The Sisters: The Curse of Gabriel's Gardens

Showdown

Blue Street

"Home, sweet home," Kyle Fletcher said after driving one of his luxurious cars into the Blue Street district. The big banner with a writing WELCOME TO GABRIEL'S GARDENS on a night sky background greeted one of the city's prominent citizens who returned after a mysterious trip.

"Yes, I'm glad to be home again," Marlene Sanchez said, sitting on a passenger seat next to Kyle. The girl was wearing a princess-style white dress with a back cleavage so deep that she appeared almost topless from the rear view. Marlene's shopping for fashion costed Kyle lots of money, but for him, it was still a drop in the ocean. He taught his girlfriend to satisfy only with the best. The money spent on the dress made from the finest white satin could feed a Morningstar citizen for two years.

Marlene couldn't realize that his love was only faked. Expensive gifts, handsome look, insincere romantic phrases and a night of passion every now and then were fortunately enough to prevent her for seeing the truth. He actually started to like her; he found Marlene's blind, unconditional love and naivety adorable, but he wasn't in love. He had different lovers. Power. Money. The feeling of being superior to others.

Of course, Marlene had proven herself useful a few times already. She was willing to do anything for him and he was fully aware of it. Satisfying his low desires so he could fully focus on his research was only one of the things Marlene was good at; at the beginning, she was cautious and insecure, but as the time passed, he taught her to accept more and more extreme practices. Nevertheless, he was still willing to sacrifice her any time if it meant succeeding in his plans.

She changed, he thought.

"Kyle, my dear?" Marlene purred. "I haven't seen my family in a while. My dad must be afraid... would you mind if I visit them, just for a while?"

"Sssh," Kyle replied. "Your family doesn't need you. They can't fully appreciate what you really are. When I met you, your beauty was smothered, you were insecure about yourself. Now look at you. Beauty and self-esteem literally radiate from you. It'll be the best if you just cut off everything from your past and focus on your future... your future with me."

Marlene gave Kyle a confused look. "What? You're saying that I can't meet my family? I just want to tell them I'm okay and happy! It won't take long. Kyle, darling, please."

"I am your family now," Kyle said. "You need nobody else, do you? With me, you have everything. Money, love, beauty, our private adventures. Those peasants would only try to drag you down again - and you definitely don't need that. Trust me. You're better with me."

There were times when Marlene would lash out if someone talked about her family like that. Now she only said quietly: "My family are not peasants. They love me, too."

"No matter what, I love you more. And now, if my plan comes together, we'll have everything we ever wished for. When it happens, I can even marry you if you'll say yes!"

When he mentioned marriage, Marlene's eyes brightened in a burst of joy. "I hope you'll succeed, my love," she said. "I'll do whatever it takes to help you. Even though... Kyle, I'm a bit afraid. Afraid that we're playing with forces we can't understand. Remember when we tried to summon Henry Rudger...?"

"That's past," Kyle interrupted her. "Now I'm more experienced. After those weeks with Maledictus..."

Marlene shivered. "Please... don't mention that man again." Upon hearing his name, the image came back to her mind - a tall man in a black robe with long dark hair and beard, with piercing ice-blue eyes and a third eye tattooed on his forehead.

Maledictus was a nickname of an occult group leader in New York. His cult was known for frequent drug abuse and sexual orgies, but that was not the reason why Kyle contacted him. Reliable sources confirmed that Maledictus was experienced with mystical arts and he wasn't a mere charlatan.

The trunk of Kyle's car was full of shopping bags; most of them contained gifts for Marlene, but there was a handbag secured with a lock whose content differed. There was only one book, ancient and damaged.

The book which costed its new owner one million dollars.

Kyle spent the last days trying to understand the content of the book with the help of Maledictus and his cult which was motivated by the huge amount of money transferred to their bank account. Kyle was now feeling ready to unleash the power sealed within the book.

"Marlene, my little one," Kyle said with a power-hungry sparks in his eyes. "Soon, we'll be able to make our wishes come true. Gabriel's Gardens will be ours! I'll be the king and you'll be my queen. There'll be nothing and no one who can stop us.

"I have still mixed feelings about it," Marlene whispered. "There are countless things that can go wrong..."

"Nothing will go wrong!" Kyle barked. "I have the book and the knowledge. There's nothing that can interfere with my plan. Not even Warren sisters."

Marlene smiled devilishly. "That bitch Alexis and her whore sister are rotting in prison now!"

Kyle shook his head. "They aren't. They somehow managed to sneak out... it's unbelievable how persistent they are. I guess I went too easy on them. It's time to stop handling them with kid gloves."

"What are you planning to do?"

"I was too kind-hearted. I wanted to stop them, but I didn't want them to lose their lives. Well, it's time to remove this boundary and start playing rough."

"Yes," Marlene smirked. "Kill them, my love."

>><<

Serenity Square, the next morning

Seven days after Matthias Blake's failed suicide, Alexis still wasn't feeling well. For some reason, the case left her in a state of strange melancholy. She experienced that for the first time; she usually shook the case off as soon as possible and started living normally. But this time, she still dreamed about a shadow of a hanged man, Matthias with his head in a noose, distorted voice of Guy Searer.

Dante felt that something is wrong. "Bork," he said and licked Alexis' hand hanging from an armchair. The girl smiled, put the doggy on her lap and began to gently stroke him. "You're a good boy," she said.

"You need a distraction," Diane said after entering the room. "We've been intact for way too long."

"No, I'm fine," Alexis smiled at her. "Matthias keeps writing me e-mails. He's getting better and soon, he'll be able to perform again! I still have the VIP tickets he gave us. I'm so excited for the show."

"You're lucky," Diane said. She sat on a couch and turned on the TV to watch another episode of Angel's Tears. Alexis sighed and grabbed a book, but gave up shortly after realizing that she couldn't focus on reading at all. She put down the book, continued stroking Dante and watched the soap opera with her sister.

"I can't believe I'm actually watching this," she muttered.

"C'mon, sis, it's not that bad," Diane smirked.

The story was shallow and predictable even for Alexis, who knew the plot only superficially, but at least the acting was good and believable. Alexis examined Marianna, the main character. The directors managed to capture the fragile, subtle beauty of a girl who doesn't have money for make-up, cosmetics or plastic surgeries. Marianna had wavy black hair, blue eyes and freckles. Alexis realized that she reminded her of Anna too much.

Visiting Anna. Yes, that may be a good therapy.

The episode ended and Alexis hated herself because she was a bit curious about what would happen next. The news followed immediately and Alexis decided to watch it before visiting Anna. At first, there was nothing that could interest them. Two murders, several scandals, a huge embezzlement.

One of the reports, however, made Alexis jump off her seat.

"A few weeks ago," the reporter said, "Kyle Fletcher, a heir of Arlington Logistic and Transportation, possibly the most important company in Gardens, mysteriously disappeared without letting anyone know where is was heading. Tonight, one of our newsmen managed to catch Mr. Fletcher as he was returning home with his girlfriend, Miss Marlene Sanchez."

A photo was showed on screen. Really - a tall, handsome man, Kyle without a doubt, accompanied by a dark-haired girl in a revealing white dress, Marlene, was standing in front of the Fletcher mansion.

"Oh God," Alexis said. "He's back."

The reporter smiled at the camera. "We don't know where you've been, Mr. Fletcher, but we'd like to welcome you back! If you have something important to say, perhaps some news from your business or personal life, feel free to contact us!"

Alexis sat on the chair again, her face deadly pale. Dante, sensing her emotions, started to yowl quietly. "Do you know what it means?" she said.

"It means war," Diane replied. "We have to show that sucker who rules this city."

"It seems that our little holiday is over," Alexis said, her eyes hardened. "Kyle has to be our first priority again. We have to find out where he went and what he did there. We know he's not stupid so it'll be a hard task. But we have to do it. Our lives depend on it."

"What if he was just on a trip with no ulterior motives?" Diane hinted.

Alexis smiled grimly. "I hope you don't really believe this."

"I don't," Diane sighed.

