City of Fate

Emelia

"Ooooh-kay." Emelia thought, shaking her hands to stop them from smoking. "Did that really just happen?" Her thoughts were racing at a mile a minute. "That was crazy." 

The creeper women was still laying on her back, but had some sort of shit eating grin marring her otherwise uninterested expression. Tendrils of smoke rose from the edges of her trendy denim jacket as she stood. Emelia studied her face for any sign of retaliation and readied herself against another attack, but all she saw was a look of deep concentration. A strange feeling of claustrophobia washed over her while the women standing across from her seemed to be staring straight into Emelia's soul. The feeling grew stronger and she began to feel as though someone was holding down her arms. Just as the feeling of pressure was about to become unbearable, a thunderous explosion pierced the silent tension. Time seemed to slow down. Emelia saw everything in the room at once, hyper focused and hyper detailed.

A figure, short in stature and thick with muscle, flew through the shattering glass of an imploding window, shards of glass fell slowly around, bright flashes of light reflecting off each. The thing landed without a sound and rolled back to a standing position. The battle of a few seconds ago or a years, as far as Emelia was concerned, had created a haze of dust and smoke that obscured the figure to just a basic silhouetted shape.

Meanwhile a few feet away and at the same moment,  the obliterated splinters of a door fluttered lazily to the floor like drowsy butterflies to reveal a dark shadow standing stolidly in the doorway, what seemed like long thin daggers held in each hand. With the bright back light and the haze of battle, Emelia could make out very little detail aside from the silhouette of a tall slim figure wearing a hooded cape.

As the occupants of the room stood stark still, the dust settled and a few new details became apparent. The small figure was actually a man, short and stocky, with a well manicured, ruddy beard and long straight hair. He looked for all the world like a Dwarf from a fantasy novel, save the way he was dressed. He wore dark jeans and a red and black flannel shirt, left open to reveal a graphic tee. Yet he wielded a two handed ax unlike anything she had ever seen and a dagger at his hip. The second observation was the other unexpected occupant. He was tall and slim, dark straight hair pilled back, obscured by the hood of a long ,black overcoat. Through the opened coat, which she had originally mistaken for a cloak, she notice he wore tight fitting joggers and a slim fit medium black V-neck tee-shirt. Leather straps encircle his thighs, presumably securing sheaths for the daggers. Black shining combat boots adorned his feet while a pair of nasty looking silver daggers occupied his hands.

Suddenly the man in the doorway moved with supernatural speed and flew upon Fairemera and engaged in a dizzying dance like fight, spinning, turning and slashing at one another with precision and grace. Meanwhile the other, moving with such speed that Emelia could barely see him, approached her. Time seemed to slow once again as the man came close. In one fluid movement he attached his ax somewhere on his back and slid up to her, grabbed her hand and led her to the door that the tall man had burst through. Emelia was swept away in slow motion, turning to look back she saw the dark man had knocked Fairemera down and was quickly gaining the doorway behind them. As they breached the outer foyer she chanced one more look back and saw that the place, for an instant, no longer looked like an old rundown warehouse but a huge, very high-end, well appointed studio apartment and just as quickly went back to the way it was. 

They ran to a shining blacked out BMW and upon opening the back door, the smaller man pushed her in, without malice, and got into the passenger seat. The tall guy slid across the hood and grabbing the door frame, spun around and through the opened driver side window. The trio sped off in a cloud of alley dust and discarded paper. Emelia looked back and she saw Fairemera stomp and scream in frustration like a insolent teen and chuckled to herself. 

"Serves you right." She thought as they took off around a corner and she lost sight of her thwarted captor. She had no idea if she just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, but something about these two felt familiar and safe. She was just glad to be away from that angry, obstinate mean girl. She sighed and though this already long day was about to get even longer.