Death's Bitter Embrace (#Wattys2015)

Act II, Chapter XX: Arrival

I awake to the sound of my phone buzzing, it was ringing, depriving me of my sleep which I so desperately needed as I got in late last night. The phone providing the only source of light; artificial, but light nonetheless, I pick it up and check the time.

    It was only quarter past four, I had only slept for a half hour before I got this rude awakening, I check the caller ID-it said Cal and Alex conference call, what did they want? Why were they up at all bloody hours of the night...well morning rather?

    I answer the call, slurring my words as I picked up, my eyes still drooped and half shut, my arms weak from the lack of sleep, I decided to get up and get a drink of orange juice-that's sure to wake me up a little bit, even if I didn't perk up right away it would still give me energy to talk.

"What the fuck do you want? It's a quarter past fucking four in the fucking morning, what could possibly have to tell me that couldn't wait till later in the fucking morning?" I answer angrily, keeping my cool wasn't my specialty.

"He's gone" Alex and Cal say both in unison, the tone of their voices making it crystal clear that they weren't playing a cruel prank on me-if they were telling the truth, if they weren't playing a prank on me, they would have a lot of explaining to do. They were keeping watch of him for the night.

"What the fuck do you mean he's gone? He couldn't just get up and walk away, I made sure of that, so how the fuck is he gone?" I ask, steam coming out of my ears, as most could probably tell by now: I was fuming.

    I-quite literally-jump into the Lotus and put it in gear, I told Cal and Alex that I would meet them there, if my mood has changed by the time I see them and I am not as angry as I am there is a small chance that I won't kill them-a small chance might I stress.

    I get to the Inferno quickly, speeding at every chance I got, I needed to know what the hell happened, I avoided the pigs, taking all the necessary back roads to avoid traffic and police stations, there were thousands of police stations-well it seemed it anyway, dodging everything and everyone.

    I was anxious, nervous and contemplating whether I should question my sanity-so much so; I was sweating in the what would be chilling Melbourne air. With little sleep to be refreshed, I wasn't even going to attempt to question my sanity, I knew I left him, I knew I broke him, I knew he couldn't move, so how could he be gone?

    I walk slowly to the clock tower, I wanted to run but I couldn't, not this tired, I'd fall over like a blind drunk man...who had just been spun around a dozen times before walking. I push open the door with a sense of power, like an owner of a shop on the grand opening night.

    I walk to the spot where I had left Rory, he was gone, but, how? There was a blood trail not far-the blood trail was recent and looked like the person who took Rory had dragged him while he was conscious and struggling.

    Who would do such a thing to me? Why would they take my kill, he was mine to kill and someone has gone and taken him, "he was my kill!" I scream aloud, showing just how enraged I was, I was going to find this 'body snatcher' and kill them; a fast but very painful death, or possibly an extremely slow and torturous death, like burning alive or being skinned-maybe even ripping out their tendons and strangling them with them and proceeding to use their tendons as marionette strings, I could be the puppeteer.

    There was something in my peripheral vision; a light source of some sort, I assumed it was my phone, so I looked down and went to pull out my phone from my pocket but it wasn't my phone; it was my arm, my arm was glowing a fiery molten lava colour-it looked brilliantly strange, it was the brand, the mark was glowing.

"Why was the mark glowing?" I ask myself as I stared at it-my vision focusing on it, fixating on it, the world around me grew darker and darker, it was almost as if the mark was tenebrific, almost producing the darkness surrounding me. I notice a figure a couple hundred meters away from me pulling me out of my trance-like state. It's eyes glowed volcanic red, the colour the mark was giving off.

    I run towards this 'figure' with full speed, Angel shining by my side in my arms-I never realised that Angel's name was so ironic, so uncanny, she was an angel, yet she caused so much havoc, so much pain, so much suffering. The figure wasn't a demon like I had seen before in the Devil's lair, it was human. It lived and breathed like I did, but something was wrong, something wasn't right.

    I had a new problem, Rory was gone, but I couldn't deal with him-I had to deal with this matter first, I want to know who took Rory, but my desire, my curiosity for who this strange person is-who is still standing still-was burning in me, almost killing me.

    As I arrive to the stiff person, I see the red eyes staring at me; he was aware I was in front of him, his face was in a tattered thin cloak, the rest of his body was draped in the thin cloth. He lifted his arms up-much like a stereo-typical zombie-and showed me two things;
A number
Two letters

    The number read #271596, I had seen that number somewhere before-hand, the letters-on the other arm-didnt spell or stand for anything, just read XY. I tried to figure what they mean for a short while before he spoke just as I figured the number out.

"Heather is mine now" he says, the number was Heather's, nothing made sense at the moment, nothing at all, confusion set in and stayed in the atmosphere, I could hear it in the ambience. He pushed away his cloaked hood to the back revealing who he was, shocking me to the core, I had never been so confused; so shocked in my life.

                       It was Rory