Not a great time for reunion!!...

*Behind every woman, there is a hot man with a boner!!...*

**Proserpina**
“Can you handle them, or do you need my help?” I asked stranger. He gave me a look as if I had grown another head. Then he moved so swiftly that I barely caught sight of him. I only saw a guard fall silently to the floor with a blade sticking out of his neck.
“I’m taking that as a no then,” I spoke while ignoring the other guards, as I was sure they would be taken care of with their heads facing the wrong way.
I looked over the bars of the cell where Mira was held as a prisoner. She was running at me, but what if she called me Proserpina in front of the stranger? He will hand me over to my uncle if he knows my identity. I must hide my real identity to survive.
“Jericho!?” My stranger froze his killing spree for a second to look over a shadowed man imprisoned in an adjacent cell. Mira was still running, only about a second away from screaming my real name.
‘Think something!’ I reminded myself while looking over at the stranger, Mira and then the man called Jericho. Then, a thought hit me.
I looked over to the man Jericho and shouted, garnering his attention, “Hey Jericho. I’m Kora. K.O.R.A. My name is Kora.” I spoke the last sentence looking over at Mira, silently hinting to her to play along. She looked dumbfounded, but she quickly understood.
“Kora… K.O.R.A. My Kora!!” she screamed, getting dramatic. I gave her a reprimanding glare to stop what she was doing.
Jericho looked amused as if some rom-com was going on. Then he looked at the stranger and called him out, “Hades! You’re back!”
*The stranger’s name was ‘Hades’!*
“Who is this sexiest sight I had ever seen in the flesh?” Mira asked, looking at Hades while nudging at my elbows. I lean around to catch a better sight of him. His trousers fit him like he was born to wear them, giving a vibe of ‘I don’t care, I don’t dress for you.’ I wished it was a little tighter so I could see more. I was not thinking about him getting naked or anything; just saying! God, what was wrong with me? I was never like this before, and it was as if I was finally catching up on the horny teenage years I had missed.
On top of that, the constant rippling of his muscles had me nearly salivating. My eyes widened in surprise when he suddenly appeared behind another dumbfounded guard. The guard turned as he must have felt a presence behind him too. He tried to spear him in the gut with his dirty knife, but Hades sidestepped, grabbed the guard’s arm, and thrust the knife into his joint. The guard howled in pain and held his arm to his chest like a wounded dog tucking in his damaged limb.
“Who? How? When? Start with how?” Jericho asked Hades while looking at me.
“It’s a long story, brother, and the one I’ll most likely tell over a drink,” Hades spoke. Then he spun around and kicked a clumsy guard to the bars, hitting his back hard, and he fell to his knees. The next sound was the sickening snap of the bone.
“Understood,” Jericho said, beaming at the sight of me. I ignored Jericho and turned around to Hades. My heart raced by looking at those handsome, hard lines on his face. Those thick, muscled biceps, the rugged ridges of his stomach. God, did this man have a single place on his body that was soft? ‘Nope, not going to that part of the male anatomy down there’ I mentally shook myself off these desperate thoughts. He reminded me of some sleek jungle dog, ready to pounce. His entire body was made for speed and agility like a deadly predator. But the most fascinating thing about him was those deadly yellow eyes, giving him an exotic look.
“Do you mind opening the lock?” When Hades spoke, I did a double take. Was he talking to me?
“Uh…,” was the only sound I made. If I thought his smirk was sexy, then his frown was the stuff of legends.
“It’s not a trick question, Raven!” He whispered down to me with a frown.
“Yep. I can…I will…I now. I will do it now!” I spoke in a confused tone, and he frowned again. He threw the key that must have been snatched from the guard. And I was rewarded with the full frontal view of those long legs encased in the dark trousers.
“Oh my,” came a sigh from my left. I could see Mira drooling over Hades as well.
“What did you say?” I gave her a reprimanding glare warning her that ‘He’s only mine’.
“Oh, my brother!” Mira retorted, trying too hard to control her teasing laugh.
“That’s better!” I conveyed to her in a tone that screamed, ‘She is forbidden to drool over Hades’.
I opened the locks of the cell, whereas Hades twisted the last guard around, pressed his face against the bars, and jerked his body sideways, pushing him onto the floor.
“Get out!” Hades ordered sternly. We all rushed out of the passage till we reached a dead wall. Justina-the bitch was lying about the escape door in the basement.
“We’re dead!” Mira snapped, looking at the wall ahead.
