Here is the third chapter of my fan fiction The Dark One. Enjoy.
My dear binabella I'm sorry for not giving this information before. Rosette is 22 and Joshua is 21.
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Chrno Crusade series. I never did and sadly I never will.
How long they have been staring at the watch? She didn't know, for her time had stopped the moment she saw that thing around her neck, and even the fact that Joshua had moved them to the kitchen and they were now sitting down looking at it as it rest on the table between them even the soft ticking could not for the life of her convince her that time had started up again.
-It could be a joke…
Her brother spoke with such a soft voice that she almost did not heard him. The key word in this sentence is almost.
-Yes Joshua. Somebody found out what happened ten years ago, got a watch that looks exactly like the other one, broke into our house, put this thing around my neck whiteout me waking and left, just like that, he didn't take anything, there are no signs of forced entry. It's a very complex, twisted joke.
-What else could it be? I mean you're a heavy sleeper maybe you didn't wake up. And maybe they made a copy of our keys whiteout us notice.
-Brilliant Joshua. Somebody took our keys, copied them and brought them back and we didn't notice them. And then they found out about something that happened ten years ago in Michigan, something neither of us ever told anyone I might add.
Joshua twitched nervously and looked away, cutting of Rosette in the middle of her rant. Her left eye started to twitched angrily yet her voice was incredibly sweet.
-Joshua WE never told anyone RIGHT?
-RIGHT?
Nothing
Joshua risked a glance at his sister form and immediately backed away in fear. She was shaking with anger, her eyes had such a murderous fire in them he was surprised he didn't spontaneously combust. He started to back away slowly if only he could reach is room, he might lock himself in until he was sure his life wouldn't be in danger.
-Now Rosette, I was only trying to help you. And it seemed a really trustworthy website…
-Website?
-…and I did not give them that many details. Ahhhh… Remember when we were little Rosette and I used to hold your hand during horror movies because you made me feel safe? Can you really kill somebody who shares so many memories with you? Your own brother who…who loves you and respects you…
-Joshua…
"Shit it didn't work"
-…you're DEAD!
He tried to run, he really did, but when Rosette was moved by all powerful rage she was like lightning. He was pushed into the ground and his head was locked in a very painful grip, he bit his tongue when he received one of Rosette's famous super noogies.
-WHO DID YOU TOLD?
-A website of an organization called the Magdalene Order, it said they investigate problems or weird stuff like what happened to us. It seemed really responsible so I sent them an email, you were having all of those bad dreams and I wanted to help, I didn't say any names and it was about three years ago. I'm sorry; I was only trying to help. Ouch! Please stop Rosette.
She stopped immediately but didn't get off his back felling a sadistic pleasure at his discomfort. For such a smart boy there were times when he lacked common sense, even a five-year-old with the minimum internet experience knew that just because a website seemed reliable it didn't make it so. She rubbed the bridge of her noose trying to calm down.
-Joshua…
-Yes sis?
-You're an idiot.
-I know.
-Tomorrow I'm going to call in sick. Then I'm going to Wall-Mart then I'm going to change the locks, ALL of them. Do you understand me?
-Yes. I'm really sorry Rosette.
-I know. But next time please, be more careful. Now try and get some sleep ok?
She got off him and went back to the table. Once she had the watch in her hands she threw it at the garbage bag and went back to her room. Joshua didn't say anything; he was probably feeling guilty about this whole mess.
"Serves him right! The idiot! What was he thinking?"
She dropped on the bed and calmed her racing heart. Soon that voice calmed her into a blissful dreamless world.
Joshua was not as lucky as Rosette; he did not have a soothing voice to calm his fears. Alone in his room the only thing he could was to stare at the ceiling as the guilt and self disgust tore him apart.
"I'm such a nuisance"
This wasn't a new thought. Ever since he was a child he knew he was always holding his sister back. Rosette refused to separate from him, and his constant health problems made him virtually unadoptable; if it wasn't for him Rosette could have been adopted to a good home. She wouldn't have to struggle for a living, to pay for his college, his dreams. She could have gone to college had a chance at a better future, but no he had to drag her down. And now this… he had wanted to help Rosette with her nightmares, he too never forgot about that place, so when he contacted the Magdalene Order it never crossed his mind that this sort of thing could happen…
Rosette always had his back; she was always standing up for him and being strong for him. Tonight she was scared, she was weak, and some psycho had taken advantage of a childhood fear and had used it the most cruel, vicious way. Tomorrow he was going to find these Magdalene Order guys and defend his sister; tomorrow for the first time in his life he was going to be strong for Rosette.
