-         Matters On Opposite Ends –

It’s clouded by the darkness that will surround,

This thick unnatural fog, with time, grows,

No one can hear the desperate sound,

Of a lonely heart within the shadows.

[Archer’s POV]

I closed the door and walked through the crowd. There weren’t that many people in the club as before so it was easier to navigate through compared as before. I could even see Sierra on the other side of the club, still sitting next to the bar where I’d left her. This time though, there were two guys standing next to her and talking to her. She didn’t look at all too pleased with the situation. I could eventually hear what they were saying to her as I approached them.

“Come on, girl. Don’t you know it’s rude to ignore people?” one of the men, who was wearing a purple shirt with a popped-up collar, said.

“Well, I couldn’t really care how polite I am with idiots like you. I’ve told you before, stop bugging me. I don’t want your drinks offer!” Sierra shouted at them.

I stepped in between them. “Is there something that shouldn’t be going on, going on right here?”

“Take a hike, loser,” the six-feet-ten, purple shirt douchebag said before turning back to Sierra to disturb her. That was when he began touching Sierra in places that made her uncomfortable. Without hesitating, I threw a fist at the douchebag’s rock-hard abs and surprisingly, my fist won.  He bent forward and I grabbed the back of his head and slammed his head onto the bar table. He was knocked unconscious. I guess all that muscle was all just for show and not of any real use. I glared at the other guy who went off without a word.

Sierra looked down at the unconscious man. “Err…thanks. Hey, where’s your friend?”

“He’s in his ‘be-an-asshole’ room. Let’s go. What a waste of time. We could buy some takeaway from a nearby restaurant and head back home.”

Sierra followed behind me quietly. As we were making our way through the crowd, two men dressed in black bumped into my shoulders. One of them looked back at me. He was wearing dark sunglasses. Who wears sunglasses indoors? What was interesting about him though was that on his right hand, I noticed a brain tattoo with mathematical symbols like pi and e floating around it. Sierra bumped into me.

“Hey, why did you stop? I thought we were leaving.” She asked.

I shook my head out of a daze. “Yes…yes, we were.”

We walked out of the club and the sound of the music began to fade as we walked further away.

“I’m not going to bother asking if things are of went alright since it obviously isn’t. So just tell me how it went. You can’t really change what has happened anyway.”

I hesitated for a moment before finally talking. “I tried to talk to him but he’s still holding a grudge against me. I couldn’t even get a word about why we came here in edgewise properly.”

Sierra stretched her arms. “Let’s just forget about him. Maybe if we eat something, our troubles will go away.”

I nodded my head. “There was just one thing left on my mind. It happened after I left him in the room. I don’t think this is at all important but I bumped into two guys in the crowd.”

“Not surprising. That place was packed!”

“Yeah. One of them had a tattoo of a brain on his hand. What an odd choice for a tattoo.”

Sierra stopped walking. “Wait, do you remember those two guys that jumped us back in your town.”

“Yeah, why?”

“If I remember correctly, one of those guys we fought had a tattoo of a brain on his hand as well.”

I looked her in the eyes. “You don’t suppose…”

“…that those guys might be after your friend like the other ones who were after us?” Sierra said, completing my sentence for me.

“It’s a possibility.”

Sierra tsked. “Do you really want to help that so-called ‘friend’ of yours after the way he coldly greeted you back there?”

I started running back to the club. “To tell you the truth, I haven’t been treating him well some time ago. I don’t know whether he’ll ever forgive me or not, but I can’t let him get caught by those guys. Who knows what they plan to do. Come on!”

[Miles’ POV]

The door to the private bar room crashed open as two men dressed in black stepped in.

“What the hell are you trying to do?” I shouted at them. “If you wanted to see me, you need to talk to one of my boys out there.”

One of them walked up to me and grabbed me by the neck and slammed me onto the wall. I gasped for air as his tough hand clenched my throat.

“Okay, maybe you don’t have to. Knocking is fine.” I said while he choked me.

“You are coming with us.” He said in a cold tone. The other one pulled out a Taser and walked up to my side.

