‘I’m not trying to get your attention, I don’t even know you.’ I walk past him, but he stops me, running his fingers along the gold chain around my neck, his closeness suddenly makes me feel light-headed and I want to fall forward and run inside and bolt the door to our apartment, but instead I stay put, silent and unmoving.
‘You know my name and I know yours. That’s a start.’
‘You came back for your necklace, didn’t you?’
‘Apparently you deserve it more than Me.’ his fingers pause by my collarbone, yet he does not touch, his skin makes no contact with mine, but I can feel the warmth from him radiate against me, filling my icy veins with a newfound warmth.
‘Evan.’ I mouth his name, turning my head, my body follows, to face him. His eyes drink me, the shadows of night dance upon his face, darkening his inky hair, brightening his eyes.
‘I know you wish that you can change things, Elli. If there were hands that could rewind time, I too would go back to that day and right my own wrongs.’
‘You…’ he draws me in, it is like an invisible thread pulling me closer and closer, my hands reach for his chest, wanting to feel his heartbeats echo in my mind, to try and dull the thunder of my own, but he takes a step back, hands limp by his sides.
‘You’re not the only one who feels like you are missing a part of you.’
My eyes fall to the concrete, every line, every crack and trodden in chewing gum mound becomes more and more interesting. I cannot look up again at his brightest blue eyes, feel his stare read my eyes, my soul. It’s an invasion, an invasion I am rather troubled by. How can he knows all of this? Am I really that readable?
‘Elli! Where the hell have you been?’
‘And who the hell is that? He looks smoking hot enough to come from there.’
I turn around, through the wind whipping my brunette waves in torrents in front of me, I see Jade and Olivia standing at the communal doorway, Liv with her hand on her hip and pouty red lips pursed, eyes darting from me to Evan.
‘This is Evan, he is…’ I turn back, gesturing with a hand, but I gesture to nothing but the empty space he was standing in moments ago. I look up and down the street, no sign of him. I stand there silently looking up to the dark clouds that roll into the night sky, the rumble of thunder threatens a more promising storm, just as the first start of rain falls upon my face, washing away the dried tears, Jade takes my arm and pulls me inside. Walking up the stairs, in as hushed voices as possible, careful to not wake up the other residents, they bombard me with questions. Questions even I wish I knew the answers to.
‘That’s the guy from Avalon, the one with the harem of girls?’ Liv snorts, curling up on one side of the couch, fingers curled around her mug of hot chocolate, she leans over, shadowing Jade who leans back into the pliable worn pillows with a tired glaze in her eye.
‘You could have used a payphone, anything to let us know you were alright.’ Jade’s concern overshadows Liv’s want for more information on Evan, or his friends.
‘I didn’t really think. I just wanted to come home.’
‘So you were with him?’ Liv circles her finger over the rim of her mug and gestures with a risen eyebrow, a suggestive wink flutters her thick eyelashes as she chuckles, ‘Spill all your secrets, Elli. We’re all ears.’
‘Nothing happened. I saw him in the Mall with others – I think they are some sort of visiting royalty or… something like that.’
‘In the Mall, at night. Nothing suspicious there.’ Jade chuckles, breaking the sudden foreboding feeling that claws inside of me, as I raise my gaze out into the stormy night outside. Wondering just where he went and why he was so intent on following me back, when he had no desire to take the necklace back. Unconsciously I find myself fingering the gold chain, in my palm it feels warm, not hot like it had earlier, the jewel still feels like it has a pulse, but not as electric as it was back in the Mall.
‘Were his friends with him?’ Liv asks, placing her hot chocolate on the centre table.
‘I didn’t see them. Just a few bewildered and tired servants, many well-dressed men and a few… hardly dressed women.’ I sink back into the soft one seater and pull my knees up onto the seat with me. Feeling the inner warmth of the flat warm up even the ice in my veins.
‘Well-dressed? So this Evan, he is really like a Prince?’
‘Then you could be his Princess. How romantic.’
‘What?’ I laugh, but my laugh crackles and break, lost with the chatter of Liv and Jade.
