5

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Raven fought her instincts to lash out at the arrangement. She was used to be paired with unwanted roommates. She knew better than think she deserved a preference but that did not mean she wanted to be roomed with a murderer. It had been a while since she had been so visibly afraid. One of the most important things that group homes taught her was: never show them your fear. It made you an easy target. People loved to prey on the weak! Try as she might, she failed to hide her discomfort from the stoic woman. She noticed my scared expression and let out an exasperated sigh; all the while glaring at me.

In an attempt to distract herself from the tension in the room, Raven looked around and admired her new digs. The room was quite tasteful. If one considers a medieval vampire's sleeping chamber to be tasteful. The floors were metal and cold. That was expected. The rest of the décor was not expected. There was an old-fashioned daytime reading chair and the ivory dresser draws and vintage free-standing cupboards on either side of the room along with two double beds. It was almost ironic how beautiful my new hell was. Everything was found in a pair. It was an ironic set up considering that she and "Lucifer" shared nothing in common. Aside from their wardrobe. Both of them seemed to have a deep affinity for dark clothing. Although, the older woman seemed to have a thing for leather.

The orphan briefly glanced at her roommate and studied her. Her scowl and general eerie aura suggested that she was someone who preferred solitude. Therefore, it was highly doubtful that she was too fond of the idea of sharing her private sanctuary. The glares and sore facial expressions made sense now. Raven had invaded in her personal space. Not by choice but… in the end, that did not seem to matter to the brooding woman lounging on her bed with a thick book in her hand.

"I'm sorry you have to share a room with me," Raven apologised in a soft voice. It was olive branch season in hell.

Raven did not want to further irritate her new roommate. Based on her earlier actions, the orphan couldn't afford to make an enemy of her. She needed to survive long enough to get out of this place. She needed to get back to Sage!

She made no attempt to speak or gesture that would insinuate that she had accepted my apology. Instead, she continued to scowl at Raven and then turn around to lie down on her bed. Both women were brooding on their respective sides of the room.

---

Raven's eyes fluttered open and for a second, she was unsure where she was. It was not an unfamiliar feeling to the orphan but it was not one that she ever got used to. The lights in the passage dripped into the room through the small window on top of the door. Perhaps, it meant that it was morning now.

She opened her eyes properly and sat up. It took a few minutes to readjust to her surroundings. The medieval décor was a stark reminder of the events of the past hours. She really was in hell. Raven jolted up when her eyes properly adjusted to the dim lighting of the room and saw a figure hovering above her. Lucifer stood next to my bed, towering over me with a semi-disgusted look on her face.

"You talk in your sleep," She accused in a stern voice.

The brunette's cold stare shot a shiver down Raven's spine: not the good kind. She was really living up to her name!

"I don't speak in my sleep," the silver and raven-haired girl retorted. She tried to match her tone as but failed miserably.

Lucifer continued to stare at her as she hastily got out of the bed and stood on the opposite side of the large, framed bed.

"Who is Sage? Who hurt her?" She seemed genuinely interested in knowing.

For a second, Raven was almost tempted to tell her but refrained at the last minute. She quickly remembered where she was. She did not trust her or anyone in this place to be quite frank. Especially not with the woman she loved. Although she was more than certain that Sage was not going to be harmed as long as she played by the rules of this place. She still didn't want to risk it.

Raven didn't reply at all. Instead, she asked her uncommonly talkative roommate where the bathroom was. She had not noticed it before the leather-clad Lucifer pointed it out. She thanked her made her way to the hidden room. The orphan was surprised to find all the toiletries that she needed was already packed carefully in the cabinet beneath and above the sink. She took a shower and made herself presentable for the day. The bathroom reminded her of Sage's house. Definitely more glamourous than any bathroom she'd ever had. Not that she'd ever had her own private bathroom before, or even one that she shared with only one other person.

