“My sweet boy, come to me”, his arm reached for his servant.. The candles flickered through the room, creating demonizing shadows and low exposures of what exactly surround the in the room.
“Yes, master?” the raven haired male crawled over to his superior. The steel shackles scraped against the cold floor. He pressed his lips against the master’s hand, paying his respects. It wasn’t romantic, but a trained command like a dog that comes when it’s called, desperate for validation..
“Brush my hair. I want to visit human territory today.”, the master glared at his reflection idolizing his protruding bonds and deathly tones.
“Why, master? The Mortal Domain doesn’t benefit you well.”
“I know this, butI’m bored.. When’s the last time I created a little chaos? I am the Prince of Purgatory, and I think it’s about time I exercised my inherited rights a bit. I think that’s what Daddy would have wanted.” He pulled away from his servant’s grooming with excitement. “How about you come with me? This could be fun. We can gather the lost souls. Possess some weak spirited human beings. We can get some of those cold milk scoops.”
“Ice cream, master. I suppose it is imperative that I accompany you. I haven’t visited there myself in awhile…I guess I can give the imps a break.” Kataro was a collector of souls, he was what most people understood as a “Grim Reaper”. His only purpose is to transition humans from The Mortal Domain to either Purgatory or Nirvana. However, truth be told, Nirvana did not exist. It was a concept created by humans to feel rewarded for their good deeds.
“Fetch me some acceptable clothing and yourself too.” He dropped his silk robe to his feet, exposing his malnourished body. His skin was pale, with a highlight of blue. When he closed his eyes, he resembled a corpse. He played with his freshly groomed wheat hair, and examined every strand. His ice coloured eyes were lifeless. There were no signs of emotion, and that lack of emotion was deep within. The servant came back with some folded clothes, and immediately started to dress him. Once the dressing was finished, a dull smile spread across the model’s face.”Hey, Kataro”.
“Yes, sir?”, the raven haired servant faced him.
“ You will refer to me as just “Elliot” in the Mortal Domain”.
“You’re going to ditch me again? For my brother?”, Tabitha stared at Andrea with heavy disappointment. It’s becoming a frequent behaviour that she’s grown used to.
“I would apologize, but honestly, why are you even surprised anymore”. We “service” each other. I need him. He needs me. Consider this a business practice, and try not to be too upset with me, hun.”,Andrea checked her makeup in the compact mirror.
“The only business that goes on between you two is that you’re both self absorbed whores, who use people to get ahead.” Tabitha laced up her boots, trying to hold anger, but it’s slowly slipping from her control”.
“Isn’t that what business is?”, she checks her phone, and by the way her eyes light up, it’s obvious it’s the person she’s about to ditch her for.
“Just go. Don’t even bother coming back for me. I’m so tired of being pushed aside for Alex. We have been friends since we were little kids, but apparently you care about him more. I miss the old you. But fuck it,fuck you and fuck him. I’m done. By the way, you’re both terrible people. Alexander makes a profit of people’s insecurities, including yours. And you? You’re the pimp that introduces him to those people. For what? For weight loss pills? A few designer bags, which I’m pretty sure aren’t real.”
“Are you done?”, Andrea’s expression changed none. It’s as if nothing Tabitha said reached her.
“Yes, I’m done.” Tabitha sulked on the opposite side of the room. She caught herself thinking about the 8 year old Andrea who was innocent, and didn’t care about the superficial lifestyle. She didn’t care about beauty or money. She just cared about her best friend. She cared about her family. She cared about having a good personality. Something about growing up with a wealthy father who paid for her mother’s happiness...And cosmetic surgery, and a mother who willingly accepted this arrangement, to boast the title of “trophy wife”, seems to damage a young girl. Her mother constantly taught her that a woman’s power and importance is in her beauty. The more beautiful, the more powerful. She taught her that beautiful girls like them never had to work, as long as they kept up on their looks,because they can use guys to support them. Her mother actually had a few affairs of men spoiling her. Andrea’s father knew about it, but he was sleeping with his more beautiful secretary, so as long as he kept supplying money and she didn’t make a scene, they both didn’t ask questions. Now at sixteen, Andrea is just as corrupted as her parents, which caused a drift between her and Tabitha, who was an awkward tomboy who never quite fit in.
“That’s him. I’ll text you later, ciao” Andrea blew an air kiss to Tabitha, and ran outside to meet Alex. He met her in the car and planted a hard kiss against her cherry stained lips.
“Hey babe, what took you?”, Alex cupped her butt and pulled her body into his.
“You know how Tab gets whenever I make plans with you. She gets jealous and always makes a big deal. I don’t understand why she is clingy.”
“That’s because she’s in love with you. She can’t stand the idea of me fucking her little girl crush”, he kissed her again.
