Isabelle

Chapter One-2

“Of course I want to know what this is all about.I’d just ratherknow instead of being handed a gun and being told to follow youinto…whatever thisis.”

“Trust me,” Alice said. “You’d rather notknow. If you did know, youwouldn’tcome,but onceyou’rethere, you’ll understandthat you had to come.”

Belinda handedhim the gun and this time, Gary took it.

He couldstill see David’s smile as heled the way from the car, unarmed.

Garylearned a lot that night, and had no idea why David lived thislife. He knew there was also programming to bedone,too, however. He wondered ifthere was a link, somewhere. Ifthere was, he could notfind it.

Gary,bless his heart, had decided recently that he should tell hisgirlfriend about his new life, before she starts to wonder why he sometimesdidn’t come homeuntil the early hours of the morning. God forbid she would startthinking that he was having an affair.

Hewonders what she will think. Would she believe him? Would she ask him toquit?

Garyhopes not, because forthe first time since he was a kid, he is having fun. Ofcourse, everything hasits bad points. Since Gary had started this job, he had seen more death than he cared to.Luckily, it has notbeen anyone that Gary knew. Not yet, at any rate.

He doesnot know at what point exactly he starts to worry about the factthat she hasn’t come home, but it comes. They have a mutualagreement that if they were tired they would not wait up for eachother. Gary can feel his eyes closing, but he is never able to go to bed without her–not unless he knows that she isgoing to be away all night. He has always made an excuse when shecomes in and sees that he is still up; he had just got up for aglass of water or something, for instance. He knows that she neverbelieves him, but it's their routine.

It isnot even that late when he begins to worry. It’s just because of the line of work he is in nowthat he is thinking this way. He knows what can sometimes belurking out in the dark. He has wanted to tell her all about thethings he has seen. If she were to walk in the door right now thenhe would break down and tell her everything.

But shedoesn’t.

Tuesday 27th April 2010

00:07

RobertAlloway is David Oswald’snewest recruit, and he is alsotrying his hardest to be noticed more by him and considered partof, if not the defining member, of the team. He knows in his heartof hearts this will never happen – at least not while Alice and Belinda are there. Or Robertand Edward for that matter.

One ofthe problems he is currently having – a problem that all of the members had to face with theexception of one – is that hecannot come to terms with his normal everyday life outside of hisnew line of work.

He usedto try and go out with his friends every night, ‘money willing’just because he didn’t want to lose touch with the people that hegrew up with. He had managed to do this all through Universitywhich had been tougher than he thought, and had realised that itwould probably be easier to do it in a worksituation, too.

He has beenvery wrong on that count.

A lot ofpeople stopped seeingtheir friends when they started working because they were simplytoo tired to do so. Some friendships simply cease to exist becausethe people changed. Most of them were used to going to bed a bitearlier because of the stress they had to endure during that day ofwork. They still acknowledge their friends in the street andsay, “We really haveto meet up soon,” but it justdoesn’thappen.

Roberthas a different problem.Work is just so cool. He has seen so much in the short time that hehas been in David Oswald’semploy. The people he works with are cool, especially David Oswald,who seems like he can do anything. He also really likes GaryIngalls. He can’t be like DavidOswald – why not try tobe like Gary?

He stillremembers the exhilaration when Gary handed him a gun. Everyonelooked so comfortable holding one, with the exception of Edward. David never seems to carryone but Robert was sure on that first night, that he was packing one. There was no way that you couldwalk into the situations they did and not have more backup thanyour bare fists.

But, boy, hehas seen David improvise.

They hadgone to a warehouse that first night. Apparently, there was a lotof activity in a collection of abandoned buildings around this way.Robert had first thought that they were a secret crime-fightingorganisation. He wasn’treally that far wrong when it came down to it.

He foundout later on that he had taken the gun with a lot less fuss thanGary and Edward had. He had been proud of this fact for a littlewhile, until hethought more about it. Surely that made Gary and Edward betterpeople than he was. He would have to work on that

Hedoesn’t like thinkingabout things like that for too long and puts it to the back of hismind. This is not the type of work that lets you haveself-doubt.

They hadgone into the warehouse. Things seemed to be very quiet. Robert wasnot a great fan of clichés, butthings did seem to be too quiet.

That waswhen the trouble started. A group of cloaked figures came in wielding knives. Theirstance seemed to denote that they were guardingsomething, and werewilling to die for it.

Fairenough.

Robert raisedhis gun. Nobody else did.

Davidlooked at him and coldly said, “Put it down.”

Garyhelpfully told him “They might behuman.”

Of course theywere human, what else could they be?

David ranforward and started to fight with them. There were too many for himand the others joined the fray. Robert did not like the idea offighting armed people with his fists when he had access to agun.

David seemedto be doing the best. He managed to disarm a few of them and knockthem into unconsciousness. Alice and Belinda also seemed to bequite skilled in this. Robert, to his disgrace, did not manage tosubdue any of the cloaked figures. He looked a little ashamed.

Once the fightwas over, David made sure that none of them were going to wake upany time soon. He removed their knives from them and put them in abag that Alice was carrying.

“Why didn’t wethreaten to shoot them?” Robert asked confused as to what washappening.

