by Martha Woods
“So, is there an elevator or are we taking the stairs?” I grunted as they shoved me forward through a doorway, almost sending me crashing forwards when the toe of my boot stubbed against the first step. White, flashing pain shot up from the wound in my leg, making me hiss sharply and clamp my eyes shut. “Alright, guess we’re taking the stairs.”
The further up I got the more Tristian’s voice was starting to filter down to me, occasionally joined by Damon or even Cara’s voice, but for the most part it was just him alternating between trying to soothe them into remaining calm and reminding them that sooner or later they were going to die anyway. Hardly the subtlest of soothing notions, and judging by the protests that started up every time he stopped talking they weren’t taking it well.
“Damon, you had to have known it was going to come down to this sometime,” He said, “Even before you left us to join that gathering of monsters, your ticket was punched the moment you decided to let that witch share your bed for more than a night.”
“Fuck you Tristian! You think that we all deserve to die because I love someone?” I rounded the corner just as he threw his head forward, spitting as best he could to try and hit Tristian. “You say that you’re still fighting for humanity? How the fuck can you do that when you don’t even feel the same things they do?”
Cara shook her head, about to add into the conversation herself when she looked up and saw me, her eyes going as wide as dinner plates and her lips starting to tremble. “No… no no Amy why did you come here? You should have just stayed away!”
The others finally took notice of me too, shock and sadness working over their faces before they forced themselves to look away. It wasn’t hard to see that they were ashamed of themselves, even though I would be the first to tell them that they had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. They weren’t weak for having been captured, and my coming here wasn’t their fault at all, but when I remembered how I felt when I thought that Vincent had been killed defending me… I knew that having someone tell you that someone close to you dying wasn’t your fault didn’t really do a whole bunch to make things better. They would still be gone, and you would still be here for however long you had left, you would just have to learn to accept that on your own time.
“Well, looks like she’s finally here,” Tristian said, turning on his heel and walking towards me, “Sorry about… about all this, hard as it is to believe I would have genuinely liked to be gentler about this. Sure, you’re a monster but… we worked well together the one or two times it actually happened. Plus, I’m going to be killing one of my best friends… this is just all one big mess isn’t it?”
“You don’t have to do this you know…” I knew it was a waste of time saying it, as well as just the mother of all clichés, but I had to try at least. Even now, I still wanted to give him a chance. “You can just let them all go and walk away, it’s not too late to try and start over.”
“Yes, it is,” Rick said from behind me, walking into view accompanied by the two detectives who had come to Alexis’ club looking for me. Well, that answered the question of who else was involved in this at least. “Nothing can go back to the way it was Amy, not now that you’re wanted for murder and not now that I know that creatures like your friends exist in the world.”
“Rick…” I sighed, not able to keep the hurt from my voice, “What happened to you? You just… turned your back on everything we stood for, you signed an oath to protect the innocent and you murdered one last night, how can you think what you’re doing is right?”
“I don’t think it’s right,” He said, not able to keep matching my gaze, “I broke my oath, became the very thing that I’ve spent decades cleaning off the streets, but I believe that the future of the world is more important than just one person. Why does one person being disgraced matter, when the rest of humanity is at stake?”
“I don’t think that the future of the world should be decided by people who’ll just betray everything they stand for on a whim.” I leaned around his shoulder, nodding over at the two detectives. “What’s their story? Have they been working towards this goal all these years? Or are they just the regular sort of corrupt?”
The mouthier of the two took a step forward, the snarl on his face dying as soon as Rick turned back to look at him. I didn’t need to see Rick’s expression to know that he was giving one of his trademark glares, but now with the knowledge that he was fully willing to kill even his fellow officers I imagine the effect was a bit more intimidating than it had been in the past.
“Davis and Malcolm haven’t been the best of cops before tonight, trust me when I say that I’m going to take steps to correct that in the future.” He turned back to me, his eyes taking on that almost paternal light they’d held before everything went to shit for a moment before he snapped himself out of his memories. “We are going to be better than we have been in recent years if nothing else you should trust me to be telling the truth about that.”
“I don’t think I trust you to do anything right anymore,” I spat back at him, turning my back and walking towards the rest of my kneeling friends, “You screwed that up as soon as you killed someone who was just minding their own business and walked in at the wrong time. You’re a disgusting hypocrite, and everything that we had together means nothing because of what you did. Get the fuck away from me.”
If I listened closely I swear I could have heard the hurt in the quick breath he took, but at that moment, I was far too angry to care. I was brought here to die, my friends were all brought here to die, and he thinks I should trust him to do the right thing? He wouldn’t know the right thing if it busted through the doors right now and tried to arrest him for everything that he’d done, how dare he try and preach to me about how to feel.