A few minutes later, the girls were at Anna's flat. The impaired girl was already familiar with the situation since she was watching the news, too. "I know what are you going to ask. And my answer is yes, I will help you. I've already downloaded that photo of Kyle from the news website and I'm planning to examine it. Every detail will be important and can tell us more about his trip."

"Sounds good," Diane said. "Do it."

>><<

The following minutes resembled a scene from CSI. Fortunately, the photo was taken in a high definition, so even the tiniest details were still visible after zooming in.

"I'm afraid there's nothing much that can tell us more about Kyle's whereabouts in the last days," Anna told the unpleasant truth. "I actually don't know what I expected."

"I'm certain that a detective would be able to find something out," Diane said, "but we're not into this kind of work. There's basically nothing visible - only Kyle, Marlene, the mansion and his car. I have to admit, he has a pretty awesome ride... and I'm certain it's not the only one. Wow, its trunk is full of some bags."

"I'm certain he's buying Marlene's love using expensive gifts," Alexis spat out.

"Those bags," Anna said and zoomed on the car's trunk. "Some of the brands are visible. Maybe they'll tell us something, but I don't think we're that lucky. It'd require God's help."

"Maybe the higher powers are in our favor," Alexis said. "Try it."

Anna zoomed on each bag individually. The picture was already becoming blurry, but the writings were mostly still legible. The names belonged mostly to expensive, yet common clothing brands which could be found in every bigger city. For some of them, Anna had to use the image search to recognize the logo imprinted on the bag. Nothing interesting showed up.

"Only two visible bags remaining," Anna sighed. "And this logo is visible only partially."

She still tried to isolate the pixelated bit of the picture - the logo looked like a stylized blue rose, but they couldn't be certain - and clean it a little so the image search had less problems while handling it. Despite her efforts, the first search ended in an error message.

"Dammit," Anna muttered and tried to sharpen the logo even further. She had to use a brush on her graphic program to manually complete some lines. She crossed her fingers and put the picture in the image search program again.

"Gotcha," she said when the computer showed the results.

The snippet was enough for the program to recognize the logo. It was really a blue rose accompanied by a calligraphic red writing The Glamorous Rosalinda.

"It's another luxurious boutique," Anna announced after she googled the name. "Wow... one dress costs as much as an used car... but wait!" her face brightened with a victorious smile. "Besides the online store, there is only one brick-and-mortar shop. And it's in New York."

"That means we have the answer!" Alexis cheered. "Kyle was in New York, at least briefly. But what was he doing there? I suppose a dress can't answer that."

"Maybe he was only on a date with Marlene," Diane said. "Y'know, the basic chicks love overrated places like New York, Paris and such. Maybe she made him take her there."

"It's a possibility," Alexis admitted. "But why would he want to keep it a secret? He's that kind of guy who likes to look good in the media. A rich, handsome heir of the megacorporation falls in love with a poor, peasant girl, makes her a princess and takes her on a romantic trip to the Big Apple. Isn't it a lovely story for the media? If it was a date, he'd want the people to know."

"Makes sense," Diane nodded. "He loves that white knight pose he has."

"That makes the thing clear," Anna summed it up. "That trip wasn't so innocent."

"But now, the most important part," Alexis said. "Find his true intentions."

"That won't be easy, but I can try it," Anna replied. "First, we have to find out when he left. Then I can scan the news from New York and with a huge portion of luck, there'll be something that can put us on the right track. But I'm not giving it much chances."

Alexis put her hand on Anna's shoulder. "You've already proven that you can do miracles. And we're certain you can do another. Now about Kyle's disappearance... I guess it happened a few days after our arrest. Let me think... we were arrested on September 4th, so you'll be looking for the news from that period."

Anna nodded. "I'm on it."

"But don't overdo it," Alexis said. "Be sure to give yourself some rest from time to time."

Anna shrugged. "I think that's my problem," she said. "When I'm into something, I do it to the total exhaustion. It's too hard to distract me."

Alexis sighed. "Alright. Just promise me you won't pass out."

><<

The Centre

"Someone's gotta pay for this," Kyle Fletcher raged after seeing the reportage about his arrival in the news. He bribed some people so his homecoming would be as discreet as possible. "My plans ruined by one goddamn paparazzi! I bet that the Warren bitches now know."

"Don't be angry, darling," Marlene said, sitting next to him on a leather sofa in front of a massive, ultra-HD television on the wall of his luxurious living room.

"Don't be angry?" he barked."Everything was going so well. Now the Warren sisters will start to poke their nose into my business again! I can't let that happen. Not again. It looks like I'll have to do some pre-emptive actions to rule them out of the equation."

Marlene acted like her lover wasn't talking about murder. She casually stood up and undressed the dress she was currently wearing; she was no longer ashamed of being naked in Kyle's presence. Then she unpacked another bag - she had so many new clothes that three of Kyle's butlers had to help with carrying the bags to Marlene's room. The bag had a blue rose logo on it.

"These are the most beautiful," she said as she put on a long, dark-blue dress with subtle decorations which made it look like a piece of galaxy. Their visit of The Glamorous Rosalinda boutique was, unlike the others, very short since Marlene fell in love with this one almost immediately.

"You look marvellous, my love," Kyle said, barely looking at the girl. His head was full of evil plans which all ended with deaths of Alexis and Diane Warren. On his lap, there was a book he bought in New York - he gently stroked its ancient, tattered leather cover with his fingers.

Not so long ago, he didn't understand almost anything written in it. Now he did. All the knowledge of the old master was now in his hands and all he had to do was to awake it.

"Kyle, please," Marlene sat next to him again, "can you put that horrible thing away at least when you're with me? You know I'm scared of it.

"But this thing will bring us a better future," Kyle objected.

"Isn't it possible to achieve it in different ways? Please. I'm really scared."

"It cost me a million dollars!" Kyle grumbled. "And learning how to control these forces cost me similar amount of money. I'm sorry, Marlene. I can't just throw it away because you're scared."

"You don't love me!" Marlene moaned, tears rolling down her cheeks. "You became so power-hungry that you no longer care about me and my feelings. I don't want to have anything in common with that thing."

Kyle's patience was delepeted. He stood up and slapped the girl. Marlene gasped as she felt the burning pain on her cheek and cowered before Kyle whose face was disfigured with anger. "Don't say that ever again, you ungrateful bitch!" he shouted. "I do it for you. So you don't have to continue your life as a lowlife living with losers who can't even speak proper English!"

"My family..."

"Shut up!" the man interrupted her. "If you don't like it, then GO!" he pointed at the door.

"I'm sorry," Marlene cried. "Forgive me. Please, just don't leave me! I'd probably die if you let me go."

"So you won't question my decisions ever again? Will you do anything I tell you? Do you believe me that all I do, I do for us? That my love is sincere?"

"Yes, yes!" Marlene wailed. "Anything, just stay with me."

Kyle, seemingly calmed down, hugged the girl who reluctantly returned the sign of affection. The pain in her cheek dulled a little, but was still there. It was the first time Kyle attacked her physically and for the first time, she felt doubts. Was it just an explosion of emotions which wouldn't happen again? Or was he willing to abuse her every time she showed defiance against him?

"I only want the best for you. Trust me," he said.

And she decided to trust him.

>><<

Serenity Square, night

Alexis couldn't fall asleep. She was just blankly staring at the ceiling, overthinking about million things. Thoughts about Matthias Blake were slowly pushed aside by the menace called Kyle Fletcher, floating above them like the sword of Damocles.

What will be his next move?

She imagined Anna, just one floor below them, probably still scanning the internet with bloodshot eyes in a face illuminated by the computer's blue light. She didn't want to overwork her best friend like that, but Annie's work could be a key to their survival.

She promised herself to somehow compensate Annie for everything once the danger faded.

When she was suffering from insomnia, even ordinary sounds seemed unbearably loud to her. Engines of cars roaming the nearby roadways, meowing of stray cats, people arguing in the distance, a strange buzzing sound coming from the window...

Wait, what?

