The Mysterious Demon

-Dominic’s POV-

It’s become a routine now to come to this pub every night. I go into the street fighter’s section and warm-up, comfortable in my surroundings now as is everyone else with me being here.

Destroyer meets me soon after. I’ve come to find out his real name is Steven and he’s pretty open about himself. The opposite of me. This is proven through his nightly questioning session he likes to do. Asking me how old I am, where I was born, where I live and many others which I quickly answer with an, ‘I ain’t telling you’ but this time when he asked, “What’s your name?” I stopped at my 100th push-up and stood to face him which made his face turn into a hopeful one.

I smirked and answered, “Secter”. I wanted to see how it felt to call myself that. “Really?” Steven asked with a weirdly happy expression. At that same time, I judged that I didn’t like being called Secter and shook my head negatively at him, chuckling slightly. “No,” I started making his face fall and groan before giving up.

I hadn’t told him anything for a week but every day he would try again. I admired his commitment but like everyone else who enters my life now, I wasn’t going to tell him anything.

After a good half an hour of talking and training, the matches started. For the past week, I’ve been doing nothing but going against opponents and winning every match with ease. Most fighters would look down on me for being a girl, always dissing me but by the time the match has ended I enjoy watching their face sink as I get to look down on them while they lay beneath my feet. My name quickly came to stand out here and I loved it.

The Destroyer was the one I truly loved fighting though. He had techniques that were different from Xavier’s. He was a lot faster, more agile. And I learned to pick some of his habits up. We’ve helped each other get stronger this week. With every punch, there was more and more power. With every match, there was a stronger friendship.

Tonight, like most nights, I was put up against the Destroyer and I had no doubt I was going to enjoy our fight. However, it suddenly hit me that it was four weeks since I left America for this and although I don’t regret my actions, something felt off. I climbed up to the ring to have the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I felt something weird in the crowd. I scanned the area but couldn’t see anything so I shrugged it off and paid attention to Destroyer who got up too.

Our match began and punches were quickly thrown at each other. Pain on both sides.

At some point in the match, I had Destroyer’s neck in my hands and my knee up against his chest which evidently hurt him a lot since he groaned out in pain. Whilst I was in this position my head lifted to the crowd again. That was when I saw it. A familiar face watching me with a soft smile on his face. The eye contact we had that second was enough for me to lose focus and let Destroyer free himself from my grip.

He used that moment to kick my chest which led me to fall harshly. I held my chest in pain and took deep breaths which proved difficult. I started seeing double and getting heavily dizzy. I looked up at Destroyer’s face and he looked concerned and off guard which I took to my own advantage. I quickly turned my body and kicked him off balance, making him crash onto the floor and with my remaining strength, I held him in a headlock, using the rest of my body to keep him down until he passed out. I stood up and he didn’t. I won.

I looked back into the cheering crowd but the face was gone.

—

I leaned against the London Bridge again. Another part of my new routine. I looked up at the sky which seemed to have the same view as the one in New York. The river below me was dirty yet the sound of the water swaying and crashing was satisfying to my ear, calming my mind. That was probably why I was so attached to this area.

I took out a box of cigs and lit one up. Without Xavier being here I had been smoking a lot more than what I used to. It wasn’t healthy but it felt good.

Suddenly the cig was taken away from my lips and thrown into the river. Before I could turn around to face the person I hear a voice say, “No sister of mine is going to smoke while I’m around,” which made my eyes go wide.

In the past, when I was younger, my stepbrother used to smoke but it was a secret we kept between each other. One day, when he was smoking, I picked up his box and took one of the cigarettes out of curiosity but as soon as he saw me he took it from my hand straight away and said, “No sister of mine is going to smoke while I’m around.”

I spun around quickly but instead of finding Arthur I stood faced with the same person I saw at the pub. Nick. “What are you doing here?” I ask and he frowns. “Not happy to see me?” he asks back and I sigh, realizing my tone and shaking my head. “That’s not it, I just, I wasn’t expecting you,” I say honestly before taking my box of cigarettes out again. However, like my cigarette, it was taken from me.

“Sector, give it back,” I commanded but he just stood to look at it in disgust. “Our name is pronounced Secter, not Sector.” This time I looked at him in disgust. “Our?” I asked but he didn’t reply. Instead, he turned the subject back to the cigs. “How do you smoke these things? The stuff inside is disgusting and highly unhealthy.” I raise my eyebrow at him before trying to take the pack back but he held it higher so I couldn’t reach it without jumping. I didn’t have the strength to try and fight him so I let him keep it up there. But just as I was going to give up,

“Let me have one and I’ll give the box back.” “What?” I asked confused but he just smirked at me.

A few minutes later he had a cig lit and ready to use. He put it up against his lips and took a deep breath but the next thing to happen was a violent coughing fit. I laughed at him and he said he’s given up with smoking so I took his cig from him and put it in my mouth before blowing out a cloud of smoke, showing him that it was easy and I was better.

He glared at me playfully which led to me glaring back at him but then we both broke and relaxed before starting to laugh at each other for no reason.

As we laughed I looked over Nick’s face and realized he had bags under his eyes and that he had been stressing himself but at the moment, he looked at ease.

Suddenly, he hugged me which caught me by surprise.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“I missed you.”

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