The Delicate Darkness

chapter 2

The street outside Aella's building was dark, with only gloomy yellow street lights to illuminate the wet pavement below. The two men who had come to take claim of her stood on either side her, their heavy footsteps in perfect sync.

It wasn't until they stopped in front of a sleek black limousine that Aella started to panic. This was really happening. She was getting kidnaped.

George yanked open the door with a huge meaty hand, holding it open for her.

"Get in." He growled, his voice low and demanding. Aella looked at the other man for confirmation, who offered a reassuring nod in response. Her eyes roamed over the empty street- hoping and praying that someone would come to her rescue, but to no avail. After a moment of reluctance, she slipped inside. Both men sat opposite to her, their expressions calm and collected. Aella didn't want to think about how terrified she must have looked.

"Wh-where are you taking me?" She finally spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Do you not listen, you vacuous child? We already told you. We're going to see Lord Hades." George spat. Aella shrunk back in her seat, sorry she'd said anything at all.

Against her better judgement, she dared herself another question.

"No, I mean, where are we going? What do you mean by Lord Hades? Who is that?" An audible gasp escaped George's mouth. He leaned forward in his seat, albeit to reprimand the girl before his partner rested a hand on his shoulder. The two shared a look before the kinder one of the two spoke.

"You'll find out soon enough, child. Soon enough." Aella gave him a look.

"Child? You couldn't possibly be any older than me." She scoffed, crossing her arms at her kidnapper. Both men were clearly quite young, neither of them could have been any older than twenty-five.

"Trust me, I'm much older than you think." He smiled slyly before mimicking her by crossing his arms also.

"Trust you? How could I possibly trust you? You kidnap me, force me to interact with your absolute moron of a companion and I don't even know your name. All the while on my eighteenth birthday." She huffed. He didn't seem bothered by her little outburst. George, on the other hand, didn't seem to appreciate her little comment, his jaw ticking as he held in his annoyance of the teenager before him.

"My name is Clarke." He offered a small, polite smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Aella. I never thought I'd be honoured by the presence of such a legend."

"Legend?" George gave Clarke a warning look behind his shades. Clarke, however, ignored him entirely.

"Yes, God Killer. I can't wait to see you fulfill the prophesy." Clarke relaxed back into his seat, crossing his hands on his lap.

"G-god Killer? Prophesy? What prophesy?" She spluttered, unable to articulate coherent sentences. Neither men spoke, entirely ignoring her. "Clarke?"

Finally, he faced her with a small smile. "You should get some sleep, young one. You have a long journey ahead."

And just like that, the world went dark.

~ ~ ~

Aella awoke with a start, someone shaking her arm aggressively.

"For goodness sake." Aella quickly made the voice out to be George. "Humans and their sleep."

"She's not entirely human, now is she?" Clarke spoke, probably in an attempt to spite his partner.

"Well she sure sleeps like one." With that, Aella's eyes fluttered open. The first thing she saw made her jump up into a sitting position, shocked at what she'd seen.