Double Or Nothing: A Coin Flip Away

Run

Before Deck or Vestress could form any sort of argument, the keypad at the end of the hall buzzed, shaking the corridor. Vestress turned to Deck, her eyes wide with fear. "Okay, you need to follow me right now. Let's go." Deck, zipping his lips, sprinted after his twin sister into the living room of the bunker. Although Deck shielded his eyes from the beautiful, misty jungle sunrise, Vestress yanking him to the left toward the bathroom shook the armored Demon. "Owch! What're you doing, what's going on?!" he hissed. Vestress glanced back as her hand reached for the doorknob. "Bile's here to get the serum, he can't know you're here!"

Deck stopped in the hall, his vertically arranged eyes wide awake. "Bile? Hold it, you mean like that Bile? Like the-!" "The mafia one, the tiger shark who's been running Greed while Mammon's out, yes, that Bile, Deck! Now get in there!!" As Vestress slammed her brother into the bathroom, locking the door shut behind her, a deep voice rumbled from the foyer. "Oog. Vestress, I'm back. I brought you a change of groceries." Vestress turned with a start, her face neutral without any sign of tension. "Oh thank you so much, I was dying without something new!" Vestress watched Bile enter the room, her mind racing when she saw the scars.

"Oh my god, where'd you get those?" she gasped. Bile coughed, rubbing his blackened eye with a towel. "The Sin Hunter," he growled with a set of chipped teeth. Vestress' mind flashed back to her brother, only a wall away. 'The Sin Hunter did that? What else could that nightmare do?' she pondered. Clearing herself up, Vestress jogged over to Bile, stopping beside him with a towel from the couch. "He did this? How?" Water rippled under the glass floors, sparkling with droplets of deep purple blood. Bile sighed, his eyes to the floor.

"I went back to the Living World to cover an endeavor. Some of The Stripe's cultists needed backup, so I checked to make sure they were alright. Somehow they wound up catching this dame. Short, glasses, hair tied back, a pencil pusher." Vestrees nodded, trying with every ounce in her body to not look at the bathroom door. "What happened next?" she asked, looking to buy more time. Bile wiped his bleeding eyelids with the damp washcloth. "That dame must've been one of The Sin Hunter's partners, because the next thing I knew he came out of nowhere. I had him, too," Bile snarled, clenching his fists.

Vestress nodded along and kept her hands close to her sides, unable to concentrate on what Bile was saying. The only thing in her mind was the swirling clutter trying to form an escape plan for Deck. As she began to piece something together, Bile rose from the couch, tossing his towel aside. "Okay," he groaned, cracking his spiny back with a jolt from his dorsal fin, "where's the serum?" Vestress' eyes widened behind her heart-rimmed glasses. "Oh, right! The serum, yeah, let me get that." Vestress jogged over to the carpet before the balcony, flinging the rug back with a grunt.

Carved in the floor was a small safe. The handle could only be opened with three keys, each hidden around the house. Vestress had one key hidden in the slot between her phone and its case; the second and third were hidden in a potted plant and a small slot in the decorative waterways in the floor. After inserting all three keys into the locks, Vestress spun the nozzle around as the door popped open. Turning to Bile, Vestress gave a sheepish grin. "You know your survival bunker stuff well. This was a good system," she started, but Bile pushed her aside, throwing open the hatch.

As Vestress stepped back, Bile froze, his narrowed eyes quivering in the bank vault's cavity. "Vestress? Where is the serum?" he asked. Vestress locked up, her eyes darting around the safe for any answer. "It's not in there? You mean it's not specifically where I put it?!" she half screamed, stepping away to the balcony. Everything in Vestress' body began quaking as if the whole world was set in a shaking motion, erupting with Azazel's fiery wrath. Although every ounce of her being told Vestress that she had put the serum in the vault, doubt crept in as Bile began to sweep around the house, checking each crack and crevice.

It was only when a doorknob jiggled and halted that Vestress froze completely, her heart locked in terror. "Vesty?" Bile's voice called from inside, "why is this door locked?" Vestress swung around with a forced smile and eyes too stricken with fear to be taken seriously. "The bathroom? Oh yeah! I did some cleaning earlier, you really shouldn't-!!" Vestress' tone cut clean in half as Bile ripped the doorknob free of its bolts with little resistance. As the door pulled open, Bile stepped inside, scanning the area. His large nose twitched as the air shifted with an unfamiliar trace.

Vestress watched with panic pooling in her armpits and dripping from the sides of her head. Bile stepped out, rubbing his hands before turning to Vestress. "So you lost the serum," he concluded. Vestress took a step toward the balcony, her glasses shaking back and forth. "Bile," she shuddered, "I didn't lose it. I promise you, I have no idea why it was-" she cut off, glancing around herself. They were out on the balcony with Vestress facing Bile and her back to the ledge. "Oh no," she gulped, struggling to keep eye contact with the tiger shark Demon.

Bile shuddered, continuing. "I can't keep relying on the people around me to get this shit done." As Vesress searched for a way out, her eyes locked on Deck, standing in the open foyer, the serum in his hand. With tears streaking down her face, Vestress glanced away, using the first ounce of her Demonic power in a long time to speak to her twin brother. Her last words before the floor disappeared and the jungle rose fast beneath her: "Run, Deck, and don't look back!"