Page 29 of Under My Bed

Confused, I eyed him warily as I approached the boxes and dug through them. "Where the hell did you—holy shit, why the hell do you have a wallet from the 1800s!?" More importantly, why the fuck were there so many wallets!?

"What? You asked where I got my money from. I mean, not like these people are missing it much. Besides, they should have looked harder for their shit when it went missing if it was that important to them." He said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

"You can't just steal from people, Kastoron! That's not right." I scolded him with an angry pout before grabbing a throw pillow off the couch and hitting him with it.

"Wha—hey!" He protested, holding his arms out to block the pillow. "I'm a demon. I don't give a shit about morals and rights and wrongs. Everything is in the gray zone to me."

Continuing to whack him with the pillow, I spat my words out through the hits. "Man, I'm going to have some crabby ass guy named," I had to pause to peek at the name on the documentation again, "Richard haunting my ass because you spent the dead man's money!"

Rolling his eyes, Kastoron snatched the pillow from me and hugged me tightly with a chuckle. "You are so adorable." He teased with a laugh. "No ghost would dare come near a home with a demon present, lest they want to be used or sent fully to the afterlife to be judged and placed where they belong."

Nuzzling his face into my neck, he tickled my sides with his clawed fingers, making me laugh away my slight anger towards him. "Silly human, worried about some stupid hauntings while I'm around… As if I could go anywhere anyways." It was hard to ignore his voice trailing out with his sad smile.

Snuggling into him, I held his hands in mine and brushed over his knuckles with my thumb. "Kas, why are you stuck here? You've mentioned being trapped here a few times, and we've always kind of danced around the subject." He didn't get explosive mad when his situation with the house was brought up, but it dampened his mood greatly.

Sighing heavily, he rested his chin on my shoulder and softly stroked his thumb along my inner thigh. "I came here to Earth long ago with Aesophedus, the king of shadows, to help capture stray ghosts and demons who cause more harm than good. Then, one day, a witch decided to summon a demon, and I answered the summoning out of curiosity."

Kastoron went silent for a moment before continuing. "The agreement was simple between Katarina and me. She asked and sacrificed things for me, and I carried out her wishes. As time passed, she became greedy and lustful for greater power and things, and she wanted more out of our relationship." Sighing heavily, he shook his head slowly. "I'm somewhat partially to blame for my situation because I engaged with her feelings when I shouldn't have… But when I realized things between us weren't healthy and tried to leave, she wouldn't let me. So, she trapped me in her home and forced me to remain bound to the property."

Scoffing under his breath mockingly, he stared up at the ceiling with an amused smile. "Damn witch got too cocky and ended up at the gallows when the townspeople caught her from what the others told me."

"Why didn't someone else help you? A demon buddy or Aesophedus himself?" It was sad to think about Kastoron being shackled here to this place all this time. I mean, how lonely must it have been for him? How did he not lose his mind?

"By the time word got to the others, Aesophedus commanded them to stand down, said this to be a punishment for me so that I could grow up." He scowled with a deep frown for a split second before softening back up. "I hated him for it, but if it weren't for his decision, then I wouldn't have met you, Stella doll."

Looking down at me with a happy smile, he studied me with adoring eyes. "It sucked, but I was also a brat who had no control over his own emotions, lashed out more often than not, and I just liked to screw around. Granted, I was the same until recently because even though I was trapped and supposed to learn a lesson, I still terrorized the human occupants over the years because of my resentment towards humans."

"I mean, you're still an emotionally constipated mess now," I remarked with a snicker, earning another tickle from him.

"But I'm getting better, for you." He grinned like a goof before kissing me tenderly. "Still hate that I'm stuck here for now, but I can try to convince Aesophedus when I talk to him next." His smile grew wide with excitement. "I can't wait to go on dates with you out in the world, take you places to eat, walk around the mall or parks, and just do whatever you want."

I couldn't help but smile lovingly at Kastoron when he told me what he wanted to do when he would finally be free. Although, speaking about him being out in public, "You can't go out looking like you do Kastoron, you're going to scare everyone away, and they're going to call a priest to exorcise your ass."

Kastoron looked at me for a second to see if I was serious or not before laughing softly with a shake of his head. "I can look however I want, baby. I only look like this because I am comfortable being in my true form around you."

Aww, how sweet.

Grinning with a giggle, I reached up to grab his face and bring him down into a kiss. "Thank you for coming back to me and giving us a chance."

Shaking his head softly, he looked at me with grateful, loving eyes. "No, it should be me thanking you for forgiving me and giving me a chance I don't deserve after hurting you like I did."

"I will always forgive you and give you more chances than you deserve because I love you, Kastoron."

28

Kastoron

"… Because I love you, Kastoron."

I never understood why three words could make or break a person until now. Hearing her melodic voice sounded like an angel beckoning someone towards the right path with those three words.

It had always been a silent, mutual understanding between us ever since the morning we had our talk about soulmates. But never once have we verbally said those words to each other. I thought it to be silly. I mean, how could three words encompass such feelings of passion, desire, adoration, and love one has for their partner?

This. This was how.

Over the years, I've seen humans say such words to each other, and I never felt anything warm upon hearing it or seeing the sight of love. Blasted heavens, I've seen and heard people say it so emptily to others without a thought behind the words. So, I never equated anything special to the phrase.

Well, guess I was proven wrong once again.

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