Find Me In The Dark (ON HOLD)

Chapter 8

The downpour was unlike anything I had ever seen. Massive, fat drops of rain bombarded us as we forged further on through the black night. None of Hades men had tried to stop us. None of them chased us until we surrendered. He was scheming. I could practically feel his revenge brewing around us and perhaps that was why this storm was so treacherous. Nothing was coincidence in the immortal realm. Pain and the elements were directly connected, and the power that the two could wield when combined improperly, could be ghastly.

I shielded my soaked face with one shaky hand as I tried to peer out at Mina, who flew forcefully to my left. Her once bright auburn locks were now saturated heavily, loosing their lustful color and now replaced with dark brown. Her ivy skin was covered in a sheen of moisture and her brilliant wings rode tumultuously along the ragged air currents. We couldn't make it as fast to shelter as the wind was holding us back, but we braced it, trying our best to continue.

However, I could feel Mina's exhaustion as if it radiated off her slender body in purposeful waves. She needed rest, just as I did; only then with clear minds could we plan our next move. The swollen storm clouds brewed, glowing occasionally from the terrifyingly beautiful bouts of lightning bolts that sparked the skies. Mina danced before my eyes, going in and out of the darkness as the godly light illuminated her figure between lapses of pitch black. How I longed to kiss her.

The lightning paused, momentarily disrupting my view of her, and I anxiously squinted to find her. My torso protested with pain as my muscles contracted tenderly; we had been flying for what seemed to be hours, and perhaps it was due to the fact that we were now officially rogue, and running from the ruler of Hell. A brilliant crack of lightning slashed the sky, casting a radiant light over every cloud and creature as thunder clapped like two cymbals, rumbling through the fragile air.

I glanced back to my left, but she was gone. My mouth gaped open in surprise and I twisted about myself, looking in every direction for Mina. Where did she go? It couldn't have been more than a minute, but that was all it took for someone to go missing. Or to flee. I gazed straight down in my bout of panic, and there I saw a figure cloaked in soaked, soiled rags, plummeting out of the stormy sky back to earth.

"Mina!" I screamed, immediately snapping my wings against my taught back, and made a nosedive towards her falling silhouette.

Her eyes were closed and her hair whipped about her face, lashing out like dark, red tongues. Her arms fell limply and she plummeted towards utter nothingness. Her body had given out, and I extended my arms with a rush of desperation; my fingers just mere feet away from her limp body. I glanced to my right and my eyes widened in terror as the image of rocky ground came into view. We would die if I didn't get to her. My wings flashed out to their full length and I flapped ferociously against the howling winds, gaining speed until suddenly I latched onto her, clasping my tired hands around her meager waist.

I forced her body flush against my chest, protecting her small head in the hollow of my neck as I wrapped my arms securely against her back. The dampened soil littered with jagged rocks and enormous stone was coming closer and closer, and it would be just mere seconds until we collided in a bloody mess. Without thinking twice, I made a harsh swoop to my right and curved upward, arching as we were thrust in the opposite direction. I manipulated the current until I hovered vertically. I panted, my chest rising and falling dangerously as I gasped for air and clutched onto Mina instinctively; carrying her body gently as I slowly descended onto land.

The rain seemed to be getting worse and I could hardly even see what lay before me. It looked to be another set of mountains running along the horizon of the milky grey skyline, and large droplets of rain pelted my neck and face. There we would find shelter, of some sort at least, until this all blew over. Hopefully. I gazed down, the breath catching in my throat as Mina curled herself against me, her face burrowing as close as possible to my shoulder, her lips grazing my burning skin, and her hands plastered to the soaked outline of my abdomen through my shirt. So beautiful.