The Arrival of Doom.

I met his gaze, anger burning wildly inside of me along with something else, as I became aware of just exactly how close our bodies were.

"Um..." Brittany pried her hand from my hold, eyes darting between Vasilis and I as she took a step back, as though she wasn't willing to get caught up in whatever was going on with us.

"I think I'll leave you two alone to...talk," she said and then she was gone, dashing through the walkways and out of the garden before I could utter a word against her leaving me alone here.

Seriously...

"Are you mad at me?" Vasilis began immediately Brittany was gone, his hold on my wrist tightening subtly as he steered me so I was standing directly in front of him.

Was I mad at him? Seriously?

A disbelieving scoff escaped my lips as I glared him down, but he continued before I could speak.

"Look, I'm sorry I just left like that on Saturday. Something came up and...and I didn't have enough time to explain. But I'm sorry. I really am."

He scratched his head, a guilty look replacing the coldness in his eyes now that it was just the two of us.

I simply stood there, watching him in utter disbelief. Was he being for real? He's apologizing for leaving?

"Please say something," He pleaded, face crumbling into a soft pile of regret, and I was almost convinced he truly didn't know what he did. 

"You slammed me into the fucking table, Vasilis!" I began, unable to keep a lid on my anger any longer.

"And then you vanished! You fucking disappeared into thin air right in front of my eyes! And I've been trying to make sense of it all week, and all I've arrived at are two conclusions. The first, being that you were so revolted by the idea of me kissing you, that it made you slam me into the fucking table, and then bolt out of my house! And the second conclusion being, that I'm simply losing my mind and you didn't disappear like some fucking sci-fi speed phantom, which would mean that I belong behind padded fucking walls!"

I was on a roll. I couldn't stop. My lungs burned with adrenaline infused anger, and the burning need to find some clarity within the pile of messy thoughts in my head.

"So, unless you have a better explanation that doesn't involve my mind being unstable, then you better start talking now, before I return the favour and punch your fucking teeth down your throat!" I seethed, and I meant it. Even though alongside wanting to punch him, I also wanted to kiss him.

Ugh.

It's

Silence reigned. My chest heaved from the aftermath of my rant, my adrenaline and anger slowly settling as I watched Vasilis seem to go through all the stages of grief in the span of a minute.

"I...I hurt you?" His voice came out strangled, as though saying the words caused him immeasurable pain, and I felt my heart begin to collapse at the look of utter despair on his face.

His hand that was holding on to mine slipped away, and I missed it immediately.

I reached for him again, my anger now nothing but a simpering pile of nothing in the pits of my stomach.

"I mean, under the right circumstances, being slammed against a table would have been hot," I shrugged, attempting a dirty joke to lighten the mood, but Vasilis's expression remained crestfallen. He looked like he wanted to ram his own head into a boulder.

"Fuck!" He cursed softly. "I'm so sorry, Jade. I...didn't mean to. I didn't even know I...God, I'm so sorry."

His eyes were starting to fill with tears, and I shook my head as I took his hands in mine.

"No, no. It's fine. It's okay, it wasn't actually that painful. I was just...shocked." I lied, despite my back still being sore. "I just-"

I didn't know what else to say to relieve him of his guilt.

I mean, he truly seemed apologetic. I just wanted to understand why he did it in the first place because he definitely didn't seem like the violent type, but you never know.

"What happened to you?" I finally asked, throwing a million questions into that one question because I truly needed to know what the fuck was going on, and whether I needed to start seeing a psychiatrist before things got worse.

"I..." He began, then stopped, as if at a war with himself. "I can't tell you." He finished, and my brow shot up as I eyed him for a moment.

"Are you on drugs?" I finally asked, eyes narrowed.

That would definitely make sense. If he was on drugs and was maybe going through withdrawals, then it would explain his erratic behavior on Saturday.

"No," he answered with a frown, as though he found my question to be a personal affront. "No, I'm not on drugs. I just..." He stopped and pulled his hands from mine to run them through his hair.

"It's hard to explain. And you wouldn't understand anyway," he sighed, and my brow shot up again in steaming indignation.

"Are you undermining my intellectual capabilities?"

This made a smile appear on his face, and he shook his head. "No. Not at at all. You're probably the most intelligent person I've ever met, Jade." He said, and I shrugged to hide my grin.

"So, go ahead then. Try your best to explain," I waved a hand to urge him on, and he opened his mouth to say something. But just at that moment, the patch of white Asters Brittany had been standing by only minutes ago began to wither.

The bright white and pale yellow of their petals turned black and shriveled up into dust right before my eyes, and a thick mist of white fog began crawling all over the garden floor, covering my boots and inching slowly up my ankles.

The sun had disappeared behind clouds in the sky above, and a thick veil of darkness seemed to have thrown its blanket over the world.

A familiar chill awakened in my spine.

Vasilis pulled my back against his chest, wrapping his arms around me protectively as something, or rather, someone jumped out of the garden path that rolled off to my left.

Heart in my throat and eyes flared wide, I gasped as the person came into proper view.

"Sorry, love. Didn't mean to startle you!"

She drawled in a slow, crawling, seductive voice that made me clutch Vasilis's arm tightly, heart still racing in my chest as I took in the sight of the stranger standing in front of us with a blinding smile on her face.

She was drop dead gorgeous, with wild, wavy black hair that flowed all the way to her luscious, curvy hips. Her sandy, exquisitely tanned skin held a luminous glow to it, and I could just tell she smelled immaculately good despite the distance between us.

Her deep-set eyes were dark whirlpools of provocative opalescence, shimmering ebony and then jade-green as she took a step closer.

The shadows seemed to move along with every step she took.

"Hello, loves!" She held a hand out in front of me, her glimmering dark eyes darting between Vasilis and I.

I noticed she had a slightly different variety of the same black ring I'd seen on Vasilis and Roman, sitting on her middle finger.

"I'm Soren Hermès. Pleasure to meet you both!" She grinned and my muscles seemed to recoil in...fear?

"Jade," I said as I let go of Vasilis and took her outstretched hand against all better judgement. "Jade Eadwald."

The chill I'd been feeling in my spine all week settled calmly within my bones as her fingers wrapped around mine, like a snake curling comfortably around a tree.

With a resounding, knee-cracking finality, something buried somewhere deep inside me made it known to me, that doom had just arrived, and I was shaking hands with her.