The Nymph's Saviour

1. Illusion

Louis sighs at her reflection. The dress is yet again too tight on her and it doesn't look exactly good on her body type. Her chest is trying to burst out of the top and her ass is making the hem hike up and show parts of her underwear.

“This isn’t going to work” She says. Trying to take the bitterness out of her voice.

“Lou! It’s fine! It’ll be dark anyways, so people won’t be able to see” Gray says from beside her. “We just need to put make up on you and do your hair. Before you know it, you’ll be this smoking hot chick walking down the street”

Louis purses her lips. Not believing her but doesn’t say anything against her friend who is just trying to cheer her up. After all, this is Gray’s treat for her. All month she’s been neglecting Gray as she mourned the death of her little brother, and her friend has had enough of it.

“This club isn’t exactly…mainstream. So! I need you to watch out, okay?” Gray says while tying Louis’s hair.

“Gray!” came her panic response. “What is this place?”

“Hey, are you paying for it?” Gray raises her brow at the mirror.

Louis just groans. It’s no secret that Gray throws her money at everything as she is the only daughter of an oil company owner. If it wasn’t for their mother’s being best friends, they wouldn’t be anywhere near each other’s friend group.

“Let’s just get home safe” Louis says.

Gray grunts with an excited smile on her face. She wrestled with Louis’s thick raven hair and though she’s unknowingly being rough with it, Louis keeps quiet. Not telling her friend that her scalp feels like it’s bleeding with her ministrations.

“This would be good for you.” Gray gave her a cheeky smile through the mirror. Her blue eyes glinting with delight and her pink cherub lips stretched in to a smile. “I’ve got it all handled”

Louis knows her best friend won’t let her get in to harm’s way but she does hope that she doesn’t have to clean after her like always. Both of their parents don’t trust Gray on her own and would only calm down if and when Louis is beside her to go to the places that Gray wanted to go to. The parties, the socializing, and Gray’s other circle of rich friends that Louis never understood.

To those friends, however, they think of Louis as just some childhood friend with a pretty face but always talked about her body behind her back. She knows Gray talks about it with them too, but she doesn’t have it in her to tell Gray off. Gray has always just been like this and there isn’t much she can do.

She already lost her brother and she didn’t want to lose her friend too. Her parents were gone as well, having divorce and getting their own families, while Louis just felt like a third wheel after her brother’s death and decided to live on her own. She has this small apartment by the city which she adored, even if to Grey it’s too small for Louis, which Gray tries to pass it off as an innocent comment about the place even if they both know she meant more about her weight.

“Done” Gray says once she finishes tying Louis’s hair in a braid and fixing her make up. She grins at her work “Now, you look beautiful.”

Louis doesn’t see the difference. She still sees the sadness in her dark eyes and no amount of make up or touch up can change it. her body has also been her source of insecurity too, seeing it squeezed in a black dress that showed more skin isn’t helping with her self-esteem.

“Now, that we’re both ready. Let’s go”

Louis grabs the heels that Gray brought with her and slips it on her feet. She just knows already how much these torture devices would hurt after a few hours in this exclusive club Gray pulled her in to.

“don’t forget, I have a job tomorrow” Louis says, trying to catch up to her friend who is more used to wearing torture devices than her.

Gray rolls her eyes “I know already. Now, let’s go meet some hot guys”

Louis dreaded going out with Gray. She already knows what’s going to happen when they do. Men would latch on to Gray while Louis is pushed to the side like a loyal dog, who will keep an eye on Gray’s drinks. She’s always been the designated driver between the two of them and for years she doesn’t complain because it was better than being alone in her apartment.

It’s the silence that bothered her the most. She can’t take the ringing in her ears that reminded her of that night. The night where everything went to s**t in her life.

They climb in Gray’s black matted Camaro. Louis has driven this car so many times, that a part of her feels as if she owns it. Gray lets her use it on a daily basis too since her friend owns three more cars aside from this one.

Gray is driving this time. Leading the both of them downtown where this infamous club resides. Louis is already worried at the sketchy roads that they’re passing through but as Gray has promised there is a building on the end of the road with neon lights and a long line of people.

They park on the other side of the road and marches through the doors not even minding the people who were waiting outside. Louis notices that most of them were really attractive women, looking excited to get in to the club. Gray takes her attention by locking their hands together and pulling her deep in the club.

It was strange. It’s not the usual kind of clubs that Gray often push her in to. There were rows and rows of tables with black curtains that gives the people some privacy. There was loud music that drowns out the private conversations held in those small spaces. Louis is intrigued and find herself staring hardly at the people inside those curtains, but it was hazy and there were a lot of movement in them, that’s hard for her too human sight to follow.

