The little creature clinging to Ares's trousers had a deep frown, a scowl behind those dark cherry-red sunglasses and lips formed in a displeased, upside-down crescent moon. "Stop bullying my mother!" Her hair in a half-up swayed in the air. The hair just above the forehead was whiter than jasmine.
"Huh?" Ares could only stare at the girl tugging and hitting his thighs.
Although it was obvious the little creature, the girl, was very angry, her punches weren't painful as adrenaline pumped through him like oxygen, making him numb to sensation, especially to pain. But even if he was completely in a normal state, he knew her punches would still feel like being hit by balls of cotton.
Ares looked up from the girl and tried to assess the situation. Who was this girl? Why is she here in the middle of a chaotic and possibly dangerous scene? Was she lost? Did she mistake him for somebody else or...
He dropped his eyes and found the girl staring right back at him. Her glasses had slipped a little lower and allowed him to see her true eye colour. They were the same. The black eyes resemble black holes, involuntarily snatching everyone's attention and breathing with just a look.
But those coruscating eyes were far from friendly. Combined with the facial expressions, the girl was a furious little demon.
"Theia!!" An Alarmed voice echoed through the hallway and the open room.
Theia?
There was a chime in Ares's mind. He heard that name somewhere before in the dark.
He thought deeper.
Searching through his memories, bits of fragments gradually came up. Soon, forming the complete scene and replaying it. Two men in the shadow spoke to each other. "...two weeks ago with Theia..."
"UNCLE!" The little demon shouted back, tightening her grip on Ares as if to not let him escape his sins.
Just like a long-lost key finally reuniting with its lock, Ares heard a click. The girl on his thighs was Eirene's child!
In the next second, a man was standing at the doorway in dismay, but when he found the girl clinging to the boy, the man's concern was replaced with puzzlement.
"What is-"
"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE MESSING WITH?!" A female voice, very familiar to Ares, interrupted whatever the man was about to say and yelled outrageously.
The two stalled and exchanged a quick glance. They didn't think to continue the conversation and rushed out to know what was going on outside. The girl at his leg clung harder and only changed the direction of her face to witness a drama and a possible crime.
Dragging his right leg with the girl literally hanging onto it like a pole, he poked his head out, and found his friend's fiancee, Estella, beating the sh*t out of the same two men dressed in black with the heel of her high heel. "You dare touch this bag with your filthy hands?! I got this from the love of my life! None of you can touch it, scumbags!"
The three at the door were stunned, and so was Viorel standing near Estella. All of them knew. The woman did not need any help in beating those men. She could handle them herself.
None thought of stopping her. It wasn't because they weren't strong enough but how. It was clear she was raving mad, and her movements were unpredictable. Plus, she had a mighty weapon in her hand that took out two men that were larger than her. Of course, they needed a plan.
To their relief, Orion exited from the emergency staircase just in time to run to hug away his fiancee from committing two second-degree murders fearlessly. "Estella, what are you doing?!"
"They...! THEY!!" The woman in his arm had her both arms encircled and secured. But that didn't stop her legs and forearm to continue making a ruckus. She looked like a vicious beast.
Apart from Estella and the two guys on the floor, no one made a sound. What were they supposed to do in that situation?
Right then, from the other side of the commotion, Jaxon came back from talking on the phone but froze in his tracks as if he noticed he was entering a parallel world.
"What the f*ck?! I was gone for five minutes. Five minutes!" He then pointed at the man standing next to Ares. "And didn't you say you weren't coming?!"
The man raised his hands defensively, but no words came out of his mouth. So instead of him, the girl at Ares's leg came to defense. "Uncle Jaxon, I asked him to bring me. Don't blame Winter."
Her voice was different from before, almost as if somebody was dubbing over her.
She then looked up sorrowfully, "I'm sorry..." Her gaze and voice could melt Antarctica if she wanted to, single-handedly submerging the world like Atlantis.
There was no way the manager could be angry at the little pudding. "Hah..." He sighed as if breathing out the entire carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and placed his hands over his eyes. "Can someone please tell me what the f*ck is going on in here?"
By now Estella was calmer, and she answered instantly, "They tried to steal my bag." She was dead serious that not even her fiance could think of what to say.
----
"So let's start with you two." Viorel circled around the two men kneeling on the floor with bed sheets bounding them from escaping. Their heads were unmasked, revealing their frantic faces. "Who are you?"
Neither answered, creating a suffocating atmosphere in the not-so-big room.
Apart from the pair of mother and daughter, Eirene and Theia, all those who were present in the chaotic scene earlier were in the room. And out of all of them, Estella could not keep seething like the rest.
Her facial parts were more twisted than those of the furious demons, and her crossed legs were losing patience with every passing second of silence. If it wasn't for Orion sitting behind her to keep her arms at the back, the room would be scarlet than blood by now.
Viorel twirled a chair and sat on it. He leaned into the two kneeling with his elbows on the thighs, one hand skillfully playing with a fruit knife. The stance and the action created such a cinematic scene. Ares felt like he was watching a part in a mafia movie while it was being filmed. There was that bone-chilling tension that separated whoever was watching from reality.
"What were you planning to do when you tried to enter this room?" The man on the chair asked, tilting his head to one side and halting the movements of his finger toying with the knife.
The younger of the two men flinched slightly, noticeably a smirk making its way on the man in front of them.
With a smirk that didn't reach the eyes, Viorel sighed softly. But in the next second, the fruit knife was placed under the young man's jaw flatly. Lightly stroking the blood-drained skin.
Ares sucked in his breath but didn't move to stop the man in front of him. Somehow he knew Viorel had no intention of hurting the young man, at least not for now.
The young man was forced to look up and make soul-evaporating eye contact.
"Would you like to answer me?"
As if he was facing Medusa, the young man still in Viorel's gaze. His soul had abandoned the body, knowing damn well there was no chance of survival under those predatory eyes.
Amidst the chilling silence, there was a knock on the door. Jaxon walked over and opened it, revealing several police officers. "Hello. Thank you for coming. They are right here."
Before the police officers could catch a glimpse, Viorel casually removed the knife from the young man and slid it into his sleeves. "If you identify them, please inform us."
The captain nodded as his subordinates grabbed the men by the sides. "Good day."
As the problems exited, Estella growled at them after holding back for so long, sending the last threat and a reminder that she was never forgetting it and never forgiving them.
The room fell into a tired quietness. That was too much drama in five minutes, even for a television program.
Orion broke the quietness first. "Estella, why were you here? I thought you were helping out Eric guys."
The fiancee in his arms turned with the demonic face returned to normal. "I was, but there wasn't much I could do. And since you said we were staying here for the night, I thought why not pay a visit before so that I don't get lost."
"Our room is on the third floor. This is the eighth floor."
"Oh..." The woman looked away as if she had learned the red liquid that flowed in her body was blood. "I must have pressed the wrong button in the lift. I day-dreaming a lot." She then nodded and cast her eyes down to her fingers meddling themselves. "It can be dangerous."
Really?