Silence and voices

Ana didn't reply a thing as she was still overwhelmed by everything and having difficulty discerning reality. She got up and quietly went towards the room Lucas pointed out. Once she was inside, she locked herself and sat on the cushion bed.

Everything seemed crazy, different, unbelievable, impossible, yet believable on some level. She heard folklore about these kind of things, angels, demons, hell, heaven, fairies, vampires, warlocks and whatnot. And working in the museum had only made her believes stronger throughout the years.

People say that a museum was a place filled with past historical things, but Ana begged to differ. She found the museum to be a place of mystery. All through her years, she had witnessed some really bizarre artifacts uncovered from the past, bones that belonged to a species which was yet to be discovered or never existed, entire civilization vanished without a trace, ancient specimens which sometimes proved that the past civilizations were much more smarter than us and were capable of a great many things which was beyond our imagination. But, she had never once come across hardcore proofs about creatures from folklore.

If everything Lucas said were true, why were they here? Didn't demons belong to hell and angels in heaven? But what if there were many myths hidden among the truth? And how did she get tangled up in all that? Was she really safe with them?

The image of Oliver saving her from those humans flashed in front of her eyes. He had been acting strange since she regained consciousness. When he helped her sit up from bed, when he mirrored the same pain and exhaustion she felt while touching the pendant, when he held her so tightly like letting go would do him more harm than her…. It was all very unlike himself. She had never seen him show this sort of kindness towards anyone before. But she also didn't fail to notice how he was baffled himself by the actions he took every time.

Ana wanted to know more. She wanted to try out a little experiment and slowly touched the back of the necklace. Nothing happened. She gradually heaved the pin to open it and suddenly a strong electric current passed through her fingers making her wince. She slumped her hands down in defeat.

Curiosity overcame every bit of fear she had. She decided to give them a chance. It wasn't like she was free to go anyways. She remembered Oliver's brutal strength when he tried to choke her to death. She shook off the image from her mind and decided to concentrate on her own safety first.

She shouldn't trust them. They were demons who were well known for their notoriousness but, she had been with them both for a long time and she hoped that once all this were over, they had no reasons to harm her.

A new pair of clothes neatly folded on the bed caught her attention. It had a pair of jeans and a complicated pale sandal lace top. It was nothing like Ana would usually wear and she cursed Lucas for his taste in such complicated clothing. She changed as quickly as possible, made up her mind to stay only until she could give them back their pendant and left the room.

The living room was completely clear like nothing ever happened there just a while ago and Lucas and Oliver were both ready and waiting for her. Oliver had his hands casually tugged in his jean pockets, leaning against a doorsill and Lucas stood facing him discussing something seriously.

The worry lines on Oliver's forehead meant that he was as bemused as Ana.

Oliver noticed Ana before Lucas and he took a beat to take in her looks. It almost looked like he was going to say something nice when he instead said, "Somebody sure took their sweet time….." in a tone riddled with sarcasm. Ana had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at him. It was one thing to piss off Oliver but a whole other thing to piss off a demon who was the son of Satan.

Wow! Even thinking about her boss like that brought goosebumps. It was a whole lot of crazy and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to handle it well. Firstly, she decided to just believe in their story for now and accept they were really demons and take it from there.

"Hey…. You look gorgeous…. It suits you!", Lucas commented with a smile.

She was nervous, "We….can go…", she said all the while noticing that Oliver's intent gaze never left her. 

She followed them out to the car. Lucas being a gentleman as always helped her inside and closed the door behind her. He took the seat near Oliver leaving him to drive wherever they were heading towards.

This was another thing she saw Oliver do for the first time. Drive. They always had a driver, but given the circumstances of his resignation maybe Oliver fired him already.

Ana shook her head to clear her thoughts and scootched to the corner to observe the world as they passed by. She did have a million questions but she also needed some time to be alone. There was a comfortable silence around them like an ocean and Ana found herself sink deep into it.

Her thoughts swirled around the strange happenings since the day she went back to office. It was sure the weirdest two days of her life.

She suddenly remembered Kathy and her friend would be freaking out that she wasn't in office yet.

"Where is my phone?", she chimed breaking the silence and Lucas was the one to turn around.

"Here…. I… meant to give you but forgot.. Apologies", he handed over the only piece of belonging that was hers.

She gladly took it and searched for missed calls and was shocked to find no calls or messages. This should've soothed her but she worried it was impossible.

"By the way, I informed Katherine and your family that you have accompanied me for a meeting with Mr. Ryon, our artist for the exhibit and that we're out of station.", Lucas solved the mystery.

"Ohh… okay…", she nodded and went back to daydreaming again.

It was really considerate of him to have properly informed everyone given the situation they were in. Oliver told that she was out cold for two days. She couldn't image how freaked Kathy would be if she knew the actual truth.

Ana's hand instinctively went to the necklace but she stopped herself seconds before touching it. Joshua once gifted her a heart shaped silver pendant for their first anniversary and she had been diligently wearing it till the fateful day of their breakup. She wondered if all this could've been avoided if she was still with Joshua.

If they had been together, she would've never thought this pendant was from him. That might've raised suspicions and she would've given it for extra screening at the museum instead of taking it home with her. Maybe part of her wanted it to be from him. Though she was convincing herself that it was over, she had not completely moved on. How could someone move on from something that lasted this long? It all just seemed a ridiculous joke.

She wished if she could erase everything since Joshua's birthday and start over. She unlocked her phone and opened his chat, but came up empty.

Part of her still wanted to see a nice message from him clearing up any misunderstandings. But she knew very well it was all a pipe dream.

Her thoughts drifted to all the sweet times they spent together, the countries they wanted to travel, all the new things they wanted to explore, now everything vanished and in a matter of 24 hours, the closest person who was almost like her family became a stranger.

That was life! Nothing could be done.. Except time, everything else was temporary and fleeting. Ana decided to utilize this silence to recollect all the sweet memories she had with Joshua instead of agonizing herself with things which didn't make sense yet. She was lost in her own space and time, in a world of her own.

Both Oliver and Lucas appreciated the silence too. Before leaving the house, they were pretty sure Ana would bombard them with questions, which they were not ready to answer yet. They have to eventually talk to her, but they needed some time to organize their thoughts too.

Lucas and Oliver had already decided to only share things with her to the extent of her involvement so that they'd be able to spare her life when all this was over. But as soon as getting in the car, Ana took them by surprise and chose to be quiet instead.

Lucas knew the rule too. Any human who knew their secrets, would eventually have to die. But, he had been trying to convince Oliver to give an exception to Ana as she was an accident. They could instead wipe her memory when everything was done and let her live.

Oliver wondered how something that belonged only in hell ended up in the hands of a human. No matter what, he could think of only one person who hated him more than anything and he also knew that person held a serious grudge against him because of Lucas. But would he go to the extreme of stopping Oliver from entering hell again?