Unholyverse

~Part 29~

One Year Later

"When you asked us to come and fight evil with you, you never said anything about it smelling this bad."

Frank looked up from taping a bandage over his knee to see Mikey making a face at the stack of rune things Gerard had just dumped in his arms.

"It's the brimstone," Ray said apologetically, combing his fingers through his hair and shaking dust out all over everything. "It's a powerful hex-breaker."

"It's a stinky hex-breaker," Mikey grumbled.

Gerard piled more runes into his hands and jerked his chin towards the door. "Can you put these in the van with the other stuff before the Cardinal's guys show up?"

Mikey went off, and Gerard came over to crouch by Frank on the gritty floor. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Frank tore off another length of tape with his teeth, and used it to splint his ring and middle fingers together. They throbbed angrily at him, but then calmed down once he had them in place. "Just a couple scrapes."

"I can't believe you still have all your limbs. You could have been blown to bits."

Frank smoothed the edge of the tape down and shrugged. "You said someone needed to bring that sacred flame thing into the center of the circle."

Gerard made a strangled noise. "I didn't mean that you should grab it and throw yourself in too!"

"How was I supposed to know it would explode?" Frank demanded, trying to tear off some more tape but mostly just succeeding in getting it stuck to his face.

"Because it always explodes, Frank," Gerard said exasperatedly, grabbing the tape from him and tearing it himself. "If I have learned one thing over the last year, it's that everything always explodes."

"Whatever, I bet it looked cool." Frank rolled his sleeve up and pressed another bandage over the raw, bloody place on his elbow, taking the tape from Gerard so he could secure it. "Where's Bob and Brian?"

"Bob's loading the van up, and I think Brian's trying to find somewhere for us to sleep tonight." There was a tramping noise outside, and Gerard stood up, dusting himself off just in time for Howard and the other suits to come into the room. "Howard."

"Father Way," Howard greeted him coolly, looking around. The place was kind of a bombsite - literally, Frank had to admit to himself, there was actual rubble in one corner and a whole lot of dust floating around, and Ray was still picking drywall out of his hair, but whatever. "We'll take it from here."

"Yeah, now there's no more actual evil," Frank muttered under his breath, shutting up when Gerard nudged him.

Howard handed Gerard a stamped, addressed envelope, which Frank knew by now would contain a tiny Dictaphone. "You'll send your statement as soon as possible."

Gerard nodded and folded the envelope up, tucking it in the inside pocket of his jacket. The suits were already moving around, bagging stuff up and talking to each other in low murmurs. They never seemed to get dusty; their suits were always pristine, and Frank was actually convinced that behind their ever-present sunglasses, they didn't even have eyes.

"I assume that you and your," Howard gave Frank a long, expressionless look, "Your...associates, have received instruction from the Cardinal as to your next assignment?"

"Yeah," Gerard said. Howard kept looking at him, like he thought Gerard was going to give him details, but Gerard just kept looking back until finally Howard nodded and stepped back.

"We'll take it from here," he said again, hands in his pockets. "Good to see you, Father Way."

"You too!" Gerard said, in this bizarre fake-cheery voice. Frank and Ray followed him out onto the street, where Bob was leaning against the van, smoking and listening to Mikey talk. "You guys ready?"

Bob nodded and pulled the sliding door back. "Brian called, he's got us some floor to crash on a couple blocks from here."

A weak cheer went up. Frank clambered into the van; Mikey, and Ray piled in after him, and Bob slid the door shut and climbed into the front with Gerard.

"I don't suppose the Lord is planning to provide us with some money any time soon, is he?" Ray wanted to know, leaning over the seat. "Because when sleeping on someone's floor seems like a luxury, I'm pretty sure we're in vow of poverty territory."

Gerard slid his own sunglasses on. "Things'll get better, Ray, He's just testing our faith."

"Test this," Bob muttered, making a gesture that Frank couldn't see, but which made Gerard snort and shake his head.

The van started up; Frank leaned against the side and felt the vibrations running up through his spine and skull. Opposite him, Mikey was already folding all his skinny limbs into a tangle, head tucked into Ray's shoulder. Ray laced his fingers together on his stomach and leaned his head on Mikey's. He closed his eyes.

"Hey, did you say you'd spoken to the Cardinal?" Frank remembered, leaning forward to tap Gerard's shoulder. "Where are we going next?"

Gerard gave Bob kind a funny look, then turned around to smile at Frank. "Chicago."

"Are you serious?" Bob looked over in surprise, almost driving into the back of the suits' creepy black Humvee as he was pulling out into the road.

Gerard nodded, smiling; his weird little teeth sunk into his bottom lip. "Yup. Apparently there's something really weird going on down there. He's gonna call me with more details."

"Chicago," Bob said happily, flipping his sun visor down. "I don't know what the fuck I'm going to tell my folks, though."

The van choked and rumbled as Bob forced it up through the gears. Frank thought about having a cigarette, but he didn't know when Brian would let them buy more, so he left the pack in his pocket for now.

"I want coffee," Mikey said sleepily from under Ray's hair. "Coffee and hash browns."

Gerard settled back in his seat, tipping his head back against the headrest. "Coffee sounds really good."

"Coffee," Frank agreed fervently. "Coffee, hash browns, shower and sleep."

"Don't forget we're going to Mass tomorrow," Gerard reminded them, laughing when they all groaned. "Sunday follows Saturday every week, guys, I don't know why you're always surprised."

"Just get me to the coffee," Mikey said, reaching over the back of the seat to tug on Gerard's ear. "Then we can discuss the rest."

Gerard sighed, pretending to be annoyed. Frank watched the way his hair curled around his ears; the stubble on his jaw that was barely noticeable even though he hadn't shaved for days.

He ran a hand over his own face, sandpaper against his palm. Fuck, he wanted a shower so bad his mouth practically watered when he thought about it. His elbow stung, and his knee, and his fingers twinged when he flexed them. There was dust in his hair, and his ears, and his nose. He was exhausted, and he couldn't remember the last time they slept somewhere not the van for more than two nights in a row, and Mikey's toes were digging into his shin, and the whole van smelled like unwashed dude.

He looked down at his wrists; pressed his thumb experimentally over the pale scars he didn't think were ever going to go away. They didn't hurt.

Mikey's toes dug into him again, more insistently, and Frank looked up to see him making his question face.

Frank made the OK sign with one hand and did a thumbs-up with the other. Mikey smiled, and closed his eyes again.

Bob grumbled at someone who cut out in front of him. Ray hummed quietly under his breath.

Gerard's phone rang; Frank listened to the sound of his voice, and thought about Chicago.