Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ 1 Blood on the Window ❯ Hell's Bells ( Chapter 36 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

I jumped to my feet as Heero led Duo into the living room. There was a dead-haunted look about his eyes that I knew I would live with for the rest of my life. That and the certain knowledge that Kayla would never smile at me again, that she'd never tease me again…

Duo moved to me wordlessly, pulling me close to him and nuzzling my ear briefly before focusing around the room at everyone else. They were all staring at him…we were all staring at him.

"The doctors said he'd be dazed for a while. The ended up having to use a lot more sedative than normal for him to stay out." Heero muttered, moving and collapsing on the couch next to his fiancé.

Relena lay her hand on his shoulder a moment before rising to her feet and moving up to Duo, pushing me away wordlessly to meet Duo's eyes, "Are you all right?" she asked him, raising her hands to touch his cheeks.

He caught both of her wrists, irritation flickering plainly on his face, "Of course I'm not all right. Would you be all right if Heero were dead?"

"Duo…" she started, moving to touch his face again.

His eyes narrowed and she suddenly focused on her wrists-I had a feeling he was squeezing them.

He let her go, shaking his head and moving toward the kitchen.

I looked to the others.

"He's not all right." Heero nearly whispered, staring after his friend, "Even considering the circumstances."

"Has Jesse called?" Duo asked, moving back into the living room to look at us, "Who told her parents?"

"I did." Heero said quietly, looking away from him, "I called as soon as the facts made sense to me."

Duo looked away as well, then disappeared into the kitchen.

Everyone was looking at me.

I sighed, following the guy and moving up to his side, touching his arm as he stared out the window to the back yard, his eyes distant. He jumped slightly, focusing on me, then pulled me to him.

.

Watching Duo as he paced from one room to the other was unsettling. There was nothing else I could do, however. I couldn't leave him, even if I didn't want to see him how he was. What really worried me, though, was the way Heero kept watching him. Heero knew something that he wasn't sharing and that had him worried. It was almost a relief when Jesse showed up-until Duo smiled.

It wasn't Duo's smile.

It was hard to keep track of everyone. It was even harder to explain to Alexia that Kayla had died. Watching Quatre, I could see the same stress in his expression, but it was something that we had to do. The sobbing of the children ended up foreshadowing Relena breaking down…before Duo.

That was the most terrible thing in the world to watch, to have ever watched. I'd seen horrors beyond my counting in the wars, but none of that was even half of seeing Duo fall to his knees, sobbing like a broken-hearted child.

The fact that both Hilde and Relena joined in his crying made it no easier.

"I can't see him like this." Wufei whispered tightly to me, clinging to me. Duo was sitting on the couch now, crying as Relena held him, "It's worse than the fact that Kayla's gone."

"I know." I muttered, stroking his head much like I would have to my daughter.

"I'm…gonna go." Jesse said sadly, his voice choked.

"Duo…" Relena sounded startled.

I moved with Wufei to look from the kitchen to the door, blinking as it shut behind Duo-I had an instant's vision of Jesse looking slightly perturbed before the door shut.

"I wonder what he's doing." Wufei said vaguely, moving back into the living room and sitting next to Relena.

Relena smiled slightly at him, clasping his hand in hers, "This will pass…in a few days. Maybe you guys should go home during it. It's not helping him that you keep breaking down."

I knew she didn't mean me. She meant Wufei, though she couldn't tell him that he alone needed to distance himself during this time.

"Maybe." Wufei muttered, starting to message his temples.

"Not right away, of course." she muttered, touching his shoulder, "But in a few hours."

.

The house seemed cold, though I knew it wasn't. I stared onto the front-porch vaguely as Wufei and Relena muttered quietly to each other about going home and Trowa moved around to sit on Relena's other side.

It didn't occur to me what I was seeing, partially because I didn't want to think, but I was watching Duo back Jesse against the wall of the porch. It wasn't until I realized that his bearing was dangerous that I realized Jesse wasn't equipped to deal with Duo and moved quickly to the front door, pulling it open.

"…he's at." Duo finished, his tone dripping poison.

"Not today," Jesse started, then blinked at me.

Duo turned and met my eyes a brief moment-and the pure hatred in them was enough to curdle my stomach.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, glancing back at Relena a moment and wondering if I should call Heero down. He'd gone upstairs to change, and when Relena had checked on him a few minutes later he was sleeping hard.

