| CHAPTER 26 : TWO BROTHERS |
I couldn't see through the jute bag tied over my head, covering my face from everything.
All I know is that when I came out of the bathroom, three punk guys grabbed me, and when I screamed, they knocked me cold. Now when I woke, I found myself sitting in some moving vehicle with a jute bag over my head.
Oh, and my hands and legs were also tied together.
"You know I can die of suffocation!" I yelled not even sure if there was someone here.
No one responded.
"Is there someone even driving this car or is it being driven by magic? Oh god, you people left me in the car alone so it can drive itself off the cliff and kill me, didn't you? Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god-"
"Shut up." Someone snapped. It looked like the voice came from the passenger side, meaning I'm in the back seat. "This is a monster truck, not a car." The person with a deep voice replied.
"Oh, the Lego toys."
Silence.
I gulped, "Anyway, mind telling me why is my head in a bag instead of groceries?"
"We're taking you to Arsenio."
"Uh who?"
"Our king now shut up and sit quietly, human, or else we'll throw you out in the middle of the street." Another voice replied rudely which came from the driver's seat.
I inhaled but kept quiet. I didn't want to get into trouble when I'm already pretty defenceless.
The whole ride to God knows where I kept thinking of what's gonna happen. Why are these punks kidnapping me and why the hell am I meeting a king? Like King Alpha wasn't seriously enough.
I could feel someone's eyes on me, and it made me super uncomfortable. I just remembered my clothes were a bit torn from when King Alpha clawed them while trying to kill me.
The door opened and a hand roughly grabbed my shoulder, hauling me out of the car-or monster truck-when we stopped.
"Hey—"
"Shut up." Whoever he was, snapped.
The same arms then grabbed my waist, lifting me off the ground and swinging me over the shoulder.
I yelped, squirming but then stopped when the guy pinched me on the thigh.
"Stop!" I yelled.
"Stop moving so damn much."
I huffed but remained silent, desperately wanting to see where we were going. My heartbeat rose a little faster and I couldn't help but feel anxious. My face sweated with the bag still tied around and my limbs ached with the ropes tightened around it.
"Can you at least tell me—"
"Shut up."
"-Oookay."
I could feel the broad hard shoulder of the punk guy carrying me digging into my stomach. The air smelled of ashes, earth, and crisp air making me more curious now as to where we are. All I know that it was dark, and we were somewhere out in the open. The place was silent except for the shoes of the punk guys scraping along the path. Cold wind blew, sending shivers through my spine, despite me sweating horribly in the bag.
We walked through for a few more minutes and I could feel some change in the surroundings. The air was colder, and the smell of moist earth increased.
A door opened and we were moving in that direction from where the sound came.
"We got the girl, boss." The guy carrying me said.
"Put her here." Another voice. raspy and deep replied.
Before I could a question, I was flung off the guy's shoulder and into a chair rather too roughly.
"Hey!" I yelled and hissed loudly when the bag was ripped off my head, exposing me to sudden light. I closed my eyes, feeling a headache coming on, "Ah it hurts!"
"Been there."
I opened my eyes, squinting and looked up. A man who looked around his late twenties sat in front of me, behind a huge red desk. His skin was a deep black colour with teeth shining white. He had black hair locked into braids that reached till his shoulder.
My eyes adjusted to the dim light-or rather the moonlight which pooled in through the huge, cracked window. This room looked like one of those in a haunted castle. A small brown closet in the corner, a chest of drawers across it, long red curtains, a spooky big pointy chandelier.
I looked back at the man. He wore an expression of dark amusement and mischief, his teeth shining and razor-sharp.
"Who are you?" I questioned looking back at the man in front of me.
"You're Ezlynn?" He questioned with a thick South African accent.
I blinked, "Uh no...I think you have the wrong person. I'm Dalia."
He quirked up an eyebrow, "You think I'll fall for that?"
"You should have," I responded deflating into what I now knew I was sitting on was a black leather seat.
"I didn't think you'd actually be real." He stated his black eyes raking me. "But you know what they say? The world is full of surprises."
"Who are you?" I asked again.
"I'm Arsenio."
"Actually you know, when I asked who you are, I meant as in what are you. I don't think I care about the names anymore."
"Demon." He replied, smiling, which made me shiver slightly by how cold it looked.
"Right," I nodded, "Why am I here?"
"Your boyfriend killed two of my people tonight."
"Boyfriend?" My mouth hung open.
"Yeah, he killed two of my demons."
"Oh, you mean your teenager harassing punks?"
"King Alpha has always done what he wanted." Arsenio continued ignoring me. "Now I'm gonna show him how to play his game."
"You...don't mean me, do you?" I asked leaning a bit away, "'Cause trust me, he doesn't give a damn about me."
He frowned, looking actually confused. He placed his long slender fingers on the table lacing them, and leaning forward, "Why not?"
"Cause he's a jerk...?" I replied trying not to feel intimated under his intense gaze which weighed me down.
"You're lying aren't you?"
"All right you got me," I said. "He's not a jerk. Instead, he's a really big cruel son of a bitch asshole."
He narrowed his eyes, "You think you're funny?"
"It really depends on your sense of humour 'cause you know? You look like you've never laughed in your entire life."
He glared, "You got a big mouth."
"Yeah, because I laugh."
He gazed at me for a while before his lips pulled up in the slightest smile. If he tried making it friendly, it didn't work at all. He looked scarier.
