Hello again, this is the sixth chapter of the Dark One.
I'm very happy with the rate this story is going. I would also like to thank all the people who have reviewed my story. You are the best.
I hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: Chrno Crusade does not belong to me. Only in dreams do I have the honor.
Joshua yawned as he drove along the highway, Rosette snoring by his side and Azmaria sleeping peacefully in the back seat. They had been driving for two days putting as much distance between them and The Magdalene Order as they possible could. Azmaria had told them that the largest branches of the Order were in New York and Washington however the smallest branch was in San Francisco but it would take a lot of to get there by car. Azmaria had suggested they went to small towns or villages since the Order was focused in densely populated areas.
Rosette wanted to go back to Michigan and ask Mr. and Mrs. Gene for help but Azmaria had shot down that idea by informing them that the Magdalene Order always kept watch when they visited on their holidays, so it was probably were they would look first. After a lot discussion and just driving with no particular direction Rosette gave them their best but more detested solution. The little town they visited one spring when they were children, with was a little town in the mountains away from anything, near that town was an old abandoned monastery where certain events took place ten years ago that ruined their lives now.
-Are you crazy? Going back to that place!
-What? We know the statue isn't there anymore, its quiet remote, the Magdalena branch there are only ten people in the whole state, and nobody would think we would go there after what happened.
Having no arguments to fight with, Joshua cursed the fact that Rosette only won with logic when he least wanted her to and started driving in direction of Joshua's own private hell. They drove by shifts first Rosette, Joshua and then Azmaria so they could all rest a little, it was decided they would stop only for food and bathroom to save time and money. However after two days of this even Joshua was starting to get impatient to reach the retched town.
He stopped at the next gas station and went to buy a few more snacks before he woke Azmaria for her turn behind the wheel. Despite being only six p.m the gas station was basically disserted, he made an effort for the cameras not to get his face and bought what he needed. He had just left the shop when the bag the man at the cash register gave tore apart, spreading the packets of food and cans across the side walk where a car could easily trample them.
-Shit!
He lowered down and started to pick them up when he noticed someone was helping him. It was a tall, muscled man in his early twenties, with dark hair, dressed in a poncho and his head partly covered by a cowboy hat, he looked up his arms full of cans of juice and soda's, his eyes were golden.
-Thank you. Would you mind holding these while I get another bag?
-Not at all.
Joshua rushed to get another bag when he returned he found the stranger looking intensely in the direction of their car. When he stepped closer the man broke his gaze and smiled at him, he put the cans back in the bag and went into the store.
-Thank you.
-You're welcome.
He got back into the car and woke Azmaria up. He settled in the back seat as the car drove away, eager for a nap. As he fell asleep looking out the window he thought he saw the man still in the gas station looking at the car intently as it drove away. But sleep took over and Joshua forgot all about those strange golden eyes, and the man that for a moment looked so vaguely familiar.
They arrived on the fourth day of their travel. Azmaria gave a loud squeal of happiness when the car's headlights revealed the sign that the little town was just a few miles ahead that instantly awoke Joshua who was so happy at the thought of sleeping in a real bed that he forgot about his resentment against Azmaria and gave her a hug, a bit awkward since she was still driving, after the euphoria passed both teens blushed and looked the other way. Rosette kept snoring on the back seat, dead to the world or in this case the sweet little romance going on right in front of her.
The little town was almost exactly like they remember it, maybe a little more run down, it was one of those quaint towns were everyone knew everyone's name, no big buildings or enormous shopping malls, surrounded by fields and forest it was really away from everything, the mountains with their snow-tipped peaks cut through the night sky the full moon made the snow shine, it was a true post-card image. But the only thing the teens noticed was, besides the indications to the old monastery which sent a chill down their spines, was the long three storied building with Inn written at the entrance.
