Tom knew Hope was a little… off. Anyone could see it, with the way she flinched when people touched her and her eyes darted around to locate all potential exits whenever she entered a room. She threw herself into every project with a fervor that almost seemed driven by some sort of guilt. She was littered with various scars that couldn't have possibly come from household accidents like she claimed.

But Tom was fairly certain that absolutely nothing could have prepared him for seeing why she was like that.

As it turned out, Hope could kill demons. And she was actually pretty damn good at it. He hadn't even known that the monsters were nearby, but Hope's head had snapped up like she had felt their breath on the back of her neck. She had grabbed his arm without another word, pulling him along and into the maze of shelves and crates where they have been taking inventory of emergency supplies that night. They crouched in the darkest corner of the warehouse and she shushed him whenever he tried to ask her what was wrong.

"Just shut up for a minute, okay?!" she hissed when he kept prodding. The ice in her glare was enough to clamp his mouth shut. He gave her a silent nod. She snorted and peeked through the crates, knuckles white on the shelf lip. Whatever she saw made her breath catch and her jaw clench. But Tom could see she wasn't afraid. Rather, she was furious, eyes burning with anger. He grabbed her arm when she moved to leave but she shook him off.

"Stay here and don't move. I'm gonna take care of this."

He hadn't been expecting the hostility and fury in her voice. Hope was normally so quiet and kept to herself most of the time. It was like he was looking at a completely different person. As she stalked off, quickly and quietly, down the aisle, she snatched something off one of the selves. Tom caught the glint of dark steel before she disappeared around the corner.

Now alone, Tom peered through the gap between the crates, only to duck back down as something large and scaly passed by in the open space a few rows down. Demons. There were demons in the warehouse. Now he could hear their animalistic snarls and barks as boxes and crates were thrown to the ground. Tom looked again, cautiously, as one demon staggered back into view. Hope was clinging to its back and had a knife buried in its throat. She leapt off as the beast began to teeter and was gone again before its body hit the floor. He heard yet another die with a cut-off howl and now it seemed the others were beginning to catch on. Orders were growled in a strange guttural language as the remaining demons spread out to find the phantom lurking among them.

There were more of them than he first thought. Soon the entire space was filled with their guttural language, becoming increasingly more garbled as they failed to find Hope amid the darkness of the warehouse.

A third's life was cut off with a gurgle before they finally caught her. Tom saw her sail through the air as she was ripped of the beast's body and tossed clear across the room, suppressing a yelp as she collided with one of the shelves. The demon's approached her slowly as she struggled to regain her footing, grinning with snouts full of teeth.

Bang! Another went down with a bullet hole between its eyes. Hope's hand was steady around the gun even as her legs shook and blood seeped from her hairline. Where she had gotten the gun, Tom could only guess, but it was clear she knew how to use it. Abandoning stealth completely, Hope laid into the group with a hail of bullets, pausing only a moment when her clip ran dry, dropping to the ground and sliding across the concrete to avoid outstretched claws. The one that tried to grab her died in an explosion of blood, shot point-blank with a fresh clip. She rolled to her feet, only to find herself surrounded.

Crash! Glass rained down as one of the skylights shattered followed by a large figure that dropped through the opening to land gracefully amid the chaos. Steel flashed and demons died as the figure began to move. Hope overcame her own surprise quickly enough and moved to match the newcomer, keeping the demons at a distance with bullets and dagger cutting flesh of those that got too close. Between the two of them, the demons' numbers began to dwindle until the ones that were left were dispatched with a shot through the head or a blade through the throat.

Tom could see Hope panting, wiping the blood from her face. There was a thick line of crimson trickling from her left arm where a demon's claws had left their mark, but otherwise she looked miraculously unscathed.

But the other one… the other one was huge, easily eight feet tall, grey as ash and built like a wrestler. Just looking at them made Tom feel tiny and powerless, which made it even more surprising when Hope marched right up to them, arms crossed and face pinched into a scowl.

"You were just waiting to make a dramatic entrance, weren't you?" she snarled. The stranger let out a chuckle.

"You're welcome," the voice that replied was deep and raspy as an old tomb. It sent a shiver up Tom's spine.

Hope snorted. "I could've handled this."

"Oh, I'm sure you could have, but you probably would have ended up in a hospital afterwards."

"Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence," she huffed. "Look, not that I'm not thrilled to see you again, but why are you here?"

"It's a pleasure to see you as well," the stranger sassed right back. "Something's… come up. We're attempting to find out what."

"'We?' Is the rest of the, uh… family here?"

Family? There were more of them? Tom, swallowing his fear, began to creep along the aisles, not sure if he was trying to get a closer look at the visitor or if he was trying to find a way to sneak out without getting noticed.

