"Now if you would like to, you could maybe get up and follow me," Kieran said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Maybe if you could lend me a hand…" Leila mumbled to herself in an almost inaudible voice. But Kieran had heard her, he lent a hand while looking away. Leila was astonished at first, she did not think of him as kind or attentive at all. She took his hand and he pulled her up.
"Happy now?" He said as he let go of her hand in haste.
'Maybe he isn't such a bad guy.' she thought as they walked.
"Thank you," she told him. He didn't reply nor did he look back at her.
They walked into a long hallway with once again flickering light bulbs. There were many doors but it was awfully quiet.
"Will they be able to smell me from the walls?" Leila asked while being on her guards.
"Nobody lives on this floor except for me," he dryly replied.
"Are you rich?"
"If I was rich why would I live here?" he said stating the obvious.
"That's strange, what about the whole building? Are there more people downstairs? Are night creatures afraid of heights?" She asked genuinely curious.
Kieran chuckled, "They aren't afraid of heights, they're not human. There are a few other people in the building but not a lot. It's a bit of a deserted place."
"What kind of other people live in here?" She asked once again.
"The usual, there are Vampires, Zombies and ghouls."
After hearing his answer, Leila thought that this was truly a dream. It was brought to her attention that these creatures did definitely not exist. As she thought about it again, it would also be impossible for her to be in Hell.
"Are they just like in the movies or how people think they are on earth?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I've never been to earth nor have I seen pictures of it. I've heard of it from some people but not much." Kieran was starting to feel irritated by all her questions. People in Hell knew of the existence of the earth and humans but they did not know how they lived and what was going on there.
"Do vampires bite pretty girls' necks, suck their blood and the girls need to suck a vampire's blood to live?" Leila asked with her limited knowledge coming from vampire romance films.
"Vampires bite anybody, they're after blood, not a pretty girl. For the other part, it is true, the only way to survive a vampire bite is to drink a vampire's blood but in exchange, you also turn into a vampire."
"So I guess those movies are not too far from reality," she remarked.
"From what I'm hearing, these movies are romanticizing dangerous creatures. Vampires here are cruel and merciless. If you ever run into one, run or you won't make it out alive. No vampire in their right mind will let you drink their blood."
Hearing that gave Leila goosebumps. It felt more real, what was happening to her was real. She could now suddenly feel that she was in Hell and was surrounded by danger. It had gone on for way too long; a dream could not be this lengthy. Fear and concern had started to creep on her. She wondered if Kieran would really protect her or would he not care if anything happened to her as she was a stranger. He did say earlier that he only needed to keep her alive.
"We're here," Kieran said as he stopped in front of a rusty and long black metal door. There was a board next to the door that lit up, it read '169'. Kieran put his hand on the board and the door slid open.
"Wow! Well, that's cool." Leila said admiring the technology.
"Don't they have things like that on earth?"
"Maybe but it's only for some secret service establishments. We open doors manually with keys and some have keypads. Do they have keys in hell?"
"No." He sternly responded.
They entered the place and Leila was amazed. She looked around only to be fascinated. The first thing she saw was the dark but illuminated living room. The ambiance was quite dark but there were a lot of lights. You could not see the walls as they were covered with all sorts of machines. The machines had multiple buttons which emitted red and blue light. These lights were the ones illuminating the whole place. He did not have much furniture but strangely it looked crowded. There were a couple of leather sofas in the middle of the room. In front of one of the sofas was a long coffee table. Objects were scattered on the floor here and there, that's what made it look crowded. Many papers, pens and comic books were on the table. On the floor were a telescope, a ladder, a chair, a rope and a lot of garbage. A bit of a pungent smell was present because of all the clutter. The air had also been stuffy.
"I- I… I don't know what to say." Leila was at loss for words. She could not find the right words to describe his place.
"You don't need to comment on the place. I don't want to hear it."
Leila noticed a door on the left and made her way to it.
"What's behind this door?" she asked her hand on the doorknob.
"Don't!" Kieran ran towards the door and aggressively pushed her hand away.