“Stop that. She’s not a lesbian.” Andrea looked down, feeling a little guilty about talking about Tabitha that way. She wanted to defend her, but deep down, she believes that too. Tabitha has always been tomboy for as long as she can remember. She wore her hair messy, and was always covered in scrapes and scabs. She even chose to wear the male uniform at their school. She remembers the rumors about her coming onto girls in the locker room or at some of the other girls’ parties. She always wondered if there was any truth to those rumors. Maybe she thought Tabitha was just being nice to her out of friendship, but really she was flirting. “I don’t think she likes me that way.” She didn’t want Alex to think she was questioning her own sexuality. A moment of silence passed. “Even if she did like me, I don’t like girls.”
Artemis was roaming The Silent Forest searching for material. She usually comes here for peace and solitude to get away from regular civilization, and get intune with herself. The Silent Forest gets its name
because no one comes here. There've been many rumours of bad things happening here, so it became known to not come here or be cursed. Artemis was never bothered by scary stories and myths, because it was part of her culture. She was indulging in her solitude, until she noticed she wasn’t alone, a shift detected in the air.
“Who’s there?”, Artemis turned around, but saw no one. She remained still and silent. “I can feel your aura. Are you friendly? If I am disrupting you, I mean no harm. I’ll leave.” She started packing up her bag off the mausoleum steps. “Please don’t get angry. I promise, I’m leaving right now”. When she went to stand up, there was a man standing right in front of her, causing her to scream and fall, spilling her bag everywhere. This man just appeared out of thin air. He was about 6”5 with long dark hair. His eyes were dark and his face was skeletal. Skin white as a ghost. He was wearing a black hooded cloak and radiated an uneasy darkness. A few feet behind him was a shorter blonde male with the same whiteness.. He actually seemed pretty attractive. He was mesmerizing like one of those androgynous models. He had porcelain skin and crystal blue eyes. He had naturally long eyelashes that emphasized the colour of his eyes. His lukewarm wheat coloured hair was perfectly neat.
“You scared her, it seems.”, the blonde male addressed the cloaked one. The way he spoke to him sounded so stoic yet slightly patronizing. It was almost like he was speaking to his pet dog or something inanimate. “Would you like some help up, sweetheart?”, he walked over to her with an extended hand. Artemis was paralyzed by his beauty. It was almost inhuman. When she reached for his hand for support, she jerked back and snapped out of his gaze. Although he looked a lot more approachable, his aura was dangerous. It felt dark, heavy, and kind of disturbing. She felt her flight or fight instincts kicking in.
“I am actually fine. Thank you. I can stand. I’m sorry if I disturbed you guys. I didn’t see you. I’ll be going now”, she started walking down the steps.
“You are forgetting something”, the cloaked one pointed to her bag, which was filled with metaphysical items. Artemis felt uncomfortable.
“You’re right.”, she hastily packed her bag while eyeing the cloaked male who was standing suspiciously close to her. When she caught his gaze, she realized he was also an inhumanely attractive male. He had a thick black lion’s mane of hair. His cheekbones were sharp like a knife. His voice was quiet but firm, soothing like a gothic lullaby. She noticed a few markings on his hand. They looked like some sort of tribal or celtic design. Artemis shook her head, breaking out of that hypnosis she was falling into looking into his eyes. It was almost like they had some kind of power, seducing someone out of their own body control.
“You’re one of the special ones.”,the cloaked one blocked her direction.
“That she is, Kataro. That she is. We should keep her.”, he closed in on her.
“How did you know we were here?”, Kataro’s voice hardened. He locked eyes with her, as if her were reading her thoughts before she was even able to say them. Without being sure if he was actually reading her mind, she decided to make sure she was honest about whatever she can tell them about her power.
“ You guys are demons, aren’t you”, she asked as a statement. Her mother warned her about this, and it was only a matter of time before she caught their attention. She didn’t even really need them to confirm that. She almost regretted asking, because hearing them proclaim themselves as such seemed too real.
“Oh? She is definitely a special one.”, Elliot chucked, surprised that she was able to classify them so easily. “You guessed right, sweetheart.” Kataro exposed his hand to Artemis. All of the sudden, she started experiencing a shooting pain through her body.
“I will ask only one more time. How did you know we were here? How do you know what we are?”, his voice sounded cold but murderous.
“Please stop! My name is Artemis! I am the daughter of Luna!” , the pain stopped. She kept talking in fear of him hurting her again. “I was raised by white witches near the Star Cathedral .This was a power I was born with. It runs in my family. However, I promise you, I am not a hunter by any means! Please don’t kill me.
“It isn’t your time yet.”, Kataro stared at his palm.. It almost looked like he was reading something. He looked back at her, “Death is not waiting for you at this time.” Artemis was confused and nervous about his statement, but she decided to not press it.
“We’ll be back.”, Elliot flashed a fang, and suddenly, he and Kataro, were gone. Dematerialized into thin air.
Artemis dropped to the floor, her heart about to burst in her chest, and her vision blurring. Had she actually encountered real demons? She was warned about them, but she thought they were for storytelling and labels for bad energy. She immediately scrambled for her bag and pulled out an Obsidian stone to cleanse herself. “Stay away from me!”. Her body shuddered.
