Shrouded Away (Book #1)

Chapter: 12

She stood In front of the derelict warehouse with Casper beside her. He walked towards the side of the overhead door and worked on hacking the code.

 Andrea raised aloft her hand and the door skidded up open. Casper gaped at her as she strode in. 

The place was spacious with gigantic empty metal racks, cardboard boxes splattered all over the cement floor, rays of light penetrated through the broken windows, reminding her of the times she broke windows when she was younger. 

The room had such a strong scent of painting thinner that Andrea could slightly smell it through her mask. Not a fly was spotted. It was soundless except for both of their footsteps. 

Andrea started to walk by the racks, Casper followed her. The sound of gears moving met Casper's ears, he watched as her wristband retracted into a sword strapped to her wrist.

 It was a gift from Marcela, well that's what Andrea thought. It was a gadget Marcela got when she came back from a personal expedition of hers, Casper knew she didn't buy it or didn't even own it. 

She didn't tell anyone about it except for Auster. 

He knew she was mad at him, there were many valid motives for her to be. He didn't blame her but himself for not being honest with his best friend.

The sound of metal clattering against the floor sharpened their ears, their adrenaline rushed, their movements froze. They looked around to see who, where that sound came from. 

Andrea took a right turn, irritated that the boy was following her like a lost puppy.

"Don't you have your own ways to go?" She muttered searching around.

"Andrea, I'm your partner and best friend. If I'm going any way I'm going with you"

She rolled her eyes "If I was you partner or friend you would’ve been honest with me,” his mouth opened and shut it, not being able to come up with a valid answer. 

"If we both listen close we can hear your last three brain cells assembling to come with an idiotic lie"  

His face heated and he looked down in shame. 

The air was suddenly frigid, and both of them shivered against the cold. Something didn't feel right, it never did. 

She ran to the door to see it was shut, she tried opening it but it wouldn't budge. She kicked the door in frustration. 

"The doors locked," Casper stated.

"Wow, brilliant observation professor Casper" 

Ignoring her comment he asked, "did try using your-"

"Yes" She huffed and pushed past him and walked around Casper followed her just in case she might get hurt (which was that it was  a dumb excuse to follow her).

 Both of their movements froze at the sound of whispering coming from behind a rack behind her.

 As they got close the whispering stopped. Andrea ran around the rack to find no one.

 She heard a muffled scream from behind her, and turned to see that Casper was no longer there. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"It's not funny Casper!" 

Her eyes darted across the room. All of a sudden an arrow whipped by her face. She looked up at where it was sent from.

It was him.

The Umbrakinetic.

He was in a full body charcoal suit with black harnesses. His combat boots polished matching his hair. 

Eyeing his attire she noticed there was only a gun strapped to his thigh just like her except his was more revealing. 

Dark smoke swirled around his wrist forming an onyx sword, dark as sin. She readied herself waiting for him to come down.

 With a blink of an eye he disappeared into wisps of smoke. Her senses sharpened, looking around waiting for him to appear out of nowhere. 

A sharp pain jolted through her back and she stumbled forward.

 Immediately turning around she pulled out a dagger from her thigh strap. The dagger soared through the air, impeccable aim should've stabbed the blade directly into his heart, yet it was between his fingers.

"Such a wicked creature you are" he drawls, twirling the dagger between his fingers.

She watched him swing at her, she quickly dodged, sweeping her leg making him fall flat on his back, she quickly held him down against the floor, he  glared  up at her.

 "Bitch." He hissed. Catching her off guard, he managed to flip the both of them down. 

Pressing his sword against her throat and using his other hand to pin both of her hands. 

"Now tell me where Doris is?" He asked.

The name almost rang a bell in her head. 

"Please! Please! Please!" The old man begged. " Show me some mercy!"

A sick spark gleamed in her eyes.

"He's dead" 

He stared at her in utter shock and disbelief. Taking the opportunity she kicked him off her  and stood up.

"Oh don't worry, your ending won't be similar to his. Not everyone has the privilege to get killed by me" dark and twisted humor was shining across her face with a clear undertone. A warning.

He stood up, and walked up to her, silently , so that the only thing she could hear was her heartbeat, not in fear.. in anticipation.

 His eyes turned a darker hue of red, the grip on his sword tightening and charged towards her. She parried the blow by holding her sword vertically. The sound of sword clashing filled the room. 

With the sole of his boots he kicked her on the stomach pushing her to the ground. 

He held her right hand and pulled the strap of her sword, ripping it apart and throwing it across the room. He lifted her face with the tip of his dark sword. 

Carefully tilting it to the side and examining her half-masked face. 

 If it wasn't for the Divinus policy she would've been dead on the floor at the very moment.

 Without any warning his knuckles met her jaw craning it to the side.

 He held her jaw roughly to meet his face, dropping his sword and punched her on the other cheek causing her to spit out blood and stain the mask. 

He did not falter, his black hair clinging to his forehead with sweat, his heart pounding. 

"you make me sick with your odious actions"

It was obvious he was reckless when he was angry. So obvious that he didn't even notice her sword flit into her hand. She just monotonously stared back at him with her mouth and nose bleeding. 

Aiming her hilt to his stomach she thwacked him catching him off guard. She stood up unsteadily combing back the strands of hair with her hand.

 She watched him look at her sword then at the spot where he threw it then back at her face with a look of realization.

The sound of shoe soles scuffing the concrete floor froze their actions. 

"Andrea !"

Shit!

The boy grimaced at her, knowing what was going to happen she ran to him but before she could a blanket of his shadow engulfed him.

He was gone.