Soul for a Girlfriend?

Lilith's POV

Saishi's curious eyes were looking at me intensely as I was preparing myself so that I could show him why I couldn't tell him anything about the contract. It was the best way to make him understand.

I wasn't scared or anything, but it still requires a bit of courage for what I was going to do. The only reason I never even tried to tell him was because of this only. He was staring at me with narrowed eyes.

I sat upand took a deep breath as I touched my neck with my right hand. Looking towards him, I started, "So the real reason I can't tell you is because I've been cas...te… cu…!!!"

Before I could finish, a sharp pain pierced through my neck as my grip tightened. My nails were digging into my skin. The pain was excruciating. My vision became bright for that instance as tinnitus rang in my ear.

I could feel my heart beating faster, and my pulses going up as the pain continued. Even after so many years, I still wasn't used to the pain of this curse.

"Oi, Oi… are you okay?" I heard the faint noise of Saishi, but I wasn't in the condition of reply to him. The pain was driving me crazy, as I felt like screaming, but I couldn't utter anything at that moment. 

"Hey!" He called out to me in a much louder tone again, as I felt his touch on my shoulders. Through my half-open eyes, I could make out his silhouette leaning close towards me.

"I'm… fine." I tried my best to say in my broken voice, while I raised my trembling hand and pointed towards my neck, "Look… at my…"

"Yeah, shut up. I'm looking there." He nodded, as I could barely make out his eyes staring at my neck. His eyes shifted into mine, as I said, "That's the… rea...son."

With every word I was speaking, it felt like someone was slicing my neck with a poisoned blade. I tilted my neck stiffly, so that he could look at it clearly. The marks of the seal were glowing, as I could see the faint glow from below my chin.

It was one of the two curses that was casted upon me by my own father. 

The curse of garrulousness.

His eyes were looking all over the seal as he asked, "What the hell is that?"

Of course, he wouldn't understand anything as it was written in the ancient language of hell. To him, it might appear as a strange pattern of symbols. I was slowly gaining my senses back. I looked at him and he was staring at me with concerned eyes, as he apologised, "Sorry… I know you can't answer."

He turned back, and reached for a bottle of water as he asked, "Drink some water… you… are you okay?"

"I'm…" I tried to reply, which I shouldn't have, as I started coughing and after a few, I started coughing blood out. Quickly covering my mouth with my hand, I looked at him as he narrowed his eyes and said in an apparently calm tone, "What the… you're…"

"I'm fine… don't worry." I said in my muffled voice, as blood was starting to seep from between my fingers.

It was a terrible idea to try this out when I was already sick. I could've probably died from this if it wasn't for the other curse.

He stared at me with his dark eyes for a moment before getting out of bed and heading towards his computer desk. Pulling out a towel from his drawer, he handed it over to me, and said in an indifferent tone, "You're literally coughing up blood."

"Tee...hee…!" I said with a hurting voice, which he didn't take very lightly as he gave me a stern look. I covered my mouth with the towel he gave me. Standing in front of me, he averted his eyes and, in a hesitant voice, apologised, "I'm sorry… for making you do that."

I was about to say something again, but he showed me his palm as a gesture to stop. Looking at my neck, he said, "Don't talk for a while… It seems like your larynx is damaged."

"Actually… if I…" I started, but he scolded me in a loud voice, "Shut the fuck up, will you?"

There was an awkward silence between us as I was sitting on the bed with a towel on my mouth and he was standing next to me with his gazes on my neck. He was trying to figure out what it was.

"So… I'm okay now, don't worry." I said, removing the towel as the pain was fading away slowly. Stretching my neck from left to right, I showed him a thumbs up gesture and smiled, "See, I can speak normally… I told you."

"That looks like some sort of spell if I'm not wrong." He asked, and we stared at each other for a while. With a subtle smile, I extended my left arm towards his stomach and traced a circle with my index finger on it.

He chucked a bit and continued, "So… that spell is what stops you from telling anything about the contract?"

I again drew a circle as he was right, but I could afford to speak even a single word. He said, looking at me with a hint of concern in those indifferent eyes, "I'm assuming this isn't the first time you experienced this."

I chuckled and drew a circle again as he asked with a bit of a shock in his voice, "So every time you say something about the contract or this, it gives you a pain like that?"

"Understandable why you couldn't tell me about anything." He nodded, as he had a pretty good idea how bad the pain from these things could get. Even though this was just a mark of authority, mine was a curse, which meant the pain was hundred times worse if not thousands.

Letting out a heavy breath, he averted his eyes from me and said in a low tone, "I'm sorry."