Eros Castillo is a monster," Cassandra overheard a girl saying behind her. The market was busy, but she strained her ears to listen to the two girls following behind her.

"He is a sexy monster, though," replied the other girl.

Cassandra had heard a lot about Eros Castillio. She had heard about him from her father, she had heard about him from her mother, even from friends, strangers, market women, priests, and kids, and none of the things she heard were good. He was a living terror to the people of the town, and the worst of it all was that he owned half of the city. No one had ever messed with him and gone scot-free. She had not seen him before but shivered whenever she heard his name. This time, she not only shivers, but her heart also flies whenever she hears his name.

Her father has become Eros' victim. Eros had visited them twice, but her father was always quick to hide her, and she had never gotten to know why. Her father had borrowed money from Eros for her mother's medical treatment when her mother was so ill, but now, he couldn't pay back, and Eros had made life a living hell for him. She looks at her father these days; he seems so old and frail that she doesn't know what to do.

She would have saved her old man by getting married to a rich man and paying off that debt, but her heart had fallen for Apollo, the son of her father's best friend, and her father, who was a content man, never had issues with it. Apollo and his family were just as wretched as they were. That was why he had not married her after engaging her for two years. She knew the young man loved her and would do the needful if he got the means, and she was okay with that.

Eros had enough money to forget the amount her father had borrowed easily, but he was too heartless to let anyone breathe. He was a devil in human form, yet people say he was very handsome.

"Right now, he is at Mr. Orion's house," the first girl said. "Rumor has it that he borrowed some money from Eros for his wife's treatment. Poor man, the woman still died, leaving him in huge debt and at the hands of the deadly Eros. He might kill him this time because Ethel said he is wrecking chaos in the whole place, or he might even carry him away and make him suffer with hard labor."

The bag of vegetables Cassandra was holding dropped from her hands.

"He has a beautiful daughter. Why not marry her off and pay back the debt?" the other girl asked.

"Have you forgotten she is engaged to Apollo?"

The girls' voices sounded like echoes in her head as they went in a different direction from her. Orion was her father, and those girls just said Eros would take her father away. She blinked and shot off, pushing other people out of her way as she ran. She didn't mind the gruff expletive that escaped their mouths, the stare of disdain the people gave her as she ran, or the constant reminder in her head that she shouldn't be seen around home when Eros was there. Her father wouldn't want her anywhere near the house at that moment. But they can't kill or take her father away. He is all she has.

She ran all the way home, ignoring the strong warnings in her head to stay away from home. She barged in from the back door and heard her father's voice pleading and whimpering.

"Papa!" she cried when she barged into the room. She was panting profusely from the run and was sweating.

The men torturing her father stopped, and every eye in the room turned to her. She rushed to her father on the floor, covered in bruises and whimpering in pain.

"Cassie, why did you come?" Her father whispered.

"I heard from the market that they would take you away."

"Who is this?" a deep male voice asked.

Cassandra followed the voice and saw a man she had not seen at first, seated on a chair by the corner, his face hidden. Could that be the almighty Eros Castillo?

"Take me instead!" her father wailed.

Cassandra's brows knitted together in a scowl. She can't let them take her father.

"Papa, they can't take you away," she whispered.

"Oh, Cassandra, why did you come?" her father asked in a grief-stricken voice. "He is heartless."

Cassandra looked at the man again. Smoke was whirling around his hidden face.

"Cassandra run!" her father said.

Without a second thought, she stood and bolted from the back door before the men could do anything.

"Get that ***** alive!" she heard the deep male voice yelling.

That must be Eros. Her heart kept hammering, and tears ran down her cheeks as she ran. She didn't know where to run to, but she wanted to run far, far away from the monster she had heard so much about from people. She was almost at the farm gate when she heard gunshots behind her. She turned her back, looking at their farmhouse, almost breaking down, wondering if her father had been shot.

But she decided to keep running. When she turned her face forward again, she saw the figure in front of her, and before her brain could process who it was, she was struck in the face. She saw stars, her head spun, her vision blurred, and she crashed to the ground. She tried to open her eyes, but darkness enveloped her. Before her eyes closed and her mind went blank, she saw the shoe of her attacker. He had a big foot.

"Lo siento, papa," [I'm sorry, papa] she muttered and slipped into unconsciousness. 

 "Suck it, *****. Yeah, take it all in," he said as he pushed his length into her mouth, pounding into her mouth furiously. She gagged as the tip of his length kept hitting the back of her throat, but he didn't give a care in the world. All he wanted was his pleasure and satisfaction.

