She Belongs To The Devil

"What did you see in your dreams?" Ariel sat down beside Joyce and asked.

She was curious to know what kind of dream it was since she had seen Agnes having visions about the future. And from the sound of it, it looked like Joyce also saw premonitions in her dream. Else, Ariel didn't think that Joyce would have tried to talk about her dreams with her father if she didn't think that the dream was important.

Since they were now already talking about her dreams, Joyce thought of putting it out there in the open. And then, if possible, she wanted to get rid of the Zobekker plant that was around her neck tonight.

But first, she looked at Damien and asked, "Damien, I think you should also listen to this." She wanted to make sure that Damien would understand the pain that she was getting because of that plant.

"Sure." Damien got up from where he was sitting and then went to sit down right in front of Joyce and Ariel.

The others kept on sitting down where they already were. Find adventures on empire

And Joyce took a deep breath in before starting to explain her dream. "I have been having this recurring dream lately. I see myself in the middle of the battlefield. And I believe that it is the fight between the angels and the fallen angels."

"You mean a war between Heaven and Hell?" Ariel felt a pang in her chest upon hearing that.

Joyce gave a nod. "Yes, I think so. The battle takes place midair. And I fight alongside Uncle Theodore. But he keeps calling me Makenzie."

"Makenzie?" Ariel asked in confusion because, obviously, they didn't know anyone named Makenzie.

Joyce gave a nod and looked around the room.

Everyone was listening to her very attentively as they were interested to learn more about her dream the moment she mentioned that she saw a war between the two realms.

Joyce then looked at Ariel and said, "Uncle Theodore was extremely protective of Makenzie. It almost looked like she was his… daughter?"

"What?" Ariel suddenly felt a sharp pain in her heart. "You mean, my father has another daughter?" She had been getting these surprise visits from her cousin and her aunt who she never knew existed. And she instantly thought that his father had other children and wives as well.

"No, silly!" Joyce lightly slapped Ariel on her back. And she clarified, "But maybe your parents might… you know… give birth to another daughter in the future…"

"Ah!" Ariel sighed in relief and nervously giggled. "That makes more sense."

"And what happens next?" Zach suddenly whispered near Joyce's ear from the back.

Joyce almost jumped and punched him in the face. "Don't do that, Zach! You scared me!"

Zach smiled guiltily and ran to sit on the empty seat by Joyce's side. "Tell us more. The story is getting intense."

Joyce then continued again, "And I always see myself, I mean, I always see Mackenzie killing several angels. Uncle Theodore also fights with a scary-looking angel and–"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Damien suddenly cut off Joyce in the middle and asked with a look of shock on his face, "Did you say that you saw Mackenzie in your dream?"

Joyce knitted her brows and asked while tilting her head slightly, "Yes… Do you… know someone named Mackenzie?"

Damien replied while still looking utterly confused, "Uh-huh. Kind of."

"So Mackenzie exists already?" Ariel shouted in panic.

"Umm… My mother had a daughter named Mackenzie…" Damien replied while pondering something.

"Had?" Joyce asked with curiosity.

"Yeah," Damien focused his attention back on Joyce and then answered her, "I heard that she died a long time ago in a battle between Heaven and Hell."

"Oh! I'm so sorry to hear that," Joyce replied sadly.

"Er…" Zach waited for either Damien or Joyce to speak up. But they both went silent.

So, he was the first one to point out the connection between the stories of Joyce and Damien. "So, Damien lost his half-sister named Mackenzie during a battle between Heaven and Hell? And Joyce, somehow, saw Mackenzie taking a part in the battle between Heaven and Hell?"

Everyone's eyes were now shifting between Joyce and Damien.

Joyce furrowed her brows and mumbled, "So, I was seeing the past and not the future?"

Damien's eyes widened when Joyce said that. He leaned a little forward and asked, "Did you, by chance, saw Mackenzie... die?"

Joyce recalled the excruciating pain that she had felt when Mackenzie died in her dream. She felt her back and her chest burning up. She grabbed her chest and then frantically nodded her head.

"Uncle Theodore tried to save her. But one of the angels who was as strong as him managed to hit her with an icy spear. And she…" Joyce gulped down her tears and whispered, "She fell down to her death."

Damien, however, was still a little confused. "You sure that Prince Theodore was the one who fought by her side?" he asked to double-check.

"Ye– Wait!" Joyce looked at Damien with frown lines between her brows. And she slowly spoke, "Uncle Theodore has silver hair in my dreams. And his wings aren't black. They are white." She gave a questioning glance at Damien.

And as if Damien understood the unasked question, he answered, "You must have seen King Lucifer then." He cleared his throat and added, "He was Mackenzie's father."

Joyce didn't know why but suddenly, tears rolled down nonstop from her eyes without her permission.

"The Devil King was her father?" she asked Damien and wiped her tears. But they kept on falling down.

"Yes." Damien pursed his lips and looked down at his palm. He silently asked for his mother's forgiveness for revealing her sad past to his friends.

Ariel didn't know the meaning of that dream yet, but she felt sad for both Joyce and Damien. And so did everyone else in the room.

"Joy, are you okay?" Ariel put her arms around Joyce's shoulder and consolingly rubbed her arm.

But that made it difficult for Joyce to keep on trying to hold back her tears. She suddenly burst into a devastating cry when she recalled the last bit of her dream.

And she whispered, "He tried so hard to save me. To save her. But he couldn't protect her from getting killed in the end… His gut-wrenching screams still echo in my ears… He sounded so devastated…"