Anyway this is a fun chapter. The plot thickens :)
A Skeleton Duet
Chapter 7
The next morning Hades was on time for work. All night he hadn’t caught a moment’s peace and he had resorted to functioning on coffee, cigarettes and sheer willpower alone. He discovered he could push the fatigue that threatened his senses far to the back of his mind. The only telltale hint of his sudden case of insomnia was the dark rings that were beginning to form under his eyes.
They met the surveillance group who’d been keeping an eye on the angel overnight and much to Hades’ relief, they said that the boy still appeared to be safe. The angel had taken her hostage to an abandoned apartment block not far from the park they’d visited yesterday.
Dirk too had seemed somewhat relieved. But apparently the night’s rest hadn’t done him any good either. It was obvious Dirk was still furious at him for calling off the attack yesterday. He didn’t disguise his hatred at all, but Hades purposely ignored his violent glares all morning. However, Hades’ temper, wound tighter by the lack of sleep, was stretched to its thinnest by the time they actually arrived at the angel’s location.
They had stopped just behind the wooden graffiti-covered boards that separated the property from the main road. Again, they were kitted with handguns as well as dart guns. Hades’ were strapped underneath his jacket with careful consideration; left for darts, right for bullets. His stronger shot was with the right hand and in the heat of the moment his hand would instinctively cross over to the left side, for the non-lethal firearm. He’d decided it was the best way to ensure the boy’s safety, regardless of what Dirk said.
Dirk was reeling off orders like a machine-gun, but Hades was barely listening. It wasn’t really worth it when he knew that the only form of attack open to them was to barge in and open fire. They knew the angel was on the eighth floor and they even knew which apartment she was in, so they didn’t have to be too sneaky about their approach. They just had to do it and hope for the best.
As they entered the building, Dirk turned to him. “You stay behind me,” he growled.
Hades pierced him with an icy blue glare, but didn’t respond. It would suit him just fine if Dirk got in his line of fire. Then if anyone asked why the bastard was mortally wounded, Hades could say he was only following orders. Not that a co-leader should follow orders, but he was beyond caring about his position in the team. He just wanted this wretched angel caught and the boy back to his family. Then maybe he could sleep.
On the approach to the apartment door, Hades felt his stomach coil into knots. He’d tried his hardest not to think about how he’d respond to the hostage boy and what it might do to his judgement. He’d spent all morning trying to forget Blackburn’s poisonous words. After all, he was sure that the wielder had only turned up to mess with his head. As if he hadn’t done enough the previous night.
Dirk stood still on the other side of the door and motioned Clancy to stand by him. The other three remained behind Hades, whose hand brushed the dart gun at his side. He wouldn’t pull it out until Dirk’s back was turned - although Authorities issue dart guns were modified from a firearm model very similar to the bullet-loaded alternative - the difference would be instantly recognizable to an agent. He couldn’t risk Dirk starting an argument within earshot of the angel. His co-leader, however, already had a handgun cocked and ready. Hades gritted his teeth at the sight of it, but said nothing.
Dirk gave the nod to move in. He kicked the door down and launched himself into the room. Hades followed on a surge of adrenaline. The room was bare and empty, walls greyed by years-old smoke damage. Only the angel, cowering in the corner of the room, could be seen. She was wrapped in a dull old piece of material with singed edges, which probably used to be a curtain. Hades blinked and scanned the room. No sign of the boy.
Then the angel lunged forth. Her motive was obvious. There was a huge broken window not far along the outside wall.
“Open fire!” Dirk yelled and proceeded to do so. The shots were deafening.
The angel, too fast to track, dropped the sheet around her. Her tattered white wings flexed and held tight in her arms was the boy. Hades’ hand, inches from the handgun at his side, suddenly jolted away.
“No!” he cried out.
The angel leapt out the window. Two shots followed her. She buckled and disappeared from sight. Hades stood motionless, his eyes wide with shock. They’d failed to save him. The boy. He was…
“No?!” Dirk turned on him wildly.
Hades spun about. Everyone else had their handguns lowered. Had they responded to his cry? Had they stopped shooting? If they had, then the incriminating bullets had come from Dirk’s gun. It didn’t take a genius to work that out.
Dirk had done it. Dirk had sent the boy to his death. Hades boiled with rage.
“She still had the boy! You killed him!” he yelled, face burning red.
