The tension and silence in the car felt so thick that Lowe was sure he was going to choke on it. Matheson's knuckles were white as they gripped the steering wheel, his jaw clenched as tears slid slowly down his cheeks just like the raindrops on the car's windows. His driving was even more erratic as he sped along down the slick roads and Lowe found himself grabbing the handle on the roof of the car with every turn, sometimes with both hands.
"Jeez, Matheson... You aren't going to be able to do anything if we can't get there in one piece," Lowe said softly.
Matheson simply stomped down on the brakes, jerking the wheel to bring the car to a sudden stop before flying out of the car and into the rain in one smooth movement. He was immediately soaked from head to toe, but it was obvious that he didn't care as he dashed up the steps and wrenched the door open, head snapping left and right as he entered with his pistol drawn.
Lowe swore under his breath before jumping out into the torrential downpour himself, the sheets of the rain even harder to see through on foot than in the car before Matheson had switched on the wipers.
He reached the doorstep and only silence greeted his ears.
"Matheson? I'm coming in," Lowe called, not wanting to catch a reaction-fire bullet from his partner.
There was no response.
Lowe commenced his own sweep of the house, only making it through two rooms before he heard it.
Over his career, he was forced to deliver bad news to so many parents who had lost their children in some unfortunate way. Assaults, drunk drivers, over-doses... The list was endless, and so were the screams of anguish that came from the mothers at the news that they would never again get to hold their beloved child again in their arms, alive and well. He would never forget any of those moments, the screams still hovering around in his subconscious, torturing him some nights when it was impossible to retreat into the sanctuary of a dreamless sleep.
But this sound was different; it was so much worse.
The most blood-curdling, soul-crushing scream that he had ever had the misfortune of hearing came from just down the hallway.
Lowe dashed into the room only to be stopped in his tracks by what he saw.
His partner was hunched over, clinging to the remains of his once beautiful girlfriend where she lay in tatters on the floor, blood sprayed over every inch of the room, dying the once cream-coloured walls a viscous tone of red. A hand, nearly stripped of every inch of skin and muscle reached out from underneath Matheson, flapping around as sobs shook his body. The rest of what Lowe could see of the body was similar to the state of the hand, as the smell hit his nose and he couldn't help but gag.
"Get out," Matheson said, so quietly that Lowe almost couldn't tell that he had spoken at all.
"What?"
"I said 'GET OUT'," Matheson screamed, tears, sorrow and rage all making his voice break on the last words.
Lowe opened his mouth, wanting to comfort him in some way, but he knew that once again, no words could possibly make this situation any better. In silence, he turned and left the room and walked out onto the covered porch to get away from the smell. The rain still fell heavily, as if it was trying to wash the world away in a great flood just like in the old bible story.
"If this keeps up, maybe all the evil will be washed away... Probably most of the good, too," Lowe mumbled aloud. He snorted at the thought before reaching inside his jacket pocket with shaking hands. Lowe didn't smoke often, usually only in moments of high stress as to calm his nerves. Even then he would make sure to smoke only one before tucking the pack away, determined not to let the little white and tan sticks get the better of him. He knew too many good people that had thrown their lives away on cigarettes, enjoying every puff they could get as well as not being able to function without the seductive draw of nicotine rushing through their veins. He kept telling himself that he'd go completely cold turkey if he ever got to that point, and so far, it hadn't.
Fumbling with the switch on his lighter, Lowe finally managed to light the cigarette. He stared at the glowing tip with a feeling of deep regret clenching at his stomach before drawing it up to his lips with shaking hands and inhaling the deep, thick smoke into his lungs. The clenching ceased as soon as the smoke filled him up, the nicotine whisking away his tension and letting it all float out with a single exhale.
He had finished the cigarette, burned all the way down to the butt, and was debating the pros and cons of lighting another when the front door opened behind him. Matheson stepped out onto the porch in silence, staring out at the rain pouring down, barely acknowledging Lowe's presence even though he stood right next to him.
"I don't care what it takes or how I'm going to do it," he said after a few minutes, his voice shaking with tightly contained emotion. "Those evil, furry little bastards are going to suffer for what they did."
"Yes, they are," Lowe said in agreement, before walking back out into the rain to get back in the car.
Matheson slowly turned and stared back at the door, tears momentarily pooling in his eyes before he angrily swiped them away.
"I'm so sorry, Sammy. I'm so sorry. I-I'll make sure th-that they regret this. I promise."
He reached out and touched the door, visions of what lay beyond flooding his head. Blinking back more tears, he composed his face into a hard, emotionless line before turning and heading to the car himself.
---
Faith shoved her way through the crowd, ignoring the annoyed sounds from the people she shoved out of her way as she fought her way to the front. It felt like she was running in a dream how slow she was moving and she almost felt like crying out of frustration.
