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strangers

I entered Stygian clan territory behind Niko, meeting in the early hours of the morning at the Underworld Bar, much too early for me.

He wasn’t originally going to bring me, and I don’t know why he changed his mind.

I just wanted to crawl back in the comforts of my bed, but unfortunately I had school after this.

The Underworld Bar was located in the West side of the city, owned by the Mov clan. The entire place was drenched in their colour; purple. Though meant to be a neutral ground for all clansmen and those involved in criminal activity, the perfect place to negotiate and make deals with just two rules:

No fights. No weapons.

Kokkino clansmen guarded the outside perimeters of the place, with Mov clansmen inside cleaning up from the aftermath of the night before and preparing for the night to come.

A few passed out women were strewn about on purple leather sofa and the stage, leaning on one another with money poking out from under their revealing purple dresses, their skin stained with glitter.

A bartender, using a cloth to shine the glass in his hand, stared at us and gave us a polite nod when we made eye contact.

Another man walked around with a mop, scrubbing the glitter and grime off the dark purple marbled floors.

The amount of purple in this room was sickening.

We walked past a few empty booths and one with a girl laid on her back on the sofa, her head hanging off the edge as she read a book. She was wearing an oversized hoodie and loose pants, as though she had just rolled out of bed. She didn’t acknowledge us coming in like the others in the room did.

“Reaper,” I muttered to Niko as we passed her. So, she does have more than one outfit.

He nodded, not really caring for her at that moment, too occupied in his own thoughts. “Stay out here.”

What was the point of me coming?

I sat in a booth in the corner, still able to see Reaper from where I sat, on the other side, three booths down.

She flipped a page. Does she know I am here, or does she just not care?

I squinted my eyes to get a look at the title, but couldn't make it out.

She let out a small breath and closed her eyes.

In Soulesity, adulthood is marked at the age of twenty, coinciding with the maturation of immortals.

At this age, their powers and physical features begin to emerge, resembling a sort of puberty.

Development continues until they reach twenty-five, at which point they stop ageing altogether.

For Reaper, who is just seventeen, this means she can navigate the world with relative freedom and minimal consequences, as few would dare to harm someone who has not yet crossed into adulthood.

The bartender approached Reaper with a glass of ice and either alcohol or apple juice, and a straw. He set it down on her table, before tapping her head to let her know, and left.

Turning her head, Reaper locked eyes with me, no doubt feeling my stare. Her lips curved up into a slight smile, and I couldn’t catch my breath until she finally pulled her gaze away.

She reached for her book, searching and flipping the pages before ripping a certain part of it. Taking a knife from her thigh strap, she stabbed her blade through the paper and flung it towards me .

I didn’t flinch when it hit the wall, just barely grazing my neck, leaving a tiny scratch with a sliver of blood. Reaper seemed entertained with my lack of a reaction, sipping on her drink, unfazed that she just drew blood from the Vulture.

Pulling the knife from the wall, I looked at the paper.

Hello.

My brain fumbled for a way to respond that was just as memorable. But luckily, Niko came out of the meeting room, cautiously looking around, giving me the signal that he was ready to leave. I stood up, letting Niko go ahead of me as I slipped the bit of paper into my pocket.

Stopping in front of Reaper's table, I set her knife on top of her book and took her glass, taking a tiny sip of it.

Apple juice. As I put the glass down, she lifted her knife and licked the tiny bit of my blood off it, meeting my eyes with something playful.

A cold feeling coursed through my veins at her audacity, and my eyes narrowed.

Are you sure, Reaper?

Maybe she doesn't know what she did. Drawing blood from someone ranked superior to you in the Underworld is challenge and she further mocked me by licking my blood, as if she owned me.

But just because she was named doesn't mean she's been ranked, only that she's growing quickly with a unique style of her own indicating her work.

I shook my head, rolling my eyes and shoving my hands in my pockets.

My butterfly knife rubbed between my fingers, tempting me to put her in her place, to stop this before it’s even begun.

It’s too early to deal with this. Unluckily for Reaper, I too am seventeen.

So if it is a game she wants, I'll bring the war.

