HELLHOUND
CHAPTER THREE

Leaves rustled with the strong blows of the wind in the cold morning. Alecto crunched them beneath her feet, visualizing her sisters at the moment that they banished her. Subconsciously, her teeth were gritted, grinding into sensitive bone. As were her fists, with her sharp nails piercing into her cold skin like daggers. The pain didn't bother Alecto– it never had. She was almost immune to physical pain, or maybe she was just used to it as Goddess of Vengeance. Pain and torture were her jobs, her life. And ironically, being stripped of her title and free from her job was more painful than anything else.

Biting the inside of her cheek, she shook her head in frustration before flinging an arm forward. Her hands flew open and she tightened her core. She closed her eyes, squeezing every muscle within her body until they shivered and ached. When she opened her eyes, her hands were empty, unaffected– they weren't lit up with sparkling ash and amber flames like the angry Hellfires that burned and grew in her stomach and chest. Alecto growled, dropping her hands to her sides and throwing her head back in exasperation.

"Um, Alec," Harvey's voice sounded from behind her. Alecto squeezed her eyes tightly and bit her tongue, trying to refrain from screaming. She let out a sigh before turning around to face him. He was seated on the step in front of his garage, cozy in his winter jacket. "Was that supposed to happen?" With furrowed brows, he pointed to the left of the forest, a pile of branches that had fallen and accumulated over a few days' time. The pile of wood bristled with flames. Although the fire wasn't strong enough to survive the blowing of the wind, it was enough confirmation that her powers weren't completely gone. It reassured Alec in a sense, settling some of her questions. But it angered her more, reminding her of what her sisters had taken away from her– all because of a stupid mistake.

"No," she sighed, her eyes never leaving the bunch of burnt, smoldering pine wood.

"Maybe you-"

"Do you ever just shut up?" she snapped, turning away from him once more. She stared down at her hands and focussed on her core and chest once more, trying to channel her energy to her hands and the grounds beneath her.

"Look, if you're still mad about what I said last night, I'm sorry," Harvey said as he stood from his seat. He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and contemplated nearing Alecto. Alecto frowned, trying to focus on her powers instead of Harvey's unnecessary apology speech. He kept talking though, his voice filling Alecto's ears and his words taking up the focus that belonged to her testing out the extent of her powers. "I shouldn't have said those things," he continued. Alecto narrowed her eyes to try to strengthen her concentration. The more he spoke, the more her mind was fogged and the more she wanted to rip his organs out. "I know what it feels like to lose people and-"

"I don't need your pity."

"I'm not trying to pi-"

"I need space, Kinkle!" she roared, spinning around to look at him with her arms flailing in the air. Her voice echoed through the woods, silencing all the chirping birds. Harvey gaped at Alec with wide eyes and parted lips. "Just leave me alone." The brunette raised his hands up in mock surrender before slowly turning around and reentering his garage.

As the sound of his footsteps faltered, Alecto sighed with relief. The fuel for violence within her died down ever so slightly, now that she was in peace and free of Harvey Kinkle's smothering. There was never a moment he appeared to get tired of standing by her side and crowding her with unneeded and unwanted questions and attention. Alecto had one goal, one purpose: to reclaim her right as a Fury. All that Harvey Kinkle was was a distraction.

Returning her attention back to her powers, Alecto inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. She held her hands out and channeled all of her fuel, her energy, and visualized it flowing from her core to her hands.

Her eyes snapped open at the sound of crackling leaves. She dropped her hands to her sides in exasperation and let out a loud grunt. She spun in a circle slowly and her eyes darted around to find the small fire she had started, but she frowned when not a sign of golden-amber or even smoke came into sight. Another cracking noise sounded and Alecto squinted to try and focus her vision as she turned in a three hundred and sixty-degree angle, yet nothing appeared to be around. She listened closely for the sound again, and upon realizing that the chirping birds had silenced, Alecto's eyes widened.

