The Devil Loves Swiss Chocolate {Chapter 7}
Just by looking at him, Tanith was suddenly uneasy. While it was true that she had only five years on the force, she was proud to say she didn’t scare easy. But as soon as this man walked in wanting to talk to someone of importance, she wished she wasn’t on duty. “I’m sorry, sir, I really don’t recognize these people.”
“I know that they have come here. They are hard to miss,” said the man, who jabbed a finger at the photo. “I know that they have come here.”
There was something else about this guy, he was dressed as if he had just stepped out of a badly outfitted Renaissance fair. “Um...actually, you know what? I’ll ask around? -- Evan.”
He was not going to lie, Evan was still a bit ticked at Tanith for giving him away in the first place. It was her fault that he was stuck at a desk, tough it was slightly made up for that Orser had believed him.
“Yeah?”
“This gentleman wants to know if you’ve seen these people.”
Evan blinked twice, sure, he’d seen plenty of weirdly dressed people around the precinct, but he was sure that this particular guy would make top five in the long run. The guy took out three pictures (they actually looked more like paintings than pictures, but...)
“...I think I’m hallucinating again.”
Tanith said, “What do you mean?”
“These three people...” Evan pointed to each of the three pictures in turn, “This one is Adrian, Brian, and...Stephane.”
The man looked just as surprised as Tanith, “...So you know of them. Have you laid eyes on them?”
“I tried to arrest them with Orser this morning.”
“Tried?”
“...I actually sort of, um, don’t remember what happened.” Before Tanith could go off on him for that, Evan turned quickly back to the guy...even if the guy gave him the creeps. “Anyway, yes, I have seen them...um, do you have a name, sir? I can let you know if they come around again.”
“I do not think they will, but thank you kindly for the offer. My name is Morozov.” The man wore a completely unreadable expression, “Tell me your name, I will remember it when the world ends.”
===
Michal woke first, at first, he thought it was just a dream, but the incessant rapping on the door would not go away. The clock on the wall read 1:23 AM. Did these people have any concept of time at all? He groaned, sat up, and then heard Tomas’ voice down the hall.
“If you’re awake, don’t get up. I’ll get it --” But when Tomas didn’t say anything else after that, Michal stumbled quickly out of bed anyway. He found his cousin just about to slam the door on Brian and a plethora of other people.
“It is one in the morning,” Tomas said. “What is it with you people? No, Brian, I’m not having an orgy with you, no matter how good looking your friends are.”
Michal said, “I’ll have an orgy.”
“I told you to go back to bed.”
This time though, Brian didn’t even bother to look amused at any of this. In fact, his face was completely serious, and Tomas felt his own frown fade away into a bland straight line.
“You need to let us come inside the apartment so that we can ward it,” Brian reached out to touch him on the shoulder, Tomas almost flinched, but his hand was light. “And then I will explain to you everything. But seeing as how the top assassin of Hell who killed the Four Horsemen are after us...you really need to let us in.”
Tomas just stared, “What are you talking about? Are you all, I don’t know, on drugs or something?”
Finally, another man stepped out. He seemed just as ethereal as the rest of them, but Tomas suddenly felt very safe, as the man reached to brush Brian’s hand off of his shoulder.
“Please let us in. We will keep you safe.”
Tomas relented. Maybe this was all just a bad dream.
===
Evgeni watched, almost baring his teeth as Ilia disappeared in a cloud of dusky smoke. Once that was over and done with, he turned his wrath onto Drew, who still looked mostly uneffected, “And now he’s going to go back to Hell and tell Lyosh--I mean, Alexei! Whatever edge that we have...”
Drew raised a questioning eyebrow, “There’s no edge, Evgeni, Alexei already did it first.”
And if there was one insult that you could hurl at the Almighty Evgeni and have it work, it was that he couldn’t be first, the immediate bonus in that was that he was second to Alexei, Satan, of all people. Evgeni’s eyes flared again, simmered, cooled.
“Are you saying that I’ll lose?”
“I’m not saying anything, I’m just saying that you weren’t first,” Drew shrugged. “And you know my opinion on this entire thing anyway. That it’s stupid. You and Alexei both. The fact that you almost let slip his --”
“Michael, that’s enough.” This time, it was Edvin who spoke, and Drew looked rightly chastised.
“I’m going now.”
Evgeni held up a hand to stop him, “You do not understand.”
At this, Drew only laughed. “That’s what Alexei said too, you two really are...” he trailed off, “Well, anyway.”
“If anything happens to Johnny --”
“Not on my watch, of course not.” With that, Drew too, faded away in a faint light, just as Ilia had done a moment earlier. To quash the sudden strange feeling that had coiled up in his stomach like some kind of slow poison, Evgeni turned away.
“Halt all work on the Hotline, I have a few announcements to make,” he said.
===
The world was ending. Ryan knew it. The first clue was that the wether had suddenly taken a schizophrenic turn: one minute the sun was out, the next it was hailing. Which made him wonder why Drew insisted on meeting him at a park outdoors. Drew was a bit whimsical like that, though, and the upcoming apocalypse made manning that hot dog stand moot. Ryan did not exactly mind, but he wished Drew would be a bit more practical every once in a while.
“Sorry I’m late.”
Ryan quickly opened up his umbrella as it began to hail, Evgeni must be throwing one Hell of a tantrum up there. He’d planned badly and brought a small umbrella, but Drew managed to squeeze in anyway, “Where were you? Down there?”
Drew shook his head and made a vague gesture skywards, “Up there.”
“That’d explain the weather.”
“Shut up.”
“So why aren’t we sitting in some cheap cafe discussing this? Why are we...here?”
“Because,” Drew said, and let it be. “I’m guessing Johnny is not with you.”
“I haven’t seen him.”
Drew was glad Ryan hadn’t been looking at his face. But he was glad Johnny was gone, at this point, he was probably safer in enemy territory. For now, anyway. He plopped down on the bench and after a moment, Ryan followed suit.
“The world is ending.”
“Who got there first?”
“The person who usually gets there first,” Drew looked down at his hands. “I can’t believe the world is ending. To tell you the truth, I was getting very fond of my bookshop.”
Ryan paused and looked at him. It’d been such a long time, a long enough time that he’d more than lost count. Besides, if the world ended now, he and Drew would both be sent back. up there. Up there was a horrible place, Up there was the reason that Ryan refused to carry a cell phone. He’d followed Drew because he had found him fascinating, but there was a little part of him that was selfish.
“So let’s make sure the world doesn’t end. I kind of like it here too.” Although just how they were going to do that, he’d no idea.
Drew shot him a wry grin, “I was hoping you’d say that.”
This was going to be fun.
