Argentum: Blood and Honor

1. Welcome to Hell

There are some fates that cannot be changed,

Some situations set in motion cannot be undone,

And, above all, some secrets cannot be kept.

Yet, we try. We try so hard and go to great lengths to prevent -what in our minds is- a prophesied catastrophe from ever occurring. Little do we know, our fight to stop these future plans we so desperately fear...is what sets them in motion in the first place. Like a domino effect, every action has a reaction. And in this world, for every reaction there is a consequence, for which we must pay a price.

That price may be a number of things. Your freedom, your throne, the life of a friend, or maybe even your own life. You may ignite a war between once peaceful worlds, or maybe even inspire a lost soul to set fire to all they believe in.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. So let me start from the beginning.

My name is Nyx. Nyx Argent, to be exact. There's some debate about the origin of my name and, if I'm being honest, there's some debate about my name itself. My Father insists my name is "Nyxon", after the president Richard Nixon, while my Mother swears it was supposed to be just "Nyx", after the Goddess of the night, but my Father couldn't bare the excruciating pain of having a daughter with a one syllable name. Which is rich coming from a man who's legal name is "Ace".

All that being said, I go with my Mother's explanation. Its way more interesting. It also works my Father's nerves to no end, which is a definite plus in my book.

I was lucky enough to inherit my Mother's raven black hair, but, sadly I got my Father's light brown eyes, rather than my Mother's beautiful violet color.

I'm 17 and, until today, I was living in upstate New York with Hanna Darling, the fortune telling "gypsy" I call my Mother. And now? Well, now I'm being forced to live with my Father in Hell. Aka: the Miami, Florida suburbs. For some reason, my dear Father thinks I'll be "safer" here. Naturally, I beg to differ. I'm not really the type to board the whole "suburban, perfect life, perfect family" bullshit train my Father and Step-Mother are actively trying to sell me a ticket for. In fact, I favor the opposite.

I actually very much enjoyed my life living in the back of the magic shop my Mom ran. Of course, everything about it was bogus, but it was always fun seeing the type of odd people who migrated through. Between my Mom's otherworldly stories of demons, witches, or vampires, and our handful of creepy customers who backed up said stories, there was never a boring moment.

And now I'm stuck here, in this dull place, with even duller people. "Lovely." I mumbled, looking at the sandy swamp these people call a backyard. As if being thrown across state lines wasn't bad enough, now I also have to deal with a swamp outside of my kitchen window. I sighed, the idea of being separated from alligators and snakes by only a wall and a slab of glass was suddenly giving me a severe headache. "You guys have way too much money to have a backyard like this."

"Oh, no, honey! Its not normally like that. It rained last night and everything flooded." said my sweet stepmother, Annabelle. She was in her late 40's, but she didn't look it. With her strawberry blonde hair, sky blue eyes, and tall lean figure, she still looked like she belonged on Baywatch...or the nearest runway. Which always freaked me out. She was too perfect in some ways. Annabelle was sweet, but I also got strange vibes from her. Like something was just a little...off. It didn't help that my Mother felt the same way.

"Of course it did." I sighed, turning my burning glare to my Father. "Will you please explain one more time why the hell you've dragged me down here with you two, Ace?" I internally shook my head as I said my Father's name. I could never take it seriously.