A loud growl sounded, triggering Alecto to subconsciously step back. Her eyes dashed from corner to corner, from tree to tree, to try and identify what or where the noise was coming from. Another bark sounded, and she took another step back. She peered over to a mass of trees ahead of her and Alecto's eyes bulged out of her head as she realized what she was dealing with– what her sisters had sent for her. Dips appeared in the leaf-covered ground, forming the shape of paws as they neared Alecto. "Unbelievable," she muttered under her breath, stumbling back. Another vicious bark racked through the woods, making the leaves on branches of trees tremble and shake from volume and impact.

Instinctively, she reached into her waistband to withdraw her blade, only to be reminded that it wasn't there. She shuddered at the realization that she was defenseless. Her slow steps backward turned into a backward speed-walk as she attempted to distance herself from the malicious creature nearing her. A Hellhound– what once was a friend, a companion, was now willing to tear her apart, all at her sisters' orders. Alecto was no match to a Hellhound with her powers so weakened. And with being stripped of all her armor and her glasses scorched with Holy Fire, Alecto had no way to even see the hostile animal.

Despite her fast pace, the Hellhound only appeared to be getting closer. Its paws dipping in the floor were only a few feet away from her own. "Crowley, stay!" Alecto demanded, throwing her hand in front of her with her index finger pointing up. The hound only barked louder and jumped forward. As it landed on the ground in front of Alecto, the leaves around it blew away and rustled. "I guess I have to fight you with my bare hands then. Not really a fair game though, is it, Crowley?" The hound barked once again, and before Alecto could comment on his attitude, she felt blades piercing into the skin of her right leg.

Alecto gasped and grunted in agony, the teeth of the dog perforating her skin and flesh until it grew numb. Crimson liquid seeped through the holes in the leather that covered her body and poured out into the wood chips and leaves beneath her. It left a trail of blood as Crowley dragged her violently across the ground at a fast speed. Alecto struggled to even open her eyes, but through the blur, she saw trees passing above her at an unbelievably brisk pace. She kicked her legs, thrashing around in an attempt to get the hound off her, but it was no use. Crowley only furthered the grip of his sharp teeth onto her calf, forcing a blood-curdling scream from Alecto's mouth. She kicked again, harder and harder, but before she could attempt a fifth time, she found her body plummeting against the trunk of a tree. It felt as though her entire body had fallen to pieces, that every bone in her upper body had shattered. The Hellhound's teeth dug deeper into her calf, but before Alecto could attempt to kick again her ears filled with a loud bang. And suddenly, the tightening of canine teeth above her ankle was gone, leaving her with only the stinging of the deep wound and the throbbing of her sore body.

"What the hell was that?" Harvey's voice cracked as he spoke, shock and confusion dripping from every word. His feet patted over the hard leaves that cracked as he hurried toward Alecto, shotgun in hand.

Groaning, Alecto propped herself up on her elbows and looked to her teeth. Alongside the big pool of her own blood was another growing puddle of blood. She used her left foot to identify the body of the Hellhound and sighed with relief when she felt it lying limply by her feet. "Hellhound," she replied in a strained breath. "How did you see it?"

"I- I didn't. All I saw was- was you being dragged around so I just shot." His eyes scanned her lying body, and he winced at the sight of her bloody leg. He placed a hand on his stomach and swallowed a lump in his throat as he tried to look away.

"You just shot?" Alecto questioned in disbelief. "You just shot. Did it come into consideration that you could have shot me?"

Harvey's jaw dropped in awe of her response. "Dude, I just saved your life!"

"I was doing fine on my own."

"Really? Because you looked like you were about to die!" Harvey hissed, staring down at Alecto who was still half-lying on the floor.

"I was handling it," she said, using all her arm strength to push her up into a seating position.

"The same way you're handling this?" The boy pointed toward Alecto as she struggled to stand. He kneeled down to her level. He wrapped a hand around Alecto's upper arm, but before he could attempt to pull her to her feet, she ripped her arm out of his grasp.

"I'm fine on my own." Alecto put her weight onto her left leg in an attempt to stand, but she only landed on her butt once again.

Harvey sighed and shuffled behind Alecto before grasping onto both her arms. "Here," he said through a straight breath as he pulled her to her feet. He threw her arm over his own shoulder to support her while they walked back into the garage.

