Part 4.2: Despair - It's Not Death If You Refuse It

The crow flew back down to perch gently on Eric's shoulder as he walked down the debris-laden sidewalk, his hands idly wandering over the top part of his chest as if feeling for the wounds that had only freshly healed some time ago. His senses were finally coming back to him – he'd killed the last of the gang that killed him. He didn't need to be here anymore, as far as he knew.

He was done.

Eric leaned against the metal support of a nearby building, shedding away the leather trenchcoat and tossing it away as the crow flew onto the roof. "I'm coming home, Shelly", he sighed, bowing his head. He was done.
Yet he felt empty inside, as if his whole reason for being here was now gone. His mission was accomplished, and yet…he had nothing to show for it now.

Then he heard a sound that, for so long, had been foreign to him: the sound of children laughing. Behind his closed eyelids, he also saw the wavering beams of flashlights. He lifted his head and opened his eyes to see a group of five kids, dressed in the Halloween costumes of skeletons and witches, running toward him and laughing with joy. Eric hadn't heard nor seen any kids since the first Devil's Night fires he'd witnessed, but hearing them now seemed like the most welcome sound he could have ever heard, aside from Shelly's voice.

He let out a laugh of his own as the kids ran around him, but this laugh wasn't sinister or devilish. It was alight with his own relief that his mission of vengeance did indeed have a happy ending of sorts, aside from what his own would be. These kids could be safe on the streets, free to enjoy the Halloween that came without fear of the arsonists having their own fun. Justice had been served.
Eric's laughter quickly grew to a short series of happy sobs as the realization came to him – the crow was right. This mission hadn't been all about vengeance. It was indeed about justice as well.

At first, the smile seemed impossible to leave behind even as he made his way to the derelict church that guarded the cemetery where he'd been interred. Yet, with every step Eric took inside the cemetery, his grief began to come over him again. Yet he didn't know why now.
He was about to see Shelly again, the city he'd lived in was free from any threats from T-Bird's gang, and Sarah and her mom weren't going to be hurt anymore. He should've been happy.
But maybe, Sarah's resting form on top of Shelly's grave was the answer – he'd have to leave his little skater friend behind again. Even the words that came from the crow into Eric's mind offered little comfort.

Come on, kid. You're ok now; you're practically home free. Shelly's waiting for you. Don't forget to pack, and don't walk away. Sarah will be fine here.

Quietly, Eric walked up to her, the crow flying overhead to perch on the top of Shelly's gravestone as Eric crouched down and gently wiggled one of Sarah's boot-clad feet. Sarah woke with a start and looked up to see who'd intruded on her slumber. Seeing it was only Eric, she relaxed and sat up, leaving a bouquet of flowers she'd brought with her on the ground.

"You're gonna that I shouldn't be in a cemetery at night, right?"
Eric shook his head, a gentle grin coming to his face. "Safest place in the world to be."
"It's 'cause everyone else is dead", Sarah shrugged. Eric nodded lightly at her words, sadness coming to him in a fresh stab – even with the gang dead, it'd take a while for Sarah and her mom to get completely back to loving terms.

"I knew you'd come here", Sarah stated. "I just wanted to see you one last time, Eric."
Eric nodded again, smiling lightly. "It's really late though, Sarah."
"You didn't say goodbye."
"You're just gonna have to forgive me for that", Eric begged, gently placing a hand on Sarah's cheek in a comforting manner.
"And you're never coming back? All your…affairs are in order, Eric?" Sarah wondered.
"Oh…all except for one", Eric answered. With that, he reached up and undid the leather thong around his neck, making sure that Sarah could see. "I gave this to Shelly once, you know. But I think she'd like you to have it."
Slowly, he wrapped the thong loosely around Sarah's neck as she bowed her head, tying the ends of the thong up again so that it hung there loosely. "This way, you'll always remember her."
Sarah looked down at the ring in wonderment and shock before her gaze traveled back to Eric's ghostly face. "I'll never take it off", she promised before reaching up and burying her face in Eric's shoulder, wrapping her arms around him. Eric held her tightly to him, tears flowing quietly from his eyes and into her shoulder as he felt her weeping into his own shoulder.

Hesitantly, Sarah took a deep breath as they pulled away from each other, slowly rising to her feet and leaving Eric crouched in front of Shelly's gravestone. "I'd better go sneak back in the house", she sighed as she grabbed her skateboard and began to walk away. She stopped only to look back at Eric and whisper, "Bye, Eric."
He meant to say goodbye, or at least look back and wave in lieu of that. But he was too choked up to even say anything, fearing that even the slightest word would break him now. Sarah must've realized what Eric was going through, so she continued on her way, grabbing her skateboard from where she'd left it by the cemetery gates.

