Cruel - Criminal minds enemies to lovers

The end of the beginning

"Well I'll be damned-" a familiar looking man who once towered over her spoke at the door of her brief childhood home, now hunched and grey in his twisted stance,  "-Athena Wells? We've missed you."

"Can't say the same about you" Athena couldn't help but mock before earning a sharp look that didn't seem to age after all those years.

"Sorry...sir" she spoke quietly, hating the words forced out of her mouth, hating how effortlessly they flowed out as if she was that same girl deep down.

"You always did have an attitude problem" he scoffed before running his hand down her back to lead her through the doors to her old home, but instead of her mother's house of warmth and love that she remembered, it was exactly like the old convent she had burnt down, down to every last terrifying detail.

The cold was almost surgical, the walls cigarette stained and harsh lights few and far between the further the basement took them, the occasional uniformed young girl walking with her head down just like Athena remembered being forced to do.

"Get to your assigned room and wait for me or I'll send you to the pit" one of the men growled at a girl who stopped to look at Athena, she closed her eyes knowing she would be punished badly for that, knowing exactly what scars it would leave.

"Where is he?" Athena asked instead of punching the man like she wanted to, digging her nails into her palms when he pushed her towards the stairs to the 'underground.'

"Down in his office, he's finishing up a lesson; do not interrupt it."

"I know the rules" she mumbled before slowly walking down to the same maze like layout she had once drawn in crayons with tears streaming her face, a layout purposeful to confuse young girls to not escape- not unless they were the ones to design it...

The cane holding men scattered around her, bustling with new 'clients' to their posts and various 'lessons' as she walked to her father's office where screams echoed even from the other side of the door just like she remembered- just like hers did.

Her knocks against the door battled against the cries, against her own held breath, before it slowly opened.

And then, then she saw him.

From across the room he stood there just as she remembered, whip in hand, body tense, evil in human form with a mist surrounding him.

The whimpering girl no older than 14 pulled on her bloodied dress and walked out past Athena as he dismissed with a simple flick of his wrist before he turned with a sinister smile to his daughter he long thought dead.

"She's a lot like you that one, her lessons take almost as long as yours did; no one has managed to break your record time though- you were always a stubborn one..."

Athena felt her entire body freeze just like it was taught to when his tall frame waltzed over to her, considerably larger than her even though she was an adult now. 

Time had not aged him well, neither had the various scars from his enemies coating his body and face; she had always thought of him as if a 'crow' was a person when she was a child, with all those scars, all those bumps, all that evil sleeked back with hair gel and death.

"You've dyed your hair" he spoke simply, looking her up and down before biting his lip bottom lip with veneered teeth, "and look at you now; I told you that you would grow into your body one day- look at those hips, quite delicious to look at- even better to touch I'm sure most men would agree."

She took a shaky breath, fighting the urge to punch him, or maybe she was still just too scared to, mustering up the courage to speak nevertheless, "I'm here; now let Penelope go."