===
The kitchen wasn’t good for pacing, it was much too small and with three other people occupying it, every few steps, he ran into something. Adding to it being nearly 2 AM in the morning, Tomas was hardly happy. “So these people just barged into our apartment at some godforsaken hour and they’re doing voodoo in our living room.” He made a exasperated noise at Michal. “And you’re just standing there and...making him a sandwich?”
“He said he was hungry,” said Michal. He lathered on a generous amount of peanut butter and handed it over to Johnny. “We’re not going to be stingy.”
“We’re not in the position to be generous either, besides, I think he has some explaining to do.”
Johnny bit into the sandwich, the bread was stale, but he wasn’t about to complain. Although he could still vaguely remember, unlike Stephane or Drew, maybe, he suddenly missed being human.
“I don’t think they’re doing voodoo in there. Voodoo smells and requires strange ingredients. It’s not feasible so late at night, or in an apartment.” Johnny wasn’t at all sure what they were doing in there, but he also knew that wielding the status that he did, to go in there would be figurative suicide. He also knew that even if he was still angry and confused about what Stephane had told him. But this didn’t seem like the time or the place.
“Why aren’t you in there with them?”
“I have no idea what there’re even doing. It’s better to wait.”
===
Adrian threw down his hand, “Straight flush.”
“Full house, three of a kind nines.” That was Jefrey.
“Full house, three of a kind tens.” That was Sergei.
Brian looked thoroughly unamused, “Two pairs.”
Which left Stephane, who, as usual, threw down a royal flush of hearts. It was his standard hand, yet they all played along anyway as per usual, losing at poker was slightly more acceptable than losing some other stupid game like Go-Fish, although they’d often played that game when Brian had more clout. “I suppose I win. According to the rules, I get to be right back.” But before he disappeared into thin air, Stephane turned around again. “I know this place is going to be warded like Iowa when I get back...”
“We’ll try our best not to hurt you,” said Adrian, flashing a sweet smile with teeth.
Stephane almost shuddered, this was not comforting. “And...explain all you want to everyone, but I --” he cut off abruptly.
Brian said, “We’ll let you explain to Johnny. Now hurry up, we need you back before Morozov finds us here.”
“Johnny --” Stephane started.
“We’ll look after him.”
===
“ATTENTION EVERYONE. THIS IS GOD SPEAKING.” (God speaking...God speaking...speaking...speaking.)
Edvin let out a rude sort of snort and Evgeni whirled on him, “You tampered with my microphone.” One of these days, he really was going to send Edvin down to Hell, no, scratch that, he was going to send Edvin to Iowa. That was even worse.
“I wouldn’t dare,” Edvin put on a blandly uninterested face. “Besides, you haven’t used it to make an announcement in ages. Haven’t you forgotten what your name does to workplace productivity?”
Evgeni was just about to open his mouth to say that honestly, Edvin was going to talk himself into some divine retribution right about now, except --
There was a delicate cough, “Erm, I sort of...did I break the microphone, Evgeni? I’ll pay for it, I mean, if you’d like, you can always send me back to Hell. But before that I need to speak with you.” The voice was familiar, but not Drew’s. Drew wouldn’t return...
“Stephane?”
===
“So the world is ending? You know, I’d thought there’d be explosions, chaos, stuff like that. It’s sort of quiet here,” said Michal, who didn’t look entirely convinced. “Seriously, if you’re just here to rob us or something, we have fifty bucks cash, that’s it.”
Brian wished Stephane hadn’t left, he was always better at explaining things. But no, he had to pull a royal flush like he always did and leave, “We warded this place.” He offered halfheartedly, “So even though things appear to be relatively calm now, rest assured the world is still ending outside.”
(Of all the places they could have escaped to, they escaped here. Stupid, stupid Brian for being so damn stubborn. He had no one else to blame for all this.) So technically, Adrian wasn’t supposed to feel sorry for him. But Brian had saved his skin a couple of times too, it was only fair. “Look, if you don’t believe me, check the television. We haven’t fried it or anything.”
Tomas was getting a headache again.
“Brian, I know it’s one of your goals in life to sleep with me, and I appreciate it, since you’re probably one of the most attractive men that I’ll ever meet in my lifetime. But isn’t this...isn’t this going a little far? What do I have to do? Sleep with you?” It was worth a shot. Unfortunately though, Tomas Verner was one of those people who still had a semblance of morals and ergo didn’t do casual sex.
Sergei sighed, he got why they were here, but someone refusing Moloch’s charms precisely because he was good-looking was baffling, “I think the world will end whether or not you sleep with him.”
Brian shot him a sinister look that clearly said, ‘thank you for not helping.’
Moloch really, really needed to get his priorities straight. Sergei shot him a sweet smile in return and said, “You’re welcome.”
“The world is not ending, You are all crazy,” said Tomas, pushing past them to get to his medicine cabinet. Hopefully the dog put everything back -- just listen to him, the dog put everything back? They were all insane.
Johnny said, “If you’re looking for your painkillers, here.” He handed them over. He had no real desire to do good deeds at the moment, but he needed for Tomas to be quiet so he could ask his own question. “Any of you, where is Stephane?”
“He is either in Heaven or Hell, we really don’t know which,” Adrian volunteered. “But everything is fine, we’ve got you covered. I mean, if anything happened to you...have you ever seen one of his tantrums? Wait, never mind, of course you haven’t. Just know they’re not pretty.”
===
Truthfully, Ilia wondered if Alexei was drunk. If Edvin had ‘doctored’ the Stolichnaya, anything was possible. So he asked away, “Alexei, don’t be offended, but I have to ask, are you drunk?”
Alexei’s eyes flashed, “Do I look drunk?”
“You declared Armaggedon without telling me, so I assume that you must be,” Ilia sighed and rubbed his temple. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sending Morozov to kill everyone. Including the precious angel that Evgeni and Stephane’s got hidden away.”
Ilia sighed again, “Just admit that you are jealous.”
“I am not jealous!”
If Alexei hadn’t been Satan, Ilia really would have backhanded him across the face. As he could not, he settled for the next best thing. He was Naberius for a reason, “Yes you are, the thing with the humans, Michael’s apple...if not jealousy, then what?”
Alexei opened his mouth, but when words came out, it was Patrick’s voice:
“Brian and Adrian are gone!”
“Did someone bother to ward the room?” Ilia said.
Patrick did not answer.
“Well, there you go.” A look towards Alexei told Ilia that he probably wasn’t going to be helpful. He was going to be right back. “We’re continuing this conversation when I return.”
“Take Patrick with you.”
Ilia looked at him, unamused. “You’re kidding.”
Apparently, Alexei wasn’t.
===
Adam found the concept of having no work to do hard to grasp. But there it was, the phones had stopped ringing, though after the “ATTENTION EVERYONE. THIS IS GOD SPEAKING.” (God speaking...God speaking...speaking...speaking.) There hadn’t been anything else. Only static.