Tabitha was staring at an old picture of her and Andrea from their childhood. Andrea was wearing a simple hoodie, with her hair in a bun, flashing her braces to the camera with her arm around Tabitha. Nowadays, Andrea would never be seen so casual. Tabitha was holding up the peace sign, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. They both looked so happy. Tabitha sighed, and stuck the photo under her pillow. Suddenly, she hears a voice at her door.
“What’s up, loser?” Alex walked in with no invitation, and took a seat on her bed.
“Get out. Who invited you in here?”
“Me”, he sat down next to her and pulled out a joint and began to light it.
“I want you to stop your little girl crush on my girl. Shit’s annoying. She spent the whole time talking about you, and she thinks you’re gay. She’s totally weirded out, dude.” He stared at her for a minute, which was reciprocated by an exaggerated frown by Tabitha. He handed her the joint, and waited for a response.
“I’m not gay...Fully. I don’t know. I like people. And she is not one of them, especially now, with how superficial and dumb she’s been acting. If I’m going for a girl, she’s got to be smart. I would never be into a girl dumb enough to be into my asshole brother, she smirked.
“Well you’re acting kind of gay”, he took hit and passed it back.
“We used to be friends. Best friends. Family. I used to go to HER to talk about YOU. I just...I miss her. That’s all. It’s not like I really have anybody else, especially with Leon gone. You know I don’t fit in. “, she took a deep inhale, and slowly released the smoke, imagining all of her stress disappearing with it. Alex stopped. It almost looked like he was going to say something sincere or meaningful, then…
“Well get over it. You’re potentially messing up a good business relationship”, and that was it. He left. He walked out of her room, purposely leaving the door open.
Tabitha felt herself growing hot with rage. He was so inconsiderate, about everything. How could he? Why did he hate her so much? Why did he have to take the one good thing in her life? Why wasn’t Andrea smart enough to not fall for his charm? Why did Leon have to leave? Tabitha ran to the door and slammed it shut, swearing her hatred for him.. She started punching the walls until her fist were bloody red. She didn’t realize her cheeks were wet. She dropped to the floor, and sighed heavily. She couldn’t bring herself to settle, so she packed a bag and headed out. Before she made it to the door, she was stopped by her younger brother, Tai.
“Where are you going?”, he had a small but gentle smile on his face, wearing oven mitts and an apron. The downstairs smelled like beef curry stew, savory and warm. “I just finished dinner”.
“I’m sorry, Tai. I’ll eat later”, she saw the smile in his eyes vanish but he held his mouth still. Tai is very gentle and he tries his best, despite being the youngest to be an emotionally responsible rock in the family. Alex and Tabitha being the middle children, but the oldest in the household made for quite some dysfunction. They both hadissues and unresolved traumas. Both parents were drug addicts. Their father died of an overdose, and their mother committed suicide, under the influence, not too long afterwards. Leon was probably 16 when their mother officially passed. He dropped out of school and spent the next two years working to support his 3 siblings, before joining the military with the promise to come back financially stable. He left the role of being the man of the house with Alex, who has been nothing but a devil who was proud of his horns. No one really knew why Alex was the way he was. Alex always got into a lot of trouble fighting and stealing, along with being quite a player. Leon tried his best to keep Alex out of trouble, but how was a 16 year old supposed to tell a 14 year old how to live. By the time Leon was drafted, Alex was in a gang and selling drugs to his peers, and inconveniently Tabitha’s social circle. At first, Tabitha was benefitting from the party scene, but partying doesn't heal trauma. Eventually, she started seeing things getting messy, exactly the way her parents lived. She tried to break away from it, but her friends started using her to keep connected to the supply or just to be one of her brother’s hookups. Despite Alex being toxic, he wasn’t all bad. He’s been financially supporting the family in addition to the money Leon sends them every few months. Alex’s drug and blood money has been feeding them, clothing them, and even getting them a few luxuries here and there. He wasn’t the worst, but he was pretty bad.
Tabitha immediately took off running down the street. She had no idea where she was going, but she knew she wanted to run. Exercise has always been Tabitha’s escape, well, at least, her healthy escape. She was the athlete of the family, and played sports all year round. It was the one thing she felt confident and successful in. After much running, she ended up at the park. It was frigid and lonely, despite the sound of cars and horns, it felt like nothing around her existed. Her panting trying to catch her breath morphed into uncontrollable sobbing.
Suddenly her phone started ringing.
The name flashed on her phone and kept buzzing over and over again. Tabitha blankly stared at the light illuminating the immediate darkness, waiting for the screen to go dark. The buzzing died, along with the light, and the darkness returned. It wasn’t long before her phone started going off again.
“Hell..o Art..emis”, Tabitha choked out the reply.
“Where you at?” Artemis shouted into the phone. There was a crowd of noise in the background, and she sounded out of breath. “I need to talk to you”
“Can it wait until tomorrow?”Tabitha said in an exaggerated sigh.
“No!”, Artemis sounded even more hectic. “I need to talk to you NOW. I ran into...I know this is going to sound crazy, but I saw demons. Real demons. Something’s going down.
gamechangershow
titsay
stormborns
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
romaincrisis
