Flames of Desire

Chapter 1: The Portal

A full year has passed now since Eve's first visit to the Dark Realm. Since then, she's practiced the ritual more and more, getting better overtime. She can now practically teleport in and out on a whim with no problem at all. She's worked hard at accomplishing the goals she set for herself that day, striving to prove her mother wrong, to prove everyone wrong about her...

Eve sits casually in a large throne-like chair, the symbolic queen of the manor. She taps her shiny black nails against the dark purple velvet, playing with a strand of her long white hair. She glances out the window at the dark and dreary fog outside, the rows of dead trees surrounding the yard below. Forgotten Hollow has always been a dismal place, and today is no different.

Consistent with the rest of the three-story manor, the large room is lit only by a few magic forever-burning candles in different corners. The manor itself is clean, yet shows signs of its age, having stood menacingly atop its hill in Forgotten Hollow for almost 200 years. There are cracks in the wooden flooring, chips in the paint on the walls, and the occasional cobweb here and there that Eve left hanging to add to the overall creepy atmosphere. The furniture inside suggests a past life of elegance and luxury, but after so many years of sitting and collecting dust, the Victorian-inspired tables and curtains have lost their charm, giving the manor a haunted and abandoned feel to it. It makes sense after all, the manor was abandoned and had been for some time when Eve stumbled across it after fleeing her past life. Having cleaned it up and added a few new features to suit her personal taste, Eve has called this place home for the better part of a year.

Eve sighs, her mind wandering as she thinks of what to do. She's managed to accomplish one of the goals she set for herself, to create an army unlike any world has ever seen. After a fairly successful year in Forgotten Hollow, Eve's entire army of vampires now lives down on the first 2 levels of the manor, waiting on her to give them orders. Eve looks on the ground near her throne, where there sits a stack of dusty old books, all covering various topics on magic. She has only one goal left after all, to become the most powerful witch in all the realms. Her power has grown immensely since moving to Forgotten Hollow, as she spends most of her free time ensnaring vampires to be her servants and learning every bit of knowledge on magic she possibly can. People surrounding the area had even started referring to her as the White Witch, telling each other stories of the magical being who lived in the manor on the hill, and how crossing her would lead to terrible things.

Eve snaps her fingers, a magic signal heard by the vampires downstairs, and one soon enters the room. Approaching slowly, Eve's second-in-command walks up to the throne.

"Yes my lady?" Arya says flatly, her face and voice devoid of emotion, long red hair falling in cascading waves down her shoulders, elegantly framing her lifeless features.

Eve kicks the pile of books in front of her, causing the top one to fall from the stack. "I've finished these, get me some new ones."

Arya nods curtly, bending over to pick up the books off the floor and leaving the room without another word. Eve contemplates her for a moment, Arya is by far the oldest and most beautiful of the vampires she's enslaved, causing her to quickly become the favorite. Eve has to admit, she quite likes Arya. After all, Arya never tries to protest her orders or fight the control Eve has over her, unlike many of the others. However, she's much too soft for Eve's taste, hardly bloodthirsty despite being a vampire. Eve shakes her head slightly, Arya is a pretty face, but nothing more.

Arya soon returns with a different stack of dusty old books, carefully setting them on the ground by Eve's feet, then stepping back a safe distance away. Eve scans the stack, nodding approvingly.

"Good. Now you may go." She waves her hand towards the door in a dismissive gesture, not bothering to look up. Arya nods and exits the room, unbothered by Eve's bluntness, her long black dress gliding gracefully across the floor.

Eve picks up the first book on the stack, large and ancient-looking with a thick blue cover. Not bothering to read the title, she opens the book and starts skimming through the worn yellow pages. She starts to read the words aloud, more to fill the empty space than anything. She slowly turns page after page, her voice ringing out clearly in the silence, the only sound to be heard in the room, and she the only person to hear it. Judging by the first few pages, she guesses it's a book about opening and closing magical portals.

As Eve turns another page, her eyes land on something peculiar. In the corner of the page, a few words have been scrawled haphazardly, seemingly in ink. Her eyebrows furrow as she looks over the words, she's never seen them before, they look almost made up. Turning her attention to the page on which they've been written, she sees the title is "Opening Portals with Verbal Spells". Things start to connect in her mind, she realizes these words must be a spell to open some sort of portal. Quickly flipping through a few more pages, she concludes that this page is the only one with anything written on it. This piques her interest, this spell must've been fairly important if the previous reader felt the need to write it down.

Eve sighs, studying the words, reading them over and over in her mind. She's incredibly tempted to say the words aloud, to see what will happen. A few doubts go through her mind: "What if this is some sort of trick? What if this spell enacts something horrible?" After a long while of debating with herself, Eve finally makes up her mind. She takes a deep breath, gripping the arm of the chair, preparing in case the worst should happen. She looks closely at the page, opens her mouth, and does her best to pronounce the foreign words.

Immediately, Eve looks up from the book, her attention caught by something over in the middle of the room. A small blue spark appears in midair, slowly growing with every second. Eventually the spark starts to swirl around, faster and faster, the energy creating a portal large enough for an average person to step through. Eve watches in fascination as it sparkles before her eyes, feeling the immense amount of energy pulsating from across the room. The book in her hands clatters to the floor as she gets to her feet, her attention fixated on the portal. She approaches it slowly, trying to see through, to figure out where it leads, but she can't seem to spot anything. More doubts start to go through her head, walking into a mysterious portal that leads to an unknown location would most likely be a terrible mistake. However, her curiosity starts to get the best of her, causing her to step closer and closer. Like light attracting a moth, the portal draws her in, infatuating her, captivating her senses. She tentatively puts a hand out, extending it into the energy, feeling space on the other side. Eve takes a deep breath, clenching her fists as she finally steps through the portal.

(The picture above is the manor Eve lives in in Forgotten Hollow. I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! Chapter 2 will be out within the next week, and will have Hela's first appearance, so I hope you all are excited!💖)