“I don’t think so.” I kicked the one holding me by the neck right in the groin and grabbed the arm of the other one before he could hit me with his Taser. We struggled with the Taser and it managed to shock my other assailant.

Out of nowhere, the assailant who was still struggling with me flew a fist at me. It hit right across my left temple, making me lose balance. I was dizzy at first and couldn’t concentrate on my surroundings. That was when they took the opportunity to overpower me. The attacker who was shocked had recovered and pulled a handkerchief with a bottle of some sort. These chumps were thinking of putting me into Snoozeville! Try as I might, I couldn’t fight them. They overpowered me and the chloroform-soaked cloth reached my nose.

[Archer’s POV]

The club had been abandoned apparently. Most of the club guests had ran out while the club workers were knocked unconscious. The door to the room I left Miles in had been completely destroyed. I stepped inside just in time to see two men standing over an unconscious Miles. They hadn’t been alerted to my arrival. I grabbed a chair and swung it hard at one of them right on the side of the head.

The other one wasn’t spared a second to react. Immediately, I summoned Ava who leaped right at the man and brought him down to the floor. More wolves appeared out of the shadows of the room. They grabbed the men with their mouths and dragged them into the darkness, never to be seen from or heard from again.

“Feed well, my children,” I said as I watched the two men disappear.

“Whoa. I didn’t know you could do that.” Sierra said.

“Yeah. Help me carry him.” I said as I walked over to Miles’ unconscious form. As I knelt down, I heard the sound of police sirens in the distance.

“We’ve got to hurry!” I said to Sierra.

“Why? We didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I don’t want to waste time answering their questions. If you didn’t notice, we’re standing in a room with an unconscious person. It’ll look like we did it!”

I swung Miles’ left arm over my shoulder while Sierra carried his other side. Sierra started to move through the front door but I pulled her back.

“Are you nuts? The cops will be entering through the front door! Head out through the back!”

We trudged out the back door of the club. I tried opening the door but it was locked. At the front of the club, I heard the heavy sound of footsteps.”

“This is the police! Come out wherever you are!” one of the officers shouted.

Sierra pushed me aside. “Here, let me try something.” She started heating the door knob until it looked nothing like it used to. Then she gave the door one swift kick and it slammed open loudly. Too loud.

“I hear you at the back! Don’t try to escape!”

“Come on!” Sierra said as she moved out the front door. We carried Miles through several alleyways. We didn’t know where we were going. We just wanted to keep moving until we couldn’t hear them but it was no use. The police were gaining on us.

“In here!” Sierra said pointing at a boarded up door. There was barely enough space at the bottom for one person to pass through at a time.

“You go in first!” Sierra whispered to me. I didn’t want to waste time arguing so I crawled through and pulled Miles inside. Sierra started crawling through when suddenly, her trousers got caught on a nail. Sierra started pulling her leg as the sound of footsteps grew louder. Sierra pulled as hard as she could and she was finally free. The bottom part of her left side had a tear in it. We pulled Miles’ body into the shadows and we pushed ourselves into the shadows as hard as we could. We sat for a while as we listened as the footsteps become louder and eventually faded into the distance. By then, Miles was regaining consciousness.

“Ugh…what happened? Where am I?”

He took one look at me and glared. “You.”

“Now look here, Miles. This can all be explained.”

Miles shook his head. “No. This does not need any explaining at all because I know exactly what is going here. You hired some guys to take me out when you couldn’t get me to accept you. In other words, you’re just being a little bitch, aren’t you, Archer?”

“Oh really? If I really was a little bitch, you would be dead by now, wouldn’t you?”

Miles thought for a second and nodded displeasingly. “That makes sense but that doesn’t change anything!”

“Miles, will you listen? Those guys that were after you, they’re after me as well! I don’t know what is going but if we want to expect a chance at surviving, I suggest we stick together by hook or by crook.”

Miles glared as he looked out a broken window. We didn’t have a lot of time.

“Well? What is it going to be?”

“Fine. I’ll ‘humour’ you. One last chance, Archer. If you screw up again, it’s going to be me who walks away.”

I sighed. “That’s better than nothing I suppose.”

Out of the shadows, Dokkalfar appeared. Miles got up, ready to fight.

