BABYLON //a.f.i//

• S I N F U L •

•••Cora•••
________________________________

"Be careful Ashton. This feels like the beginning of something bad."

Ashton pushed through the door back into the neon hallway, and Luke followed silently behind him. I turned to leave, glancing at the man in the blood red suit one last time. His words haunted me in a manner I couldn't quite describe.

I walked through the door stopped still in the hallway. I closed my eyes to bathe in the neon lights. I just needed a moment to process, to understand, what was really happening. Jimmy was right; if this was a game, I really did need to know the players, and it seemed that I really knew nothing about Ashton or Luke. I guess the only question I'm asking myself now is do I want to?

"It takes a truly sinful one to walk into hell at her own will."

I jerked around, almost tripping over my own pajama bottoms as I did so.

A laugh. A woman's laugh. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." The voice flowed beautifully in a seductive, yet dark tone. The speaker was just as beautiful. She had deep, fire red hair that was pinned up lavishly with a diamond headband. Even in the neon light I could detect her ice blue eyes. She was dressed in a floor length gown as red as her hair, a split up the side revealing three fourths of her perfectly posed leg.

Islamist didn't know what to say at first. I didn't know this woman, and her first sentence was quite ... odd. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

She walked over closer to me until we were an arms length apart. Leaning against the wall, she looked me up and down, devouring my presence with her icy glare. Now that we were closer though, I detected one flaw in her perfectly symmetrical face. Dark circles curled under her eyes as grey as storm clouds. It was an odd feature on such a beautiful woman; it was something that didn't belong.

"My you're quite something, aren't you?" She reaches out one of her hands, her fingertips barely grazing the side of my cheek. I was too stunned by the strange confrontation to jerk backwards.

"I'm sorry, I really think you've got the wrong per-" I began to object again, but she cut me off.

"Cora. It's a beautiful name. As my husband said, lovely name for a lovely girl."

Husband. Jimmy. I thought back to the conversations I'd witnessed in the red and blue room. I tilted my head. "Demetria?"

She smiled a genuine, warm smile. In was almost unfamiliar to me as I don't believe I'd seen a genuine smile in a while, atleast not one with good intentions. "Come, sit with me Cora. I'd love to speak with you for a moment." She reached out her hand in a gesture of goodwill. And while I was still skeptical, the kindness in her voice won me over. I took her hand in mine and together we walked farther down the hallway. Eventually we reached a set of glass double doors in which pink neon light radiated from the inside. We walked in and sat one of the many black leather booths lined across the room. She sat across from me and folded her hands carefully on the table.

Pink light danced in the gloss on her lips and the diamonds in her hair. And again for a moment she just looked over me in a manner I could not read.

I stung my hands together, trying to think of what to say seeing as I didn't necessarily understand what was happening.

"So, do you know Ashton?" I thought back to Jimmys blunt statement.