PROBLEM - Anthony Lockwood

CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR

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lxxiv

oh no

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ALICE GRABBED LOCKWOOD, pulling him into the lift and furiously beginning to press buttons. She turned to find him gasping and hyperventilating. She grabbed his tie, loosening it and undoing the first few buttons of his shirt. She grabbed the walkie-talkie from him, "Lucy, we need an exit! Lucy!"

Static squeaked out of the radio.

She swore loudly.

All of a sudden, the button for the 4th floor began to glow.

Alice swore loudly, "Shit, they've radioed up. They're stopping the lift at 4." She pressed the exit button again and again. "We need to get out, now!"

She grabbed Lockwood, and he stumbled as she pulled him out. "Where are the other sources?" She dug through his pockets and bag and pulled out a cigarette case, throwing it into the lift. "Rise!"

There was no point in hiding anything anymore.

She needed to keep him alive.

And Alice Deane knew what she was trading for his life.

A life for a life.

She'd burn a thousand times if it meant he was safe and the mirror destroyed.

Smoke and ghostly whisps began to rise from the case at her command, and the lift closed.

They tore up the stairs, but they'd only gone up three flights when Lockwood staggered, clutching the wall and gasping. His face was sweaty, and there was a wide, terrified look in his eyes.

Alice grabbed him, "Anthony, please!"

"They just killed him like that!" Lockwood cried. "Just cut him up! What-what did he die for?"

Alice bit her tongue, cupping his face in her hands and pulling him down slightly so she could reach him better. "Anthony, please, look at me. You need to keep going okay. We can't afford to stop running now."

"I-I'm a bastard, I'm a monster," Lockwood gasped.

Alice cried out, "Look at me. Look at me!" She cupped his face in her hands again, forcing him to look directly at her. "When I lived on the hill, my people were being hunted constantly. And us fighters had to think critically. Even when some of us would die. Even when we had to watch them burn or hang. Mistakes meant more death. Do you know what our leader told us, Anthony? 'Wipe the blood out of your eyes and find the strength to see this through. We keep fighting; for every one of us they burn, we burn three.' If you're a monster, then so am I. But we did not come all the way here to fail. Hundreds of lives depend on that bone glass being destroyed!"

Lockwood grabbed her arms as she held him, breathing heavily.

"Wipe your eyes, Anthony!" Alice demanded.

He did as he was told.

"They're up here!"

"Come on!"

Alice grabbed Lockwood's arm, propelling him up the next flight of stairs. "Go, I'm right behind you!"

Lockwood stumbled up the stairs, still hyperventilating.

Alice turned to the other flight, where four men with machetes were approaching, including Winkman.

Alice gave a yell of fury. Hate and rage barelling through her veins like liquid fire.

That agent had not died for nothing. His death would not be in vein.

Alice called on his death, chanelling the violent power of it and throwing open the floodgates to her magic.

Shadows and death whispers formed in the air, binding the men and asphyxiating them.

"NO!" Winkman yelled.

"This is for every agent and witch you've murdered!" Alice yelled."This is for him!"

And then she ripped out their hearts.

Blood was everywhere, splattering like rain and running down the stairs like a macabre crimson waterfall. Their chests had been torn open, their ribcages snapped and broken, shattered bone tore through flesh, and their hearts ripped out of their chests.

Remembering her promise to Burke, Alice grabbed Winkman's body, cutting off his finger and also tearing some of his clothes so that she had cloth to wrap the appendage as she summoned and bound his spirit into the finger.

Moments later, she was running up the flight of stairs Lockwood had gone.

They carried on running up the stairs, each door they found being unlocked.

"They're all open," Lockwood realised, "Lucy came through."

"That I did!"

They turned, gasping with relief as a hatch opened, and Lucy stuck her arms out, " Come on!" She pulled them onto the roof, and she bolted the hatch shut. "Do you have the glass?"

Alice nodded, "Yeah."

"George is on his way, but I don't see a way we can get down to the pontoon," Lucy explained.

They made their way through an indoor bit to see if there was a fire escape.

"It is carnage down there."

Alice swore loudly at the voice, shoving Winkman's finger into her belt.

They turned to see a hooded figure emerge from a doorway, meeting them on the roof. Rupert Gale. "An impressive way to announce yourself, that's 2 parties you've ruined tonight."

"You were at the ball?" Lockwood questioned.

His kajal lined eyes glared into her soul as he tore off his cloak, revealing his identity.

"You must be Lockwood and Co," Gale mused.

Lucy rolled her eyes, "You're the tosser with the golden blade?"

"The Golden Blade," Gale mused, "I like that."

"How do you know who we are?" Lockwood questioned.

"Oh, it's the least of what I know about you," Gale narrowed his eyes, "Anthony." He unsheathed his rapier, "Now. Give me my bone glass."

He lunged forwards and began to fight, and Alice instantly realised he'd been holding back in the library. In mere milliseconds, the horrifying reality of the memories Alice had been holding back barelled through her mind, paralysing her and sending her reeling.

He fought just like he did that day he betrayed her, chasing her down and kidnapping her.

He fought like fighting was an art, and he was the greatest artist of all.

In minutes, he had both Lockwood and Lucy sprawling. Gale grabbed Lucy in a headlock, chuckling darkly, "Not quite up to the big leagues, are you? You've got ambition, at least."

And then he threw her to the ground.

"It sets you apart from the bottom feeders, like that DEPRAC agent," Gale mused. "Why would anyone do such a dangerous job for so little money?"

"That's enough about him!" Lockwood declared, scrambling up and grabbing his rapier.

Gale glared at Lockwood, "Get over him. I'd already told Winkman who he was. I think they were planning to kill him live on stage as a finale." His gaze flickered to Alice, "A bit like what I'm going to do with you. Tell me, Adelaide, shall I make them watch while I burn you?"

Lockwood clenched his jaw, "How did you know? Who are you? Fittes?"

Alice saw the storm in Gale's eyes intensify.

And then she pushed Lockwood to the ground.