"The others are looking into something for me. I was tailing the group that attacked you."

"Are you… going to tell me what's going on?" Hope said, suddenly sounding uneasy.

The stranger paused. "Not yet," he replied, "Once I know more, I'll be sure you're informed. For now I suggest you keep your head down. I feel a storm gathering."

Hope sighed. "Great. This is exactly what I needed in my life right now." She ran her hands through her hair, streaking blood through the brown. She froze as she looked up, catching sight of Tom trying to sneak by behind the visitor's back. "Ho, shit," she hissed. The stranger spared a look over a broad ashen shoulder and Tom caught sight of an eye that glowed like hot coals beneath a curtain of pitch-black hair.

"Um, can you just give me a second?" she asked the stranger, not waiting for a response before moving around him. Tom took an unconscious step back as she came up to him, perturbed by the blood smeared across her arms and the memory of a blade in her hand. She seemed to notice his discomfort and came no closer.

"Heeeeeeey Tom," she started awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck with a hand. "Would you mind… not telling anyone about this?" Tom's eyes drifted over her shoulder to where the visitor leaned casually against a shelf, arms crossed over a massive chest.

"Hope," he began in a low whisper, "who is that?" Hope moved to block his view and put on an uncomfortable smile.

"He's… um, wow, how do I put this? He's… Death?" she said hesitantly.

Tom flinched, trying once more to look at the hulking figure lurking in the background only to have his sight blocked again by Hope. She held up her hands, hoping to keep him calm.

"No! Listen!" she said quickly, "He's one of the good guys, I swear! Trust me, I know him."

"You… know him?" Tom repeated, taking another involuntary step back.

"Look, it's a long story, alright? Please believe me, they're trying to help. But people can't know about them yet. It would only make things worse."

Tom's gaze kept flickering to the back of the room where the stranger, who was apparently Death, kept a silent watch. He blinked hard and took a deep breath, trying to release some of the tension from his shoulders, and nodded uneasily. He wanted to trust Hope. After everything that she'd done for the city she was at least deserving of that. But this… this was a bit hard to swallow.

Hope's eyes were pleading. It was clear she wasn't kidding.

"A-alright Hope," he finally said, "I believe you. And… I won't tell a soul, I promise."

Hope seemed to deflate with relief, the stress draining from her body and taking the last of the cutthroat demon-killer with it. She suddenly seemed much smaller and a good deal more tired than she had a moment ago.

"Thanks Tom. I'll hold you to that," she spared a glance over her shoulder and caught eyes with the stranger. She worried her bottom lip with her teeth. "Do you… need me to walk you home?" she asked.

Tom thought back the horde that lay dead on the floor of the warehouse, their bodies slowly disintegrating into scattered ash, and suppressed a shudder. Who could tell how many more were prowling in the night?

"Y-yeah, I think that'd be best."

Hope nodded. "Alright, let's go grab our stuff and we can get going, okay?"

Tom murmured his understanding and followed her back to the workbench. He noticed how she had tucked her handgun into the waistband of her jeans, snug against the small of her back. Her dufflebag clanked as she picked it up, and it occurred to him that she must have been keeping the gun in there the entire time. Did she always smuggle weapons into work? He shook the thought away as he wandered back through the shelves to make sure he didn't leave anything behind. But his mind wouldn't quiet. It tricked him with false movement out of the corners of his eyes and made the creaking of the old warehouse sound like the growls of demons. Is this what it's like for her? He wondered.

When he returned, Hope and the stranger were discussing in hushed tones as they stood beneath the open shutter. She looked so tiny standing next to him, not even reaching his shoulder. And he was huge; not just physically, but in his presence. As Tom drew nearer, he could feel the power rolling off the massive figure. It was an unsettling and treacherous feeling to sat the least, like standing too close to a lightning rod. Tom wondered how Hope could stand being so close to him. Not wanting to intrude, Tom cleared his throat loudly and both of them looked up. He tried to focus on the watery blue of Hope's eyes rather than the glowing cinders of the stranger's.

"Lead the way Tom," Hope told him, and moved to let him past. Tom could feel the stranger's eyes following him as he walked out into the open and did his best not to look at him. Nervous sweat trickled down the back of his neck.

Hope's hand landed gently on his shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze. She walked leisurely beside him, but he could see how her eyes darted from one dark corner to the next, and her back was just a bit too rigid. Still, she was trying.

She took a deep breath and tilted her head back to look up at the night sky. "Do you ever remember seeing so many stars before?" she asked casually. Tom looked up as well, taking in the moonless night and the flurry of stars against the darkness. The Milky Way was a winding streak in the void.

