only angel

chapter 3!

Standing in front of the door, the two women could feel the thick snake of dread constricting them. Mara was starting to get impatient and was of the firm belief that if there was some kind of monster in there they should just go in and get it over with; however, after witnessing the Angel's fear she was fine with just getting back in the car and driving away from this rusted as shit gas station.

Something inside Ambrosia held her back from accepting her fear, logically she could list around thirty creatures that could be lurking in the shadows of the building in front of her, but nothing could prepare her for actually having to take some action against it. It wouldn't be the first time she would have had to fight a nightmarish monster, but to fight alongside it with not only a Demon by her side but a Demon who was supposedly meant to protect her worried her. Firstly Ambrosia could protect herself perfectly fine and secondly she wasn't quite sure whether Mara would get in her way, or worse, actually be of some help.

Now that would be the worst possible scenario Ambrosia could think of, after dying of course, Mara truly being some kind of help. If that happened her whole plan to convince God that she didn't need Mara's help to stop the end times would be down the drain! And then what? They would have to spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in each others constant company; No Ambrosia was not going to have that.

A deep grumble from inside the wrecked shack in front of them caused Mara to head straight back to the bright car behind them. "Nope! No. Not today thanks, come on Ambrosia we're leaving." Mara called out loudly to her and waved her hand up to signal for Ambrosia to follow behind. Promptly a very, very, very bad thought entered Ambrosia's mind and a sly smirk drew across her face.

"I'm staying." Ambrosia spoke firmly, Mara momentarily paused whilst pulling the driver-side door open in thought before saying a dull "Fine." and slid into the car, slamming the gleaming red door a second after. Ambrosia's face fell, the smug grin dropping instantly, this isn't what she wanted to happen. Ambrosia assumed that Mara would want to fight, and then if Ambrosia was really lucky Mara would get seriously injured and hurt proving that they were not in fact a good team.

Instead, the Demon was slowly backing the car down the gravel path towards the main road. Now Ambrosia would be left in the middle of nowhere, on her own, with (what sounded like) a hungry, dangerous creature 50 feet from her. This was not good. Now she would have to give in to Mara and leave; her plan could come later, but there was no way on God's green earth she would be left on her own to deal with some unknown monstrosity.

"Wait!" She called out, quickly jogging to the glistening car. Seeing Mara's smirk as she arrived at the window didn't help Ambrosia's want to strangle the Demon at this specific moment. "Hey, sugar. Finally decided to join me huh?" Mara drawled, rubbing the fact that she came into Ambrosia's face, she knew that the Angel would give in and Mara would get her own way.

"Oh shut up. The only reason I'm getting into this car right now is that I do not want to be stuck on my own attempting to kill something! In the middle of nowhere may I add!". They sat silent for a while before Mara chuckled and reached into the backseat whilst looking back into the rear-view mirror, "Attempting sounds about right Angel, now if you just switch seats with me and keep the car running I am going to go and kill this bloody thing that is causing us so much trouble."

Pulling her arm back and bringing a shotgun with her, Mara leaned over and opened the door again, jumping out and taking long strides towards the door of the gas station. Ambrosia sat there in shock, watching over her shoulder as Mara made a sarcastic thumbs up to her and pushed through the door. There was no way that just happened. Ambrosia had to do a double-take over her shoulder to check that Mara had actually gone in.

She definitely had. A hushed and murmured "Oh my Lord." left Ambrosia's mouth before deciding that the best thing to do in the current situation was to just do what Mara had asked, at least that way one plan was going (somewhat) accordingly. A sudden burst of two gunshots breaking the air urged Ambrosia to hurriedly open her door and get into the driver's seat; the leather crackled under her as she sat down, hands gripping the worn white leather of the steering wheel.

A few moments passed and Ambrosia heard a loud grunt and metallic crash from behind her, small beads of sweat began to gather on her brows as she heard nothing for a few minutes. Her soft hands tightened around the wheel and Ambrosia looked into the rear-view mirror, eyes passing the black and white dice hanging from the silver neck of the mirror, there was nothing.

