Gehenna's Gate

Momento Mori

Kazuha's face had paled. Xiao's expression sharpened, flattening, trying to suppress his anger. Scara's mouth fell open in surprise, only moments before sending his fist into the nearby wall, causing Vena to flinch a bit, but feeling his anger wasn't misplaced.

"It was Damon." Xiao was the first to break the silence after the bombshell had been dropped, taking a few steps forward, his eyes centered on Ei.

"How do we know it isn't any of us in this room right now?" Ei calmly responded, as expressionless as ever.

"We found one of Damon's little crew mates today. He'd told the guy that he had some big secret he needed to tell the abyss leader." Scara tossed his hands in the air angrily before throwing himself down on the couch next to Mona.

"So no luck on locating him yet?" Came Ei's next question.

"No." Xiao admitted through a clenched jaw, every muscle in his body ridged like stone.

Ei sighed disappointedly at that, her gaze resting on her empty lap for a moment before raising again to address the room.

"Well, at least there's some good news to report. Arlecchino and her group are more than willing to join us. A threat to our homeland is a threat to their own as well. I've made the arrangements and am meeting with Yae Miko tomorrow, as well, and I have no doubts she'll be joining us too. Seems this may kick off a lot sooner than any of us may have first imagined. Everyone needs to start training again and refining each and every one of our skills. I'll continue making some more calls." Ei concluded, meeting eyes with everyone in the room one by one.

How did all this really make Vena feel, deep down? At the current moment, she couldn't tell. The emotion had hit her so suddenly like a punch to the gut that she hadn't really been able to digest it yet. A normal person would be afraid.

Ei stood to her feet and took her leave, most of the others just sitting around silently, everyone obviously having a lot on their minds right now.

Without a word, a gentle hand rested on Vena's shoulder, pulling her from her thoughts as she lifted her head.

"How are you feeling?" The question almost instantly made her look to her feet, dreading it.

She didn't know how to answer that yet. Maybe her real response was a bit too dark, and not what anyone would want to hear right now anyway.

"A bit numb, at the moment." The girl's voice was light and airy, almost as if her throat was dry, and indeed it was.

"Maybe the panic will set in later."

Or maybe it won't.

"Do you want to go somewhere? Take a drive maybe?"

Again, she wasn't sure what she wanted right now. Usually she'd shrink in on herself or run away, but this time? This time felt different.

"Actually, yeah. A drive sounds nice." Vena agreed.

Kazuha had came over to join them now, simply exhaling softly instead of speaking at first.

"I guess I'm going to go meet my girlfriend for dinner since we planned it earlier... if you guys need anything, please give me a call." Kazuha came over to hug the girl, then turning to do the little half-hug arm shake thing guys always love to do to Xiao.

Xiao gave a nod while Vena softly replied with her thanks before watching him turn to leave.

Wow, that actually killed everyone's mood. Vena almost felt bad, even if it wasn't exactly her fault. Now everyone was on edge and stressed out. Sure, the abyss would still be a problem regardless of whether Vena was a hybrid or not, but she felt responsible for a lot of negative emotions anyway. She knew everyone was worried about her and would do everything they could to keep her alive, and part of her wished they wouldn't.