Immortal Tales #Wattys2020

Chapter Twenty One

Emily

Emily's mouth tasted like blood. Her limbs felt like stone. Her heart was fighting for each beat.

As she opened her eyes tentatively, the sunlight blinded her. She groaned and tried to move away from the light, but her arms were locked in place.

She fought her restraints and opened her eyes again.

Both her wrists and ankles were tied with a metallic rope to the headboard of a bed, so tight she could see where it was cutting her. Even knowing it would have not worked, she tried to call upon flames with magic, and was left with an empty feeling inside.

Emily looked around for anything that could help her escape and she willed herself to focus. She might have been without magic, but she was not powerless.

She was in an hotel room, but it seemed like the renter had been there way longer than a simple visitor.

Countless computer screens, printers, pictures were hanging all over the two desks and walls of a little room. The computers were all turned on, showing a black screen and a list of growing green numbers, as if they were running some sort of calculation. The pictures on the walls had no logic connection between them: some were portraits of people, others were newspapers articles, others were drawings.

Emily's attention was captured by the watercolour paining of a forest, made look so alive she could almost smell the pines scent. She was so focused she almost didn't hear the lock on the door opening.

The guy seemed to have just come back from grocery shopping, his hands full of bags of food. It seemed like such a mundane action for a kidnapper she was lacking any words to say.

-Oh shit! You're awake - he said dropping one of the bags.

Without club lights and crowded place, Emily could observe her kidnapper better.

He was young, maybe eighteen or nineteen. Definitely too young to have had access to the Denver nightclub where they met. But then again, so was she. His skin was darker than she remembered, making his green eyes look even more startling in the light. His curly black hair gave him a foreign look, but she wasn't sure she could have placed him in any particular country.

He was not handsome in the obvious way Isaac was, but his mixed features made him... interesting. Like a fragment of a painting she could not identify.

He was wearing some sort of dark uniform, the ones you see janitors wearing in schools.

-You have completely ruined the entrance I had planned - he continued whilst putting the food on the small corner of the table that had been left free of computers. - Just imagine: everyone is in the dark. Then, a single light shines of my handsome face and I start talking about my evil plan ... well, not evil evil plan, but you know ... evil genius plan. -

Emily raised an eyebrow. Had she been captured just to be bored to death? She couldn't help to find her jailer a little bit amusing, but she had still been drugged and tied to his bed.

The guy dropped one of the picture on the ground as he was cutting some bread to make a sandwich. With the corner of her eye, she recognised the photo that Isaac had taken of her for her Emily Dickens ID.

The guy snatched it right up, but realised it had been too late.

-You are the con artist - she said, her voice still a little drowsy from the drugs. -You made my ID -

The guy stabbed his salami with a little more intensity than necessary.

-Yeah ok fine - he said, his green eyes now fixed on her. -I made yours and your friends IDs, Emily - he continued. -Not sure I like your new name, it doesn't really fit with your face. I told your friend Isaac as much, but he replied he wasn't looking for my opinion. Very rude by the way. -

Emily noticed how he avoided getting any closer to the bed. He might have been faking calm, but she could read the fear sparking in his heart. And she was the source of it.

-You criticise my name but I do not know yours - she said. - Don't get me wrong, this is all great fun, but I usually wait until the second date to be tied to someone's bed -

The guy did not lose his grin, but he blushed at her boldness.

-You can call me Mat - he answered. -And I don't usually drug people in clubs, but I needed to be sure you wouldn't turn me into a burned hot dog, Luz -

Emily widened her eyes at his statement. He knew about her magic, which shouldn't have come as a surprise as he purposely used iron chains to collect her in the first place and yet ...

No mortal had ever known the immortals secret, and this guy was no immortal. She could feel his emotions from miles away. His features revealed no magic.

-I have never killed anyone, and I was not going to break my streak for a computer nerd - she said. She would not reveal anything else about herself or her friends, but she would not waste time denying the obvious.

The guy grabbed his heart, faking a shot wound. -Ah you got me right where it hurts, my computer skills. - he sighed dramatically. -Which ironically are what led me right to your little group. I have been looking for you for forever, Luz. -

The girl doubted a mortal could have a good grasp of what forever really meant, but she let that run.

-Stop calling me that, that is not my name - she objected. The guy was starting to get on her nerves.

-And what is your name? - he asked smoothly.

The girl's lips remained shut.

-Let me cut to the chase and tell you why you are here - he said.

The mortal offered her one of the sandwiches he had made, but she made no movement to reach it. He dropped it on the bed and jumped along with it. He was now close enough for her to reach him. But assuming she could beat him in hand to hand combat, she would have to strangle him with the metal rope and would be stuck there with a corpse.

She doubted that would be easy to explain to the police.

-Once upon a time, a gorgeous human being - he pointed at himself. - was made aware of a very rare and very dreadful condition he possessed. He almost went crazy over it. One day, he was walking in a forest with some friends and someone spoke to his mind, promising to end his condition in exchange for a favour. -

The girl shivered. She didn't know that the mist people could so easily affect mortal's lives. She had always believed there was a limit to their power, the limit being they couldn't enter the mortal world. They had told her so themselves, that was why the path-changers existed to begin with.

-The handsome man thought he was going crazy again, hearing voices in his head. - he continued. - But they came back to him, everytime he walked though a forest, making the same promises over and over again. So he decided to give it a try. -

The girl was finding it hard to swallow, but she forced the words out of her mouth. -What was the deal? -

He looked away, pointing his green eyes towards the window. The sun was high in the sky, but the room felt as cold as the snow.

-I would have to find the girl who shined bright like the sun - he said. -And kill her. -