"I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?"
-John Lennon
The creature caught up to Ophelia with ease as it was two times the size of a lion, extending its jaw wide open to breathe fire that spread throughout the trees and bushes creating walls that trapped Ophelia within, stuck with the beast. The trees burnt to fill the air with black smoke, and Ophelia coughed harshly gasping for clean air.
Her eyes widened as the creature charged again, she slapped her hands over her eyes squeezing them shut hard.
Flashes of light pulsated and heatwaves covered Ophelia's body, she heard the loud shrill cry of the creature again which incited her to open her eyes to see Damien incinerating it with fire, fire that was shooting straight out of his palms and fingertips. Damien wasn't scared, he wasn't hesitant, he walked up to this creature setting it ablaze till it was nothing but a pile of ashes on the ground. Once the flames vanished from his hands, he turned to face Ophelia. She blinked her shocked eyes over and over hoping that she was hallucinating, she thought she must have been drugged. It was the only thing that made sense to her.
Damien waved his arm above his head and the black smoke ceased from spinning in the air, the trees extinguished and the vicious wind blew taking what was left of the creature with it, just a pile of gray ash. Ophelia looked at the being that stood before her, he looked like a man, but he was clearly something more.
Damien approached slowly in the darkness but Ophelia knew the cautiousness was more for her benefit and not his.
"Come with me, more are coming," Damien extended his hand to her, the very hand that shot flames out of its fingertips. Ophelia looked at it reluctantly, could she trust him? The cries of the same beast echoed in the trees that surrounded them, this made Ophelia's decision easy, she took the slightly more familiar hand of Damien.
"What are those things?" Ophelia asked thinking about what she had just seen, they clearly weren't bears.
"Chimeras, you know, from the Underworld," Damien explained like it was normal. Ophelia didn't know for him, it was, but she was about to find out.
He inspected the cuts on her arms once they got to his motorcycle promising that he could take care of them. "I could take care of them myself," Ophelia reminded him she was more than capable.
Ophelia snatched her arm back,
"Those things don't exist," Ophelia looked around for a person, something, anything that could tell her she was in a dream. The streets were silent and dark, not even a piece of trash breezed by her shoes. The loud foot steps that vibrated the ground and the warm blood running down her arm made her realize that she was very much in reality, a terrible reality.
"And what are you?" Ophelia stepped behind Damien as he didn't seem fearful of these monsters.
"Holy shit! There's six of them, I have to get you out of here, he's pissed!" Damien grabbed Ophelia throwing her on the back of his motorcycle reviving the engine loudly.
"Who's pissed?!" Ophelia shouted over the loud metal music that ripped through the speakers and the hum of the bike itself as we sped off.
"Hades, my father," Damien placed the opaque helmet shield over his face, she could no longer see his expression, he quickly strapped the spare helmet around Ophelia's head as she fumbled with the straps. They drove for what seemed to Ophelia to be miles until they arrived back at the location of the Halloween party where she had first met Damien.
Ophelia took notice that the house was no longer decorated for Halloween yet it was still just as terrifying.
"It's safe here, for the most part," Damien parked the bike against a large tall tree. Ophelia used her phone for a flashlight, the library had closed over an hour ago, Serena was expecting her back by now and she had a whole string of "where the hell are you" texts from her but she didn't know what to tell her, she didn't think Serena would believe her anyways, so Ophelia told her that she was safe and would be home soon.
After they dismounted from the bike, the chimeras had caught up to them, six of them standing them waiting to attack. Ophelia picked up a large stick on the ground for defense, not wanting to seem defenseless even though she was quite certain she was.
Damien laughed at her foolish and childish attempts of protection, Ophelia glared at him.
"I've simply had enough of these things, he knows I'll kill you, just go back home," Damien taunted the creatures before he held out his open hand, flames streaming out of his fingertips, the chimeras didn't stand a chance against his superior strength and abilities. They scattered, however one managed to corner Ophelia, she wielded her stick like a sword until the fateful moment the chimera bite it right out of her hand snapping it in two.
He was like a superhuman, Damien was stronger than any man Ophelia had known, inhuman strength, he was faster, he was more cunning and he was all together more beautiful, it was his harsh personality that needed work.
Damien levitated in the air maneuvering around the flames that shot out of the creatures jaw before incinerating the chimera with a ball of fire.
"I have no idea what they want with you," Damien laughed returning to the ground, he clapped his hands together, a light blue transparent dome-shape lit up around the property of the house as some kind of force field from the mythological Ophelia had assumed.
"You think they want me? You're supposed to be the son of Hades," Ophelia threw her arms up giggling, she wasn't buying his story although she couldn't come up with her own explanation.
"You still think you're hallucinating?" Damien flicked his wrist and the trees unrooted themselves, loudly ripping out of the ground, levitating in mid air before being slammed back into the soil. Ophelia closed her eyes slowly, when she opened them Damien was in front of her. She noticed that his face was no longer cut or bruised.
"Your lip and your eye, they're healed?" Ophelia touched the place on his forehead where she had sutured his gash.
"What are you?" A Demigod?" Ophelia asked him inquisitively, for some reason she couldn't understand she wasn't scared, perhaps nervous, but not fearful, although maybe she should have been.
"Not exactly," Damien turned around, and then back to face her this time with a vibrant red rose in his hand, Ophelia looked around for a rose bush but she didn't see one. Damien's golden eyes studied her curious pale blue orbs.
"My mother is Aphrodite, my father is Hades," Damien explained dragging his finger across Ophelia's cheek under and along her jaw. He spoke as if people should applaud him. He placed the rose into her hand, Ophelia tossed it carelessly to the ground and he smirked.
"So you pretended that you needed medical attention for what reason?" Ophelia raised her eyebrow at him, arms crossed over her chest.
Damien broke out into an eruption of laughter and Ophelia didn't understand why.
"You meet a living god and you're concerned about why I asked you for medical attention?" Damien shook his head at her.
"Mortals, she's going to be fun," he muttered under his breath.
"I just wanted to see you," Damien cleared his throat, he touched Ophelia's lower lip with his thumb, she pulled away a little bit stepping backwards bumping into something hard.
It was a man, incredibly built, pale skin, with a scar starting from his forehead going down his eye to the middle of his cheek, he had green eyes, a buzz cut and a snarl on his face.
"You smell amazing," the man leaned in sniffing the air around Ophelia, she stumbled backwards disturbed and scared, he licked his lips as he slowly approached.
"Ajax, don't scare her," Damien laughed, Ophelia rolled her eyes once she realized Damien knew this animal.
"I'm just having a bit of fun, relax, she's not scared, are you? Ophelia?" The man spoke Ophelia's name, she had not yet shared this information with him.
"How do you know my name?!" Ophelia squinted at him.
Ajax's eyes shifted to Damien looking for answers.
"Well Damien just talks about you all the time," Ajax smiled at Ophelia suspiciously.
"What the hell are you supposed to be?" She looked Ajax up and down trying to size him up, and she had a inkling that he like Damien was not what he appeared to be.
"I'm so glad you asked, I never get to share, I'm a demon," Ajax snapped his fingers and there he stood in his true form black winged, black-skinned covered in warts, glowing green eyes and a hooked nose, razor sharp claws to match razor sharp teeth and a jagged leather tail. Ophelia grimaced not wanting to show the terror that she felt and the demon roared with laughter.
"Enough," Damien commanded Ajax, and Ajax listened with a smirk on his face, returning back to his human form which certainly was more bearable to endure.