She finally burst through the wall of people, staggering a little as she finally became able to plant her feet firmly on the ground instead of on people's legs or feet. Her umbrella had been lost somewhere in her struggle through the crowd, and the rain poured down on her without mercy. She opened her mouth to yell again but was yanked back before she could make a sound.
"What the fu-" Faith spun, completely prepared to slap whoever had just manhandled her before she realized that it was Adam.
"Adam?" she spluttered in disbelief. "You look like shit," she said before she could stop herself.
"Yeah, I know," he hissed. "Probably has something to do with the fact that I've been worrying about you two bitches non-stop because no one's answering their phones to let me know what's going on and you've been avoiding me at school-"
"Adam, I-"
"-and now Destiny is standing on the edge of a roof and I have no idea what the hell is going on," he finished in a rush, his voice cracking a little on the last word. Faith felt her heart clench. Adam had been the third member of their little group for a lot less time than Destiny and Faith, but he was still like family. Hearing the genuine worry in his voice made her realize just how much she had been neglecting him and how much that must of hurt. He must have felt like her in regards to Destiny, except he got it two-fold.
"I'm sorry," she said softly. When he opened his mouth to respond she placed her index finger over his lips. "I know that I've been distant, but I honestly have no idea what's going on either."
"You should have told me then. I could have helped you, Faith: you and Destiny."
"I don't think anyone could have helped Destiny, Adam."
"But... I could have at least tried. I could have helped you," Adam said, the pain in his voice filling Faith with a fresh dose of guilt as he kept on going on like a broken record.
"Adam, what's done is done. Right now, we just have to do something about this," Faith said, gesturing behind her as she grabbed his hand.
He nodded in agreement and the two of them started trying to head around to the side of the building, hopefully to find a discrete entrance where they could get up to the roof without difficulty. The sound of sirens started up in the distance, and Faith started walking faster, dragging Adam along behind her, entirely focused on the side door. He was acting like a dead weight, barely even trying to keep pace with her.
"Adam, c'mon!" She shouted, looking back to see why he was moving so slowly. He was staring up at the roof once more, a look of pure horror etched onto his face, his mouth moving but no sound coming out.
Faith followed his gaze, her face quickly becoming a mirror image of his. Destiny was standing on the very edge of the building's roof, one foot reaching out into the space surrounding the edge of the building.
She was looking in their direction, to the place where they stood frozen in the little bubble of space between the crowd and the building. The building itself seemed to have grown since they last looked at it, almost like the world's tallest mountain had just sprung up in place of it and Destiny was perched on the very top.
She turned her head away from them, her extended leg drawn back in to stand on solid ground. The sirens drew even closer, and the sound of Destiny's laughter drifted down from the top of the building.
"Don't all of you see?" she called through her giggles. "Life means nothing! I could step off the edge of this building right now and be completely extinguished, like I never existed in the first place! Yet you still care about what happens to me, to yourselves, to this planet!" She stopped to laugh some more, her voice carrying all around as the crowd began to mumble amongst themselves in response.
"You're all idiots! Life is meaningless! The only salvation you will ever have is death! Just give in and give up while you still can; it'll be easier for you that way," the mirth slowly drained out of her voice as she uttered the last few words.
"And you're absolutely crazy!" someone shouted up from the crowd below.
"I'm crazy?" Destiny started laughing again, sounding truly insane as she almost doubled over with the force of her own giggling. "You're crazy for wanting to hold on to this! Your lives are nothing but pain and filth!"
Three police cars came screeching to a stop behind the crowd, the officers spilling out and organzing the crowd while one of them stood with a megaphone by his car, calling up to Destiny. Faith didn't hear a word as she and Adam were quickly corralled and ushered off to the side by one of the policemen; her attention was still fixated on her friend, all alone on the edge of that roof, spouting nonsense and talking in a way that was nothing like how she usually talked.
Destiny was laughing again, this time at the police officers that were trying to coax her down from the edge. Two of them had gone in through the side entrance that Faith and Adam had been eyeing, rushing up to try and pull her off by force if they had to.
"Honey, this isn't the way," the officer called again, pleading.
"Oh? Than what is?" she called back.
"If you come down, we can get you the help you need."
"How can you, a petty human, help me? You can't even help yourselves!"
"There are so many things we can do for you, you just have to trust me and come down off that roof so we can talk about this."
"Trust you?" Destiny dissolved into a fit of laughter once more. "How am I supposed to trust you when you do nothing but lie, every single day? The only help I need is release from this living Hell," she shouted as the door to the roof burst open with a bang behind her. She didn't even bother to look back or react at the noise.
"See? Liars, all of you," she screeched, pointing behind her without looking.
"We're just trying to keep you safe!" the officer called in a panic, knowing the situation was spinning out of his control before his eyes.
Destiny started laughing once more, shaking her head as she raised her arms out to her sides. Without another word of explanation, she took two steps forward into the empty air.
The laughing finally stopped when she hit the ground.
Then screaming filled the air instead, forming a violent symphony with the falling drops of water hitting the ground below.