Chapter 1
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Hi guys!
This is a short story I wrote for Underground Tales writing contest (https://www.wattpad.com/968071639-prompts-and-circumstance-contests-and-challenges). It takes place in the Warring Logics universe.
Happy reading!
Heather
****
I dread this part of the day the most.
“Cheers, mate!” one of my colleagues slaps my shoulder a little too hard.
“Hey, Patrick! Don’t forget it’s your turn to bring the donuts!” another calls out to me.
I just nod and wave my hand back at them. As I see their backs turn, I know it time to head home. The pub behind me had their last call an hour ago and the bartender is now mopping the sticky pub floor. Tomorrow was still a workday.
I spin on my heels and head towards the tube station. It’s a cold November day, colder than I like, and my breath puffs in front of me as I march to the Angel Underground Station. I pull my black coat tighter around me and cross my arms to keep in the warmth. I’ll need to dig out my thick winter coat soon.
Mary would’ve already insisted we take our winter gear out from their storage bins. I feel a stab of pain in my chest. Shit, Mary left me two months ago now and it still feels as raw as the day she left. Even the buzz from several pints doesn’t erase the dread of going home to an empty flat.
I enter the station with its too bright lights and make my way down the long escalators to the platform, the stale smell of tube air hitting me. Almost no one is around this evening, a testament to how cold it is.
The projector shows fourteen minutes until the next train and I could slap myself for not timing it better. I glance around the platform. A brave mouse rushes to grab a bit of food before scurrying back into the cracks. A blond woman in a thick white puffer coat stands near the end of the platform minding her own business.
Shit, thirteen minutes left. I shift from foot to foot before I decide to dig out my smartphone to play poker while I wait. I’m shit at it, but it’s either that or staring at the tiles that make up the subway walls.
I‘m trying to connect to my game when I hear a light giggle flutter through the flat air and echo off the walls. I tear my eyes away from my phone and look around for the source of the joyous sound.
At the end of the station, the woman in white is sitting on the ledge, her legs dangling above the tracks. I look around again to see if anyone else can handle this but we are alone. Shit.
“Excuse me” I call out to her as I stride towards her end of the platform.
I hear the giggle again as she uses her hands to lift off of the platform and jump onto the tracks. Double shit.
“Excuse me!” I call out louder as she stands up and begins skipping down the tracks.
I reach the edge of the platform next to her. I hastily glance both ways down the track expecting the train to arrive. When I see nothing, I reach out my arm towards her, “grab on!”
She turns sharply and I am stunned by her. Glowing pale blue eyes, pale complexion, round face, and hair so blond it could be considered white. She looks unearthly, unreal, like a goddess reborn.
She smirks at me and reaches her hand back to me, “I’m Angel”
“Right” I grab her hand and begin to pull the beautiful woman off of the tracks when she jerks me off of the platform and I fall.
It’s a quick tumble and now I am on lying on the tracks next to her standing figure, desperately hoping I remember which track is the live one. My hands are scraped, my suit pants are definably scratched, but my overriding thought is that we definitely need to get out of here.
She giggles again as I scramble to stand. This crazy woman will be the death of us both. My hands reach the ledge when she roughly grabs my arms and starts to drag me down the tracks.
Her strength is….. unhuman. I’m not the largest bloke, but I have a good few stone on her and it’s as if it’s the other way around.
I struggle against her, pulling my arm in the other direction. Shit, where is she taking me?
We reach the end of the platform and she continues into the darkness of the tunnel without stopping. Only a few steps in and I hear the rumble of the oncoming train. I start to panic pulling my arm violently and shouting. I can’t see anything except the light from the platform now several meters back and I can’t hear anything but the thunder of the oncoming train.
I trip over a rail as she pulls me through a side passage. A light flips on.
It’s a room filled with bookshelves and old furniture, a bed in the far corner, and several armchairs. A musty red rug covers the floor and cold gray stone walls.
“Welcome to my coven” she chuckles as she pulls me in.
Coven? My mind screams trying to make sense of what is happening, “I need to-“
She runs her slim fingers down the side of my face as she stares into my eyes, “there is no need, my love, you are safe now”
“What? No, I think-“
“Shhh” She whispers as she places a hand over my mouth “this will only pinch for a minute”
And then she smiles. Her teeth white gleam in the light and I see it. Her delicate fangs peeking over her red lips.
This is the last thing I remember. This and the sharp pain seizing my body and the coldness of the stone floor. This and that I will miss donut Friday in the office tomorrow. This and that I won’t ever return to my lonely flat.
Word count: 989