(”...Did I break it?”)
Jeremy looked at him and shook his head, “I think they really did break it.”
===
First Drew, and now Stephane. God must really hate him today, erm, wait. There was something wrong with that statement, Evgeni didn’t know what though. But he put that out of his mind, as he had better things to think about. “What do you want?”
“The world can’t end,” Stephane said. “It just can’t.”
Evgeni turned his attention from the microphone, “Alexei --”
“Still rants about you. All the time.” Well, no, that wasn’t quite true, but it needed to be true right now. Stephane sighed, “And if you haven’t figured it out already, Drew helped me out with the apple at Alexei’s request because he knew it too.” Stephane was about to continue, when he realized that Edvin had slapped a hand against his forehead. Why? -- Oh.
Again, he’d spoken too quickly. That always happened, except this was the first time that it’d ever happened in front of God, and so maybe Evgeni would be nice to him.
Evgeni said nothing.
Since Evgeni wasn’t saying anything, Stephane plowed on ahead, wearing a determined face. Edvin could not say that he agreed with any of Original Sin’s methods for obvious reasons, but Stephane had a sense of determination that even an Archangel had to admire.
“You know what it’s like, Zhenya. You of all people...” Stephane sighed, “You can strip me of my rank and all that, but you still know.” After all, Evgeni had already stripped him of rank once. But then again, ‘Uriel’ bore a disturbingly close resemblance to ‘Urinal’ and Stephane honestly preferred ‘Original Sin.’ You couldn’t exactly mistake that for anything. Then his voice got soft, “If you end the world now, Zhenya, I am the one that Johnny will follow. Surely you don’t want that.”
“You --”
Evgeni broke off, only because he found Stephane’s face right there. “Do you want to know what I think, Evgeni?”
Not particularly, no. But Stephane had this way of shoving people against the wall and making them feel intimidated. Even Evgeni himself wasn’t completely immune. Stephane was also chewing gum, the strawberry kind. Normally, Evgeni didn’t mind gum, it was fun to see what the humans came up with once in a while. Vodka was an undisputed favorite. Gum was quickly becoming an undisputed un-favorite.
“Stop it,” Evgeni sighed. “Whatever you’re doing. That obnoxious thing with your gum.”
Stephane gave his gum one last snap before his defiant expression faded into something more bland and manageable.
“You do not understand, do you?”
“I am God, I understand everything.”
Stephane just laughed and snapped his gum again, “No, you don’t.” He said it with the oddest sort of conviction and Evgeni hesitated. Stephane gazed at him for a moment longer before stepping back. Stephane’s eyes looked almost remorseful, “Because neither did I. At least...not until now.”
===
This was Alexei’s idea of a divine punishment.
The moment they landed back on earth, Ilia wanted so, so wanted to barge into the first hardware store he could find and shoplift a roll of duct tape. Although neither side looked like they’d done anything quite yet, maybe Evgeni had hidden a secret self-destruct button in the complex myriads of his beloved creations after all.
Ilia had to admit, he liked Hell. Granted, there was nothing to do there, and whoever had come up with the phrase, “I’m bored as Hell,” was a misunderstood genius, but he never had to deal with -- any of this.
But Patrick, Patrick was endlessly fascinated by everything and said that much, and then some. They’d only been here for a duration of maybe ten minutes, and Ilia already wanted to shoot himself in the head with a convenient handgun that he’d found lying right there on the sidewalk.
How come no one had noticed the gun before? Well, everyone certainly noticed it now. When Ilia waved around the gun for good measure, and everyone around him seemed to shrink. Except for Patrick.
“What’s that?”
“This? It’s a gun,” Ilia frowned. “And most regrettably, it does not work on you. Come with me.”
They walked a block, before Ilia spotted an inconspicuous hardware store. It’d have to do. He dragged Patrick in by the wrist and waved the gun around again for good measure.
“If this is a stickup, I’m ready for you,” the elderly cashier at the counter looked unamused, but not too afraid, as he also had a gun...a shotgun. His nametag read, ‘Scoot.’
“I was just going to ask nicely for a roll of duct tape,” said Ilia. “But let me assure you that no, you’re not.” He pulled the trigger.
===
“At this rate, we’re going to lose him, Evan.” Said Tanith, “And besides, don’t we have better things to worry about? Such as...oh, I don’t know, that?”
Evan looked back at her, “He gives me the creeps.”
“And so we are following him. While people are rioting on the street.”
“Yes.” Evan nodded. Tanith wasn’t even going ask why that made sense. When the stranger’s car made a sudden sharp left, she floored the gas and followed, running a red light.
===
On every channel, it was practically the same: a drought in the Amazon rainforests, a student uprising in Poland, it was hailing in Cape Horn. Nothing made any sense. Michal clicked off the television and tossed the remote back onto the table, “You know, isn’t there supposed to be an Antichrist around here somewhere?”
Jeffrey said, “What?”
“If the world is about to end, shouldn’t there be an Antichrist?” Michal blinked at him.
Brian was absentmindedly picking at his fingers again, and he had a feeling that Tomas was looking at him, but he chose not to acknowledge it this time. “Alexei forgot to appoint one. This Armageddon is sort of...premature.” To say the very least.
“...Alexei?”
“You’d know him as Satan, he’s mostly pleasant when things are going well in Hell. But things kind of don’t, so everyone’s out of luck.” Sergei supplied helpfully.
Suddenly, a loud ringtone sliced through everything and everyone jumped. One by one, they all pulled out their cells, frowned.
The ringtone continued. And then Johnny, who looked half asleep against the wall, fished out his. “Oh. Mine.” Although judging by the obnoxiousness of the ringtone, he really should have guessed sooner. Evgeni was like that.
“You can use my room if you want some privacy,” Michal offered lightly. “Down the hall to your left.”
Johnny nodded towards him and waited until he was in the room before he picked up. Maybe it was Drew. Was Drew even worried that he’d disappeared? Then again, if Drew had taken him at his word, perhaps he wasn’t that worried. Still, it was hard to believe that Drew wasn’t worried about him. And he was also slightly offended.
“...Drew?”
“Who’s Drew?” the voice on the end immediately asked, “This is Adam.”
“And Jeremy.”
Johnny let out a breath that he hadn’t even been aware of holding. “Oh, it’s you two.” A rush of relief spread through him, allowing to relax by sinking against the door. “Thank God. Is everything okay up there? I mean, I’m stuck in an apartment with the four Grand Lieutenants of Hell, and they’re saying something about how the world is ending...?”
(If Evgeni was really so high and mighty as he professed to be on any slightly available occasion, he could have done something to improve on communication. Because well, honestly.)
“The world ending?” Adam sounded just as surprised as Johnny was. “I didn’t hear anything about that.”