She'd just made it down to the curb by the church when she was suddenly grabbed from behind and a deep voice whispered in her ear, "Take it easy, sweetheart." Sarah recognized it as the dark-skinned man who was always checking on things for his boss at the club – Grange.
Even as she struggled, Grange pulled her into the derelict church without much effort and kept his grip on her strong as he held her before the lurking forms of a long-haired man, dressed in an old-fashioned vest over his flowing white shirt and pants, and a dark-haired Oriental woman in a black robe, vest, and pants.
"So what's that?" Top Dollar asked, snatching the ring away from Sarah's neck. "Souvenir there from your pal? I'll just keep it for good luck, what do you say?"
Myca strode up to her, running her leather-clad fingers along Sarah's cheek, Sarah pulling away into Grange's form in disgust. "Her eyes are so innocent", Myca whispered, a sinister smile coming to her full lips.

Outside, Eric looked on longingly at Shelly's gravestone, the bouquet Sarah had brought in his hand as he reached out for the cold granite. His fingertips had barely grazed the surface when he hear Sarah's cry for help.
"Eric!"
He turned toward the church, closing his eyes as the crow gave him the sight he needed – Sarah's scared face, her voice crying for help before she was dragged back by a dark pair of hands. Top Dollar and Grange had her hostage in the church; there could be no other explanation.

Kid, you know if you go in there, I can't help you. You're done with your vengeance, and I did say this was a whole lot more than that, but it's your choice with what you do.

"It's alright, bird. This is for me", Eric whispered, rising to his feet and bolting to the doors. He threw them open with a loud clang, the bird flying past his shoulders as he got a good look at the crumbling infrastructure of the church and the rotting wood of the pews. The crow mounted on the back of one of them, Eric sparing a glance at the bird as he stepped in front of the altar, the once-white fabric covering it stained and rotting.
Suddenly, a loud gunshot rang out throughout the main cathedral, and the bird fell from the pew with a loud CAW! Immediately, Eric felt weaker in the body – the iron in his bones that meant his invincibility fading away. But somehow, he could still hear the crow in his head.

Dammit…I just need to find a quiet place, kid. Keep them away.

His pet bird was only wounded, at least. Eric kept that in his head even as Top Dollar stepped out of the shadows, a sword holstered at his back as his boots crunched against the floor. Eric looked up at his long-haired countenance, noticing his lieutenant Grange standing in the balcony just above them, packing a high-powered rifle. Eric could still hear Sarah's muffled screams – they must have her tied up somewhere.

"Quick impression for you", Top Dollar stated, making wings out of his hands as he spoke. "Caw! Caw! Bang! Fuck, I'm dead!"
Eric didn't let the significance of what that gesture meant faze him. At least, he hoped it wasn't visible. "Give me the girl, and I'll let you walk out of here", he responded, his cocky tone sounding even more human than it had all that night or last night.
Top Dollar let out a soft hum of thought before he answered, "Yeah, well, why don't you just give me a minute to think about that, huh?" He turned his back to Eric, taking a few thoughtful paces, Eric looking on perplexingly. This wasn't what he expected to happen.

He also didn't expect what came next. "Nah, fuck it", Top Dollar muttered before turning around, a gun held aloft in his hand. Suddenly Eric felt the deadly smack of a bullet in his left shoulder, the shot ringing out loud and clear. Eric lifted his good hand to gingerly touch the bullet would, feeling the warm fluidity of blood seep out onto his fingertips. "Ah, fuck", he interjected, his shaking legs giving way beneath him as he crumpled to the floor.

Eric tried to shut the pain out as he lifted his good arm beneath him to lift himself up as he heard Top Dollar speak again. "Well, well, well, it does seem to me that our little life has undergone a rather significant change in the last few minutes, wouldn't you agree?" Then Eric felt the hard force of Top Dollar's open hand on the back of his wounded shoulder, and he cried out from the intense pain as he collapsed to the ground again. He winced again as he felt Top Dollar's probing fingers on his fresh gunshot wound.
"Well, for a ghost, you bleed just fine." From what seemed like the distance of a long and dark cave, Eric heard the flap of his crow's wings and its soft caw, followed by Grange's call of "It's still alive!"
"Well, then kill it!" Top Dollar ordered. The cocking of the rifle echoed through the cavernous church before Grange uttered, "Bye-bye, birdie."

