Christopher was an wallflower. There was no way of sugarcoating it. He was afraid of everything you could find on the streets and every criminal wondered how he ended up on this world if he freaked out by only seeing blood.
For that exact reason, he was always kept away from the dirty work, his day being taking care of stupid paperwork, that yes, unfortunatelly for him (or not) it existed.
Until the day after Théo's dissapearance... And for him that day was absolute hell.
"Eh, do we need to look in here? What if they catch us? What if we are taken as hostages? Oh crap! What if?..." Christopher asked, overreacting and talking so fast that what he said was barely understanble.
"What if... What if!... Stop overreacting flower! You are really a newbie aren't you? Those two are like bats! Firstly, they never show up and secondly they would never take a brat like you as an hostage! Unless they also have a shitload of paperwork to take care of too, which they don't." Léo, the guy he was accompaining, laughed mockingly at Christopher leaving him annoyed. "And yes! We need to look in here! If we sent Théo here, the only place he can be it's in here! Or well, his rests will be here..."
"Rests?" Christopher now made a face that changed from shock to panic. That was being too much for him.
"Yes flower! Or do you think that the Agrestes left him alive?"
"Y-Yes?"
"Wrong! Completely wrong! You just have learnt a new lesson young man! Besides being bats, they never leave someone alive."
"Greaaat! I love this!" By now, Christopher was on the verge of an anxiety and a panic attack and he had to go catch some ai ror he would have collapsed right there.
They searched for Théo on every floor of the abandoned building and his body shown no signs of being there, but when they reached one of the last rooms, what Christopher saw almost made him faint (again).
The room was a mess. There was a pool of blood on the floor and drops everywhere; one broken chair, other in the corner of the room and a third one that probably had been there the whole time in front of that bloody mess. There were also some ropes on the floor and and a small envelope covered in blood leaning against one of the third chair legs.
"If by Théo's rests you meant a pool of blood, then I've just found them!" Christopher said poking Léo's arm.
"Great Job flower! You're not so useless after all!"
"But since when I was useless?" It was stupid of Léo thinking that he was useless just because he did paper work all day instead of killing people.
"Please! I won't comment that!" He laughed uncontrolably but this time Christopher ignored him.
Christopher and his partner wandered around the room looking for some kind of clue about Théo, and quickly, Christopher spotted the bloody envelope. He picked it up with a small cloth, for hygiene reasons, as he called it and gave it to Léo so he could inspect it.
"It looks like that they like to joke with our faces too! Interesting!" A hint of sarcasm hit Léo's face.
"Should we open it now or...?"
"Of course we should open it now, flower! Imagine if it's a clue about where Théo might be, we can't let that pass right?"
"Right..." Christopher rolled his eyes and made a gesture for him to open the envelope. He was tired, both physically and emotionally and didn't care about his partner's actions anymore. He couldn't understand how Léo could have a bit of hope left to find Théo when his had ended by the time they checked the whole first floor and found nothing. What made him believe that he could find Théo even if it was in pieces?
Meanwhile his partner had already opened the card and that little bit of hope he had died, being replaced by anger.
"What does it say?" Christopher asked noticing his expression.
"Read it, for yourself... please."
"Okay?"
The small note inside the envelope was covered in blood as well, which made Christopher disgusted but he hid it well. The letter was clearly from a woman and besides blood having a stronger smell, he could feel a hint of a red fruits perfume on the paper.
"Every reveal comes with a price. So do our secrets. Was this really worth it? Maybe yes, maybe no... But don't worry about your friend, we burried him well! 3"
Honestly, Christopher had read far worse things like bills to pay or the endless inventories of their inumerous torture instruments but he could understand Léo's anger. For him, the Agrestes looked the worst people on earth, a fact that later he would confirm.
Sighing and gaining courage to, Christopher finally asked the question that was bugging him for so long,
"Why did you never lost hope?"
But he was left in the ignorance. Instead, Léo looked at him with cold eyes, like a warning to stop talking.
Frightned Christoper said " Let's go back and give this to the boss."
Camille's was one of the best bars in town and criminals favourite meeting point, whether it was to exchange information, to have a drink and play some games or just to listen to the music.
And that night was jazz night, which meant full house and as many other criminals, Gabriel and Céline had to go,
As punctual as they were, they were already sit in one of the best tables, with their drinks and listening to the first band of the evening.
"Do you think they understood this time?" Céline asked curiously.
"In my opinion, if they didn't get it that we don't play around then I don't know what will make them finally notice it!"
"Wait until the next one to fall on my hands!" She let a chuckle come out and sipped a bit of her drink. " I can guarantee you that their destiny will be far worse than Théo's."
"I can believe that." He replied amused.
"It's better for you to be careful Agreste! Who knows, one day your partner in crime might want to kill you!" She winked.
Gabriel rolled his eyes at the statement. He knew that she was joking, and besides desiring it many times, he knew that deep inside Céline wouldn't do that.
"Ah, your great sense of humor is back. When will you get new jokes , dear?"
"Never, because this jokes are great and never get old! Admit it Gabriel, you like my jokes but you are too ashamed to say that to my face."
"You can wait for the day I'll tell you that Céline!"
And both laughed at this because they knew her humor was just horrible.
Meanwhile, the previous band stepped out of the stage and now Céline's favourite band was getting ready to start playing. She looked at the pianist (a old friend of hers) and gave her a small smile. For some moments it was like she went back to the past, when she was the one in there preparing her music sheets, ready to please everybody with the sweetest tunes ever and to recieve the heated applauses of those people eager to listen more. When she played every night on that bar, on that same piano that she knew so well, trying ro achieve her dream to become someone. But then everything changed and now there she was, sito n the other side, living a whole different life from the one she had planned and somehow regretting and not regretting at the same time the fact that she had to get her hands dirty everyday to be what now she defines as someone.
Sometimes she still feels that thing inside of her, of running away and coming back to the bar and her old piano but she knew that now it was too late.
"You know you can always come back." Gabriel said interrupting her thoughts.
"Yes, I know but I guess that if I decided to come back, everybody would run away afraid that I may kill them or something." Her voice filled with sadness but that didn't stop her from laughing.
"It's the price of our choices... I would be lying if I told you that I don't miss my old life, but now I know that I can't go back. It's risky and they wouldn't want me back anyway."
"So you feel that too?"
"Yes.. Oh, don't tell me that you thought that I was completely emotionless!"
"Just some times dear! You really need to work on that, to be honest with you!"
They laughed again but this time it was different. You could tell by their smiles (even if they were nostalgic) that they were happy, living the moment as it was and not as something they pretented it was.
It was on nights like this one that you could mischange the fearful Agrestes by normal people because they actedt exactaly like that. Normal people. Just because they do horrendous things now, it doesn't mean that they couldn't act like who they were before.
The night passed by and Gabriel and Céline kept sharing their memories from the old times and when they noticed, the jazz night was over a long time ago and it was time for them to leave.
A/N: yaaay! 5 months later, 3 attempts, one massive writer block and lack of time I could finally write this chapter out! I am so sorry for not updating it sooner, I really am but I promise that I won't take this crazy amount of time to update something again!
Hope you enjoyed it! And you already know, reviews are always welcome :)
