Chapter One- Devil Of Bervon

Immediate silence took over as I emerged from the corridor and took slow strides down the hallways of Vandeer State High school, the pair of strong-built, brawny men dressed in all black trailing behind me.

Bodyguards.

I could barely keep my head held high with those sour faces and bitter, hateful eyes cutting into me -if looks could kill.

I knew exactly what their thoughts were as they stepped aside and made way for me as though i were plagued with a contagious disease. I hated it -being feared and hated, being approached like a ferocious animal -all because of my father.

I was the Devil's daughter and everyone knew it.

Thanos Monaléz. The Immortal One.

Most who've ever dared to speak to me, have asked me a single question -"how does it feel to be the daughter of one of the most dangerous men in the world? To be Thanos Monaléz's daughter -a ruthless dictator?"

And out of shame, I've never answered -I am anything but proud of my father's actions or the reputation he's so meticulously constructed.

My father is a Warlord, and has been governing Bervon for the past two years, under the most constricting, oppressive and crippling of Iron fists -in strict resemblance of Stalin's reign in the European block states during the era of the Cold War; heavy censorship of media, voting has reverted to nothing but a delusion, and opposition or anyone who dares to attempt the slightest at toppling his government -which is not recognized by the appropriate global peace organisations due to the manner it was attained, -earns a one-way trip to prison or is "dealt with accordingly" through brutal means i choose to discard to the very back of my mind - just to sleep better at night and ease my conscious.

The facts are too justifying of their inexpugnable hatred towards me -people talk and i reek of bad talk. They live in fear, under debilitating conditions because of me, their parents, relatives are jobless, imprisoned, missing and probably rotting away in some ditch, dead- while my family and i have the luxury of life, of freedom, of state riches.

I understand why no one would wish even in their worst nightmare to be friends with me.

I understand, but i can't accept that I'll be forced to endure those repulsed stares and be a loner my whole life.

Walking into the classroom and settling on the comfortable, spongy, cushioned chair reserved just for me, a couple of rolling eyes were thrown at me. Those "look at her, who the hell does she think she is?" Stares.

"Jéi unvréi secistaś."(good morning class) Mrs Jenmuk addressed the class in her signature military commander poise.

"Unvréi Mrs Jenmuk." The addresses dragged out a dull response.

I was not looking forward to the hour and a half long lesson at all -the woman got pleasure out of indirectly humiliating me, putting me on the spot and ridiculing me as much as her status permitted. If it wasn't for the ever impending threat of my father catching hold of her maltreatment of me and "sorting her out", I'm certain she would have done worse. For all the reasons i fail to understand, her vendetta with me is personal. Not like

I don't like the woman or anything..who am i kidding, i despise the old hag.. and quite frankly, other than that unnatural mole protruding from her chin, nothing disturbs my soul more than her terrible fashion sense -it still evades me even to this day how anyone would leave their house looking like that.

"Today secistaś," Mrs Jenmuk began, her thin fingers reaching for the power button of the projector, "we're going to learn about the political history of Bervon.... about," her glaring eyes landed on me, the little witch on her chin seemingly gaining more ugliness, "the first democratically elected president of Bervon and his marvelously impactful rule."

"Miss Monaléz," oh boy, here we go again, "could you tell the class who the first democratically elected president of our country is?"

"Viesí madame," i gave a small smile, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of seeing me uncomfortable, "Ramanis Verculo."

"Correct! Ramanis Verculo, a man of great integrity. I wish the same could be said about your father," she mumbled just loud enough for my ears to grasp on, "anyways moving on, i want you to pair up and discuss the 1940 Revolution and the events that led to the Sonzéveco Communists War."

Oh could this morning get any worse!

Of course no one is going to want to pair up with me and the old hag is going to get a kick out of asking for a "kind volunteer" to be my partner. Sometimes i don't even know why i bother, I'm not welcomed here -i should've just asked my father to be home-schooled like my mother had advised -but I'd choose being treated like an outcast any day, over having to spend the entire day in that house with my father. He just makes me...uneasy....

One by one grumpy students dispersed and picked the partners of their choice, some sat with their friends so they can gossip while pretending to be interested in facts older than their grandparents and some sat with their love interests or crushes.

I remained without a partner. Story of my life.

Mrs Jenmuk took slow strides around the class, her baleful eyes darting around in search of an unfortunate, poor soul to be my partner. One boy sat alone at a corner, too engrossed with reading a bulky textbook to realise that the Black Forest witch had her eyes fixated on him.

Jonayis Unruièlo was to fall victim to the exaggerated horror stares every person who was unwillingly associated with me within this campus got.

"Where is your partner, Mr Unruièlo?" The Black Forest witch spoke curtly, pressing her thin lips together and searing the boy with her eyes.

"I-I don't have one, Mrs Jenmuk." Every single pair of eyes was pinned on the stuttering boy.

"Well miss Monalèz doesn't have a partner." I looked away as the witch diverted her gaze to my direction, I faced my desk, staring at it like it's the most interesting piece of furniture in the world . "Why don't you pair up with our little princess, Mr Unruièlo?"

It wasn't a question nor was it a request. I knew it, Jonayis knew it, so did the rest of the class.

