Note: The next couple chapters should be coming up quickly. I hope I'm doing the story justice, although I feel like the last chapter wasn't the greatest. I'll be trying to improve on that.
Note: Thank you again for all of you that have been following the story.
Crossroads Chapter 9
"Let's go," Heero snapped as he grabbed Duo's cigarette and ground it under his heal, right there on the kitchen floor. Duo was about to protest, but with a glare pointed his way, he felt that being quiet was the wise choice at the moment. He finally just shrugged his shoulders and followed the stoic man out to his car.
Once outside, Duo took a good look around the house. There were several policemen still combing the yard for bits and pieces that the crows had dropped. The crows themselves had vacated the grass, but had taken perch in the surrounding trees. They were quiet except for the occasional caw. The air was filled with a tension that filled Duo with trepidation.
"Chang!" Heero yelled to the man standing off to the side, overseeing the policemen's activities. When called, he came over to Heero and Duo who were now standing next to an oldish Buick.
"Yeah, Yuy," Wufei ground out.
"Take care of the media. Keep them as far back as possible." Duo looked down the street and sure enough it looked as if the media was coming en mass. Even from where he was standing, he could see at least three local channel vans headed their way.
"Fine," replied Wufei. He took a quick glance around the yard and it seemed as if most of the debris had been picked up. Although, the crows still blackened the nearby tree limbs.
Heero unlocked his car with the touch of a button and nodded for Duo to get into the car. Duo looked down at himself and realized that he was still topless. He raised an eyebrow at Heero who just shrugged and got into the driver's seat and started the car quickly. Duo followed suit, careful of the way he moved because the scorched skin still pulled a bit.
They were driving down the road, in silence, until Duo broke the silence. "What do you know of soul eaters?"
"Hn," was Heero's intelligent response.
"Is that an "I don't know" or "I know but I don't have to tell you"?" Duo retorted. He went to cross his arms across his chest and regretted it instantly.
"I want you off the case," Heero said calmly. He shot a glance over to the braid-haired man to gauge his reaction. He was surprised that Duo was just about speechless as he fought with himself on how to answer Heero.
"Why?"
"What is a soul eater? Huh? You don't even know!" Heero was practically shouting and he gripped the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles were white. He took a deep breath to calm himself down, but Duo looked as if he was going to yell right back.
"You don't even know what a chimeric is! How are you supposed to help now? You can't use your sigils effectively and you can't use the powers of being a chimeric either. Right now you are a liability that I don't want to deal with."
"Woah! Just hold on for one stinking minute," Duo started. He turned in his seat so that he could look at Heero directly. Heero looked at him and almost did not notice an upcoming red light. The brakes were hit hard and without wearing a seatbelt, Duo was thrown up against the dashboard.
"You didn't even buckle yourself in," Heero grumbled. The light turned green as Duo pushed himself back into the seat and buckled himself in this time.
"So sue me. Zechs thinks it is a good idea for me to be at the crime scenes," Duo pointed out.
"Zechs is an outright idiot," Heero shot back. Duo's jaw dropped a good couple of inches, and then shut it with an audible click.
"Okay, so no love lost between the two of you," Duo stated. "What is with you two, then?"
"He thinks just because he can control earth matter and has lived for the past two hundred years, he's invulnerable and knows everything," Heero spat out.
"Two hundred?!" gasped Duo. "What the hell is with you people?"
"Magic. That is what does it." Duo wasn't sure, but he thought that Heero sounded a bit wistful.
"And what about you, Heero? What's your story and how come you are in charge of the crime scenes now?" Duo asked as he rested his elbow on the car door by the window and put his chin on his hand. Traffic was heavy within the city and it was going to take them a bit to get back to the apartment complex.
"I shouldn't have to explain myself to the likes of you," Heero growled out.
"You're not earning any favor points with me here," drawled Duo. "Just explain away if you so choose. We have plenty of time before getting home."
"Hn," was the only answer Heero gave. He focused on the car in front of him and didn't bother to glance at the other man anymore. It took them a good half hour before they pulled into the parking lot. Heero chose a space close to their entrance and then turned off the car. For a moment, he just sat there, but then he turned towards Duo with a determined look on his face.