"I'm getting some information." Duo replied, his tone almost cold.

"Jesse, go ahead and go," I muttered, moving forward to grab Duo's wrist, "We'll deal with…" I stumbled, blinking at Duo in sheer amazement as I nearly fell into the house backwards.

"Quatre?" Relena muttered, standing slowly and looking at me.

"You know where he fucking lives," Duo snarled at Jesse, "And you will tell me."

Jesse looked away from his eyes, "The four-hundred block of the north-west side." his voice was very quiet, "West Lanner Street."

"Thank you." Duo said, pulling him into a brief hug before moving past me into the house.

I blinked at Jesse.

"I'm leaving now." he said.

"Good bye, Jesse." I muttered, watching him head to his car and wondering what he'd just told Duo.

"Duo!" I shouted, reaching for him as he moved past me. Jesse peeled out of his parking spot and Duo slammed into his car, instantly starting the engine.

"Where are you going!" I demanded of Duo, trying to pull his car-door opened though it was locked.

He studied me with his dead eyes a long moment-and smiled at me, "I'll be back." he said loud enough for me to hear, "I'm going to get some things from my house. Just be patient…"

"You shouldn't…" I started, but he pulled away from the curb before I could finish.

"Where is he going?" Heero's voice was alarmed.

I turned to blink at him, "He said to his place."

"Fuck!" Heero snarled, disappearing inside and grabbing his keys.

I watched him drive away as well before it occurred to me that Duo's apartment wouldn't have been cleaned, and would also probably be a crime scene.

I sighed, moving back into the living room as everyone focused on me expectantly, "They're going to Duo's apartment." I explained.

Trowa groaned.

.

I focused on the blood on the white floor as I moved into the apartment, disregarding the 'caution' tape across the door. I swallowed and looked away from the blood, feeling my grief welling up again as well as my hatred for Donovan Charles.

The man would not live past sunset-and that was probably twenty minutes off.

I grabbed my hunting knife from where Kayla had set it days before, studying the picture of the two of us she'd set on the counter and shaking my head, knocking it down so I didn't have to see it, moving into my room.

I knew it'd be a while before I could get back into the house, so I pulled out my back-pack from the closet, throwing clothing into it before moving to my nightstand and opening the drawer, pulling out my throwing-knives and the other knife I'd bought, tucking them both into my pocket and digging out more ammo. The cops were going to have a hay-day with this place. I'd never hear the end of it.

I had more of an arsenal than the local armory.

I stopped before leaving the room, though, focusing on the jewelry box I'd bought Kayla for her twentieth birthday and moving to it. She'd had a present for me in it that she kept teasing me about. It was a small box.

I was praying it wasn't something like a condom.

It took me all of three seconds to get it out-and two more before I started crying again.

It was a ring. A ruby ring set in a simple platinum setting.

I slid that onto my ring-finger, wiping my face quickly.

Donovan was dead.

"Duo?"

I focused on the door, blinking at Heero.

"You shouldn't be here." he muttered to me, moving quickly into the room.

"Leave me alone." I said distantly, spotting a necklace that Vicky had given Kayla supposedly as a child. I lifted that from the box, picturing it on Kayla's neck again.

"You need to get out of here. It's not going to help…at least wait until her parents get here." Heero muttered, stopping in front of me.

I nodded, clasping the necklace on and rising unsteadily to my feet.

"Come on…let's get back to the house."

"In a minute." I replied, moving back into the living room with my back-pack and pulling open the CD player to get out Kayla's favorite CDs, as well as my own.

"Duo…come on…just…don't touch stuff."

I met his eyes, then turned back to the counter, breaking open the picture frame with both Kayla and I in it, folding that and tucking it into my pocket, focusing on the blood on the window again and choking back another sob.

Heero draped his arms around my shoulders, pulling me gently from the room.

The cool evening air was enough to bring me back to my senses. I met his eyes, "There's something I have to do." I informed him.

"We can go get Donovan tomorrow or the next day," Heero protested instantly.

"Where does Ace live?" I asked distantly.

"He's in Endgame's land." Heero replied easily, "You won't be able to find him. He lost me when I gave chase."

"I see." I muttered, moving to my car without informing him that I was going to look anyway.

.

