How to love a devil

I'm sure

A door! Brass coloured, very tall and rounded at the top. Pretty dusty and dirty like the rest of the old building.

Seems like ages since I was last here, since I wasn't allowed to attend Hero Academy or Brawler training...

I look back at the house and wonder how long it has been here, bordered on either side by much more ornate and colourful houses... long. Unlike the other buildings lining the street, this one doesn't emit any warmth, not at all! Quite the opposite! It comes across as cold, forbidding, but also mysterious and worth exploring - like Edgar.

Stop Colette! You're not here for him, you're here for his grandfather, so go ahead!

The withered bushes and bare trees of the overgrown front yard sway gently in the cold wind as I walk past them towards the brass door. There is no handle or doorknob. Unusual.

I carefully pull on an old, shabby bell cord. A chime chimes somewhere in the house and the door opens without a hitch - I didn't expect that!

Ice cold flows towards me from the inside, all I can make out is a dark corridor. With every step I take, the temperature begins to drop. There are only two sources of light: the little light that shines into the corridor from outside and two small glowing balls staring out at me from the darkness - two eyes!

I hold my breath as something jumps at me out of the darkness, but it's just a cat, a black cat, I can tell by the dim daylight. As I bend down to pet the cat, the door slams shut with a loud bang, and I am engulfed in darkness. Shivering from the cold, I pull a piece of yarn out of my backpack (I always carry one with me when Jessie needs a leash for her robotic dog or Darrly wants to show me a nautical knot), tie one end around my wrist and the other around the neck of the cat.

"Could you please take me to Byron?" I ask after scratching its ears.

With a soft meow, the cat sneaks off and pulls me after it. I hope she understood me, I'm usually quite good with animals. We make a couple of turns, go down two flights of stairs and it's still getting colder, but I'm beginning to see something: a strange green light is pouring out of the room we're heading towards.

-----

"Ah, hello Colette! I've been expecting you!"

Byron is standing in the middle of a room I recognize as his lab. Bottles, concoctions, strange contraptions, and terrariums with snakes are everywhere. A little further away is the examination table on which I woke up after my second transformation - and now my book is on it!!!

"Hello Professor, excuse me, but why is it so cold here?"

"I've managed to construct an extremely complicated contraption that will most likely enable you to control your transformations into a devil. However, it has consumed all my alchemy knowledge and needs so much energy that it is very difficult to cool."

He leads me to what looks like a diving bell, to which countless levers, switches and lamps are mounted and which is connected to several tanks bubbling with mysterious liquids.

"Are you ready?" the alchemist asks me.

I nod and step into the diving bell a bit anxious. I watch with interest as the magician takes my scrapbook off the examination table and encloses it in what strongly reminds me of a microwave oven, also wired into my apparatus. Finally, he closes the diving bell carefully so that I can only see the inside.

"Look out, I'll start the engine now!" I can hear Byron's muffled voice.

I would have panicked, or asked Byron questions like "What if it doesn't work?" or "Can the device blow up?" or "Can I die doing this?" (Okay, maybe a little too dramatic). Instead, despite the machine's gradually increasing rattle, I notice someone coming into the lab, and it's not a cat.

Is it Edgar? Probably, it's his home too.

Before I can think about it any longer, purple, and blue liquids are pouring down hoses into my diving bell and before long I'm up to my neck in it.

"Hold your breath!" Byron orders me from the outside. Okay, now I'm panicking, but I obey, take another deep breath, and then hold it. Already my cage is full of purple liquid, even though my eyes are open, I can't see anything anymore.

Suddenly lightning flashes through my diving bell - my body! White and yellow flashes! Is that electricity, or some kind of weird magic? In any case, they hurt tremendously, I clench my teeth, I'm slowly getting oxygen starvation.

But what is that? My canines are growing - I'm getting fangs! I carefully put my hands to my head. Yes! My horns are there too! I can also feel claws and wings and tail - I've turned into a devil again!

Suddenly a whole load of continuous yellow flashes is dashing through me! The pain is pounding in my head like never before, I want it to stop. Every part of my body suffers from hell, and I really need air!!!

Everything blinks and flashes – light, dark, light, dark. The juice, which has turned white, slowly flows out of the diving bell and Byron opens the door even more slowly.

I fell to the floor unable to move a muscle. Blinded by the pain, I see a blur of the Professor and Edgar, then the pain takes over me completely and I collapse unconscious.

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Thanks for every Vote and Komment :)

I've noticed that my protagonist is already developing a soft spot for fainting or falling asleep from exhaustion!

Well... when you think about all what's happened to the poor girl...

Stay legendary!

Coco