In an hour and a half they collapsed on the fluffy beds too tired to change clothes. They had requested a single room with two beds, since it would be cheaper, they had talked about it in the car and Azmaria swore she was fine with sharing the room with a boy. Rosette suspected that while Azmaria wouldn't have minded having a boy for a roommate, having Joshua sleeping in a bed next to hers would make her blush permanent, Joshua seemed to act cool and calm but Rosette saw the shaking hands when she asked him if he was okay in sharing all the same room. Rosette only had to bite her tongue to keep her teasing remarks to herself; she had a feeling that if she said a single comment about their nervous state would give them both an attack.
Fortunately has soon as they saw the beds romance was the farthest thing from their minds. In a total of five minutes in which the only words uttered were Joshua's I never want to step into a car as long as I live followed by Rosette's grunt of agreement. Before she feel into a deep sleep Rosette wondered idly that it seemed the clock was ticking a little louder.
Azmaria, used to the stick rules of the Order was the first to wake up at 9 a.m, unwilling to wake the others she took a toothbrush and other toiletries from her bag and some clothes from Rosette's bag, and silently hopped into the bathroom; she took a shower and dressed.
"I have to find a clothes' store soon. Or Rosette will run out of clothes for us both."
Still in New York a few minutes after leaving the Christopher residence it became clear to Azmaria that her uniform stood out to much and so she threw it away and borrowed some of Rosette's clothes, but since Rosette was taller and more developed than her small body it gave the effect of a little girl trying on her mommy's clothes.
But at the same time she felt reluctant in asking money to buy things for herself, Rosette and Joshua had to make every penny count and the last thing she wanted to be was a burden. Now looking in the mirror, wearing one of Rosette's long skirts, a white T-shirt and a jean jacket, hearing the snores from the room Azmaria finally had time to think on the last day's events.
In less than a week she discovered the ugly other side of the Magdalene Order, abandoned everything she had ever known and everyone who raised her, stole weapons and a car, became a fugitive with two other teenagers and was now in a small town in the middle of nowhere sharing a room with Joshua.
That thought made her blush, for a girl raised by nuns this was pretty serious for her, even if there was no romantic contact and Rosette was in the room too. Still it was closest she had ever been to a boy in her life. The part of her that was selfish, vain but that spoke always the truth said that Joshua was a another reason she wanted new clothes, she didn't want him to see her as one of the Order their "enemy" or ridiculous in his sister's too big clothes. No, she wanted to be pretty, o look like a regular girl, for him to see the real Azmaria, to show him that the feelings she had for him while undercover had become real. She wanted…
Knock Knock
-Azmaria are you done in there?
-Yes. I'll come right out.
Her thoughts thankfully scattered, but their essence was still present in her mind, which is why when she opened the door and came face to face with Joshua, his hair messy and his clothes rumpled she blushed a deep red.
-Good morning. Have you been awake for long?
-No, just a half an hour. Did I wake you?
-No, but do me a favor and try to wake up Rosette, since you're cuter than me she won't beat you up afterwards.
Still half asleep Joshua didn't seem to notice his own words but Azmaria heard them loud and clear since her blush couldn't possibly deepened she merely went to Rosette's side as quick as she could before Joshua noticed the color of her face.
Rosette snored loudly, and sometimes murmured strange words, obviously connected to the dream she was having, the watch ticked softly between her breast and Azmaria wondered for the thousand times how could such a small, simple object cause so many changes and destroy the lives of two good people. She wondered again how God could be so unfair sometimes.
To her embarrassment Joshua came out of the bathroom, clean, shaved and dressed and she still couldn't wake Rosette from her slumber. She tried shaking her, talking to her, even lightly pinch her, but Rosette merely rolled over and snored louder. Joshua took one quick look at the scene, including Azmaria's apologetic stare and went back into the bathroom. He came out seconds' latter holding a glass full of water.
-I should have known you were too nice to wake up Rosette.
Then he proceeded to dump the water on his sister's face. That of course forced Rosette out of her coma and into full rage against her brother. In fact it was only Azmaria's soft, fake, crying that stopped Rosette from throwing the bedside lamp to a snickering Joshua. Once Rosette was calmed, showered and dressed the group went into the Restaurant area for breakfast. There in the brightly illuminated room, seated in a round table near a window the teens had their fill of toast, bacon and eggs, Rosette and Joshua, against Azmaria's opinion, discretely put slices of bread and little packets of butter and sweet in their backpack, there they talked a much avoided subject, what were they going to do next.
