Chapter 3 The devil

Chapter 3

I was still crouched behind the car, my hands gripping my bag tightly, my breath shallow and forced. The sound of my heartbeat echoed in my ears, louder than the quiet night around me. My legs were aching, but I didn't dare move. The streets were eerily silent now, with only the distant buzz of a flickering streetlight to keep the shadows company.

Then I heard it.

A voice-soft, trembling, and desperate. A woman.

"Please, Diago, don't leave me. I love you so, so much. I will die without you! I can't live without you!"

My heart skipped a beat. I froze, trying to lean in just a little without making a sound. I could hear her crying-real, guttural sobs that made my skin crawl.

"Yes, I know I killed her, but I did it for you! For us! I couldn't stand the thought of another girl coming close to you! I love you so much, please... please don't leave me!"

My blood turned to ice.

Killed?

Someone had been murdered?

And she did it... for love?

I blinked, trying to wrap my head around what I was hearing. This wasn't a scene from one of the mystery novels I stacked at the library. This was real. Too real.

A low, cold laugh cut through the air. A laugh that felt like shards of glass scraping against metal. It didn't carry even a speck of warmth.

"Cassandra. Cassandra. Cassandra."

My hands shook. No. It couldn't be.

Cassandra? The Cassandra? The golden-voiced music goddess with the perfect life? The woman half the world would kill to be?

What in the world was going on?

What was she doing here... begging a man?

Then, I heard the man speak.

His voice was deep. Cold. Powerfully calm. And terrifying.

"It was a contract. You broke the rules. What we had was you give me sex, I give you money. Power. Not love."

I felt like the earth had tilted beneath me. This man wasn't just someone. He was something else. No man I had ever known spoke like that. Not with that kind of authority, like he owned the world and all its dirty secrets.

"Please, Diago! Think about all the time we spent together. Didn't you feel something at all? Tell me, don't you feel anything?!"

His laughter came again, mocking, cruel.

"Cassandra," he said her name like a knife dragging across velvet. "I, Diago, don't love. I don't have a heart. I don't feel anything. I warned you not to fall. But you fell. Now suffer for it."

She sobbed louder. I could feel her pain echoing through the silence of the night.

"Please, Diago! Don't do this to me. Please, please..."

"I have nothing else to say," he replied, final and resolute. "Diago doesn't give chances."

He was... cold. Cruel. And somehow calm through it all.

"I will let your killing of that girl go. But now... I want you out of my life. Out of this country."

My head was spinning.

The girl I looked up to, the woman everyone adored, was being cast aside like trash. And not just discarded-exiled. Who had that kind of power?

Who was this Diago?

"Thomas!"

That name cut through the air. I didn't move.

The bodyguard I had seen earlier-so he was Thomas.

Footsteps approached.

"Take her out of here."

"No, Diago! I love you! Please, find a place in your heart! Don't do this!"

His voice again, this time colder than the grave.

"And that's where you're wrong, Cassandra. Once again... I don't have a heart. I do not love."

Her screams tore through the night as she was dragged away. I could hear her resisting, crying out his name, begging. But he didn't move.

I could only see the polished tips of his expensive shoes from where I hid, unmoving. Like a statue carved from ice.

He stood there, calm, while she disappeared into the darkness.

My breath trembled in my throat. My body was frozen in place. My hands numb from gripping my bag too tightly.

But I didn't move.

I couldn't move.

Then, silence.

Only my racing heartbeat.

And then-

His voice. Again. Deep, commanding.

"Whoever is there... come out this instant."

My heart slammed into my ribs. He knew. He knew someone had been watching. I was no longer invisible.

I pressed my lips together, trying not to scream.

His footsteps began to move.

Closer.

Each step precise. Slow. Deadly.

"I said... come out. Now."

My mind raced.

Run? But where?

He was between me and the street. I didn't know the area. If I ran now, I might run straight into his arms.

But if I stayed-

"I don't like repeating myself."

He was closer now. I could see the sharp line of his coat. The glint of something silver tucked at his waist. Was that a weapon?

"Don't make me find you. You won't like how that ends."

I closed my eyes, shaking. My breath ragged, uncontrolled. My heart was roaring in my ears.

He was right in front of the car now. One more step and-

"Thomas."

His voice again. Calm. Smooth. Deadly.

"Check behind the car."

I almost gasped, but I caught it, clamped my hand over my mouth. My knees trembled.

Footsteps. Fast. Heavy.

And then-

A hand gripped my wrist.

I screamed.

Loud. Fear ripping through my throat.

I was yanked out from behind the car. The world spun. My bag dropped. My knees hit the hard ground.

A flashlight blinded me. I turned my face.

"Let her go," the deep voice said.

Thomas dropped my arm.

I dared to look up.

And there he was.

Diago.

Even in the dark, he looked unreal. Dark suit, eyes colder than ice, his face carved from marble. Beautiful and terrifying all at once.

He crouched slightly, inspecting me like one would a strange animal.

"You're not paparazzi," he said softly.

I shook my head quickly. "N-no. I work at the library... I... I was just heading home. My phone was off. I got lost. I didn't mean to see anything. I swear."

He tilted his head, curious.

"You heard everything."

I didn't respond.

He smiled. A slow, dangerous smile.

"What's your name?"

"A-Alora."

He repeated it, like testing how it felt on his tongue. "Alora."

Then he stood.

"You'll forget what you heard. And if you don't..."

His eyes pierced mine.

"You won't get a second warning."

He turned, walking back toward the shadows. But before he vanished completely-

He looked over his shoulder.

"Interesting things happen to people who walk into the night alone. Stay safe, Alora."

Then he was gone.

And I sat there, trembling, trying to understand what kind of monster I had just met.

But somehow... my heart was still beating.

And strangely... it whispered one word over and over.

Diago.