Ketch Me as I Fall

I took a deep breath and attempted to steady my racing heart again. I clutched my pistol tight to my chest and licked my dry lips. I stayed huddled below the window, pushing up just enough to see over the edge and into the house. Ketch had disappeared into the front door more than twenty minutes ago now. Far too long for him to be gone. I had tried to be patient, stay by the bike, and let him take this one alone. But when I heard gunshots come from the upper floor…I had moved more out of fear than I had anything else. And now here I was, studying an all too-dark living room.

I could just make out a figure moving through the room beyond the lacey curtains, but it was too dark to correctly identify who it was. Or what it was. I had been silently cursing myself for not studying the documents Ketch had retrieved about whatever this was for several minutes now. 

I ducked back against the wall again as the figure turned to face me as if it had sensed I was there. I drew back and made myself as small as I could. I knew whoever it was would come to check the window now. I closed my eyes and tried to swallow the fear that wanted to overwhelm me. I couldn't think through it, couldn't function with the way it slipped through my veins like think oil. It was coating everything and making it hard to breathe.

"Didn't you read through all the notes I gave you?" Ketch asked an accusatory tone to it.

"I might have skimmed them." I smiled at him in the mirror and he rolled his eyes before turning to face me.

"You should let me handle this. No offense…"

"If you say it's because I'm a girl, I'm going to…"

"But you've gotten weaker and I don't want you to get hurt." He'd continued, the words on my tongue freezing. I blushed slightly and nodded, brushing my hair out of my face.

Fuck. Why hadn't I just read the damn notes? We had already been on this hunt for two days now. It wasn't like me to not be prepared for whatever we were facing. But he'd also been so insistent on doing this mostly himself because I was 'slowing down'. Not that that wasn't true, I had slowed down a little, but I was blaming that on being rusty and maybe being a bit too lazy with my abilities recently. There was nothing that a good hunt and a quick trip to Hell after couldn't fix. But that wouldn't help me with knowing what the fuck was going on here.

I opened my eyes again and released the breath I had been holding, my lungs straining. I dropped the clip from my gun into my hand and checked it again, even though I knew it was full. There was a strange new anxiety creeping into my bones, something that stared from a small place in my gut and rose to make a great flood. I wanted to ignore it, to push it aside and be strong, but there was something wrong here, even if I didn't know what yet.

I pushed up again to look through the window and caught the scream in my throat as I was met with ghostly pale eyes. In a second of instinct, my gun was lifted and the trigger pulled, the glass pane shattering. There was no use in cleaning it from my hair and clothes as I rose fully and climbed through the now-open window.

My jaw clenched momentarily as my knee caught on a shard of glass and blood began to run down my leg. I shoved the feeling down and lifted the gun again, scanning the empty room.

Blood rushed through my ears as my eyes adjusted quickly to the dark room. It was a small sitting area. Empty save for the imprints on the carpet where a couch used to sit, and a lone old lamp in the corner next to a plastic-wrapped recliner. It was as if they'd been in the middle of moving out or maybe in. I crouched and made my way across the room to the only door rimmed in light.

My steps were quick as I rounded the corner…and came face to face with the butt of another gun. My stomach lurched even as I automatically raised mine in a desperate need to be the first shot if one was taken. But hematite eyes met mine and I breathed a sigh of relief. I dropped my arms as Ketch lowered his.

"I thought I told you to stay outside." He hissed.

"I heard gunshots," I answered, keeping my tone low. "Sorry for getting worried."

"There's nothing here. We need to go back to town and review what's going on." Ketch straightened and strutted past me, but stopped when I didn't immediately follow him. His eyes wandered over me as he took all of me in. "Your leg…"

It took a few seconds to remember before I looked down at my knee and saw the fresh crimson still there. Still coming from the wound. It hadn't healed yet…"I'm fine." I put a quick smile on before looking past him and back into the house. "Ketch, there is something here."

He walked back across the room to me. "I thought I saw something too, but I can't find anything. I already did a loop of the entire house." Then what had he shot at earlier? Had he seen the same thing I had? "We might need to go back and lay low for a bit."

"I saw it, Arthur." I held his stare. "There were eyes, in the window. That's why I fired."

His expression changed to a serious one and he lowered his voice again "You're sure?"

"Positive," I said, sighing quietly. "It was a woman. Clear as day."

"Right." He nodded. "I'll check again, stay here." The instructions were firm. I rolled my eyes.

"This isn't my first hunt, Ketch," I complained.

"You don't even know what we're hunting." He grumbled. "You're lucky it hasn't killed you yet if you did see it."

"What are we hunting then?" I asked.

Ketch exhaled sharply through his nose. I could tell just how irritated he was that I hadn't read through everything he'd found. "A fucking wraith, Alex. Can you at least pretend to take this seriously? What's wrong with you?"

