Hell's Detective

Chapter Forty-four- Changing the System

Ingleseid hadn't known what real, utter hopelessness looked like until he saw the faces of the angels as he released the knife. One by one, they disappeared, like candle flames flickering out. There was no reason for them to stay. It was over now. They'd failed.

Ingleseid didn't look at the body. Couldn't. As the demons roared with triumph, he slipped through the crowd. Unnoticed. Like a rat. He heard the demons take the body, looked into their gleeful faces, but somehow it didn't seem real. Like it was all a dream.

He managed to fight his way to the backdoor, stepped out. The sun slammed into him. The street was empty, unmoving. As if nothing had changed. As if it could all go away.

He dug his phone out of his pocket, dialled Tatters. After a few rings, he picked up.

"It's time," Ingleseid said.

Holly was setting up a spell on the sidewalk. He knelt down next to her. Didn't look. Tatters arrived in Holly's car a few minutes later, got out and handed a bag of strange smelling ingredients to them.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked Ingleseid quietly.

He wasn't, but he nodded anyway. "It's the only way we can be sure they won't come after us."

She handed him the spell book, and he flipped through it.

"Crap."

"What is it?"

He pointed to the ingredients list. "We need something from an angel. A heart, a lock of hair, something." He looked back at the warehouse. "They're all gone."

Holly pulled out a golden feather from her pocket. It shimmered as the afternoon light bounced off it. "Something like this?"

"Where did you get that?" he breathed.

"Angel boy left it behind when he, you know, tried to kill us."

Ingleseid grinned slowly. It was going to work. They were going to make it. "Holly Fawkes, you are incredible."

"I know," she said lightly.

She placed the feather in the centre of the circle, glanced at Tatters. "We need Krugo's blood."

Tatters disappeared into the car and reappeared a moment later empty-handed. "It's all gone."

"Then what do we do?" Holly said, eyes darting around frantically.

Ingleseid nodded at the warehouse. "There are demons in there."

"There's no time. And they'd notice."

"Then what?" Tatters mumbled.

Ingleseid looked at the pair of them, really looked. He thought back to years and years ago, to those few moments before death claimed him in its icy grip. He'd thought it was all over then, known it was all over. And he'd mourned for his life, mourned for his friends, for the people he would never see again.

He couldn't even remember their names.

He'd spent so much time missing his old, normal life that he'd never realized how tiny and insignificant it was.

But in this life, he'd found Holly and Tatters, laughed with them, fought with them.

Loved them.

It was only after he'd died that he'd truly found a reason to live.

"What was it you said?" he asked Holly quietly. "We're the bad guys, right?"

She frowned slightly as he sank to the ground. He knew what he had to do.