🌹 t w e n t y o n e
♛
Silence. Everything was in chaos, her eyes sought out for anything only to see that everyone was opening their lips screaming for help, screaming in horror, but all she could hear was silence.
Can silence be heard? She could feel it deep in her bones, the silence provided her comfort from the growing chaos inside the hall. It echoed in her ears, creating tiny tremors of fear that seemed to make her entire body tremble. But this fear wasn't the fear of being killed. No, she was not afraid of what was happening. She feared for what could happen. She feared she had to kill again. But was that really fear? The emotion felt too much like excitement.
Can silence be heard? Then why can't her mother hear her?
Mother.
Mother?
She's here.
Why is she here?
"Mom." She felt herself whisper. But a whisper meant speaking quietly and Aiyana wasn't speaking at all. She stared directly in front of her. There, a lady stood, she was looking at Aiyana, her huge black hat almost concealed her face, her long dark gown kissed the floor. And her face. Soft brown curls danced to frame her face, that same azure eyes she has, her pointy nose and her proud cheekbones. Her feet slowly moved towards the woman. Aiyana wasn't stupid and most of all not blind, this woman was her mother, there was no denying it.
"Mom!" She screamed. And it was then that everything seemed to break the silence. A lady near her screamed in pain as she was cradling her injured hand, a man she almost stepped on cried out in agony as he pressed more pressure into his leg. Blood oozed out and even that seemed to taunt her with its sound. Another man, sputtered out blood while he was lying on the floor staring at his shot chest. And behind her she could hear a familiar voice pleading for her to stop. The voice felt broken and wounded and sorrowful and hurt but she paid no heed to anyone. All those deafening sounds and all she could hear were her mother's soundless voice, "Selene."
That same stern look her mother had before was now staring back at her but there was almost a hint of disappointment and sadness to it. No. She didn't want her disappointed. She didn't want her sad. "Mom."
Before she could take another step, a man walked to stand beside her mother. The man was wearing a mask. The very same phantom mask the actor wore on the musical before. She had stopped walking and could only stare at the both of them. She could feel another presence beside her and she didn't know how, she might not be looking at the person beside her but she could feel the comfort he brought just by standing close to her there.
"Love." He seemed to say but she was too engrossed on solving the puzzle in front of her. Why was her mother there? People passed by, running and screaming, it took a blink of an eye for her to realise that her mother along with the mysterious man was no longer standing there.
"Aiyana!" She felt herself being shaken out of her thoughts. Aidoneus' worried face came into view and she just realised how worried he must have been after he called her so many times without her even responding.
Without any warning, Aidoneus carried her, his men tailing them. They stopped at the empty theatre. He instructed his men to wait outside before closing the door. Aidoneus had treated the entire shoot out as a norm. And now he was looking at her, his face unreadable, devoid of any emotion. Maybe she wasn't blind but she was sure she was stupid at this point. He must have been worried, wondering what happened to her and she was unconcerned about anything but herself.
"I'm sorry Aidoneus."
"Why are you apologizing?"
"Because..." She paused, not knowing where to start.
"Why love?"
"I--- Because I--"
"Because you thought it would be fine to walk away from me after I thought you were shot? You thought I didn't went out of my mind wondering what happened to you back there? I thought you were shot! For a moment, I thought I lost you!" Aiyana's eyes were wide as she was frozen standing there while staring at Aidoneus in surprise. He closed his eyes, pulling her close to lean his head on her shoulder. She had never seen him like that before, he never shouted at her. He was always so gentle when it comes to her but at that moment, she saw a new side of Aidoneus.
"I just got you. I don't want to lose you that quick. I don't want to lose you at all." He was breathing sharply, his hands wandering her body as if he was trying to assure himself that she was fine.
"Aidoneus..." He faced her, cupping her face in his hands.
"Don't ever do that to me again love. Don't walk away from me again. Promise me?" That sad desperation in his voice was more than enough to make her say her next words.
"I promise." No hesitation was heard in her declaration. She mean it.
He gave out a sigh of relief.
Oh Aidoneus, the faith you have in me. She knew they were still in danger but she couldn't help but swoon at the man in front of her. They stared at each other and for a moment they forgot about where they were. Gunshots rang in the distance, somewhere near them people screamed and ran composing a music suited for a bloodbath, the melody of the night was of chaos and blood and stentorian hostilities but Aidoneus' loud heartbeat and hers were the loudest, creating the perfect harmony.
"We have to get out of here." Aidoneus was now back to his usual self; dangerous, grim, lethal.
"No." This made him raise his brow at her in question. "Don't you want to know who did all this?" She questioned, curious as to who was the masterplan in all these. "I mean, it's still a mess outside so whoever did this might still be in the building." She bit her lip.
Aidoneus let out a slow smile and with the malice that dripped out from his voice that she couldn't help but sigh dreamily he spoke, "Let me rephrase that my love. Let's find the bastard, make him talk, torture him if he can't, kill him after he can, then let's get out of here and go home. How does that sound?"
