Graffiti chapter eleven: Betrayal by blackdragonflower

"It's a good thing everybody's out on patrol... and it's not too hard to knock out Spike." Stripes chuckled. Matt was holding onto his hand tightly, but the adult didn't mind.

"Stripes... where is Mello?"

"Knowing him... with Angel's Lies of course."

Matt yanked his hand free from Stripes and stared at him, "How do you know Mello?!"

"What do you mean?"

"You make it sound like you've known Mello a long time Stripes... How?"

Stripes put his hands up in sign of surrender. "Look I could get in a lot of trouble for telling you..."

"What could you get in trouble for?! You've already taken me from Rulebreakers! They're sure to-" Matt whimpered when Stripes covered his mouth suddenly and they were pressed against a wall.

"Sh... Someone's coming..." Matt listened a moment and sure enough he heard footsteps echoing down the alley. He was tense however, the moment right as Stripes had covered his mouth a flashback of last night had played through his mind like a video. Moska holding him so he couldn't scream, couldn't fight. The redhead pushed the thought from his mind with a shake of his head. He was going home, Stripes had promised him. "I think they're gone." Stripes poked his head around the corner. "Come on... let's hurry." Stripes and Matt ran through back alleys until they came to the edge of a lush green lawn.

Matt smiled faintly. He knew the building, hell everyone in Winchester knew the building. "The Winchester Cathedral? This is where Angel's Lies is?" Matt questioned his voice low.

"No, but someone there will know how to get you to Angel's Lies." Stripes thought hard. "That's right Kara will be here today..." Stripes grinned and patted Matt's head. "When we get closer to the building help me find her... she wears glasses with rectangle frames and looks like a walking bar of chocolate." The twenty-eight year old laughed quietly.

Matt snickered. "Really?"

"Yeah... Come on let's go..." Stripes knudged Matt gently on the shoulder and the redhead took off running. He stopped and looked back when he felt Stripes wasn't behind him. His mouth fell open all giddiness he'd experianced gone. The green eyed adult was fending off an attacker. "Matt go! Hurry!" The gamer shook then took off running. He heard Stripes cry out in pain behind him. The redhead squeezed his eyes tight a moment then sprinted as fast as he could towards the church. His lungs burned in protest whining in anguish.

He'd left Stripes behind...

Matt clenched his fists and pressed onward aggrivated. Stripes had risked his life to get him out of there, Matt knew. His blood raced, addrenaline flooding his system. His pretty green eyes darted everywhere looking for the target. He would not get caught and have Stripes' effort be in vain. He heard the footsteps behind him, knew someone was chasing. From the sound of it, they were about the same size. Matt allowed himself a glance back. His eyes narrowed seeing Josh sprinting after him. He dove into the church building, running past the crowds, and into the labiryth. Once in a good hiding spot Matt peeked out his breathing heavy as his body begged for oxygen.

Josh was glancing around annoyed that he'd lost Matt. The boy kicked the ground and darted back outside of the cathedral. Matt heaved a deep sigh of relief. "Hello? Why are you hiding here?" Matt whirled around heart in his throat.

"W-Who are y-you?" Matt had to admit, despite the first reaction of being scared she was pretty. Her curly maroon hair was pulled into a ponytail. She smiled head tilted to one side.

"Me? My name is Kara."

The gamer took a moment, and now noticed her brown apparel which had made Stripes dub her as 'looking like a chocolate bar'. "You're her..."

"Oh... You were looking for me?" She chuckled.

Matt got a strange sense of unease in his stomach. He grabbed her hand and started pulling her away from the main hall further. "Stripes sent me... Said you would help... I need to find Angel's Lies."

"Stripes sent you? Okay. Follow me." She squeezed his hand and led him away from the people and through the cathedral towards an alternate exit. They escaped into the domains of the city and Matt kept his head low. They ducked into dark alleys in which Matt wasn't friendly with. Through unfamiliar twists and turns they traveled and Matt felt his heart beating nonstop with every step taken. Kara looked around them then pushed open a door randomly placed in the brick wall of an alley not to far from the main road. She closed the door and Matt kept firm grip on her hand as they were bathed in darkness. "Don't worry. Just a little further." Matt followed her blindly through the dark and soon he could just faintly see a light, but maybe it was just his imagination. "You know my name is Kara... but who are you?"

"My name is... Matt..."