“Something strange was going on with Evgeni’s microphone just now, though. And we aren’t working the Hotline anymore.” Jeremy added. “It was the strangest thing.”
Johnny huffed, “Great, he finally decides to give you people a vacation and I’m stuck down here.”
Adam sighed, for someone who was finally on a holiday after who knew how long, he didn’t exactly sound thrilled. “Doesn’t matter if we’re working or not. we’re still stuck at our desks...it’s horrible.”
“That makes three of us,” said Johnny. “Do me a favor, find out if the world is ending?”
“And...how would we do that?”
“You’re bored, aren’t you? Figure something out.” Johnny hung up the phone. Then he leaned back and closed his eyes. He wondered about Stephane.
===
So now Ryan and Drew were in agreement, they had to figure out how to stop the end of the world. It’d started hailing again, so they headed to the nearest coffeeshop for refuge. Although the coffee shop didn’t exactly look like it was in the greatest of shape, they were still able to make away with two cups of thin coffee each.
“Admit it, you didn’t think this all the way through,” Ryan said cheekily.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Think about it, if you hadn’t provoked Evgeni into declaring the end of the world, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Ryan grinned at him. “But just in case you are repentant, I forgive you.”
Drew frowned at his coffee.
“What do you want to do now? You can’t go back up there.”
“You could.”
“I am not,” Ryan looked positively appalled.
Drew looked at him for a moment longer, and then shrugged, “I guess there’s that other place.”
“...What other place?”
===
Alexei was having problems. He had always known that declaring Doomsday before it was due was going to cause. He hadn’t thought this all the way through, because now his four Grand Lieutenants were who knew where and he’d sent Ilia away. There was always the Furies, but Alexei hated having them do things because they were utterly, utterly unpredictable. He supposed there was always Kevin, but he seemed content wiping glasses behind the bar and Alexei hated to disturb him.
But seriously, this bind was all his own fault. Of course, Alexei wouldn’t admit to it. Trying to find an Antichrist before there was any reason to look for one...it was troublesome.
“Hello? Anyone here?”
Alexei started, he knew the voice. There seemed to be more than one pair of footsteps.
“In here.”
After a moment, Drew followed by someone else (Alexei assumed it was Archangel Raphael) peeked into the room, “And so we meet again. I came to ask you a favor.”
“Not for free, I hope.” Alexei looked between them.
“Of course not,” Drew said, entirely too smoothly. Ryan had a feeling he’d done this before. “An eye for an eye is always fair.” He took a seat on the floor and gestured grandly, “...Your terms?”
===
“You shot him?” Patrick stared.
Ilia selected the thickest roll of duct tape he could find and tossed it over to the younger demon. “I’ve always wanted to shoot a gun, and besides, he looks to be the type of person who’d end up down there anyway. I’ll remember to give him a personal welcome. Put that on, over your mouth.”
“Why?” Patrick blinked suspiciously.
He had every right to be suspicious, but at least Ilia wasn’t Naberius for nothing. In the end, Patrick did what he was told. Ah, (not so much) peace, but at least there was blessed, blessed quiet.
===
Spin around three times counter-clock wise, then three times clockwise, and stop at two o’ clock. Call him crazy, but Adam still thought this was a suicide mission. Apparently Jeremy didn’t think so.
“Evgeni is going to kill us.”
“Would you please just relax? He’s not going to even know we’re here.”
“So that’s it? He means nothing to you.” That was a strange voice; one that neither of them had heard before. “He means absolutely nothing, to you. I don’t understand the two of you at all.”
“There is nothing to understand.” That was Evgeni’s voice, Adam and Jeremy both recognized it, and respectively cringed. “Why must you be so damn stubborn, Stephane?”
Stephane. A strange name, neither of them recognized it. Adam wrote it down on a wayward post-it for future reference.
“I am only as stubborn as you make me,” Stephane said. If they listened closely enough, Adam thought he heard him stamping his foot. “Besides, he understands just as much as I do. Perhaps even less. You know this. If he --”
“Just because you feel...that means nothing.”
There was a long, long pause, then -- “So you really have, forgotten everything, I mean.” Even though they did not know him, the disappointment in Stephane’s voice was obvious. “Good-bye then, Zhenya, I don’t think you’ll see me again.”
“Good-bye, Stephane.”
Both of them jumped when the office door suddenly swung open. Immediately, Jeremy pressed against the wall and Adam hastened to join him. A man who they’d never seen before stepped out.
Adam could see Evgeni’s feet by the door, but he doubted that Evgeni could see them judging by how the man was positioned in the doorway. When the man spotted them though, Jeremy flinched and grabbed Adam’s arm tight.
Jeremy said, “What were you...doing?”
“Me? Just saying good-bye to an old, dear friend.” The man looked a bit wistful, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell him you’re here.” They both watched, as he faded away in a cloud of dust.
===
“Freeze!” Evan shouted. “Whatever you think you’re doing! STOP!”
Though this was neither the time nor the place for it, Tanith felt the urge to slap her forehead, hard. Or maybe she should slap some sense into Evan first. There were times to give one-hundred-fifty percent, but there were other times where foolishly waving a gun towards a guy they’d just agreed was probably armed and dangerous...was just stupid.
What was the man’s name again? Morozov, that was right. It wasn’t a name you just heard every day. They’d tailed him to a shabby apartment complex. If he was planning to commit robbery or something, this didn’t seem like the place for it, either.
Morozov didn’t even seem that surprised that they’d followed him.
“How useless,” he said. “I promised you I’d remember your names. I should have listened to Alexei. Humans are so troublesome. But I suppose that is one of God’s reasons.”
“Humans...?”
Morozov extended a hand, “You will sleep now. You will both sleep, until the world ends.”
===
Maybe it was just Drew’s imagination, but he thought that Alexei had just asked him and Ryan to find him a child suitable for being the Antichrist. And he’d done it...politely.
Drew blinked, “...Come again?”
“Find me an Antichrist,” Alexei repeated, with his arms crossed. “And then we will discuss your terms.”
Ryan opened his mouth, wholly prepared to say that ‘had Alexei gone out of his mind?’ or something similar. Why did Alexei not have his own Antichrist? But before he could say anything, Drew settled a hand on his arm.
“It can be anyone we like?”
Alexei tilted his head in mild agreement, “Within reason.”
Drew brightened, “Great, we’ll take you up on it. Come on, Ryan, let’s go find the Antichrist.”
Ryan stared at him for a long, long moment, and then said, “Oh.” Was he supposed to just jovially agree? Seemed a bit -- make that very, very off.
“And of course I have the final say.” said Alexei, looking incredibly serene for Satan, who had just commissioned two Archangels to find him an Antichrist.
“Of course you do, wouldn’t dream of anything else. But if we fulfill our end of the bargain, you must do whatever we ask.” Drew said, as if he bargained with Satan every day. Ryan was beginning to think that there was a lot he didn’t know. And didn’t want to know, either.