"Why doesn't King Alpha care for you?" He asked. "You're like his soon-to-be wife now."
"I don't know if you're talking genuinely or plain bullshit."
"By how much I know him." He continued speaking ignoring me, "I know he'd jump at the chance for having a family again, doesn't matter if it's a rag human or not."
"I take offence to that."
He ignored me again. "He lost his parents, two brothers and a sister who loves a witch."
I frowned in confusion, "Two brothers?"
He nodded, "Yeah, Alexandros. He was a good guy. I met him years ago. He was friendly unlike his little brother. And then there was this baby, newborn. It hadn't been like three days before he was slaughtered by a witch."
My heart automatically ached and started to sympathize. A newborn baby was killed.
I came out of my momentary sadness and looked at Arsenio getting startled. He was scrutinizing me in a way that made me feel like some sort of a trash bag.
"You're not playing some kind of a deceiving trick, are you?" He asked.
"What?"
"Gimme your hand."
"Not this again." I groaned.
"What not again?"
"Are you going to slice my palm?" I questioned.
He furrowed his eyebrows, "Unless I wanted to drink your blood."
"Is that...a yes or a no...?"
"No."
"Phew," I slumped then quickly straightened my back, "I'm not giving you my hand."
"Just give me."
"No."
His eyes locked with mine and flashed black. Meaning, dark pools of black swam from his irises to the whites of his eyes covering it and glowed a dark black. I felt trapped all of a sudden, under his gaze and before I knew it, I was working mechanically, lifting my hand and placing it in his outstretched ones.
His eyes went back to normal and that's when I came out of my trance.
I blinked. Twice. Then scowled.
"You-you evil hypnotizing...jerk!" I yelled.
"Quite." He snapped clasping my hand tightly in his warm-almost hot-ones.
Before I could question what he was doing, he closed his eyes and started murmuring something under his breath. It sounded like a foreign language.
"What are you doing? Is that Latin?"
He continued chanting.
A burst of pain jolted through my chest, and I cried out suddenly. I jerked my hand away, but he grasped onto it tightly not letting go. A scream left my lips when hot scorching pain bloomed from my chest.
"What...are you doing?" I yelled crying out again in pain, thrashing in my seat.
He continued chanting, a deep frown etched on his eyebrows as if concentrating on something.
"Let me go!"
Another wave of pain shot through my chest and I felt like I might pass out. Hot tears blurred my eyes, and I couldn't help but scream.
"Let...me go!"
He continued, looking determined. My hand clasped tightly in his.
Another scream came through my lips and this time, Arsenio was thrown back, his chair tipping backward with him banging his head on the ground. It was almost as if...my scream had pushed him away. Like how it happened in King Alpha's room when he tried ripping my throat out.
I shot up from my chair and at the same time, Arsenio shot up from the ground too.
"Impossible!" He yelled, looking highly panicked and alarmed, "such creatures shouldn't exist!"
I didn't waste a second. I felt it before I even knew it. A ball of white light formed on the surface of my palm, and I lifted it, aiming at Arsenio and firing. The sudden control of this thing got me both safe and terrified. Arsenio was knocked back again and thrown against the wall. His slender body fell limp on the floor.
I gazed at him for a while. He lay motionless. I didn't waste a second and ran out of the freaky-looking room into a maze of more freaky-looking halls. I picked random halls, while also making sure no one appeared out of nowhere.
"Get her!" A yell startled me from behind which belonged to Arsenio. His voice came from other halls, loud and booming, "I want her alive or ya'll can kiss your heads goodbye."
I ran as fast as my legs took me. the adrenaline pushing me to run faster. The halls were dark with no light except the moonlight illuminating small parts through the windows. I met a couple of stairs and ran down, hoping to see the exit door of this haunted castle.
But I was met with more hallways instead.
A frustrated grunt came out of my lips and I started running again, getting lost in the halls.
A shriek cut through my lips when someone appeared from the end of the hallway, holding a big blade in his hand. I twirled around and gasped when there were three more punks, blocking my escape.
"Hey, little girlie."
"Nowhere to run?"
They started closing in on me.
My chest heaved as I frantically looked right and left at the punks. My heartbeat got faster and my body warmer. I knew this feeling. I've felt this before. My fingers flickered and I could feel it, even more, storing and building inside of me while also draining the strength I had.
The punks got closer. I didn't hesitate. I opened my arms wide and with a loud growl from my mouth, white light burst from me like glass shattering, knocking the guys back. The portraits and the high ceiling lights shook violently.
I fell onto my knees, drained and gasping.
The punks didn't get back up and a small smile of victory came on my lips. But that was short-lived when someone else hovered at the other end of the hall, watching me with furious blackened eyes.
I lifted my hand, ready to shoot or stab, or punch, whatever, with my light but he beat me to it by quickly lifting his and muttering something under his breath.
A crack resounded in the bones of my arm making me scream out suddenly. My wrist bent in the other direction along with the whole arm which I had lifted.
Arsenio got closer, still chanting. Sweat poured down my face with fresh new pain pounding from my arm.
"You got no idea who you are, don't you?" Arsenio asked moving closer to me.
I lay panting on the ground, trying to stop myself from screaming out more.
"Let's see how long it's gonna take for you to figure it out."
Saying that his open palm clamped into a fist, sending me into sudden darkness.
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Date: 29 July 2021