He turned away from me then, leaving me with a heavy pain in my chest. I bit my lip, guilt joining every other emotion I was feeling now as his footsteps fell away from me. He was right. What was wrong with me? I had gotten far too cocky with myself. I was being stupid, and it was causing a lack of my skills. I wasn't immortal and if I did want to rid the world of monsters I'd have to do the paperwork they came with too. I had been so…

A stifled cry came to my ears and I looked around the room curiously. My eyes followed the sound of a kitchen cabinet just beneath the sink. I walked carefully towards it and knelt, my fingers taking the small brass knob and pulling the small door open. 

Terrified blue pools stared up at me, startled enough to make the crying immediately stop. A young girl, no older than five or maybe six, was holding her knees to her chest. Her cheeks were red and damp with tears as they streamed from her eyes.

"Don't be scared." I coed softly, a smile coming to my lips. "I'm here to help you. What's your name hun?"

"Maggie…" The small child whispered. "Where's my mommy? She told me not to come out until she came to get me."

I glanced over my shoulder as a creek came from the floor above. "I'm sure she's fine," I said softly. "Let's get you out of here, ok?"

"Is the bad guy gone?"

"Bad guy?" I whispered, my eyes looking back to the ceiling.

"Mommy said that a…that a bad man was coming to hurt her because daddy was mad…" Maggie sounded so scared. 

My eyes went back to her face and I did my best to keep smiling. "I won't let anyone hurt your mom. Maggie, let's go outside now, ok? We'll try to find your mom out there. I'll keep you safe until then, ok?"

Maggie nodded and uncurled herself enough to hold her arms out to me. I scooped her up gently and carried her towards the front door, silently slipping back outside into the cool evening. A million questions ran through my head now as the young girl clung to me.

The eyes in the window had matched hers. Just as frightened. I had never known wraiths to have children before. Maybe the wraith wasn't the only thing in the house. We might have come just in time to stop something else too.

An echoing crack from Ketch' gun shattered the air around us and Maggie jumped in my arms. She hid her face in my shoulder and started to cry softly again. 

"Shhh…" I cooed softly. "It's alright." Maggie whimpered about her mom. "Everything's alright, Maggie."

The front door swung open again, and my arm shot up in an instant, ready to fight whatever or whoever came out the door if I had to. But Ketch' form made me relax and I dropped it once again, sliding it into the holster as I shifted Maggie in my grip.

Ketch' steps faltered as he got close enough to see the child in my arms. Too quick to read, something flickered across his eyes. Some emotion I couldn't quite place here and now.

"It's taken care of." He whispered once he'd reached us. "We need to take her to the police station. They can take care of her."

"We can't just leave her." I shot at him. There was a dark look on his face as he rubbed at his face. "I'm not going to leave her alone. Especially if…" I broke off and mouthed the remaining words. 'Especially if you just killed her mother.'

"What are we going to tell the police?" Ketch demanded, leaving my accusation unchallenged.

"Maggie, sweetheart. Where's your dad?" I asked as softly as I could, brushing dark curls from her face as she looked up at me again.

"I don't know. He lives somewhere else." She sniffled. "Mommy said they were fighting too much to live together."

"What if she's a…" He threw his head back towards the house. "We need to finish the job."

"You are not seriously…" I sighed and turned away from him. "Maggie, I'm going to ask you to do something kinda silly ok? Think you can do it?" Maggie nodded and I shifted my hold on her again. She was starting to get heavy. Another reason to not have kids. "Ok. I'm going to have my friend here give you a coin. I need you to tell me if it hurts you when you touch it, sound ok?"

"Ok." Maggie sniffled again and sat up in my arms a little, one tiny hand outstretched to Ketch as he dug through his jacket pockets.

He eventually found a silver coin and placed it in her hand. Maggie looked over it curiously but didn't seem to be in any discomfort.

"It doesn't hurt." She said softly.

"Would you like to keep that?" Maggie closed her hand around it quickly and pulled it back to her chest before Ketch had a chance to protest. I smiled at her. "Maggie, we're going to call some police officers to come help. They'll call your dad and he'll come get you." I started to walk off in the direction we'd left Ketch' bike, the man himself following behind stiffly. "I need you to do something for me when the police do come to help though. They're going to ask lots of questions, alright? I need you to tell them something for me. Do you think you can be a big girl and do that?"

She nodded again.

"We just found her wandering down the side of the road.

I explained to an officer at the nearest station. He's introduced himself as Officer Payne. He'd been writing down what I'd had to say on a small notepad, green eyes coming up to look at my face every few words. "She said her mom had been hurt or something."

"And what were you doing out there?" He asked.

"We were just on a ride. Thought it was pretty odd for a young girl to be out in the middle of nowhere this time of day." Ketch continued for me.

"And how did you injure your knee?" Payne continued.

"I tripped getting off the bike," I said, trying to seem embarrassed about the still not quite healed wound. It was so slow.

The front door slammed loudly, making me jump and turn around to see a very well-put-together man. He dropped to his knees as Maggie ran towards him. He snatched the small girl up and hugged her to himself as her cry of 'Daddy!' echoed through the small station.

