Week Eleven: Monday When: Late night Where: Hotel Who: Nikolaos – Narrative
More then a week had passed. More then a week since his words with Mikkos. More then a week that he'd been seeking to gain entrance back into hell and was denied at every pass. Guards had been killed, slaughtered for trying to prevent him and yet there were always more. The numbers were high; such had been made certain of before they'd even left hell. Now Nikolaos was beginning to understand why. It was not to ensure that they did not fail, but to ensure that if they did fail that they would be punished for it. For Nikoloas this punishment was a slap in the face. This was worse then all other pains. He would take a thousand physical and mental tortures before he would take being denied his home. Yet it mattered not what he wanted.
Still he remained here on the surface. Scorned. Insulted. Belittled.
His worth was made clear. His father’s fate was his own. It was not he that his grandfather wanted at his side still. Not anymore.
The guards would speak nothing however, no matter how Nikolaos sought to...force it out of them. Such attempts to question a superior were rarely met with any acceptance. Nikolaos had been punished in the past for it. But he cared not. No he questioned now, he pushed and he demanded answers. But three was a demon alive that the guards feared far more then Nikolaos. All methods of persuasion went denied. They'd die before speaking that which they were told to not. They did die.
The other demon being contained, however, still seemed to be a part of the family wishes. The guards remained vigilant there and though they did not deny Nikolaos access to the room eyes were always upon him, watching him as though they believed it was he who was traitor. It had never been him. Never once. But he could feel the weight of those sneers from the shadows. It made his skin crawl....made him want to tear into them and rip the sneers from their faces.
The days passed slowly, yet seemed nothing more then a blur now to the demon that held no true place in anything any longer. One day after the next.... Questions bleeding into each other, guards faces all seemed the same now. There would be no answers to be found until Haimon decided they deserved them. It was far from a comforting thought.
In the midst of all of this Nikolaos had gone out of his way to avoid all. His room was now one opposite of all others, space to ensure he did not have to cross paths with any of them. He spoke not to his mother or father or any of the few he'd once thought loyal but now new better. It was his own self he had to look out for. There was a part of him that still sought to think of the family, a part that near stilled his hand every time he tried to gain answers.
But it was becoming more and more apparent that the only one he could trust was his own self.
In the shadows Nikolaos often remained. Watching. Waiting. It was only a matter of time before another move was made and he had to be prepared for it. Ready for whatever it was Haimon was planning.