Taking my place next to Damon, I reached out and placed my hand over his knee, the raw desperation in his eyes chilling me to my very core. It had been so long since I’d seen him so helpless, I don’t think he’s shown this much genuine fear since I’d helped rescue him from that vampire den an eternity ago, back before we could admit what we were feeling for one another and when things somehow seemed to make more sense. “You shouldn’t have come here, Amy… you should have just let us go, grabbed Joseph and made the motherfuckers pay for what they’ve done…”
“But she didn’t did she?” Tristian placed his hand on Damon’s shoulder, it took all my self control not to reach out and try to break it. “She cares too much, and she’s always wanted to be a hero. That’s what makes people predictable, their natures, still the fact that she actually came here instead of running to save herself… it really is admirable, I do need to say that. I admire you for what you’ve done Amy.”
Rolling my eyes into the back of my skull, I scoffed, “Yeah, I’m sure I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I despise you and every single thing like you, once all this business is over and done with I think I’m going to go have a drink to celebrate. So, for someone like me to genuinely admire what you’ve done, to think that you’re incredibly brave for coming to a certain death just to save one of your friends… I think that’s more of a testament to your character than anything else, don’t you?”
“Oh my god, don’t tell me that you have a whole speech prepared or anything like that, please, I’m begging you… if you’re going to kill me just hurry up and get it over with, save me the headache.”
In spite of everything that we’d put each other through before, he cracked a smile at that, turning away and waving to one of his men by the door. “I’ll give you a minute to say goodbye to everyone, I might be a monster by other people’s measurements but… I’m not going to deny a good opponent their final dignity.”
“How noble,” I said under my breath, eyes glaring daggers into the back of his skull as he stepped away. I waited until he was across the room to turn to the others, each of their faces filled with scorn and grief in equal measure, wrestling inside with b
oth mourning me and being utterly furious with me for throwing my life away. “Jesus Christ guys, lighten up, I’m not dead yet.”
“No, but you will be,” Tariq said, grimacing from next to Cara. It was nice to see that they were next to each other, but it would have been better in less bitter circumstances. “Amy… each of us was prepared to give our lives for what we believe in, you didn’t have to do this.”
“And undo everything that we’ve worked for together? Tabitha, you’re just starting to make some friends with the werewolves, right?”
She nodded, a small smile darting across her features. “Some of them aren’t so bad, a few of them are kind of cute in a… rugged kind of way too…”
“Kind of a weird detail to mention right now, but there you go! I just got the beginnings of a friendship with Alexis back, I don’t want to just throw that away for nothing either!”
Alexis grimaced, though I think it was supposed to be a smile. It was hard to tell through the growing bruises on her cheeks, the telltale sign that she hadn’t given up the number to the phone lightly. She didn’t have to say anything, but the small nod she gave me in response was more than enough for me to know that the feeling was mutual, that fact alone made this all worth it in the end.
But Cara… she looked fit to fall apart across from me, her shoulders trembling and her eyes filled with tears, not with fear for what was going to happen to her but for what she thought she was going to see happen to me. I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be alright, that Vincent and the others were going to be here to save all of us in no time at all, but doing so would just let Tristian and the others know what we had been planning. So instead of being able to comfort her the way I so wished to, I just scooted closer and drew her into my arms, squeezing tightly around her shoulders as best I could and pouring every ounce of my love into what she may very well have thought was our final embrace.
“It’ll all be alright Cara, don’t worry. Everything is going to be just fine…”
“Why couldn’t you just stay away Amy?” She sniffed, burying her face in my neck, “I didn’t want to be the reason for you having to put yourself in danger again, I even stayed in this stupid fucking town because I wanted to prove that I wasn’t just some damsel for you to rescue, but look at what I did…”
“This isn’t your fault Cara, you didn’t make anyone kidnap anyone else.”
“I was the whole reason they managed to get Tariq… the one night I actually decide to sack up and tell him how I feel and it’s the one that people decide to kidnap us. If I wasn’t there he could have met up with you and the two of you could have saved the day, instead of… this.”
“I would have ended up here anyway Cara, as soon as someone would have tried to get me I would have realized that they were after the rest of you.” My heart broke seeing Tariq’s hands behind his back, he so clearly wanted to reach out to her just to offer some comfort, but he had to rely only on his words, “I care about everyone here and… I care a great deal about you, Cara. I haven’t had the courage to say it before tonight but… what you feel for me, what it is obvious to everyone else that we both feel for each other… I want you to know that it’s not just you.”
Cara shifted her head on my shoulder, locking eyes with him and blushing. “Wow, we finally managed to admit it to each other. Shame that it took the two of us dying to actually get around to it though.”
“No, you won’t be dying.” Tristian stepped over, looking down at us with what could pass as pity and nodding at Cara. “I made a deal with Amy and I intend to honor it, you’re not a threat, and you’re not a monster. For all the things that I’ve done, I’m not going to kill an innocent human being when there are alternatives.”
