Dedicated to katrocks247 because she inspired me to write this baby. Her own stories are incredible as well!

"Well, whoever he is. He sure got some killer eyes. You're totally enchanted by him." - Anastasia Waters

Chapter II

My brush dipped into the paint and I focused on the painting I was working on, tongue poked out in concentration.

Ever since encountering the mysterious man six days ago, I had repeatedly painted his eyes. I couldn't seem to get them out of my mind. So far, painting had always worked with me to clear my mind, but this case was apparently an exception. I just couldn't forget him.

And no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get the eyes right. Much to my irritation.

Chewing on my lip, I looked at the painting, debating on what's wrong with it.

I have painted eyes before but never had any troubles with those. But the eyes of this guy just held too much emotion. Remembering the look he held in his eyes and what he must have gone through made me feel... sad somehow.

Picking up my canvas, I walked over to the wall and put it down next to the other paintings I had made the last four days, in between work of course.

Every painting was of his eyes. I'm sure there must be seven of them in my studio alone. The sketchbook that I kept in my room contained even more sketches.

Everywhere I looked, his eyes looked right back at me, unnerving me and making a shudder go down my spine. There was just something I couldn't put my finger on...

The door to my painting studio slammed open and I jumped up in shock. "I knew I could find you here!" A female voice called.

I turned around and watched my best friend, Anastasia, strut into the room. Taking the winter cold with her. Like always, her red hair whirled around her face like furious flames. Her waggling made me think of a penguin, which did not come as a surprise seeing how many layers of clothes she wore to protect her against the cold.

She always has been sensitive to the cold.

"You need to do something about that cat of yours!" She whined. "He scratched me again!" She removed some of her coats and jackets in a flash and showed me her arms, and just like she said, they were under the scratch marks undoubtedly done by my cat.

"You tried to pet him?" I asked her in amusement, wiping my hands off against my shirt. It was an old shirt I always painted in, so I did not care if it got under the paint or not.

Her green eyes grew large. "He looks so soft..."

"Ghost is very particular about who he likes. And who gets to touch him and who not. You seem to be someone he does not like," I explained to my friend. "If you don't want him to scratch you, you should stop trying to pet him."

A sign left her lips. She muttered something under her breath, probably about how she will touch Ghost one day without getting scratched. In the meantime, I walked over to the paint I had used and put them away in a box where I kept my collection.

"Whose eyes are those?" I heard Ana ask. I looked up and saw her kneeled in front of the paintings I made of the guy's eyes. She watched them with interest and a certain curiosity.

"I don't know. I walked into him one day on my way to work," I replied.

Ana whistled. "Well, whoever he is. He sure got some killer eyes. You're totally enchanted by him."

"I'm not," I immediately retorted, feeling almost offended. A blush creeping up my cheeks.

"You totally are," she continued, ignoring my discomfort. Still looking at the paintings. "If you were not, you would not make so many paintings of his eyes."

"You never saw him again?" She added, not giving me the time to reply to her previous comment.

"No."

"No wonder though," Ana sighed, "you will never see him again if you stay locked in here painting his eyes. Which is kind of creepy if you ask me..."

"Time to come out of your cave, girl!" Before I could say even a thing, I was dragged out of my studio and into the streets of Manhattan.

The cold hit us both and I shivered. Ana seemed to double over from the cold that hit her like an oncoming train. Yet she pushed forwards and stalked towards the apartment complex right in front of my art studio.

Entering the building she went straight towards the elevator, cursing the cold and winter itself out under her breath, still pulling me with her. My arm started to hurt from her iron-like grip.

She pushed the button that would bring us to our destination. Shape of You by Ed Sheeran playing on the radio in the elevator while we waited.

When we heard the ping and the door opened we walked out, Ana still holding me tightly. "You know," I said, "you can let go of my arm. I'm not gonna run away."

Ana immediately let go, giving me an apologetic look. "Sorry," she said sheepishly.

I folded my arms across my chest and watched my friend tumble around with her hands in her pockets. She cursed under her breath and started banging on the door. "ALEC!!" She yelled. "ALEXANDRU!! OPEN UP!"

Arching my eyebrows, I asked, "Forgot the keys? Again?"

"Shut up."

"No. I won't."

Before any of us could say anything, the door opened and our friend, Alec, poked his head out. "Stop forgetting the keys, Ana. I gave them to you once." He told the redhead, not trying to mask his annoyance. "Get in, you idiots." He added, opening the door further.

"Jerk," I told him.

"Bitch," he replied with a grin.

"Is the food ready?" Ana called after us, already walking into our shared apartment.

"Yes, it is," Alec replied, following her. I walked with my friends and closed the door behind myself.

The apartment belonged to Alec, who is a close friend of us. Me and Ana each had our own place as well in the area, but we spend most of our time in Alec's place. Especially around dinner time.

"What are we eating this time?" I asked him, carefully stepping around the countless of books and papers sprawled all over his carpeted floor.

"Mac 'n Cheese," Alec replied, walking past me and towards the dining table.

Again? I asked myself. This is the third time in a row.

"Yes, again. I'm really fond of Mac 'n Cheese. Deal with it." He said.

Did I just say that aloud?

"No, I just know how to read minds," Alec smirked. "I'm Jedi," he added.

"Hey, stop bickering!" Ana's voice yelled. "Serve me food!"

.

Ana pocked me in my ribs. I pursed my lips together and ignored her. Folding my hands in my lap and purposely looking straight ahead. "Don't ignore me! We need to talk about Mr. Mysterious."

I arched my eyebrows, finally giving her the honor of having my attention. "Mr. Mysterious?"