When Duo turned instead of following me, I just imagined he was taking a slightly longer route for the speed, but when he didn't meet up with me again, I realized suddenly that he was going after Donovan without me.

"Shit!" I snarled, turning and going back down the road he'd taken. There were so many roads off of it, that the fact that I couldn't see his car meant he was gone. I pulled out my cell phone, calling the house, "I lost him!"

"What?" Trowa's voice was outraged.

"He was following me back to the house…and he's gone." I replied easily, speeding up to look down the various roads, "I went up the block instead of instantly doubling back, and by the time I got back onto Victoria, he was gone."

"Shit…" Trowa sounded distant a moment before talking to someone else, "Call Jesse, Quatre says he told Duo an address."

"And…Quatre doesn't remember it?"

Trowa muttered something else.

I sighed.

"Four-hundred block," Trowa repeated, "Lanner, he thinks."

I groaned, slamming on my breaks and turning sharply. I'd past the turn for the fastest route there.

.

Duo broke into the small meeting room with his knife already dripping blood. He took a moment to spot every person in the room before throwing his throwing knives and killing three right off. Donovan was on his feet by the time the third hit the floor and his general dodged under the table.

Duo studied the woman a moment before meeting Donovan's eyes. There had only been five people in the room and now there were only two, and one was hiding under a table.

"How dare you!" Donovan shouted, reaching for his gun.

Duo threw the second knife he'd bought and knocked the gun to the floor as he closed the difference between them, placing his hunting knife against the man's throat, "You knew you were dead the moment I saw you in the Burn." he informed him coldly, no emotion entering his eyes.

Donovan started to stutter something out that neither Duo nor the woman under the desk could understand.

Duo sliced the man's throat.

The woman was terrified when Duo leaned down to look at her, "I don't know who you are," she said quickly, moving further away from him, "But I'll obey."

Duo snorted derisively, "Get out from under the table."

"Are you going to kill me too?"

"Depends. What do you know about Kayla Green?"

"She was with Donovan a while back," she muttered, "And he saw her a week or so ago at that damned club…her new boyfriend pissed Donovan off…I haven't heard anything since."

"So you didn't realize that he had her killed?" Duo asked coldly.

The woman gasped, moving from underneath the thing and shaking her head, "He wouldn't have!"

"He did." Duo informed her, his eyes narrowing as he studied her for traces of deceit, "Do you know where the lunatic lives?"

"Endgame's land." she muttered, trying to control her fast-beating heart.

"Nothing more?"

She shook her head.

He looked around at the dead people around him before starting to gather and clean his knives.

She watched him fearfully the entire time, a dreadful fear rising in her stomach when he approached her, the still bloody hunting knife in his hand. She squeaked fearfully when he grabbed her shirt, then stared in horror as he used it to clean the knife, studying the edge a moment before meeting her eyes, "I apologize that you had to witness this."

"It's fine," she muttered in a higher voice than was her norm.

He snorted, "You won't think that in an hour." he looked to the door to the room, hearing quick-approaching footsteps and grinning at her again, "Gotta fly…I've got more prey this night."

She stared after him as he jumped out onto the fire-escape.

When Heero appeared in the door with huge eyes, she was ready to pass out from sheer-fear.

"Was the Cheshire Cat here?" he snapped at her.

"Assassin?" she squeaked.

He nodded.

She fell to the floor, unconscious.

.

I took a deep breath as I looked around the apartment. There were signs everywhere of a quick departure, and according to his neighbors, Ace had torn from the apartment about an hour after I'd found Kayla and hadn't returned since.

I moved onto his balcony, wondering if he'd been perturbed by the sameness of our apartments. The street beyond was over populated with many moving cars. I knew Heero wouldn't take too long to come after me and wondered if it'd be as easy for him to find the apartment. It had taken me all of an hour to pin it down and I had a feeling Ace was heading to his sister's in Newport.

The wind blew at me and I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath-trying not to think. I couldn't believe Kayla was gone, but at the same time I'd known she was dead from the instant Heero had gotten that call.

I opened my eyes, narrowing them at the empty spot with a large number forty-two painted on it.

I wouldn't stop following Ace, and until the day he died he would live in fear of me. Because in the end I wanted his blood on my clothing…on the carpet…on my hands…on the walls. I wanted his blood on the window.

.
End