Alexis sat on her bed and looked through the window. There was some giant, insect-like thing outside the window which was open and covered by a net preventing insects to fly in. Alexis widened her eyes - what the hell is that? She reached for her glasses and put them on.

She realized that, fortunately, the thing outside wasn't a living organism. It was a small black drone, standard model with four propellers. But there was something that standard drones didn't have - a weapon.

Several muffled gunshots resonated through the room as several small-caliber bullets coming from the muzzle on the drone's lower part penetrated the net and flew only a few inches away from the girl's head. Alexis screamed and ducked, then, still crouched, rushed to the door. The drone started to attack the net until it bursted through the window and flew into the room.

Alexis, wearing her light-blue nightgown, rushed into Diane's bedroom. "Dee!" she screamed. "Diane, wake up, for God's sake!" As soon as the brunette girl opened her eyes, she continued: "Someone is trying to kill us. Get up and run!"

"Lex, I swear, if this is some kind of joke..." Diane muttered and got up on her feet, wearing only a black T-shirt and panties. Then she heard the drone's buzzing and the sleepiness was gone in a second. "What the hell is that?" she muttered.

The drone flew into the room. Diane's reflexes were rapid once again - she grabbed a blanket and threw it on the drone before it could start firing. Then the girls ran from the room; Diane had to shove the machine off their way. They aimed to the kitchen.

"Here? Why?" Alexis asked.

"Because," Diane said and grabbed two packs of flour from the shelf. She handed one to Alexis and ran to the main door. The drone soon shook the blanket away and continued its mission.

"This is not the right time for baking," Alexis noted.

"Did you see that red light on it?" Diane said while running. "It's not automatic. Someone is sitting in their mansion with a remote control and watches us with a camera. And I'm not afraid to guess who's that."

Loud buzzing gave away that the drone was after them again. Diane stood in the hallway and as soon as the black shell of the machine appeared, she ripped the bag of flour open. Alexis began to cough as the white cloud filled her eyes and nose. The drone started to shoot, but all the shots went in a completely wrong direction.

"Good job, Dee," Alexis said. "You managed to blind the drone, but me too!"

The girls opened the front door and escaped into the flat's hallway. "He probably wanted to fly in and shoot us in the heads in sleep," Alexis shook the flour off her hair. "Actually, I think that my insomnia saved our lives. If I wasn't awake when it arrived..."

"Yeah, that's cool, but now we have to get outta here."

"Aren't you forgetting about something? What about Annie? Kyle knows that she works with us and that losing her would be unbearable for us. I bet that the drone is heading her way right now. Quickly!"

>><<

Fortunately, Alexis was thinking in advance and managed to grab a keycard to Anna's flat. The girls ran down the stairs; barefoot Alexis nearly tripped. She regained her balance and used the keycard to unlock their friend's door. They rushed in.

"Annie!" Alexis shouted. "Where are you?"

She ran into Anna's room. She woke the impaired girl from her sleep. Anna blankly stared at her. "Alexis...?" she muttered. "It's three in the morning... oh yeah. I'm dreaming again."

"This is not a dream, WAKE UP!" Alexis grabbed Anna's shoulder. She kept watching the window, expecting the danger to appear at any given moment. Finally, Diane joined them. Anna looked genuinely confused - their two best friends, in the middle of the night, half-naked, sprinkled by some white powder.

"Can someone explain wha-" Anna started, but she was interrupted by the drone appearing behind her window. This time, the machine didn't use the stealth approach - it just shot the glass away and flew through the hole, knowing that Anna couldn't escape anyway.

Anna screamed as Alexis shielded her with her own body. Several shards of shattered glass flew in her direction and the girl felt the sting as the shard's sharp edges sliced the soft skin on her arms and collarbone area. Alexis gasped in pain and felt the warm blood dripping down.

Alexis expected the shots from the drone's weapon to hit her soon. She wasn't thinking straight at the moment - all she wanted was to protect defenseless Anna from harm. Just before the drone started firing, she managed to use her insignia's power and conjure a shield of soft white light.

The gunshots resonated through the room. The bullets buried into the shield. Alexis was afraid that the bullets would be able to penetrate through her paranormal shield after all - she didn't have enough time to focus and create stronger shield, so she had to improvise.

In the meanwhile, Diane grabbed Anna's painting stand and attacked the drone. The wood broke on the first impact, but it was able to destabilize the machine which stopped firing. Diane also used her paranormal powers - she grabbed the drone and hurled it towards the wall. Two of its propellers broke and the damaged machine fell to the floor. Diane stomped on it several times until the buzzing noise stopped.

Fortunately, Alexis' shield was enough to stop the bullets; however, if the drone used stronger firepower, they'd most likely penetrate, probably killing Alexis.

"That was close," Alexis exhaled and cancelled the shield. The bullets hit the floor with a clink and the girl collapsed on Anna's bed, right next to her impaired friend.

Anna just sat there in a shock for a moment, then her face turned into a combination of confusion and anger. "Now seriously, girls," she said. "Is that some kind of joke? If it is, it's not funny at all. You scared me to death!"

Diane picked up the remains of the destroyed drone. "I'm afraid this is no joke, Annie," she said. "Mr. Fletcher tried to kill us using this thing. Right now, he's probably surprised that we managed to destroy that damn thing," she smirked.

"Show me that drone," Anna said and she let Alexis help her on her wheelchair. Diane collected the drone's remains and put it on Anna's table. Anna drove towards the table, turned on her lamp and started to examine the machine. "Wow, Dee, you just stomped on a pretty penny," she announced. "This is a professional work, a high-performance drone with extremely long battery life. Also someone had to pay for its modification - that gun isn't attached to it using a ducttape."

"That means Kyle is finally starting to take things seriously," Alexis said. "I mean... is that a live cartridge that can actually kill us, or is that some kind of air gun?" She still hoped that the drone attack was only some kind of warning. That they weren't just minutes away from dying.

Anna examined the weapon attached to the drone - it was hard since Diane's bare foot empowered by the insignia's power broke it into several parts. The girl was, however, still able to answer the question. "Yes, it's a real gun," she said. "It's a small caliber so the drone would carry as little weight as possible, but it'd still be able to kill you after a successful headshot."

"Great," Alexis mumbled.

"Since we probably won't be able to fall asleep again," Anna said, "you can stay here and hear what I found out about Kyle's business."

>><<

"Where is Augustus, by the way?" Diane asked after the surge of adrenaline began to fade away from their bloodstream. "He's not here, is he? That noise would have to wake him up."

"I'm home alone," Anna admitted while turning on her computer. "Gus has a night shift tonight."

Alexis nodded. "Alright. So... what did you find out?"

Anna inhaled and started speaking. "Alright. The first option is here," she opened the bookmarks and clicked one of the links. "September 8th. A big summit of shareholders of big companies. Kyle has to acquire wealth somehow, right? He probably has a lot of these shares, so maybe he wanted to do some business."

"Still it doesn't explain why he kept it secret," Alexis objected.

"Okay, nevermind," Anna said. "I saved the page just in case. Here's the second option - a trade fair of technology, huge and important. Among all the newest discoveries in the fields of smart technologies and robotics, there was also some weaponry which Kyle might fing useful."

"That's a better guess," Diane looked at the wreckage of the drone. "It's pretty easy to believe that Mr. Fletcher needed some new toys which would help him in his evil plans."

"That's what I thought," Anna nodded, "but I think I've found a safe bet. Look at this." She opened another article - it was about a big auction of antiques which took place on 10th of September.

"Kyle doesn't seem to be interested in pretty old things," Alexis commented.

"Out of sheer curiosity, I tried to find out more about the auction, about the items they were selling," Anna replied. "Now I'm glad I did so." She opened another webpage, it seemed to belong to some club of historians - it was strict and white and most of the text were completely unintelligible for the girls. There were details about the auction with a complete list of offered items, most of them had a SOLD watermark on their photo.

"Maybe Kyle is interested in Ming dynasty vases," Diane muttered.

