Chapter Four: The (New) Old Apartment

"Bet you're glad I trashed your apartment now..."

"Just shut up..."

The Fear looked at the deceased's wallet again, matching the address on his license to the house in front of them. Definately the same place. He wondered why he was so surprised. Most of his clients--and marks-- were business class. The house was more than spacious enough for one person; the man had said he lived alone. Although it did have the undecorated no-nonsense look that could almost guarantee that it lacked a woman's touch.

"Charming..." Fury looked the place over. "Did you get the keys?"

"No. At the time, I didn't know I was going to need to take him up on his offer."

"One usually overlooks to prepare for a pyromaniac rendering your home to ashes," The Sorrow agreed.

Fury grinned, entirely too pleased with the situation. "Does that mean I get to break a window?"

The mercenary rolled his eyes. "Yeah, go ahead and take care of that before the cops get done cleaning up the last mess you made."

The Flame Soldier picked up a rather large rock from the driveway.

The Fear grabbed his arm. "Hey! Did you not hear the sarcasm dripping off my words?"

"I did," he replied. "But I decided to ignore it."

"You're not breaking any windows, Fury."

"Says you."

The door opened. The Sorrow poked his head out. "I suppose this counts as an advantage to the situation."

"Oh. I forgot you could do that."

"He unlocked the door, didn't he?" Furry tossed the rock back on the ground, disappointed.

"Yep."

The interior of the house was much like the outside; plain. One could tell this man hadn't spent a great deal of time here. It was devoid of any sort of personal decoration, no pictures, no trinkets on the walls or shelves.

There were a lot of books though. They lined the shelves, which were tall enough to almost touch the ceiling. The Sorrow gravitated there almost immediately. The Fury fell back onto the couch, content to relaz and light a cigarette. The Fear started a tour around the house. The living room and kitchen were huge, but there was still only one bedroom. Good thing Sorrow didn't sleep.

He walked back into the living room, tossing his knapsack on the glass coffee table. "Well, here's the new HQ I guess."

Fury propped a leg up on the edge of the table. "Yeah? Well what's this new HQ got stocked to drink?"

Years of training had left The Fear with a very-alert way of sleeping. So when the bedroom door opened later that night, he knew it immediately. He didn't move as The Sorrow shut the door softly behind him, looking around briefly. Then he sat down on the floor against the wall, facing the bed and opening the book he'd brought in with him.

He waited a bit before speaking. "Sorrow?"

The blue-eyed Cobra looked up at him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't," he lied. "What's up?"

"The Fury said I was reading too loudly, whatever that means. Even though he can't hear me..."

Fear smiled, sitting up. "He's just mad cuz he has to sleep on the couch."

"If it bothers you, I could go somewhere else..."

"It's no problem," he replied. "Sorry there's no chair."

Sorrow shrugged, a small smile settling on his face.

"Well," he scooted over on the large bed, leaving a spot open. "If you get tired of the floor, you can...y'know, sit up here if you want."

The ghost stared at him, and odd look in his eyes. "Who are you?"

Fear stifled a yawn with the back of his hand. "What?"

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I wouldn't imagine you were the smae person I knew."

Suddenly embarassed, he covered with a lopsided grin. "Well, I can't very well pull pranks on a ghost..."

The Sorrow nodded, looking...smug? "I suppose not."

The orange-eyed Cobra's grin faded. "Besides...you've been through hell. If someone I relly cared about couldn't even see me I'd be devestated."

Fear saw Sorrow's eyes lower and smacked his forehead. "God, I'm sorry. That's probably the last thing you wanna think about..."

"It's...okay," he looked back up at his friend. "Listen, when I--"

He stopped short as the sound of glass shattering came from the living room. They jumped up, The Fear getting tangled in the blankets for a moment, and ran into the room.

The coffee table was in shatters. Almost positively because of the ex-Cobra laid out in the middle of it.j

"Fury!"

The Flame Soldier put a hand to his head slowly, groaning. "Fuckin'...where is it?"

"Where's what?" The Fear pulled him up carefully, trying not to cut him further. The back of his arms were covered in tiny red cuts, his back most likely the same.

Then he felt something push him, full in the back. He yelled, pitching forward. He could see the broken glass all over the floor; he was going to hit it face first.

His decent was stopped just as sudden. The Sorrow held on to him, arms wrapped around his waist. The Spider Soldier regained his footing. "Oh god..."

"What was that?!" Sorrow released him, looking around. "Where'd he go?"

The Fear choked down a rather sickening mental image of glass shards in his face. "Who?"

"The thing that's been screwin' with me!" Fury snapped, wincing as he moved sharply. "You can't see it?"

The Sorrow felt something move past him. He reached for it, but his arm went right through. "Fear, I don't think it's a ghost. I can't touch it."

"If it's not a ghost, what the hell is it?!" The Fear turned in a circle, desperately trying to get a glance at their tormenter.

The thing laughed. Hearing it come from slightly to the left, The Fury lashed out. He hit the invisible foe with a few good punches. This seemed to lighten his mood. "Hell yeah, we can hit him!"

It ran from him, passing directly through The Sorrow. He gasped as something close to a static shock coursed through him. He fell to his knees, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Sorrow!" Fear started to him, only to be stopped as something pierced his side, ripping a pained howl from him. Before he could reach down and pull out the large shard of table that had stabbed him, he was thrown back into the bookshelf. A few of the books fell around him before the entire shelf crashed down on him.

"Shit!" The Fury tried to pull the shelf back up, letting out a long stream of curses as his cut skin was pulled by the effort. The Sorrow grabbed Fear's arm and struggled to pull him out.

"We need to get out of here!" Sorrow said to Fury, before realizing how useless this was. "Fear, can you hear me?"

His voice was dazed, as if only half-aware of his surroundings. "Yeah, I hear ya. Hey Fury, Sorrow says let's get the hell outta here..."

The pyromaniac frowned, loathe to run away from his fight once again. But he knew The Sorrow's advice was sound. In the conditions they were in, they stood to lose. Slinging Fear's arm over his shoulders, he pulled the dazed Cobra up. "Garage door."

The Sorrow followed them, looking out for their attacker. The invisible thing had taken to merely throwing books at them. The three of them went through the garage door, slamming it behind them.

"I thought you said this guy was business type..." Fury growled.

"He was..." Fear said almost too low to hear.

"Then how come he's drivin' a freakin' pickup truck?"

"I...dunno."

The Sorrow opened the door and slid inside the truck cab. Fury shoved Fear in after him and went to the hood to get it to start.

The Fear gripped the steering wheel with shaking hands. "Okay, where do we go now?"

The truck roared to life and The Fury got inside the cab, shoving Fear into the middle seat. "There is no way in HELL I'm letting you even try to walk on your own, let alone control something that can kill us."

Fear didn't argue, merely letting his head fall back onto Sorrow's shoulder. "Man, I'm tired..."

Fury drove the truck out of the garage and started down the street. His glanced in the rearview mirror.

"What the hell is that?"

Sorrow turned around. "Umm...a black cloud?"

Fear didn't relay the message, as he had fallen asleep.