Oh god I really did do that didn’t I? Awkwardly, I turn to look at the girl I’m referencing. Her head appears to be in her knees. Damn, I really fucked up. I look away. Urgh, how do I apologize? Maybe by dying? Wait, that’s stupid, and not what she wants anyways. Well what do I do then?! IS DYING ALL I THINK ABOUT?!?! I groan, hopefully quietly enough for her not to hear, when I hear Marcus yawn. Looking over, I see him stretch and sit up, rubbing the dust out of his eyes. Well at least someone here is clear minded. I’ll take the small win that is. Continuing to mentally mope, I notice the confused sound coming from the man next to me. I look over again and see him looking out at the lake, slowly raising his finger.

“It’s here.”

The two words knock me out of my emotions. I look over at Bea and see her already on her feet, watching and ready. I get to my feet as well, looking out over the lake. Standing there, his form foreboding and terrifying, it appears that his feet are standing on the water’s surface. It appears as if the thing is wearing knight’s armor, coated in fresh blood. The sight is as majestic as it is unsettling. The thing begins to walk forward, the sounds of clanking reverberating throughout the area. I grit my teeth tight. We got this. We got this we got this we got this. My hand slowly reaches for the automatic pistol strapped to my right side. Thankfully they’ve been loaded since we left.

“We would have let you go…” It speaks. Its voice feels powerful on its own. I feel my legs shiver. “If only you hadn’t been hunters. We don’t hunger like the rest. We’re just looking to live in peace.” Its words sound promising. Maybe we could get it to let us go.

“Bullshit! You tried to kill me!” Marcus yells, making the thing clench its fists.

“You tried to kill my brother, and I held him back as you ran. Does that sound like an attempt at murder to you?” Marcus seems to be shaking, but ready to pick a fight. I smack him in the back of the head.

“We’re not looking to trouble you if you really are peaceful! We’re only after bad angels!” I say, raising up my hands.

“Mmm…is that so?” The angel halts its advance. “That’s not what your allies said.” Shit, did it hear everything? I don't know what they said while we were away. I breathe deeply.

“They’re just mistaken. We can explain the situation to them and leave, ok? We won’t come back.” I feel my stomach knotting up. Come on, just believe me damnit!! It continues to watch us, before chuckling.

“Whether I believe you or not doesn’t matter. In truth…I was just making time.” The ground under me and Marcus suddenly opens up, revealing a long fall into darkness.

“AH-”

Our bodies begin to fall. The feeling of the wind speeding past sends my nerves into overdrive. I look around, trying to find Marcus, but he’s nowhere to be found in this darkness. After what feels like a minute of nothing but dropping, I suddenly slam into the ground. All the air in my lungs comes coughing up. I spend a moment struggling with remembering how to breathe, until all my faculties return to me. I gasp for breath, sitting up and slamming my head on something. No, more like a ceiling. Looking around, I see strings with lamps hanging from them, giving off small amounts of light.

In front of and behind me, a tunnel awaits my traversal. How the hell did I get here?

“Marcus?!” I call out, but hear nothing in response. Feeling a strong worry slink through my bones, I begin making my way forward, down the tunnel. The sense of being constricted is a hard one to ignore. It feels like I’m stuck in a snake’s digestive tract, and it is not a pleasant feeling at all. “Is this thing endless? Come on now.” I start to complain, the trek already taking its toll on me mentally. Pathetic as it is, even when it was for short amounts of time I always had a hard time in tight places. Something about the way it was impossible to feel like you could avoid being touched made them tubes of panic. Still, this is unfortunately not in my hands, so deeper I go.

“Marcus! Get over here!” I yell out once again, but still receive no response. This feels too hopeless. I don’t even know how many tunnels there are, much less what way leads out of here. God damnit, how did I not even consider it was a trap?! No, what even was the trap?! Were there always tunnels down here, or are they part of this thing? God damnit I don’t know!!! I let ,y head gently rest on the ground. Just give me a break already. While I have my miniature mental crisis, I hear something from behind. Looking back I see the endless distance. Nothing can really be made out, but that doesn’t really matter. I hear the sounds of slapping against rock and dirt, as if something wet and malleable just got thrown off a high place.

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“Oh fuck, oh fuck!” The sounds grow louder, forcing me to start crawling as quickly as I can manage. My hands get cut on rocks and blood smears the ground beneath me. Shit shit shit this is seriously just my fucking LUCK! I start to scream hoping it’ll help me move faster, to no avail. Something grabs my leg and I try to reach for my gun, but find nothing there. Shit, neither of them are there!! It begins to drag, pulling me back as I kick it as hard as I can. By some luck, I seem to hit it somewhere that is sensitive, and untangle it from my leg, rushing forward once more. I grab tight to the turn to the left tunnel and pull myself in.