“She was getting away,” Dirk shouted, placing careful emphasis on his words, as if Hades was too stupid to understand.
“Then you should have let her! We could have waited for a better opportunity and saved the boy!” Hades replied with bitter rage.
“How many opportunities do you want? It’s our job to bring her in as quickly as possible.”
“Without harm to the general public!”
“That wasn’t specified in the brief!”
“Then the brief was wrong,” Hades yelled. The violent force of his words ripped his throat and he panted to catch his breath.
Dirk looked at him with indignant bewilderment, his face taking on an ugly inhuman appearance. Hades felt nothing more than contempt and disgust for him. The tension in the air was leading only to one thing. Hades could feel the pressure of it curling his fingers into a hard fist.
But then Dom’s voice cut nervously through the tense atmosphere. “She’s not dead,” he said shakily.
Both Dirk and Hades turned to him, glaring ferociously. The young agent, who was now standing by the jagged gap in the wall, balked a little.
“Th-There’s no body down there and I think I saw her fly up. But she’s definitely injured, she might be on the roof,” he said.
“Are you sure?” Hades’ voice croaked, his throat still sore.
Dom nodded timidly.
“Did anyone else see that?” Dirk demanded, turning his violent gaze on the rest of the group. They didn’t want to respond at first and Hades didn’t blame them. Dirk had turned into a monster.
“I think so,” Clancy replied after a moment.
“We’d better check it out,” Melissa added. Her expression was carefully guarded and neutral.
Dirk glared at her, but nodded and rushed out the room. Hades was quick to follow and the rest of the team weren’t far behind.
They raced up flights and flights of stairs and once at the top, Dirk didn’t have the patience to test the lock on the door. He forced it open with one violent kick and burst out into the bright daylight.
Hades followed, wincing as the white light burned his eyes, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t trust Dirk to act alone. He didn’t know what he’d do.
Up on the roof, the wind howled and struck at his face with a bitter cold edge. The sun was hidden behind a heavy white haze and everything around them looked grey and bleak. The rooftop asphalt was grey, the buildings that stood tall around them were grey and the branches of skeletal winter trees below them were grey.
Everything was so dull, except for the bright red that streaked in ribbons from the angel collapsed in the middle of the roof. The boy was on his knees next to her, his hands buried in her wings and his body shaking. Hades felt his stomach turn at the sight of it. It almost seemed as though the boy was crying. Crying for the angel that had kidnapped him.
The angel, who had noticed their arrival, looked up. Her face was pale grey and twisted with pain, but she managed to rise up to push the boy behind her. She was protecting him. But why?
Something about this situation seemed off. Warily, Hades drew his handgun, but kept his dart gun ready in his right hand.
“We can just dart her now,” he said, trying hard to sound placid. “She’s not going to cause a fuss anymore.” Dirk didn’t appear to hear a word he’d said. He stepped closer to the angel, his handgun poised to shoot.
“What are you doing?” he asked her, “A captor doesn’t defend their hostage. If you wanna protect him so much, why don’t you give him to us? We’ll look after him.” The menace in his voice was palpable.
The angel started and rose to her feet. Her right wing extended to its full seven-foot span, but the left twitched and barely moved from her side; it was obviously too damaged by the gunshot wounds, but Hades got the feeling that if she could, she would have spread it out as far as it would reach. He’d seen this before; it was like the moment a cat bristled its fur. She was getting ready not only to attack, but also to defend.
“Dirk,” he called out in warning.
“What? I’m getting the boy for you!” he snapped irritably, shooting a glance over his shoulder at Hades.
“Be careful, she’s-” His words were cut short by a sharp blast of light. Dirk screamed. Hades hastily blinked the light out of his eyes. He looked up to see Dirk doubled over.
“Gargh! Hah.” he grunted loudly.
“Dirk!” Hades heard Melissa cry out.
He didn’t dare turn around, but fixed his eyes on the angel. She stood motionless. Only her eyes were constantly moving, from agent to agent, looking for the next attack.
Dirk staggered back a little and now Hades could see the man’s jacket had been singed away on his chest. All that remained was a black and red mess of chargrilled flesh.
“Little bitch!” he cried. He raised his hand, which somehow still held the handgun. “Die!”
Several gunshots rang out in quick succession. The angel fell to the ground.
Dirk let out long, ragged gasps and folded over again. He gave a final glance to check she was dead, but sure enough the angel didn’t even twitch. Hades could see the boy behind her now, cowering and shaking in terror. But something still wasn’t right. What was it?