"Since I want you off this case, I'm not sure why I'm telling you this, but, I am an agent of a special group from within the FBI. This case was brought to my attention because there have been others like it, just not in this area.
"We have known that it was a soul eater for a while, but we did not make it well known. Zechs, on the other hand, really doesn't care who knows, and for that, we're going to be sorry. The media is just going to eat it up as if it were a very good dessert.
"Like I stated earlier, I want you away from the crime scenes. This is my case now," Heero ended firmly. Duo sat back in his seat, not knowing what to say. Of course he wanted to stay, but he really had no jurisdiction or right to be there. He was a trainee, nothing more.
"So, how many have there been?"
"Confidential information," Heero answered as he pulled into a parking space in front of their apartment building.
"I still think that I can get valuable work experience," Duo tried to reason with Heero.
"And I still think you shouldn't be there anymore."
"Fine. Whatever," Duo snarled and got out of the car. He slammed the car door shut and stomped his way inside. He wasn't sure if Heero got out after him, and wasn't sure if he should care or not.
The elevator was out of service, so, with a sigh, he turned away and took the stairs. By the time he reached his floor, his anger had cooled somewhat. He pulled out his key ring and realized that he never did get back his sigils. Oh well, he did have a few spares.
As he neared his door, he could tell something was wrong. There was a tension in the air, a heaviness that should not have been there. He looked ahead, down the hall, and was surprised to see black webbing covering the wall. It oozed out from behind the door to his apartment and crawled down the walls.
It looked like long black fingers reaching for something they couldn't find. The door itself was still a brown color, but the blackness crept out of the seams along the edges. Black ooze dripped onto the floor and spread out from there. Reaching spider webs across the floor to the other side of the hallway and up the far wall.
Duo wasn't sure what to do exactly. He didn't have his sigils on him and he didn't know if what he was seeing was actually physical or if it was something he was seeing, almost like an aura of sorts. He stepped closer to his door to open it, and stepped onto the black webbing. He felt as if he had stepped in wet concrete.
The floor gave way to the sludge and he was now knee deep in the blackness. He grabbed for the door frame, and it was too slick for him to get any purchase. He was slowly sinking further into the blackness. He looked at his hands and they were dripping with dark, almost black, life blood.
He shouted out and his voice echoed off the walls and bounced back endlessly. He grabbed first one leg behind the knee and then the other, but to no avail. He was slowly sinking down further and further and he couldn't get himself out. He looked up in time to see Heero come out of the stairwell, about halfway down the long corridor.
"Heero!" Duo yelled and waved his arms to get the other man's attention. Heero looked at him with a surprised look on his face and started to head towards Duo.
"What?" Heero asked succinctly. He looked Duo up and down to try to see what Duo's problem could be. Duo looked down at himself and realized he was kneeling on the floor. The black webbing, the ooze that was sucking him in, was not there. With surprise, he fell back onto his rear end and sat there, dumbfounded.
"What?" Heero repeated. He narrowed his eyes into a glare and just stared at Duo.
"N-nothing. Never mind," Duo stuttered. He stood up, going to unlock his door when he noticed that it was just slightly ajar. "I didn't do that," he whispered to himself.
"Are you sure you are okay?" Heero asked, a little concerned now, not with Duo himself, but with the situation at hand. The man looked spooked.
"I didn't unlock my door yet."
"Are you sure?"
"What do you mean, 'am I sure?' Yes I'm sure," Duo snapped. He slammed the door open and it bounced against the wall and almost came back to him in the face. He glowered at nothing in particular and held the door open. With one look inside, he stepped back out into the hallway and shut the door softly.
"Heero." He cleared his throat and tried again, louder this time. Heero was almost down to the door to his apartment, but turned around, clearly irritated.
"Duo, seriously, what is your problem?"
"Just look, okay?" Duo stepped back and gave Heero enough room to open his door and step inside. After only a moment, Heero stepped back out into the hallway.
"Well, that is something that I don't see every day," Heero said in a low voice.
