Death Wish

Chapter 10

The Fallen Angel glides down the hallways, wrapping her wings around us like a fence. The spare creatures that would once have taken me with ease now bounce off of the newfound protection. Everybody seems completely grateful for it but me.

I fully understand how she is keeping us separate from the blood suckers out there, but it's ever so slightly unnerving to be stuck in such close quarters. I can't help but think of escape routes if something goes wrong inside our feathery inner circle.

"I don't believe I caught your names." She finally says over the noise.

I move as far away as I can from her. "Gerard." I answer uneasily. I try not to let the black feathers brush up against me; call it paranoia. I even hug my arms to myself for extra measure, "And this is Frank, Ray, and Bob."

She pauses at the sentence. Her copper eyes narrow in on our group and her wings tighten in on space. "I'm Amicus . . . you know one of you sounds familiar to me now."

Bob slides behind me. I frown, "We've never been in here."

Amicus slows to a stop at a dead end of the hallway. She won't let us escape from the ring now, "Bob has."

We all look to him. He grins anxiously over my shoulder, "C'mon Amy, that was a long time ago."

"Wait, you know her?" Frank says.

"Bobby here used to do a little volunteer work for the Fallen Angels." Amicus seethes. "Until he stole the Book of Curses and promptly lost it. We've been looking for him all over the place, he's a thief."

I glare, "So you didn't know where Mikey was. You were just covering your ass with us."

Bob staggers back when I turn on him, "N-No!"

"That's why you went through all of that trouble to find Frank, too! You piece of shit, you've been stalling getting here the whole time!" I explode.

Bob starts to panic even more, "I didn't mean to make such a huge mess -"

"You three are on your own." Amicus lunges forward, snatching Bob by the collar. "I have some news to break to the elders."

With that, her wings spread out and she flies up through the hole in the ceiling of the first floor.

~ ~ ~

We basically had to run for our lives from there. Our unsettling but nonetheless necessary protection is gone and we have only so long to get behind the walls to find Mikey before something notices fresh meat is on the market.

I ram my gun up against the wall, trying to break into it. "Mikey? Mikey, we're here!"

The others ram the walls as well, up until Frank says something. "Wait, everybody step back."

Ray and I do as we're told. Frank puts his hands up and concentrates before saying, "Perturbatio!"

A hole is promptly blasted through the wall. Ray raises his brows, "Oh yeah, I forgot you know like, two spells."

"It's my specialty." He shrugs casually.

I'm instantly climbing through the wall. It's crawl space inside is now littered with drywall bits and pieces, but nonetheless I have a mission. Messes are hardly the thing to stop me.

"Mikey?" I start again, "Mikey, it's your brother!"

The rest of them climb in behind me. Ray looks around unsurely as more drywall crumbs sprinkle from the ceiling. "Gerard, it looks kinda unsound in here."

"It'll only take a second." I assure and keep going. The walls begin to close in, getting more and more narrow. 

Frank easily fits through - he even takes the lead because I'm shuffling through too slowly. He looks around and shouts, "Mikey? Get your ghost ass over here!"