Marked

Final Chapter (43)

Angel POV

Angel stood there watching as Liz tossed papers around. It was clear she wouldn't find anything. Time ticked by slower than Angel would've liked, but at least it was ticking. The timer was down to the final 60 seconds. By the time half the minute was over, the desperation on Liz's face was so evident, but she opened her mouth to speak. "I got it!" She held up a paper triumphantly.

Angel's heart dropped. No way. "Let me see!"

The timer went off and he snatched the paper from her hands. His eyes scanned the paper, reviewing the details. "You've gotta be kidding."

"Well, what does it say?" Jess asked.

"This is their argument about ice cream flavors from back in... March?"

Jess glared at Liz. "Heh... Oops?"

"Well? Are you gonna fix it now?"

"This was meant to be impossible. Explain to me how they did it," Jess said calmly.

"Uh, they belong together? I don't know... But they did it." Angel didn't have an explanation either, he was just glad it was over.

Jess sighed and looked down at the mess of papers that was scattered on the table and the floor. She pinched her temples before speaking. "This is too much work. I'm tired of dealing with this."

"What- What are you doing?" Ali asked her with a panicked expression.

"Making our jobs a whole lot easier," she said, before typing a code into her keypad.

Angel watched as a red button emerged from the table. The glass case over it said Emergency Use Only. Her hand hovered over the button as if having second thoughts.

"What does the button do?" Angel asked.

She placed her hand lightly on the button before pushing fully down on it. Liz and Ali looked panicked, but Jess seemed perfectly calm. "No need to worry about what it does tonight. You'll find out soon enough."

Angel was worried about what the button did, but he didn't bother to ask again. He just wanted to get out of there.

"Congratulate Bad and Skeppy for me," she said.

"I- uh- I will..." He turned to leave, hoping to get back to them as soon as possible.

Jess sat down in her chair. "One more thing, Angel!"

"Hm?" He turned to face her.

An evil grin spread across her face. "You're fired."

Skeppy POV

Skeppy sat there on the bed with Bad, chatting about nothing in particular. He opened the watch again and focused his mind on the timer. "That's so cool, how do you do that?" Bad asked.

"I just focus on seeing the timer and then it appears."

There was 3 minutes left. Angel was off somewhere doing something, but it seemed that Skeppy and Bad were in the clear. The seconds seemed to pass slow when he was staring at it, so he shut the watch and set it on the bed. They sat in silence for a few more seconds. When Skeppy reopened the watch, it showed 30 seconds left. He grabbed Bad's hand as they both stared at the glowing numbers. It was a countdown to their freedom, but it gave Skeppy anxiety.

He felt like it was counting down to his doom. Once it was at 10, he turned to Bad. "I love you," he said, bracing himself as if something terrible would happen.

"I love you too, Skeppy." He hugged Bad and as the clock struck zero, a beautiful chime was heard. The tension was gone.

"That's it?"

They looked at each other. "I guess so..."

Both of them instinctively looked down at their wrists. Nothing had changed. "It probably takes a full night to change," Bad said.

"Yeah, probably..."

"Do you want to go back to sleep?"

Skeppy remembered the blanket on the other bed. "In a second... I need to show you something first."

He went down the hall to his room. There was nothing on the bed where he had left the blanket. Actually... There was something. A small note.

You're a strong one, Skeppy. Don't forget that.

He stuck the note in his pocket and walked back to Bad's room.

"I thought I had left something in there... I guess it was just a dream..." He said to Bad.

"Come lay down then, it's late."

Skeppy laid down on the bed, snuggling up with Bad. Two weeks have finally passed.

...

By the time they woke up, the sunlight was pouring through the window. Skeppy looked down at his wrists and found them to be perfectly blank. "Bad," he nudged him.

"Huh?" Bad asked sleepily.

"Look at your wrists."

He looked down and saw no marks. "They- I- The tattoos are gone?"

Skeppy grabbed his phone from the desk. Sure enough, twitter was filled with people confused about their missing tattoos. "So... We're free then?"

"I guess so... I guess we're free."

No longer marked. Free at last.

Word Count: 821 Words