3 . 6 . 14

Stop Talking and Everybody Retreat ~ Chapter 19

(Kathrine's P.O.V.)

"Stop talking and everybody retreat." Percy said. As Astrid opened her mouth to argue, I nudged her.
"Stop talking and everybody retreat." I repeated. "Saving lives first and questions later."
"Fine." Astrid grumbled. The voice laughed.
"I see you have flaws chosen one. That curiosity could end you." The voice boomed.
"Stop talking." Astrid glared into nowhere. She turned to me. "And everybody retreat!"
"Distractions please." Percy whispered. Astrid and I nodded. Astrid raised her staff and a deafening thunder echoed through the room.
"Oh, very nice." The voice complimented. "But it does nothing."
"You must feel oh so powerful, Mr. Voice." I started. "But that's just how you feel!"

I held my staff tight, knowing the perfect distraction. Don't fail, me:
"I call upon the darkness of my soul, to play a game so unfair. Grant me a weapon of my demand, and let me fight whoever dare. Let them feel my demon's wrath, let them be my bloodbath. Let them play this game with me; let us see who'll be on one knee, begging for the slightest bit of mercy. Oh demon, who will my next victim be? Darkness' Game!" I recited pridefully, making sure all my pronunciation and annotations were correct. I thought of my ideal weapon- a bow. My staff, once more, transformed into a dastardly weapon. A dazzling bow, as dark as the void. I aimed, this time properly, to the side by the wall. One arrow flew right past Astrid with deadly accuracy (at least, that's what I think) and onto the wall.

"What's that supposed to do?" The voice questioned. "I'm excited."
Just as he finished, the roof trembled. "Here we go."
It broke, some of the blinding lights shutting off. Arrows fell down upon the ground destroying the perfectly polished ground.

"Splendid." The voice said. His guard was obviously down. Percy launched forward into a dash as he lounged at Clair. She did a muffled scream as Percy sliced the rope very closely to her skin. "Very, very splendid."
"Who you calling useless now, Mr. I'm-so-Powerful?" Percy asked. The voice laughed.
"Good job, Agent poop." It mocked. "Pawns are meant to be sacrificed- I was about to get a new one anyways."
"Don't think you can just play people! We have lives too, IGWMSLLM!" Astrid shouted. There was no reply.
"He's probably gone now. But we better hurry in case matters change." I spoke up.
"You sound cool, Agent Komaru." Astrid thought aloud. "I like it."

She grabbed Clair by the wrist, taking off the duct tape on her mouth.
"Ow." Clair exclaimed.
"Nice to see you again." Astrid smiled. "Let's hurry up before we all die, 'kay?"
She pulled her as we ran out of the fancy-pansy room, the escape-room-like room, and back to the boring ol' shack that looked horrid. We got out and looked back at the shack.

"I'm never gonna miss that place." I remarked. Astrid nodded in agreement, letting go of Clair.
"That place smells like turd, looks like turd, and is turd." Percy added. "And people from it are pieces of turd."
"Hey, Mr. Big Mouth, I'm technically from here." Clair pointed out, rubbing her wrist from Astrid's grip.
"Hey, Ms. Big Mouth, I just saved you." Percy retorted. "So stop talking and everybody retreat, dammit."
"Whatever." Clair rolled her eyes and I grinned. Mr. Jackson is already making more enemies while we're making more friends.

~

After strolling through the busy street, having a little small talk and saving the bigger investigations for later, we finally reached our home-sweet-home with Clair and Percy tagging along side us. We gave Clair some food- some bread and water- while we made Percy buy his own food on our way here. Just as a moment ago, he bought ice cream. Plain, vanilla ice cream. As we sat down, Astrid's face changed from friendly to dead serious; it was like a switch just flicked in her head- it was time for investigation.

"Agent Aqu- Agent Agent. Begin interrogation." I commanded.
"Agent Agent now, huh?" Astrid shrugged. "Ok."
"This is gonna take a while..." Percy muttered.
"Clair- who was that man?" Astrid begun.
"I'm don't know." She admitted.
"Then why were you cooperating with him? How did you get there?" Astrid rapidly continued on.
"I'm pretty sure I was walking through an empty alleyway when things suddenly went black. After that, all I remember was tied to a pole and being scolded by a voice, just like the one talking to you." Clair explained.
"Really now?" Astrid asked.
"Yeah..I wish I knew more so I could help but...I'm not sure." She said.
"Anything else? Do you know anything about the 'messenger of hell' thing?" Astrid interrogated.
"I do remember hearing screams...but it might just be a dream since I couldn't see anything." Clair bit her bread timidly. "Sorry."
"That's okay." Astrid sighed. "Now wha-"
"Jackson." I suddenly poked in. He turned to me with dead eyes.
"What..."
"Mission: Stop Talking and Everyone Retreat is over and successful. Answer our question now- who are you?" I gave him a deathly glare. This man avoided the question- he can be anyone. What if he was trying to kill us? What if he did something horrible? What if we knew him from some time in the 'real world'? The possibilities of who he was were limitless but most of them weren't very positive.