Incidentally, I've just finished watching Darker than Black, a pretty cool anime, but the ending aggravated me an awful lot because there were so many questions it didn't answer that I now feel compelled to read the manga, Bones, which it's based on. But it's pretty good inspiration for the action chapters in Skeleton Duet, which I find harder to write for.
That kind of has nothing to do with this chapter, which has like no action in it, but it's still pretty tense. (She says hopefully) Click on the link to read more.
A Skeleton Duet
Chapter 4
In the end, Hades just went home. He hadn’t really meant to, but his body had just run on autopilot. Back in his flat, he had gone immediately to the bedroom. He was so tired, all he wanted to do was fall into a deep sleep and ignore the reality that was closing in around him.
However, once he’d laid back on his bed, he simply couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes, convinced that those sparkling black eyes and wide white grin were etched onto the inside of his eyelids. He began to play back the scene, seeking out every moment he could have done something to change his fate. But what could he have done? The damn wielder had taken control of his entire body. He couldn’t have fought back even if he had tried.
Sitting up, he decided he needed a shower, certain that the creeping touch of the wielder’s magic still lingered on his skin. But it didn’t matter how hot or cold he made the water, he couldn’t smother the crawling sensation on his skin, or the bubbling rage inside him. He punched the wall several times, cracking both the tiles and his skin. It was good though; the pain convinced him that what he felt was real. He was in control of his own body.
He turned off the shower perhaps an hour later and sat still dripping on the end of his bed. He lit up a cigarette, hoping it would calm him down, but all it really did was give him something else to focus on. A whole pack later, he realized it was time for work. He stared at the alarm clock, but couldn’t bring himself to move.
They would know. He knew they would. The Authorities were an organization expert in detection and hell-bent on procedure. By now the attendant would have noticed the missing transport device and reported it to her superiors. They would have tracked where it was used, correlated it with their intelligence and identified it as Talon Blackburn’s current location. The attendant would point him out as the thief and Hades would be lucky to keep his life, let alone his job.
Hades ran his fingers through his now dry hair and pulled it taut. How could he have slipped up like this? Now he wouldn’t even get a chance to find his sister justice. And that’s what all this had been about, hadn’t it? Of course there’d been motivation to make a bigger difference, make the world a safer place, but that had only been to ensure no one suffered like his unborn sister and like his family had.
And yet still, the blinking green light of his alarm clock wasn’t going to stop. The world around him wasn’t going to stop and time wasn’t going to stop, not for him. He would have to face his future sooner or later and if he left now, he’d only be half an hour late. Moving as if he were in a distant dreamland, Hades got dressed in plain black clothes and left the apartment.
A forty-minute motorcycle ride later, he was standing in the lift going up from the underground car park. The lift was controlled by swiping his ID card, which meant that the moment the metal doors slid open, he would come face to face with two security guards wearing very serious expressions. But he’d decided it was better than going through the front door, where there were rows of metal detectors and magic detectors and twenty-five security guards at all times. The explosive reaction to him bringing a teleport device in through the front door was further humiliation he didn’t dare think about. At least when these lift doors opened he could surrender himself quietly.
Hades’ stomach lurched as the lift stopped. He waited with baited breath for the doors to open. Slowly, agonisingly, a pair of black silhouettes was revealed before him. Hades’ heart began to pound. The two black-clad figures stepped into the lift. But then he noticed one was female and two heads shorter than him. They weren’t wearing the black suits, white shirts and black ties of the security guards. They were agents.
Hades had just enough time to dive out of the lift before the doors shut after him. Slowly, cautiously, he looked around. The office was a whole other creature compared to last night. It was filled with noise, agents busily filing reports, using photocopy machines and talking in the middle of aisles. They were like a nest of black worker ants. And not a security guard in sight.
Hades walked down the aisle to his cubicle, confused beyond belief. He’d been so sure they would have caught him by now and ridiculed him for thinking it was safe to come back to HQ. He thought he would have been dragged off to have a stern conversation with the higher-ups by now. So what was going on?