It wasn't hard to sneak out at six am, Rosette only woke up at eight and she was very heavy sleeper. He dug to intact watch out of the trash bag, left a note saying he had to leave early for an assignment and breakfast ready. His first stop was at the nearby cyber café, it only took him minutes to track down the website. It had an address at the bottom of the page, it could be another scam but it was his best shot…
Remington was ready for a new day of reports, observing Rosette, more reports and search for clues. He was just ready to leave his small apartment and go to dinner when his cell phone rang. Curious about who would be calling at this hour, he looked at caller's ID before picking it up.
-Good morning Sister Kate. I was just on my way…
-Silence Remington! This is an emergency; you must come to Headquarters immediately! The Christopher boy is here and he is furious!
"Forgive me my God for my choice of words but SHIT!"
He didn't even give time for Sister Kate to finish. As quickly as he could he got into his old trusty Harley and raced down the streets.
Had his cover been blown? What about Azmaria? Sure the girl was innocent and felt bad about tricking the boy but she would never endanger the mission by actually telling the target he was being watched. Three years! Three bloody years of undercover of secretly following them on their vacations back to Seventh Bell, of becoming a familiar figure to Rosette by being her faithful customer, of forging Azmaria's documents in order to get her in the same classes as Joshua for the two of them to become friends. Had all their careful planning been ruined by someone or something he grimly thought. Had he already made his move and Joshua was coming for help… He hopped not, it was better to tell them the truth right now then to be too late.
Three years ago there was a breakthrough in his most important case ever, someone had awaken the Dark One, a contract had been forged in that sacred cave, the traces of blood proved it, someone had emailed the Magdalene Order asking for advice, unlike the usual phony exorcism crap even a rookie could tell it was made to mess with them, this one had a very realistic description of the very case he was working on. The writer, who chose to remain anonymous, and his sibling had wandered away from a field trip at an old monastery and decided to explore the catacombs; the siblings had found a room with strange carvings on the walls, and a strange "statue" with a clock hanging from its neck. The writer then told how one of them had accidentally cut himself on the watch and started bleeding, and how somehow the watch started to work. The writer did not say who had bleed, when or where had this occurred but the description of the room and the "statue" left no doubt on what it was.
Tracking down the tour guide for the monastery had been easy, the hardest parts of the job was to soul dive and find the memory he was looking for. It took the transport of very expensive and delicate equipment and the kidnapping (although only for one night) of an innocent woman to find what he wanted. He knew the year he had awaken and the monastery had a limited number of visitor a year, but nothing could have prepared him for the vision of two blond children staring guiltily at a the woman, with hands behind their backs. A boy and a girl, siblings, merely children… when he emerged he was so shocked he couldn't speak for thirty minutes. This wasn't the work of a large group of worshipers like he had suspected throughout most of the case, but an accident on two innocent children. They must be teens by now with no idea of the true significance of what had happen. The true gravity of this case hit him like a ton of bricks: somewhere in the United States of America was a teenager bound by the very soul to a creature referred only has the Dark One probably with the whole demon society looking for him with no idea of the danger there was!
He spent the next few months using every energy he had tracking down those children, investigated dozens of schools, pulling up hundreds of confidential records until he found them Rosette and Joshua Christopher of the Seventh Bell orphanage, now living in New York. Now that he knew who they were a new problem was pointed out by Sister Kate: which one had made the bond? The woman didn't know if any of them had any injuries and no one would take a child to the hospital if it was just a cut. There was no choice they had to observe both of them until they knew who was bound and the contract were broken.
Now here he was, entering the run down building of the New York Headquarters the hold personnel was at the lobby were a very violent exchange of words was taking place between an extremely angered Joshua and his friend and co-worker Father Gillian.
-You bastards had made me wait long enough! I want to speak to the one in charge NOW!
-Calm down kid. You're not seeing anyone while acting that way.
Azmaria had always described has a calm, gentle boy but he was pretty sure if Gillian were to let him go we would break anything we could get his hands on or, given his weak health condition, have an attack and collapse whichever came first. He saw Sister Kate reaching out to him but it was too late, his cover be dammed the boy would not be reacting so violently if there wasn't a good reason.