I caught up with Niko outside the bar and didn’t ask what he had discussed with Silias. He was angry, but it didn’t quite mask his fear, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

** *

Most of us grew up together, had parents that were friends, grandparents that were friends, and so on and so forth.

We could get away with anything just because of the number of digits in our bank accounts.

Old money. Of all the schools in Soulesity, this one held most of the wealthier clan children, mostly from Hriso and Prassino.

Mov clan children weren’t usually wealthy and liked to stick together, so the majority resided in the West side of the city.

The Kokkino clan were too violent and didn’t live long enough to have children.

As for the non-Stygian clan children, there were only a few in this school, as other clans were normally Etherian and this wasn’t an Etherian school.

So it was extremely rare for new students to enrol.

The new transfer student was in her final year of high school with me.

And she brought a lot of talk. Reported missing for almost four years, she suddenly shows up, three weeks into the start of the school year, out of nowhere.

I didn’t really keep up with the news, unless it had to do with the Underworld, but her face was plastered all over the city when she first disappeared.

I was put into a coma two days after it was announced, so I was too busy healing to care.

Though, she was all anyone could talk about today.

The Underworld has a strict rule that nearly everyone follows; no harm comes to children.

So, we were all disgusted to hear that this twelve-year-old girl was killed by a sixteen-year-old boy who relentlessly claimed they were ‘just friends’, but it was obvious she was groomed by him.

She was the city’s golden Senator's daughter, so of course it was a big scandal.

But honestly, who cares? People go missing all the time in this city.

And yet, when everyone was proven wrong about her being dead, no one had come forward to apologize to the boy who had served time for it.

We had an assembly the day before she came, warning us not to ask her about her disappearance because it would be a sensitive topic. As if anyone would actually listen. Everyone was curious, even had their own theories .

“Oi, oi. Did you see the new girl?” Jamiel asked at our table during lunch. We sat outside behind the school so we could smoke.

“No, is she cute?” Galinthias asked. He was the only one of us who didn’t smoke.

“Very.” Jamiel’s eyes sparked.

“It’s the Vicary daughter, right? The one who went missing?” Lin clarified. He luckily missed the assembly.

Completely disinterested in the topic, I looked at my chipped nail polish, always black, accessorised with multiple silver rings.

Maybe I should invest in better quality nail polish .

Redoing them nearly every day was becoming annoying.

Though the chips matched the heavy calluses on my palms and cuts and bruising on my knuckles.

Until I stop fighting, they would permanently be there.

Iri nodded. “She’s super popular already.”

“Unsurprising. You saw her, didn’t you?” Jamiel sighed. “Never thought someone like that existed.”

“She looks so different from her photos.” Iri smiled.

“Obviously. Those photos are nearly a decade old,” Jamiel replied.

They used a photo from when she was nine years old on her missing posters. Apparently, the Vicarys didn’t have a more recent photo that clearly showed her face.

I blew out a cloud of smoke. “Big deal,” I muttered. “She’s just another annoying teenage girl.”

“Hey!” Iri shot me a glare, but I didn’t take my words back.

Iri and Jamiel exchanged looks.

“Finish your cig,” Jamiel demanded.

I rolled my eyes and just as my cigarette burnt into a stump, they grabbed me, pulling me with them. “Let go, I can walk. ”

Hands in my pockets, I smirked at Jamiel in Iri’s skirt.

They liked to switch bottoms, a small change to the uniforms we had to wear.

Red trousers or skirts and black button-up shirts with a red tie or ribbon, and optional black jacket.

I always wore my tie loose and jackets were too warm for me; I prefer the cold.

“Bet she’ll shock you,” Iri gambled.

“Bet she won’t,” I mumbled.

Lin and I followed Iri and Jamiel around the cafeteria, but I guess they didn’t spot the new girl, so we went to the twelfth-grade hallway where they shoved each other to get to the girl.

I couldn’t see her with the three crowding around her, but her locker was right next to Jamiel’s at the opposite end of the hall from mine.

Lin couldn’t even speak, so taken by her, apparently.

“Hey, I’m Jamiel, the fun one.”

“Angels above, Jamiel.” Iri shook her head before turning back to the girl. “Hi, my name’s Iri.”

“And I’m Lin,” Galinthias quickly blurted out in almost a shout.