This thing wont leave me alone

The Lair

Annebeth slowly and gently pushed Leon onwards. There was a smell of decaying bodies and a scent that was alien to him. It was a mixture of rotten fish and rotten chicken. As they went deeper and deeper the smells became different to each other. They overwhelmed his senses as he smelled a plethora of different monsters.

"W... what's that smell?" Leon said with fear in his voice.

"Monsters, demons, yokai, and all sorts of other creatures!" She exclaimed in a rather excited way.

"Do you want to see one?" She asked.

Leon had the distinct feeling that this woman didn't seem to think he feared her in any way. She talked as if they had been friends and that when she was chasing him it was a game of laughs and giggles to her. He couldn't understand it. Even now, he was shaking uncontrollably and felt he was about to throw up due to the stench of her lair, but she just looked back at him as if he was someone special to her. What was she? In school, before his parents were killed and his house taken away from him, he was one of the fastest runners and whilst he was panting uncontrollably for five hundred meters at full sprint she had easily caught up to him without even breaking a sweat. It was how he lived for so long on the streets as other homeless people kicked him off their areas and threatened to run him through with a knife, all he did was run, run, and run until he found a group of people like him. Homeless and a community of some sort. They helped each other and camped together and traded things with each other. Leon was uncomfortable with being around large groups so had taken up the Pier. The wind was chilling but he had a great view of the sea whenever he awoke. The Piers walkway above kept the rain off him and the water from the ocean rarely touched his hideout.

It seemed the perfect place for him until this morning. James would come and check up on him soon though, and if he wasn't there then James would know something was wrong and the "Community" as they called it would send a search party to look for him. The woman stood there looking at him as if he was dumb.

"Love? Do you want to look at one of my captured specimens?" She asked again. She looked at him worryingly as if there was something wrong with him. He could already smell rotting bodies and thought they were nearly at the place where he would die.

"S... sure." He said with a stammer which he thought was entirely appropriate due to the fact that he might be dead in the near future and didn't want to upset his "Host." She leaned towards him, her Brilliant blue eyes seething into his body. He turned his face as he blushed bright red.

"Don't be like that!" she said in a girlish tone as if she was in high school.

She reached for his waist and he cringed away from her fearing what she might do.

"Stop squirming. I'm not going to hurt you." She said evenly as if for the first time she thought of him more than just a teen.

She lifted him off his feet with ease and gently placed his face against the small window of the room. His eyes were closed. She patiently held him there until he thought she was no longer a threat and opened his eyes. Inside of the little room was the most disturbing thing Leon had ever seen. It was a Shadow creature or something like it. It wore a cloak of dark swirling around it like clouds. It had no face and its shape looked as if it could disappear at any moment into a puff of dust. He had never seen anything like it.

"What is it?" he asked, a little less concerned.

"That was a present from a certain God." She said as if he must know the god. They continued down the corridor with Annebeth slightly behind him. He looked at her with questioning eyes as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"A god like Zeus or Odin or other Pagan gods?" He asked with a hint of enthusiasm which she seemed to enjoy.

"Not really like Pagan gods that one. He is from a different dimension called the other world. A world that people can travel between and possibly invade. This specific god is trying his best to make sure those unruly other gods don't make it to this reality." She replied as if talking to a student now.

"But what is his name? Is it a name I would know? He asked as he was drawn into the conversation. He realized that she was trying to lower his guard. She could not be trusted.

"I don't think many of your kind would know him, even if he is the only reason this plane of existence is still alive. I find it my duty to help where I can. Oh! Silly me! His name is Pouique. A god of Cold, death, and Extreme feelings. It seems that that creature you saw was an assassin and another one of his kind saved Pouiques life, taking a knife to the chest. The god thought that my area of... expertise would come in handy for someone who killed a dear friend of his!" She explained.

"But that creature..."

"Seemed to be coated in shadows? Well, it was. The knife he killed the other with was splashed in water. It is the shadows' only weakness." She continued.

As she explained more and more about the creatures that were held in the rooms he felt as if it was all coming together and he was beginning to relax. What? Relax? She was about to kill him, wasn't she? But then he looked around at all the horrifying creatures and otherworldly monsters and thought that this was maybe his purpose. Was it his purpose to keep her healthy so she could continue this work? Then it struck him. He was going to die! Fear sprouted in his throat as the calmness he felt dissipated into a cloud-like the monster from before. He began to sweat again, and a lot of sweat as well. Fear claimed him as the smell of decay grew stronger and stronger, filling his nose with the terrors still to come. He felt like running, running as he always did with his problems but the women held a hand on his shoulder. Maybe his death would be quicker if he tried to run?

He thought about the concept, playing scenarios over and over and over in his head. Teasing ideas and putting together a plan until, she pointed at a door and gently encouraged him to move towards it. Its white painted coat was splattered with blood and the smell was that of decaying flesh and internal organs. For the first time since entering the Lair, she moved in front of him. He could run, run away now, as fast as he could. But fear controlled his legs and panic welled in his throat as he let out a sob.

"Why are you crying?" She asked him with genuine concern on her face.

"I don't want to die!" He screamed at her. She simply looked confused. As if he wasn't about to die, as if there was something more between them than a captured homeless teen and a woman in her thirties who was incredibly gorgeous. She nodded into the room sadly as if she deeply regretted what she was about to do.

He stepped in and was greeted by a room filled with filing cabinets. Each one was covered in blood and some had body parts dripping out of them. Above him was a message that was made up of intestines. "Welcome!" It said

"Do you like it?" she asked

He looked around in horror which is all she needed to see.

"That's a no then." She said sadly "And I made it just for you!" She exclaimed, but not in an angry way. She looked around and all he could see in her eyes was loneliness, a loneliness that seemed to engulf her. She clearly had no practice with talking to people that she hadn't killed minutes or hours later and he could see it on her face. A need for a companion and a friend.

"Please sit here." She said as she pointed to a blood-stained chair.

He had no choice, this was his fate and this was how he was to die. After a while, she left the room and Leon was left there to ponder on his fleeting existence. What had he accomplished in life? What things and people did he care about? There was James but even he wasn't exactly the best person to talk to. Who would miss him when he was dead? His mother and father were dead, his brother was killed in what was reported on the news as a robbery, and all his friends from school dropped out of contact with him after he had nothing to give them anymore. Maybe this was for the best. He would die here and let the woman continue her important work.

After an hour or two she came back into the room and looked at him with a sweet smile, not a smile of a monster or a killer or a person who wanted to watch him suffer, but a smile that said "It'll be fine." A smile that filled him with warmth and wanted to make her happy and wanted her to kill him in whatever way she wished. A smile that all the owners of the bodies in the filing cabinets would have received and gladly have their lives taken away for. A smile that any homeless person would kill for. Just to be accepted and loved by this woman was a great happiness to him.

She bit into his arm which he held out for her and wished her to dig her... Fangs into. She began to gently stroke the arm as if calming down a stressed puppy and took her first bite. The pain seared through his arm but he kept in there till she slowly withdrew her fangs from my arms and looked at him.

"Oh!" is all she said.