TAXI driver (HIATUS)

03

Lola quickly slammed shut the taxi door to avoid freezing to death but still blatantly shivered in the back seat.

Teddy watched her from the rear mirror as he started the engine, "You'd like me to turn up the heat?"

"No, I'm warm thank you."

Teddy could hear her teeth clattering echo around the car, "You sure Lola?"

"I'm warm, thanks." She hissed, pulling the scarf up to wrap around her mouth. All Teddy could remember was the death threat Dante had promised if Lola got hurt, so he turned up the heater as inconspicuously as he could while pretending to adjust the radio.

"Music?"

"... I don't listen to pop."

"Okay," Teddy racked his brain for something else to say as he drove the car around a bend. He liked to keep a conversation going between his client and get to know who he was dealing. Especially when it came to supernaturals.

"I don't like music," Lola broke the silence first, "When Dante plays the viola, my ears bleed. I don't think they could handle modern-day pop."

"You've never heard Rhianna or Ed Sheeran?"

"What's Riana?"

Teddy looked at her through the rear mirror, startled.

As the Pheonix began its way out of Leytonstone again, Teddy turned on 'Rolling in the Deep'.

Lola looked alarmed as a woman's voice filled the cab; deep, crisp and clear. It was one of Teddy's least favourites, but he'd left his other albums in the boot, so it'll have to do.

'There's a fire starting in my heart
Reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out the dark'

Teddy stopped at a red light, the first one all day.

"Is this a Rhiana?"

Teddy grinned at her inexperience, "No, it's by a woman called Adele. Rhianna's also a female pop star."

"Oh."

When the song ended, Lola looked as though she was deep in thought, "Are all pop stars like this?"

Teddy turned the cab right and had to stop at another red signal. Suddenly, they seemed to be popping out of nowhere.

"Why, is it bad?" Teddy wondered.

"No, it's... different, especially from opera and Dante's viola. It's layered and complicated and I think I like it." Lola confessed, pushing herself deeper into the leather.

Her large scarf looked ridiculously warm and her black hair simmered a stark contrast to the colourful wool. Its match was the one Dante was wearing, and if Teddy had guessed correctly, Lola hadn't voluntarily put it on.

It seemed as though Lolamerra Dragos was kept well guarded and close by her parents and brother. What teenager hadn't heard of Adele or anything other than a... Viola?

Whatever her family was sheltering her from, it was serious.

The signal didn't seem to be turning green anytime soon, putting Teddy on edge. The earlier sensation of strangeness and Evil was slowly encompassing the taxi again.

"No, not all artists are like Adele. Justin Beiber's 'Baby' for instance."

But Lola wasn't listening to him anymore, her sharp yellow eyes were trained on the window, "Do you feel that?"

As soon as the words left her, three tabby cats jumped onto the front of the Pheonix and gave him wide-smiles through the windshield, presenting rows upon rows of wicked little teeth.

Ghost cats.

Those tiny transparent bastards had found him.