Unholy Pleasures

Max

Key Ten: Max:

She can tell that something isn't right with Lenalee. The young angel kept disappearing for days at a time. Now, she wasn't answering calls anymore. Max stared at her phone and frowned. She sat back in her chair. The angel jumped when her phone rang.

It was Linda.

Max frowned as she accepted the call.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"I have you heard from Lenalee today?" her sister asked.

"No," Max said. "Why? What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Oh dear..." Linda said in a low voice.

"Linda?" Max asked.

"I just have a feeling," the other sister said. Her twin frowned.

"What kind of feeling?" she asked. There was a pause on the other line.

"Are you busy right now?" Linda asked. Max rubbed her forehead as she sighed.

"You lab, right?" she asked. "Give me five minutes."

"Thank you," her sister said. Linda hung up and sighed. Something told her this issue was worse than they could picture.

The twins sat in the empty lab. Max turned to Linda.

"So what's on your mind? Spit it out. What's going on?" she asked. Linda lifted her head.

"She's been compromised."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"It's kind of hard to explain." Linda folded her hands in her lap. "How you noticed anything different about her lately?"

"No... Should I?"

"I don't know how to put it."

"Try me."

"She's not her cheerful self. I asked her what was wrong but she didn't answer me."

"You don't think she knows about..." Max shook her head. "No, it can't be. She doesn't know about Komui yet, does she?"

"No. I didn't tell her. Did you?"

"Of course not!" Max puffed up her cheeks. Now that she thought about it, Lenalee hadn't returned any calls. Usually, the girl would check in with someone.

"What do you think we should do?" Max asked. Linda threw up her hands.

"I don't know," she said. "We have to try what we can do." Max didn't like the sound of that.

"What else is there?" she asked. "In general, I mean." Linda thought about that for a moment and then shook her head.

"No," she said. "That's about it." Max narrowed her eyes at her sister.

Max had to force herself back to work. Now that she thought about it, Lenalee hadn't been acting like herself. Ever since she got back from her day off, the girl kept to herself. She looked like she had seen so much trauma. The angel of death looked like she was about to cry.

"What's the matter? What happened?" Max asked. Lenalee didn't answer her. Since then, the girl stayed away from everyone. However, she did ask one question that caught Max's attention.

"Is there even a point anymore?"

Max looked up from her work.

"What do you mean, dear?" she asked. Lenalee pressed her lips together as she shook her head. Max raised an eyebrow.

"What happened? Was it another child?" she asked. The angel of death shook her head.

"Then... what is it?" Max asked. She never got an answer.

The angel leaned back in her chair. She frowned as she thought about it.

"Looks like I'm going to have to talk to her," Max said. She reached over for her phone.

"Linda? It's me," she said. "Yeah, I think we might have to tell her. We don't have much of a choice. Do you have any better ideas? I thought so. We'll meet in your lab, okay? Good." She looked around for a clock.

"Give me twenty minutes, okay?" Max asked. "Good. I will be there soon." She hung up the phone and leaned back in her chair. She looked out the window and shook her head.

"What is wrong with you, Lenalee?" she asked herself.