He stepped into his cubicle, taking off his leather biker jacket and hanging it over the back of his chair. As he did so, he felt the weight of the teleport device in its pocket swing like a guilty pendulum.
If he really had got away with this, then could he manage to put the teleport device back without anyone noticing? It wasn’t like he could just say he found it, that would cause an investigation and his superiors would find out the truth in no time.
“Oh, morning Hades.”
He jumped out of his skin. Laura’s head was hovering over the divider in front of him.
“Morning,” he replied, with very little enthusiasm, not daring to make eye contact.
“You alright, Hades? You look kinda… off today,” Laura said, frowning in concern.
Hades rubbed his eyes and pulled out his desk chair to sit down. “I’m fine,” he lied. “Just didn’t sleep much last night, I was kinda… ill.”
“Oh. Then you’re okay today?” Laura said. “Only we’ve got a debriefing after lunch.”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Hades replied, sitting down.
“You’d better be,” said Dirk, appearing suddenly in his cubicle. He dumped a pile of files on his desk with a heavy thump. “And you’ll be working through lunch to make up for being late.”
Hades sighed. Dirk never relented. He was most likely enjoying that he could cause him more suffering because he was ‘ill’. It was like a golden opportunity for him. He raised an ‘I’m in control and you dare question it?’ eyebrow, before turning his back and leaving the cubicle.
“Nice guy,” Laura whispered when he was gone. “I’ll get you something from the canteen if you want.”
“That’s ok, I don’t feel like eating.” Hades replied. And it was true, the very thought of food made him feel nauseous. He hadn’t even realized that he’d neglected his last two meals. Really, he should have been ravenous, but his stomach was already filled with trepidation. Laura gave him a sympathetic look and disappeared back into her own cubicle.
Hades settled into his seat and turned the computer on. He could get through this no problem. Just act like everything was normal, file reports until the meeting and try and work out a way of returning the teleport device without getting caught. Easy.
***
He finished his work not long after everyone had disappeared for lunch, but it hadn’t been as easy as he’d hoped. With every case, he couldn’t help but compare the wielder to Blackburn and the accursed creature had been right; he was practically a god. Immortal, ancient and all-powerful; the only thing he lacked was worshipers - and the thought of that sent a shiver down Hades’ spine. If anyone was insane enough to worship that creature, they’d soon wind up dead.
He put his head into his hands, leant forward on the desk and rubbed his eyes vigorously. He’d forgotten entirely to remove his contact lenses last night and they now felt like paper. In the dark behind his eyelids it was comforting at least. Well, until he thought about Blackburn. Then the wielder’s snakelike gaze formed like mist in his mind and his predatory grin seemed to sparkle.
Shooting back in his chair, Hades flung his eyes wide open. He needed water. That was all. Nice refreshing water. He got up and left his cubicle, going back on second thoughts to grab his jacket with the incriminating device still in the pocket.
After guzzling four plastic cups of water from the cooler, he decided the best thing was to go to the briefing room and wait for everyone to arrive. It wasn’t like there was any use in going to the canteen after all.
He drifted down the sterilised hallways like a ghost; he felt lightheaded and distant, like he could barely smell the acrid cleaning products that usually stung his nose. He reached out for the door handle and it bent beneath his grip. The door clicked open. Slowly, he entered the room. The blinds on the opposite side had been pulled down, but the slats were open to cast the room in ribbons of midday sun. A long table surrounded by chairs sat empty in front of him, waiting to be filled.
Careful to let the door click shut quietly, he neared the conference table. The tall black chair at the head of the table had its back to him. He decided a seat nearer the end would be a better option, further away from the superior who’d be filling the head seat.
“Hello there.” A voice purred.
A hot flash shot through his skull, hands moving in a split second to the handgun he kept holstered at his side. Safety off and poised to shoot, it took him a few moments to slow down.
