Come Home

Jethro

The woman walked past, without noticing another living being was around. That was becoming normal. No one wanted to see me so they never did. I was no longer human to the world. I was just a part of the dirt nobody wanted to take care of. Once Chloe comes back, that will all change. The world will see us again. We won't be shoved aside and ignored.

Getting up from my spot, I swiftly move through the alley way and come out a few feet in front of the woman. She definitely noticed me this time, but avoided all eye contact by looking straight ahead, past me. The sidewalk narrows slightly, allowing me to bump into her.

"Oh sorry my dear," I say, settling her upright again.

"It's fine," she replies with a firm discomfort shining through her voice. Adjusting her skirt, she begins on her way again without giving me a second glance.

I stare after her with a hard look in my eyes. Wretched woman. Couldn't even pretend I was another human being living out a path towards the same end, death. Oh well, she'll know better next time, I think as a grin forms on my face and I raise the royal blue wallet to eye level.

Opening it, I find fifty dollars in cash along with a new id to add to Chloe's ever growing collection.

"Perfect."

I slip the wallet into my pocket and move back to my alleyway. No one passes by until the lunch hour rush, when I make my trek back home. I had parked the old truck in the rv lot for the day until I had a chance to trade it again. I need to get back to that town I had dropped Chloe off in and start helping her take care of things. We have been assigned as a team and I need to start doing my part in all of this. Chloe did manage to get the better end of the deal though. While I'm off camping in the woods, she gets to sleep in a comfy bed with an entire house at her beck and call. While she's off snooping through the house for weaknesses, I get to sneak around and question the people that I come across, then hide their bodies when they've proven themselves no longer useful.

All this for a better future when it would be so much easier to just hand Chloe over to Derek and call it a day. We would both be taken care of for the rest of our lives, but I would never see her again. The minute I let her go, he would take her home and leave me above the surface. Her body wouldn't be able to handle the pressure up here for several centuries and he made it quite clear that I wouldn't be welcome to join them. I would die and return to the dust I was borne from while she would die and never experience what comes next.

He put the offer to me after explaining why he was helping us all those years ago but he promised not to tell Chloe unless I accepted the offer. If she understood the stakes, I don't think she'd stick around. No matter how much we need the help and no matter how much she loves me. Her view of Derek would disintegrate even more and I'd be just as bad in her eyes. She had a hard time coming to grips with the murder aspect of our jobs, I doubt she would be okay with the accult. The cursed creatures coming out to play was one of her childhood terrors after our parents had been taken.

The night I left her at that motel in the middle of nowhere, we had gotten into an argument over our new assignment. She didn't want to stay in a house full of sex traffickers

I couldn't tell Chloe the truth and she needed a good reason to help me do Derek's bidding. So, I came up with the perfect reason why these people were the spawn of satan and why she should help me take care of them. A few deaths here and there wouldn't be a bad thing either, especially after all the heinous things these people had done to their fellow man.

I offered to let fate decide for us. A luck of the draw in a way. I would drop her off just outside the town and if she managed to find a place to hide or someone to help her, then she would do the job without complaints. If, however, she failed, then Derek would be picking her up and she wouldn't have to do the job. I had about reached my wits end with her and desperately wanted Derek to just take her from me once and for all. So, after I called him and said where to pick her up, I made the challenge a little more difficult and put a small bullet into her before we made it to the motel, I said my goodbyes, and dropped her off. My surprise when I received Derek's angry call saying she wasn't there was unmatched to any I had felt before.