Shaking the strange sense of gratitude building in her throat, She proceeded to get dressed. All of the clothing provided for her fit her perfectly and happened to match her preferred style to a 't'. Which mostly comprised of dark denims and sweater shirt combinations. Once dressed, she turned to find a very annoyed Lucifer leaning against the door frame. Raven followed her glaring roommate out of their room. Her foul attitude was irritating the orphan - as if she needs her dark mood to make this already depressed-looking place gloomier. The girl really needed to smile once in a while.

The orphan soon found herself back in the cafeteria with the same large group of children she had observed the day before. She tried to sit at the table Lucifer occupied alone but her warning glare informed her that she was not welcomed to join her. Raven was not a stranger to rejection and simply rolled her eyes before scanned the rest of the room.

Just as she was about to give up and leave, someone called her name. She saw Dagne waving her over with her hand. Despite her strangely flirty behaviour with her the previous day, Raven sucked it up and walked over to her table.

"Sit down, Raven. We won't bite," the blonde woman spoke in a teasing tone. The newcomer reluctantly sat beside her.

"Speak for yourself, Dagne. I might just take a bite out of her. This one is delicious," a sultry voice spoke from the opposite side of the table.

Raven almost stopped breathing when her eyes landed on the ebony-skinned goddess across the table from her. She was absolutely Gorgeous! In fact, that word did not do her justice. She had curly black hair with rich golden eyes and a smile that could shatter the heart of armies simultaneously.

"Aphrodite. And the pleasure is all mine. Well, if you play your cards right it could be yours too," spoke in a seductively low voice and winked at her. Aphrodite- the goddess of love, procreation, and most important beauty. It fit her perfectly! Raven couldn't help but ogle at her. The rest of the table erupted in laughter.

"Another innocent girl caught under your spell, Aphrodite," A booming voice came from a boy who was sitting beside her. The silver and raven-haired girl blushed at his comment. She recognised him from yesterday. He was the boy that Lucifer saved.

"She can't be that innocent if she wound up here with us. This place wasn't exactly built for girl scouts," A buffer boy snickered from behind Aphrodite. He motioned for her to get up. The dark-skinned beauty sat on his lap and the pair proceeded to shameless make-out. Everyone ignored the pair as if it was a normal occurrence. It would be near impossible to not notice the two gorgeous specimens in a heated lip lock. Raven cleared her throat and forced herself to look away.

"Well, Raven, since you're going to be with us for a while, I might as well introduce you to the crew," Dagne spoke close to my ear, as per usual. Every word she spoke sounded like a scripted line from an Erotica manual. "You've already met the most important person here, me. Then there's the sex goddess, Aphrodite, and her tonsil hockey partner, Silver. Then our cute supposed-to-be-dead-if-Luci-didn't-save-his-bacon Leech. Viper is to your right and Skin is sitting right next to Leech. Don't worry, nobody else here is worth remembering. Well, besides the sexy princess of darkness herself, a.k.a. your new roomy, Lucifer. let us not forget that last but not least we have our resident God, himself, Artemis.

All the names overwhelmed her but she tried to remember them.

"You got roomed with, Lucifer? You're the luckiest bitch alive, well if she lets you stay alive that is," the snake-named boy took a break from eating his girlfriend's face to say. Raven could hear the fear in his voice but also a rather evident amount of envy. Sure, Lucifer was beyond beautiful. A masterpiece really, but the hazel-eyed orphan didn't think her gloomy roommate's beauty was worth the risk of death.

She was about to respond the intercom interrupted them,

"Eat up children. We have a newcomer in our midst and if she survives the sorting process, I'm sure all of you will make her feel very welcomed. So, eat quickly and congregate in the training room. It's playtime!" Raven recognised the voice as Artemis. One thing that he said stood out to her. What did he mean when he said 'sorting process'?

"You heard the man, sexy, eat up and get ready to play. I hope that you get put on our team!" Dagne's excitement was clearly visible. Unlike the bubbly blonde, Raven was petrified.