“What alternatives,” She growled back, “Having to pretend that you’ve done me a favor? Giving up any other paranormal friends I might have, act like some fucked up groupie for you so you can keep thinking that you’re doing the right thing?”
“No.” He shook his head, staring over us at the rising sun. “Once this is over, when all the yelling and screaming is done and we let you go, just leave town. Leave the country if you have to, just go somewhere else and build a life for yourself that you can be happy with. Make new friends, make a family, and forget all about what happened in this city.”
“Where do you get off trying to tell me how to live my life? You think it’s so easy to just… what, make up new friends out of nothing? To have your life torn apart and have to stitch the pieces back together into something that isn’t horrible shit so that you can actually stay asleep at night? I’ve done that before and it gave me the life I have now, fuck you for thinking you can push that on me again!”
“Cara…” I tried to calm her down, not because I was afraid of her killing him but because I wanted to try and buy some more time for Faye to work her magic. It worked, her head snapping up to regard me with those rage filled eyes and her fingers digging into her wrists from her grip.
“I don’t want to leave all of you Amy, I don’t want to leave you, I just got you back and I… I don’t want to have to say goodbye to it all again!”
From behind Tristian, I noticed Rick twitch uncomfortably, his hand coming up to hide his face as he shuffled uneasily. Maybe he could reconcile what was going to happen to me, I could just be seen as some monster that the world would be better off without, and maybe he could argue that killing an innocent man last night was necessary to set things in motion to get me here.
But Cara? Cara was Cara, he’d known her for years, she and I had come as a package deal to every work event, every gathering, every late-night food run where we just so happened to run into each other when he was doing an overnight shift, he couldn’t just erase all that history. My anger with him, as passionate and as burning as it was could just be pushed to the side, anger was to be expected and no doubt he planned for it.
What he no doubt hadn’t been prepared for was someone breaking down and being forced to see that they were about to lose everything important to them, where their desperation was getting so bad that they were seriously considering begging for everyone to be let go. Anger was easy to brush away, given the right person you could even think that it was their fault that everything was happening, but raw despair and sadness? Even if you had a heart of stone, something like that happening right in front of you could still cut deep, that was the entire reason everyone in our line of work broke down in the first place. It wasn’t the angry relatives claiming that we hadn’t done our jobs correctly, saying that their loved ones would still be here if we just got off our asses. It was the ones who just broke down when they saw what had become of the person that they had loved before, to see them reduced to nothing laying on top of a sterile lab table, knowing that no matter what they did from now on they would never be able to fill the hole in their heart that had been left behind.
I saw him start to squirm as what he had done, what he had willingly become a part of, finally started to worm underneath his skin, and I thought that he deserved every single second of it. For every sob that shook Cara’s back, for every hollow sniff and tear that fell against my shoulder, I hoped that he felt every one of them in his very heart like a gunshot. I hoped that he saw himself for the monster that he had given up everything to be.
“I’m sorry Cara, for what we’ve put you through, truly I am.” Tristian held his hand over his heart, appearing for a moment every ounce the kind leader he wished to be seen as. “But it’s time, this has to happen now.”
“No, no!” She dug deeper into me, burying her face deeper into my hair, “I don’t want to go, I don’t want this to happen!”
“Shh, shhh…” I ran my hand through her hair, leaning into her ear and whispering, “When the time comes, duck.”
She looked at me strangely, though thankfully she knew enough to not make her reaction to big of a deal. It was in her eyes that I saw a spark of realization, a seed of knowledge that I wasn’t going to just walk blindly to m
y death for nothing. She was still filled with worry, who wouldn’t be, after all, I certainly was, but she forced herself to stop crying and nod.
“Alright,” She exhaled, “Alright. I just… I love all of you so much, I wish that… I just wish that we had more.”
Tariq nodded, closing his eyes and bowing his head in preparation. The others did the same, remaining silent as she was led away from us to the other side of the room. When she had been taken behind some boxes out of view of us, and thus leaving the scene of what was supposed to be our execution out of her view, Tristian cleared his throat.
“All of you have been gathered here because of crimes committed against nature, your existence and collaboration with each other is an abomination, and the only fitting punishment for an abomination is death.” Reaching out to his left, he grasped the offered gun handed to him by one of the crooked detectives, Davis, really cementing how on board they were with this entire plan. In many ways, the company he kept said more about the kind of man he was than whatever words he could cook up.
“Any last words?”
“Yeah,” I smirked, seeing the sky beginning to blacken and feeling the charge zapping along my arms, the feeling of raw power starting to become almost overwhelming and I wasn’t even the host of it. “You’re fucked.”
Lightning struck the roof of the warehouse, the shock and rumble shaking us to the ground and for a moment I was afraid that the entire structure was going to come crumbling down on top of us, but the tremors stopped before the roof could crack more than slightly. The attention of Tristian and his soldiers had definitely been captured, however, none of them even close to being prepared for a situation like this arising. Judging by the expression my friends were wearing, neither were they.
