CHAPTER 10 ~ THE IMMORTAL PACT

SALLY’S POV

“An egg?”

I blinked in disbelief, my voice cracking from the build up of rage and confusion tearing through my chest. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

There it was, glowing softly under the room’s dim light, resting innocently inside the chest that had been locked away for God knows how many years.

"You did all this… set me up for murder, forced Kelvin to betray me, manipulated my life like a puppet master... just for a damn egg?"

That finally pulled his gaze from the chest. He lifted his head, his eyes darker than I had ever seen them.

"Point of correction, Princess." He said coldly, his voice deeper, almost unnatural, odd and unfamiliar. "That is not just an egg, it’s deeper than you could ever understand."

I let out a short, bitter laugh. "So, you ruined my life. Played me, controlled me, and stole my father’s key, one he obviously never wanted you to have, and now you want me to just accept that this egg is so important? And let you get away with this?”

He smiled slowly, leaned back against the bedpost like a king admiring a kingdom he had just conquered. "Let me?" He echoed mockingly. "From where I am sitting, Princess... I have already won."

My blood boiled, my fists clenched but it was the quiet defiance in me that rose to the surface, the calm before a storm I was no longer afraid of unleashing.

I stepped forward, heart hammering. "I don’t know why this stupid egg matters to you so much, but you are not getting away with it, not on my watch."

Before he could react, I lunged forward and grabbed the glowing orb from the chest and stumbled back, cradling it.

His calm shattered instantly. "No." Doom roared, leaping to his feet but I didn’t hesitate.

I smashed the egg to the ground between us, time seemed to freeze.

A flash of white light burst from the floor like a sunbeam cracking open the earth. The room vibrated, energy rippling through the air like a shockwave, I watched in horror as he staggered back, dazed... Like he was smacked by something powerful right in the face.

Then his eyes shifted... darker now, almost gleaming in the light, and he turned to me slow, and with predatory precision, before I could process what was happening, he lunged at me.

His hand closed around my throat like a steel vice, lifting me off the ground with terrifying ease.

"Ahhhh." I screamed as he slammed me against the wall. I gasped as my fingers clawed at his wrist, but his grip was unyielding.

"Plea...se, Doo...om... plea..se." I tried to beg for mercy as I found it hard to breath or talk, my vision blurred and I thought I was going to die.

Then, suddenly… he let go.

I collapsed to the floor, coughing and gasping for air but when I looked up at him, he was laughing and slow clapping.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I screamed hoarsely.

"You are so predictable." He said, eyes still glowing faintly. "Just like your father. I knew he would give you the key to keep it from me."

"You predicted I would smash it?" I rasped, backing away. "Wait, are you saying the original content wasn't an egg?" I asked curiously because that will mean he outsmarted me again.

He stepped forward, towering over me. "Oh, it was an egg, all right and I needed you to break it."

That's crazy, what's the point in that? I thought I was breaking the egg to punish him and prove that all his efforts was a waste and now he was saying he wanted this? No, he had to be pranking me.

My brows furrowed. "So you… didn’t need the key? You didn’t need me?"

"I could have gotten the key from you without bringing you here." He said smoothly. "But I needed you here because you had to break it."

"Why me?"

"Because you are a Castillo." He said simply. "The last one left, besides me of course."

I shook my head. "I don’t know what the hell this is, but I am done being a part of it, you played, manipulated me and I won't forgive that." I said as I drew the gun from behind me and fired... once, twice, again.

The bullets struck him and dropped to the floor like raindrops off a goddamn statue.

I froze, horrified.

He didn’t move, didn’t even blink, he didn't even bleed.

"What the hell…?" I whispered.

He chuckled darkly. "I did nothing, Princess. This was all you, you did this the moment you broke that egg… it's all done."

I scrambled for something, anything and saw a dagger on the shelf. I grabbed it and charged, but he just opened his arms wide and said. "Knock yourself out."

I stabbed him but the knife shattered like glass instead.

He didn’t flinch.

"Fuck." I screamed in frustration and swung my fist into his stomach, and that was a mistake because pain exploded in my knuckles like they had just collided with concrete. I cried out, stumbling back and clutching my hand.

"You got shot and you were bleeding just days ago." I said, voice shaking. "What the fuck happened to you?" I asked as I stared at him in terror, what has he become?

He finally walked over to the bed, sat down like nothing had happened.

"This." He gestured to the chest. "Was the only thing I inherited from my mother, she was spiritual. It was her legacy, a gift. One your father wanted to steal from me."

I knew that he and my father didn't have the same mom, their father married a new wife after my father's mom left them, she didn't want to get involved with the Mafia business, so she left and then he married Dooms mother, which is why he was so young but I doubt my father wanted what belongs to him.

"You are lying..."

"I’m not." He said. "It’s called the Egg of Alcaron, it contains the life force of immortality but it can only be activated when broken by a bloodline, a member of the Castillo family. I begged your father to do it for me, I begged."

He looked down, and for the first time ever, I saw a flicker of vulnerability ghosting across his features.

"But he hated that it was given to me, he wanted it at all cost even more when he found out he had cancer. He had stage four cancer, and he wanted to save himself and honestly, I didn't mind but then we discovered that the ritual was prepared in my name and no one else could have it. So I begged him to break the egg like you just did but instead, he found a way to lock the egg in this chest and hid the key, then he shot himself in the head... Just to spite me."

"But... But you told me he was killed." I pointed out.

"Yes, because I didn't want you to know how awful he was... I wanted to protect the memories you had of him."

My breath caught, my chest ached. I wasn't around when my father died, but the story I heard was that a rival Mafia group killed him.

I backed out a bitter laugh and shook my head. "I see, so..."

"So I set up a grand scheme to get you here." Doom said, eyes locked to mine again. "As soon as I got the key… I called Frank and Kelvin here, hoping you would catch on. That you would see them and that you would learn the truth and do exactly what I needed."

He smiled.

"knowing you, I knew you would be furious and you would want to spite me by breaking the egg and you did, so fucking predictable."

A tear slipped down my cheek as the horror of it sank in.

"Now…" He stood up slowly, power radiating off him in waves. "I am fucking immortal."

The room went quiet, like the entire house held its breath and at that moment, I realized... This wasn’t the end of a story.

It was the beginning of something terrifying. Of something... eternal.