Lillith remained motionless, immersed in a spiral of growing paranoia.
She was starting to seriously question if her decision to descend to this family had been, in reality, a mistake.
What if she wasn't the demon here? What if... from the beginning, she had been the sacrifice that the "demon" had set his sights on to devour when he got bored?
Lief, for his part, seemed oblivious to the existential terror consuming her.
Leaning back on the sofa with his legs crossed, he flipped through the television channels, looking for something that captured his interest.
"Stop thinking so much, the noise of your thoughts prevents me from hearing the television," he said without even bothering to turn his head to look at her. "It is useless to try to rationalize your situation."
"..."
Lillith pressed her lips together, swallowing her words.
Calm returned.
However, it broke abruptly.
Lief's finger stopped just when he was about to change the channel and his eyes shone with a sudden spark of interest.
"Work has arrived," he said standing up.
Then he directed an appraising look toward Lillith, who was curled up on the sofa, lost in her own thoughts.
An idea crossed his mind.
"Seeing you like this is really pathetic, but strangely it has moved my heart, so let's go. I'll take you to a fun place."
"It's time for some therapy to keep you from getting scared by anything in the future."
"What...?"
But Lief didn't give her time to process the information and closed his hand firmly around her arm, forcing her to stand up with a force that brooked no resistance.
"Hey! Let me go!" Lillith tried to dig her heels into the floor, struggling uselessly against his grip.
"Save that energy, you're going to need it," he replied, ignoring her complaints while he dragged her down the hallway toward the foyer.
He stopped in front of his closet door and without letting her go, turned the knob and opened the door, revealing not a space full of coats, but something else...
Taking a step inside, he pulled Lillith in with him.
They appeared in an office.
Lief released Lillith, who stumbled a couple of steps before regaining her balance, shaking invisible dust from her clothes with indignation.
Without paying her any more attention, Lief walked directly toward his desk, dropped into his chair, and with a skillful spin, propped his boots up on the table surface, crossing his ankles.
On the desk rested an open pizza box that was already cold and several empty soda cans scattered about.
"Tch..." Lillith made a grimace of disgust at the mess, but her curiosity soon overcame her repulsion.
She began to walk around the room, examining the surroundings with caution, until her gaze was magnetically drawn to a huge glass display case built into the side wall.
Approaching slowly, she saw that inside, illuminated by dim lights, all kinds of objects were on display: bladed gloves, a bottle with a mini clown, and many other objects that emanated a familiar smell...
But upon seeing them again, a terrifying thought bloomed in her mind.
If one day she managed to truly anger him... would she end up here? Would she be exhibited as just another trophy in his collection?
Click
The sound of the door opening interrupted her thoughts.
In the entrance, which faced the street, a man entered, bringing with him the cold air from outside.
He was young, perhaps around thirty years old, but his face was marked by exhaustion.
He had dark, slightly messy hair, and a few days' worth of stubble shadowed his jaw. He wore a brown leather jacket over an open gray hoodie.
His eyes, sunken in dark sockets from lack of sleep, scanned the office in confusion.
The man seemed to hesitate for a second, as if he wasn't sure he had entered the right place, until his gaze landed on Lief, sitting with arrogance behind the desk.
In that instant, the confusion in the stranger's eyes was replaced by hope.
Without looking at the man, Lief took the last piece of pizza from the box and took a bite without any ceremony.
While chewing slowly, he examined his potential client.
"Welcome to Devil May Cry," he said with his mouth still full, swallowing before flashing a friendly smile. "Save the introductions and tell me your problems. Remember: as long as the price is right, the problems that God ignores, I solve."
"..."
Taking a deep breath, Thomas made a decision and walked quickly toward the desk, leaning his hands on it.
"My name is Thomas Kaiser," he said looking Lief in the eyes with urgency. "And... I need your help. I am being plagued by a generational curse... or I think by a demon."
Upon hearing the word "demon," Lief stopped chewing for a second. He swallowed the bite and pointed with indifference to the chair in front of him.
"Sit down," he ordered and then made a vague gesture. "Lillith, pour the client a glass of water."
With a forced smile, Lillith walked toward the water dispenser, filled a glass cup, and set it down with a sharp thud onto the desk.
"Thanks..." murmured Thomas, although he didn't even look at the glass.
He didn't have the stomach to drink.
Running a hand through his hair, he tried to organize the chaos in his mind so it would sound coherent.
"...It all started with a dream," he narrated. "It is always the same. A beautiful woman sleeping in a bed, trapped in thorns and roses. I have tried to wake her up, but I never could..."
"But a few days ago, my life changed. I received a call from a lawyer informing me that an uncle I never met, Clive, had committed suicide and left me as the sole heir to a property called Kaiser Gardens."
"And along with the deeds, there was a letter from my uncle. In it, he explicitly warned me never to go down to the lower level of the house, claiming that our bloodline carried a curse. That first night I stayed to sleep in the mansion... and I dreamed of her again."
"But this time was different. In the dream I kissed her and she woke up."
"And she told me her name was Briar Rose. She told me that, now that I was physically close to her in the real world, she could finally communicate with me. But right after, I suffered a 'false awakening.' I thought I had returned to reality, but I was attacked by something... a being with its face covered by a veil. I had to fight for my life just to wake up for real!"
"..."
Lief listened with an impassive expression. While Lillith, standing at his side with crossed arms, let out an imperceptible snort.
Thomas, oblivious to the girl's skepticism, continued with his story.
"The next day a real estate appraiser named Billings contacted me and told me that the house has a history of missing persons, but the police never found anything," The tremor in his hands returned. "I started investigating on my own and discovered that the house is full of mannequins... figures that seemed to watch me. I also found a sealed door in the basement that I couldn't open."
"The pressure got to me and I fainted while reviewing the files."
"Upon waking up, I found a note from the previous appraiser, a woman named Linda. I managed to locate her and she confessed that her younger brother disappeared inside the mansion, from Kaiser Gardens!"
"We went back to the mansion together," said Thomas, speeding up the story, reliving the panic. "Linda discovered that the sealed door didn't respond to keys, but to my blood. Upon opening it, we found a hidden chamber and an old book... It was a mistake to touch it."
"The instant we opened that book... The mannequins came to life and attacked us with murderous violence!"
His body shook violently.
"We escaped by a miracle carrying the book with us. We were lucky that a friend of Linda, a paranormal investigator named Richard, got us out of there. He has been studying the book and told me that the only way to stop this is for me to return and truly wake up Briar Rose... saying that it is the only way to break the curse that has bound my family for centuries."
He slumped against the back of the chair.
"I don't know what to do... I feel like I'm losing my sanity every minute that passes. I was about to give up when I saw your agency's flyer lying on the street... and I came straight here."
He looked up and fixed his eyes on Lief with desperation.
"I beg you... Save me. And save Rose too."
A dense silence fell over the office.
Calmly finishing the last crust of the pizza, Lief took the can of Coca-Cola and drank a long sip until emptying it, letting out a sigh of satisfaction that broke the dramatic tension of the moment.
"So we have a Sleeping Beauty, a generational curse, homicidal dolls, and a mysterious being with a veil..."
Lowering his boots from the table, he leaned forward and rested his chin on his clasped hands, looking at Thomas with a glint in his eyes.
"I like it. I accept."
(The Curse of Sleeping Beauty)
________
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