-Joshua! Joshua Christopher!
Gillian immediately let go of the boy when he reached them. He grabbed the boy by his shoulders there seemed to be no injuries on him, but still he was alone…
-Joshua! What happened? It is Rosette?
-So it was you! You sick freak!
For a weak boy he had a decent right hook.
-I came to return this! – He shoved something on his chest – Leave my sister alone!
The watch, Joshua had the watch. There it was just like the last time he had held it, he could feel rather than hear the ticketing.
-Where did you get that?
-Don't play dumb! You or one of your goons… - He shot Gillian a dirty look - …broke into our house last night to put this around my sister's neck. Now tell me who it was or I'm calling the cops on all of you!
"…around his sister's…Shit"
He didn't know if it was his expression or the sudden whiteness of his face but something made Joshua shut up and realize that he was just as scared as he was. He quickly went through the shock and grabbed the boy a little too roughly by the shoulder.
-Joshua. Ten years ago who bleed onto the watch, you or Rosette? Answer now!
-It… it was Rosette. But I don't see how this…
-Where is Rosette now? TELL ME!
-She should be at home…
-Stay here.
He walked out of the building, shouting a few instructions to Sister Kate to keep Joshua there while he would go and get Rosette. He had made his move Remington only hopped he wasn't too late.
"Damn! That bastard! He showed up from nowhere. First the stupid watch and now this!"
-Get out of the way!
The crowd in front of her parted to make way for the chased and chaser as both ran across the cold streets of NYC. While crossing the road she was almost ran over by a limousine. A beautiful red haired woman came out from the inside and started yelling at her, Rosette didn't even notice her.
"How can this guy run so bloody fast?"
-Give me back my bag!
It was just her luck that on the way of the store, after the crappiest night of her life, some punk pushed into the ground and took her bag, the bag that had her paycheck for the month. If she lost this guy… no! She wouldn't even think about that. She would catch him… Running even faster she turned into an alley not even conscious of where she was going. Suddenly there wasn't just one punk but five, two of them cutting the exit route.
-Well well…what do we have here?
"Shit" Rosette immediately went into combat mode, raisin her fist, ready to strike. As soon as one of them made a move to grab her, she gave him a hard punch, the guy onto the ground clutching his nose. Bitch he yelled out but she just gave a laugh, inside she was terrified: it was five against one, she refused to leave without her paycheck and if one of them pulled a weapon on her she would be dead meat.
She heard a gasp behind her and turned to find that indeed one of her attackers had a knife what surprised her was that that attacker was caught in the painful grip of a very large, very muscled, very familiar man. The attacker dropped his knife as the hand holding his arm twisted it in a way that was sure to break it. The other pulled on a knife as well and ran to the man that was helping her; her bag was casually thrown onto the ground as the two other tried to hold her down. She kicked one right in the balls and managed to back the other against a wall when he grabbed her from behind and elbowed him in the stomach accidentally cutting her arm on the knife he had hidden on his pocket; during that time when she was temporarily free she looked to see if the man needed help only to find him completely overpowering his opponent. Once they saw there was no way they could defeat the two of them the thieves retreated quickly, leaving her and the strange man alone in the alley the content of her bag had scattered across the ground, with a sigh she bend down and started to pick them up, the man silently helped her.
She watched him from the corner of her eye; to say he was handsome would be an insult to him. He looked like the epitome of the tall dark and handsome fantasy, with dark hair, the color being between black and dark purple, wide shoulders, he looked like he worked out, his muscles and well defined six-pack stood out in a tasteful way against his black T-shirt. All in all he was one of the most handsome men Rosette had ever seen, and if the girls at the restaurant liked Mr. Remington, they would positively melt for this one. He raised his head and she blushed when he caught her checking him out so bluntly, his golden eyes sparkled with amusement and darken a little as she realized he was checking her out too.
-Thanks. You didn't have to…you know…
His eyebrows shot up as he gave her an incredulous look.
-Five armed man against a young woman and you expect me to walk pass and do nothing.
She looked back to the main street, many people passed by not noticing or even ignoring what was going on, she could see some of them peeking and then walking away faster. "Cowards" It was oblivious that even if she was stabbed to death no one would lift a finger to help her.