Another gunshot rang out. But neither Eric nor the crow was hit.

Unbeknownst to him at the time, Officer Albrecht had been walking along the cemetery to watch for any suspicious activity. He knew that Eric would have to come back there at some point, but Albrecht never spotted him. What let him know that something was up, though, was when he spied Sarah walking away from the church before Grange snatched her up and dragged her inside. At that instant, he'd run to his car to grab his assigned weapon and a revolving shotgun the captain had given him for protection. Making sure both weapons were loaded, he made his way to hide behind the doorway of the church and wait until he knew for sure he could help the best he could. And now was the time.

That gunshot had come from Albrecht's shotgun and buried itself in a pillar of the cathedral, and Albrecht followed it up with some rounds from his handgun, managing to hit Grange in his ribs and render Top Dollar temporarily deaf in one ear. Albrecht ducked down and away before making a beeline for the nearest pew, hiding behind it as they returned fire.
As the battle began, Eric managed to find a degree of strength and get to his feet, staggering away and around the back of the altar to keep out of the line of fire before hurling himself into a pew near the front, dodging a few of Top Dollar's well-aimed shots. Albrecht managed to work his way up, sending another load of buckshot Top Dollar's way, but missing. As consolation, however, Albrecht managed to look up and see that a few more of his shot off handgun rounds brought down Grange for good. He could see Top Dollar look up to see Grange crumple, dead before hitting the ground, before running off to the side and up a flight of stairs. Myca shortly joined him, the softly cawing form of the wounded crow in her hands.

Managing to join Eric's huddled form against the pew, Albrecht checked his shotgun to find it was empty, and then shoved it aside. "Shit. Well, I just came by to pay my respects, and here I find you getting all shot up again."
"They've taken Sarah", Eric reported shakily, ignoring the banter.
"How many more are there?"
"Two more", Eric answered, gasping in slight pain as his wounded shoulder nudged the pew. "I can handle it. Don't worry."
"I'm not worried", Albrecht stated matter-of-factly, a wry and ready smile on his face. "Look, here's the plan: you stay out in front and when they run out of ammo, I'll arrest them."
Eric nodded – under the prior normal circumstances of his second life, that plan would've worked. "It does sound like a great plan, but there's just one problem."
Albrecht turned to Eric, and it was only then that he noticed Eric's bullet wound, the blood still flowing freely from it. "Shit! You're bleeding all over the place."
"Thanks for stating the tragically obvious, Sarge", Eric managed to retort through a light gasp of pain.
"But I thought you were, y'know, invincible."
"I was. I'm not anymore", Eric responded, gesturing toward the stairs where Top Dollar and Myca had gone. He heard Albrecht sigh lightly before he felt one of his big arms wrap around his shoulders and prop him back up. "Well, I guess you really will need my help, won't you?" Albrecht asked, escorting him over to the winding stairs.

Gingerly, Albrecht set Eric against the entryway to the bell tower's stairwell. He meant to wait for Eric to get himself together, even as he looked up just in time to see Top Dollar untie Sarah and take her upstairs after sharing a deep, passionate kiss with Myca in lieu of a potential final good-bye. Albrecht also noted the deadly metal of a handgun flashing in Myca's free hand as the crow wavered in her arm. Suddenly, she aimed it down the winding staircase after spotting Albrecht.
He returned fire with his own weapon, but from his awkward position on the beginning of the stairs, none of his shots managed to hit. On the other hand, two of hers hit just fine, burying themselves into his gun shoulder and ribs. Albrecht collapsed against the wall in pain, feeling the bullet in his ribs click against bone and depart down from his stomach.

Gathering himself at hearing the shots, Eric staggered over to Albrecht's inert form. "I thought you were supposed to stay behind me."
"I think I screwed up", Albrecht gasped, and Eric got a good look at Albrecht's wounds. He knew they'd hurt like hell, but Eric also knew that he'd be alright as long as Albrecht didn't move. Stepping over Albrecht's spread-eagled legs, Eric began his painful climb up the stairs, holding onto the guardrail for support as he ascended.