-I think we should get rid of the car. If the Order reports it as stolen, we could get caught.
That was only one of many hard decisions, if they got rid of the car they would lose their only mean of transportation however what Joshua said was true, the car could give them away, besides the search the Order would do they had stolen a car and several weapons, if the Order reported to the police that three armed teens had stolen a car and were loose in this wide country they would be hunted down like dogs.
-I think we should just change the license plate, I mean, the car in itself is nothing special we could just go to the junkyard take the license of an old car and replace it…
-Rosette that is so smart of you!
Rosette gave her brother a small punch in the shoulder.
-Don't say in that tone of surprise idiot. More importantly where are we going to go? We can rent this room for about a week, but then we have to start thinking about money.
-I think we should try to break the contract ourselves.
Both pair of azure eyes turned to Azmaria's red ones.
-It's the source of all our problems, if we break it everything should go back to normal. I know the Order's test didn't find anything but we are at the place we was trapped in for two hundred years there must be some clues, maybe we could trap him again.
The probability was low but it was something. It was agreed they would stay a few days to investigate and try to find clues. They had a computer in the room and asked the lady in the reception information about the monastery. Apparently the old monastery was not open to the public anymore, instead it had been bought by the Harvenheit Corporation and it was now restricted, although abandoned property. There was some information about it in the local library were a copy of the books found there was also put out for the few tourist the town had.
It was decided that the library was a good place to start, putting the guns and bullets in the safe except three, one for each and the cross barriers they all had in their bags, they set out. The reception lady gave them a map of the little town and they soon reached the library to start their own investigation.
-I'm so bored!
-It's the eleventh time you say that in twenty minutes. Either help or be quiet.
How could she help? Joshua was going over the records of the town and Azmaria was the only one who read Latin in the really old books. She felt useless and the worst of all she was waiting again, just sitting around waiting for others to find the answers for her. Since this whole mess started she had been reduced to that five-year-old girl again waiting and waiting for her parents to come back home only to be disappointed and left alone.
-I'm going to take a walk.
A grunt was her only answer; both were too absorbed in their books to answer her. Whiteout even being noticed she left the library and started walking in the bright streets. Despite being small and a little run down there were still a few shops open, she entered all of those that interested her only to be turned away as soon as she saw the price tags.
One would think that living the simple life all her, working for everything she ever had, would have given her a better less materialistic and greedy view on life. It wasn't true; she loved the prospect of never working a day in her life, of wining the lottery and spending the rest of her life on a paradise island somewhere. She didn't have any illusions, she wasn't intelligent like Joshua, she wanted to go to college, but after seeing the work Joshua had to do, she doubted she would have the ability to make it even if money wasn't a problem. Years of difficulties had left her with a very poor view of her own future.
Eventually she found a touristic path through the forest, it wasn't very long and those two were so concentrated on their books or in each other they wouldn't notice she was gone. She giggled to herself, she never had the chance or time for romance and Joshua never seemed to think about it much, she suspected he did it out of sympathy for her, it made her extremely happy to see him so sweet on a girl. Azmaria was a very nice girl and she approved of the match, if only he stopped being so stubborn it was so obvious the girl liked him.
The path through the forest was easy with basically no hills and it had a few benches so one could seat and rest. The forest was alive all around her, birds flew around her and once and a while she saw a deer or a rabbit, she felt completely relaxed and at peace, like all of her troubles seemed very far away.
But as always reality found its way to rear up its ugly head, this time it was in the form of a monastery half in ruin, it was exactly like she remembered except for the fence that surrounded it and the sign saying Private Property, dark and unimpressive, who knew such a simple place could held so many secrets. She looked around, there was nobody in sight, she peaked inside the fence but saw no guard or security camera, the fence was easily climbable.