A small smile tugged at my lips, but the young girl's words returned to me as I watched them and it fell again. If she could be believed, he had put a hit out on her mother. Maggie's father didn't look like the type to do such a thing, but humans could just as easily be more monstrous than the supernatural. There had been far too many cases that had resulted in fucked up humans being the cause.

The man wandered over to Ketch and me as I thought, extending his free hand as he held Maggie with the other. I shook it gently, but when he extended it to Ketch next, he didn't return the gesture. The man lowered his hand awkwardly and cleared his throat.

"Thank you for finding my daughter." He said.

"Of course," Ketch answered, his stance sharp and cold. There was something very wrong here. He hadn't acted like this since he was a man of letters. Was he just worried about this man being a wraith too?

"Have you heard anything from Karen?" The man asked, turning from us again.

"Not yet, Noah." Officer Payne replied. "We sent out a few officers to do a wellness check. They should know soon."

"Thank you again," Noah said to us before walking away with his daughter.

"They gave me a cool coin! Look at it, Daddy!" Maggie held the coin out to Noah and he took it from her. I could hear Ketch' heart beating wildly in his chest ad we waited. But Noah wasn't a wraith.

"Oh my, that was very nice of them, wasn't it?" Noah turned to us again, a smile on his face. "What do we say?"

"Thank you!" Maggie said, her tears gone.

A radio crackled from Officer Payne's desk and he stepped away to answer the call. I could only make out a small bit of what was coming through. However, it was enough to hear those dreaded letters. D.O.A.

"It's time for us to go…" I whispered. "This isn't going to be pretty."

"What did you hear?" Ketch asked softly as I tugged him towards the door.

I shook my head and pulled him down to me. "Dead on arrival."

He nodded in understanding, his tourmaline eyes cold. Ketch stood fully and walked away from me to Officer Payne. He said something to the officer too low for me to hear before both men nodded and he returned to me. We made our way outside silently, without a single goodbye.

I climbed onto the bike behind Ketch. It roared to life just in time to drown out the cries that started to come from the station.

"I don't know what to make of it, Sam," I muttered into my phone as I held it to my head. "Am I overthinking all of this?"

"Kids don't often lie in situations like that," Sam said, a little distant as he talked. "I've found that children will more often tell the truth during traumatic episodes than lie. It takes a bit to get them talking, but they usually tell exactly what happened."

"I hope she at least doesn't talk about us." I sighed. "It would place us at the crime if she does."

"I can always get the charges dropped if needs be." Sam offered. "I don't mean to brag, but I'm kinda a good lawyer."

I laughed a little. "I'm sure." I fell backward onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling. "What do I do, Sammy?"

"I'm sure it's nothing. Don't worry about it for now." I could hear a keyboard clicking as he typed. "We'll deal with it when the time comes to it."

"A waiting game seems to be my entire life right now." I sighed as I heard the shower turn off. "I gotta go, Sam. Thanks for letting me talk."

"Anytime, Alex," Sam answered, still sounding too busy to talk.

"Love you, Sam."

There was a quiet pause on the other end of the line for a moment as if the words had to sink in first before he'd heard them.

"Love you too, sis."

I hung up and lowered the phone to my chest, closing my eyes. I had to be overthinking. It had been a monster. It wasn't just some hit. Ketch wouldn't do that again. Not now. Not after everything we had been through and the fight to get free. He had changed.

"Can we go home?" I asked into the too-quiet room.

Ketch looked at me curiously as he stepped out of the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel as warm air spilled into the room.

"Of course, love. But are you sure you don't want to take another day just for us?" 

"I'm worried about Elly," I said. It wasn't a lie. Bus it also wasn't fully the truth. I had more questions to look into.

I knew he could tell it wasn't the full truth. I could see it in his stance as he studied me. But he didn't challenge it and didn't push the matter any further. That was another new thing. He had always liked to have the last word. What was going on? 

Ketch dressed in silence and I looked around the room awkwardly. I wasn't sure what to say or do now. There was an unusually tense air between us and I wasn't sure what to do with it. Things had been so easy recently, but now it was like we were back in that man-made HQ and I was trying to deny I was brainwashed.

I got from the bed and went for the door, only to be stopped as he reached for me. He took my arm gently.

"Where are you going?" Ketch' tone was tighter than normal. I looked at him quizzically as I turned back to him. Had I offended him somehow?

"I have some things to take care of," I said gently, carefully pulling his hand from my arm and lacing my fingers between his. "Are you ok?"

"What things?" His eyes narrowed. What had I done to upset him?

"Hell still needs a ruler and it's been a while since I've checked on it. It'll fall apart without me. And we don't need that happening on top of everything else, I can promise you that. It would be literal Hell on Earth." He smiled a little at that and a small weight lifted off my shoulders. "Just get some sleep. I'll be back by morning and then we can head home. That ok?"

"Of course." Ketch kissed my cheek and released my hand. "I miss sleeping beside you."

I laughed lightly. "Maybe tomorrow night." 

And with that, I stepped through the door and entered the red-walled tunnels of Hell. I needed the time away to think about everything that had happened today. It was all starting to become too much.