      The woman was kneeling before him, blindfolded, and her hands cuffed behind her back. He grabbed the back of her head to make her steady. When he was satisfied with pounding her mouth, he released her hair and removed his shaft from her mouth. Excess water dropped from her mouth. He carried her to the couch in the room; her legs were bound, too. He put her down, making her kneel on the couch, her face placed on the sofa's leather. He took the whip from his bed and flogged her ***; she gasped in pleasure. He flogged her again, and she let out another **** of pleasure. He kept flogging her until she said her safe word. He dropped the whip and went up to the couch, kneeling behind her, spread her legs, and drew her down towards him. She kept purring, waiting for him to jam her. He tore the sachet of the condom in his hand and wore it.

      He spanked her ***, and she moaned sensually. He spanked her again, and she let out a sensual ****. He aligned his throbbing cock with her wet *****, and in a swift motion, he drove in. She screamed and tried to scramble away from him, but he held her still, plunging into her, not letting her adjust to his size. She kept gasping in pain as he ravaged her, spanking her occasionally. He pillaged her until her painful gasps slowly became moans as she gradually shifted to his size.

"Oh, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck," she purred.

He spanked her again as her voice echoed in the room. After a while of hard sex, he hit her G-spot.

"Yes, yes, yes. Oh, shit," she slurred as he brought her to her climax and gently removed himself from her, leaving her squirting.

He descended from the couch, peeled the condom from his shaft, walked ***** to the waste bin, and disposed of it. He shifted his peach curtain and looked out into the beautiful view of the city, glittering with tiny shiny lights from houses and rooftops against the darkness. It was drizzling; the cloud grumbled, promising heavier rainfall later at night. His phone started to ring inside, and he turned, remembering that his submissive was still tied up. It gladdened him she was helpless. He walked back, ignoring her as she still purred softly.

He picked up the phone and put it to his ear, stroking his shaft. "What?"

"Don, we have found the scalawag that stole from us," the voice at the other end said.

"Where is he?"

"We took him to the dungeon."

He turned to look at the woman still moaning on his couch, which infuriated him. "Hold on," he said to the man on the phone, went over to her, and removed her blindfold.

She looked up at him, her blue eyes crinkling into a smile. He ignored her and took off her bondage cuffs.

"Dimitra, it's time to leave."

"What? I want more," she whined.

"Hello," he spoke into the phone again, ignoring her.

"Should we waste him, Don?"

"I will do that myself. Give me five minutes." He turned to the woman. "What are you still doing here?"

She eyed his massive cock and flashed him a mischievous smile. He left her front and walked towards his walk-in closet.

"No way," he said, knowing what she wanted.

"Just five minutes, please."

He loved it when people begged him, but it was clearly irritating him tonight. He had been so lenient with the ***** that she forgot her place with him. She should know her place and know he wasn't in for this shit. He wore black jean pants, zipped up, walked up to her, grabbed her neck, and made her stand on her feet.

"I hate saying the same thing twice. Now pick whatever belongs to you and leave immediately unless you want me to throw you out *****." He pushed her away, and she fell on the couch. Her eyes hurt more from her not getting what she wanted than from the way he treated her.

His sleek black BMW drove into the empty warehouse a few hours later. He left the headlights on for a while, listening to nothing in particular. There was no noise in the warehouse except for the constant rain drumming on the roofs. He dialed the number that had called him. It rang once, and the voice answered.

"Don?"

"Bring the fool out."

"Si jefe," [Yes boss] the voice said.

In no time, two men dragged out a wounded man in chains to the view of his headlights and forced him to kneel. The captive was wounded. He had a deep cut on the left part of his forehead where thick blood trekked down his blinded left eye. His clothes were torn, and other than his tattoo, he had purple marks on his body. Marks of torture. He was whimpering in pain.

The man in the BMW watched them for a while, reached for his .44 Magnum in his dashboard, corked the gun, unstrapped his seatbelt, and left the car, heading straight to the men. He wore a simple black hoodie and jeans with white sneakers; he covered his hoodie as he approached the men. The captive's eyes dilated when he saw him, and he wriggled in terror.

"Ple...please don...don't kill me."

He walked up to the man and pointed the gun at his forehead, his brows drawn into a frown as he placed his finger on the trigger. "Any last words?"

"I can...can explain please..."

"I gave you business, and you dare steal from me?"

"No, that's not it, boss. My wife was sick..."

The man was cut short by a resounding gunshot that resonated throughout the dark warehouse. He fell back, his eyes wide open, looking surprised. The bullets carved a deep hole in his forehead. The man in the hoodie turned on his heels.

"Discard his body and get me his daughters, if there are any."

"Yes, boss," the other two men chorused. He walked back to his car.