"Joshua is going to hate me for this"
With a few moves the fence was climbed and the new lock on the door picked on and Rosette entered the place from her nightmares. It was even darker than she remembered; pulling out a flashlight from her bag she entered the dark tunnels and rooms having walked in them so many times she found herself in that room again easily. Ten years it had passed since the last time she was in that place, it was exactly like she had seen it in her dreams except the single huge metal cross on the other side of the room, it was bare and empty, like she knew it would be, without the cross it looked so unimpressive, it held nothing of the dark mystery that captured her attention when she had been a child. Even so she walked to it and slowly put her hand on its center. A shiver went down her spine, despite looking like a worthless piece of metal she could feel its power pushing against her hand. She also felt something else.
Like a lightening she grabbed the gun she had hidden in a little handy pocket on her backpack with a shark click the safety was of and she pointed it to the dark passage way, the only entrance and exit to this room, nothing seemed to be moving in the darkness.
-Come on out! I know you're there.
He came out calmly, his arms crossed looking arrogantly at her, like he was amused by what he saw, it drove her mad. He didn't even make an effort to look human; his wings scrapped the ceiling, his bone tail dragged into the ground as he moved closer to her.
-Stay there!
He stopped immediately, his smile never disappearing. He seemed so calm for someone who had a gun pointed to his head; of course she had seen up close how much this guns where worthless against him. He could kill her with those claws in the blink of an eye; she wouldn't even have time to shoot.
You're the only one he can't kill remember that.
Remington's words echoed in her head giving her courage. However everything was against her, he was stronger, faster and deadlier and was covering the only exit. With a speed only panic could provide she grabbed the cross barriers and threw them on the ground, there was a blue light surrounding the place where they landed, supposedly this barrier would keep the demons away and provide her a secure ground, but seeing how his smile did not disappear she doubted if it could really keep him away.
-I'm very happy.
-What? Why?
-You're wearing it.
He signaled the watch, she then noticed she was still wearing it, it started out as something to keep her motivated, to remind her why she stayed at the Order, now it had become a habit to never take it off.
-I'm sure the Order told you what it was.
-It's what started this whole nightmare. Its proof that I'm your contractor, right?
-Yes. That watch is my gift to you; it is proof that we are bounded by our very souls.
-What do you mean bounded by the soul? Sister Kate talked about it before but the tests came back with nothing…
A snarl interrupted her babbling, it was more talking to herself than to him anyway.
-Those fools! I felt when they tried to invade your soul to see our bound, only they would invent machines like that. Machines that can make anyone go into the deepest most private part of who we are. It's disgusting!
-Who are you to talk! You bounded yourself to me when I was ten years old, like a bloody parasite. And now my life is ruined because of you! – Although deep down inside she could feel the truth of his words, she always felt a strong disgust after being tested with that machine.
-It's true that my connection to you seems to be at the center of your problems but if you think about it the ones who really destroyed your former life were the Order.
-You…you…- she couldn't even speak since the mountain of insults were pilling in her throat all desperate to be spoken at the same time - …you son of a bitch! What kind of sick logic is that? Maybe your name is Dark One because you have nothing in that messed up little head of yours!
She was so angry at him, at everything and there he was on the other side of the barrier ready to be insulted. What surprised her more was when his face twisted into one of anger.
-My name isn't Dark One! It's Chrno, it's the name I told you the second time we met, that's my real name. I don't want you to ever call me another thing than Chrno!
That confused her; the Dark One was his title, given to him thanks to his crimes and strengths why shouldn't he feel pride by hearing it? Why did it make his eyes turn so sad when he gazed at her?
-I don't think we should talk here. Not that I'm against nostalgia or anything but you seem cold, and holding up that gun must get very tiring.
-You'll like that wouldn't you? For me to drop my guard step out of this barrier and into your clutches. I don't care how cold it is here I'm not leaving!
-You always were stubborn. – He sighed.
