Two Snakes (ON BREAK FOR A WHILE)

Chapter 10: Darker Skies

After a day of helping out Dolios and Emile with the market stall, Lilah went to the park for a few hours before closing time, at 7pm. It was 6pm now, and the skies were already getting darker, and becoming more glistened with stars and constellations. She'd already told her parents she'd be out tonight for the festival with her friends, and she needed to prepare. Well, that was a half- lie. Why was she lying again? She took her bag and slung it over her shoulder, before going to walk up to the market, where she was helping Dolios take down his stall, then prepare for the festival, as it was going to be going on for a few days, and Emile had to leave as he needed to go back to the centre for his duties. Lucky.

As soon as she left the park, she saw an all-too-familiar face shove her to the side. He stood there with his gang as she tried to speed-walk out of the situation, but couldn't, as he grabbed her bag with her book inside. 'Hey! Give that back!' She gritted her teeth as Max held it up in the air to where she couldn't reach. Being one of the taller ones in the year certainly had its advantages on his behalf.

'What, this?' He sneered, as he grabbed her book inside and flicked through the pages of writing and drawings. 'What is this, a diary? Does lil Lilah have a diary?' Lilah suddenly felt the left side of her face becoming hotter, as she felt more agitated. 'Give. That. Back. Now.' She gritted her teeth as she straight up elbowed him in the stomach, causing him to grip it and let go of her things. She quickly grabbed them and ran to the market area, finding Dolios and panting as she put her stuff down and started helping him.

'I know something just happened. It's ok if you want to tell someone.' Dolios looked at her sympathetically, then went back to packing away his things into a rather large bag, and his stall into a small hut in the area where folded-down stalls would be kept. 'Or not, I guess.' He sighed, before glancing over to her again. 'It's fine. I've almost finished now anyway. Why don't you just go down to the festival with your friends or something?'

She shook her head, before gesturing over to the park area. 'I- I don't want to see... them again. They... took my things, then I felt, something... like a surge of energy. It felt... good. So I ended up elbowing Max and now his whole gang are going to be after me. Great.' She slumped down on the wall next to where Dolios' stall was, removed her glasses and placed both hands over both eyes and forehead. 'Why don't you take a different way, or... home, if you're not feeling well? There is another park by your house, yes? Remember, the festival is here for the next few days Lilah.' She nodded and got back up, returning her bag over her shoulder and starting to walk home. It wasn't very far, but the evergoing darkness didn't help one bit with a slight lack of route.

'Try that route.' Dolios stated, pointing to a road that had a few lights strung across the bottom, clearly to mark a route going/coming from the festival. 'I'll catch you up once I've locked up the shed with my stuff in. Oh yeah... By the way, I think I might take a different route, so you know it doesn't look like I'm... stalking you, or something, if that's ok.' Lilah smirked a little then nodded her head. 'Ok, see you at the green near my house then. It's pretty lit up too, just so you know. Also, it's a green, not a park!' Lilah shouted as she walked along the designated route.

Halfway home, she looked around, seemingly startled by something. Very funny. She thought sarcastically to herself and carried on. She quickly stopped as she heard something. Weird. There was no one around her, yet she heard... footsteps? Maybe it was Dolios, he always was coincidental... yet no one showed.

Her eyes flit from where she thought the sound was coming from, then the way she was supposed to go. Then she saw something, someone. A flash of orange. Yellow was more Dolios' colour... who would it be? In the blink of an eye, it was gone.

Lilah thought she was seeing things. She ran from the sight, before bumping into none other than Dolios himself. She went to speak, but as she was, he pulled her into a nearby alley. He put one of his fingers to his lips, then pointed at the shadowy figure forming and walking towards them both. It was late in the evening, and they couldn't make out who or what it was due to the darkness that had befallen the land. Lilah looked up suddenly and saw the metal bars above them crackling... with some kind of... 'electricity?' She whispered to Dolios. She looked up again, then stared at the figure emitting the same electric energy, coursing all over one of their hands.

'Well well well... what have we here?'