He followed her gaze to the busy streets and sighed, she thought she heard him say "two hundred years and things never change…" but she quickly forgot about it when he turned his golden eyes to her…"Those eyes…were had she seen them before?...a memory?...a dream?... a nightmare?..." She felt a shiver down her spine as she recollected were she had seen eyes like that before. But no it was impossible, things like that never happen in real life… It was probably just her imagination.
-…you injured?
-Huh? – she felt a little embarrassed for spacing out, the man had saved her, the least she could was pay attention to what he was saying.
-Are you injured? I see blood.
She then remembered the cut on her arm, it was indeed bleeding but it wasn't very deep.
-It's nothing, just a cut…
But he was by her side in a heartbeat grabbing her arm in calm steady hands and observing her cut with care. He pulled out a long white handkerchief and wrapped it around her arm muttering something about infectious and stubbornness.
-You don't need to.
-But I want to. There you go. Here are your things.
He passed her a few of her objects that she put back into her bag. They both stood up, and now that she was in front of him their bodies inches from each other she could not shake off the feeling that he just looked a little too much like the man from her dreams or the statue from her past. Part of her wanted to run and hide from this all too familiar figure, a scary big part of her wanted to close the distance between them, however the larger, more logical part of her knew that she had to do something to reward the person that had saved her.
-Hey…since you did help me and everything do you want to get something to eat… my treat. By the way I'm Rosette Christopher.
He smiled.
-I'm Chrno.
Rosette wasn't home. He already called for a search to be arranged. They had to find her before he did.
Gillian had called him to say that Joshua had informed them that Rosette could have gone to the store to buy locks; he went on foot, since there was a better chance to run into her on the streets. He called Azmaria while he was at it and called her back to Headquarters the poor girl had been nervous and reluctant to confront Joshua and probably destroy her friendship with him, but he figured that a familiar face might calm the boy down before they had to call an ambulance, if the boy hadn't had the habit to always bring an inhaler with him he would be in the emergency room already.
He looked in all directions watching out for a glimpse of a blond hair of the familiar young slender figure.
He tried and tried but he could not shake off the images of what horrible torture that girl would go through if he found her first.
Rosette stifled a laugh as she looked at the scene in front of her. After a nice breakfast the man's shyness and awkwardness put her mind at ease about the nightmares, there was no way in hell that this dork but sweet man as the dark creature that tormented her dreams. Although he was strange, many times they talked he seemed to already know her… And not only did his body was familiar his voice also gave a déjà vu feeling.
She was now observing how the man trying to calm a crying child after the two year old accidently ran into him, knocking himself on the ground, as he chased a ball. His attempts were so awkward as tried to make the child smile, it was so obvious he had absolutely zero experience with children. She almost cracked her ribs trying to hold on her laughter as he sent her a desperate look.
"Ok now it's just sad."
She sneaked in behind him and pulled his cheeks to make a funny face; the child stopped crying and gave them a confused look, like he was trying to decide if he continued crying or not.
-Look at the big man's face! You can twist it. – She pulled his cheeks a little more.
The child laughed hand put his hands on the cheeks as well to pull himself. The mother quickly came and took the child apologizing for the inconvenience.
-That hurt you know.
-Don't be a baby. I helped didn't I; at the rate you were going it would have been nightfall before the little guy stopped crying.
He looked a little embarrassed and looked away; they were going to back to her house the new locks on a plastic bag in his hand, he insisted on carrying the bags as well as accompany her home. It was sweet, old-fashioned and kind of annoying.
-Do you want help changing the locks?
-No. I think I can handle this on my own.
They were reaching the building when suddenly they were surrounded by a small army with Mr. Remington pointing a gun right at her.
-Remington what…what is this?
-Get away from him Rosette! You don't know what that thing is!
She was confused and more than a little scared. There were dozens of men and women with guns pointed straight at them…no…not at them at HIM. She looked at Chrno and immediately took a step back. His face was wild, savage, and murderous like an animal, he also seemed to be changing, his ears were getting bigger more pointed, in his forehead three glistering red jewels, soon enough the man she had been walking with had been replaced by a creature with big black wings and a sort of tail made of bone with a metal tip coming out of his neck. Claws sharp as steel ready to strike, horns came out of his head. Everything about him looked deadly and dangerous just like ten years ago.
"Is this the man in the cross that haunted me for ten years? This is the voice that comforts me every night?"
As to answer her question the creature turned to her and smiled.
-Hello my little one.
To be continued
This chapter is my longest yet but I really wanted Chrno and Rosette to meet in this one.
Please review!