"What was that for? Are you hiding something in there? Is it dirty stuff?" she mischievously asked.
"None of your business!" Kieran had looked quite annoyed. Leila moved away from the door and sat on a one-place sofa slightly offended.
'Everyone has a secret garden,' she thought in hopes of comforting herself.
"What now?" she said.
Kieran looked at her as if she was talking in a different language. She sighed before elaborating.
"You brought me to Hell to make a witch out of me right? And when it's over I get to go back home, right?"
"Yes. Training starts tomorrow, I have things to do."
"And until then what am I supposed to do?"
"Human stuff."
"Human stuff?"
"What do you do on earth?"
"We eat, sleep, work, wash and entertain ourselves." She had recited it instantly without a second to think about it.
"Boring," he replied.
"I know…" Leila could only agree with him. Every day had just been the same for her. Nothing new ever happened in her life except for coming to hell while still being alive. "What do you do in hell?" she asked in her turn.
"Oh, everyone is different. Some kill, some fight each other for a chance to torture humans in prison, some bring chaos everywhere and some have dance parties."
"Dance parties?" Leila asked baffled by the unexpected item on the list filled with terrifying words.
"People like to party in hell." he nonchalantly retorted.
"You like to dance? I didn't see you that way," she added holding back a laugh.
"I don't dance! I hate these parties. I just stay home." He firmly said.
"I see…" Leila teasingly looked at him not trusting his words.
"It's true!" he said embarrassed.
"Well, I'm not a zombie, a vampire or whatever there is here, thus I don't think I could attend a dance party or do anything else on that list of yours," Leila remarked.
"You'll have to stay here."
"Well, do you have a guest room with a bed where I could lie down and rest?"
"There are no rooms or beds."
"What? Then where do you sleep? Is this your house or an office?" As Leila looked around her, she thought it might not be either.
"It's my house and we, night creatures don't sleep thus we have no beds. We do have naps occasionally but I don't, I think they are a waste of time."
"Ok… Then where do I sleep? I also think sleeping is a waste of time but I'm human. If I don't sleep, I die."
"Weak," he mumbled under his breath.
"Excuse me?" Leila quickly reacted.
"There's the sofa," he pointed at the rough and dusty black leather sofa.
"Great," she sarcastically responded. "Do you have wifi in Hell? If yes, do you have a laptop or phone I could borrow?" Kieran once again looked at her as if she spoke a foreign language.
"I don't know what wifi is and any of the things you mentioned."
"But you have all these machines here, doesn't that mean that there's technology in here?"
"All this is just junk I found laying in the streets. Sometimes there are some things that fly here from different planets such as the earth."
"Oh… Well, what do you do to entertain yourself then? I'm in Hell, I already did the panicking and the I want to go home, now I'm bored. If I can't even train to become a witch then what am I supposed to do?"
"Go to sleep."
"I just woke up a while ago, I can't sleep so soon."
"Force yourself to sleep then."
"I can't, I have insomnia."
"I'm not even going to ask what that is."
At that moment, a knock was heard on the main door.
"Shit," he muttered. "Don't talk and hold your breath." Leila petrified really held her breath.
"Who's there?"
"Since when do you ask?" the person responded from outside. It was a familiar voice to Kieran but that didn't let his guards down. "Open up," another voice said.
"I'm sorry not today." Thankfully, with all the machines on his walls, and the garbage on the floor, Leila's human smell didn't go past the apartment.
"What are you talking about, open the door or we'll break it open. The repairs are going to take a long time." Kieran was in deep thoughts, should he let them in or … there was no 'or'. He did not know what to do other than to let them in. Meanwhile, Leila was preparing herself to die.
"I'll open the door," he said going towards the door.
"No," she quietly said as she held him back. "If you open that door, I'm dead."
"Don't worry, you won't." strangely enough, she decided to trust him or maybe she just gave up once again. His judgment might be better than hers in this unknown place. She let go of his black sleeve and stepped back. Kieran had a solution and hoped it was the right one.
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