Maleficium: Duo (Devil's Playground 2)

“Did you forget about the people running around somewhere in masks? There ain’t no way we can go in there,” Dion objected again, continuing to shake his head.

How many times was he going to say that? I got he might be scared. Most people would be. His girlfriend was missing, though. Shouldn’t he already have been sprinting by me to go find her?

“I’m sorry to break it to you, but we don’t have a choice. Do you want to find Morrigan or not?”

“Of course…that’s all I want.”

I quirked a brow.

He hesitated a second too long to answer the question, in my opinion. Why was that something he needed to think about? If your man wasn’t willing to burn down a city to save you, maybe it was time to get a new one. But I wasn’t in any position to hand out relationship advice, for obvious reasons, so I let the hesitation slide.

“If that’s what you really want then keep your guard up and follow me.”

I stepped through the gates first, allowing him to be my shadow. Unsurprisingly, they slammed shut as soon as we were both inside.

“Did we just get locked in here?”

“Yup.” I popped my lips on the P.

“Why aren’t you scared or freaking out yet?”

“What exactly am I supposed to be afraid of?”

“Huh? Everything! What about those people that took us? They could still be around here somewhere.”

My mouth opened and closed, me quickly biting back the reply that came to mind. I nearly told him that wasn’t how I wound up here. He didn’t need to know that yet. The people responsible for taking him, however, I could almost bet that they were indeed still lurking nearby.

I was looking forward to coming across a few of those individuals. I had a hunch a certain someone was an active member in their sordid crew. I couldn’t tell Dion this either, though. If I did then I’d have to explain things I wasn’t ready to talk about.

“I’m not afraid because I already went through this before,” I settled with disclosing.

He moved up so that we were side by side.

“Wait a minute. Whatcha mean you went through this before? I thought you got kidnapped like I did.”

“How I got here isn’t important right now but believe me, I’m not here willingly and I don’t know anything more about this city than you do right now.”

“Can you explain this a bit more? I’m feeling like I just entered the twilight zone.”

I expelled a quiet breath of air. Anything I told him would only lead to more questions. Questions that I couldn’t or wouldn’t answer. The simple fact of the matter was, he would never understand the complexity of this situation. We were caught in a deadly web of lies, secrets, and deceit. So much so that I didn’t know where to begin untangling it my damn self.

“I’m going to make this super simple for you, okay?”

“Okay?”

“No one is coming to save us. I need you to stop trying to make sense of insanity. Suspend reality. Don’t trust anything you see or anyone. There are people in here that will shred you apart and then laugh as you choke on your own blood.”

Using a piece of Kyrous advice was irony at its finest, but I think it got the job done and drove my point home. I expected him to ramble for a little after my explanation. He simply grew quiet.

We ventured deeper into the city and once again, I was struck with a feeling of deJa’vu. The buildings, pristine roads, and various places of business were different than Goetia’s, but the amount of money and effort that went into constructing them was clearly the same.

With blackness now devouring the starless sky, a lone moon and glowing streetlights helped guide us.

Our bleak reflections stared back at us from either side of the road, looking none too thrilled about this current predicament.

“There’s another map,” Dion said softly, pointing to what appeared to be a bus stop.

They’d really thought of everything for this place. Behind an all-black bench was indeed another map, this one with a visibly blinking location.

“That will tell us where to go first.”

I crossed the street so I could see better, he followed. Upon reaching the map Ciaran’s voice resounded inside my head as I looked the layout over.

“You see the black dots?”

I almost nodded as if he were right beside me. I could’ve backhanded myself for continuing to think of him.

I walked the dotted path with my eyes until I found my X marked treasure. “School of Abyss.” I tapped the blinking icon, so Dion knew where to look.

“That doesn’t sound like someplace people should go. Let me guess, we don’t have a choice?”

“Not unless you want to wait here and see which crazed psycho decides to come find us.”