Hidden In The Dark (IN EDITING)

Get Down

"Okay time out, I'm not a machine." I pant out, my face now slick with sweat as I collapsed on the ground. Literally every inch of my body ached and I was internally grateful that the floor was cold against my back. For the first time in forever there was an expression faintly lined across Vali's face....but of course it just had to be amusement caused by my lack of athleticism.

"This is extremely satisfying to watch." His voice rumbles out causing me to scoff before rolling over and jumping up.... well I mean attempting to jump up, but I just look like a slug dragging across the floor.

"You could be doing it with me but your sitting on the side just watching. So shut up."

"Again."

"Uh sir-

"Again." I roll my eyes and stand up, my eyes feel hard against him but his face is nothing short of amusement still.

"If you weren't a higher-whatever you call it- I would shove my middle finger in your face right now." I grab the pull up bar and steady my shaky arms, my muscles constrict as I pull myself up and I focus myself on something other than the burning sensation in my limbs.

"Faster."

"You-you're joking right." My teeth grit when he glares at me and my arms pull me up at a faster pace, my chin reached above the bar and I lower myself again. "Pull your legs together you look like dangling off the side of a bridge." Laughter erupts from my throat and I lose focus at the task at hand...literally. My hand slips off and I scramble to get it back up but I can't get a good grip on the bar.

An old memory of the monkey bars at school plays through my head and I through my legs over the bar, my knees cradle the metal object and I hang upside down causing the blood to flow slowly to my head. I look around to see Vali looking firmly around the warehouse, my breathing stops at the gesture, I go to ask him what's wrong.

"Vali what's wr-

"GET DOWN!" I can't even comprehend anything before he runs over, tears me down and shields me on the floor. Every rickety window in the warehouse blows apart all at once, the shards of glass land inches from us with a loud clash. The ceiling rumbles and crumbles above us, Vali blocks my sight so I imagine what it looks like, it feels like eternity waiting for it to hit us.

"RUN!"

I get up and take off as fast as I can towards the exit, when I look back I see Vali laying on the ground as the ceiling crashes down. I stop in my tracks at the large door, my breathing ceased while my hands cup my face in shock.

"Vali?" My voice is shaken up by the previous events, and somewhere in my mind I'm worried about Vali. The silence was the most horrific unsettling thing I've ever endured. I watch as the rubble moves and a figure stands, the lights on the ceiling lay in pieces along with everything else.

"Vali?"

"Αυτό ήταν διασκεδαστικό." I hear a familiar velvet voice rumble out, I exhale roughly and watch as he makes his way over to me. Somehow he doesn't have dust or soot covering his face in streaks, but there is a large piece of glass wedged into his side. (Translation: That was fun.)

"You have a piece of glass in your side." I point to it but he doesn't look down.

"I'm quite aware." I nod my head and flinch when he grabs it and starts pulling it out. "Woah hold up um that's not right." He doesn't listen and just keeps pulling it out further, I see black liquid drip down the sharp edges making my eyebrows shoot up.

"So uhh you have black blood?" He gets it out and turns around, his back towards me covered in shards of glass. I gasp and cringe at the sight, "pull them out."

"ME?"

"DO IT!"

I walk up to him and lightly touch the glass before recoiling away. I work up the courage to pull one out and pick up speed when he doesn't show any sign of pain, I make it to the biggest one that looks as if it's wedged deep in his spine. He gruffs out a noise when I touch it and I immediately stop.

"Rip my shirt around the glass." He grits out, like he is trying to control something within him. I tear his shirt from underneath the glass all the way down to the bottom. He grabs the collar and pulls it over his head in a quick swift motion, revealing an extremely muscle filled back covered in deep cuts.

His blood wasn't just black, it had a luminescent glow to it as it flowed out the wounds. Overlooking the cuts and blood, I see a long dark marking travel down his spine in an expert snakely curve just ending before the rim of his pants. The bold ink has text lining the outskirts of the line, in a different language.

"Pull it." I grab it and pull it, ignoring the resistance and the sound of flesh getting cut. Once I get it out Vali bows his head and does something, whatever it is makes his back rapidly heal in front of my eyes.

"I think I need a long nap." I breathe out and walk away from the building after giving it one last glance. My stomach is at the verge of upturning last night's smoothie, my skin covered in now cold sweat.

Vali's footsteps don't sound from behind but my ego won't let me turn around to see why he isn't following. The cold tingly air nips at my skin like a fly that just won't leave your mouthwatering food alone.

The lovely not-so-loved town that surrounds me is only a shadow of what it used to be. A town of bright skies and bright colorful personalities filled each that smelled the light sense of freedom, sweetness, and the reminiscence of salt water.

But now it all felt...empty. Like someone took the skies and colored them gray, sucked the happiness from everyone's faces and covered the old beauty. Even though it was still beautiful, what I was looking at was just a shell of the town I call home.

The ground beneath me is hard and rough, probably from the bipolar weather and the feet that have walked on it. Once you think about everything around you like that.... It makes you realize just how crazy life is.

My vision cuts and flickers to an unknown scene before me. An open room the size of a football field sits in a disaster before me.

Lights dangle from the ceiling above at an odd angle, flickering on and off continuously. Chairs and tables that are covered in spool amounts of red ribbon, how ironic, lay scattered around the room flipped upside down or on their side. Some looked as if they were thrown at the walls by an unnatural force. The decorations that hung on the wall now drag on the floor.

The silence screams danger, guilt, sadness, and anger. The previously fine kept floors are doused in blood of who are unknown. An eerie feeling collapses down on my lungs when I hear a light pained whimper coming from a place in the room.

I step over demolished decorations and puddles of blood as I follow the quiet sound. My body freezes when I see a woman on the floor, her hand trying to stop the blood from flowing out of a wound that starts below her breast and ends at her hip bone. The beautiful black slim fit mermaid dress is torn in the front and covered in dark red liquid.

The girl's hair cascades around her in luscious strands, though some have been ripped from the rest and now float off on their own.

I don't even look at her face fully until my heart wrenches at the sight of blood pooling out the corners of her mouth. Her eyes are a sad far-off look, no tears gather at the corners of her lids. A ragged breath escapes past the border of my lips once I realize who the woman is.

Me.