There! The boy’s big duffel jacket twitched from the shoulders.
No.
It couldn’t be.
But somehow… Yes! He could see feathers poking out under the bottom of the coat. The boy was an angel.
“You!” Dirk snarled. “You’re one too!”
Oh God, he’d noticed. Dirk forced himself upright and brandished his gun.
“Wait! What are you doing?” Hades cried. He couldn’t believe it. The boy was an angel. Since when had he ever been an angel? It didn’t make sense. But they couldn’t kill him; he hadn’t done anything wrong.
“He’s just waiting to do the same as her.” Dirk spat. “I’m just getting there first!”
Hades’ temper boiled. “Don’t you dare!” he yelled.
“You going to stop me?” Dirk sneered at him.
“Yes! He’s innocent,” Hades replied and without really thinking, aimed his handgun at the other agent’s head.
“You’re going to shoot me?” Dirk scoffed. “You wouldn’t dare.” There was a mad look on his face now. He was a million times more the monster than the little boy before them.
“Lower your gun,” Hades ordered.
Dirk barked a harsh, sharp laugh, and turned his focus back to the boy. He adjusted his aim. The boy, transfixed by fear, didn’t move.
“Lower your gun!” Hades ordered with more urgency.
“Guys, come on!” A voice pleaded from behind them. Neither agent bothered to respond to it.
“What was it you said Hades? ‘Actions speak louder than words’?” Dirk smirked.
“Stop!” Hades cried.
A gunshot exploded the air. Hades froze in shock. How had this gone so wrong? How had they messed up so badly? This should have been easy, this should have gone so much better. Why had it come to this?
Hades’ whole body flinched as Dirk fell to the ground. Dead.
Dead. He’d killed him.
He’d had no choice, hadn’t he?
His gun arm collapsed, and his deadened gaze fell on the boy.
“Run!” he urged him.
The boy did just that. He turned and fled to the edge of the rooftop, peeling back his duffel jacket as he did. Hades had just a moment to see those bright white wings snap outwards before the boy dropped from sight.
Then everything hit him, like the wall of sound he hadn’t even realised he’d missed. His teammates had him on the floor and the gun out of his hand in seconds. He didn’t resist. What was the point?
There was pain. Yes, there was pain. The rough asphalt grazed his cheek and the tiny loose stones pushed like tiny needles into his face. His arms were pulled behind him at an awkward angle, and the pressure of whoever it was on top of him – going by the weight it was Clancy – was incredibly uncomfortable.
He wanted to say to them it was fine and he wouldn’t resist, but why should they believe him? He’d just killed one of their teammates; for all they knew he was a psychotic homicidal maniac and for all he knew their suspicions were correct. He didn’t even know what made him do it. He’d just… done it and somehow he felt numb to the horror.
He was aware of all sorts of noises going on around him. People were shouting and screaming, but the voices had no clarity. The raw wild howling of the wind drowned them out. He had no idea how long he was kept in this uncomfortable submission. It felt like both an eternity and a blip in time. When it passed there came a new sound of rushing footsteps moving tiny gritty stones over the asphalt roof.
Hades was heaved to his feet and he came face-to-face with Gregory. He felt a tremendous pang of regret. Gregory had given him another chance and he’d thrown it back in the man’s face.
He didn’t say anything, but the confused and disappointed look on his face said more than words ever could. Hades hung his head and became vaguely aware of the head agent giving orders to the team of people around them. He could see a dozen or so pairs of feet. Evidently their senior hadn’t come alone, but for all Hades knew this might be the standard procedure for when an agent turns on his team; it wasn’t something he’d ever felt the need to learn.
He was dragged away, entirely defeated and limp in the arms of his subjugators. Vaguely he wondered if the angel boy ever managed to get away with so many agents around. He lifted his head and hazily scanned the rooftops around him. All he could see were agents dressed in black. His teammates stood a distance away with shocked and disturbed faces, talking to Gregory’s inquiring team members. The sky behind them was blank and white. All except for one dark shape on the rooftop a few hundred yards away.
The wind whipped at the figure’s long dark hair and, although he seemed miniscule at the distance, Hades had no problem recognising the person who had been plaguing his ever-waking thoughts since their terrible introduction. It was Talon Blackburn.
*is thrilled*
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