A heavy laugh echoed all over the dim-lighted room. The owner of the laughter was sitting in a chair in his penthouse in Midtown Manhattan. He crossed his legs and covered his mouth with one hand. He could not stop laughing.
On the contrary, the human who was standing in front of him did not find any amusement in the situation. The human and also the butler, Xavier, was instead being pale. He did not have the courage to look at his master, Alexander Stone.
“I’m sorry, Master,” the butler whispered in fear. “I did not think she would–“
Xavier’s apology was cut off with another of Alexander’s burst of laughter. The butler flinched at the sound. His face had gotten paler.
“She quit?” Alexander asked in disbelief. “That woman was able to quit the contract?”
Alexander stopped laughing instantly. His gaze darkened. The aura emitted from him grew heavy. And before Xavier could utter another apology, the butler’s breathing had gone ragged.
Xavier clutched his chest. It suddenly felt painful. Very painful. He bent his body to his knees to ease the breathing but even his legs gave up under him. Soon, he was writhing on the floor.
“How could this happen?” Alexander asked.
Xavier struggled to answer. Every word he tried to say choked on his throat. “S– she p– played w– with … stocks…”
Alexander blinked. And the next second, the pain on Xavier’s chest was lifted. The old man took gulps of air to fill in his lungs. His heart rate was running to pump the blood throughout his body. His body started to shiver on the floor.
“And where did she get the money to play with stocks in the first place?” Alexander’s tone grew heavier with each question.
“Sh– she used the black card, Sire,” Xavier was able to say, still with his body bent on the floor. “She invested the money from the black card to gain profit for herself. Then she returned all the money she had borrowed along with the money you gave her as the initial payment of the contract.”
Alexander frowned. The edges of his lips turned downward. He did not like the answer to that.
“She’s very intelligent, isn’t she?” Alexander said, “At least I have to give her that.”
“You are saying … that all this time, she never touched a penny of the money I gave her?”
The butler shivered again. Xavier gulped hard before he answered, “Ex– except the money you gave for her tuition–“
Xavier shrieked with his face on the floor when he heard Alexander suddenly stood up and threw a vase to the wall. The vase shattered to pieces. And Xavier knew that if he did not pick his words carefully, the next one to shatter to pieces would be his head.
“We left out the tuition money from the contract!” Alexander bellowed.
“Y– yes, Sire.”
“And you are saying that all this time, you did not know she never touched a single penny and was playing with stocks?” Alexander’s voice was raised. The master of the house kicked the coffee table in front of him hard. His power was so strong that the table flew to the wall across him. The glasses of the table shattered and the woods broke to splinters.
“You are saying that we have nothing to bind her to the contract again? NOTHING??!” This time, he picked up a plant pot and threw it to the wall.
The fire inside Alexander’s chest kept on brewing. It was either throwing all the items around him or killing his personal butler who had been with him for a very long time. He had almost killed him before.
“How could you not have noticed??” he asked angrily.
Xavier muttered incorrigibly. His lips were shaking so badly that he did not dare to answer.
“Answer, Xavier!”
When the butler refused to answer, Alexander’s eyes darkened again. His whole eyes turned black.
Xavier felt the pressure on his chest again. His mouth suddenly moved on his own.
“W– with all d– due respect, Sire,” the butler said still with his face on the floor. “Y– you also did not know w– when you’re the one w– who spend s– so much time w– with Miss Ann…”
The butler deepened his face on the floor. He was whimpering now, scared of Alexander’s wrath. He could not believe the words coming out of his mouth. It was definitely his death sentence now. Most definitely. There was no telling when dealing with an immortal being like Alexander. A being who could do magic and easily enslaved others.
Frankly, Xavier was utterly jealous of Ann who could get herself free easily. But he was also annoyed because she was the very reason he had to deal with Alexander’s temper.
Why couldn’t she just stay still? Was the money too little for her?
No. The money was huge. And Xavier thought Ann would not be able to resist the temptation. Xavier thought that Ann would definitely use the black card to spend more on herself. But he was shocked when Ann told him she never used a penny. Even if she did, she returned every ounce of money to the black card. AND, she did not touch the initial contract payment –a sum of fifty grand, and she did not touch it at all.
Why can’t she be like any other human?
If she had, she would be bonded with the contract for all her life, as to how Alexander wanted.
If she had been like Xavier was, she would have been enslaved to Alexander to eternity whether she liked it or not.
But she did not.
And now Xavier’s head was on the line. He was waiting for Alexander to throw another fit due to his previously spoken words.
Unexpectedly, Alexander laughed again. The Immortal rose from his chair and wiped his face with his hands. “Three thousand years I have lived on this Earth and I have never been able to guess that woman, have I?” he said more to himself.
Then he let out a heavy sigh. “Whatever should I do with this one? I have marked her so everyone in the underworld would try to get her. Especially those three.”
“Y– you can try to bind her w– with another contract, Sire,” Xavier offered.