===
1 << 2 << 3 << 4 << 5 << 6 << >> 8
“I know that they have come here. They are hard to miss,” said the man, who jabbed a finger at the photo. “I know that they have come here.”
There was something else about this guy, he was dressed as if he had just stepped out of a badly outfitted Renaissance fair. “Um...actually, you know what? I’ll ask around? -- Evan.”
He was not going to lie, Evan was still a bit ticked at Tanith for giving him away in the first place. It was her fault that he was stuck at a desk, tough it was slightly made up for that Orser had believed him.
“Yeah?”
“This gentleman wants to know if you’ve seen these people.”
Evan blinked twice, sure, he’d seen plenty of weirdly dressed people around the precinct, but he was sure that this particular guy would make top five in the long run. The guy took out three pictures (they actually looked more like paintings than pictures, but...)
“...I think I’m hallucinating again.”
Tanith said, “What do you mean?”
“These three people...” Evan pointed to each of the three pictures in turn, “This one is Adrian, Brian, and...Stephane.”
The man looked just as surprised as Tanith, “...So you know of them. Have you laid eyes on them?”
“I tried to arrest them with Orser this morning.”
“Tried?”
“...I actually sort of, um, don’t remember what happened.” Before Tanith could go off on him for that, Evan turned quickly back to the guy...even if the guy gave him the creeps. “Anyway, yes, I have seen them...um, do you have a name, sir? I can let you know if they come around again.”
“I do not think they will, but thank you kindly for the offer. My name is Morozov.” The man wore a completely unreadable expression, “Tell me your name, I will remember it when the world ends.”
===
Michal woke first, at first, he thought it was just a dream, but the incessant rapping on the door would not go away. The clock on the wall read 1:23 AM. Did these people have any concept of time at all? He groaned, sat up, and then heard Tomas’ voice down the hall.
“If you’re awake, don’t get up. I’ll get it --” But when Tomas didn’t say anything else after that, Michal stumbled quickly out of bed anyway. He found his cousin just about to slam the door on Brian and a plethora of other people.
“It is one in the morning,” Tomas said. “What is it with you people? No, Brian, I’m not having an orgy with you, no matter how good looking your friends are.”
Michal said, “I’ll have an orgy.”
“I told you to go back to bed.”
This time though, Brian didn’t even bother to look amused at any of this. In fact, his face was completely serious, and Tomas felt his own frown fade away into a bland straight line.
“You need to let us come inside the apartment so that we can ward it,” Brian reached out to touch him on the shoulder, Tomas almost flinched, but his hand was light. “And then I will explain to you everything. But seeing as how the top assassin of Hell who killed the Four Horsemen are after us...you really need to let us in.”
Tomas just stared, “What are you talking about? Are you all, I don’t know, on drugs or something?”
Finally, another man stepped out. He seemed just as ethereal as the rest of them, but Tomas suddenly felt very safe, as the man reached to brush Brian’s hand off of his shoulder.
“Please let us in. We will keep you safe.”
Tomas relented. Maybe this was all just a bad dream.
===
Evgeni watched, almost baring his teeth as Ilia disappeared in a cloud of dusky smoke. Once that was over and done with, he turned his wrath onto Drew, who still looked mostly uneffected, “And now he’s going to go back to Hell and tell Lyosh--I mean, Alexei! Whatever edge that we have...”
Drew raised a questioning eyebrow, “There’s no edge, Evgeni, Alexei already did it first.”
And if there was one insult that you could hurl at the Almighty Evgeni and have it work, it was that he couldn’t be first, the immediate bonus in that was that he was second to Alexei, Satan, of all people. Evgeni’s eyes flared again, simmered, cooled.
“Are you saying that I’ll lose?”
“I’m not saying anything, I’m just saying that you weren’t first,” Drew shrugged. “And you know my opinion on this entire thing anyway. That it’s stupid. You and Alexei both. The fact that you almost let slip his --”
“Michael, that’s enough.” This time, it was Edvin who spoke, and Drew looked rightly chastised.
“I’m going now.”
Evgeni held up a hand to stop him, “You do not understand.”
At this, Drew only laughed. “That’s what Alexei said too, you two really are...” he trailed off, “Well, anyway.”
“If anything happens to Johnny --”
“Not on my watch, of course not.” With that, Drew too, faded away in a faint light, just as Ilia had done a moment earlier. To quash the sudden strange feeling that had coiled up in his stomach like some kind of slow poison, Evgeni turned away.
“Halt all work on the Hotline, I have a few announcements to make,” he said.
===
The world was ending. Ryan knew it. The first clue was that the wether had suddenly taken a schizophrenic turn: one minute the sun was out, the next it was hailing. Which made him wonder why Drew insisted on meeting him at a park outdoors. Drew was a bit whimsical like that, though, and the upcoming apocalypse made manning that hot dog stand moot. Ryan did not exactly mind, but he wished Drew would be a bit more practical every once in a while.
“Sorry I’m late.”
Ryan quickly opened up his umbrella as it began to hail, Evgeni must be throwing one Hell of a tantrum up there. He’d planned badly and brought a small umbrella, but Drew managed to squeeze in anyway, “Where were you? Down there?”
Drew shook his head and made a vague gesture skywards, “Up there.”
“That’d explain the weather.”
“Shut up.”
“So why aren’t we sitting in some cheap cafe discussing this? Why are we...here?”
“Because,” Drew said, and let it be. “I’m guessing Johnny is not with you.”
“I haven’t seen him.”
Drew was glad Ryan hadn’t been looking at his face. But he was glad Johnny was gone, at this point, he was probably safer in enemy territory. For now, anyway. He plopped down on the bench and after a moment, Ryan followed suit.
“The world is ending.”
“Who got there first?”
“The person who usually gets there first,” Drew looked down at his hands. “I can’t believe the world is ending. To tell you the truth, I was getting very fond of my bookshop.”
Ryan paused and looked at him. It’d been such a long time, a long enough time that he’d more than lost count. Besides, if the world ended now, he and Drew would both be sent back. up there. Up there was a horrible place, Up there was the reason that Ryan refused to carry a cell phone. He’d followed Drew because he had found him fascinating, but there was a little part of him that was selfish.
“So let’s make sure the world doesn’t end. I kind of like it here too.” Although just how they were going to do that, he’d no idea.
Drew shot him a wry grin, “I was hoping you’d say that.”
This was going to be fun.
===
The kitchen wasn’t good for pacing, it was much too small and with three other people occupying it, every few steps, he ran into something. Adding to it being nearly 2 AM in the morning, Tomas was hardly happy. “So these people just barged into our apartment at some godforsaken hour and they’re doing voodoo in our living room.” He made a exasperated noise at Michal. “And you’re just standing there and...making him a sandwich?”