"Look at this!" Alexis pointed at the screen. The photo of the item depicted an ancient book in leather cover. The description said:

Item #47: "The Alchemist's Diary"

An authentic book from the 16th century, belonged to a scientist from Europe. Contains notes and sketches from many fields of renaissance science as well as several chapters about occultism and mystical arts.

"Voilà," Anna said. "I'm ninety-nine percent sure that this was the reason for Kyle's visit."

"I think you can raise it to one hundred," Alexis clicked on the item's page. It contained lots of useless details, but not about the person who bought it, for obvious reasons. There also were two more photos of the book - a random page somewhere in the middle with neat drawings of unknown herbs and one photo of the very first page entitled using an old-fashioned cursive.

"First, the cursed song," Diane said. "Then the summoning of Henry Rudger's ghost. It looks like Kyle didn't give up his new paranormal hobby."

"I've heard about this kind of things," Alexis adjusted her glasses and examined the photos. "Voynich manuscript and similar. They can be pretty dangerous if they fall into the wrong hands. Especially if the manuscript contains some occult rituals."

"So that sick loser will be trying to summon Satan this time?" Diane grumbled. "Oh God, I don't know which is worse: if he manages to control these things, or if they outgrow its master and break free?"

"I guess both would be almost equally devastating," Alexis hummed.

"So it seems like there's only one option left," Anna noted.

"We have to take the toy away from the kid," Diane finished.

"But first, we have to find out how dangerous mission it is on a scale one to ten," Alexis said. "And I think there's a man who may be able to help us out."

>><<

Reverend Warren's illegal church was still half full because the city's only holy man just finished his sermon. The people were leaving the church in a small groups after short time intervals, to make it look less suspicious. A crowd of people coming out of a tiny clothes shop would be too attention-dragging.

"Father?" Alexis approached him.

"My dear girls," Warren smiled. "What can I help you with?"

"Well... it looks like we have a big problem," Diane said and briefly explained their current situation.

"Mind if I join?" Alyssa Lafayette, also a regular visitor of the underground church, stood up and walked towards the trio. She was looking gorgeous even in modest white blouse and long black skirt. "Mr. Fletcher is a criminal and even though he escaped his punishment more than once, I want to see him behind the bars."

"That would be wonderful," Diane grinned.

"We've discovered where Kyle disappeared in the past days," Alexis went to the point. "He went to New York and probably bought this item on the auction of antique items." She reached into her handbag and pulled out a tablet computer. She opened an image she downloaded from the website, the one with the first page.

Warren put on his reading glasses and carefully examined the picture. Alexis zoomed it in so the writing was more visible. It seemed that the old priest was more skilled in deciphering antique cursives, because he answered almost immediately. The frown on his face gave away that he was not completely pleased with the news.

"If Kyle really owns this item, it can cause some serious trouble," he announced. "This is a journal of McWaller." When he mentioned it, one of the words on the first page really started to appear as the name McWaller. "There is an interesting story connected to it."

"We're listening," Alexis said.

"The story about Julian McWaller isn't widely known and most people who know it think it's just a legend, a fairytale. He was an alchemist and scientist in early 16th century and his fate is very similar to Johann Faust, except that McWaller's dancing with occult powers had much more victims than Faust's.

To keep it short, McWaller was so hungry for knowledge that he asked the Devil to reveal him secrets about the world's natural orders. He jumped from science to occultism and tried to summon the infernal forces countless times, noting his efforts into a journal. He spoke to many occult masters and committed many crimes and his first successful try came several years later.

'Successful' in a way that he finally managed to bring a demonic being to our world. But despite years of preparation, he was too inexperienced and weak to control it. The demon escaped, killing McWaller immediately and wiping off the entire village where he lived. Nobody knows what happened to the demon afterwards, it probably disappeared because it killed its link with our world - McWaller. A survivor of the demon's rampage probably found the journal and figured out what happened, spreading the legend along with the journal. Now it seems that it has been found again."

"How do you know so much about it, Father?" Alexis asked.

"I've been in Scotland for a few weeks when I was younger," Warren replied. "I was residing near the place where the incident happened. The ruins of the village aren't there anymore, a city is now built on its ashes. But the legend still lives, at least among local bookworms and historians. To be honest, I was also a little sceptical about the legend. But this seems to be an authentic journal of Julian McWaller. That organization wouldn't risk selling counterfeits."

"That means we're in serious trouble," Alexis continued. "Bigger than I was thinking. Do you think that McWaller noted the instructions for his final, successful ritual?"

"I'm certain that he did."

Alyssa finally spoke. "I'm not sure if I understand these things right, but... if Fletcher manages to repeat the ritual, he will summon some paranormal entity capable of destroying the entire city?"

"If he takes control over the demon," Warren replied, "he'd become the most powerful person in Gardens. There's basically nothing a demon can't grant - strength, knowledge, paranormal powers. He would rule us all without us even knowing. But Fletcher's even less experienced that McWaller was. It's more probable that the ritual will fail, unleashing the demon to Gardens."

>><<

Alyssa looked genuinely terrified. "Alright... now it isn't only about you and him, girls. If you... if we can't stop him, he will unleash something beyond our imagination. The lives of all the citizens are on the line now. And all because a stupid boy is playing with fire!"

"Can't you do something, Alyssa?" Alexis said. "You're a police chief, after all!"

"It's possible," the woman nodded slowly. "Kyle already played dirty several times, but so can I. I can create some fake evidences that the book was stolen and we can force him to give it back. He'd most probably sue us and win the case, but at least the book would be in our hands for a while. It should be enough to destroy it."

"Sounds like a plan," Alexis said. "But destroying the book will be troublesome. How are you gonna do it so you won't get in trouble?"

Alyssa shrugged. "I'll find a way. And even if I actually got in trouble, it'd be a small price when it comes to fate of the whole city. That evil thing must be destroyed and I'll do whatever it takes to do it."

"Thank you, Alyssa," Alexis said.

"Don't thank me yet. Now I'll go and arrange something which can mean trouble for Mr. Fletcher. It won't be an easy job, but I'm good at what I'm doing."

"Good luck, Lyss," Diane patted Alyssa on her shoulder, not minding that the woman was probably about thirty years older. "We're counting on you."

Alyssa nodded and left the church. She suddenly felt like carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. She was never sceptical about supernatural things and even if she was, the encounter with Alexis and Diane's mother many years ago would prove her wrong. Those months were among the hardest in her life. She had seen too much darkness, but also got a new friend.

These girls really reflect her intellect and personality, she thought.

She sat on her motorbike and woke the engine. She enjoyed the wind in her long hair as she drove into the South Haven district where her home was. She unlocked the door and walked in. She was immediately greeted by Melody Forrestal, her current wife.

Melody was fifteen years younger than Alyssa. The older woman met her after a divorce with June Maywaring, her first wife. Melody was merely a teenager when they met - she was addicted to a dangerous audiodrug and guilty with some minor crimes. Alyssa helped her to pull herself together and in return, Melody helped Alyssa find a maniac who murdered people using his audiodrugs.

Back in her rebellious years, Melody wore thick layers of make-up, punk hairstyles and revealing, tattered clothes. After she started dating Alyssa, she grew to be more modest, but that only revealed how naturally pretty she was. Melody had neck-long, straight, platinum blonde hair, intense ice-blue eyes, tall, slim figure and a decent piercing in her left eyebrow.

"Hello, my love!" Melody's wide smile was contagious, so Alyssa had to return it. "You seem troubled."

"I should've never get involved with Warren sisters," Alyssa sighed.

"What's the matter this time? Is bro in trouble again?" Melody's smile froze.

"No, no, Gray is alright," Alyssa said. She was indecided - should she tell Melody everything about McWaller's journal and the possible consequences? She had to tell her wife something. "Well, it's about Kyle Fletcher. He has an item which can be potentially dangerous and I need to seize it. It won't be easy."

Melody leaned towards her and kissed her on the lips, gently at first, but progressively grew more passionate. "I believe in you," she whispered. "You are my Sherlock with boobs."

Alyssa laughed. "Thank you, Melody. But I still have a bad feeling about this."

