Danielle’s POV
*****
“I’m only going to ask this one more fucking time,” I spat with a trembling voice.
“Who. The. Fuck. Are. You?”
Standing by my living room window was none other than the cloaked figure that had seen spying on me earlier today.
The hood of the black cloak made it nigh impossible to make out their features.
To make things worse, they didn’t respond.
Didn’t move.
Heck, from this distance I couldn’t even tell if they were breathing.
My grip on the knife tightened.
“I–I’m warning you,” I tried and failed to ignore the way my hands shook.
“Just leave while you can. O–Or I’ll call the cops!”
WHOOSH!
In a heartbeat, the cloaked figure was standing in front of me, their face a few inches away from me.
The only thing I felt was the rush of wind when they got to me.
I gasped.
Before I could take any steps back—I realised something terrifying.
I was stuck.
No… not just stuck.
I couldn’t move any part of my body, no matter how hard I tried.
As though an invisible force had taken total control over me.
My arms fell to my side, the knife dropping with a clang despite how hard I fought to hold it.
Sweat and hot tears dropped down my face in heavy beads as I stared at my captor.
This couldn’t be it.
Right?
Was I about to be fucking killed?
To add insult to injury I wanted to scream out but couldn’t even get my lips to part open.
They had me completely immobilised.
“So,” a feminine voice rolled from beneath the hood, silvery, amused and malevolent, “he’s involved himself so intimately with a mortal already?”
She placed so much emphasis on the word ‘mortal’ that it might as well be a slur.
I could feel my lips parting as she brought down her hood.
I gazed in awe at a face that seemed to have been sculpted by gods.
Wait—she’s probably even a goddess herself.
She had wavy black hair and skin so pale it almost seemed white.
Her eyes were smoky but alive, dazzling with an entrancing blue glow.
In simpler terms, she absolutely didn’t look like she belonged on the earthly plane.
I finally got my voice back.
“… Are you talking about Anzari?”
The cloaked woman hissed.
The sight was terrifying enough to make me shut my eyes.
“He told you his name?” It sounded more like a statement than a question.
Then those blue orbs scanned me from head to toe.
“What exactly did he see in you? His name has not been uttered by any mortal tongue for over a millennium.”
A flick of the wrist and my neck snapped upward until my body spasmed from the pain.
I wanted to cry out but the invisible force once again held my tongue.
This… this was some shit you’d see from one of them Marvel movies.
Not real life.
Not my life.
And it’s all thanks to that bloody spider god!
‘Is this a jealous ex of his?’ I asked myself mentally as I watched the woman scrutinise me closer.
‘I–I just need to speak out.
Tell her I don’t want to take her man.
It was casual… fuck, what am I saying?’
Her fingers reached toward my neck.
Too close.
Without her touching me I could feel how cold those digits were.
I knew if they wrapped around my neck—I’m done for.
My chest rose and fell with strained pants.
Just when I braced myself for her touch… Every light in the house flickered so violently I thought the bulbs would explode.
My eyes flitted toward the walls.
Then bulged so hard I thought they’d pop out.
Because hovering over the walls behind the cloaked woman was a monstrous figure.
It had multiple limbs and a maw with mandibles shaped like razor-sharp blades.
I couldn’t even give a proper description if I wanted to.
But I sure as hell wanted to get the fuck out of here.
Suddenly, the lights went off completely.
Next thing I knew the invisible force around me receded, causing me to drop to the ground with a heavy thud.
I groaned, searching the darkness desperately.
I backed away, fingers roaming the marble floor for my knife as another figure joined the cloaked woman.
Wait—not joined.
They were attacking her.
“Traitorous bastard!” She snarled.
CRASH!
Something shattered loud enough to rattle me to my bones.
With gritted teeth, I got up and ran away from the chaos.
For a moment when I glanced back, the light outside illuminated the outline of a masculine figure with six arms.
“No!” She screamed, the sound bone-curdling.
“You’ll regret this! Your brother will—what are you… AHH!”
More screams exploded out of her as Anzari raised her into the air.
Then her body lit up in flames, sizzling through her flesh and her outfit.
She went limp.
With a disturbing squelch, he let her burnt corpse fall to the ground.
Silence.
The only sounds I could hear from a distance were dogs barking and neighbours grumbling about the noise and wanting to call the police if it didn’t stop.
My breathing stuttered.
Soon it came back in full force, making my chest loosen.
The lights turned back on, letting me see exactly where he stood.
Anzari.
He was donned in a black trench coat, his back facing me.
Strands of his long black hair blew around him.
With a slow head tilt, he was able to lock his eyes on me.
No words.
No questions on if I was okay.
He just stared like he was assessing something.
I looked over to what lay close to his feet.
The sight nearly made me puke.
The cloaked woman’s hood had somehow melted until it mixed in with her flesh.
Her skin had burned until only most of her skull remained.
Those brilliant eyes were gone.
In her final moments, her mouth had stayed wide open, the flames making it uncannily wider than it should be.
I gulped, unable to tear my eyes off her for a while.
“Danielle?” He spoke.
After a week of not hearing from him, not seeing him and not knowing if he was leaving me forever… he actually called out my name.
I hated myself for how safe and reassured that made me feel.
I’m not supposed to feel any of that.
I couldn’t move.
Smoke drifted lazily through the ruined living room.
The smell… Dear God.
It smelled like burnt meat.
He walked up to me, stretching out a hand to my face.
“Get up.” A pause.
“We have to act fast. They’ll know she’s dead.”