‘He can whisk you off to his castle, his palace, wherever. Have you on his arm and show you the sights, walk under moonlight…’
‘He’s already your knight in shining armour. Not many girls can say that.’
‘I saved myself, he was just… there.’ A very helpful distraction, but I was the one who kicked the leech, I was the one who put him on the floor…
‘You know what happens to Princes, right?’
‘What?’ I ask, a slight edge in my voice, worried as to what random sentence will spew from one of my friends next.
‘They become Kings, so when he becomes King, you become his Queen. I can just imagine you, sitting on a throne, drinking tea from a golden cup, ordering servants around…’
‘That was always Madi’s dream. To find her Prince, her King.’ I muse, lost for a moment, only being drawn back to reality by the stark throb in my chest and the warmth of tears swelling in my eyes, hot and ready to fall.
‘Then meet up with Evan again, if not for yourself, for your sister.’ Jade says.
‘Just keep an open mind, Elli. You need someone, someone to brighten your day. We’re your friends, but we are not ‘the one’. You should be finding him. You never know, you might have just found him. Don’t they say that the most random of meetings lead to stronger bonds, stronger relationships, or something like that?’
‘Something like that.’ I echo her last words, staring out of the rain-splattered window, through the net curtains and into the dark. Still his necklace in my palm. Perhaps Madi is helping me. Such strange occurrences, they all point to one thing, maybe it is that one thing I need to try and help me through this time, something that Jade or Liv cannot do. Embrace me in a way where I melt into his arms, feeling his burning hands run along my back, so soft and tender. His lips, those smirking twisting ones, touching mine and—
‘I think I’m going to go to bed.’ I say, unfolding my legs and treading quickly to my room; my heavy eyelids closing as I undress and throw on some pyjamas. Still the strange thought lingers with me, his touch, so warm, his closeness so invading, but wanted. As I drift off to sleep, I embrace the necklace in my palm, feeling the live pulse beat into my skin, as I fall asleep, I imagine my hand upon his warm chest, feeling the thud of his heart, and seeing his cockeyed smile.
Evander –
The rock feels hot, burning like flame as I roll it around my palm, the ash around the blackened stone burning still with fiery embers and leaving a trace of black ash upon my pale skin. My eyes trail after the thrown stone that flies out of Kaiser’s hand and into the depths of the fire pits. The loud thud as it skitters and hits a few flaming rock mounds, meets my ears, along with his lazy drawl.
‘Dude. Don’t you think being her shining knight is going a little too far?’
The cracking rock in my palm shifts and rolls as I thumb it around, waiting for Alpheus who is leaning out, farther over the cliff face, staring out into the fiery depths. He has a slight risen brow but merely chucks his stone with a simple wave of his hand, I cannot hear it meet the floor.
‘I can’t have someone else causing her agony or torment.’ I mumble, my hand resting against my chin, judging the perception and angle I am standing at, taking a long pause, still thumbing the rock in my hand, I finally hear the thud of Alphie’s stone and throw my own, a real hearty back hand that causes the rock to tumble right to the opposite cliff face and knock a few ashen chunks down alongside it, as it takes its plummet to the pits bel
ow.
‘That’s my job.’
‘Don’t you think you might be taking this a little too far?’ Alphie urges, scooping up a smaller stone this time, flicking it up and out of his hand and catching it with the other, he tosses it toward Kai who captures it with an easy, almost sluggish hand.
‘You can’t have her thinking she’s the one and only – you’re a free spirit, girls are everywhere, dying to meet you.’ He emphasises the dying aspect, only by looking out to the distant sea of sorrowful souls, beyond that the torture depths, full of blood-curdling screams and agonising wails. He flings the stone with a strength that doesn’t even quake his bare muscles, before turning back to me with his hand running through his pale hair.
‘If you really want to mess her up a little, before delivering. Jealousy is the way to go. You know girls and their jealousy.’