“Easy, Miles. He’s one of my people. What is it, Dokkalfar?”

Dokkalfar bowed to me alone. “My lord, I bring terrible news. Your residence back in the continent Europe is being ransacked at this very moment. A few of us have agreed that there were sighting of men dressed in black with a brain tattoo on their hands and snakes surrounding said brain.”

I clenched my fist. “They must be with those men who attacked me the other day.”

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s kick their big, pink backsides!” Miles exclaimed.

“No. I don’t have enough information on these people. I have no idea who they are and what their intentions might be. Dokkalfar, continue observations but stay hidden. I don’t want to risk our people. Worse, if they somehow managed to track me down and you know what happens if things don’t go the way we want them to.”

Dokkalfar nodded. “Yes, my lord.” With that, he disappeared into the shadows.

“So, what happens to us?” Miles asked me.

“Well, right now, we need a place to stay.”

“Oh, I have a place in town…”

“Is it close by?”

“Yes, quite convenient if you ask me.”

I shook my head. “No, it is not convenient. If I’m right, the superiors and accomplices of your attackers would wonder what happened to their collegues and send a team here. I don’t want to be in the area by the time they arrive.”

“Well, er…I have a place up north. You could stay there while all this quietens down.”

“That’s good enough.”

“Right, let’s go then.”

“Yes but first, I need to visit my mother. I haven’t seen her for a while.”

“Archer, you said you didn’t want to stay for long…”

“I know, I did, but this is important.”

I told Miles that we didn’t have any form of automotive transport and he agreed to drive us in his car. We walked into a parking lot that had a lone red car in the distance.

“There she is, my pride and joy.” Miles said as he approached it and got into the driver’s seat.

I got into the shotgun seat and buckled on the seat belt.

“Alright , we’re ready to go!” Miles said.

“Yeah, are you alright back there, Sierra?” I asked turning around to face her.

“Sierra? Who’s Sierra?” Miles asked, genuinely confused.

“Are you trying to say you haven’t noticed her since just now?”

“Hey, I can’t keep track of everything!” Miles turned around and truly looked at Sierra for the first time. At first, he looked like he was speechless but then his cocky form returned and he did his best grin. “Well, who do we have here? A beautiful looking mademoiselle, I must say.”

“Just drive the damn car, moron.”

“Hey, no need to get so aggressive. I’m only trying to be friendly.”

I smacked Miles with my arm. “Save the formalities for later. We need to get out of here.”

“Okay, okay.” He turned to Sierra and winked at her. “Check you later, babe.” Miles finished off his sentence with a double click sound. Sierra just rolled her eyes. Miles turned the key and the engine ignited quietly. Miles drove us back into a familiar neighbourhood.

“All this sure brings back memories for you, huh?” Miles asked.

“Four years may have passed but everything still looks the same.”

“The lives of most of the families in the neighbourhood has changed though. For example, Colin from across the street has finally furthered his studies at MIT.”

“Wow. That’s…amazing.”

“Yeah, that’s not all. Remember Suzanne, two blocks down from your place, the one we fantasized about?”

“You mean the one you fantasized about.” I corrected him.

“She’s married now and her son will celebrate his first birthday next month.”

I nodded. A lot has changed in this neighbourhood. It all seemed great until I remembered why I stayed away from this place and sometimes to an extent, the human world. We arrived in front of my old house.

“I’m going in to see my mom alone.”

I stepped out of the car and walked up to the front door. It was late at night and the lamp next to the door was the only thing that shone. I couldn’t see any light coming in from the house. I knocked on the door a few times.

“Mom? Are you there? It’s me, Archer.”

I thought back about my mother. I always thought that she was the greatest person in the world until my father died. At that time, she grew into a crazy and aggressive woman. Apparently, she didn’t take dad’s passing to well. I tried to get her some medical attention but they were either too expensive or they claimed to have more important business to attend to. I stood outside for a while. When the door didn’t open after five minutes, I opened the door, which was unlocked, and entered. What I saw inside shocked me.

Papers of all kinds laid all across the floor and photo frames pieces were all over the place. Some of the furniture were on their side. Where was mom? She wasn’t one to leave the house in a mess.

