Partners In Crime (Ticciwork fanfic) [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 44: Red Dress

"Dina!" Clockwork yelled up the staircase, forgetting about not being heard. She received no response. She wondered if she'd even noticed Clockwork had fallen behind.

Something roared up the stairs, the resulting tremor making her stumble. She was positive nothing was following her; the Wendigos could never squeeze through the human-sized door she'd exited. The confirmation didn't do anything to reassure her - if they couldn't fit through that door there was a different one that they could, and she didn't want to find it.

What if it's where I'm heading?

Clockwork looked up the seemingly endless spiral of stairs. She'd already sprinted up four landings, and her breathing was shallow as she started running again. She felt hot with anger and a small amount of embarrassment; she should have remembered that there was no way Meta would let her go so quickly if she hated her so much.

Lost in thought, Clockwork ran blindly; until she saw something that made her said to a dead stop.

A person was standing at the top of the next landing, a tall person with striped sleeves. They weren't looking at her just yet. They were looking through their greasy black hair at what Clockwork assumed was someone else on a landing above them.

Clockwork's legs felt glued to the spot. She stared at Laughing Jack as he gave whomever he was looking at a curt nod, then turned and saw her.

He made no reaction. The unnerving color of his eyes once again flooded Clockwork with strange nausea, and she swayed slightly; she'd already felt nauseous in the first place.

Jack's gaze flicked to her right and back at her. She looked; there was a door where he'd beckoned.

"What is it?" A raspy voice hissed from above Jack. Jack widened his eyes at her meaningfully, and Clockwork finally got the message.

"Nothing, Rake." The tall clown-like figure said evenly. Clockwork bolted for the door as he slowly started down the stairs. She threw it open and darted inside before she heard Rake's response.

She instantly slammed into something warm and soft, tumbling onto a hard floor, the world spinning around her. Someone was tumbling with her, but she couldn't figure out who it was until they both finally rolled to a stop and the someone was on top of her.

"Toby!" She cried, for lack of anything better to say.

He blinked at her for a moment, and she got a good look at the blood splattered diagonally across his goggles and the tinge of wildness in his eyes. The bottom half of his mask grinned.

"...Clockwork." He said after a pause. She felt his taut muscles weaken. "Clocky. It's just - just Clocky..." He rubbed his forehead with his first and mumbled some inaudible things to himself. She caught a few cuss words.

She struggled uncomfortably. "Toby, you're -"

He exhaled. "Right, sorry..." His weight shifted, and he rolled off of her, where he lay at her side. "Sorry," He said again.

Clockwork heaved herself upright; all this falling was taking a toll on her strength. She looked down at Toby and saw both of his axes were missing, there was dried blood all over the front of his jacket, and he had a deep gash in his left shoulder that had darkened his sleeve almost down to his elbow.

He held a black handgun in his left hand. For some reason it had never occurred to her that he would know how to use one of those. He'd always relied on his axes.

She reached for the horrid injury on his arm. When she brushed her fingers against it, they came off bright red. "J-jeez that's bad..."

He flung himself upright quickly; she flinched back in surprise. He leaned his weight on his hand and his eyes raked over all of her injuries. They narrowed to brown slits.