Uh, not as full of violence as I planned, but oh, well.

Love, Keta

Chapter 36: I Wonder if I Deserve This

I'm so sick,

Infected with where I live

Let me live without this

Empty bliss,

Selfishness

I'm so sick

-I'm So Sick (Flyleaf)

1467 St. Ashford Street: this is the place where the leviathans have taken Toby and are hiding out.

St. Ashford Street doesn't have the best of history, and most people stay far away from the small street that was more or less dominated by a factory and its warehouses about forty years ago. Then a bunch of accidents started occurring on the property, and some superstitious people believed that the land was haunted. People fell from walkways into vats of molten metal. Someone lost their entire lower half to a cutting machine. Another three committed suicide by hanging themselves in the largest of the warehouses, Number Seven.

Number Seven is the last building standing on St. Ashford Street.

I had forgotten about this place, because it's just so unassuming, even if it has been abandoned.

A crow lands on the branch over my head, cawing in triumph at the squirming worm in its mouth. It drops the poor creature into the nest where its children quickly begin to start chirping; they must be older as they tear apart the bug without the assistance of their mother… I feel like that worm right now.

The oily presence of my other personality reminds me that I'm not so helpless, and I'm remember the scythe that's now at my beck and call. I sigh and summon it into existence, feeling surprised at the ease to which it comes. It's as if it had been mine all of my life, and after a small time apart, I had brought it back to me… It feels like my powers, the ones that my mother had denied me.

I can feel discontent and worry behind me, from the others as they look between the blade in my hands and the leviathans who are suddenly appearing in every corner of this place: in the windows, in doorways, from the few sprawling trees as they shapeshift out of the form of birds into more human creations. It occurs to me that any of these creatures could be Toby, but… None of them feel like him.

"I have to find Toby," I tell the others. "I don't care if you fight them too, just don't get hurt… Any of you."

Both Jesse and Brian seem put off by this remark, but they both know that I don't mean it to be cruel. They both nod at me, and that's all the reassurance I need to leave them behind. I have no doubts that Zalgo and Slender will be here soon enough… I'm certain that the others will follow, as will Atropos and Clotho, and before they can get here, the last two, I have to find Toby and make sure that he's safe. It's a compulsion now… Maybe it always was… I've always been a bit overprotective, but…

'They took our family.'

Family… That is a good bubble for them… Not the hornets, as much as I wish it was, or Slender and the fates… No, Toby is family, and so is Brian and Jesse… LJ too…

'We will find the clown as well… But Toby must be found first.' I can't help but agree with my other personality…

I have to make it to the warehouse, now, and so I teleport, for lack of a better word, to the closest point I can manage, and I know that they have runes around it to keep out even my kind, and angels as well…

One takes on the form of a sea creature of sorts and lashes out at me with long, blackened tentacles as another tries to get behind me. He, the one behind, tries to impale me on his bloody hand, and I catch it with the edge of the scythe blade. It slices clean through, and both it and the octopus thing freeze.

The next swing of Death's scythe cuts into the neck of that leviathan, and pure panic enters its eyes as it dies on this plane. The octopus lets out a shrill scream , and the leviathans take on another form. They're determined but afraid, and I look up at the window on the third floor, and see Edgar there. There's a man beside him with an all to familiar box; Laughing Jack.

"I really don't have time for this, so would you kindly get out of my way?"

"You have to die, cambian… We're keeping the infant."

A disturbing creature with the face of Clockwork speaks then, and a vicious smile slowly crawls onto my face. "That's really not the best form to take around me…"

"Why not?"

"He hates Clockwork!"

A stream of basic-smelling water sprays out onto the crowd around me, and I, recognizing that voice as Brian's, call back, "what the hell are you spraying?"

"Borax," he dutifully replies. "According to the Winchesters, it hurts low level leviathans… But it's not a permanent solution."

True to Brian's words, the crowd clutches to their stinging, burning faces, but it doesn't seem to be doing any lasting damage. There's only one natural progression, and I spray myself and the ground with their oily blood. "Bri," I whisper, and my life-long friend falls into step beside me. "You shouldn't have followed."

"You shouldn't have to do this alone."

"I'm not alone," I reply. "I've never been alone, Bri, and I'll never be again… But, I can do this. I have to do this."

"But you don't have to do it alone. You have a choice, Tim!"

I know that he meant for me to think it through, but that phrase does little for me beyond reminding me of my conversation with death. "I'm well aware of that…" I look up at the window, realizing that Edgar and Isaac have disappeared sight. "I want you to protect Jesse for me… And Toby too, if something happens. Can you do that for me?"

"Course… But nothing's going to happen!"

I offer him a reassuring smile. "Of course not." I'm not so sure of my own affirmation though, and he shouldn't be either. I don't give him a chance to say anything else though, and I disappear into the warehouse.

There's blood, black and red, splattered onto the floors like someone had a demented splatter party. The splatters have no disconcernable pattern, and so I turn my eyes away and onto the forms hiding in the darkness. There are leviathans, cowering away from me and hoping that I won't notice them, but I just don't care. No one steps out to intercept me, and so I ascend the stairs without contest.

For a little while, I hear nothing, but on the third floor, the one where I had seen Edgar earlier, I catch the barest hint of growling. There's a teenage voice, and my heart breaks. Toby's up here, in the door in the middle of the floor on the left. I stop outside of the room, fury and fear running through me in equal proportions as I hear Toby start screaming and… roaring at Edgar like a wild animal. I'm transfixed, in the doorway, as my friend begins to lash out at the head of the leviathans…