Heart Pain (Leila)

The taxi driver went directly to The Bronx as instructed, eventually Leila lend to him the accurate address and he took her to it rapidly. Once on place Leila saw a big cartel that said:


"Is here where you want to be miss?" asked the driver.

The dock seems alone and dangerous.

Leila read the sign and read it again. 'Why would he have me go somewhere restricted? What was going on in there. A cemetery that is off limits to the public? This makes no sense.' Leila shook her head up and down.

"I... I don't know... I think so... Listen, how much would it be for you to wait nearby here for an hour and a half?"

The man looks shocked.
"That long? In this neighborhood? Forget it!

I can drive you someplace else or leave you here miss. Your choice"

Leila looked around one more time and remembered painfully what happened just the night before when she walked around the streets just the last night. Was whatever this man had on her clan worth this much trouble? Could she risk having two villains hunting her down in the New York streets. She tried not to look worried when she finally

"Ok, that's fine. How much do I owe you?"

Leila muttered while she took out her wallet. Weighing that whatever this thing had on her, if he could find her alone without any effort, she wouldn't be able to escape from him by not coming.

The taxi cab's collector said $65 and the men repeated the exact number to the cents. Leila checked her purse and barely had the amount in cash, thankfully there was an sticker in the cab saying "Credit Card Accepted" that made her feel calmed again.

Leila looked through her purse for the money and gave him her card instead not wanting to spend her available cash.

"You can just charge it right?"

The guy doesn't show any expression but the obvious and extend his hand to Leila just nodding.

Leila hands him her card and waits on him to charge it. She signed the receipt, handed it back to him and slipped her hand around the door handle to open the door.

Leila stepped out of the vehicle and cautiously looked around to get a feel for what was around her.

Leila walked a couple of yards along the fence, her mind running through the myriad of dangerous possibilities that could occur to her right here. She thought several times about how asinine this was and how disappointed Tantra would be if she knew where and what she was doing. Still she trudged onward looking for a possible point of entry beyond climbing the fence.

There were several entrance points, still all were somehow illegal traspasing, from climbing fences to gates, or jumping and climbing other way, either case there was always a sign saying

As Leila went to each entrance she shook it or looked for the opening mechanism to see if some were weak or not. Then she analyzed the fence thinking about how high it was. After a few seconds she switched her vision using the power of her blood to look through the gate for any guards, cameras or other unusual things.

Leila saw the most obvious cameras and security devices in place, she also saw several other points without any security personel or gear.

Leila went to one of the areas that looked less secure. Her eyes went back to normal and she tried to get in.

Crossing around ships and buildings Leila went finally to the open sea right at the end of the docks, far away from it she could see few shy lights from the Hart Island.

While Leila was thinking out what to do next time passes merciless, all boats in the docks seemed to be secured and at far distance she could see the flashlights from the guards that she thought would be inexistant. For startes Leila had no idea of how to pilot a boat much less to sail with one, this was a dilema...

Minutes later, probably half an hour, she saw one of the dimmed lights from the island to bright a little more, at that moment a Coast Guard boat went in front of her searching for transgressors in the sea, after the boat passed by she could see that the light was already bright as the moon and increasing, suddenly a beam came out of it dazing Leila.

The flashlight hurted her eyes deeply...

Paralysed by the blindness she had to wait to recover, when she did was a man standing in front of her.

"Hello Darkness girl" he said, was the same voice from the morgue.

Leila had grown perplexed and frustrated when the ways to get proved to be a heavy challenge. She was trying to work out how a boat drove but after never really learning to operate any kind transportation outside of bikes and camels she was sorely at a loss.

Frustrated and alone she'd almost given up when the bright lights were flashed in front of her face, growing, increasing in brightness and width until her whole vision was shut out. She'd never been confronted by such bright lights and she felt paralyzed, she couldn't see or move, the comfort of the darkness had been snatched away.

She held her head down to the ground, her eyes shut tight trying to block off the light. It took quite a while and during this arduous time she wasn't even aware of another's presence upon her. With rapidly blinking eyes and through her thick dark lashes she saw the man, his voice was telling... it was him. He'd come for her. His voice at first made her jump. Her fists clenched tightly together as she tried to compose herself. Eyes still batting together but at a lessening pace.

"Hello."

Her voice gave off its heavy Arabic accent. Her words were labored and syllables slow.

"I believe we had a date?"

The man smiled and said
"Yes, now its time for the proper presentation. My name is Chester, nice to have met you.

... and I'm here to kill you" he said calmy.

Before Leila had the time to react his hand was already rouse up and around him a thick black aura blocked the view behind of him there was just him and the pitch darkness behind. Leila felt againt paralysed this time by physical force restraining her movements, she wasn't even able to turn her head sides or to speak.

From the tip of his fingers little red and purple sparks started to flash, seconds after there was a dark fireball in front of his hand and almost a second later a tongue of fire burnt Leila without even leaving her bones to remember...

Spoiler:

The scene before her progressed and changed so rapidly Leila couldn't react or even try to respond to her imminent death. What a waste, so much beauty and potential gone at the continually persistent ignorance that she had for danger.

Leila roused, cold and empty. Her weary eyes darted around her at the world torn down. The rolling thunder and lightning made her jittery. Body or not, her thoughts were shaking, she looked down at what she thought was herself unsure of what she would see then she glanced back to the man that brought her to this. The man that killed her on her own insistence.

She stared at him and the sea behind him, her mouth opened to test her voice after he'd spoken.

"W-why am I h-here?"

A deep eerie chill fell over her and a sense of doom larger than one she'd ever had.

Chester dark pool eyes were disturbing and his smiled wicked, took something from his pocket with his right hand and threw it to Leila. She easily catch up two coins, ancient gold coins.

"To the Ferryman, I'll wait for you on the other shore" and Chester vanished into darkness.

Leila caught the coins and flipped them between her fingers studying each side. Her face was long with sadness, she was in the underworld and the gold was for passage across. She sighed and looked up only to watch Chester disappear. She looked back behind her wondering if there was a way out. If she could somehow climb out of this dream or false reality but alas it was not. She approached the shore and looked out over the dangerously rumbling river. She stood there watched and waited for the Ferryman.

Leila stood still near the open sea at the base of the dock, the harbor seemed desolated and she could feel the strength of the storm just a few feets away from her, the splash of the waves, the thunder's roar and the bright of the lightning was overwhelming. Inside of the cloudy sky she saw terrifying creatures, translucid and etheral floating and moving with the wind, they seemed vicious and horrifying.

Few minutes later a little old boat, not larger than a fishing boat came close to the shore, over it was a very unsettling creature, an skeleton dressed with a rotten pirate outfit. The creatures eyes were shining in purple and his expression was wicked and disturbing, death itself.

Leila clutched herself viciously tight as all of the terrifying creatures rolled over her, thunder and lightening roaring in front of her. Her eyes grew wide at the sites hoping, hell praying that they didn't come for her.

Soon over the seas she saw the boat approaching, closer and closer the disturbing presence loomed. Leila shuddered when the skeleton approached her, its small boat didn't even look like it could stand the waves. 'This had to be the undertaker.'

She held out her frail hand that held the two golden coins and waited to be approved for passage on the boat. The entire time her mind was struggling with her body, struggling to get out of this wretched dream.

The creature made a sign for Leila to board the boat, once over it he received the coins weighting them on his bone hand and then saving them in a little bag on his waist, then with a voice that was as deep as Stein's and even more chilling and terrying than Elie's he asked
"Where do you wish to go?"