Eros Castillo. A living terror, the devil's son, or Lucifer reincarnated were some of the names he was called. The most common was Lucifer reincarnated. Eros Castillo had no feelings for any living thing, and he was feared throughout the town and beyond. He was known for two things. He doesn't smile, and he has the devil's smirk. To people, it was better he frowned than smirked. He was a very formidable young Mafia lord who had defeated his rivals without effort. He was more feared than respected and ran half of the town's political sector, so he was invincible. But one remarkable thing about him was his face and his body.

Like the real Lucifer, he was dangerously handsome and drop-dead sexy, with an innocent face that could get a first-timer arguing he could hurt anything. He only listened to one person in the whole wide world: his grandmother, who was partially blind. She is his only surviving family, the only human he considers worthy. He was a sadist and hated the word 'family' so much. Not many people know why, not even the ones he considers his friends. No one dared ask him questions.

He got back into the car, honked, and drove out of the warehouse in reverse while the two men stood looking at him. They set to work when his car was out of the warehouse. Eros drove over the speed limit because the poliza knew his cars, and no one dared pull him over unless they wanted to be paying with their lives. He took out a cigar, lit it, turned on the trap music, and nodded to its rhythm while he smoked and drove. His phone rang, and he slowed down.

"Spill," he said once he clicked the answer button in his car.

"Mr. Orion just got back."

"Prepare yourself and your men. We will pay him a little visit tomorrow," he said, smirking devilishly, stepping on his throttle again.

Mr. Orion thinks he could run with his money. Pathetic people. They don't know that he would fish them out wherever they run to. When they come to ask for money, they cry and talk about all the problems in the world, but when it's time to pay back, they start to misbehave. It was all in his favor, whether or not they paid. If they paid, they paid him back with colossal interest; if not, he dragged them or their wives or children into becoming his slaves. He smirked again as his car shot forward.

 Cassandra stopped fighting when she realized that no matter how hard she wriggled her body, she could not escape her captors. She had gone completely blank when that huge man hit her, and when she had woken up, she had seen herself in the middle of two hideous-looking men with big bald heads and tattoos even on their heads. She was scared, but being stubborn, she wouldn't let them see her fears. Even though she couldn't escape even if she wanted to, they still tied her all up. Four men were in the car with her, two in the front seats and the other two in the backseat with her. She didn't think she had seen the man that hit her into oblivion.

She didn't even know where she was being taken to, but she knew she would escape these people very soon, although she didn't know how that would happen. Then she remembered the gunshots she had heard back at their farmhouse, and tears strolled down her cheeks. They killed her father.

            Heartless Eros Castillo.

Where was he? She wanted to see him face to face. She was that girl that was going to kill him. The car rounded the corner, and they pulled into a road surrounded by pecan groves on both sides. She looked back and saw another vehicle behind them, and another was in front of them. They got to a vast black gate that opened immediately as the cars approached, and only then did she realize that the pecan grove they had been driving through was a driveway to the big mansion. As the vehicles drove into the vast compound, a lone tear trekked down her left cheek, and it dawned on her that she had lost her freedom, maybe forever.

She saw a man with a machine gun hanging across his chest standing by the gate. Why were all the men looking so hefty and cannibalistic? Perhaps, were they man-eaters too? She cautioned herself at the line her thoughts were trailing. The car finally stopped before a great white house with chimneys that seemed to touch the bright clear skies. The hefty men sitting in the backseat with her got out immediately, and when they were about to open the door, the first car door opened, and a tall, husky man stepped out. He wore a white cashmere coat with a black fedora hat that hid his face.

      Cassandra could tell he was the almighty Eros Castillo because only a man of his reputation could walk with so much confidence, as if he invented the aura. His sexiness was tearing through the cashmere coat, and although she had not seen his face, for a reason, her eyes stayed on him as he walked into the magnificent house. Her eyes ran down all over his body, and she saw his shoes; it was him who had hit her. One of the hefty men grabbed her and dragged her out of the car. Pain seethed through her body as she was dragged roughly away from the big house. The man in white cashmere went into the main building with some others. Then the man holding her took out a knife, and the blade shimmered in the sun's light.

     Fear gripped her, and her eyes dilated at the sight of the sharp object. She whimpered in pain and fear as the man brought the knife closer. She fell to the ground in her bid to get away because she had no room to shake her body since her arms and legs were tied.

            "Please...Please...don't kill me," she begged. She had come with a glimmer of hope, knowing that someday, somehow, she would be free from them, but she didn't expect to be killed on her first day. She didn't know if she would even get a chance to try to escape.

       The man ignored her, squatted before her, grabbed her tied-up hands, and raised the sharp knife. She closed her eyes, ready to feel the fatal pain and die, but she heard the sound of a blade cutting into something instead. She opened her eyes and saw that he had cut the rope binding her hands together. She stopped crying but still went through spasms of tears. The man cut the ropes on her legs and dragged her up, but her legs wobbled because blood had not yet circulated to her bonded parts. The man didn't give a damn, he dragged her, and she tried to wiggle out of his grip, but his fist clamped her arm like iron.

