The Voyage

6. The Switch

As Erebus reached the top of the staircase, the instant sharp screech in his ears told him Mateo had returned from his trip.

The hostages, who were still effortlessly under the control of Darius made no movements. The occasional whimper of fear escaped their lungs but that was quickly shut down when they felt the gun barrel pointing towards them.

"Ah, you've returned" Mateo exclaimed, staring seemingly straight into Erebus' soul. "So, you've seen how things are going to work, now let me show you my job..." with that, Mateo lunged towards the crowd of people infront of him. Erebus noticed how quick and decisive Mateo was in his actions, his impulses seemed too strong to be maintained, which probably explained Mateo's random outbursts. Turning his attention back to the room, he laid eyes on a scene he never thought would occur so soon into the job.

Mateo had picked up one of the men from the crowd and was holding a small dagger to his throat.

"Mateo..." Darius started, "We talked about this." Darius' eyes suddenly looked more alert, he knew this wasn't meant to be happening, not yet anyway, and Erebus saw this too.

"It's just one of life's crazy situations." Mateo explained, his voice tinged with an aspect of madness and delusion. "Now Erebus, let's fully test your worth" he said. "This man here, let's say his name is... John."

"It's Aaron." The man said, irritated. Clearly this fool had never been in this kind of situation.

"Tut tut" Mateo sighed. "Rule one of hostage negotiation..."

With one quick yank of his arm, the dagger ran straight across the throat of the man who used to be known as Aaron...

Mateo quickly released him. Aaron dropped to his knees, one last grunt of pain, before no more words or movements came out of him.

"Never interrupt the man who holds you hostage." Wiping the blood off his blade, he stepped towards Erebus, a small smile on his face...

"Rule number two, never trust anybody" before he could grab Erebus, a voice rang out over the screams of the other hostages from across the room. "That's enough!" Erebus thankfully noticed Calista coming from the far corner, although he wasn't scared of death, Erebus was terrified of the man who stood before him. He had never worked with someone before, let alone with someone whose capabilities were unknown.

"Mateo, upstairs." Calista ordered, striding towards the marble staircase leading up to the governors office. "This isn't over" Mateo snarled, before turning away from Erebus and following Calista out of the room.

"What the fuck was that?" Erebus asked Darius, whose blue eyes glistened under the harsh light.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Darius murmured. "I mean, you could say Mateo is slightly unhinge-"

"Unhinged!?" Erebus exclaimed, "He was going to straight up murder me! I thought we had a deal?"

"Yeah, so did I." Darius shrugged. He had never actually seen Mateo become disillusioned that quickly, so this was a shock even to him. "Now, we should probably clean that up" he said, pointing towards the mess of the body and the pool of viscous blood.

"Yeah, maybe we could get to know a little bit more about eachother?" Erebus chuckled. "This could be a fun team building task"

"Team building?" Darius laughed, "No, this is more like, we chat whilst you clean up Mateo's mess."

"Me? What about you?" scoffed Erebus.

"Well, somebody has to keep an eye on them" gesturing to the hostages still crying to themselves on the cold floor.

Erebus just smiled gently. He never thought he would be trying to bond with someone in this situation, yet here he was, talking to, frankly, one of the most handsome men he had ever met, especially after what just went down...