strangled

³⁰all for nothing [pt. ¹]

The clock makes 11:40pm visible throughout the darkness of the bedroom.

Only five minutes left until you need to be at the corner of the street waiting for Ryu's car to arrive. Now is the perfect time to start preparing to leave. For the past few minutes you have been stretching out your wings so they won't cramp up in case you need to use them. Before that, you found some leftover food in the fridge and warmed it up for Hawks to eat. He really seemed to appreciate the gesture, and shared some of his dinner with you. Your stomach is full, you're energized after a short nap, and all your nervousness is conforming into a profuse excitement.

Creeping out of your room, you fix your backpack onto your back while carrying the blanket from the bed. First, you go to Hawks' bedroom. After pondering whether or not you should take the card, you choose to leave it here in case Hawks wakes up. It would mess everything up if he noticed his keycard was gone and you're not even sure that piece of plastic would open the doors at Tartarus. It's too risky.

Next, you proceed to go to the work office. A smile is on your face when you hear faint snores. Hawks has his face down on the desk, light drool dribbles down from his parted lips. Taking a deep breath, you drape the blanket over his sleeping form. His wings droop, looking more relaxed.

"Get some sleep Hawks, you deserve it." You whisper in his ear in case he's still conscious.

After checking to make sure you have anything, rearranging your pillows to look like a body under the sheets of your bed, and playing an audio recording of you snoring that you have stored on your phone, you climb out of the window.

It wouldn't be a good idea to bring your phone with you. If detectives try to track where it was, you'd be screwed. Hence the reason why you left it playing sounds to fool Hawks.

You close the window then jump down into the yard. It isn't far, and you land on your feet perfectly. Immediately, you dash up the road to the end of the corner. When you check the watch on your wrist you realize you're right on schedule.

It's only two minutes until a broken down car speeds towards you. The vehicle screeches to a halt in front of you. A familiar blonde looks through the car window.

"Nice car." You snort a laugh while hopping into the backseat.

Ryu groans. "This isn't my car. It's one of the getaways the League Of Villains use. My cars are all foreigns I stole. This is the only time you'll catch me driving something this low class."

Ryu steps on the gas and your body presses back against the seat in response. He turns off onto a road that leads into a dark isolated forest. The drive is bumpy from all of the rocks and twigs on the road plus Ryu's speeding. Your body gets thrown around on the backseat because of your lack of seatbelt. Ryu doesn't seem affected by it though. His right forearm is behind his head as he steers with his left hand, whistling a tune.

That's when you notice Ryu's attire. He's wearing all black, black pants, black combat boots, black turtleneck...what is he planning to do? The half-face mask proves he's going to commit a crime soon. Possibly it's just League Of Villains business.

"Aye, Shadow, we'll get to the bridge pretty quick at this rate. If you want to change out of your dress now is the time to do it."

"Okay good." You rummage through your bag before pausing. "You better not look back here Ryu."

"Can't make any promises."