It wasn’t paranoia if they were really out to get you.

The three of us had been together and awake for the first time in forever, and on a warm, sunny day no less. It was only natural that we would go for a walk in the park. Perfectly reasonable. Perfectly safe.

The van came out of nowhere, and from it came darkness, blood, and bone. Men and women draped in the remains of their victims, in savagery and menace. They came for us, and at their head was the bogeyman himself, his leather bondage gear clashing with that of his subordinates. I wasn’t a part of the cape world, not like Elena, but him I knew.

“Iron Rain, heeeeey~!” I snatched William out of his stroller to my chest, moved to flee. Too late. Surrounded, caged by bone. “Welcome to the murder.”

“Butcher.” Elena’s expression was cut from stone. Eyes as hard as diamonds shifted between each of the Teeth, tracking their movements with precise intensity. Against my chest, William began to cry, having awoken from being suddenly moved. “To what do we owe this blemish upon our day?”

“Me and my buds here were passing by, and wouldn’tcha know it, your favorite little brother sent someone to hire us to off you.”

“S-Ssh ssh s-ssh.” I helplessly tried to soothe William, whose crying was rapidly escalating to full wailing. One of the Teeth leered at us with bared teeth set within the bloody handprint pressed onto his face. “Y-You’re o-okay… You’re alr-r-right…”

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“Counter offer,” Elena hissed, words low and cold as ice. “I give you the civilian location of Allfather. Kill him, and the Bay will belong to the Teeth.”

“OooOoooo!” The playful coo made my skin crawl, the laughs and jeers of the Teeth making it all the worse. The breeze picked up, whistling through the trees. “And here I thought you uptight pricks liked your precious Rules.”

“I respond only in kind. Do we have a deal?”

The Butcher sauntered forward, idly stretching. “I’m always down for a bit of the old ultraviolence, but why settle for one when we could have b—”

I hadn’t heard the breeze. Hundreds of blades rained down upon us like the angry hand of god, so thick and numerous the Teeth were cut off. Elena shoved me towards where the blades had formed a triangular tunnel away, and I broke into a sprint and did not stop. Howls of pain and rage filled the air in my wake, among them Elena’s voice, but I did not stop. It was only blocks away with no tail in sight and William screaming in my ear, that I finally stopped for one thing and one thing only.

A phone booth.

I should have called the Protectorate. But Elena had been right about her family, and if she had been right about that, had she been right to not trust the heroes?

I nearly dropped the quarter three times as I fumbled with the handset, but somehow I got it into the slot. This time of day, he would be at his shop, not his apartment. I was shaking too badly to dial with my fingers, so I braced my hand against the cold metal of the phone and pressed the buttons with my trembling thumb.

The line connected. “Alvíss’ Forge—”

“Klaus!!”

I should have called the Protectorate. I should have called the Protectorate.