"Yay, a Star Wars quoting contest!" Melody cheered.

The older woman bursted into laughter again. "You can't be serious for just one second, can you?"

>><<

Alyssa spent the whole day on the computer and on the phone. First of all, she had to make sure that the book was really sold to Kyle. Fortunately, her wide network of contacts was able to confirm that the artifact was really sold to a young man from Gabriel's Gardens. Not that Kyle was trying to be discreet - her sources said he was extremely nervous and left immediately after purchasing the item.

That Lightfoot girl was able to figure this out by herself, she thought. Maybe she'd make a good officer.

"Alyssa, my dear," Melody said. "You've been working the whole day! Come on and have some fun, preferably with me."

"I'm sorry, but I can't right now," Alyssa replied; she was printing the documents which allowed her to seize Kyle's book. It was, of course, illegal, but Alyssa was a master of "gray operations", as she liked to call it. She was lucky that her subordinates were always with her, ready to cover up all her questionable actions.

She remembered her first marriage. It ended because Alyssa started to overwork herself; at that time, she was solving the case of The King of Gabriel's Gardens alongside the mother of the twins. She was obsessed with the mysterious serial killer so much that she didn't have any time left for her first wife. That led to fierce arguments which eventually resulted in a divorce.

"Maybe you're right," Alyssa admitted; she stood up and rubbed her stiff neck.

"It looks like you need a massage," Melody smirked.

As Melody's long, nimble fingers started to rub Alyssa's neck, the woman allowed herself to forget about the case for a while. And when Melody slowly started to undress Alyssa's blouse, she let it fade away for now completely. She decided to enjoy time with her wife. The next days weren't going to be easy.

After a night spent with Melody, Alyssa woke up at five and couldn't fall asleep again. Since Melody was a heavy sleeper, the older woman didn't have trouble sneaking out of the bed and started to work on her computer, just to fix a few more details about the seizure of Fletcher mansion.

Two hours later, Alyssa put on her uniform and went to the bedroom once more, to kiss Melody on the forehead. The woman, still half asleep, smiled at her. "Good luck, officer."

I'll need it, Alyssa thought.

At the police station, she gathered a team of the most reliable officers and told them the plan. They didn't question the authenticity of the papers allowing the seizure. Alyssa had proven many times that she only wanted the best for the city - so what that she used a shortcut sometimes?

"I'm already fed up with that Fletcher dude," said Carlo Suarez, big and burly Latinoamerican officer. "I'm friends with Santiago Sanchez - he said that Fletcher just took his daughter, brainwashed her and now he's using her like a doll! Do you wanna know what I think? I think he's a fu-"

"No need for such language," Paige Clapton halted him. She was very religious and a bit tiny for a police officer, but Alyssa was already acquainted with her iron will and sharp mind. "You meant that he's that type of boys who likes girls. A lot. In a sinful way. Right?"

"Thanks, Ms. Prude," Carlo muttered. "Exactly what I wanted to say."

Paige frowned and Alyssa had to smirk. Even though she didn't have any professional or personal quarrels with the pale woman with long, reddish braid, she considered Alyssa's marriage with a woman sinful. Alyssa tried to kiss Melody in front of Paige as much as possible - it caused her to gasp and cross herself.

Alyssa looked at the group of officers in front of her. Five strong, determined people ready to obey her every word. When they look at her, what do they see? Simply an authority? A leader? A friend? She found pleasure in building personal bonds with her subordinates. It made their cooperation more efficent.

She was the shortest of them all, except for Paige. But every single one of her 158 centimeters was filled with strength and determination. And they knew that.

She told them the briefing for the mission. "Everyone understands?" she said.

"Just a question, Boss," Suarez raised his hand. "If it'd be necessary, can I kick out the door?"

Alyssa smirked. "Of course, Carlo."

>><<

Later that day, the group of officers led by Alyssa stood in front of the magnificent Fletcher mansion.

"That brat," Suarez muttered. "Mama and papa bought him a nice pad."

Alyssa knocked at the heavy, decorated wooden door. "Open!" she shouted. "It's the police."

The intercom next to the door came alive. The woman felt that she's being watched by the all-seeing eye of the security camera above the door. "Oh, Miss Lafayette!" Kyle's sarcastic, condescending voice came through the intercom's speaker. "You seem to really like me. Unfortunately, I'm already taken."

"Cut the crap!" Suarez shouted. "Open the door or we'll help ourselves!"

"Do you have any... special requests?" Kyle continued toying around.

"We believe that you have an illegal item in possession." Alyssa remained calm. She couldn't let Kyle win that psychological game - angry Suarez didn't help much in this matter, though.

"Do you mean that towel I took from the hotel? I can give it back if you insist."

"Mr. Fletcher, we really don't have time for jokes. Open the door or we'll use force."

A sound of buzzer announced that Kyle unlocked the door. "Okay, take a look, then," he said. "Make yourself at home. I'll be your host."

Suarez rushed in with his gun pulled out. "Fletcher!" he shouted. "Where are you?"

"You have to admit that the mansion is beautiful," Paige Clapton marvelled at the sight of the magnificent hallway with a hand-made carpet, expensive pieces of art in massive frames, furniture made of dark, shiny wood and marble statues depicting the members of the Fletcher family. "It feels like a palace."

"It's snobby as hell," Suarez objected. "I'd much rather live in my small, cozy coop than in this... nonsense. Those people have too much money and no idea what to do with them."

"Fletcher!" Alyssa shouted. "Come down! It'll be better for both sides if you cooperate."

Nobody answered.

"We have to find him," she turned to her team. "This mansion is huge and the book can be anywhere. Find either him or Marlene Sanchez, his girlfriend. She'll lead us to him."

"Understood," five voices sounded in unison.

The team advanced forward. The Fletcher mansion was like a luxurious maze and the officers soon got lost inside. Alyssa groaned in frustration - it was clear that Kyle was playing with them. It was getting more and more clear that the man was prepared for their arrival.

"Check this out! I think I found a living room," Paige Clapton pointed at the massive door. One of its wings was open. It resembled a ballroom more than a living roon - the room was huge, with a long table and beautiful, crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

"Maybe Kyle's inside," Paige said. "That'd be exactly his style. Waiting for us like a duke or something. I'll go and check it out." Before Alyssa could stop her, Paige stepped into the room. The mansion's silence was torn apart by the sounds of gunshots and Paige's painful scream.

"Paige! PAIGE!" Alyssa shouted and rushed to the woman. Her uniform was soaked in blood from several bullet wounds in her chest. Alyssa looked up - there was a gun attached to the ceiling, skillfully hidden behind the chandelier. Paige, upon entering the room, probably activated some kind of electric eye which triggered the gun. It was a trap all along.

"Please, don't die," Alyssa's tears fell on the carpet next to Paige. The dying woman's face was deathly pale, her dark eyes lost their gleam. "God is calling me," she whispered with a slight smile on her lips. "Alyssa, please... say one more prayer with me."

And she did. The remaining officers stood above them like a silent vigil, some were crying, some were shocked. "May God forgive you all your sins," Paige said in the end. "Alyssa, you're a person too good to be judged based on who you sleep with. Send my goodbyes to my family. Goodbye, Alyssa."

"Goodbye," Alyssa voiced through the tears. Paige closed her eyes peacefully as she took one last breath.

A laugh sounded through the room. "I hoped that you'd walk through that door first, Miss Lafayette," Kyle's voice was emmited by a hidden built-in sound system. "I hope, though, that this is a sufficient lesson to teach you to stay away from people's business. Did you really think I'll be here? I am not, and the item you strive to get is with me. And you aren't getting it. Not you. Not Warren sisters."

"You son of a bitch," Suarez groaned. "Those are enough evidences to get you a death sentence!"

Kyle laughed again. "By the time I show myself again, the police will have no power."

>><<

Alyssa took a leave for the rest of the day. Paige wasn't her close friend, but her cheerful attitude always kept her going. Her death hit the officer too hard, even more considering the brutality of Kyle's deed. Whoever would walk through the door first was destined to die.