"You're Matt. You're the one Stripes sent us messages about. Don't worry. We're here." Kara pushed open a door Matt didn't know was there. Hell, he couldn't even see in that pitch blackness. They took a step into the light and Matt nearly began to cry. Mello was curled up on the sofa sleeping. He was alive.

"Kara?" Christian looked up to the woman then to Matt. "... I see." Kara let go of Matt's hand and the redhead ran over to shake the blonde awake.

"Mello! Mello! Wake up!"

The blonde -not knowing who it was in his disorientated state of sleepiness- smacked Matt away. "Dammit! I'm trying to sleep! God!" Mello groaned. "Stupid people always having to stupidly wake me up..."

"...Mello..." Matt bit his lip.

Slowly the chocolate addicted boy got up, rubbing the sleep from his tired eyes. He blinked, his mouth parting slightly in surprise. "Matt?"

The redhead flung his arms around Mello's neck and clung tears streaking down his face. "I was so worried about you Mello!"

Mello blushed heavily and pushed Matt a comfortable distance away. "Me? Why the hell do you have to be worried about me?! God Matt I'm just fucking fine and dandy!"

"You don't seem that way..." Matt pouted moody.

"Hey. Sorry to break up this warm friendly reunion but... how exactly did you get away from Rulebreakers? We were under the impression they had you in lockdown." Danted crossed his arms looking at Matt. It wasn't unfriendly, just carefully distrustful.

"Stripes must have helped him." Kara offered. "He said Stripes sent him when he met me at the cathedral."

"Hm. Interesting." Seraph spoke leaning against the wall. Matt blinked. She was like a... punky gothic Near... with piercings.

"He did! Stripes helped me escape from Rulebreakers!" Matt blurted. He felt a little embarrassed being the focus of everyone's attentions but continued on. "He was helping me to the Winchester Cathedral when he was attacked! He told me to find Kara..."

Dante and Seraph looked at each other a bit worried. "Were you followed here?"

"No." Kara finalized. "I made sure of it." The female grinned pushing her glasses up her nose. "I've been at this for quite awhile too ya know... Just about as long as you."

Matt climbed onto the couch beside Mello and grabbed the blonde in a hug. "I missed you! I was worried they killed you or something."

"MATT! Stop giving me hugs!" Mello whined trying to pry himself free. While Matt and Mello were quickly "catching up" the adults of Angel's Lies were speaking in a bit of worried tones.

"He was attacked... they must know he is a spy now."

"Exactly. They probably will do what they did to her."

"Unfortunate. Hopefully he can last a little while. They will think he betrayed them or he's always been a traitor working for us. Either way it's not very good."

"What are we going to do about Stripes?"

Dante curled his fists. "If there's one thing we can't do it's let them get ahold of Matt again. Otherwise all those efforts by Stripes were for nothing."

"Yes."

"Agreed."

"Matt... what the hell is this?!" Mello yanked Matt's collar so he could see the bruised flesh.

Matt looked down at the floor his eyes dimming again. "Things just... happened..."

"Matt... You are going to tell me now." Mello growled.

"I... I don't want to talk about it Mello..."

The blonde stared hard at the redhead, then relaxed his position. It had to be something bad. Matt was being way too reclusive and silent. Mello lowered his tone. "Matt what happened? Tell me."

"I... You know the guy who... the guy who beat you up?"

The blonde clenched his teeth. "How could I forget?"

"... Well... well..." What could he possibly say to get Mello to drop it without telling the exact truth? "He... he beat me up too..."

"He raped you." Mello argued. "He fucking raped you! DANTE! WE'RE BLOWING THAT FUCKING PLACE TO TINY INSIGNIFIGANT FUCKING BITS!"

Matt curled up into a tight ball hugging his knees. He shivered and looked up when he felt warm arms around him. "Sh... It'll be okay sweetie." Kara... Matt noticed she smelled faintly of cinnamon and pumpkin. It was sweet and helped to calm him down. "You'll be okay. We'll get 'em."

Matt nuzzled softly into her embrace a hot tear splattering against her neck. Mello was supernaturally quiet his apocolyptic eyes resting on Matt. How was he suppose to know this had happened to Matt? How was he suppose to deal with his best friend now? Mello placed a hand on Matt's shoulder channeling his support with no words needing to be spoken.

He was here for Matt and he would be sure to make sure he was burning in hell's fury if it was any other way.