Running From The Destiny.

Chapter 8

Azazel knocked on the recently occupied room. 

Not recent. He reminded himself, almost one and a half winters now. And for five and a half winters more.

When no sound of life reached his ears, he hesitated and called out a warning before opening the door. A made bed and an untidy room greeted him. 

Azazel waited for a breath waiting for any sound to reach him and released a confused breath when he spotted no one. Hadn't he asked her to return in the early hours?

He grew frustrated when he realised that he did but then he paused. Cress had never ventured out or disobeyed his direct orders.

He would never say it of course but he had slowly grown to depend on her, she was his life insurance and he liked knowing that she was there whenever he would go for matters the society would turn up their nose at.

Today was no different. There had been men messing up with his business, luring away his customers. This was supposed to be a polite deal filled with concealed threats and they were not supposed to carry any sort of weapon. 

But that is exactly how men died. No man ever went to a 'deal' without making sure that he would be alive when he came back. The ones who did were foolish.

Azazel was most definitely not foolish. That brought him back to his original worry.

Where in the name of all evil was Cress?

***

Cress was late. She had figured it out when she had heard the city of crooks waking up and going about their business just like she was supposed to go for hers. 

Azazel was going to kill her. Then use black magic to make her alive to yell at her and kill her again. Fan-bloody-tastic.

Cress was dimly aware that her clothes were stained a dark red but she knew that no one would ask any questions. No one did in Vilehelm.

She ran pushing past people not caring to yell insults at them as they did at her. A man grabbed her hand in fury and she in return grabbed his hand and twisted it into a wristlock. She released it when she heard a small snap and felt a wave of satisfaction roll over her when he ran away cradling his newly broken wrist. 

She was slowly becoming a monster and the scary fact was that she didn't try to become something else. 

The night was still prevalent but in Vilehelm, the briefest of rays of light meant that the day had arrived. Cress had always found it fascinating, the kingdoms around Vilehelm experienced light for about half of a day whereas light rays seem to bend away from Vilehelm. 

The sunlight could only be experienced in the afternoons and even then they wouldn't stay for more than five hours. The rest of the 'day' would be dark with the briefest of light. It was as if they were stuck in twilight for hours.

Cress checked her watch, it was nearing to five hours after midnight. She was supposed to leave with Azazel at four. 

She ran, her feet hitting the surface with audible thumps. Her ankles had begun to ache as did her legs but instead of slowing her down, they seem to spur her. She relished the pain, it was as the pain made her realise that she was pushing past her limits and succeeding. 

Cress would have continued sprinting if she hadn't spotted the long luscious locks of chocolate brown hair, something that gruelling and wrinkled people of Vilehelm would never have. She almost unconsciously slowed down to a jog as the person turned around.

The city had woken up and people were yelling around, some bartering for a cheaper price and some yelling pointless accuses. Wagons and cycles had started their journeys and were dogging children who ran around carelessly, not realising that they might get trampled.