She remembered Kyle's words. He wanted Alyssa's blood on his carpets.

How could I be so stupid? Of course he was three steps ahead. He already had quarrels with both Warren sisters and Gabriel's Gardens police depot. He had to be ready for interference of both of these subjects. She was too confident with her plan. Her ignorance came at the price of Paige Clapton's life.

While still in tears, she took the fake seizure permission from her pocket and tore it into several pieces. She took a taxi to Serenity Square - it was too close from her location to use TEx and she didn't want people in the express question the crying police officer. Fortunately, the driver had no questions and just drove Alyssa to her destination. The woman left, leaving a huge tip, and came to visit the sisters.

Right after opening their flat's door, the girls knew that the plan didn't come together.

"Oh my God, Alyssa... what happened?" Alexis asked with worry in her gray eyes.

The woman had to stop several times while telling the story. When she finished, Alexis was also in tears and even Diane looked devastated. Paige was a visitor of all sermons of their father and was always one of the most eager listeners. They figured out that the petite, lively woman with a girly braid had something to do with Alyssa, but no one would guess that she was also a police officer.

"Alyssa... I'm so sorry," Alexis said. "It's all because of us."

"Don't say such things," Alyssa replied. "It's for the good of us all. We won't give up. We'll continue the pursuit and find both Kyle and the book. We signed up for this. Death is a part of our job." She wanted to sound tough, but it seemed that she was just trying to reassure herself that Paige's death wasn't her fault.

"So it means he's hiding somewhere," Diane said. "Any ideas?"

"We should leave Kyle alone for a while," Alexis muttered.

"That's nonsense!" Diane objected. "We have no idea how long the preparation time for the ritual is. It's exactly what he wants us to do. To discourage us! We'll just sit here and mourn over Paige while he unleashes that big sucker which will kill us all! We have to act now."

At first, Alexis was shocked how insensitive her sister was. Then she started to think about it and realized that Diane was actually right. The death should have discouraged them and it was nearly successful. They had to stop Kyle's plans before it's too late.

"Okay," she said. "Now we know that Kyle isn't in his mansion. That leaves us with question: where is he now? Did he leave the city again?"

"I doubt it," Alyssa said. "The last things he said to us before we left the mansion implied that he wants to take control over the city. I think he'll want to be here when it happens."

"So the task is clear," Alexis claimed. "We have to find places associated with Kyle and figure out which one will he use to perform his ritual. And the second thing, if possible, we have to find out when the ritual will start. I just hope Kyle didn't choose the date randomly."

"I suggest searching the internet and finding the full version of the legend about McWaller," Diane said. "Father can't remember everything and the legend may contain details which can help us."

"That seems like a good start," Alexis agreed.

"Hold on," Diane bursted out suddenly. "I think I know the date of the ritual. It's so clear, goddamit! We'll have a spooky time soon. In four days, to be more precise," she pointed at the Star Wars themed calendar on the wall. The current date was October 27th.

>><<

The Centre, several hours earlier

Kyle laughed, Marlene was horrified. Using the security cameras hidden all over the Fletcher mansion, they were able to witness the death of a young police officer who walked straight into Kyle's trap. She was aware of the fact that Kyle set traps in the mansion and that they were ought to kill someone, but the surprised look of the woman at the moment the bullets penetrated her body... she didn't expect such feeling.

Marlene's boyfriend turned off the microphone and laughed as Alyssa Lafayette hurried to the mortally injured officer. "That hit the spot!" Kyle cheered. "I was hoping that it'd kill the Lafayette whore, but this is even better! Look how devastated she is! Aaaand... she's dead, you bitch!"

Marlene looked at the man next to her. She just saw him mercilessly killing a person... and laughing at it. But even with the wicked bloodthirst in his eyes, he was so charming, so special to her. There's no way she could ever leave his side. Never, never, never...

"Are you enjoying it, my love?" Kyle asked. Marlene, ghastly pale, just nodded slightly.

Kyle turned on the microphone again. "I hoped that you'd walk through the door first, Miss Lafayette. I hope, though, that this is a sufficient lesson to teach you to stay away from people's business."

Before Kyle could finish his speech, Marlene rushed to the bathroom and threw the content of her stomach into the toilet. She was shaking. A live stream of a murder was too much for her to take.

She went to the living room with an access to the balcony. She needed some fresh air. Their new hideout, located many meters above the ground, was, unlike the Fletcher mansion, modern and toned into black and gray colors. While crossing the room, she noticed an item resting on a black leather sofa. It was the book.

Kyle forbid Marlene from touching it, but her curiosity was stronger. She opened it on the first page. The ancient cursive was hard to read, so she had time to decipher just one name: Julian McWaller. She remembered the name and took a deep breath. Then came back to Kyle's workroom to watch the rest of the bloody show.

At night, Marlene sneaked out of the bed. It wasn't hard since Kyle was a heavy sleeper, especially after an evening spent by making love. And today, he was especially potent. Marlene was almost sure that her lover was turned on by the murder he commited. That was a horrific thought.

She turned on her laptop, opened the internet browser and entered the Incognito mode, just in case Kyle would want to check her history for some reason. She searched for Julian McWaller. To her surprise, several links showed up. All regarded some old Scottish legend.

She started reading and by the time she finished, her eyes were widened in terror. Normally, she would just consider the story a stupid fairytale and move on, but this case was different. The journal McWaller used to note all his rituals was real - in fact, it was just a few meters away from her.

She imagined the demon killing Kyle and ravaging the city. Would it happen again if Kyle failed the ritual? And what if he succeeded? Did she really want to live with a person under the influence of demonic beings? For the first time, she considered running away and not looking back.

But Kyle already gave her so much love - it was her turn to return the favor. He was counting on her, he needed her support. But the girl was so scared. There was a period artwork on the page showing a giant humanoid monster with hooves and horns stomping on the wooden huts, people running away in terror.

Even though the artwork by some unknown 16th century artist was clearly exaggerated and stylized, she couldn't stop the feeling that a similar event could destroy the Gabriel's Gardens. She was even tempted to destroy the book, but how would she explain it?

The dangerous item was in the same room, on a nearby shelf, like it was sneering at her. How could she convince Kyle to abort the ritual? If she started talking about McWaller's story, he'd immediately know that she had been leafing through the book, ignoring his interdiction.

What was Kyle's real face? The power-hungry sociopath, or the gentle, caring boyfriend?

She remembered Alexis Warren's words. He doesn't love you. He only uses you for his evil plans. It all suddenly started to make sense. The cogwheels in her head started to work, but her heart, still blindly obsessed with Kyle and his fake love, stopped them again.

Alexis used to be her best friend for many years. Would she really lie to her?

Kyle's love was enormous and everlasting. Would he really lie to her?

Marlene's tears fell on the computer's keyboard. She was lost. Torn between two decisions with possibly horrible outcomes. She wanted to go home. To forget it all and start again...

>><<

Serenity Square, the next day

Gabriel's Gardens took celebrating Halloween seriously. There were unpleasantly realistic large bats hanging from the street lamps, some public lights were turned into Jack'o'Lanterns, most of shop windows were filled with seasonal decorations and even moving animatronic models.

Alexis and Diane loved trick-or-treating when they were younger - Alexis' favorite costume was a Hogwarts witch from the Ravenclaw house (she was mourning when she grew out of the costume), Diane preferred to be a zombie, mummy or something similarly gruesome.

Even though Reverend Warren didn't accept pagan feasts very warmly, he always enjoyed seeing girls in their costumes receiving candies from kind strangers and having fun with other kids. And even now, when the girls grew too old for trick-or-treating, they enjoyed the feast's atmosphere by decorating their home and watching cheesy horror movies at night.

This was exactly what would they do if the problem called Kyle didn't exist.

"So? What did the complete story tell you?" Diane asked.

Alexis raised her finger. "First, I have some hints that our theory with the Halloween date may be correct. The story mentions cold weather and chilly wind several times. It fits the European October pretty well, but we can't be sure since it wasn't said directly."

"And about the place?"