It’s gonna catch up again. I grit my teeth, grab onto the lamps hanging on the left, and rip them off the cave wall. All the lamps on that side turn off int time for that thing to turn the corner. Pale white, thinner than anything living I’ve yet seen, and its disgusting face seems to leer at me before I bash it in with these lamps. Once, twice, th-thrice? Before I can hit it again, the lamps have disappeared in the blink of an eye. The thing slams into me, running down the tunnel and somewhere else in this god forsaken set of tunnels. Good riddance.

“Hello?!” I hear a cry from behind me. Turning around, I see Marcus. When we make eye contact, I motion for him to stay quiet. He does so, still quite happy to see me. Upon getting closer, I ask if he’s encountered anything worrisome and he shakes his head, giving me a small amount of relief. At least one of us is physically ok. I change my attention to the tunnels around us. So now, what the hell do we do?\

…

“Christo…pher?” The hole in the ground signaled just where the boy who had been her companion once was, leaving an obvious absence that sent a chilly sensation down Bea’s back. She felt her hands start to tremble. “You said we’d get out together…” She whispered, before turning to the only one she could blame for this. He seemed hardly phased by the situation, turning to her while beginning his walk once more. “I’ll…kill you…” Portals open around the girl as her teeth grit. “I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!”

Bullets start flying. Surprised, the angel tanks a few before starting to evade, rolling across the water and summoning wings, flying up into the air. She aims up but can’t seem to find him up in the sky. She grunts, looking over every inch of the night sky, until she finds him heading straight down towards her. She pulls back in time to avoid a metal boot to the face, as it were, before he pushes forward and punches her in the cheek. She luckily moves her head in time to see his gauntlet morph into a sharp blade. She backs away as best she can, trying to land shots on him, but he’s unfortunately too fast for her to hit. Grunting, she lets her guns fade away as she focuses on dodging the angel’s onslaught. Right right left down, gauntlet boot chestpiece boot boot, damnit, he’s too hard to find a pattern for, and he’s definitely gonna hit eventually.

She summons a rocket launcher and quickly rolls away once she mentally pulls the trigger. She feels her body being pushed back from the force of impact, but she quickly gets back on her feet, in time to watch as the angel rises from the plume of smoke and nearly lands a stab on her head. Unfortunately, it does manage to make a gash along her arm. She makes a sound of pain before turning to face the angel before her once more. Its armor seems to have somewhat melted, revealing the light inside. She clicks her tongue. That rocket launcher already took plenty out of her, she’d have to build some energy back up before she did something like that again. Even then, it only does so much if she can’t follow up.

“What now?” Well, there is one thing she can try…but if it doesn’t finish him, it’ll take too long to build something else up. Augh, crap, this is starting to feel hopeless! She takes a deep breath as the angel wipes the blood from its gauntlet and stances for its next attack. In the moments between take off and collision, Bea decides on her plan. The boot skids along the ground and comes flying up. She moves back, watching the blade extend out. She grabs ahold of it, opening a portal to one of her pistols and fires on the exposed part, breaking it free. Holding it tight, she kicks the angel, sending it to ground, before she gets atop it and, violently, slams the blade through the eye socket. The angel screams, summoning a blade that pierces her upper thigh.

Screaming, Bea dislodges herself before the next blade can form. Panting, she looks around for any kind of escape, but no such luck. With a dissatisfied sigh, she forms fists and gets into a boxer’s stance.

“I won’t die…I won’t let you get away…I promise you, you’ll pay!”

…

“Damnit, that thing isn’t gonna be scared off forever.” I complain, sitting against one of the tunnel walls. Next to me, Marcus appears to be tracing his fingers down the rocks. For what reason? I’m unsure, but anything is viable when there’s no good clue what to do next. I rub my temples, trying to imagine what exactly can be done in a situation like this. Alright, the lamps disappeared. That must mean this thing has control of this environment. So, why didn’t it get rid of the other lamps? Why would it leave me with something it knew I could use against it? “Did it think we just wouldn’t try again?”

“I don’t think so.” Marcus says. “Actually…I think I have an idea.” I look over to him and see him holding a rock he pulled loose. “It only got rid of the lights that it saw as a threat. What if that’s all it can get rid of?”

“That’s…that feels like a stretch.” I say.

“Alright, but, it’s all we have to work with. If we do nothing, we die, if we do this and it fails, we die. If it works? We kill it.” Marcus says, holding up the rock. “I’m betting, we can pulverize it as much as we like, as long as it doesn’t see the rock.” His assumptions are dangerous but, well, I can see some logic behind them. If they are true, then this really may be our best shot. I gulp.

“Where did all this confidence come from?” I suddenly ask. He seems taken aback, before chuckling.

“My brother would refuse to let me lay down and die like a coward.”

“Brother?” I ask.

“A guy named Harley. He was…a damn fine one. The best you could ask for.”

“Har…ley…Andrews?” I ask. He perks up.

“Yeah. Did you know him?”

Oh god…oh god…