Page 2 of Mayhem's Magic

I am lost in the story where we meet a sweet, quirky lead who is a little clumsy but very cute to the lead monster. He is a fierce creature, bent on protecting her at all costs. I would literally swoon if I knew a man like that. With or without horns.

Romance was never high on my list of must-haves. I guess with my sisters being swept up in whirlwind romances; I moved it higher than it was before. I’ve been on a few dates lately. Hell, I even used the same app Luci used to find Gareth. There has just not been...a spark with anyone I have gone out with.

“Because you want a fairytale fantasy that will never happen. They begin and end in these books,” I tell myself, closing the steamy romance with a huff.

That might not be entirely true, but I need to shake off this misery. Stop being a bitter brat that my sisters found something special. I am not forgotten or excluded from their lives. It’s just different now and I guess I am wallowing in my misery a little.

“Stop waiting for a monster to come sweep you off your feet, sweetheart,” I tell myself as I fill a bowl with stew and head to bed. I will snuggle under the covers, all alone, watching old episodes of Unsolved Mysteries until I pass out.

Chiding myself once again for wallowing in misery I create for myself, I snuggle in with my stew to accept another night where Robert Stack is my sole companion. Before we get to any updates, I am passed out, empty bowl of stew at my bedside and a head full of why nots and what could be’s.

In my dreams, I have a monster lover who adores me, even when I eat stew in bed while watching old shows about magic and mystery.

Chapter Two

Mayhem

One selfish, cold-blooded, bitter choice changed my entire life. Turned me from a man to a Demon and sent me here. To the depths of darkness and brimstone, fire and rage for all eternity. Each year spent in Hades was another dark mark on my soul. At least whatever is left of my soul.

I forgot what being a man was even like. What being a human can feel like. The wind on my face, the warmth of the sun, the first bite of a sweet strawberry. All things I knew once and took for granted. During my time here, I have forgotten all the good in this world.

It is my doing, my own choices, that landed me here. I was greedy and tried to take something that was not mine. In a rage, I destroyed a woman with a pure soul because she would not love me back, just because I believed I was owed her love, her body, and her very soul.

“I have earned what has become of my soul,” I whisper in the darkness of the corner I call my own here in Hades.

It was another time when most men believed women were inferior or owed something to us. I was enchanted by a young woman who was in love with another man. Their love was pure. Something I could not understand.

True love was foreign to me then. I thought gold or power could make someone love me. So convinced she would love me for my wealth, my power in our village, I took his life. I believed I could make her love me even with his blood still on my hands.

“Your misery tastes good, Mayhem,” Azazel smirks from his throne atop decades of decay and debauchery.

“Fuck off. I am in no mood for you,” I warn.

“Tsk, tsk, handsome,” he purrs, reaching his hand out to caress my face. His touch burns, pain blooming from his fingertips out. It sizzles beneath my surface, my fleshless form wavering beneath his touch.

“Fuck. Off. Do you not recall the last time you upset me?”

Glancing at the mangled flesh down one side of his body, I chuckle. I literally tore his head off and shredded it because I could. Because he would not stop calling me his pet. He has a few centuries on me, so he believes he wields power over me.

Ignoring his pouting, I stalk off to find a place where I can be miserable. Being in Hades for a few weeks feels the same as spending a decade on Earth. It is a slow grind of pain, sorrow, and emptiness. All of it was less than I earned.

It was heinous what I did, and I am not sure I will ever atone for it. Not even centuries of death and darkness are punishment enough. Besides taking a life of an innocent man, I broke the heart of the woman I loved. No, it could not have been love. Because how could I have hurt her if I loved her?

I was a young man when she cursed me to rot in hell. I aged quick, almost overnight, in my despair. Unable to work my land, to tend to my livestock, I lost everything. Idid notdeserve her love, so Ididdeserve a curse that sent me to Hades to rot for all the pain I brought upon her.

Shifting through darkness, I attempt to recall memories of my time up above. Sometimes I wonder if my faded, flickering memories were real. Are memories of a woman I believed I loved based on someone who never even existed?

“Sheisout there,” a soft voice hums over the roar of screams and cries that echo through all of Hades. “Out there waiting for you. It was never who you thought it would be, Mayhem.”

Everything falls quiet at once. What....whatwas that?Whowas that? That voice? It trickled through the chaos of Hades, hitting me like blows to the chest. I ached with a sudden bloom of need, of hunger, not lust, but something very close to it.

“Who is out there? Who is...she?”

“The one who was meant for you. As you were meant for her. Even in death but also in life,” that same soft, silvery voice says.

“No. No one is meant for me. I cannot have her. Not in this world or any other,” I argue as desperation swirls inside of me.

“Not this world or any other.Her world. It waits for you.”

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