Radicle (Terminal trilogy #2, can stand alone)

Respite

I realized there was a paper in my- his, really- pocket when I heard it crinkle. I took it out. It was nothing more than a note written on lined paper. I could not read it though- the letters were strangely drawn out. I handed it to TC.

"We call this cursive." She remarked, mockingly. "Someone payed attention in third grade... oh. Fuck! Jesus fuck Nichael. Why the hell would you- Eug. Whatever. This note basically reads 'You have an hour before I send a bunch of hellhounds to kill you. The both of you. I know where you are, and where you're heading.'"

"An hour is a lot of time." I said.

But TC was cursing wildly. "Goddamn it, Nichael, I fucking live here. And now I'm going to get torn apart by hounds if I try to come back."

"Sorry." I offered with a shrug. "Though he doesn't say anything about it being a permanent death sentence. Maybe if you come back tomorrow, he'll let you stay? He's mostly trying to kill me, after all."

She groaned. "I happen to have a life. God. I need to get my files. I need to get my fucking files! Come on, we're going to have to move fast."

She literally dragged me in a different direction, set to head to Envy and it's library.

"Are we going to be on time?"

"Oh, who knows. I just need to get these files. And read them to fucking you, so at least I'll have that milestone cleared out before my untimely death."

"You can stop being vague."

"We both know you're not going to believe anything I care to say to you that doesn't validate your own opinions. I just hope a couple of very old papers will help rub in the truth for you."

"I am not easily persuaded by paper."

"Well, fucking suck it up. We're going to get those files. Anything else would be a travesty."

"You could try calming down."

"The files-"

"Okay, fine, whatever. Grab the files. I can maybe take on a hellhound if worse comes to worst. But calm down. I do not like seeing rage in others, especially when I'm still so angry myself."

"So we're both angry. Excellent. Hopefully at each other, as these things tend to go-"

"TC-"

"What?"

"Calm down. Tell me something about yourself. Very boring. Come on. What was yesterday like for you?"

"Yesterday?" We were still walking quite fast, so her words were quite chocked, even under a false calm of a voice. "Yesterday you were getting kicked out of Hell. I read to you part one of the Grace file. You left."

"After that?"

"I- I went to work, I guess. I'm a secretary at the hospital. I answer phones and do odd jobs. It's mostly, or entirely, voluntary to tell the truth. Just fills the hours."

"Anyone there interesting?"

"Interesting? Sure. Lots of old greying people. Most younger demons don't catch disease unless they brought it with them from Earth. There's two other volunteers besides me."

"Do you get along with them?"

"I barely know them." She admitted. "But there's this one girl I sort of have a crush on. Her name's Melody." She was keeping her sentences very short, I noted.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Absolutely nothing." TC said. "I've just never spoken to her. I mean, besides a couple 'hello's and 'how are you's. I think we had a two sentence discussion about our lunch while waiting in line once."

"Not much of a romantic feeling then if you don't even know her."

"Yeah, I guess, but she's so much more of everything. Like, a serious angel- I mean that in a not literal sense, by the way. She's a nurse, and she's so sweet and nice and caring about everyone. I feel kind of creepy, actually, just watching her all the time. But it's sort of hard not to."

I realized TC was blushing while she spoke, and I guess that meant there was some sort of genuine emotion behind her words. I laughed at her. "Ridiculous."

"Hey! We're near possible death here, and you first put me off subject by getting me to swoon over a girl, and then you laugh about it? Totally rude."

"At least you're calmer."

"No, I'm still pretty fucking pissed off about this whole nasty affair. I'm just now embarrassed in addition to angry."

"Hey, nothing embarrassing about emotions. Sinful, surely, and a terrible idea. But you're not an angel, so it doesn't really matter what you devote yourself to doing. None of your actions matter, actually. It goes hand in hand with damnation."

"These things would start to sound depressing and a tad cruel if I didn't already know they were all bullshit."

"Talk to the girl tomorrow. Ask her out on a romantically or sexually inclined evening. The usual trick to getting anything done is to at least pretend to have some confidence about it."