Nostalgia

The trip was over an hour long bus ride out of town. Prince was nervous and spaced out during the journey whilst Alex was lost in the thoughts of his past. Both with filled with amplified feelings of anxiety. They hardly spoke during the journey as the tension could be felt in the air of the bus.

They arrived at their destination in a town centre. Alex inhaled deeply and glanced at his phone with the directions to a pub called The Lion's Crown. The directions said it was close by, but it was nowhere in sight. With little to no clue on how to get to their destination, they both headed into the town centre. The centre was quiet with a few people who seemingly kept to themselves. They felt followed but assumed it was nerves getting to them. A female figure followed from behind. She wore a grey hoodie and black jeans. Her eyes were blue, and her hair dyed a dark green. "Who are these clowns?" She whispered to herself.

The boys wandered through the town with people glancing at them as they walked. They knew that they were not from this area. It seemed strange for someone to be wandering around the centre in this town. They grew increasingly nervous unable to find the pub they were looking for. Then they were approached by a single guy, no one else was around. "What ya lil punks doin' out here?" He spoke in a gruff tone. Alex remained silent with a sense of calm whilst a panicked expression grew on Prince's face behind him. The man was an inch taller than Alex and was same build. "Why are ya not answering me?" He said raising his voice whilst reaching out a hand to grab Alex's hair.

Alex looked up with a devilish grin whilst grabbing the guy's wrist. "You should piss off." Alex said with gritted teeth whilst staring a hole through the man. The guy was stunned momentarily but lifted his other hand but was thwarted when Alex pushed forward and landed a devastating headbutt on his nose knocking him down to the ground with a bloodied nose. The guy looked up at Alex shaken. Alex no longer grinning looked down at him with a superior aura. "Get lost"

The guy squirmed back and briskly walked away holding his nose. The female on looker saw it all and pulled out her phone. She sent a text to the contact, GreenyBeany. "We seem to have troublemakers in town. They only arrived in town for 30 minutes and have already scared off Nicholas." She put the phone in her pocket and got in close but sat on a bench. She noticed Alex's face but couldn't land on why she felt it was familiar. His green eyes felt familiar not only to one of her current contacts, but with someone she had met before.

Prince noticed the girl looking in their direction and was quick to alert Alex. Alex, looking at his phone, felt helpless as the map guide was useless. He looked up at the girl and walked in her direction to ask about the pub. He began to notice something familiar about this person. He couldn't put together what it was, his mind suffocated in vague clouds of the faces of his past as his train of thought caused him to stare at her.

The girl smiled as Alex stood in front of her awkwardly for a moment. Prince nudged him from behind bringing him back to reality. "Sorry, do you know where this place is?" Alex showed his phone as he said this. The girl's eyes widened momentarily as she stared down at the phone.

She looked up with a friendly expression. "I'll take you there." She stood up, gave a polite smile and began leading them towards the ends of the town centre. "What brings you young guys to a place like this anyway? Aren't you both a bit young to be looking for a bar?"

"Hey, we're not kids you know. We're both adults." Chimed Prince as he pouted.

"I'm here to find someone. I believe this place has the answers." Alex said as they followed the girl into an alleyway. The shadow of the building covering the expression of Alex's face. His eyes sparking in that shadow with an intensity to scare beasts.

The girls friendly smile dropped. She began to become suspicious of the two, where they friend or foe. "You should be careful you know; this town isn't nice." She said whilst turning to Alex. "You really shouldn't be playing around."

A volcanic explosion of emotion struck up inside. He stood still looking down, silent as the air grew tense. As the girl looked at him, he slowly raised his eyes to meet her gaze. The shadow of the building covered all of his face, but not his eyes. His eyes gleamed with unparalleled, petrifying emotion. The girl gulped loudly as she looked into his piercing glare which seemed to be like those of the most powerful demon. "I'm here for my own reasons. You may not know this, but I lost everything I held dear to me some time ago. Now I'm trying to stop it happening again."

The girl hesitated. "O-Ok, follow me and I'll take you where you need to go." The girl started to fill with anger but felt pain for Alex, behind that rage she saw a sadness in his eyes. She quickly shook of the surprising amount of malicious intent and lead them to the end of the alleyway where there was a single large but antique looking building. "Well let's see what they want." she thought to herself. "Here you guys go. Do you know who you're looking for?"

"The owner." Replied Alex.

"Oh god this kid is gonna die." Thought the girl.