He got to the middle of the flight of stairs in time to see Myca on the balcony across him, a sinister smile across her seductive face and cradling the crow as if it were her own pet. Eric could feel the disgust come to his face at the sight of her as she spoke, as if seducing a new lover. The repulsion he felt toward Myca blended sickly inside him with the dread he felt over what she might do with the bird.
"This is all the power you ever had, and now, it is mine." Eric suppressed a shudder as Myca's eyed traveled over his well-built, wounded form before she finished, "Pity there's not more time…for us."
She aimed the handgun squarely at his face, and Eric knew that he would've been doomed.

But the crow still had his back.
With a loud caw, the bird reared up into Myca's beautiful face and pecked away at the once-beautiful skin, leaving bloody scratch marks across and down her eyelids. Her screams of pain rang out down the bell tower as she tried to swat the bird away, but the crow couldn't be stopped from the task of depleting Myca's own power – the power of her all-seeing eyes.
Eric saw Myca swing her arms in one final attempt to shoot the bird away, but it only resulted in her falling off of the balcony as the crow flew away. She managed to grab onto the rope, the bell ringing down into the tower with a funereal sound, blending with the fearful note of her screams.
Suddenly, her hands slipped from the rope, and Myca fell down to the floor of the tower, her back breaking hard as her body impacted there, her screams of terror suddenly and deafeningly silenced. Eric looked down at her dead form for just a minute, letting himself remember the sight before he continued his own journey up the stairs to the open window that led to the cathedral roof.

I still can't do much for ya here, kid. Watch your back, and give him hell.

Letting out a small nod as the crow communicated with him – for what might be the last time – Eric ducked his head as he walked through the shattered window. The rain fell onto him with all the force of a great typhoon, lightning flashing and thunder exploding across the sky, the flashes casting across the silhouette of Top Dollar as he held Sarah in front of him like a human shield.

"Help, Eric! I'm scared!" Sarah cried out, Top Dollar restraining her tighter by the back of her neck.

"Let her go!" Eric yelled to the man, walking toward him, his back straightening as he drew every ounce of strength he could possibly muster. "You can have me. I won't fight you."
He could see his opponent think it over before he finally said, "Alright", and let Sarah go…pushing her down the slick sloping metal of the church roof, Sarah screaming as the frictionless surface gave way.
"NO!" Eric cried, making a grab for her before backing away, seeing Top Dollar draw his sword from the holster across his back. He came at Eric, the blade held aloft before it came down toward his chest. Eric ducked away from it, then rolled just enough to the side to dodge another downward swing. Reflexively, his leg kicked out to knock Top Dollar's own legs out from underneath him, sending him sprawling across the roof.

Swiftly but carefully getting to his feet, Eric bounded over Top Dollar's struggling form and ran for the front edge of the roof, seeing the dark finial cross that topped the balustrade there. A bolt of lightning crashed down into the cold, wet metal as Eric grabbed for it, the numbing sensation sending pins and needles into Eric's arms and through his body. He let out a demonic scream as he freed the cross from its bolted down prison, using it as a makeshift blade.

Defend and survive.

He saw as much as felt Top Dollar, on his feet again, swing the sword down onto the cold metal Eric wielded. Blades clashed against each other, Eric steadily beginning to advance and making the top gang leader back away. Yet as unwilling as he was to give up, Eric knew that he wouldn't be able to last long against Top Dollar – he was clearly a very experienced swordsman, and he wasn't the one carrying a light set of a bruises and a flaring bullet wound in a shoulder.
Top Dollar seemed to remember that, the last few of his parries and thrusts meeting the iron of Eric's finial cross far too close to his hand, a dark chuckle emanating from his throat. Starting to panic, Eric attempted a weakening thrust of his blade at Top Dollar's neck, but only succeeded in cutting loose the thong that Shelly's ring hung from. The leather dropped to the roof, the ring rolling into the roof gutter just a short distance from Sarah.
Sarah herself wasn't faring much better; the roof panel she hung from was starting to creak beneath even her light weight, and the supports she'd tried to gain a foothold on were snapping away from her. "Eric!" she cried out.
Looking up, she saw Eric duck away from a wide thrust of Top Dollar's sword, the moves enough for them to lose their balance and slip into the gutter, Eric somersaulting down into it with a thud while Top Dollar slid slickly down the roof.
Turning his body gingerly toward Sarah, Eric looked to see her barely hanging on for dear life, the crow flying away to a higher perch with something gleaming in its talons. "Sarah?"
"Look out!" Sarah cried. But it was too late.

