A STUDY IN BLACK ✓

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Josh was tasked with carrying Tyler while Pete and Jenna kept watch. Jenna was a lot deadlier than Josh anticipated; almost every person they bumped into ended up a victim to either her gun or her impressive ballerina fighting.

Tyler directed them through a backroom that led into a dark carved tunnel, which led to an empty stairway. They made their way up, and then Tyler said to take a left.

The stairway broke off into a floor less room with the walls busted, so the only thing still intact was a thin wooden platform to walk across. Its only supports were wooden and metal beams and piping extending from the halfway finished construction.

"Oh, you've got to be shitting me," Pete scowled.

Tyler barked a bitter laugh. "This is ridiculous."

Jenna tried her weight on the platform, looking back at the three men and sending them a thumbs up. "I'll go first just in case one of you idiots takes a swan dive down to the first floor."

"What do you mean the first floor, it can't lead right to- Holy fuck!" Josh looked down, seeing an dark space below. "Uh, I don't know if you deduced this about me, Tyler, but I am deathly afraid of heights."

Tyler grinned. "I know. Why do you think I put us on the seventh floor in Bangladesh?"

"I hate you."

Jenna made it to the other side safely. Josh noticed a small crack in the concrete somewhere near the muddle, enhancing his anxiety. His mind was still a little fuzzy from earlier, and Tyler's hot breaths against his neck turning quick and short didn't help him as Pete told him not to panic.

Pete made it halfway across the platform before someone grabbed Tyler and yanked him off Josh's back. Josh spun only to be met with a boot to his chest, and he skidded across the platform, managing to grab onto the edge so he didn't fall.

Hayley stood at the other end, holding Tyler inches off the ground by his throat. She looked absolutely furious, the emergency lights making her glow red, like she was the devil himself. Or herself.

"Jesus, are we really worth all this bullshit," Josh muttered, making it to his feet.

"Give me the key," Hayley snarled, walking a few feet forward and letting Tyler's feet hang over the edge and above the abyss below them.

Josh clenched his fists. "What key?"

"Don't act stupid, I know you have it!"

Petr stood right behind Josh, frozen. "Holy shit, that's Hayley Kiyoko."

"No shit. Get out of here, I can handle this."

"Last time someone said that, if I recall correctly because it happened like twenty minutes ago, they got shot." Pete handed Josh a small handgun. "Don't end up with a bullet in you."

Josh grinned to himself. "No promises."

When Pete made it to Jenna on the other side, Josh stuffed the gun into the back of his pants. Hayley started to walk forward, moving Tyler back over the platform.

"You are not leaving this place alive unless you give me the key, you mother-"

Josh kicked her, making her drop Tyler onto the platform. Tyler scrambled towards Josh and heaved for air. Hayley landed on her hands, pushing off and leaping to her feet.

She swiped under Josh's feet with her foot and knocked him off his feet. Josh fell on top of Tyler, who grabbed Hayley's arm and threw her over his shoulder, WWE style.

Hayley growled and landed a wrapped her legs around his head, spinning and twisting her body until Tyler was pinned onto the platform with her foot on his chest and the point of her heel pressing into Tyler's wound. He arched his back and let out a guttural cry.

The wood splintered under the pressure.

"Give me the key and I'll kill him quickly," she said, holding out her open hand.

Josh grabbed her hand and pulled her off balance, but Hayley used this to her advantage and dove between his legs, pushing him over the side.

Somehow, he managed to grab the bars underneath and hold on, seeing more cracks spread through the underside of the wood.

"Don't look down, don't look down," he said to himself, forcing his eyes to focus on a construction catwalk several feet to his right. If he could get there, he could shoot Hayley off. Tyler and Hayley grunted above him, low thuds and swishes of a knife spurring him into action.

Josh started to slowly swing himself, getting enough momentum. The metal he was previously holding onto snapped and fell into the darkness below, so when Josh finally let go, for the single moment he was suspended in the air, he didn't think he would make it. The metal edge of the grazed his extended leg and he grabbed wildly to anchor himself, digging his fingers into the holes of the catwalk.

"Oooooh shit!" He screamed as he looked below to the cavernous darkness below him, scrambling to get his feet on solid ground. He was on the verge of crying, he hated heights so much.

When he managed to swing his legs over and climbs onto the catwalk, Josh caught a glimpse of Hayley and Tyler fist fighting, Hayley using her intact heel- Tyler had broken the other- as a weapon, swiping and stabbing at Tyler, who dodged every attack she sent his way.

Josh felt for the gun in his back, only to zero in on the dark shape on the wooden platform slightly above him, several feet behind Tyler.

"Tyler!" He yelled.

His head snapped to Josh then to the gun, connecting the dots just as Hayley kicked him in the gut, sending him flying. Tyler slid down the middle of the platform and grabbed the gun, landing on his back. Josh could hear snaps like firecrackers coming from the platform.

As soon as Hayley hovered above him, holding her heel above him in either victory or she was about to stab him, Tyler pulling the trigger again and again and against until the clip was empty.

Hayley dropped to her knees with a hand over her stomach, staring with wide eyes. The fact that she was somehow still alive was surprising, because she must've looked like Swiss cheese with all the bullets Tyler had fired into her.

Tyler started to stand, but Hayley's hand shot out and grabbed him by the neck, speaking loud enough for Josh to hear.

"Heaven's Templar will live forever."

The wood splintered completely underneath them, and they both fell into the emptiness below.