Hold Me Close | Kellic

Chapter 17

Mike stared at me blankly unsure of what to say to me. He must have found it pretty awkward considering he's never met me before and yet he's now finding himself with his arms around me. He continued to just look at me, urging me to explain myself further so I just took the opportunity to just say it.

"I speak to Vic," I said.

For a moment he just seemed confused and then it clicked and his eyes widened as a look of disbelief washed over his face.

"Wha.. How?" He said quietly, as if the words couldn't escape.

"I don't really know how but one night our minds just connected. He was crying, Mike. He needs you which is why my friends and I are helping you two get to each other," I said and hoped that he trusted my words. He still looked blatantly bewildered but he slowly nodded his head and accepted my explanation. I gestured for us to move along and we began walking back in the direction of the others.

"So, Kellin, why do you want to help my brother and I?" He asked somewhat cautiously but my gaze just drifted to the ground. I'd thought about the question before, the answer being because I just immediately began caring about Vic. For the hundreds of years I've been in Hell it had always been the same for me, training up Fallen Angels and watching people enter the atmosphere and seeing them slowly lose themselves more and more each passing day that eventually I too lost myself. My only purpose had been to keep Hell in order but even then, I only had a low rank. I wasn't needed but then that changed because I discovered that Vic needed me and that filled me with such happiness and it was happiness I'd never felt before and didn't know. In the back of my mind I always knew that there was always a depressing side to mine and Vic's connection that would never leave because Vic spoke to me when he needed help but knowing that I had someone to care for just gave me hope, I don't know what for but it just did. I didn't know what that whole feeling was though, I almost didn't want to know. I lowered my head as I finally found an answer to give Mike who walked silently beside me.

"I don't know," I said, almost inaudible.

"Oh," was all he replied with and after that there wasn't much to be said.

I was just lost in thought as to how I'd get Vic and Mike to contact each other because as Vic and I had said before, as far as we knew we were the only ones who could speak to one another. Mike and Vic had to somehow talk to each other though, that was the whole purpose of why we'd gone through the trouble we had to reach Mike.

"Did Vic tell you what happened between the two of us?" Mike suddenly asked me, breaking the silence that had fallen upon us. I just looked at him, not giving an answer because the truth was he hadn't. I'd never thought about it before or even realised that Vic had never told me. Even if I did want to know though, I would never have asked. I would've let Vic tell me when he was ready, it wouldn't have been my place to interrogate.

I shook my head slightly and he sighed as if a thought just triggered in his head caused by my reaction, "I'll just wait for him to tell you then. His version of the story might be different from mine. Just be patient with him, Kellin."

I'd wait four thousand years for him if I had to, I knew what kind of person Vic would be. I'll just have to wait for him to open up to me but to be honest, that's all he had been doing. He'd put his complete trust in me.

Soon or later we made it back to the guys, Jack leant against the wall opposite to Justin and Gabe but the sight of them two made me smile a little, I was surprised but nevertheless I smiled. They sitting close together, Justin almost huddled up against Gabe with his head on Gabe's shoulder as he snored softly in what appeared to be quite a deep sleep. Gabe just seemed content with it all. Friends; always great for sleeping on.

Gabe nudged Justin's shoulder slightly, "Justin, wake up. Mike and Kellin are here," he said, beaming at Mike. Justin refused to stir though, Gabe began to lightly poke him which eventually woke him up.

The moment Justin's eyes were open they landed on Mike and he was up and over here, hugging Mike. I didn't know whether they actually knew each other or not because Justin had only told me that he knew Vic who he'd heard Mike's name from but Mike still returned the gesture.

"It's like hugging Vic," Justin mumbled into Mike's shoulder.

"You sure? Isn't there a bit of a height difference?" Mike smiled, Justin laughing a little.

"Just a little bit," he said sarcastically but I was just left confused, feeling a little left out. I coughed to make them aware again of my presence.

"Come on, let's go get Mike back to my box so he can talk to Vic," I said but with a slight demanding tone, I was still the undecided leader of our little group.

"Couldn't we do it here, the sooner I talk to Vic the better," Mike suggested but I shook my head in response.

"I would but for some reason all the times I've tried connecting to Vic outside of my Box it hasn't worked apart from once but it didn't last long anyway," I said and turned around to start walking but the second I did I was met face to face with Barkat, causing me to jump back.

"Fuck, you scared me!" I half shouted at him but it didn't seem to have an effect on him, he just looked at the five of us with a grave expression.

"The other Sins know you're here," he said and all of us just looked at each other, immediately horrified, "and they're not happy."

In all of Hell the place was probably filled with bad beings, that you didn't want to get involved with but the ones you wanted to stay clear from the most were the Sins, if you did then you'd die all over again and not just in the pitiful way that the souls did as their daily torture. The Sins were right up there with S. You'd be worse than dead. Jack kept up his brave front just like I knew he would, Gabe was subtilely watching over Justin because it was clear to all of us that he was panicked but Mike, there were no words to express the amount of fear held in his eyes. We all stopped noting each other's actions and turned our utmost attention back to Jack. He uttered one word to us all.

"Run."

We didn't need to be told twice, the atmosphere changed drastically. Barakat disappeared into the fine, black mist and the five of us sprinted through it, making it vanish completely.

Why were the Sins after us so bad? What was it about all of this that angered them so much? I understand that letting someone they were holding captive in such a secure place loose would arise their anger but Barkat made this seem like it was about a lot more.

We jumped down the hole we had made in the floor below's ceiling then straight away carried on running, back into the darkness. No one bothered to speak and use the tactic we had before, instead we focused on the sound of each other's footsteps and just getting out of there. I called to Mike a couple times and he immediately replied.

"Once we're out of here, we go straight back to our Boxes but Mike, you'll come with me into mine," I ordered.

It wasn't long until we found our way out of the tunnel and were out on the ledge of the clock face again, myself running too fast and far forward that I almost ended up falling straight over the edge but Gabe managed to hold me back before I fell.

"Shit," I whispered, looking down at the distance between the edge and the ground, "We can't get down, not like this."

And once again we were stuck without hope.