"McWaller performed the ritual in a bell tower of the local city hall. It may be a place chosen randomly, but if we accept that the place has to be high above the ground, we have one hot tip about Kyle's location."

"Which is?"

Alexis looked out of the window. The cityscape of The Centre was clearly visible from there with one of the skyscrapers higher than the others. Diane looked in the same direction and understood. "Arlington Tower," she said. "It's pretty obvious. It's owned by Kyle's family. It may be a trap, of course."

Arlington Tower was the headquarters of the company Arlington Logistic and Transportation, one of the richest and most important companies in Gardens, now owned by the Fletcher family. The building used to be rather average in size, but when Fletchers took control of the company, they expanded it and made it the highest building in Gardens. Most people agree that this was more an act of pride than anything else.

"Well... maybe it's a little bit too obvious," Alexis admitted. "It's possible Kyle isn't even there... or maybe he applied some extreme security measures, similar to those in his mansion. Which killed Paige."

"One thing is for sure, we should contact Alyssa," Diane said. "I doubt we'll be able to do this alone."

Alexis nodded. "We'll need her help. I refuse to step inside the Arlington Tower before the Halloween night - we may end up like Paige. I'd like if she somehow monitored the Tower's rooftop and alert us as soon as something starts to happen. Then we should storm the Tower and stop Kyle."

"Easier said than done," Diane muttered.

They organized a female-only conference by inviting both Alyssa and Anna. The sisters told them about their newest discoveries.

"Of course, the Arlington Tower," Alyssa said. "The most logical place. I'm sure you are right, Alexis... that place is going to be heavily guarded. But this time, setting a trap won't be so easy. The company has thousands of employees and some of them work secretly for the police - you know, this is not the first time something weird is happening in that place. If Kyle tries to install something inside, we will know."

"And about the rooftop, the most comfortable solution would be using the satellite cameras," Anna added. "Kyle can't destroy something that floats in space! Alyssa, please, can you let me cooperate with some IT specialist from the police? Please!"

Alyssa smiled. "Of course, Anna. I've already learned that your mind is a powerful weapon."

"I believe we can do it," Alexis said. "We can stop the ritual and save the city. Well, I doubt the city deserves saving very much, but there are people I love. I want to save them."

A list of names went through her head. Walt Ryder. Sandra and Kevin Kent. Gray Forrestal junior. Elizabeth Abraham and her father. Lenny Sorenson and Noah. Roger and Louie. Matthias Blake and Sleeping Entropy. Of course Alyssa Lafayette and Diane, her sister.

Anna Lightfoot.

"And I will save them."

>><<

The Centre

"What's wrong, darling? You look concerned," Kyle asked.

Marlene couldn't hold it any longer. She was too afraid and too angry. "I've looked up the story behind the book!" she bursted out. "Why didn't you tell me that the goddamn thing can destroy the whole city?"

Kyle looked at her in disbelief. "You looked it up? Didn't I forbid you touching the book?"

"We are lovers, Kyle! We shouldn't have secrets. Not when it comes to such important things! I'm scared to death, Kyle. Please, destroy that thing and abort that plan."

The man groaned and slapped the girl again. Marlene gasped and fell to the floor. "That's why I told you to not care about it!" he shouted. "It'd be better for you if you didn't know. But no, you just had to poke your nose into it! You know what, Marlene? I'm starting to be fed up with you. You're getting more and more disobedient. Questioning my decisions. I don't like that."

Marlene stood up and gave Kyle a furious look. "But I still have my own mind, Kyle!" she uttered, not minding the pain in her cheek. "What you're doing is a nonsense! It can kill us all!"

"It will only if I fail the ritual. And I'm certain it won't happen. Maledictus taught me well and I won't repeat McWaller's mistakes. That demon won't escape since my mind is stronger. I'm not an idiot, Marlene, and I don't like that you underestimate me."

Marlene sighed and finally spoke her mind. "I... I'm not sure if I want to be with you anymore."

Kyle clenched his fists and his face went red. "What? Why? I give you all my love. My money. My affection. My body. What goddamn more do you want?"

"Kyle, I'm afraid about my own life! You are too dangerous. I want to leave."

Kyle smiled. "I'm afraid it's too late, darling."

"What?"

"You already know too much, my dear. I can't risk that you'll break it to Warren bitches or Lafayette. You used to be friends with Alexis Warren. You hope that she'll forgive you if you tell her my plans, right? This is not a viable option. I can't let you go."

"How are you gonna stop me?" Marlene spat out.

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun. Marlene screamed, Kyle didn't move a muscle. "Let's say you have two options," he said. "Either you will be my queen - I'm willing to forget about this unfortunate episode; I understand that we all can break sometimes. Or you can attempt to escape... and trust me, that gunshot would hurt me more than you. You'd only feel a sting. I'd have to live with the guilt forever."

Is he... is he really pointing a gun at me?

His eyes... he's able to do it.

"I'm sorry, Kyle!" she started crying. "Forgive me... I'm sorry, sorry, sorry. It won't happen again, just take away that thing! Forgive me!"

"That's right," Kyle didn't lower the gun. "Do you love me?"

"Yes! More than anything in the world. More than my own life."

"Will you ever question my decisions and doubt my skills again?"

"No, never. I fully trust you. I'm sorry."

Kyle nodded in satisfaction and put the gun back to the pocket inside his jacket. "That's right. I also love you, Marlene, and I don't like when you're misbehaving."

"I won't."

"Besides that, I have a special role for you. My last and only line of defense."

>><<

Serenity Square

October 30th.

The flat of Lightfoots turned into a war zone. The living room became a conference room for Alyssa and the team of her most trusted officers - Augustus was running around and serving them coffee, knowing only a very little about what's going on.

Anna's wish came true - the IT specialist came with the team. He was impressed by Anna's computer, claiming that she's got some really nice knowledge about ones and zeros... for a girl. Together, they set up a satellite camera scanning the rooftop of Arlington Tower. After that, the officer showed Anna some handy tricks she may use later.

The man didn't look like a typical computer nerd. He was around twenty-five and while he wasn't as perfectly handsome as Kyle, his look was more than appealing. Alexis, upon seeing Anna eagerly listening to his words and smiling at him, felt the sudden urge to march him off the flat.

"Hey, people, look!" Anna suddenly announced. She opened the window with the camera set on Arlington Tower rooftop. It was hard at first to find some sense in the sea of rooftops resembling a checkerboard, but once Anna zoomed in, Arlington Tower became clearly visible.

"Oh well... looks like something is in the process of preparation," Alexis noted; the young man flirting with Anna immediately seemed like an unimportant problem.

The skyscraper's rooftop was now covered in strange marks. One would guess that such rituals will involve pentagrams, Baphomet heads, upside-down crosses and similar blasphemous symbols, but that person would be wrong. Kyle's playground looked more like strange marks loosely resembling Chinese letters scattered over the rooftop, some of them connected by straight lines.

"At least they're painted using something black," Diane noted. "I was afraid that he'll slice Marlene's throat and use the blood of a virgin to paint the magic symbols." She looked at mildly horrified Alexis. "Sorry, sis. That was probably insensitive."

Alexis smirked without a sign of humor. "Knowing Kyle's charm, she's not a virgin anymore."

Everyone knew how hard must it be for Alexis to say such harsh remarks about her former best friend. Even though she seemed like she let go completely, it was clear that nothing is strong enough to just erase all the years the girls spent together.

And now they stand on the opposite sides of the battlefield.

Diane was glad that Alexis at least formed a close friendship with Anna. At first, she was a bit jealous; Anna was her best friend after all, long before she introduced her to Alexis. In her eyes, her sister and the impaired girl were spending too much time together. Then she realized that Alexis needs her. She needs a friend to fill the gap after Marlene's betrayal - and to be honest, Anna had more in common with Alexis than with her.

"Sis, do you recognize these marks?" Diane asked.

Alexis shook her head. "Not even the slightest. You don't have to be Sherlock to understand that they are some kind of magical symbols, but I haven't seen them anywhere before. They were most probably invented by McWaller himself. One thing is for sure, they don't look like standard occult symbols."