“He said he was hungry,” said Michal. He lathered on a generous amount of peanut butter and handed it over to Johnny. “We’re not going to be stingy.”
“We’re not in the position to be generous either, besides, I think he has some explaining to do.”
Johnny bit into the sandwich, the bread was stale, but he wasn’t about to complain. Although he could still vaguely remember, unlike Stephane or Drew, maybe, he suddenly missed being human.
“I don’t think they’re doing voodoo in there. Voodoo smells and requires strange ingredients. It’s not feasible so late at night, or in an apartment.” Johnny wasn’t at all sure what they were doing in there, but he also knew that wielding the status that he did, to go in there would be figurative suicide. He also knew that even if he was still angry and confused about what Stephane had told him. But this didn’t seem like the time or the place.
“Why aren’t you in there with them?”
“I have no idea what there’re even doing. It’s better to wait.”
===
Adrian threw down his hand, “Straight flush.”
“Full house, three of a kind nines.” That was Jefrey.
“Full house, three of a kind tens.” That was Sergei.
Brian looked thoroughly unamused, “Two pairs.”
Which left Stephane, who, as usual, threw down a royal flush of hearts. It was his standard hand, yet they all played along anyway as per usual, losing at poker was slightly more acceptable than losing some other stupid game like Go-Fish, although they’d often played that game when Brian had more clout. “I suppose I win. According to the rules, I get to be right back.” But before he disappeared into thin air, Stephane turned around again. “I know this place is going to be warded like Iowa when I get back...”
“We’ll try our best not to hurt you,” said Adrian, flashing a sweet smile with teeth.
Stephane almost shuddered, this was not comforting. “And...explain all you want to everyone, but I --” he cut off abruptly.
Brian said, “We’ll let you explain to Johnny. Now hurry up, we need you back before Morozov finds us here.”
“Johnny --” Stephane started.
“We’ll look after him.”
===
“ATTENTION EVERYONE. THIS IS GOD SPEAKING.” (God speaking...God speaking...speaking...speaking.)
Edvin let out a rude sort of snort and Evgeni whirled on him, “You tampered with my microphone.” One of these days, he really was going to send Edvin down to Hell, no, scratch that, he was going to send Edvin to Iowa. That was even worse.
“I wouldn’t dare,” Edvin put on a blandly uninterested face. “Besides, you haven’t used it to make an announcement in ages. Haven’t you forgotten what your name does to workplace productivity?”
Evgeni was just about to open his mouth to say that honestly, Edvin was going to talk himself into some divine retribution right about now, except --
There was a delicate cough, “Erm, I sort of...did I break the microphone, Evgeni? I’ll pay for it, I mean, if you’d like, you can always send me back to Hell. But before that I need to speak with you.” The voice was familiar, but not Drew’s. Drew wouldn’t return...
“Stephane?”
===
“So the world is ending? You know, I’d thought there’d be explosions, chaos, stuff like that. It’s sort of quiet here,” said Michal, who didn’t look entirely convinced. “Seriously, if you’re just here to rob us or something, we have fifty bucks cash, that’s it.”
Brian wished Stephane hadn’t left, he was always better at explaining things. But no, he had to pull a royal flush like he always did and leave, “We warded this place.” He offered halfheartedly, “So even though things appear to be relatively calm now, rest assured the world is still ending outside.”
(Of all the places they could have escaped to, they escaped here. Stupid, stupid Brian for being so damn stubborn. He had no one else to blame for all this.) So technically, Adrian wasn’t supposed to feel sorry for him. But Brian had saved his skin a couple of times too, it was only fair. “Look, if you don’t believe me, check the television. We haven’t fried it or anything.”
Tomas was getting a headache again.
“Brian, I know it’s one of your goals in life to sleep with me, and I appreciate it, since you’re probably one of the most attractive men that I’ll ever meet in my lifetime. But isn’t this...isn’t this going a little far? What do I have to do? Sleep with you?” It was worth a shot. Unfortunately though, Tomas Verner was one of those people who still had a semblance of morals and ergo didn’t do casual sex.
Sergei sighed, he got why they were here, but someone refusing Moloch’s charms precisely because he was good-looking was baffling, “I think the world will end whether or not you sleep with him.”
Brian shot him a sinister look that clearly said, ‘thank you for not helping.’
Moloch really, really needed to get his priorities straight. Sergei shot him a sweet smile in return and said, “You’re welcome.”
“The world is not ending, You are all crazy,” said Tomas, pushing past them to get to his medicine cabinet. Hopefully the dog put everything back -- just listen to him, the dog put everything back? They were all insane.
Johnny said, “If you’re looking for your painkillers, here.” He handed them over. He had no real desire to do good deeds at the moment, but he needed for Tomas to be quiet so he could ask his own question. “Any of you, where is Stephane?”
“He is either in Heaven or Hell, we really don’t know which,” Adrian volunteered. “But everything is fine, we’ve got you covered. I mean, if anything happened to you...have you ever seen one of his tantrums? Wait, never mind, of course you haven’t. Just know they’re not pretty.”
===
Truthfully, Ilia wondered if Alexei was drunk. If Edvin had ‘doctored’ the Stolichnaya, anything was possible. So he asked away, “Alexei, don’t be offended, but I have to ask, are you drunk?”
Alexei’s eyes flashed, “Do I look drunk?”
“You declared Armaggedon without telling me, so I assume that you must be,” Ilia sighed and rubbed his temple. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sending Morozov to kill everyone. Including the precious angel that Evgeni and Stephane’s got hidden away.”
Ilia sighed again, “Just admit that you are jealous.”
“I am not jealous!”
If Alexei hadn’t been Satan, Ilia really would have backhanded him across the face. As he could not, he settled for the next best thing. He was Naberius for a reason, “Yes you are, the thing with the humans, Michael’s apple...if not jealousy, then what?”
Alexei opened his mouth, but when words came out, it was Patrick’s voice:
“Brian and Adrian are gone!”
“Did someone bother to ward the room?” Ilia said.
Patrick did not answer.
“Well, there you go.” A look towards Alexei told Ilia that he probably wasn’t going to be helpful. He was going to be right back. “We’re continuing this conversation when I return.”
“Take Patrick with you.”
Ilia looked at him, unamused. “You’re kidding.”
Apparently, Alexei wasn’t.
===
Adam found the concept of having no work to do hard to grasp. But there it was, the phones had stopped ringing, though after the “ATTENTION EVERYONE. THIS IS GOD SPEAKING.” (God speaking...God speaking...speaking...speaking.) There hadn’t been anything else. Only static.
(”...Did I break it?”)
Jeremy looked at him and shook his head, “I think they really did break it.”
