She Belongs To The Devil

Everyone in the room went silent upon hearing Joyce saying how she was going to let the plant suck on someone's soul.

Joyce looked down and said further, "For a while, I felt like I was completely possessed by the plant. I wanted that man to die so badly. I wanted the plant to erase his very existence. And it WAS already sucking that man's soul. When I finally came back to my senses, I wanted to seal the plant back. However, I couldn't move a centimeter away from that man."

"And?" Damien asked worriedly. "How did you stop? And that man… is he okay?"

Vlad answered the last part of Damien's question. "He looks okay. But he doesn't talk. I am guessing it will take some time for him to completely recover."

"I bet!" Damien nodded. "His soul is going to take quite some time to repair." He then looked at Joyce and tried not to make her feel bad about it. "But I bet he got what he deserved. There's no need to feel guilty because of some criminal."

Joyce was staring blankly, clearly feeling guilty about what she did to that man.

And she suddenly spoke up, "That voice… All this time, I had thought that it was the voice of the plant. But I found out that I was wrong on that day. The voice directed me to calm down my anger saying that the plant would also calm down if I did."

"That voice was directing you?" Damien had a frown between his brows when something struck his mind. So he further inquired, "The voice that you hear... Is it a female?"

Joyce was a little surprised when she looked up at Damien. "How did you know?"

But rather than answering, Damien asked again, "Does the voice sound really calm and enchanting?"

"Yes!" Joyce shifted at the edge of her seat. And she asked Damien with hope in her eyes, "Do you know who that might be? Is it... is it someone from Hell? Can you help me to get rid of this burden?"

Damien pressed his lips together and held out his hand in front of Joyce, gesturing for her to give that pendant to him.

And when she took it off of her neck and placed it on his palm, he said, "I have a guess regarding whose voice that might be. I might be wrong. But…" He looked at Joyce resolutely and said, "I will try to find out the answer. I'm partly responsible for the mess you are in."

Damien brought his palm closer to his eyes and glared at the pendant. And a thought crossed his mind. "What if I had never gotten this thing? Everyone's life would have been much different..."

The pendant almost startled him when it swiftly jumped from his palm and landed on Joyce's lap on its own.

Everyone who witnessed that pendant jumping on its own was shocked to see that. It looked as if that thing had a mind of its own.

Damien got up from his seat and quickly grabbed that pendant from Joyce's lap again. "I will try to get rid of it. I don't want you to go through all those things ever again," he said to Joyce with determination.

He then looked at Ariel and informed her, "I am going to Hell. See you soon."

And before anyone could react, Damien disappeared into thin air.

Ariel scrunched her brows and sighed. And she replied to him in her heart, "See you soon."

Everyone in the room fell silent after Damien abruptly disappeared from before their eyes. They were all so overwhelmed by so many hard-to-believe things from Joyce that they all needed some time to process their thoughts.

Kenneth was the first one to break the awkward silence in the room. "I think I will never get used to him casually saying that he is going to Hell and then disappearing, no matter how many times I hear it."

"Me neither," Grace whispered to her cousin.

She was the one who was in for the greatest shock. The only exposure to the supernatural entity that she had until now was her cousin.

And tonight, she was bombarded with things that were beyond her comprehension level. She got to meet beings from Heaven and Hell, she got to hear about the amusing story of a witch, and she was seeing people magically appearing and disappearing in front of her eyes.

All the others were still silent. The Princes and Princesses from Wyverndale were all thinking about the same thing that Damien had said – that it was possible that Joyce was a reincarnation of his half-sister. And they didn't know how to take that information.

Joyce was thinking about how it was going to affect her life if Damien's hunch turned out to be true.

All sorts of questions were hovering in her head, like, was she supposed to just acknowledge that she was the reincarnation and then move on with her life; was she supposed to learn more about her past life and her previous parents; was she supposed to avenge her own death; and lots of other things.

Seeing how silent everyone still was, Zach suddenly sprung up on his feet and then playfully spoke to uplift the mood, "I think I should commit some sins in my life. That way I will get to spend my afterlife with Damien, won't I? And Ariel and Uncle Theodore can also come and visit me sometimes."

But instead of getting laughter, Zach got frowns and scornful looks from his cousins.

"Shut up, Zach! You shouldn't be joking about that." Ariel shut Zach up and lectured him further, "Life isn't that easy for souls who commit sins in the Hell realm. Besides, there will be a lot of our relatives waiting for you in the Heaven realm. And it's not like you will get to stay in the Heaven or Hell realm for eternity. You will enter the reincarnation cycle."

Zach, however, shrugged and said rather seriously, "I will get to stay in the other realms for a couple of hundreds or thousand years, won't I? Besides, the King of Hell is your uncle. You can put in some good words for me, can't you?"

Joyce was the first one to burst into laughter at that absurd thing that Zach was saying.
Your next chapter is on empire

She looked at Zach and said jokingly, "Thanks for the idea, Zach. Maybe I should also commit some minor sins and descend to Hell when I die." The tone of her voice got serious as she further spoke, "I can meet the parents of my previous life. And maybe–"

"Joy!" Ariel lightly nudged Joyce because the way Joyce sounded all serious was scaring Ariel. "Don't talk about deaths and all. It's scary."

The thought of all of her cousins growing old someday and leaving her alone was terrifying for Ariel. She didn't want to think about that at all.

Joyce laughed again and playfully said, "I was just teasing Zach." She looked at Zach again and said to him, "You know, if I turn out to be the Devil King's daughter for real, then I can put in good words for you. I won't allow him to punish you. How does that sound?"

Zach instantly covered his mouth with both of his palms. And he pretended to be very touched by Joyce's words, "Really? You would do that for me?"

Joyce shrugged and replied, "If I get to drag you down to Hell and prevent the others from witnessing your stupidity, then I am ready to make some sacrifices for the betterment of everyone."

Everyone in the room instantly burst into laughter.

"Joy!" Zach frowned and turned away.

He wanted to make the others laugh, but now, they were all laughing at him.

"You're so mean, Joy," he mumbled softly.

---

Damien, on the other hand, was standing in front of Maple's shop in the Pandemonium.

"Where the hell is she?" he stared at the closed door of the shop while tightly gripping onto the pendant.

The pendant was rattling so much that Damien's palm was beginning to hurt.

He held the pendant with both of his hands and contemplated, "Ugh! I thought she would be here the moment she sensed me. Should I go and look for her?"

However, he didn't need to do so. He heard a soft, enchanting voice from behind him.

"Damien! What a nice surprise!"