The next thing Eric knew, his body had reared up and tense in pain, the last few inches of Top Dollar's blade gleaming wetly from the side of his chest. He could feel the air expel soundlessly out from his deflating lung, managing a few lowly gasps of pain and surprise as the blade rotated and withdrew from Eric's body, leaving him falling limply against the roof. He just managed to lean against it, withdrawing from himself as Top Dollar crouched down to his level.
He began to speak to Eric, as if the whole fight had never even happened. "You know, my daddy used to say, 'Every man's got a devil, and you can't rest until you find him.' See, what happened back there with you and your girlfriend – I cleared that building. Hell, nothing happens in this town without my say-so."

Eric let those words digest, his gaze flickering up to Top Dollar's grizzled face, long hair mopped flat against his head. Now he knew why he'd felt like this man would be important – he was the man responsible for sending the gang after him and Shelly. Yet he hadn't been there himself.

If it weren't for him, Shelly would still be alive.

Sarah and her mom would be all right.

All the people who'd died in the Devil's Night infernos would still be around.

And Eric wouldn't be sitting here right now, dying for the second time in a year.

Eric could feel some of the iron rise back into his bones with this realization, the crow watching him from above as Top Dollar continued.
"I'm sorry if I spoiled your wedding plans there, friend. But if it's any consolation to you, you have put a smile on my face. You've got a lot of spirit, son."
Eric saw Top Dollar reach down to pull a wicked-looking knife out from one soaked leather boot, even as the gears in his head began to turn, remembering the words his crow had spoken in his mind. What had he been here for?

Revenge.
Justice.
And…redemption.

"And I'm gonna miss you", Top Dollar finished with a tone of commendation, flashing the knife in front of Eric's face.
Suddenly, Eric understood. He knew what redemption entailed, and he knew that he needed to find it. And what was it he needed to do?
Something simple to say, but hard to do and lethal to the recipient caught in the emotional crossfire – let the pain go.
The pain he still carried…it hadn't been his to begin with. It still wasn't his, even now.

Give it to him, kid. Deliver the final vengeful swing of Death's scythe.

"I have something to give you", Eric requested, some of the frightful gruff he'd had earlier returning to his voice. "I don't want it anymore."
As swiftly as he could muster, Eric slapped a hand to Top Dollar's face, feeling the painful memories flash through his brain one last time before they traveled into Top's mind.

A lone tear flowing down from one of Shelly's swollen eyes, a breath mask over her nose and mouth, hooked up to an IV and heart monitor as doctors and nurses rushed over her. The room dark and cold with the palpable feeling of potential death.

"Thirty hours of pain!" Eric let the cry loose, a groan of barely painful relief escaping his throat. Top Dollar recoiled beneath his grasp, the knife dropping away.

AED paddles sending electric currents into Shelly's covered body, surgeons rushing in with their kits and checking with other doctors on her condition. The eminent curtain of death coming nearer, the paid civil servants working diligently to keep it from doing so.

"All at once!" Eric saw as much as felt blood escape in a scarlet spurt from Top Dollar's mouth, his body beginning to fry from the inside out.

The heart monitor pathetically flatlining, Shelly's outstretched arm slowly descending back beside her prone form on the hospital gurney, a small gasp of his name escaping her lips and into the oxygen mask.

"And all for you!" Eric let out the growling last words, slowly moving Top Dollar's form, all but inert, away from him and off of the roof. He saw his body, his face ravaged in an eternal yawn of painful fear, fall to a lower section of roof, the fog brought by the storm swallowing him up.

Suddenly a flash of lightning fired across the sky, augmented by a baleful cry from the crow and a shot of thunder, and Eric saw the grotesque sight below: Top Dollar's body impaled upon a marble gargoyle, one of its horns sticking up from his mouth, blood mixing with the flooding water that poured from the stone beast's yawning mouth. Eric let out an involuntary shudder at the sight of the night's last deserved death before he turned back tow where he saw Sarah.

She was still hanging on for dear life, managing only to heave herself up a bit more onto the roof, the metal clanging against her body. Eric heaved himself over to the expanding gap in the roof and pulled Sarah up onto a stable section of the roof, holding her tight in a brotherly embrace. They stayed bound like that for a few long moments, the rain cascading down on them in the aftermath of battle.

Slowly, their feet slipping and dragging against the slippery roof, they managed to work their way back into the bell tower and down the stairs, supporting each other in a staggering gait. Once they reached the last set of stairs, they managed to properly see Albrecht, a light smile on his resting face, propped against the entryway to the tower.