Ambrosia's heartbeat launched into overdrive and she felt as if she was underwater, her rapid heartbeat pounding like a hammer in her head. A debate in her head started and Ambrosia felt frozen as she tried to decide between waiting or getting out of the car.

All of a sudden the rusted door flew off its hinges and out ran Mara, a great tsunami of relief washed over Ambrosia's body and started to ebb away the loud drumming of her heart. As quickly as that relief came, it went away. Behind Mara followed a very pissed and very hungry Rugaru.

Mara was torso and arms were covered in shining garnet blood, and dust and grime covered the entirety of her body. Ambrosia could see Mara's mouth moving and saying something, but she couldn't figure out what, courtesy of the human-flesh-eating monster growling as loud as a revving engine. "What?" Ambrosia hollered back, foot hovering over the pedal. "In the glove box!" Mara called back thrusting her arm in the general direction of the glove compartment in front of the passenger seat.

Pure adrenaline shot through her body like heroin to the heart and Ambrosia dove over to reach the handle. After a few violent yanks, the door fell open, her deep brown hands foraging around in the glove box for an expected weapon or gun that would help them. Instead, all she could see was empty fast-food wrappers, opened packets of cigarettes, single pieces of gum and music tapes.

Now she was really worried, what did Mara think was in there? If it was some form of protection Ambrosia couldn't see anything, moving her head round to look out of the passenger door she could see Mara fast approaching. "What's it that you want? There's no gun!" She shouted back, stress evident in her tone.

"Not a gun!" Mara panted back in between gasps of breath, clutching at her bleeding side, "Put tape number three in!" Ambrosia dived back into the glove compartment and blindly pulled out every tape she could feel. "Five, no. Seven, no, Twenty-four, no. Three! Oh, thank you Lord." She brought the tape to her plump lips and gave it a kiss of reassurance. Hopefully, there was some kind of pitch or white noise on the tape that would scare the monster off.

Mara was pushing her limits trying to reach the car, she could hear the grunts of the cannibal creature gaining behind her and she willed herself not to turn around to see. She could look when she was in the safety of her car. Her short platinum blonde hair tangled behind her whilst Mara struggled to increase her pace, if she ran for five more seconds as fast as she could she would be able to jump in.

Mara was grateful Ambrosia had the common sense to leave the door open for her and dug the heels of her trainered feet into the dusty gravel as she reached the back of the car. A clawed hand gripped her shoulder and pulled her back. "Mara!" Ambrosia screamed and reversed the car back in an attempt to run over the creature. "Careful!" Mara shouted back and she ripped her shoulder out of its grasp, she could feel her skin tearing and hot blood pour down her arm as pain rippled through her upper body.

Her door was now perfectly in line with her to jump in and Mara threw her beaten body straight into the old white leather seat. "Reverse the car over it." She ordered and Ambrosia immediately followed. The car shot back and forcefully knocked the Rugaru over, bumping over it as they crushed its body beneath the fiery red car.

"Now drive!" Mara pointedly shouted, the car stalled for a moment before lurching forward and speeding out of the hellish gas station. Heavy breathing from both women filled the car and Mara painfully turned to look at Ambrosia, "I thought I told you to put in tape three." she said snatching it back and shoving it into the tape player.

The sudden beat of 'Poison' by Bell Biv DeVoe made Ambrosia jump and swerve the car into the opposite lane. Lucky for them, they were in the middle of nowhere and no other cars were around. Mara sighed, "Could've caused an accident that." she said whilst jerking her head to the steering wheel.

After a moment of stillness, they both laughed, releasing pent up stress from the previous monster related activity. "God, I can't believe you. You almost just died and this is the song that would've been playing when you did." Ambrosia chuckled, Mara leant forward and spun the dial of the volume to full. "What can I say? I'd like to go out in style."