Suddenly he went though the barrier like it was nothing, grabbed both her wrists with one hand, and threw the gun away with the other, his bone tail crushed the little crosses that made the barrier, and she was exactly in the same situation of her nightmares, alone in the dark pulled flushed against his body only this time she was sure that no hard-metal playing alarm clock would save her now. The flashlight had fell onto the ground, and crushing sounds made Rosette know it was broken, now the only thing that lit the room was the soft twinkle of his golden eyes. She pulled and struggled against him but it only made her tired, she froze when the bone tail curled around her waist softly pulling her towards him, his clawed hand came up to hold her chin, forcing her to look at him in the eyes.
-Now there's no reason to stay here is there?
His warm breath tickled her lips, he was so close and he was so hot. It was the greatest way this reality and her dreams, while in her dreams he had been cold like that day when she thought he was a statue, right now he seemed to be burning against her, she could feel his heart pounding against hers, the heat of his hands and chest warming her and contrasting with the cold she felt on her back from the humid underground. Slowly this time he picked her up like a child and walked out of the room, as they left the catacombs she raised her face from its place against his chest to see him change shape. His face stayed pretty much the same but the gems on his forehead disappeared, his ears remained pointed but were more human like, the horns he had on his head and the bone tail he had on his neck completely disappeared. What most changed were strangely his clothes, while before he wore tight black leather pants, boots and jacket leaving his chest bare, in another moment he was dressed in casual jeans and a poncho, giving him a western look fully completed by the cowboy hat on his head.
She held her tongue so has not to ask how he did that, he seemed totally distracted at the moment and she had no desire to turn his attention back to her. In the time it took to walk out of the collapsing monastery she devised several escape plans that all failed in her mind once she reminded herself that he was a lot faster than her and that now she had no weapons to fight with, in all of her musing she didn't even noticed when he took several keys out of his pants pocket opened and closed the gate at the fence. In fact she was only pulled out of her thoughts when she heard his voice, startling her.
-You know I'm faster than you, so please save of both the trouble and don't try to run away. I promise I won't harm you in any way.
In front of them was one of those green benches she had passed on the way there, the monastery was a few feet away, silent and grave. She considered her options carefully, no matter in what manner she tried to escape he always caught her, to run would be pointless not to mention stupid. Considering her silence as a yes he lowered her on the ground with care.
"I was never very smart anyway."
With a little more malice that was needed for the occasion she turned around and brought her knee up to hit him squarely between the legs, when he doubled over in pain holding his injured goods she broke into a run through the woods, she had never run so fast in her life, tripping over roots, steeping on puddles was nothing to her, she only wanted to get away, far far away.
She had been running for twenty minutes, her chest hurt and her legs wanted to collapse but she neither stopped nor slowed down, she had just entered a big three-less circle, only covered by soft grass when he felt him tackle her into the ground, not one to give up easily she tried to wrestle with him, rolling together on the grass. It was pointless, he was too strong and she was already too tired, they ended up near a great oak, him on top of her.
-That was uncalled for Rosette?
He was in demon form again. His black wings blocked out the sun. He looked furious, his hands pinned hers above her head, his long legs were between her, keeping her from repeating her previous trick, and he was incredibly close, growling at her showing his fangs. She pushed against him again but he pinned her to the grass, she finally collapsed on the soft ground breathing heavily, she had reached the limit of her strengths, he seemed to notice it.
-Now are you ready to stop acting like a child and listen.
"Demon or not nothing gives him the right to boss me around!"
She growled back at him, she could be a demon too, even whiteout the fangs.
-Bite me!
He pressed his chest flush against her, the furious look was replaced by one that was just as heated and that sent even more shivers down her spine. He smiled at her, and Rosette had the very strange feeling that he was playing with her yet at the same time undressing her in his mind which disturbed her. His face was getting closer and closer to her, his mouth was so close to hers she could practically feel every movement of his lips against hers.
-Don't tempt me little one.
To be Continued.
Well I said Rosette and Chrno would meet again in this chapter, so here it is.
Please review and tell me your opinion.
Remember your opinions are always welcomed.
See you in the next chapter.