“Not yet; I know of a secret passage,” I spoke, and all three looked at me as if I’d grown vampire wings. But, since there was no time to argue, so luckily, none of them counter-questioned me, instead deciding to follow me.
We made it through the corridors, heading to the door that led to the attic. The door was carved with a fiery war scene between werewolves and vampires. A three-headed wolf was leading the army of werewolves. My eyes wandered to Hades, unsure if it was my instinct, but I always associated Hades with my three-headed wolf. I didn’t miss that Hades was also uncomfortable looking at the carvings.
“Creepy,” Mira spoke.
“It’s not creepy. It’s beautiful.” I told her as always searching for myself in these carvings. My dreams always show that I was on that battlefield, a lonely and wounded girl watching the war with fearsome eyes as if I had an important role to play.
“How do you know of this door?” Hades asked in his usual dry tone.
“You get the concept of gratitude if the person tries to help? Right?” I gave him a befitted reply. Hades looked at me as if he was just one step away from becoming evil, while Jericho seemed amused. He had this unusually pale skin and icy blue eyes, reminding me of vampires.
“Oh…come on now!” Mira spoke.
Jericho pushed the door.
“What…is this…place?” Mira’s jaw dropped in astonishment. The room looked like a dressing room. And the wall which opened to the secret tunnel looked different. Of course, my uncle must have sealed the passage. How stupid of me!
“Kora, you need to change. Your dress looks more like an invitation card to vampires!” Mira spoke, looking over at my dress. She was correct; it looked more crimson than its original white colour. Those blood stains must be why I was attracting all sorts of creatures. We both stepped behind the curtain and changed. They must be looking for someone in a blood-stained white dress. So, I need to disguise myself. I wore a beautiful costume that made me feel as if I was catapulted into some gothic fairytale.
“You look like the red-riding hood,” Mira spoke, beaming over me.
“I could only hope that I didn’t end up being eaten by the wolf,” I spoke while adjusting the puffy red sleeve from falling off my shoulder. Flowy red silk twirled around my body like liquid, with a velvet hood flapping on my back.
“You should be more worried about being ravished by the wolf before being eaten!” Mira spoke. Jericho whistled at Hades as if some silent conversation was going on between them, whereas Hades was fuming and just one step away from killing Jericho.
I thought about Justina wearing the princess dress and Hades looking at her questionably. I don’t know why, but I felt jealous when Hades looked at anyone else.
“Are you both done yet or...?” Hades was losing his patience with each passing second.
“Or what, big bad wolf?” Mira snapped. Hades was taken aback for a second and then glanced at Jericho, who, in turn, chuckled. I could tell that there was something they both were hiding. Hades’s eyes glowed slightly, and he got close and took hold of my chin before whispering, “Or those black shadows will push you to death...and the big bad wolf won’t be able to do a thing...trust me on that, Raven.”
I gulped, whereas Mira dropped her sassy guard. Jericho leaned enough towards Mira and said, “That’s our cue to run!”
“Jerk!” She rolled her eyes at Jericho, then turned to me and said, “Men are assholes, don’t you think?” I gave her a wince and retorted while looking at Hades, “You might be right about that.” In his frustration, he smashed his hand into the wall. The front pieces of the wall crumbled, and an echo ran through the room. Hades punched his hands again at the wall, and the whole thing crumbled. We found an entire section of another wall behind the rumble.
My nerves froze as my eyes fell on a broken frame on the floor. The cracks in the frame were enough to break my heart.
“Mom-Dad”. I said in such a tender tone as if I was almost crying. They were, without a doubt, the best parents any child could ever have hoped for. Many years have passed since I saw them, and there has not been a day when I don’t miss them. Our life was a perfect fairytale, but something awful happened, and our little world was destroyed.
Mira quickly sensed my pain and tightly held my hand.
“Now I can see from where you got that sexy piece of D.N.A., you pretty lass!” She muttered quietly, making me giggle.
“I’m gonna say that once we are out of this shit, you both will get a lot of time to bond.” Hades reminded us.
“That’s probably best, yes.” Mira grinned, almost close to swooning. I glared, reminding her that ‘Hades belongs to me.’ Then I dug my fingers through the crack and pulled back the wall, revealing a tunnel.
Our gateway to escape!!
A loud screeching sound echoed through the room.
“Vampires! Run into the tunnel!” Hades screamed, blocking the nightmarish predators.

*Every broken thing reminds me of my gloomy fairytale!!...*