“It’s an empty threat!” Edward answered for him.

“They don’trespond to it. They’re willing todie for what they are protecting.”

“And what are they protecting?”

Nobodyanswered. They were obviously not willing to spoil the surprise forRobert. Why should they? Nobody had spoiled it for them.

“So, can somebodyclear something up for me?”

“What?” Belinda asked.

“Just why do we carry guns then?”

Shesmiled but didn’t answer.

Robertfound out what the guns were for, a short time later.

Goingout with your friends after you have done some of the things thathe has been a part of recently seems really boring. If anything,Robert has even more energy since he started. But he simply cannotbe bothered with the hassle of pretending to be interested in hisfriends’ lives anymore.

Hethought this way for a little while but, of course, he eventuallynoticed that working for Progression Software had turned him intonothing more than an arrogant fool. It was good that he was able tonotice such things and it was better that he noticednow,instead of when it was too lateto change what he had become.

This was whatmade him decide that tonight was the night to organize a night outwith his friends while he still had some. Luckily it had notreached that awkward stage and all of them came with the exceptionof a friend who had arranged to go on holiday.

He wasvery surprised that he really enjoy himself in the bar; despite theraw adrenaline he felt fighting alongside David and the others,this, too, was enjoyable. He has had quite a bit to drink but it isallowed – he cannotremember the last time he has done this.

It isjust so good to chill a little sometimes, and he is pretty surethat he needs it. Already the relaxation has been enough to makehis body realise he is really tired, and the aching has begun. He welcomes this, knowing that itis a sign that he has taken things too far oflate,and has simply blocked out thepain he has been feeling because there simplywasn’t enough timeto feel it.

He vowsto do this more often. But, like the “I’ll never drink again after that,” hangover vow, he doesn’t manage to keep to it. Of course, there is a story to whyhe doesn’t but this willcome later.

Tuesday 27th April 2010

00:10

Gary cannot,at the moment, comprehend how much trouble Isabelle is actually in.He is still expecting her to come through the door at any moment.This is not likely.

Six minutesafter Gary got into the house, she was still where she had been fora couple of hours. By the time Gary starts to really worry abouther, she is still there tied up in the basement of a disusedbuilding, struggling in vain to get free with only a vaguerecollection of the events leading up to this moment.

She isnot in possession of all the facts, either. For instance, she has no idea that herboyfriend’s job led byDavid Oswald, is out to stop the people who currently have herimprisoned in the substandard accommodations she is currentlyresiding in.

She also hasno idea that the men who grabbed her have had their humanity almostsnuffed out by forces of great darkness that she was not even awareexisted.

The third andfinal thing that she does not have a clue about is what they wantwith her. This is the only thought that is conscious in her mindand it’s the one which frightens her the most.

How did she gethere?

She hadbeen walking home a little late after one drink toomany,with one of her friends fromwork. The thought foremost on her mind was whether or not she wouldmanage to get back to the house before her workaholic boyfriendstumbled in with apologies that he had a lot on at the moment. Shealmost didn’t hear thenoise that came from the alleyway she passed by.

She didnot consider herself to be a very brave person, so decided to continue walking. Whatever was goingon in there had nothing to do with her and she was sure that it wasnothing really. But suddenly she heard a voice that sounded morelike the way a snake would speak English, if it were able to do so,than a human voice.

It said hername.

“Isabelle!”

Shespun around at thesound of her name, spoken in such a horrifying way. Her bodystarted to cool immediately and goose bumps appeared on her arms.Not that she was even remotely aware of this. Her body had simplynumbed. She was not a superstitious person, but she did not think that it had sounded remotely human.She had seen enough horror movies with Gary, to know that this wasnot a good scenario.

Justabout then, she spottedsomething that put a lump in her throat and, in a more rationalsetting, she would have known for a fact that itcouldn’t be her heart.But there was no rationale here right now, in this place. The mainstreet that she was on, usually bustling with life at this time ofnight, was completely devoid of anyone except for her. It wasalmost as if there was some sort of bad feeling associated withthis street, something that had warned off everyone except forher.

FoolishIsabelle, she thought.

Thevoice came again, as horrible as before. “Isabelle!”

She isstill unsure about whether the voice had rooted her to the spotbecause the hypnotic snake like sound had transfixedher,or it had frozen her with somesort of incomprehensible fear.

Now shestruggles with her bonds, fearing that her next few minutes mightbe her last, spent in astinking basement.

The timethat she was transfixed would have been enough to make an escape ifshe had been able to, but she hadstayed too long. Suddenly dozens of pairs of arms shot out from thedarkness. She could not make out much but could see that herattackers were wearing cloaks, covering their faces.

At thatpoint, Isabelle managed to let out a scream. She thought of it as aloud thing, enough to summon someone to help her, but, in reality,it had been nothing more than a dull croak that her attackers wouldhave had trouble hearing had they not been so closethat they could feel her fastbreathe on their covered faces.

To saythat she went quietly would have been a lie. She tried as hard asshe could to fight them off, but the fact of the matterwas,she was but one woman and therewere too many attackers for her to handle. It would come as norelief to her as she did not even know the woman, but AliceCuthbert would have lost a fight against these oddstoo,and she wasDavid’s bestwarrior.