Hellbound Heart



As soon as they materialized, Alex's eyes widened in a mixture of shock and disbelief. Never had he even imagined something like this would happen! That he would find himself materializing in the midst of a bustling city street!

"Oh, sh*t!" Alex cursed under his breath as his very first reaction was to look around to see if someone had caught them just appearing out of nowhere on camera. There were a few people who were looking at them with horrified expressions, as if they just saw something completely impossible, while others simply went about their business, oblivious to the oddity that had just occurred.

Alex did not mind if some people saw them doing that 'magic' as long as there was no evidence. His gaze looked for any nearby CCTV's and groaned at the sight of a couple of cameras attached to the street lamps. 

"Oh, damn it!" his hand braced on his hip as he pinched the skin between his brows. He had never thought this newbie friend of Zeke would instantly give him this amount of headache just by helping with a little bit of transportation! He could not help but immediately regret even at the thought of babysitting him even for a while! Rather than babysitting, it is more that he was being tricked into cleaning up the mess that was Gav.

As he turned to face his companion. "What the hell are you doing?" he demanded, his voice low and laced with irritation.

But as he looked at Gav, his words trailed off. Gav was staring up at the skyscrapers, looking around in curiosity and wonder as though what he was seeing was something so alien and never seen before. Alex momentarily fell speechless, realizing that this guy had never seen anything like this before. And from the way he was gaping at the buildings and the people, Alex quickly deduced that his world was obviously very much different from theirs. In fact, he even suspected that his world might not even have much resemblance to theirs.

The screeching of tires brought Alex back to reality, and he quickly pulled Gav off the street before the lights turned red. 

"This place is...interesting," Gav commented, his eyes still fixed on the towering buildings. His entire being seemed to be buzzing with curiosity.

Alex let out a heavy sigh as he looked at Gav. "You…!! Didn't you say you needed to catch up with Zeke?" He reminded Gav, almost sure that the man must have forgotten about his aim for at least that moment.

"I do," Gav replied, his tone nonchalant, as if he did not do anything wrong at all.

"Like hell you do!" Alex retorted, rolling his eyes. He was so tempted to smack Gav up the back of his head. "You brought us both miles away and to a different country in just the blink of an eye. Are you actually dumb, or are you just roaming around now that you're away from Zeke's watch?"

Gav remained calm, but something dangerous momentarily flicked in his grey eyes at Alex's words. "If I know the place, I can bring us both where he is in an instant," he said in a cold tone. "You're the one who asked me, who knows nothing about this place, to bring us both to wherever Zeke is." He stated the fact - which was right on point.

Alex opened his mouth but he shook his head and could only sigh again. It seemed that this guy was another handful to deal with. Poor Zeke, that guy was never getting any breaks in getting tangled with troublesome people… 

Wanting to just catch up with Zeke before the guy disappears again, Alex gave in, "Fine, fine. Let's just say that I am at fault for that. But we're too far from where we should be - return us both to where we came from."

All too soon, Gav's dark magic began to appear as he was about to teleport them, when Alex suddenly grabbed onto his wrist. "Stop!" he hissed, dragging Gav away from the busy street. "You can't just use your powers of teleportation in front of all these people!" he explained, looking as though he had just aged ten years! Alex looked so indignant as he thought of how thoughtless Gav was, not bothered at all about having his powers being exposed in public. However, he belatedly realised that it might be because in his own world, this kind of display of power must be a normal and accepted thing.

Alex then rummaged through his pocket for his phone and sighed again when he found he had none. He really needed to make a call for someone to immediately clean up the footage of them both doing that appearing act before someone caught on and spread it online! 

Gladly, Alex spotted a telephone booth. Again, he grabbed Gav and dragged him along, not daring to even let go of the guy even for a second. He knew this type of person. The moment he takes his eyes off Gav, the guy would end up causing another trail of mess that needs cleaning up. What he needed was to catch up with Zeke. He really did not have the time to babysit this guy right now! 

After he made the urgent call, Alex pulled Gav along with him again, not minding the giggling girls who might be thinking some silly things about them right now. 

As they walked down a dark and narrow alley, Alex finally sighed out in relief. 

Gav, on the other hand, seemed to be distracted by the world around them. "You said this is a world where magic is not a norm, but what makes those things move?" he asked, pointing at the cars passing them on the street. 

Alex rolled his eyes, feeling a mix of disbelief and amusement. Gav was like a child seeing the world for the first time, and Alex was not ready for this.