Heart Pangs

Chapter 53 - Everything Coming

"Arthur?"

"Camille?" His voice sounds scratchy with sleep. "Camille, what's wrong? We don't start work today for several more hours."

"Arthur, I'm going to need you to come over."

A slight pause.

"Camille, dear, what is it? You sound like you've been crying."

"It's Lux. He... he's here."

"What?" Now he sounds wide awake. "Where? Where are you? Has he touched or hurt you in any way? Are you in any immediate danger? What about your brother? Is he there too?"

"No," Camille assures him. "I'm not in danger. Not anymore, at least. And Benji, he... he isn't here now. I can't explain right now. Just, please, come over. I'm at home."

There's a quiet intake of breath over the line. "I'll be there as soon as possible. Don't move. Don't let Lux get away. Just hold tight."

"I will. Thank you."

The line goes dead. Camille meets Felix's eyes across the table.

"He won't come alone," she tells him.

"I'm counting on it," he says. "This can't be something you're guilty of. It has to all be on me."

Camille nods but can't find the words to respond. Her throat has closed up. Her stomach is doing flips inside her. And overall, she's simply exhausted.

After their planning session the night before, Felix had insisted they get some rest before enacting everything. (He'd also politely, if a bit uncomfortably, asked if she had any food to spare.) Felix had, once more, taken the couch, while Camille had curled up in her own bed. She'd tried to sleep. She really had. But every time she'd closed her eyes all she could see were Cecil and Bakula looming over her. All she could feel was Cecil pinning her to the table and Bakula's suffocating stomach walls enclosing her from all sides.

She'd given up just as the sun had risen. When she'd gone downstairs for breakfast, she'd found Felix already awake as well. They'd eaten together and decided sooner would be better than later. And so she'd picked up her phone.

And now she's here.

This is the beginning of the end, and it all starts with a phone call.

"Do you want to move to the living room?" Felix asks after a heavy silence.

"Okay." She doesn't wait for him. She simply pushes herself out of her seat and heads down the hall, Felix close on her heels.

They wait for nearly 45 minutes. Camille thinks Arthur must be going out of his mind with taking so long, but she knows he also wouldn't come unless he were absolutely prepared. She can't tell if she's relieved or not by the time she hears, for the second time in less than twelve hours, the sound of many vehicles pulling up to her house. She wonders what her neighbors must think. The old woman next door would hopefully never ask to help find her cat again.

"Be ready," Felix mutters from where he sits on the couch next to her.

She nods. "I am."

They rush in.

It feels very much like the day Benji and Felix had first left except... not at all. There's something different in the air now.

There's the slightest of hesitation when everyone barges in to see Lux Feuerbach on the couch, sitting very still with his hands in his lap. Camille seizes her opportunity. She springs up and over so she's standing between him and the rest of the prey.

All the assembled Epomis members freeze. Oscar stands at the head of the team, leading the charge, and meets Camille's eyes. There's confusion in his expression and even a little fear.