“You’re here” Gray pushes her in to one empty seat with the same dark curtains, but this one is open and vacant. “I’m three tables that way”

“Wait—”

“Louis! You’d enjoy this, I swear! But to be sure” she gives me a wink and throws me the car keys. “You will never know”

“What are you even talking about?” Louis asks. But it seems Gray isn’t listening to her anymore as the tall blonde marches to her so called “table”

Louis is stunned. Not knowing whether to stand and follow her friend or to stay put. She’s starting to sweat at the idea of her being alone again, it’s not quiet but she’ still alone here. Her thoughts were interrupted when someone closes the curtains and sits in front of her. She freezes, she couldn’t look up at all.

“Welcome to Pheromones, Madam” the dark sensual voice infiltrated her mind, but it feels familiar.

The familiarity made her look up and the sight of the man in front of him took her breath away. Not because she’s attracted but the man in front of her looks incredibly like her little brother. Even in the dark, she can see him, it feels like the dead is haunting her and she’s too scared to move.

“Is there something wrong?” he asks her.

It took Louis a few seconds before she realized she’s crying. “Stop” she says, she abruptly stands and that’s what she noticed is his flaw. Her brother is just a few inches taller than her not a full foot. She has to crane her neck to look at him “Stop using this illusion”

The man’s face darkens. He forces a tight smile on his face “I don’t know what you’re talking about”

Louis couldn’t control herself. She slaps him with everything that she has, ignoring the burning sensation on her palm. Her breathing heavy and rapid, hurting her chest with every inhale. She feels livid and hurt. Of all the faces she’d see, it had to be him. “I’m human but I know what you’re trying to do. It doesn’t work on me”

The man’s face slowly morphs as he sighs and drops on to the seat, the face of her younger brother is now gone and is replaced with a beautiful blonde-haired man. With sharp striking features, and yet with a softness to it that Louis thought of him as a doll. Pink full lips slightly pouting and blue striking eyes that cuts to her skin.

“So, you know of enchantment” he says. His eyes half closed in a seductive attempt on her. She notices how hard he’s trying on disarming her, but she drops on to the seat across him.

She’s too tired to be swept by him, especially when she’s used to beautiful people barely glancing at her. “I just know it. I don’t practice it”

The man furrows his brows. He looks pensive and even confused. “then how do you…know?”

“a family member is a witch.” She leans back on to her seat. emotionally spent and physically tired as the creeping sadness comes back to claw at her insides. “I don’t know enough to know what you are, don’t worry”

“Good”

The tone of his voice made Louis look at him, it sounds optimistic, hopeful even. He grabs her hand on the table between them and felt the waves of heat travelling up her arm. His eyes boring in to hers and that’s when she noticed it.

There were bruises that looks like a flickering image on his skin. He’s hiding his bruises and wounds on his face to catch her attention, and instead of feeling outrage like the first time. She feels sad, he’s desperate.

“You need to help me. I’ve been trapped here as some prostitute for this blackmar—”

“I’ll help you” she whispers, giving him all of her sincerity.

He’s taken aback. His eyes wide and lips slightly parted. “Is this some trick? Another human who’s just using this opportunity to take a nymph and lock in to her room?”

“No—” he cuts her off before she can assure him that she’s not here to trick him. she doesn’t even know what a freaking nymph is, other than from the Greek mythologies.

“Especially, you who looks as if you haven’t had”—he sniffs her—"you’re a virgin. I don’t blame them if they left you untouched as humans like you are only taken by people with weird tastes, but if you’re just tricking—”

She slaps his mouth shut. Her face red in embarrassment and shame. Her tears burning down her cheeks, but she stays. She doesn’t know why she’s still talking to this man especially when he is literally insulting her, but the wounds and bruises on his face helps. While he’s insulting her, the illusion on his face has slowly receded and all she can see now is a cut on his high cheek bones, a split lip, a bruise near his hairline, and an uneven nose. A complete turn from what he was trying to show her.

“I’m not tricking you” she feels a bit sorry for slapping him twice, after she saw what state he was. But after his insults she feels a little less guilty for slapping him. She sighs, wiping her tears on a tissue on the table. “Just tell me how, and I’ll do it”

He furrows his brows. His lips have started bleeding again because of the slap but he doesn’t seem to notice. “You can buy me for a night and hide me in your place.”

Louis nods. “Okay”

He gives her a hard stare. “Are you really not some human the f*****g worm sent to test me?”

Worm? Louis thought. “No, now how do I buy you for the night?”

He tilts his head and raises his brows. “Well, easy.”

He calls after a waiter and slips a paper on his tray but not before slipping on his illusion of a pristine and clean face. Louis wondered for a moment as to why he showed her the face of her brother instead his own. If he entered with this one, she would’ve been enchanted and intrigued but would never dare try anything.

