertently breathing in the smoldering blue flames. But instead of excruciating pain, it brought me relief and warmth. More than ever, I realized how much I wanted to stay alive.

Time seemed to have stopped. My hair billowed in the air, suspended as he finally raised my bleeding hand and let blood trickle down onto the contract.

One.

Two.

Three drops of blood speckled the ancient document before it vanished into thin air, leaving Vincent's hand smoking. Burn marks were all over it but those didn't seem to bother him at all.

"Close your eyes," he warned urgently. Then he defensively folded an arm around my nape and pulled my head toward his chest. "Don't look."

But it was too late. I could already see them. Slowly, they drifted gracefully in the air like jellyfish swimming up and down. Only, they looked somewhat human. Or at least, perhaps, they used to be.

The translucent bodies hovered around us, like vultures circling a dead animal in the middle of the dessert. I didn't see their faces. Their macabre forms dissipate and reassemble with every movement like some kind of luminous mist.

I knew right away that these were the dark creatures Lindsay had seen before Hazel Hemlock's death. And if she was telling the truth and all this was real, then I didn't know what wasn't anymore.

My eyes widened in both fear and exhilaration just as one of the figures hovered too close to my face.

I felt its presence, leaking nothingness, confusion, never-ending agony. It reeked of death, wilted flowers, freshly dug earth and finally, of something that died and was left to rot for not too long.

The hazy lone figure paused in front of me, perhaps in curiosity. A pair of hollow eyes appeared on its emaciated transparent face before its mouth opened, revealing stitches as though someone had sewn the lips together. It let out a blood curdling shriek that tore through the silence of the night. After that, all of the creatures screeched in different pitches of grating noise.

I covered my ears, fighting off the prickling on my nape and the shudders that ran through my spine. It felt like my teeth would fall off.

Fear invaded my system.

I sucked in a breath through my rattling teeth, clutching tightly on Vincent's sleeves as he guarded my eyes with his arms. I choked a sob to keep myself as silent as possible while the tears started to form on the sides of my eyes.

"Close your eyes. Everything will be alright," his mellow voice held a distinct authority, like he knew what he was doing.

Without thinking, I did as told, closing my eyes. In no time, I was floating, lulled by the warmth and the voice that kept whispering words of comfort in my ear, sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness, dreaming about the paradise behind the doors made of pulsing lights.

"Close your eyes. Everything will be alright," his voice kept reminding me when I began to tremble.

The paradise's crimson sky was unwaveringly beautiful as the red flowers in the never ending spring meadow swayed with the gentle wind.

But no matter what I did, I could not step into the door. One of my feet was in paradise while the other was stuck outside. I could not move on. Something was preventing me from doing so.