Of Kings and Demons Read Online Free Page B

hair. When
questioned, he hemmed up and whispered only these words: “I don’t know. Ask
her. Ask her.”
    Initially they tried to bind
him to prevent the acts of vandalism on the walls of the compound, canteen, and
his room. However, after the enlightened management moved him to a new room and
had the bindings were removed, the drawing on the walls stopped.
    John turned docile with books
as his new venue of solace. His children rarely visited him, and when they did
he barely reacted or remembered them. Occasionally he wept when he remembered
the death of Susan. Most of the time, John was in a daze, lost in suspended
reality. Day after day, year after year, his existence consisted of an
existence in the tossing waves of self-delusion.
    He had a dream this night, the
tone and background of which was vastly different from the rest of t night.
Instead of the usual world of white, John found himself in the midst of a dark
forest. He was on his way down a meandering track.  The path ended by the bank
of a purplish river, where a figure stood. The vision was blurred but the
purplish hair and the voluptuous figure was unforgettable. The figure turned
around gradually and John was about to glimpse the face when he slipped and
fell into the river.
    John’s hands were chill and
rigid. Panic gripped him and he found his lungs bursting. Then a hand grabbed
him and hauled him out of the water.
    John woke from his dream with a
yell, wet with perspiration.
    “Good gracious. Just a dream, a
dream . . .” He crossed his heart and prayed.
    “How do you know it was only a
dream?” someone whispered, but it was distinctive. John missed a heartbeat.
    I am not alone? I am not
alone.
    In the corner of the room lay the
same lady he had just seen in his dream. The face was not immediately visible
as her back was to him. She was full-bodied, dressed in a resplendent robe of
purple, and her thick and purplish hair flowed luxuriously to her waist.
    The presence of a stranger sent
John huddling into the corner of room like a frightened puppy. He coughed
nervously as the lady gradually turned to face him. Under the pallid
illumination of the lamp, her high cheekbones were accentuated and the huge
eyes crafted in lascivious allure. The purplish cloak emphasized the voluptuous
curves of that supine body. The sheer force of the beauty left John breathless.
A ring of dark light, of oppressive vibes dropped over his neck like a noose.
    He struggled to talk but the
words melted on his lips before they were uttered.
    “Your fear, John, is so strong.”
She smiled. “We had just met. By the river. You clumsy fool . . .” she chuckled.
    “You are not real.” John shut
his eyes. However, his feeble gesture did nothing to ward off the lady. She
sashayed over and in an intimidating pose held John by the chin like hapless
prey.
    “Mad for so long, and still wasting
away.”
    “What do you want?”
    The seductress smiled, her
cheeks glowed with sinister pride.
    “Is this some kind of
experiment?” John eyes rolled over to the door.
    No reply came and John snapped,
“What is this?”
    “I am Seraphina. Seductress is my
title,” she said. “It is always a joy as I quenched the lust of your race.”
    “You are a Demon?”
    “You remember? You haven’t lost
all your sanity, John.”
    He struggled to sit upright. “I
am not mad. It is simply that I have a gift of sight of your world and just the
inability to explain that gift to my fellow man.”
    “Gift? A curse, you mean. A
curse that has torn your life apart.” She winked “Humans can be so hopelessly
optimistic.”
    John felt blood draining away
as Seraphina chuckles filled the room.
    “Do you still remember your beautiful
children?”
    A look of despondency fell
across John’s face as he tried to recall as his eyeballs scanned his surroundings.
Tears flowed as memories of his loved ones surged through the corridors of his
mind.
    The seductress winced. “Spare
me the emotions,