Wait, did Gray just pull her in to a brothel? An illegal paranormal brothel? She internally groans at her friend’s illegal antics. It’s not the first as Gray is known to take designer drugs and Louis is the one who drove Gray through all her rehabs and excursions without their parent’s knowledge.

Someone suddenly came in, a large dark-skinned man with tattoos on his scalp. He looks at Louis with a friendly smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. The sight of him made Louis think if she’s making a mistake of helping this man. She doesn’t even know his name.

“Madam, I’ve heard that you’ve taken our top server for the night? Should I add it to your tab?”

Louis blinks. “Yes” she says a bit too fast.

The scary bald man doesn’t seem to notice or care. “Well, Ms. Gray Steel Thank you for your patronage as you’re the only one who’d be allowed to take Ragna out for the night”

Ragna. What a strange name Louis thought. “Yes, of course, thank you.”

The man glares at Ragna with a silent warning before giving him a small packet and leaving the two of them. Louis looks at him with a questioning gaze.

“This is the tracking device. Don’t worry, I can deactivate it Miss Steel” he winks at her

She ignores him and doesn’t correct him, as it’s not the time to do so. She’s too irate and hurt to give him her name. “Let’s go”

She takes the car keys and stands. She’s about to walk ahead of Ragna but he grabs her shoulder before she can take a step outside of the curtains. “We need to link our arms and look as if we’re enjoying ourselves.”

Without her answer, he takes her arm in his and pulls her even closer. He interlocks their hands, palm on palm. She feels slightly unsure about this, but he’s already pulling her to the outside. He shows the packet that the bald man gave him to the guard and he easily lets the two through.

They walk with cautious steps towards the other side of the road where Gray parked the car. Louis unlock the door and he open the driver’s door for her, which she gave him a small thanks and he jogs to the other side.

“Hurry” he says. Louis can sense his panic or rather his excitement to get far from the club.

Louis speeds off from the side of the road. She forgets to text Gray that she’ll be leaving first, which is actually a first for the both of them. For now, she just leaves a mental note to text her as she doesn’t think it’s smart to text and drive.

Ragna seems to fiddle with the packet and she hears a soft squeal before he rolls down the window and throws it out. He visibly relaxes and leans back on to his seat. he sighs loudly

She glances at the man beside her. She has never done this before; she never broke the rules even when Gray pressured her to. She never drank alcohol, tried weed or inhaled coke through her nose. She needed her body healthy, enough to be ready to give anything his sick brother needed.

“Are you really not going to take me back to that club?” she can hear both the threat and unsureness in it. He’s understandably scared and he definitely got those wounds from that place.

“No” she answers.

She flinches when she feels his hand on her thigh. Surprising her to the point she almost stepped on to the pedal. “Really?” he seductively says.

Louis frowns and pulls over to the side. Her frown deepening while glaring at Ragna’s direction. “Get out”

He raises his hands as if surrendering “Sorry but I need your help still”

Her glare remained. “What is it?”

He raises his black button down to show a wide gash on his side. “Actually, I need you to stitch me up a bit or I’ll lose more blood than I’d want to”

Louis’s eyes widen. “What the hell happened to you?”

His face visibly darkens. “A lot that would scare you Miss Steel”

She debates whether she should correct him, but it’s not like they’ll see each other after this. She gave her his freedom, and he probably has a home to go back to. He didn’t need to stay any longer with her after she helps him stitch him up.

“This would be the last of the favors” honestly, why did she even save him? She could’ve left him there and not have this conversation at all. She could’ve said no to Gray and wallowed in her apartment till the end of the world, but why did she go?

The drive back to her apartment was quiet. She checks from time to time at Ragna by looking at him, but it seems he’s busy looking behind their car as if someone would follow them. When they arrive to her apartment building, she can see the disappointment in his face. Even the apartment building looks unappealing.

“Miss Gray, you are an enigma.” He says to her.

“I know you’re expecting a pent house but I’m not really Miss Gray, that’s my friend who took me to the club. Don’t worry, I didn’t trick you as someone who’s untouched I am awfully naïve and too soft to trick someone.” She locks the car without looking at Ragna. She steps to the lobby door and opens it for him.

Ragna’s face is blank but when he passes through the door, she opened for him he whispers, “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that”

She shakes her head. “I know how you want it to mean. It’s fine, and I’m on the third floor. Just get in the elevator already”

All in Louis’s mind is that by tomorrow night, she’ll be alone again. Alone with her insufferable thoughts and the sadness that kept haunting her. By tomorrow, this man would be gone and hopefully he still knows how to go home without getting picked up the streets. She also hopes that Gray goes home safely.

But above all else, she hopes the nightmares wouldn’t come to her tonight. Anything but the nightmares.