===
First Drew, and now Stephane. God must really hate him today, erm, wait. There was something wrong with that statement, Evgeni didn’t know what though. But he put that out of his mind, as he had better things to think about. “What do you want?”
“The world can’t end,” Stephane said. “It just can’t.”
Evgeni turned his attention from the microphone, “Alexei --”
“Still rants about you. All the time.” Well, no, that wasn’t quite true, but it needed to be true right now. Stephane sighed, “And if you haven’t figured it out already, Drew helped me out with the apple at Alexei’s request because he knew it too.” Stephane was about to continue, when he realized that Edvin had slapped a hand against his forehead. Why? -- Oh.
Again, he’d spoken too quickly. That always happened, except this was the first time that it’d ever happened in front of God, and so maybe Evgeni would be nice to him.
Evgeni said nothing.
Since Evgeni wasn’t saying anything, Stephane plowed on ahead, wearing a determined face. Edvin could not say that he agreed with any of Original Sin’s methods for obvious reasons, but Stephane had a sense of determination that even an Archangel had to admire.
“You know what it’s like, Zhenya. You of all people...” Stephane sighed, “You can strip me of my rank and all that, but you still know.” After all, Evgeni had already stripped him of rank once. But then again, ‘Uriel’ bore a disturbingly close resemblance to ‘Urinal’ and Stephane honestly preferred ‘Original Sin.’ You couldn’t exactly mistake that for anything. Then his voice got soft, “If you end the world now, Zhenya, I am the one that Johnny will follow. Surely you don’t want that.”
“You --”
Evgeni broke off, only because he found Stephane’s face right there. “Do you want to know what I think, Evgeni?”
Not particularly, no. But Stephane had this way of shoving people against the wall and making them feel intimidated. Even Evgeni himself wasn’t completely immune. Stephane was also chewing gum, the strawberry kind. Normally, Evgeni didn’t mind gum, it was fun to see what the humans came up with once in a while. Vodka was an undisputed favorite. Gum was quickly becoming an undisputed un-favorite.
“Stop it,” Evgeni sighed. “Whatever you’re doing. That obnoxious thing with your gum.”
Stephane gave his gum one last snap before his defiant expression faded into something more bland and manageable.
“You do not understand, do you?”
“I am God, I understand everything.”
Stephane just laughed and snapped his gum again, “No, you don’t.” He said it with the oddest sort of conviction and Evgeni hesitated. Stephane gazed at him for a moment longer before stepping back. Stephane’s eyes looked almost remorseful, “Because neither did I. At least...not until now.”
===
This was Alexei’s idea of a divine punishment.
The moment they landed back on earth, Ilia wanted so, so wanted to barge into the first hardware store he could find and shoplift a roll of duct tape. Although neither side looked like they’d done anything quite yet, maybe Evgeni had hidden a secret self-destruct button in the complex myriads of his beloved creations after all.
Ilia had to admit, he liked Hell. Granted, there was nothing to do there, and whoever had come up with the phrase, “I’m bored as Hell,” was a misunderstood genius, but he never had to deal with -- any of this.
But Patrick, Patrick was endlessly fascinated by everything and said that much, and then some. They’d only been here for a duration of maybe ten minutes, and Ilia already wanted to shoot himself in the head with a convenient handgun that he’d found lying right there on the sidewalk.
How come no one had noticed the gun before? Well, everyone certainly noticed it now. When Ilia waved around the gun for good measure, and everyone around him seemed to shrink. Except for Patrick.
“What’s that?”
“This? It’s a gun,” Ilia frowned. “And most regrettably, it does not work on you. Come with me.”
They walked a block, before Ilia spotted an inconspicuous hardware store. It’d have to do. He dragged Patrick in by the wrist and waved the gun around again for good measure.
“If this is a stickup, I’m ready for you,” the elderly cashier at the counter looked unamused, but not too afraid, as he also had a gun...a shotgun. His nametag read, ‘Scoot.’
“I was just going to ask nicely for a roll of duct tape,” said Ilia. “But let me assure you that no, you’re not.” He pulled the trigger.
===
“At this rate, we’re going to lose him, Evan.” Said Tanith, “And besides, don’t we have better things to worry about? Such as...oh, I don’t know, that?”
Evan looked back at her, “He gives me the creeps.”
“And so we are following him. While people are rioting on the street.”
“Yes.” Evan nodded. Tanith wasn’t even going ask why that made sense. When the stranger’s car made a sudden sharp left, she floored the gas and followed, running a red light.
===
On every channel, it was practically the same: a drought in the Amazon rainforests, a student uprising in Poland, it was hailing in Cape Horn. Nothing made any sense. Michal clicked off the television and tossed the remote back onto the table, “You know, isn’t there supposed to be an Antichrist around here somewhere?”
Jeffrey said, “What?”
“If the world is about to end, shouldn’t there be an Antichrist?” Michal blinked at him.
Brian was absentmindedly picking at his fingers again, and he had a feeling that Tomas was looking at him, but he chose not to acknowledge it this time. “Alexei forgot to appoint one. This Armageddon is sort of...premature.” To say the very least.
“...Alexei?”
“You’d know him as Satan, he’s mostly pleasant when things are going well in Hell. But things kind of don’t, so everyone’s out of luck.” Sergei supplied helpfully.
Suddenly, a loud ringtone sliced through everything and everyone jumped. One by one, they all pulled out their cells, frowned.
The ringtone continued. And then Johnny, who looked half asleep against the wall, fished out his. “Oh. Mine.” Although judging by the obnoxiousness of the ringtone, he really should have guessed sooner. Evgeni was like that.
“You can use my room if you want some privacy,” Michal offered lightly. “Down the hall to your left.”
Johnny nodded towards him and waited until he was in the room before he picked up. Maybe it was Drew. Was Drew even worried that he’d disappeared? Then again, if Drew had taken him at his word, perhaps he wasn’t that worried. Still, it was hard to believe that Drew wasn’t worried about him. And he was also slightly offended.
“...Drew?”
“Who’s Drew?” the voice on the end immediately asked, “This is Adam.”
“And Jeremy.”
Johnny let out a breath that he hadn’t even been aware of holding. “Oh, it’s you two.” A rush of relief spread through him, allowing to relax by sinking against the door. “Thank God. Is everything okay up there? I mean, I’m stuck in an apartment with the four Grand Lieutenants of Hell, and they’re saying something about how the world is ending...?”
(If Evgeni was really so high and mighty as he professed to be on any slightly available occasion, he could have done something to improve on communication. Because well, honestly.)
“The world ending?” Adam sounded just as surprised as Johnny was. “I didn’t hear anything about that.”
“Something strange was going on with Evgeni’s microphone just now, though. And we aren’t working the Hotline anymore.” Jeremy added. “It was the strangest thing.”
Johnny huffed, “Great, he finally decides to give you people a vacation and I’m stuck down here.”
