Author's Notes: Last chapter.
Two months and we're packed for the 'Exodus' as Schuldig has mockingly taken to calling it. We each have a gym bag of our most necessary items and the rest of whatever we might need is in two backpacks we keep with the bags by the door. Takatori has issued his orders to meet him at the top of one of his sky scraping buildings known as 'Takatori Towers', but we aren't due for another couple of hours. In the mean time, Nagi has been deleting computer files, wiring our money discreetly to fresh accounts around the globe and removing any other evidence of our occupancy in the house, including sheets, pillows, towels, and cigarette butts. Crawford can't stop pacing, and Schuldig and I escaped having to watch him just thirty minutes ago.
I am lying on the bed, feeling chilled without blankets, but enjoying the warmth of Schuldig's body alongside mine, the whisper of his breath against my face as he sleeps.
"Are you afraid to die?" he asks. He wasn't asleep after all…
I shrug. I don't know. My beliefs are still confused. Either I think there's something beyond life, or nothing. No gray area here. Afraid, though…not really. Either way it goes, I'll expect it.
"Are you?" I ask. His fingers twist strands of his hair anxiously and his blue eyes look out at me from behind his bangs.
"A bit, yes…But more of the pain and anything else. I'm not fond of pain."
"I know," I whisper back and rub the palm of my hand on his hip in soothing circles, "But it can't last forever. Everyone dies sometime, for good cause or bad or none at all."
"How profound," Schuldig laughs, "Well, if I die and you don't, I don't want a burial."
I frown quizzically at him. Was he expecting me to leave him in the middle of the road to rot?
"Cremate me and throw me into the ocean. If Esset ever comes back, I don't want to give them chance to bring me back. They have necromancers or something like them, you know…I never want to go back once I'm outta here…"
I nod and pull him against me. Secretly I refuse to let him die, ever.
"If you die, what should I do?" Schuldig asks as his leg curls over my waist.
"I don't care...just take me back to Ireland…"
He nods and presses his face against my neck, his breath slowing again for sleep.
An hour later, we're dressed, armed and ready to go. I've put some last minute provisions in the bags and my extra knives into my gym tote, but otherwise, I'm carrying all I own with me. M best knives are tucked away on my person somewhere and I feel a little like a pincushion…
Schuldig can't stop flipping the safety on and off on his gun, his own knife tucked against his ankle under the fold of his pants. He carries no ID. None of us have ID's. None of us exist. We never have, not even Nagi. Only Crawford has a keycard to let us into the building. We arrive at the tower in Crawford's black car.
Takatori leads us to a room where an altar-like table has been set up, with the little girl we had stolen away not long ago laid out, peaceful in her unnatural sleep. Aya Fujimiya, with soft brown hair and a single gold earring, the other possibly in the possession of a former lover or beloved family member…
Fujimiya, the protective, if not deranged elder brother-turned killer…his katana the embodiment of his pure desire for revenge…
She, an innocent, should not be involved in this…Crawford said she was part of The Ceremony…I pity her.
We take position ready to defend the room and its contents from anyone who might try to interrupt, though our zeal is flawed. The Elders arrive and we all lower our eyes in respect and a plea for Them not to notice us, to ignore us. For Them to take an interest in us would be our end, no doubt. They begin The Ceremony, those old, decrepit monsters and I can feel their power thrumming throughout the room, purely mental and purely evil…
Satan isn't one being, but three…The unholy trinity.
An alarm goes off, Weiss has arrived and we, in our white suits, go to do our duty and kill them. The room two floors down awaits us for this final battle. Weiss is already there and ready. I draw my knives as the other's draw their guns, the hair on the back of my neck rising in response to the power Nagi is summoning. We hold back long enough to acknowledge Oracle's order, 'Go'.
The feel of Tiger Claws slipping under my jaw and into my skull is unbelievably strange. It makes my eyes roll and my body go slack against the wall that he holds me against. I am sure this is going to kill me…I can still feel Nagi's power surging in the room, his emotions roiling within the explosive air, and heat of the flames, the tremble of the explosion, though I can barely hear it. I am released by those cruel claws a moment before the glass floor below our feet collapses. I watch passively as my teammates are dropped unceremoniously into the raging sea below, just like the tower card in a tarot pack.
I fall with them, the wind and sea salt biting my skin, the rain icy cold. It seems as if it takes an eternity to hit the water, and even longer to float down, down, deeper into its dark depths. I twist so I may watch the firelight and huge chunks of cement fly above the surface of the water, the tinge of green.
I won't reach Ireland after all…
Fin Agoraphobia
Please Review
Author's Notes: A bit abrupt and not a bit depressing, but that's okay.
Does he survive? Does he drown? Does he magically learn how to fly?
You'll just have to find out, won't you?
In my next installment, of course…