Chapter 3 - 3

Artemis dissolved into the emptiness.

The door to the metal room opened. It revealed a seemingly endless passage. It would seem that this place was infamous for its frustrating displays of infinity.

Raven took a few timid steps out of the padded room and into the passage. The sickly dim lights caught her eyes immediately. They were almost like the chandelier but only in the most med-evil sense. They weren't the usual lights one would expect to find in the passages of a secret lair. That was not to say that Raven possessed any knowledge of interior design for secret lairs. In all honesty, she associated the corridor with the dimly lit rooms at the government social service facilities that she'd spent more of her childhood in. The type of place that could a lifetime's worth of secrets within 4 walls or make a child feel like a terrorist for the crime of being born alone.

Raven wandered down the passage with no particular destination in mind. She trailed along the one-way passage in the only direction that it allowed. After a lifetime of aimless walking, She happened upon a door. It was encrusted with symbols and words in a language the Cape Townian had never seen before. It reminded her of a door to a dungeon.

Only I would willingly enter my own prison cell Raven thought sarcastically as she turned the iron doorknob and pushed the door open. She peeked inside and allowed her eyes to wander the room. the orphan expected to see nothing but the familiar darkness. Instead, she found herself surrounded by dozens of people. They all appeared to be in their teens to early twenties. They were all engaged in something: fighting, training, or busying themselves with each other. Nobody even spared her a second of her attention.

Raven pulled her hood over her head and walked into the room slowly. She did not want to draw any attention to herself. She managed to reach the opposite side of the room without being noticed. She thought she had. For the first time since she entered the room, she felt watched. She could feel eyes on her. The raven-haired girl felt game being greyed on in the savanna. The orphan cautiously scoped the room for my predator.

There was one set of eyes that stood out from all of the others. They were compulsive. Enthralling. And they belonged to a girl, who couldn't have been older than twenty-five years old. Her eyes held depth and everything about her stance said that she'd seen the horrors of life and lived to see another day. She embodied what Raven had always pretended to be; fearless and self-assured. Her beauty was awe-inspiring. If Raven was a religious person, she might have thanked God for his creation. In all honesty, she looked more like a sculpture than a mortal woman.

The orphan was too preoccupied with my staring competition with the mysterious brunette to notice that there was a person standing behind her.

She felt a hand grip her waist and a hot breath on her neck. "That's Lucifer! She's gorgeous, isn't she? Much like you, Ash," She whispered in my ear and toyed with a strand of my white hair. I was born with a strange combination of white and grey strands of hair that were scattered between her usual raven hair. The words of the stranger beside her struck Raven. She almost chuckled at the irony of her previous statement about the divine sculpting of her. Someone named after the devil. You cannot make this stuff up, at least she couldn't.

She turned around swiftly to see who was speaking to her. The 18-year-old came face to face with a slender blond woman with sharp features and piercing eyes the colour of ice. The beautiful stranger twirled a piece of Raven's salt and pepper hair between her fingertips. She was wearing a seductive smirk.

"Who are you?" Raven asked the blond and created space between herself and the temptress.

She took a step closer to Raven and almost closed the already impossibly small distance between Them. The orphan could feel her hot breath on her neck as the blonde woman leant forward and whispered into her ear, "I'm Dagne. The important question is who are you?"

Raven's heart was beating rapidly inside her chest. She took a quick step back in an attempt to create space between herself and the ice eyed woman. She was not supposed to be this close to anybody except Sage.

"I… I'm...R…Raven," she stuttered.

She chuckled and then spoke again: "You're cute. Raven? I like 'Ash' more; I have a thing for fire."

Just then the orphan noticed that Dagne's hand was holding a ball of fire. Raven gasped and gawked at it in awe. The iced eyed beauty snuffed out the flame and winked at the open-mouthed Raven as she walked away.

Raven was speechless. By some stroke of luck, she remembered the brunette she was looking at before the fire nymph had arrived. Dagne said her name was Lucifer.

Who would willingly name their child after the devil? Perhaps her parents were hardcore Satanists or something?

'Lucifer's' eyes were still fixated on me. She seemed to be studying me just as she had before. After all, if she was correct, Raven was her prey. Raven walked towards the horribly named woman as if her limbs were autonomous. With every step she took, she grew more anxious. The orphan wiped her hands on her torn jeans and recited her introduction in her head. How should I start? She worried. "Hi" Seemed like an appropriate salutation. Raven felt stupid for even caring. She pondered why she was so concerned about this devilish stranger. Raven finally reached her table and stood before her awkwardly.

"Hi, I'm Raven," she exercised all the confidence she had mustered in the particular moments as she spoke.

Lucifer didn't answer; instead, she continued to study her.

"I heard your name is Lucifer. Your folks really screwed you over there, didn't they?" Raven stiffly chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.

In hindsight, mocking someone's name was probably not the best tactic to use to create a friendship. Her stare had not faltered and it was starting to creep the orphan out. Raven was growing frustrated. She was about to ask her what her problem was but before a could a loud bang sounded and interrupted her.