‘Didn’t Kier have that problem not so long ago?’ Alphie muses, forefinger drawing up to his lip, thoughtful and silent his dark eyes roam the fiery pits, scooping up another stone he drops it with no enthusiasm, his eyes turn to me and there is a bright light, the reflection of the flames from below, lightening his eyes of oblivion blackness.
‘He got too involved, far too involved. The jealousy turned into a bitter love triangle, that resulted in both of their deaths and him not having either of their souls.’ There is a slight upward twist upon his lips, a bittersweet taint within his voice as he hands me a rock.
‘You wouldn’t want that happening, would you? Failure with both sisters.’
‘Alphie, Dude.’ Kai laughs, leaning over and knocking the dark haired Demon on the back with a hefty clout, ‘Anyone would think you’re jealous.’
‘She’s a boredom breaker, that’s all. I’m stretching it out anyway.’ I bite my lower lip, rolling the hot rock in my hand, feeling the heated breeze warm my face, tangle my ebony hair in waves over my forehead. ‘You know the time I finish that contract, will be the time I ascend my father.’
‘You’re not ready.’ Alphie, always so kind enough to quash even the slightest bright spark in Hell, narrows his eyes upon me, ‘And they all know it. They’ll want another mission from you. This one, this one failed long ago.’
‘It was a brilliant contract – two for the price of one. The sister got what she wanted.’ Through gritted teeth I throw the rock, it plummets in a fast descend, meeting the bottom with a crack and a hiss of flame as it burns into ash and turns into more kindling. I turn upon my heel and loom over Alphie.
‘Perfection. She paid the highest price of all: Her life and her sister’s.’
‘Perfection didn’t get her very far, did it?’ Kai chuckles, seating himself on the large rock face, just in front of the cliff side, his eyes staring out to the furthest reaches of the torture pits, a steady gaze not flinching as he speaks, ‘There’s a price for everything. She certainly paid it.’
‘Wanting to have her sister bumped off first is a bit much though.’ Alphie says quite low, almost inaudible. If I didn’t know any better, that his chest was hollow and bare, I would have thought he had a heart.
‘You gave her a year to grieve, to mourn. That’s enough torture for a human, even more so than the pits.’ Kai adds, to which I throw my head back, mouth opening wide; no scream comes, no piercing cry of anger, no shrill scream of defeat. Nothing.
‘She wanted perfection, but wanted to pay with her sister first.’ Alphie muses once more, rubbing his chin – a trait passed down from his father, scratching at barely there stubble, thoughtful and menacing as his eyes glaze over with ideas, the cogs working in his head.
‘It doesn’t matter. All of it is in the past. I will complete the mission. Just back off.’ I growl, losing myself, my jaw tensing, my muscles knotting in my shoulders, my arms, they feel like lead, like concrete, heavy and taut, causing my fingers to curl into my palms, coiling into fists that hang fixed by my side.
‘It’s not a worry you won’t complete it, Evan, it’s a worry the trouble you might run into along the way.’ Alphie meets my gaze and there is that crafty glint in his eye, the lift of his lips, the shadows of the fire, gracing his face, dancing so lively.
‘Have a little more faith, guys, really.’ I laugh, using the word, feeling it form in my mouth, it is foreign, strange; the others notice and the strain in the atmosphere slips away, as though it had never draped over us. Three friends, three rivals. We are all vying for the same thing in this Hell, and that is Satan’s approval.
‘Dude. All our faith is in you, but girls, they are the ones you need to watch; they worm their way into your brain, worse than any insect. They burrow into your hearts, like rats, they make their homes, they feed off of us.’ Kai philosophises, but adds with a dark chuckle, extending a hand and bracing my shoulder in his grip, ‘Good job you have no heart, otherwise I’d be worrying about you.’
***
The Torture pits are rife with screams, they penetrate even the toughest of exteriors; they pierce through my own wall of invisible armour, shaking my core as I walk through the aisle of cages, side stepping out of the way of a few Demons pulling at the hair of a man, kicking and screaming and saying he never got what he asked for, over and over again. I watch him, watch him with a curious peak in my eyebrow, as he claws at his own face – he can see what is coming, the sharp implements on the wall, the whips, the chains, the ancient torture devices, all glint with menacing promise, and the previous prisoner’s blood.
