Without another word, we bowed our heads and continued reading.
We have continued this cat-and-mouse game for some time now. I escape, time travel, and he finds me wherever I go. I don’t know how he does it. He enjoys the chase and the wooing that happens once he finds me. I always end up in his bed. But I honestly crave it and love his dark desires. I don’t know how to help myself. He always makes empty promises to change. And then the killings begin.
It is a vicious circle, like being trapped in Dante’s Inferno.
Then I landed somewhere else, and something unexpected happened—I met a man named Malik, and everything changed.
A chill shot up my spine. “Oh my God, Emily—this is incredible. She met Malik!”
Emily’s eyes widened. “Turn the page! We have to keep reading.”
She waved a hand toward the journal, and without hesitation, I flipped the brittle page, immersing myself deeper in the story.
Malik is staying with Balthazar—he’s a darkness like Balthazar. I think he is under Balthazar’s tutelage. He is intelligent and interesting. And handsome—so very handsome. His eyes are a deep jade, the color found at the edge of a creek. His long, lustrous hair hangs to his shoulders. But I think his heart is bound to another’s as he looks at me with only the politest interest. We converse when Balthazar is not around. When Balthazar is here, we act like strangers around one another.
Tonight, when Malik and I spoke after Balthazar had left the dining table, Malik told me he was in love with a woman named Layla. He said his love for her is helping him control the darkness inside.
“Oh!” I said, surprised by his confession. “So, you are a darkness, like Balthazar?”
I sipped the heady wine Balthazar had served us that night.
“Yes,” he said, but he didn’t elaborate. “Layla and I are trying to find a way to help or cure me, so I don’t have to kill to survive. “
“Wait, wait, you have to kill humans to survive?”
“Yes,” Malik said. “If we don’t kill people daily, we lose our strength and weaken. It’s a vicious cycle, and I’m trying to find a way with Layla to stop it. I love Layla and want to be with her, so I shall do what I can to control my hunger for killing.”
After learning what Malik told me, I understood whyBalthazar murdered people. He needed strength to survive, and without killing, he would weaken. I told Malik we would help each other. So, we made a pact. But then, many days turned into months with no sign of Malik.
At dinner last night, I innocently asked where Malik was. “I haven’t seen your friend, Malik. Is he traveling?”
A fiendish look washed over Balthazar’s face.
“I got rid of him,” he said coldly. “He became a problem.”
I nodded and spoke of other things, but inside, I was deeply saddened. Malik had become my only friend; now he was gone, killed by my monster lover.
Since so many years had passed with us playing the same game of “flee and find,” Balthazar let me roam his estate. It was as if he dared me to time travel. On one occasion, when Balthazar left to conduct whatever madness suited his whims, I decided to explore. I wandered through the house, trying locked doors, then moving to the next one. It was a way to kill the boredom of this life.
I was tired of wandering the upper floors and took my search to what I thought would be the basement. I descended stone stairs, using only a candle to light my way. The air smelled damp and dank, peppered with foul odors. I nearly stopped and turned around; the house seemed to be haunted. When I stepped off the last stair, I peered through the gloom. This was no basement—it was a dungeon.
A single door constructed of iron and softly glowing, as if infused by magic, lay ahead. I cautiously moved toward it, certain an evil ghost, wraith, or devil would spring out at me. But as I approached, I only heard rasping, labored breathing coming from the cell.
“Hello?” I said through the small rectangular window to the room. It was so dark in there that I couldn’t see a thing. It smelled of human waste and vomit. I held my nose.
“Alina? Is that you?” came Malik’s weak reply.
“Malik!” My heart was overjoyed to hear the voice of my friend. I thought Balthazar had killed him.
On a wooden post, a set of keys was hanging.
“I found some keys! I can free you!” I seized the keys and fumbled with them to find one that fitted in the lock. As soon as the key touched the keyhole, a severe shock blasted my hand and arm.
The keys flew from my hand and landed with a jingling crash somewhere in the shadows.
“Don’t open the door!” Malik rasped. “You’ll be killed, and I don’t want you to die.”
I lifted the candle to the opening, trying to see inside. Malik sat hunched over his sick. His hair hung in greasy waves, and a sheen of sweat covered his grimy skin.