I stepped into the living room and checked the drawers. All I found were more useless scraps of paper that didn’t help with the current situation. I decided to check the kitchen next.

The state of the kitchen wasn’t as bad as the living room but I wasn’t going to call it clean anytime soon. It was dark like the rest of the house, although with my ability to see in the dark, it didn’t matter.

The counter top was covered with plastic bags and cutlery. Broken crockery covered the floor. It was fortunate that I was wearing shoes when I came in. Otherwise, my feet would have plenty of cuts. I walked over to the refrigerator and was greeted with a horrendous, foul smell when I opened the doors. Rotting meat sat in every shelf of the fridge and expired milk was spilling out of the floor. A few dead cockroaches were even in there. I closed the refrigerator before I started puking.

I headed up the stairs slowly. I heard thumping noises coming from the master bedroom. Hopefully, it was my mother and not a burglar. The dark and quiet atmosphere made my spine tingle. I edged closer to the door and turned the door knob open slowly. The door creaked open as I opened it slowly so as not to alert whoever was inside the room.

There was a figure sitting in the middle of a devastated bedroom. The figure was facing the other way so I couldn’t see who it was. I didn’t want to startle him or her so I quietly knocked on the door. The figure moved a bit but it didn’t turn around. I, however, was sure that the figure had been made aware of my presence.

“Hello? Who are you?” I asked the figure. If it attacked me, I would be ready.

“They took all we had…”

I stopped breathing. That was my mother’s voice!”

“They are taking all we have…”

“Mom? Is that you?”

“They will take all we have…”

“Mom, are you alright?”

“NOT ANYMORE!!!” my mother turned around, brandishing a handgun and fired three times. Two of the three bullets him me. One in my left shoulder and another in my left thigh. The third bullet narrowly missed my hip. I fell down to the ground and writhed in pain as blood seeped out of my wounds.

[Miles’ POV]

I sat in the driver’s seat as Archer walked up to his house and entered it. For a while, I sat in silence in the car as I listened to the music coming from the radio. I looked in the rear-view mirror at Sierra who was looking out the window. Wow, she was really pretty! I’ve never seen a girl like her before. Where in the world did Archer find her? I cleared my throat and nervously tried to make conversation.

“It sure is a nice night, huh?” I asked. She made an agreeing sound. I quickly came up with another question.

“So, what do you usually do on nights like this?”

“Nothing.”

Darn. She was making this difficult. I played one of the music discs and waited for the music to start playing.

“This is my favourite band, Whitesnake. I really like their music.” I slapped my head as I realised that I had just repeated myself. Wow, you don’t say Miles, you don’t say. I really like my favourite band? That’s big news, Miles. I shook my head at my own stupidity.

Suddenly, I heard three gunshots coming from inside Archer’s house. From what it sounded, it heard like it came from the second floor of the building. Sierra and I quickly got out of the car.

“Maybe you should stay in the car. Someone is armed in there.” I told Sierra.

“Whatever.” She said rolling her eyes. I guess there was no use in persuading her any further. We headed to the front door. Sierra was about to grab the front door when I stopped her.

“Let’s go in quietly so as not to alert whoever is inside there.”

I opened the door slowly and stepped into the dark building. It took some time for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. It was quiet dangerous, I realised, as someone could have just shot me right there and then. Fortunately, it seemed as though no one was on the first floor. The house was unnaturally messy. It was hard to navigate through the house without stepping on something. I looked behind at Sierra who was looking around the living room. I approached a wall and pressed my ear against the wall. I gestured at Sierra to be quiet. She just stood there looking at me.

I listened to any vibrations coming through the building. For some strange reason, I didn’t hear anything. My eyes fell on Sierra again who was still looking at me. It was only then that I realised that she wasn’t exactly looking at me but behind me. My ears twitched at the sound of a finger pulling back on a gun trigger.

Moving at half the speed of sound, I swung around and grabbed whatever was behind me. Someone had been pointing a gun right behind my head. I didn’t know how they managed to do so, but it was a close call. My eyes were useless in the dark so it was useful that my ears were super-sensitive.

I held the person’s hands as we struggled to gain control of the handgun. I