Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO HoliMeiMei ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.
"So what's the plan? Are you just going to stab him and walk away?"
Ebony sat on Pitch's shoulder, following his gaze as he peeked out of the alleyway. He chuckled and stroked her head.
"Not quite, my dear. The mermaid girl has magic powers, and I don't quite know the extent of them. We need to get her out of the picture before we can do anything."
Ebony let out at exasperated sigh. "So we are going to kill her."
"We are not going to do anything with her," Pitch retorted. "We need someone to get her away from him so that he's vulnerable. And I don't imagine that will be too hard."
"Okay." The fairy batted her wings in frustration. "What are we waiting around for, then?"
Pitch gazed off into the distance cryptically. "The right person."
The two twin brothers raced through the alleyway, thick muscles rippling under their dark green shirts and bags of money swung haphazardly over their shoulders. To their relief, the sounds of police sirens were getting farther and farther away, and the hefty side door that looked like it led to a good hiding place was drawing ever closer.
One of them, his face adorned with a black eyepatch, stopped abruptly and looked anxiously around. "Something's not right, Bronson," he said, his voice shaking. "This place gives me the creeps. I think…I think someone's watching us."
The other whipped around to face him. "Are you insane?" he snarled. "There's going to be plenty of people watching us in jail if we don't get a move on! Now stop being such a baby and help me get through that door!"
"I'm serious," the man with the eyepatch said insistently. "It's like…something's lurking in the shadows. I don't know what, but something. Maybe we should try a different alley."
"Oh, shut it, Vaughn!" Bronson snapped. "Do you really think we have the time? The cops are practically on top of us!"
Vaughn wanted to argue, feeling a danger far greater than any cop car hovering just out of sight, but he certainly was not ready to get thrown in jail again. Sighing, he followed Bronson, casting apprehensive glances at the looming shadows cast by the tall buildings on either side of them.
Suddenly, there was a swishing noise up ahead, and a cloud of blackness exploded from the ground. It cleared to reveal a tall, creepy man with slicked-back black hair, sickly gray skin, and piercing amber eyes. Both brothers started.
"It would appear you were right, Vaughn," he jeered. "Looks like something was hiding in the shadows." The man had what appeared to be a little black fairy with a long, pointed nose perched on his shoulder, but that didn't make the image any less frightening.
Despite himself, Vaughn couldn't help but give his brother a triumphant smirk. Bronson elbowed him in the side, hard.
"Get out of the way," Bronson growled. "We've got somewhere we're going, if you don't mind."
"Ah, yes. Robbing a convenience store and then trying to hide. How original." The tall man laced his fingers together and contemplated the twins.
"We don't have time for this." Bronson pulled a shotgun out of his pocket and aimed it right at the tall man's head. "Now get out of the way!"
The tall man laughed coldly. "Oh, you think you can hurt me with that? Sorry to rain on your burglaring parade, but it's going to take more than a few bullets to get rid of me."
Without waiting to hear more, Bronson pulled the trigger and sent a bullet sailing right into the tall man's head. It took him a few shocked seconds to register that it had gone right through, denting the brick wall at the end of the alley before falling unceremoniously to the ground.
"Nice try," the tall man said with a chuckle. "An admirable effort, really. But even if you were to kill me, your entire escape plan would be for naught." He glanced behind him, and then back at the brothers. "That door you were planning on escaping through is locked."
For the first time, fear began to creep into Bronson's eyes. Whether it was because this strange man had just survived a bullet to the brain or their escape route had been invalidated, Vaughn couldn't tell.
The sirens drew closer and closer, until they came to a sudden halt right outside the alley. The tall man smirked. "Oh look, here are the cops now."
The brothers exchanged a terrified glance. Before either could react, the tall man was on top of them, shoving them both simultaneously against the wall of one of the buildings. They stood their ground, frozen with fear, as the odd man did something even more surprising. He rubbed his pallid hands together rapidly, creating handful after handful of black sand. Making a series of waving motions, he formed the black sand into something like a force field, using it block out all three of them.
Within minutes, footsteps and voices echoed through the alley. Vaughn couldn't see a thing through the black forcefield, but he knew it was the police.
