The Girl That Died

Flight

"Yvette! Yvette, wake up!"

Sleepily, she opened her eyes and looked into Alexandre's face confusedly; he instantly covered her mouth with his hand:

"Be quiet, we have to leave. Now."

He explained, giving her a look almost as serious as Spears' would usually be; his eyes shimmered with worry and so she obeyed silently. She watched in confusion as the man opened the window, looked down outside of it shortly, and waved her closer:

"Follow me."

He whispered and helped her up on the windowsill, visibly in a hurry:

"Just jump, trust me, you won't get hurt."

He said and showed her how, landing on the ground elegantly.

For a second the woman hesitated but followed, landing next to him, albeit considerably less graceful.

"Did you not teach her anything at all?"

Another voice asked quietly and Yvette could identify it quickly as Spears'. She looked up and saw his usual, emotionless face: 

"Monsieur Spears? What's going on?"

"We have no time for explanations, just follow us quietly and stay close by."

Yvette sighed, she hated to be constantly kept in the dark about everything and was also sick of blindly following orders. Still, she didn't resist and went with Spears and Alexandre, whose side she didn't leave for even a moment.

The silence was uncomfortable and frightening as they went through the streets of the city in the human world, unusually quickly and she almost had to run to keep up with the other two:

"Please, Alexandre, tell me what's wrong! Did something happen?"

Yvette asked after a while; she stopped walking, frustrated and freezing in her bloody and ruined suit, and still didn't know why and where Alexandre and Spears were escorting her in the middle of the night.

"Yvette please just come, don't be stubborn, not now."

Alexandre spat back, grabbed her wrist, and simply pulled her onward. Spears have her a short, annoyed glance and shook his head.

The sun was already beginning to rise as they reached a road, leading them through wheat fields, far away from the city and most people. 

"We're almost there. Just a few more minutes, I promise."

Alexandre finally said, after a few hours of silence. He gave her a more or less encouraging pat on the shoulder and even Spears sighed in relief. 

"Yes."

The woman had given up asking questions by now and was even happy about this piece of information; she was tired from walking so much and wanted nothing more than to sit down and hopefully get an explanation at last.

Shortly after, they reached a small house; it seemed old, almost run down, and absolutely inconspicuous. Spears was the first one at the door. He knocked and cleared his throat barely audibly, waiting until someone, at last, opened the door; in front of him stood a small, old lady, with a friendly and innocent smile on her face:

"Visitors, so early in the morning?"

She asked, but her mood changed fast as Spears pointed at Yvette and introduced himself and the other two:

"My name is William T. Spears, these are my colleagues, Alexandre Segal and Yvette Moreau."

He took out his death list, showing it to her for a short moment as if to identify himself:

"We desperately need a place to stay for an uncertain amount of time. Have Alan Humphries and Adette Roux arrived already?

He gained a nod and the elderly woman stepped aside to let them in.

"You could have at least given the girl time to get properly dressed, she must be freezing in these torn and burned clothes!"

She complained as she led the three into the living room, where Alan and Adette were already sitting and talking frantically; both had a cup of tea in front of them, the existence of which had been forgotten hours ago. Their conversation was interrupted as they noticed the others and Adette immediately jumped up to wrap her arms around Yvette:

"Oh, child, I'm so glad you're alright!" 

The redhead smiled softly, returning the gesture:

"Hello, Madame Roux. Yes, I'm alright, but I wished I knew why we are even here."

Adette brushed through Yvette's disheveled hair with her fingers and spoke, a tad calmer:

"I know, I'm sorry, but that wasn't possible until now."

"I'll make you tea and breakfast."

The old woman chimed in and disappeared into the kitchen to give Spears, Alexandre, and Yvette the chance to sit down and rest a bit.

"Yvette, I am really sorry. I know it was sudden, but we really had to do this fast and unnoticed."

Alexandre apologized, fixing his glasses at the same time as Spears before the latter nodded in agreement. Yvette's mentor continued speaking:

"Last night, Black Rose was seen on the premises of our building. There was an emergency meeting and they decided to use you as bait to keep him off our backs."

He tilted his head back, closing his eyes with a frustrated sigh:

"Apparently he's not very fond of how much you know about him, that you saw him, and he's after you. But we thought that it shouldn't cost your life so we had to bring you away. Luckily, Spears knew this house; it's often used by people from the English and German branches, but most others don't know about it."

Yvette listened to him tiredly, her head resting on the arms she had crossed on the table, a position she had adopted from her husband what seemed like an eternity ago, barely able to keep herself from falling back asleep.

God, please, can't I just have one normal day? What did I do to deserve this?

She thought to herself, as so often feeling tears in her throat that threatened to flow over her cheeks. With difficulty, she held them back and kept listening to Alexandre's monologue, the meaning of which was already gone as she didn't listen to the actual word but rather his voice. When he was finally done, she raised her head and looked into his eyes sadly:

"Alexandre? Am I really worth all of this?"

The man blinked, slightly confused:

"Of course. You don't deserve to die for something that isn't even your fault and you're probably the biggest part of the only hope we have to possibly get rid of Black Rose."

She gave an odd smile:

"Without me, you wouldn't even be in this situation. I know it's the exact opposite of what you're trying right now, and by far the opposite of what I want but..."

With another hopeless sigh she took off her glasses and put them down on the table carefully as she, at last, let go of herself and allowed the tears of over two horrible weeks to flow:

"It would be better and safer for everyone if I let him kill me."