"Go help him", Eric requested. Sarah gave him a look of reassurance before nodding and moving over to Albrecht, crouching next to him.
"Are you alive?" she asked, relief coming to her face when she saw him nod and his eyes flash open. Sarah turned to see Eric slowly sit down across from them, gasping lightly in the pain that was still lingering from his barely-healed wounds. He'd be going soon, his earlier feelings of woeful inadequacy from earlier replaced with something fuller. As to what, he didn't know.
"God, I need a cigarette", Albrecht groaned, reaching into his inside coat pocket to grab his lighter and what was left of a pack. "Everybody else dead?"
Eric merely nodded, and Albrecht noticed that the makeup of Irony had washed away from his face, leaving it bare. His eyes, however, seemed to shine again. "You helped me", Eric stated, lightly tapping his own head with a finger. "What you kept in here saved me. Thank you."
"Don't mention it", Albrecht responded with a light smile, Eric taking the cigarette and lighter. "I've been meaning to come to church anyway."
A light smile managed to come to Eric's face as he took a light puff of the cigarette before lifting it to Albrecht's mouth. But Albrecht, it seemed, had lost the taste for them. "Gah, yuck!" he exclaimed, spitting the cigarette away before turning back to Eric and Sarah. "I'm quitting as of now. If I live", he added, chuckling lightly. Eric couldn't help but join in with him, and even Sarah managed to lighten up a bit.

There they were, like three beaten warriors freshly returned from a mission into the very depths of their own hells, but smelling like roses – Eric battered and bloodied but with his head held high, Sarah looking over at him with a smile, Albrecht filling up with pride over what he'd helped them accomplish. The emotion seemed to fill them all up to the point where it took over the room as well, and it wasn't about to leave anytime soon.

Not even the sound of distant sirens outside could diminish the feeling, but Eric slowly rose to his feet and cocked his head as if listening to something that only he could hear beyond the faraway klaxons of police cars. He took one moment to look back at Sarah, speaking what he knew were his last words to her.
"Stay with him until help comes."
Sarah looked over at Albrecht. "He'll be ok, right?" she asked, checking Albrecht to make sure for herself before looking back to where Eric was.

All she saw was the empty archway of the bell tower entrance and the cathedral beyond. "Eric?"
Noticing Sarah's expression, Albrecht let out a soft chuckle before stating, "He does that a lot."
Sarah shook her head with a soft laugh of her own, standing to her feet and staying next to Albrecht until a group of medics came in to check for survivors, a few police officers tailing them for protection. At the sight of Albrecht, they quickly moved to grab a stretcher they'd carted in with them and gingerly lifted Albrecht onto it.
Sarah, however, wasn't done watching him yet. She'd lost Eric and Shelly, and her mom was only beginning to come back around. She wasn't going to lose anyone else, so she stayed with Albrecht still, keeping a close eye on him as they departed from the cathedral, the glaring reds and blues of police car lights flashing to greet them. Cops seemed to swarm around their vehicles, looking around at the area to see what may be amiss.

"Well, at least it stopped raining", Albrecht commented.
With a shrug, Sarah simply stated, "It can't rain all the time."
"No!"

They both looked up to see a familiar ratty face with short hair looking down at them both. "I don't believe it! This nightmare your fault, Albrecht?" Torres asked with indignation, barely failing at keeping a self-satisfied note out of his voice.
Albrecht turned to look at Sarah. "You go on home. I'll be alright", he reassured her. Sarah gave him a gentle nod and began to walk away, her feet taking her in the direction of her home.
"You want to tell me what's going on?" Torres demanded of Albrecht. Not even caring to leave his own smug tone from his voice, Albrecht answered in a manner of authority, "Your vigilante's up on the roof." He let himself take in Torres' surprised look before grabbing him lightly by the lapels and pulling him closer. "You missed it. Again."
At last, Torres' face returned to its neutral, yet constantly pissed-off expression. "Get him out of here." Albrecht managed to let out a small chuckle of satisfaction as the ambulance workers loaded him into the back of the vehicle. Dead or not, he'd done his duty the best he could. He was still a cop, in every sense of the word.

Meanwhile, Sarah had just gotten to the street, ready for the long trek home, when she heard the flapping of wings overhead.
Tilting her head up to the sky, she barely managed to make out the form of the crow flying overhead in the direction of the graveyard, carrying something gleaming in its beak. Not quite knowing why, Sarah decided to follow it.
It had guided Eric, Sarah knew. Now she let it guide her.