He rounded the chair at the head of the table, expecting to see long black hair and porcelain skin, but instead he saw short grey hair and older skin with more imperfections.
The man had to be in his late forties and his sharp eyes hung with the dark bags of someone who had long ago forgotten the true meaning of sleep. All the same, his face had character and charisma. He looked up at Hades with a confident glint in his eye and smirked.
“Bit keen aren’t we?” He said.
It was at this point Hades realised he had pulled his gun on a senior agent and hastily holstered it, simultaneously clicking the safety back on. It was an action he’d spent many months practicing, fuelled by the determination to push through his training faster than anyone else.
“I must have startled you,” the man said, getting up out of his seat, “I’m Gregory, the new head of your unit, pleased to meet you.”
He reached out with his hand and Hades automatically took the handshake, eager to brush over his embarrassing blunder.
“In fact, I was hoping to speak with you before everyone else arrived, Agent MacKenzie. A good thing you found me first.” Gregory smiled. It seemed kind, but didn’t reach his eyes.
“How… How do you know my name?” Hades asked. A little spike of terror arose in his gut – could it be…?
“You may not know this, but I am the head of the Blackburn Unit. Talon Blackburn, that is. You’ve made his acquaintance so I’ve heard.”
Yes, it could.
Hades felt a cannonball drop in his stomach. The man didn’t seem malicious, but then he didn’t need to be. In fact it had been cruel enough that he’d let Hades stew until now.
“Quite the eye-opener, wasn’t it?” Gregory said.
“I-I’m so sorry, I-I didn’t–”
“What? Know that we would find out? The Authorities has spent centuries perfecting surveillance on that creature. And you thought no one would notice you’d been in contact with him?” Gregory seemed almost amused as he rounded on Hades. The younger man’s world was closing in on him; all that he’d worked towards was coming full circle, like a dog finally coming to face with his severed tail and Gregory was smiling.
This riled Hades. “No! I knew you would find out! I expected you to! But–”
“You expected to deliver him to us,” Gregory finished. “And even if that hadn’t been the most childish notion in the world, what did you expect from us when you brought him in? Gratitude? Praise?”
Hades averted his gaze from the superior agent, whose tone had turned cold.
“There was no reason for Wielder 001 to be brought in, he hadn’t done anything that warranted it – not recently anyway – we’d have had no grounds and would have to release him and what a waste of your talent that would have been.”
If there were any moment that the apocalypse could come, Hades thought, now would be a good time. It wasn’t like his life was going to get any better after this. He may as well skip the middle bit and go straight to the final judgment. After all, Gregory was just repeating what Blackburn had said and there was nothing more humiliating than being scolded the same way twice.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Gregory continued. “I’m not defending him - far from it - but if you wanted to show your interest, all you had to do was ask.”
Hades looked up at Gregory slowly and frowned. “I’m sorry, sir?”
“If you wanted to join the Blackburn Unit, all you had to do was apply. I’m always looking for new recruits.” Gregory said, smiling that empty smile again.
“I wasn’t… exactly trying to-”
“So, I’ve decided to overlook this little hiccup and give you a chance. This new mission I’m about to brief you on, I’m going to make you co-leader with Agent Thornton. If your work impresses me, I’ll take you on.”
Hades couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This was a pardon? He was getting away with it? He’d stolen Authorities’ property and used it on a suicide mission and they were going to just brush it over? And not just that, offer him a promotion?
He was a naturally suspicious person and it probably did him good in his line of work, but it meant there was no way he could just accept this. There had to be an ulterior motive. And why would he want to work on a team dedicated to the surveillance of a creature he couldn’t be further away from right now?
Still, he couldn’t exactly turn down a promotion could he? It was exactly what he needed to access those files. Setting his jaw determinedly, he looked Gregory in the eyes and said, “I won’t disappoint you, sir.”
And he knew he wouldn’t.
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