She gave me a look. "The guy whose eyes you were painting constantly."

A sign left my lips. My eyes glanced towards Alec, who was seemingly busy doing the dishes. But I knew him long enough to know that he was listening.

"There's nothing to say, he's just a guy I walked into," I said slowly and clearly. "Manhattan only is a large place, don't get me started about New York itself, I will probably never see him again and you know it. He might even be on a business trip for all we know and he already left the state!"

Ana's eyebrows raised up. "Who knows what fate has in store? You might just walk into him again, if only you got out of the house!"

"Just go to that Starbucks cafe a few blocks from here," Alec offered. "If it's unsuccessful, you at least go outside." He put his hand against my cheek and lightly tapped it. "You're getting pale."

"Fine," I sighed. Alec is right. I am getting paler. Perhaps it won't be such a bad idea to go outside. "Just don't bother me again when I won't see him."

Alec and Ana exchanged looks before nodding at the same time. "Deal," they said in unison.

A smirk found its way on my face. "I swear, you two are like each other's spirit animal," I told them, nodding my head. "Very well, I go and get my breakfast tomorrow at that Starbucks place."

Ana and Alec high-fived.

I couldn't help it anymore and laughed. "Do you guys seriously already ship me with a guy none of us actually know?" I managed to get out. 

Ana threw her hands up. "Who cares about any of that when he has such nice eyes and sounds so hot?!" Alec shrugged helplessly as if to tell me what do you want me to say?

.

"Guys... stop following me around. I am leaving," I huffed at my friends, wrapping a scarf around my neck.

Alec crossed his scrawny arms across his chest. "We just have to make sure you don't bawl out of this one."

At six in the morning, the two of them had stood on my doorstep with bright smiles. Too bright for in the morning. Apparently, they had come to make sure I kept my promise. I did plan on keeping it, just not this early.

Rolling my eyes, I checked to see if I had my purse, phone and keys in my small Gucci handbag, "I promised I would go," I told them. My mismatched green eyes focused on them. "And I always keep my promises."

"Laters!" Ana said. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"There's nothing you wouldn't do," Alec corrected her with a sarcastic grin.

Shaking my head at the two of them I exited my home. "Don't kill each other when I'm gone!" I called after them. "I really don't feel like cleaning up!"

I quickly shut the door behind me and huffed. "Why did I even agree to do this?" I whispered up at the sky, watching the clouds pass by for a while.

A rustling in the grass caught my attention. I looked to my left and saw Ghost strutting over to me. His large furry tail swiping the air. The large white cat sat down in front of me, staring up at me with mismatching green eyes almost equal to my own.

I kneeled and scratched him behind his ears. Ghost purred in appreciation. "I'm just going out to get some breakfast. Watch the house for me, okay?" I whispered to him.

Ghost looked up at me with his intelligent eyes and strutted over to the door, lying down next to it. I turned around and left my small front porch, Ghost watching me go.

.

The doorbell dinged and I rushed inside, feeling glad for the warmth the café provided. Right when the door closed behind me, a cold whoosh of wind entered the building, making the customers closest to the door start complaining. I grinned apolitically at them.

Looking around and removing my cloves, I noticed that the café was almost completely full. Who knew there were so many early birds? I thought to myself.

A shudder went down my spine and the temperature seemed to drop drastically until it was far below zero. My breath puffed out in clouds and I couldn't feel my hands anymore. When I held my – now shaking – hands up in front of me, I noticed that they were starting to grow blue and purple. Tiny ice-crystals formed on the tips of my fingers. A numbness spread through me and panic seized my heart when it seemed to stop beating all together for my blood had frozen.

Yet when I blinked my eyes, it was gone. My hands were back to normal and my blood pulsed through my veins like nothing had happened. What the hell was that?!

I decided to put the blame on Alec and Ana who had woken me up way too early.

My train of thoughts was disturbed when a gaze pierced into me, like thousands of shards of ice piercing my skin repeatedly.

I turned around towards the corner of the café.

And there he sat. Staring straight at me with his unnerving blue eyes who burned into my very soul with hatred as clear and hard as crystal ice, piercing me right on the spot and preventing me from going anywhere. An uncanny, nauseating feeling settling on me.

The most unnerving though was not the fact that he was staring at me, but that in this seemingly overfilled and busy café, the tables surrounding him were completely empty. No one dared the come closer towards the hateful young man.

Knowing he had caught my attention, he smirked once – leaving me in awe of his out worldly and exotic features – before turning around and looking outside once more. Casually sipping his hot beverage.

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Hello, my little demons! I hope you enjoyed the newest chapter of 'Devil's Heart', cus I sure as hell did.

The video at the top is the parody by Bart Baker (love the guy) of the song Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran. I momentarily wanted to put the original, but this version is just so much funnier XD

With this chapter I mostly wanted to focus on Harlynn's closest friends; Alexandru and Anastasia (Alec and Ana are their nicknames) as well as Harlynn's second encounter with you-know-who ;)

I also wanted to put in a scene with Ghost. For those who are curious; he's a completely white Norwegian Forest Cat, one of my favorite cat-breeds. It's a large, semi-longhaired breed. Ghost also has heterochromia; in this case, two mismatching green eyes. If you wish to know more about this breed, just google them up. (Ghost will be significantly different from other Norwegian Forest Cats though).

Just let me know what you thought of this chapter alright? What do you think is gonna happen next? Predictions? What do you think of my story so far?

I will TRY to update at least once a week! Don't be too mad if I don't update for a week, I'll try my best!

Don't forget to vote/comment/share if you liked it! Until the next time!

- Luci