The Obscure Life of Madaline Swann Book 1: The Lost Kingdom

Chapter 2

She woke up drenched in sweat. Her heart beating so fast it might give out any second, and her lungs barely able to catch enough air. Her eyes stung and her body shook uncontrollably. The thoughts in her mind racing at a million miles an hour. It took a many minutes until she was able to effectively calm herself down, she walked over to the cheap coffee maker and began making a very strong batch.

It was apparent that she wouldn't be able to sleep, at least not tonight, so she turned on the lights and began roaming the apartment. It was small, yes. But size didn't matter in this case. The kitchen was made up of a fridge connected to a counter that flowed from one wall and into a bar, making it a very small space. The bathroom had a simple shower and sink and toilet squished into a room the size of a small walk in closet. She had just begun putting some things in a drawer when she found a key wedged into an otherwise empty vase sitting on the window sill.

Finishing her cup of coffee, she pulled her long red hair into a ponytail and slid on a pair of jeans and a black leather jacket, a pair of full black converse and headed out the door and into the lot behind the building.

It was a cold morning, the breeze biting against her nose as she crossed the lot and pressed the button on the key. A black dodge charger responded, its doors unlocking.

"Nice" She whispered, as she opened the door and climbed inside. The instant she turned the car on she put the heat up and pulled out of the lot.

~

She pulled up to the restaurant, the first place on the list of Kariev's daily routine. I was a simple diner, with old booths whose seats were spilling stuffing, and the tables were sticky with years of coffee stains.

She climbed out of the car and ordered a coffee, choosing to sit at booth in the back, with direct view of Kariev's usual. She checked her phone, easily an hour and a half until He would walk in and order a blueberry donut and a cup of creamed coffee, consisting heavily of sugar.

The waiter brought by her coffee, black like always, she wasn't one to rely on heavy cream and sugar for her caffeine fix.

She had been sitting there for a few minutes, sipping on her bitter coffee, before a heavy blonde body builder type walked in through the doors. A smaller, but just as muscular guy walked in behind him, taking in the whole diner in one swift glance, his eyes landing on her.

He whispered something to the larger one and they began to walk over to her booth, removing the dark sunglasses from his pale face. There they were. Bright green luminescent eyes. The inhuman colour making his stature even more terrifying than before. Just as he began to walk over to her there was a large crash. The Sound sent her rolling to the ground, covered in pieces of glass. She had her hands over her ringing ears, trying to figure out what had happened when she felt a hand wrap around her ankle. She instinctively kicked hard, feeling her foot hit something hard, but heard no cry. In fact, she couldn't hear much of anything.

When her vision cleared, and her head stopped spinning enough for her to push herself up, she could see the ruins of the diner, broken glass and plates everywhere, people scrambling to get out of the building. The entire street was in a panic. The two men were making an advance on her, the larger one with a red boot mark covering his face.

The smaller one lunged at her, knocking her to the floor. She fought hard, punching and kicking at anything of his as he tried getting a strong grip on her. She had stopped squirming for a second, giving the guy the illusion of her giving up. "This is going to hurt you a lot more than it'll hurt me, sweetheart." he whispered as he slipped a knife out just inches away from her neck, pressing it to her skin.

"Hey! Pick on someone you're own size jackass!" A deep voice called, distracting the man for that one vital second she needed to unsuspectingly  knee him where it counts. She threw his body off of her as the large man began to charge at the waiter who had served her coffee just a moment before. She caught his eye and swore she saw him mouth the word "RUN".

But she wasn't about to let him have all the fun. She charged at the large man, ducking at the last second and sliding, between his legs, to a halt just between him and the waiter.

"I don't think so."

He punched first, something she was sure he would do. Dodging the punch, she caught his arm and flung him over her shoulder. He landed with a hard thud on the ground, groaning. "Bitch!" he yelled, pulling himself off the glass ridden floor.

"You want to say that again?" the waiter yelled, a towel wrapped around the perpetrator's neck held him back from responding. She kicked him hard in the ribs, easily breaking a couple, and knocking the two men back. The smaller man ran at her, wrapping his arms around her neck and pulling her down as she kicked and flailed trying to get a grip on her attacker.

There was a loud bang and the man holding her slouched, his limp arms loosening his grip. She turned around to see a dark haired man holding a shotgun, aiming for her, or so she thought. She heard the gun go off again and expected to feel the sharp stinging of a foreign object lodged in her chest. But she felt nothing. Opening the eyes she didn't even realized she had shut, she turned around and saw that the other, smaller man had gotten the blast, blood trickling out of a hole in between his shoulder blades.

"Jesus, Theo! What the hell?" the waiter yelled walking towards the man.

"oh, I'm sorry for trying to help." His voice was calm and deep, almost husky. Lowering the weapon he walk past her and straight to the waiter. "Its not like I had anything better to do than to save your sorry ass."

The arguing went on for a few seconds, the two men getting louder and louder until finally, "Um, hello? Still here guys."

Both men turned around, momentarily distracted by the bright redheaded girl standing in front of them. She watched as a series of expressions crossed the waiter's face, but Theo remained indifferent.

"It's you! " the waiter exclaimed! "I can't believe its actually you!" He ran to her and grabbed her in a rib cracking embrace.

"Yeah, I'm happy we're alive too, but um who are you?" she managed to say. Almost immediately he let go, tried helplessly to straighten out his coffee stained button up. "and while you're at it, could you tell me who the hell they were?"