He dragged her to the back of the big building where a shapeless structure of a house stood, unlocked the door with one hand and shoved her into the place, closed the door, and locked it again. She quickly crawled to the door and began to bang on it, crying.

       "Open this door! Let me out! Let me out! You monsters!"

        "Weren't we all like that at first?" a female voice asked behind her.

She stopped and slowly turned her head to look behind. A hundred pairs of eyes stared back at her, and she turned fully to see other girls her age and even below her age staring back at her.

         "Just accept your fate and stop disturbing us," a green-eyed blonde scoffed.

          "What?" Cassandra asked confusedly, looking at the faces in front of her.

          "You are a perpetual slave now, accept it and move on," the green-eyed girl said with a scowl and turned to leave.

The other girls scoffed and scowled at her, turned away from her, and walked away. Cassandra didn't quite understand, but she felt they were all carrying out their agitations on her. She was not the reason they were all here, was she? They left one after the other, leaving her confused and helpless. They all left, but only one girl stood there looking at her. A girl with dark soulful eyes and pale skin with viscous curly hair. Her whole body ached, and the least these other girls could do was give her a cold welcome. She had a feeling that it wasn't going to be fun here.

          "Hi," the girl said tentatively, raising her hand.

           "Hi," Cassandra greeted back.

 The girl walked up to her. "I am Lucia Andino."

          "I am Cassandra Lopez."

        "This place is rough, and everyone is angry, but you can consider me a friend. I will help you learn many things here to help you avoid mistakes."

            "Why? Why is everyone hostile?" 

             "I guess when you are denied your freedom for a long while, you sort for who to put your anger and negative energy on. Come, stay in our room for a while until the Chief comes back and assigns you a room," The girl started moving inside the hall.

Cassandra followed her. She had a lot of questions to ask, she needed answers, and she couldn't stay here. She was a girl engaged to marry; she had a life ahead, a life she had planned out for herself. She had planned to get married, have a family, and live happily ever after. Never for once has she thought about being a perpetual slave. She was never going to be a perpetual slave. But even as she assured herself, a part of her felt like she was deceiving herself. Her father was dead; no one would pay the debt off and free her from there. Maybe Apollo would, but did he even know that she was here? Did anyone see what happened?

At that moment, she prayed that this particular lousy news would fly around so her fiancé could find ways to get her out of there. She also wished Ethel, her neighbor who constantly feeds the public with the happenings in her household, could spread her little news once again. The girl led her into a room with two bunks. The room was dark and stuffy, two other girls were lying on the other beds, and they totally ignored them when they came in.

     "Excuse me," Cassandra whispered to the girl who brought her in.

She turned and smiled at her. "Yes?"

     "What exactly are we supposed to be doing here? I mean, why are we held here anyway?"

     "A lot of reasons. Some of us get lucky, while others don't. Some are killed, while some survive. We do a lot of jobs here."

Cassandra didn't understand any of what the girl was saying. "What do you mean by some get lucky?"

     "Most of us are sold off to better people while others are sold to people like Eros. Some of us are picked to work for sex and make money."

     "Jesus Christ, this is serious...I can't work for sex."

     "Why are you here then?" Lucia asked.

     "Nothing..."

     "I mean, why did you get dragged here?"

     "Well, my father owes him some money..."

The other two girls that were lying on the bunk beds and who completely seemed to be uninterested in their conversation suddenly snorted. Cassandra's eyes shifted to them. The brunette with brown eyes looked at her.

     "Your kind are the ones to go into prostitution because you have to make the money your father borrowed."

     "What?" Cassandra asked, aghast.

     "But there is only one way out of it," Lucia said. Cassandra looked at her. "Seduce me, night."

     "What's that?" Cassandra asked, looking from one girl to another, and didn't fail to notice the hint of smiles on the faces of the girls. "What's that about?"

     "It is a night when Eros chooses a girl to spend the night with him," the brown-eyed girl said dreamily. "New girls have a high chance of being picked. Pretty girls like me have higher chances. If you spend the night with him and he likes you, he might keep you here, and you would never have to do any prostitution work. You will work here."

     "I can't wait to be picked! It's tomorrow night!" the other petite girl, who was talking for the first time, cooed.

Cassandra dropped to the bed in frustration. None of those options were good for her.

     "Girls! Fall out!" A female voice rang out through the whole dorm.

The girls quickly stood up from their beds, leaving the confused Cassandra.

     "Chief is here, Chief is here," she heard the girls murmur, and then she heard footsteps rushing past their room.

She stood up and followed the girls who were rushing towards the voice.

Put