"Nuh uh," Duo said intelligently. "Should I call the police?" Heero glared at the question, as if it had an obvious answer.
"Call Chang. He'll bring over the right people."
"Right," Duo said with a nod. He kept nodding and only caught himself on the fourth time he nodded. Heero, once again, started walking towards his apartment.
"Hey, Heero?" Duo shouted out tentatively. He really did not want to bother the other man, but he did not see what else he could do. He was so not going to go inside his apartment after what he saw in there. Heero, again, turned back to look at him.
"Do you have a phone I can use? I don't have a cell phone," he said in way of an explanation and a shrug of his shoulders. Heero gave a sharp nod and Duo had to stop himself from running down the hallway to get away from his apartment door.
He glanced back at back at his door, and had to do a double take. He could have sworn that he saw the black webbing creeping out from his door again. With a second look, everything looked as it should. He said a small prayer to those who watch over them. He turned around and followed Heero into his apartment.
Nothing stood out in the apartment. It was well furnished in hues of brown and cream. Unlike his own apartment, this one had a good sized balcony, leaving one entire wall in the living room made of glass. Above the couch hung a picture of a house in the middle of a field.
The kitchen looked pretty much like his own, except Heero had newer and shinier appliances. In the corner was a mock dining room and held a little two seat table. The kitchen was done in black and white. The little nook that held the table was a mix of the brown and black décor.
Duo could not see the man standing in front of him picking out these arrangements. Heero caught him looking around and just shrugged at Duo's unasked question.
"The FBI furnishes our apartments. Our own home away from home," he said as he held out a cell phone for Duo to use.
"Um, thanks," Duo told him. He dialed Wufei's number from memory. After several rings, the phone went to voicemail. He left a brief message telling Wufei that there was a slight emergency and that he needed him to call back as soon as possible. And oh, by the way, he was using Heero's phone since he could not get into his own apartment. He hung up the phone and handed it back to Heero who had come out of one of the rooms in the back of the apartment with a shirt in his hand.
"Here, why don't you put this on for now. You can always give it back to me later," Heero suggested. Duo was surprised by Heero's sudden change in behavior, but he was really tired of going without a shirt. Two days, two shirts ruined. If he kept this up he was going to have to go shopping. He dreaded going shopping.
"You didn't have to-" Duo started.
"No, I did not have to, but I really think you should be wearing a shirt," Heero stopped him from saying anything else with a dark look. Duo thanked him again and put the shirt on.
"Is it okay if I sit on the couch for a while?"
"Sure. They provide satellite TV, so make yourself at home."
"They seem to take care of their people," Duo stated, talking about the FBI.
"For the most part. I'm going to make a sandwich for lunch, do you want one?" Heero offered.
"Sure," Duo said, thinking that he might as well eat while he was able to. After a couple of minutes, Heero came into the living room with two sandwiches and bottles of water. He handed one of each to Duo before sitting on the opposite end of the couch.
"So, what are you watching?" Heero asked before he took a bite of his sandwich.
"The first movie of "The Night of the Living Dead"," Duo told him, taking a bite of his sandwich and was surprised to find that the white sauce was horseradish and not mayo.
"I don't think that I've seen that one," Heero said calmly, actually looking interested in the fact that it was playing. "I'm surprised that they even play such things anymore. There are hardly ever any black and whites on." Duo nodded as he quickly swallowed some water.
Duo was about to go on about the merits of the movie when Heero's phone rang. He looked on the screen of the phone and saw that it was Wufei that was calling in.
"Chang," Heero said in a way of greeting when he answered the phone. He waited a moment, then said, "We have a problem." Duo could hear the tinny sound of Wufei talking into the phone from his end.
"Maxwell can't get into his apartment and I'm not sure how to proceed without getting the local police involved. Understood." Heero shrugged his shoulders as he hung up the phone and tossed it onto the coffee table.
"So, what's the verdict?" Duo asked.
"Chang will be on his way along with a set of policemen," Heero answered. "They will be here in about twenty minutes."
"Okay, cool. Enough time to finish my sandwich and try hard as hell to get my bearings straight."
"Hn." Was the only answer that Duo received.