With her arm slung over Harvey's shoulder, Alecto begrudgingly walked side-by-side with him. The walk was painful, and with every limp came a tight grimace and a stifled moan of pain. It felt like knives were being jabbed into her leg ruthlessly, and with her powers so weak, her body's ability to heal itself was almost nonexistent. When they arrived at the garage and Alecto was plopped onto the couch, she couldn't resist the sigh that escaped her lips, as if the excruciating pain had been eased ever so slightly.

"You're welcome, by the way," Harvey said through a heavy breath, almost as though he had endured the same stress that Alecto had just faced.

"For?"

"For saving your ass."

"Don't praise yourself too much for it, Kinkle; you might regret it eventually," Alecto replied with a shrug. She used her hands to pull herself more upright on the seat, and although she tried to suppress the agony Harvey hurried toward a small cabinet by his bed. Alecto watched him through disagreeing eyes as he pulled out a small red case with a first aid symbol on it. "I don't need that mortal crap, Kinkle."

"You're going to bleed out without it," he knelt down beside her leg which was propped up on the small coffee table, and unzipped the first aid kid. She watched him closely as he pulled out a white, rolled-up bandage. He began unrolling it while he said, "and I hate to break it to you but the number of powers you have right now really make you seem mortal." With a complacent smile, he held it to her wounded leg. His smug grin wore off when the oozing blood came into sight. He held his breath as he began to wrap the deep cut.

Alecto laughed wickedly when she saw Harvey trying to avoid looking at her leg while he bandaged it. "Does that make you uncomfortable, Kinkle?" she teased.

He scoffed and pulled away after he tucked the end of the bandage under the thick layer of cotton. "What makes me uncomfortable is the fact that an invisible dog-"

"A Hellhound," Alecto corrected.

"A Hellhound... just tried to kill you," he continued. "Why the Hell did it come for you anyway?"

"My sisters probably sent it. Unfinished business." She shrugged.

Harvey raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "What, and you're okay with that? You still want to go back to working with them?"

"I'm not talking about this with you."

"You're going to have to if you want us to be able to help you," Harvey said. "Sabrina's going to be here any minute and-"

Alecto and Harvey's heads snapped up to the sound of whooshing as Sabrina teleported into the room. Her trademark platinum blonde hair sat neatly on her shoulders as she trudged toward them. "What the Heaven happened to you?" Her eyes widened when she noticed Alecto's badly wrapped leg with blood seeping through the material.

"A dog-"

"Hellhound," Alecto corrected him once again.

"... attacked her."

"What? Why?" Sabrina frowned and sat beside the Fury. Alecto only shifted away from her bitterly, receiving an eye roll from Sabrina.

"Her sister's sent them," Harvey declared before Alecto had the chance to. He pursed his lips when he received a cold glare from the injured girl.

Sabrina frowned in confusion but remained silent. She gripped onto the upper part of Alecto's calf, but Alecto only ripped her leg away from her. "Stay still! I'm trying to help you." Sabrina used her spare hand to hover over Alecto's injury. "Rivers must flow that blood may not. Blood be bound, and blood be clot." Alecto scowled in pain as the spell began to work through her veins. After a moment of tension in her leg, all the stinging, all the pain abruptly faded away. She reached forward to unwrap the bloody bandage from her leg and once she inspected her skin to find the deep teeth-marks were gone, she sat up contently and shifted further away from Sabrina. "So if your sisters wanted you dead why wouldn't they have just killed you instead of banished you? Is this some kind of game to them?"

"No. it means they found out I did more than what they just banished me for."

"Fantastic," Sabrina said sarcastically, clapping her hands on her thighs in frustration. "And what exactly would that be?"

"None of your business."

"Fine."

"How do we know more of them aren't going to come?" Harvey spoke up, peering over Sabrina's shoulder. His eyebrows were knitted together and the corners of his lips were curved downwards.

"I'm assuming the job Alecto's sisters set for the Hellhound was to kill her, and since it failed..."

Alecto dropped back into the couch cushions with a loud sigh of realization. "They're not going to stop until the job is done."

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