Sounds like a bad ass dream.
"I like the sound of that." She smiled, not knowing it was an evil one.
"Shall we dance my love?" Aidoneus held out his hand for her.
"I've been waiting all night for you to ask." She put her hand in his, he kissed the back of her palm and then looped it in the crook of his elbow.
The doors to the theatre opened and the both of them went out, both fearless and lethal. The other looked vicious while the other one looked like she couldn't even hurt a fly. But Aiyana's innocence was the most terrifying part. She still didn't know how his world works and so she would use everything she thought was right in the most wrong ways to help him catch the bastard behind all of it.
Run along phantom, before you really become one.
Chaos surrounded them as they rounded a corner. Aidoneus' men where nowhere in sight but she knew that they were there; blending in the shadows like they were friends of the darkness themselves. There were only a few people left, others had been escorted out. Those left behind were either dead or crying over the dead. The scene was heart breaking and it only urged more to catch whoever it was that was behind it all.
Aiyana's eyes darted everywhere, searching for something. Something suspicious... a hint... a clue. Anything. Then her eyes landed on the glass elevators. "Aidoneus." She called and without saying anything, Aidoneus followed her line of sight. There, inside the elevator, the man with the same phantom mask she saw earlier waved at them with a gun. He seemed to sneer down at them, taunt them. Aiyana realised he wanted a chase. Then a chase he shall have. But first... a distraction.
"I think I'm going to have my first dance with him Aidoneus. What do you think?" She said, eyes locked with the phantom. She felt Aidoneus' eyes on her and she looked to stare at him, their eyes speaking, minds understanding.
"You already had your first dance with me, just in case you forgot my love."
"Oh." She teased, "I did? I completely forgot."
"Do you want me to remind you?" He already had his hand held out for her.
"Yes please." She said as she accepted his hand in hers. Swiftly, he had her in his arms as he prepared the both of them for a dance. He snapped his fingers and it was followed by music. Classical music played with the orchestra band playing behind them.
There were dead people lying on the floor, there were people weeping, physically and emotionally all of them were hurting but Aidoneus and Aiyana danced, not caring about a single thing in the world. Was it crazy? Totally. Have they lost their minds? Not minds, their hearts were lost on each other.
They knew the phantom was watching them, curious and eager for their next move.
"You look beautiful my love." He praised and she could only smile. "I almost thought I lost you tonight." He still looked worried and Aiyana found herself swimming in guilt, she should have made him known she was fine.
She bit her lip and looked him in his eyes, "I'm sorry. You moved too fast you spilled wine on me." This man thought it was her blood, she didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry.
He gave her an unreadable look before twirling her around, pulling her close against him. She gave out a gasp, she almost hit her head against his chest. She looked up to see him smirking, she frowned. Aidoneus leaned into her ear, "You know your behavior wouldn't go unpunished love." She frowned even further, "Unpunished? What punishment?"
"You'll know when we get home." Home. She smiled at that and for a moment she completely forgot about her mother. Aidoneus twirled her again and made a dip, holding and supporting her so she wouldn't fall. His hands went higher from her knee to her inner thigh and she couldn't help but let out a soft gasp. She could feel him smile against her ear. He gave her neck a kiss that had her wanting to collapse in a pile of heat. He made it hard for her to breathe when he leaned in even closer and directly whispered into her ear that she could feel his mouth into the soft skin, "I think this one's easy to distract." That's what he said before she heard the sound of glass being broken into a thousand pieces. She didn't even realised Aidoneus had taken her gun from the holster in her thigh and used the weapon to shot the phantom. Aiyana knew if the glass wasn't on the way, the phantom would take the shot. She looked behind her now alert, and saw the elevator glass had been shattered. The phantom was no longer there too.
"He ran." Aidoneus spoke and before she could ask further, rounds of gunshots echoed throughout the building. Aidoneus gave her her gun as he took out his from the inside of his suit jacket.
"Let's break up."
She didn't know, but she wanted to laugh when she saw Aidoneus' face as he looked beside him to look at her. They were still both wearing masks but both knew each others' expressions better than they know themselves. And then she realised how wrong she sounded.
"No, I mean. Let's split up." She closed her eyes, those words were almost the same as before. "I mean let us both go on our own ways to find him, that way we could save time but we can't save time if we're going to stand here all day." She explained very slowly. Aidoneus was now smirking.
"You know I wouldn't let you go, especially at times like this. But I want you to know, you're in this with me too. I'll take the left wing. Ladies' first?" He held out his hand as if he was giving way to her.
She smiled sweetly and walked past him but before she could take another step away from him, he pulled her by her hand and planted his lips on hers. She stayed frozen for some time, surprised but when he coaxed her to open her mouth, she did so willingly. Oh, they are really not going to catch the phantom at this point. She pushed him back even if she didn't want to, "Later."
Aidoneus let out a devious smirk. "I can't wait to go home."