I gave my so very unlucky partner a side glance so he won't assume I am going to devour his flesh as soon as his ass greets the wooden chair. Rumour has it I am a demon and my lovely ( note the sarcasm) daddy is the Devil who got bored of grilling souls in Hell so he thought to torture the Bervonians.

On my part, that's just baseless slander.

Jonayis nonchalantly dragged his slender legs to my desk, he didn't look terrified of me, until that is, the class clown decided to let his tongue become too heavy to tame.

Thyme Sorasis.

He hates my guts more than sloths loathe staying awake. Has despised me ever since I humiliated him in elementary school.

I was not a very courteous, kind child. I know better now.

"RIP Jonayis, I hope you have life cover man." The newd croaked in the ugliest voice ever, as loud as possible so all attention could be on him.

Hideous, unscrupulous laughter paraded, until the Queen of VSH held up a sturdy, wrinkled hand and the amused audience immediately went silent.

"The first pair will be presenting in twenty minutes," Mrs Jenmuk announced and the once amused students lamented profusely, "quiet! Get to work secistaś."

On that sour, warning note, Jonayis settled next to me, keeping his honey coloured eyes on anything but me. I detained my words as well and flipped through the textbook when not scrolling through my learner's tablet, until the silence and awkwardness became too unbearable.

Jonayis lifted his head just slightly to get the tiniest peek at me and I decided to smile sweetly, because that's not what a monster would do.

"I'm not going to eat you, you know." I whispered, relieved I managed to get him to crack the tiniest of smiles.

"Sorry," he was so nervous, he would rub his palm on his jean donned thigh every three seconds, "my name is Jonayis by the way... I really shouldn't be talking to you, should I?" I appreciated how beautiful his eyes were as they flickered from my face to my hands in succession.

"Don't believe the rumours, my name is-"

"I already know who you are, everyone knows who you are," he interrupted, "Vanessa Altagracia Monalèz."

My name sounded so venomous rolling of his tongue, I knew to keep the chit-chat on a minimum and erase any hopes of him potentially being interested in being the Devil's daughter's friend.

***

I sat at the farthest table in the clamorous dinning hall, which is as luxurious as a school dinning hall can be, but comes short in dishing out five star meals regardless.

It was lunch and I had an hour to exhaust, so I splurged the minutes on my favourite novel and managed to find myself immersed in the book despite the loquacious students airing their gossip so loudly.

Seduction Of Sin. My guilty pleasure.

I envied the female protagonist more than most.

I clamped my thighs together as I climbed the crest of unbridled pleasure with Tarlia, the woman I secretly aspire to be, the woman being pleasured by the man of my scorching fantasies.

One day, a man will touch me like this.

One day an older man will have me writhing in pleasure, moaning breathlessly. Like Tarlia.

As my envy soared, a figure quickly swooped past me and before I knew it, there he was at the opposite end, eyeing me with intrigue.

This was by far the oddest thing to ever happen to me within these walls.

A boy actually brought himself to me- out of his own free will!

Did I forget my own birthday?

I closed the book, discarding it to my thighs before he could skim over the nearly nude man and woman in an erotic entanglement on the cover.

"Hey Jonayis.." I smiled sheepishly, trying to excavate my social skills from the grave. "Do you need something?" I mentally knocked myself on the head for that.

I shouldn't terrify the only boy who's ever been interested in conversing with me by sounding like a stoic receptionist.

Jonayis is actually very appealing to the eyes and he's built nicely for a boy his age. His eyes seem inclined to studying my face, especially my anti-climatic lips.

I wonder if he'd be bold enough to court me.

"You're not the person they say you are." He mumbled, almost afraid to formulate the sentence. "I hope you don't mind me sitting here...." He scratched a non-existent itch on the nape of his neck and I found myself overly flustered.

"N-no.. of course I don't mind," I grinned widely, avoiding the harrowing bitter glares thrown at me.

"Why is he talking to the outsider? To the school trash?" One of them must be asking themselves.

I don't know if it was my physical constitution that used to magnetize bullies, but I used to be a staple feed for bullies growing up, until dearest daddy started living up to his name.

Now anyone who dares to so as utter the faintest insult or lay a finger on me, knows they'll be condemned to Hell, along with their family and their cats and dogs.

"So uhmmm... we have to finish up the assignment... so I was wondering if you had plans tomorrow?" The cute boy stammered, his creamy voice wavering. "There's this cool cafe we could go to to wrap up the rest of the work so the Black Forest witch won't have to chop off our heads."

"Yes!" I squeaked, immediately pruning my excitement out of embarrassment. "I mean, I don't have plans, the cafe idea actually sounds-" before I could even finish what I was saying, a burly hand landed on my shoulder, commanding my attention.

My curious eyes met Varto, my senior bodyguard.

"Your father would not approve of your actions, miss Vanessa." His stern eyes were more than enough of a warning, even Jonayis looked ready to speed out of the hall.

"You're not going to tell him, are you Varto?" I batted my eyes, throwing in an entreating smile to butter him up.

Varto gave me one last stare before stepping back.

"Yeah I should go before-"

"No," I swiftly grasped his wrist as he stood up to leave, "please don't go, please..."

I knew that I was going to get into trouble for this, but in that moment I did not care.