“That’s not how the game works, Xavier,” Alexander said in a low tone. He approached another table where a chessboard was laid open. The chess pieces were scattered in an abstract yet strategic manner among the black and white squares. He picked up the white queen piece from the chessboard. “You know it’s a game of chess between multiple people. We have to take turns.”
Alexander put the queen piece in the middle of the board. Then he put the black king piece behind the queen. “I have taken my turn. And I thought I will win this time. But she keeps on walking a step ahead of me, doesn’t she?” He scoffed, more to himself. “Tch. A mere human woman was able to play me.”
“Now it’s their turn.”
Alexander picked up the horse, the bishop, and the white king pieces. He put them all in front of the queen piece, sandwiching the queen with the black king piece.
“If this goes on … the game will never truly end.”
Then he put on an eerie smile. One that even without Xavier looking, made the butler trembled more.
“Well, that’s the fun of having her in the game.”
Oh, I’m sorry, it seems that I forgot to introduce myself before. Let’s start over.Hi! My name is Arianna Adler. My mom and my friends called me Ari. But I used Ann as my Sugar Baby name. Well, now that name could be forgotten.I tied my amber hair to a ponytail and stared at my reflection from the announcement board glass. With my white blouse, a black pencil skirt, and a pair of glasses, I truly looked like a typical secretary. At least, I do not look like a typical sugar baby, I thought.
The boy was no more than twelve despite looking like he had lived for at least three decades. The appearance was pretty much of a child, of course. It was the eyes that looked back with emptiness. No children should have gazes like that. But the world has always been cruel.I scanned the paper on my writing board. Glioblastoma Grade II. It is aggressive cancer that developed from the glial cells in our brain.He is too young to experience this, I thought.But I held back the pity. I knew too well. Pity would only make the boy feel worse. Pity would only intensify the f
I blinked.“Hello there, pretty little thing,” said a man wearing a black shirt and pants. His dark hair blended perfectly with the night. While his yellow eyes stood out. It made me want to stare into his eyes more., to uncover the secrets behind those eyes.Wait, no. They are birds. Not humans. Definitely birds. But did the blackbird just talked to me?“Hey, Miss,” said another man who wore a brown shirt and blue jeans. When he talked, I was pretty sure I saw fangs on his teeth. He knocked on my window. “Can you let us in?” He had
Regrets always come later in life. Did I have regret? Not really… I just wanted to say something wise. Although, I kept thinking that I’m supposed to regret giving my virginity to Alexander. Why was I having a trip down memory lane? Oh right, I was drunk. And suddenly memories of Alexander came rushing through my brain.The day he picked me up from the street and offered me to be his escort with a lot of money, I told him clearly that I would not share my body with him. And he was fine with that clause.“I only want someone to accompany me when nobody would,” he said to me. His thick eyelashes drooped over his ocean eyes. He looked… lonely.
I let the bathrobe fell from my body. It only hit me then that the air-conditioned room was so cold when my skin was exposed.He took his time observing my body that I felt self-conscious. I tried to cover my boobs as it was getting uncomfortable.“Don’t cover it,” he said, “You’re beautiful. Come here.”It was only when I stepped near him that I realized my legs felt weak. And when he took my hands in his, my arms were trembling. “Hey,” he called.My grey eyes looked at his blue eyes. “I’ll do it gently. It won’t hurt much.”“H– how did you know I was a virgin in the first place?” I asked, wanting to redirect the topic into something else entirely.“I could smell it from you.”“What?”“Call it a special ability of mine.”“… to smell virgins?” 'This guy is definitely a weirdo',
My head was spinning all over as I got ready. I put on a white shirt and black pants. I chucked my nametag and lab coat inside my purse, put on my sneakers, then walked out of the door.Since I wasted ten out of the thirty minutes in a depressing attempt to sober up, I only had ten other minutes to shower and get dressed. The last ten minutes I spent walking towards the research institution. I combed my hair along the way.Oh, I forgot breakfast but I managed to stop by a nearby coffee shop and ordered a warm latte. Don’t judge me, but I always prefer coffee with milk. Usually, I would order iced latte but since I was sobering myself up, I ordered the hot latte with one teas
“Mateo?” I asked from outside the door after knocking two times. “It’s me, Arianna.” I was about to knock again because I did not hear any response for a few minutes but then Mateo said, “Come in.” So I got in and immediately my eyes darted to the boy sitting on the hospital bed. He looked so small in his white hospital gown. There was an infusion tube on one of his hands and underneath his eyes were huge black bags. Those eyes reverted back to the television screen across his bed. He was watching the news. He couldn’t sleep, I thought.
I stayed with Mateo for the whole day, assisting the doctor with the injection, and made my reports for the day to be sent to Marc. The annoying thing was that I had to cover my face every time someone came in.But even if I had my back on them, people would still ask me, “Hey, you look really similar to the girl on TV this morning.” There were two nurses who asked me about it. As soon as the question came out, the doctor got interested in the topic as well.“Really?” I acted surprised. No way would I reveal to anyone that I was in fact that girl.&ldquo