Silas finished the last paragraph of the diary and closed it with a soft thump, his thumb still brushing the corner of a page as if he wasn’t ready to let go. The ritual had become muscle memory. Wake up, reach for the diary, read about the myth... Cupid.

It still made something in his stomach flip every time he thought about it. He had tossed that name away years ago as though it were a burden he didn’t want to carry. Well, he didn’t understand the name or its essence at that time. His mother had told him:

"Cupid means beautiful, love, and wholeness."

Whether it was true or not, after finding the diary, he was starting to believe it. Maybe the diary was something god-sent, and it had tracked him... Because thinking about it, Silas was easily the most handsome male in the whole of Valecrest. His beauty even rivaled the so-called campus belles, who even used cosmetic products. He understood that it wasn’t only his hair that garnered the hate from people, but his beauty, which he had almost naturally, without even trying.

The Cupid written in the diary lived a life that was wild, terrifying, and beautiful. Silas couldn’t help imagining, dangerously often, what it would be like to live something even remotely close to that. If only he knew how close he was to it...

He exhaled softly, the thought prickling along his spine. His parents had named him Cupid, Cupid Ashard. He had changed it to Silas Ashard.

They hadn’t named him Michael or Alex, or any of the normal, non-embarrassing names kids got to have. He used to think that they had bad taste or were too old-fashioned, but now, he wasn’t so sure. Not when he vividly recalled what had happened when the rift took them. The rift wasn’t a death rift... That he was sure of. Every time he whispered the name in his head, he felt a presence coil around him.

This was too much to deal with first thing in the morning, and his little guy was also on a standing ovation.

He pushed himself off the bed, stretching until his shoulders popped, and headed toward the bathroom. His body moved stiffly, the memory of his time with Nurse Anna in the infirmary sneaking up on him like a goblin’s grin.

She had really done a great deal for him and pushed him to limits he never knew he had, limits Mr. Fatars could train for a century and never uncover. She had drained him completely. For the first time, he realized just how much he could ejaculate.

Silas gripped the sink and stared at his reflection as the cool bathroom light flickered over his face. His cheeks were still faintly flushed, and his heartbeat misbehaved when he thought about it. The entire situation had been something between a blessing and a curse, and the universe decided to mess with him.

He splashed water on his face, trying to drown the memory before it made things worse than they already were. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Calm down," he muttered, scrubbing harder than necessary. "It’s a new day... Just survive until lunch."

It was a lie, of course. Even as he brushed his teeth and went through the motions of his morning routine, the diary sat quietly on the desk behind him, waiting for him to turn around.

***

Silas froze mid-step, with one sock off, staring at the impossible scene unfolding above his desk. The diary wasn’t lying where he’d left it, but floating. It was hovering with an eerie stillness, as though an invisible hand held it in place. The pages fluttered as if it was being blown from the inside out. A pulse of deep, luminous pink radiated from it in slow waves, staining the air with a hypnotic glow.

"Wait... wait... what-?!" His voice cracked, as his brain scrambled for explanations ranging anywhere from "I’m hallucinating" to "Miss Anna’s titjob is messing with my mind!" and "Oh, great, I’m finally possessed."

Before he could come up with an actual theory, the diary stopped fluttering abruptly and snapped open to a single page. Silas’s mouth opened in shock.

"Wha-!"

A jolt of light surged from the diary, twisting and gathering into a shape. It was thin and straight, humming with barely restrained energy. The tip curved into a perfect heart... Into an arrow made of pure, radiant force.

The arrow shot forward.

His body moved before his mind could even start to process what was happening. He threw himself sideways, tripping over his own backpack, and crashing into his bed with such force that the poor wood screamed in pain while the arrow seared through the air where his chest had been a heartbeat earlier. The wall behind him sizzled with power, a faint heart-shaped scorch mark smoking.

"Did-did that thing just try to shoot me?!" Silas gaped when his mind finally understood what was happening... a little. He didn’t get long to marvel at the betrayal because the diary, still radiating that intense, unsettling pink, had tilted toward him, angling for a second shot.

"Oh, come on!" he yelped, scrambling to his feet as another arrow launched at him with a sharp thrum. Silas dove behind his desk, knocking over a cup of stolen pencils and wincing as the projectile whizzed past his ear. The air cracked with the sound of pure magic, making his skin prickle.

"What did I do?!" he hissed. "I read you every morning! I gave you affection! Is this how you repay me?!" Don’t mind it... Silas is currently crazy.

The diary, on the other hand, didn’t care for his emotional grievances. It rotated slowly like a predator hunting with elegance, the glow around it brightening until the room looked as if it had been dipped in rose neon.

Silas felt his pulse spike as he somehow felt the emotions of the diary, no matter how strange it was. The diary wasn’t attacking randomly. It was rather calling him, albeit in a dangerous way, and it wasn’t going to stop until it hits its target, Silas.

Another arrow formed, this one crackling with more power, causing him to gulp in fear.

"This... is not how I wanted my morning to go."

Well, it wasn’t like he could do anything about it. It had been decided by whatever deity or the universe that his morning would be filled with horror.

***

First Author Note:

The book’s progress will be fast, not slow-paced. I just request your support and motivation to keep on writing it. If you like it, leave a comment or a review, drop powerstones.

Hopefully, I get a contract, so that you can drop golden tickets as well as gifts.

Thank you for reading...