Adam sighed, for someone who was finally on a holiday after who knew how long, he didn’t exactly sound thrilled. “Doesn’t matter if we’re working or not. we’re still stuck at our desks...it’s horrible.”
“That makes three of us,” said Johnny. “Do me a favor, find out if the world is ending?”
“And...how would we do that?”
“You’re bored, aren’t you? Figure something out.” Johnny hung up the phone. Then he leaned back and closed his eyes. He wondered about Stephane.
===
So now Ryan and Drew were in agreement, they had to figure out how to stop the end of the world. It’d started hailing again, so they headed to the nearest coffeeshop for refuge. Although the coffee shop didn’t exactly look like it was in the greatest of shape, they were still able to make away with two cups of thin coffee each.
“Admit it, you didn’t think this all the way through,” Ryan said cheekily.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Think about it, if you hadn’t provoked Evgeni into declaring the end of the world, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Ryan grinned at him. “But just in case you are repentant, I forgive you.”
Drew frowned at his coffee.
“What do you want to do now? You can’t go back up there.”
“You could.”
“I am not,” Ryan looked positively appalled.
Drew looked at him for a moment longer, and then shrugged, “I guess there’s that other place.”
“...What other place?”
===
Alexei was having problems. He had always known that declaring Doomsday before it was due was going to cause. He hadn’t thought this all the way through, because now his four Grand Lieutenants were who knew where and he’d sent Ilia away. There was always the Furies, but Alexei hated having them do things because they were utterly, utterly unpredictable. He supposed there was always Kevin, but he seemed content wiping glasses behind the bar and Alexei hated to disturb him.
But seriously, this bind was all his own fault. Of course, Alexei wouldn’t admit to it. Trying to find an Antichrist before there was any reason to look for one...it was troublesome.
“Hello? Anyone here?”
Alexei started, he knew the voice. There seemed to be more than one pair of footsteps.
“In here.”
After a moment, Drew followed by someone else (Alexei assumed it was Archangel Raphael) peeked into the room, “And so we meet again. I came to ask you a favor.”
“Not for free, I hope.” Alexei looked between them.
“Of course not,” Drew said, entirely too smoothly. Ryan had a feeling he’d done this before. “An eye for an eye is always fair.” He took a seat on the floor and gestured grandly, “...Your terms?”
===
“You shot him?” Patrick stared.
Ilia selected the thickest roll of duct tape he could find and tossed it over to the younger demon. “I’ve always wanted to shoot a gun, and besides, he looks to be the type of person who’d end up down there anyway. I’ll remember to give him a personal welcome. Put that on, over your mouth.”
“Why?” Patrick blinked suspiciously.
He had every right to be suspicious, but at least Ilia wasn’t Naberius for nothing. In the end, Patrick did what he was told. Ah, (not so much) peace, but at least there was blessed, blessed quiet.
===
Spin around three times counter-clock wise, then three times clockwise, and stop at two o’ clock. Call him crazy, but Adam still thought this was a suicide mission. Apparently Jeremy didn’t think so.
“Evgeni is going to kill us.”
“Would you please just relax? He’s not going to even know we’re here.”
“So that’s it? He means nothing to you.” That was a strange voice; one that neither of them had heard before. “He means absolutely nothing, to you. I don’t understand the two of you at all.”
“There is nothing to understand.” That was Evgeni’s voice, Adam and Jeremy both recognized it, and respectively cringed. “Why must you be so damn stubborn, Stephane?”
Stephane. A strange name, neither of them recognized it. Adam wrote it down on a wayward post-it for future reference.
“I am only as stubborn as you make me,” Stephane said. If they listened closely enough, Adam thought he heard him stamping his foot. “Besides, he understands just as much as I do. Perhaps even less. You know this. If he --”
“Just because you feel...that means nothing.”
There was a long, long pause, then -- “So you really have, forgotten everything, I mean.” Even though they did not know him, the disappointment in Stephane’s voice was obvious. “Good-bye then, Zhenya, I don’t think you’ll see me again.”
“Good-bye, Stephane.”
Both of them jumped when the office door suddenly swung open. Immediately, Jeremy pressed against the wall and Adam hastened to join him. A man who they’d never seen before stepped out.
Adam could see Evgeni’s feet by the door, but he doubted that Evgeni could see them judging by how the man was positioned in the doorway. When the man spotted them though, Jeremy flinched and grabbed Adam’s arm tight.
Jeremy said, “What were you...doing?”
“Me? Just saying good-bye to an old, dear friend.” The man looked a bit wistful, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell him you’re here.” They both watched, as he faded away in a cloud of dust.
===
“Freeze!” Evan shouted. “Whatever you think you’re doing! STOP!”
Though this was neither the time nor the place for it, Tanith felt the urge to slap her forehead, hard. Or maybe she should slap some sense into Evan first. There were times to give one-hundred-fifty percent, but there were other times where foolishly waving a gun towards a guy they’d just agreed was probably armed and dangerous...was just stupid.
What was the man’s name again? Morozov, that was right. It wasn’t a name you just heard every day. They’d tailed him to a shabby apartment complex. If he was planning to commit robbery or something, this didn’t seem like the place for it, either.
Morozov didn’t even seem that surprised that they’d followed him.
“How useless,” he said. “I promised you I’d remember your names. I should have listened to Alexei. Humans are so troublesome. But I suppose that is one of God’s reasons.”
“Humans...?”
Morozov extended a hand, “You will sleep now. You will both sleep, until the world ends.”
===
Maybe it was just Drew’s imagination, but he thought that Alexei had just asked him and Ryan to find him a child suitable for being the Antichrist. And he’d done it...politely.
Drew blinked, “...Come again?”
“Find me an Antichrist,” Alexei repeated, with his arms crossed. “And then we will discuss your terms.”
Ryan opened his mouth, wholly prepared to say that ‘had Alexei gone out of his mind?’ or something similar. Why did Alexei not have his own Antichrist? But before he could say anything, Drew settled a hand on his arm.
“It can be anyone we like?”
Alexei tilted his head in mild agreement, “Within reason.”
Drew brightened, “Great, we’ll take you up on it. Come on, Ryan, let’s go find the Antichrist.”
Ryan stared at him for a long, long moment, and then said, “Oh.” Was he supposed to just jovially agree? Seemed a bit -- make that very, very off.
“And of course I have the final say.” said Alexei, looking incredibly serene for Satan, who had just commissioned two Archangels to find him an Antichrist.
“Of course you do, wouldn’t dream of anything else. But if we fulfill our end of the bargain, you must do whatever we ask.” Drew said, as if he bargained with Satan every day. Ryan was beginning to think that there was a lot he didn’t know. And didn’t want to know, either.
===
1 << 2 << 3 << 4 << 5 << 6 << >> 8