IMMORTALS // MICHAEL LANGDON

1 // twins

-before the apocalypse-

She was tumbling through the forest, colors flashing before her eyes, wind howling around her. Reaching out she hoped to grip something, anything, to prevent her fall.

She landed face first in the dirt, scrambling to get up. It was too close and she knew this. It was only a matter of time before it could reach her.

There's nowhere to run...

You can't hide...

It's too late...

  ...because it's already here...

   But no other sound could be heard now. It was silent. Not even the wind blew. The silence was cold and dark, almost even more terrifying than the thought of that thing catching her. Maybe none of this was real. Maybe this was just a figment of her imagination.

    She thought she was in the clear when the voices stopped but, that was until she heard footsteps behind her. She stood there, frozen, fear holding her in place

A stream of moonlight found its way through the towering forest tree branches and landed upon the back of what appeared to be a tall, dark figure with a hood covering their body. She had seen it before many times. Never had she seen its face. It stood, away from her, crouched over.

The smart and logical thing to would have been to keep running, find a road or cabin, or anything besides this god forsaken forest and get as far away from there as possible.

But at this point, it's easy to say when it comes to Athena's decision making, she's neither, considering her current situation. The leaves crunched under her feet as she took another step closer, curiosity regrettably getting the better of her once again.

Reaching out she wanted to get its attention, as she often did in this dream. Before she could say anything, she heard something chanting with an inhuman voice. The voice wasn't coming from the figure before her. Instead she heard it all around.

  "Here in the forest, dark and deep, I offer you eternal sleep. Here in the forest, dark and deep, I offer you eternal sleep...."

   Every bone in her body told her to run but for some reason she stayed, putting a hand on the its shoulder. The chanting only grew louder and there were voices all around saying the same thing over and over again.

   "Here in the forest, dark and deep, I offer you eternal sleep. Here in the forest, dark and deep, I offer you eternal sleep...."

   It grew louder making it hard for her to hear her own thoughts. Taking off, she ran in the opposite direction. The voices wouldn't stop, sounding as if it were in her head now.

   She didn't get far although. She tripped suddenly, falling to the ground. Instead of hitting the leaves, she awoke in the soft comfort of her warm bed.

She sat up, the darkness of her room practically suffocating her. Athena gasped for air as she turned on the light next to her bed, fumbling with it a moment, she pulled the chain and the lamp lit up the bedroom. She let out a sigh of relief before running her fingers through her knotted hair.

She had been having this dream for weeks now. Her eyes watched the door, expecting her twin to burst through the door and comfort her. But alas, he didn't come. And he never would.

She laid her head back down on the pillow, afraid to even shut her eyes...

———————

"We can't keep doing this Nico." Athena bit down on her lip as her brother walked up to her. He wasn't supposed to be sneaking around like this but he did. She could only imagine what they'd do if they found out he was doing something like this.

"Who cares, they don't pay attention to me anymore", he paused and glanced around, as if trying to look for someone, "It's all about the new kid." He rolled his eyes as if he already hated this boy.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "New kid? Who is it? Is he cute?" Athena laughed, playfully elbowing her brothers arms.

He fought back a laugh and shook his head. "He's your type. Blonde hair, tall. Shit like that. His name is Michael Langdon."

As soon as those word left his mouth, she jumped away from the tree. She hadn't heard that name in forever it seemed. It was a name she knew so well.

"Michael Langdon? I-"

"They want him to be the next supreme. I overheard them talking. He's got some fucking power that's all I know." He crosses his arms and his sister knew him well enough. He was jealous. He wanted to be just as powerful as that but he was merely a level 1. A 2 on his better days. But she knew her own power and so did he. But he wasn't jealous of his own sibling by any means.

"The witches are pissed, the council came by the other day and they don't like this. A dude has never reached the level of power needed to be a supreme." He laughed slightly at his own words.

"This is...Interesting." Athena started working up a plan. A crazy one, but something that'd get her in with the witches. She'd have to join their sisterhood.

Nico seemed to know her wheels were spinning and before he could utter one word, she waved her hand. "I'm going to Miss Robichaux's Academy." New Orleans was a long ways from this but it was going to be worth it.

To get back to Michael.

Her brother seemed confused, slightly sad but he wasn't going to stop her. He had no IDEA about her connection to Michael and he never would. He merely pulled her in for a hug. 'I'll miss you."

She wrapped her arms around him, amusement filling her voice. "I'll be back soon. I promise brother." She pulled away and gave him one last look before disappearing into the forest.  Nichols watched her walk away, sadness filling his eyes. He was oblivious to her plans and it'd stay that way.

Before all of this, Michael had been there for her in ways that not even her brother had been. She loved her twin, yes. But Michael was...Something else. And hearing of him joining this school had her confused. At the time, he seemed like an innocent boy in need of someone to care for him.

She couldn't see him wanting to join with people like this.

The thought of a drastic change saddened her. Did he forget about her? Is this why he left? She couldn't be sure. But she's find out.

She was determined, one way or another.

———————

So this chapter was designed to introduce the characters and start to show history between Michael and Athena. HE WILL BE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER AND SO ON. SO, please stick with me those who choose to read it. I have plans for this book. There will be lots of good STUFF. I promise. Michael is just such a cool character I really wanna explore that and all the changes he goes through. And also, if you stick around you'll get to see baby boi Michael aka his semi innocent self. He's my fav I just-