"I lived out in the countryside in Pennsylvania as a kid," he told her. "The night sky looked like this all the time."

"Wow," she whispered. "I think this'll be the one thing I'll miss. When they get all the lights back on, ya know. I've lived in this city my whole life, but I wouldn't mind if they kept the lights off."

"Yeah, its pretty," Tom couldn't help but agree. He looked away from the view and looked once more at the woman walking next to him, feeling equally amazed and confused. Again, Hope was showing another side of herself that he never would have expected. It was hard to believe that the woman looking up with serenity and wonderment at a starry sky was the same one who glared at shadows and sliced the throats of demons.

His gaze flickered from her to the dark figure that followed, keeping a respectful distance, but remaining close enough that Tom could still feel that powerful presence. Why did Hope seem to know him so well? What made her so sure that he was one of the good guys? He could only guess, and none of his theories were very good.

"Hope… are you sure… he's on our side?" he didn't even need to give any indication as to who he was talking about.

"I'm positive Tom," she replied with utmost confidence. "Believe it or not, he saved my life. Yours too actually, you just don't know it."

"Wait what?"

"Think about it Tom," she fixed him with a look, "what do you think happened five years ago? What do you remember from before you woke up on the street?"

"Well I- um…" Tom trailed off. He remembered waking up that day, lying on the asphalt feeling as though he had been sleeping for years. Before that was a huge blur filled with vague screams and the impression of heat. "I… don't really know actually. That was a weird day for everyone."

Hope seemed just a bit disappointed, her brows furrowing as she sighed. "There's a lot more going on here than anyone knows Tom."

"And you know?" he couldn't help but ask.

"I do. At least some of it," she said. "Sometimes I wish I didn't, but I can't exactly do anything about it. These guys," she hooked her thumb over her shoulder towards the stranger, "have quite a bit to do with that. But they're here to help, I promise."

Tom just nodded. It didn't quite sit right with him, but then nothing in the past five years had felt right. The world had shifted under everyone's noses and now it played by a different set of rules that were yet to be revealed. But apparently Hope knew.

"It was the demons, right?" He asked after a long moment. "Everything that happened? It was because of them right?"

She shrugged. "Mostly. There's more to it than that, but it would take me a hell of a long time to explain it to you. Like I said, it's a long story, and not a very nice one either."

"Are you ever going to tell me?" he pressed. He didn't like being in the dark, especially now that he'd seen a glimpse of the light.

Hope paused, picking at her nails in thought. "...Maybe some day," she eventually replied, "Maybe after all of this is over, if all of us are still here, maybe then I'll tell people. It's... not a fun thing to know Tom. I don't want to put that burden on everyone else."

Sympathy stirred in Tom's chest. It wasn't fair, placing the weight of that knowledge on the shoulders of a single woman. But, he couldn't force her to tell him if she didn't want to, that would be more stress than she already had.

He couldn't bring himself to say so, not wanting to make her feel as though he pitied her. He let the companionable silence descend, only slightly disturbed by the dark stranger still watching over them.

Tom's apartment building was a squat little three-story thing lit by dull streetlights. Not much, but it was solid and that was as much as anyone could ask for these days. Hope walked him up to his front door and said goodnight. "You gonna be okay?" she asked before she turned away.

Tom took a good look at her, still slightly stained with demon blood but still taking the time to be concerned. His gaze flickered over to the tall stranger standing on the sidewalk, caught his eye and found himself unable to look away. Those glowing embers bore into him, communicating power and weariness in equal measure. If what Hope said was true, and this being and others like him were truly on their side, he didn't see any cause to worry. Tom found himself giving a nod of respect to the stranger and was astounded to receive one in return after a long moment. The gaze released him, turning away.

Tom cleared his throat and looked at Hope. "Yeah, I think I'll be fine. I'll see you at work tomorrow right?"

"I should be there," she replied, "I'll see you tomorrow then." She turned, ready to head back out to the street, but Tom stopped her with a soft hand on her arm.

"Hey," he said, trying to put as much sincerity as he could into the next words, "thank you."

Hope was still for a moment, and then a smile tugged at her lips. "You're welcome," she replied, strangely humbled. "Goodnight Tom," she said, pulling away and giving him a little wave.

"Goodnight Hope," he replied, stepping inside and closing the door.

Before the outside noise was cut off completely, he heard a raspy voice say, "So, he seemed nice."

Hope let out an exasperated groan. "Oh my god, shut up!"

Hey everyone! I certainly hope you aren't sick of these yet, because they may be more coming! This one goes out to user Acidwing for the great idea! Sorry it took me so long to get it done, but its here now and I hope you all enjoy!