The Torture pits are designed for those tough souls – they are the hard nuts to crack, and to crack a hard nut you must use heavy equipment, squeeze their outer shell and leave the vulnerable insides quivering and quaking. Until then, they are fair game for a Demon to have a little amusement with.
The piercing cries of the man who I had just seen being pulled through, cut through the cells, they resound off the walls, ricocheting back from the bars and frightening the other prisoners; letting them know that they’ll be next. The fear blankets their faces with worried lines and grimaces. They know what is coming, they have seen enough blood spill on this floor to know we do not joke. Just in a room up from the aisle, I see the shadows dart and dance along the wall outside; he’s wailing now, louder and louder, until I see one of the Demon’s plunge their arm into his jaw, a sickening crunch and he is silent. Shame. I always think it is their pleas that are the most fun to listen to. Even if this place sends an uncomfortable shiver up my spine.
Right at the end of the left row of cells, is the brunette girl; even though now, she resembles a broken china doll. Her flawless skin bruised and bloodied, her chocolate brown hair matted and caked in her own blood and grime from the cell’s floor. I stop just outside of her door, jangling the key from my pocket, I knock it against the bars, a clatter that resounds through the whole alley of prison cells, only then do I get her attention.
She raises her head, cowering in the corner with jagged nails biting into the stone floor; stained with torment and lost hope. Her eyes, large cocoa coloured orbs stare up at me through the bars. She is just the spitting image of her sister. No wonder I got them confused. I lean myself into the door, unlatching the lock, in one movement it opens and closes behind me, I slip the keys into my back pocket and stand just at the doorway, gazing over her broken body and her quivering lips.
‘I saw your sister today.’ My lips purse, quietly contemplating, thinking of what to say, something to aggravate her, something to hurt her, break even more of her broken will.
‘You didn’t hurt her… did you?’ her voice is strained, small, but there is still defiance – which is why she is still in these cells, a year after she was brought down here. Defiance gets you nowhere in Hell. Especially a lowly prisoner.
‘Well, you’ve changed. I thought you wanted her harmed first; why the change of heart, darling?’
‘She’s alone… Mum, Dad, they didn’t love her like they loved me… she will never be like me…’
‘Well isn’t that such a lovely thing to say about your sister.’ I s
hake my head, stalking forward a few steps. The screams coming from the room just up from here continue, the blood-curdling cries tormenting the other prisoners, causing them to thrash in their cells, screaming and crying.
‘This isn’t what I asked for.’ She shakes her own head, her eyes meeting mine; it is strange, having just looked so deeply into Ellison’s, seeing nothing but pain and torment, when gazing into this sister’s, all I see is selfishness and woe. If only poor Elli knew just what her sister was thinking, if her beloved sister truly said what was on her mind…
‘You asked for perfection. You got it. You were perfect in every way. Everyone loved you. That is what you wanted.’
‘I wanted a whole year of it! You cut me short, you scammed me.’
‘Funny thing that, when you make a contract with a Devil.’ I add with a slight smirk and a chuckle, it does not fill her with any confidence, instead it causes her to claw at her cheeks, jagged nails leaving bloody trails along her once flawless skin.
‘I wanted her gone first. You failed in doing that. She was just in my shadow, all the time.’
‘Well, it might please you to know, that she is still in your shadow, and becoming quite bitter that you left her.’
‘What did you tell her?’
I stare at her for several moments; the silence irritates her, she gets up, but the shackles that bind her feet to the back of the cell clamp tightly around her ankles and she is forced back down to the floor.
‘What she wants to hear.’
‘She doesn’t want to hear anything from a lowly, disgusting Demon like you.’ She spits, her spit is blood coloured and congealed as it melts into the already tarnished floor. I shake my head, my chest bobbing with my laughter as I step back into the doorway, leaning into the metal bars, clutching them with a newfound grip.
Grey October (East Hollow Chronicles) Page 9