"Coulda sworn they came down this way! Am I crazy?"
"Nah, they definitely did. Saw them turn in here myself. But it's a dead end…where the hell did they go?"
"Through that door?" The sound of more footsteps, and then the loud rattling of a metal door.
"Drat! It's locked!"
"They couldn't have gone in, then."
"Nah, I'll bet those bastards locked us out. Where else could they have gone? There's no sign of them anywhere!
"Yeah, that's true."
"Why don't we get in at the other side of the building? If we're fast, we can nab them before they can even make it out the front door."
"Fine by me. Let's get out of there. This alleyway's starting to give me the heebie-jeebies."
The smick-smack of running feet on pavement fading out signaled that the police had left the alleyway. The tall man lowered his hands, and the force field dissolved in little dark swirls.
The two brothers exchanged shocked glances before looking back at the tall man. "Uh…thanks," Vaughn managed finally.
"Don't mention it." The tall man waved a hand dismissively. "Now the way I see it, you boys have two options. Either you can keep running away with your meager stolen money and see how long you can elude the cops, or…you can put that cash right back where it came from and get yourselves something much more valuable."
Bronson curled his lip. "How stupid do you think we are?" he sneered. "Why should we trust that you have anything better?"
"Well, I did just save both your skins from prison," the tall man deadpanned. "I could've just backed off and let the both of you get arrested…but I didn't, for some reason. Anyway, the choice is entirely yours."
"So you wanna tell us what exactly it is you're giving us?" Bronson growled.
The tall man's yellow eyes glinting with malice. "Well, you might not be aware, but there are mermaids living in the bay nearby. Real, living, breathing mermaids. Mermaids with priceless scales. But this isn't just any mermaid." He laughed dryly. "Oh no, this mermaid's hair is laced with the healing powers of a magic golden flower. All you have to do is sing a special song…and you can stay young and healthy forever."
Vaughn's lips curled up into a cruel grin. He could believe it. If strange men could materialize out of black clouds and create forcefields out of sand, then mermaids didn't seem like a far stretch.
He turned and regarded his brother. "I think it sounds like a good idea."
"Yeah, but how are we even going to get the money back to the store without being caught?" Bronson demanded.
"Oh, don't worry, my assistant will take care of that," the tall man replied.
Clearly the fairy had other ideas. "How am I supposed to carry those heavy bags on my own, you moron?" she snapped.
The tall man looked down at the pointy-nosed creature and seemed to decide that she had a point. "Very well," he sighed. "I'll take the money back to the store myself, but only if you give me your word that you'll wait right here until I get back."
"Of course we'll stay," Bronson grunted. "We want the mermaid, pretty boy. But what if the cops come back?"
"I'll just put up another forcefield." The tall man set to work making one, creating more of his black sand and molding it into a wall. "You'll just look like another shadow. The same way you did before."
"So what do we have to do to get the mermaid?" Vaughn asked.
The tall man smiled darkly. "Once I get back? Exactly what I say."
And now, kids, we take a break from our annoying sappy lovebird protagonists and have an entire chapter dedicated to the BAD GUYS! Any guesses as to who the two robbers are? JK, it's painfully obvious. I'm not even going to bother playing this up as some suspenseful guessing game because this is the most obvious thing to ever obvious. Anyhow, ya like the names I gave them? :D I searched up "overly-manly criminal names" (or something of the like…I wrote this part a while ago) and it didn't take long to come across the lovely overly-manly criminal names of Vaughn and Bronson XD So what is that shifty Pitch up to? Guess you'll have to wait until next Wednesday to find out, in the grand fucking finale!
And hooooooly shit, I can't believe this is the second-to-last chapter! Like damn…that 14 weeks sure went by fast. As usual, I'm a little saddened to be finishing something I submit on a regular basis. Having a schedule for submitting fanfiction parts weekly gives me the illusion of productivity and having my life together XD And I'm in college…god knows I need that! Luckily for me, I have been getting several more ideas for multi-part fanfictions as of late, so before too long I will, once again, be submitting a story on a weekly schedule and fueling my illusion of productivity. Until then, I'll see you suckers next week!