"Alyssa, is the team ready?" Diane turned to the officer.

The woman nodded. "I'll send some well-protected pyrotechnists with you, just in case Kyle would want to spring some traps again. They'll clean your way to the rooftop and allow you to confront Kyle himself."

"Sounds good," Diane said.

"I want to go with you," Anna muttered. "These goddamn legs won't let me do anything interesting and helpful! You'll be risking your life while I'll be here, just watching the satellite broadcast and hoping everything will go well. It's so unfair. I want to fight, too."

"Don't worry about it, Annie," Alexis said. "You already helped us more than any mobile person would."

The girl blushed. "Okay... if you say so... thanks!"

Soon after, the police left the flat and the main actors went to bed, but couldn't fall asleep. Tomorrow, they'll fight the battle of their lives. A fight to the death.

>><<

October 31st.

The kids trick-or-treating in the streets had no idea that something terrible is about to happen and their lives depend on two barely adult girls.

The girls spent the whole day in Anna's flat in a strange tension. Anna kept checking the rooftop, in case Kyle begins the ritual. It was already eight and nothing was happening. Maybe they chose the wrong date after all? Or maybe something made Kyle stop the ritual?

Finally, at nine in the afternoon, the girls saw it. They didn't even need the satellite camera - the rooftop of the Arlington Tower was radiating a greenish light, changing its shade every second. The skyscraper shone like a torch, the most prominent feature of the cityscape. Any other day, the strange glow would most likely attract attention, but today it wasn't that strange. Just some nobs throwing a big Halloween party.

"Anna, something's happening," Alexis said. Anna immediately switched to the rooftop camera and noticed that something is wrong - while the surrounding rooftops were displayed normally, it was impossible to see what's going on in the Arlington Tower - the green glow seemed to play with the camera's lens, causing it to project only static and strange swirls of green light.

"It's time," Anna said.

Their heartbeat rapidly increased as Alexis called Alyssa. The woman was already there - she also saw the glow atop the Tower and decided to not waste time. She arrived with a convoy of police cars. "Get into the car," she said as soon as the girls stepped out of their block of flats. The girls obeyed and Alyssa hit the gas, the other three police cars following her. She turned on the police siren, allowing her to drive full-speed while the civilian cars stood out of her way.

The ride was furious, but Alexis still had the feeling they won't make it in time. How long does it take to summon the demon? Minutes? Hours? She wanted to be there as soon as possible.

Finally, they arrived to the Arlington Tower and the police officers stormed the building, searching for possible lethal traps set to eliminate any intruders. The interior looked like standard upper-class office building with many doors and elevators in harmonized white and gold colors.

"It's strange," Alyssa said in the entryway of the empty Arlington Tower. "My contacts didn't say anything about setting any traps. Also Kyle asked all the employees to leave for tonight - he disguised it as a Halloween bonus. But we know that he just wants the tower to be empty."

"We found nothing, Miss Lafayette," one of the officer announced. He was dressed in a heavy armor and a helmet able to withstand gunfire. If he got shot, he wouldn't fall as easily as Paige.

The search took about ten minutes and Alexis was already nervous. The whole building resonated with a strange energy which caused twitching in her insignia. She felt the presence of something immensely evil. Deep in her heart, she knew from the start that this is not a job for ordinary police depot.

All the officers returned with the same message - the building is clean. "Should we access the rooftop and stop Fletcher?" Officer Suarez asked, ready to take on Kyle at any given moment.

Alyssa hesitated, but Alexis answered first: "No. We will go there. It's our fight."

"But girls..." Alyssa objected.

Alexis looked her straight into the eyes. "Thank you for everything, Alyssa, but we must finish this by ourselves. Stay here and be prepared in case something terrible happens."

The officer sighed, then hugged Alexis and kissed her on the cheek. "Good luck, girls," she said. She handed Alexis her gun. "I hope you won't need this."

Alexis and Diane stepped into the large, shiny elevator cabin and pressed the button to the highest floor. They somehow expected that the wires will break, but it didn't happen. At the top, they found numerous door leading to offices, like in every other office building. Finally, they found the door which said Rooftop access.

After opening them, they finally realized which trap did Kyle set.

>><<

The plain, white stairway leading to the rooftop was guarded by a lonely figure. It was Marlene in a blue dress, looking at the girls with a mix of determination and fear in her eyes. "Go away," she said.

"Let us in!" Alexis shouted. "Kyle is going to kill us all if you don't!"

"That won't be so easy, my dear Alexis," the Hispanic girl showed her a strange bracelet on her hand loosely resembling a wristwatch. "This is the lock which opens the rooftop. It scans my heartbeat and the door won't open unless my heartbeat stops."

Alexis' face went pale. "That means..."

Marlene smiled. "Yes. That means that you have to kill me in order to get through the door."

"We can just knock you out and take that goddamn thing!" Diane barked.

"I'm afraid that's not possible. It can be removed only with a set of numbers only Kyle and I know. I'll use it when he finishes. Until then, the door can't open. And the ritual will finish soon."

She was right. Alexis felt the evil presence even more than before. Strange noises came from the rooftop, muffled by the concrete roof. She sighed. "Look at that, Marlene. Look at what did he make you do. You're risking his own life for him! He's not worth it!"

"You know nothing!" Marlene screamed, but her resolve seemed to weaken a little. "He... he's my true love. I can't live without him anymore. My life got better with him He's powerful. He's..."

"A psychopath!" Alexis exclaimed. "That ritual will kill us all if you won't let us in."

"Don't you understand? I can't!" Marlene said.

"That sucker is a genius," Diane said. "He made you decide. You'll either kill your best friend, or let that maniac destroy the whole city. That's a supervillain-level psychological game. Open the goddamn door or I'll beat those numbers out of you!"

"No torture can make me betray him. He relies on me. I can't turn back now."

Alexis' eyes filled with tears. "Look at you," she whispered. "We used to be together all the time. Laugh at girls who needed a boyfriend to be happy. And now... he turned you into a brainwash. He didn't love you at all. This is the only purpose he needed you for. A bait. A toy to ensure his plans."

"You know nothing," Marlene repeated. "He does love me."

Alexis' hands trebled as she raised the gun. "Please, don't make me do this."

Marlene grinned. "Do it! Do it if you have courage. I'm actually surprised you didn't shoot me right away. According to you, I am a brainwash, right? A puppet blindly following a psychopath! So why? Why didn't you shoot me as soon as you saw me?"

"That's..." Alexis lost her voice for a while. "That's because I fell in love with you, Marlene! I loved you with all my heart. I wanted to be with you forever. But now I realize it was a grave mistake."

Both Marlene and Diane looked shocked for a while. Alexis just stood there, her gun pointing at Marlene, emotionally destroyed. It cost her a lot to finally speak her feelings. Feelings she kept hidden for too long.

Marlene finally spoke. "Alexis, you have no idea what true love is. Kyle is giving me all the love I deserve. You wouldn't be able to give me even ten percent of it. Even if I was able to catch feelings for you, which I am not. I'm sorry, Alexis. I've made my choice."

"So you are just going to ignore all these years?"

"All these years you wanted to get me into your bed, just like some hungry bitch?" Marlene spat out. "Yes, I am! You disgust me, Alexis. Now I understand - you tried to get me away from Kyle to get me for yourself. Guess what? That will never happen. I hate you, Alexis Warren. I hate you so much."

The truth is that Marlene actually hated herself more than Alexis. She wanted to press the numbers and let them in so badly. But she already had no choice. Her blind loyalty to Kyle was too hard-wired, even though she remembered the slaps and Kyle's gun pointing at her.

Alexis started to cry. "Forgive me, Marlene," she whispered. "Please, forgive me..."

>><<

A hysterical, painful scream resonated throught the building. It was caused by Alexis, who fell to her knees, the gun slipping through her fingers. She couldn't do anything at all, only stare through her glasses at the horrible scene in front of her.

A small splatter of blood was slowly dripping down the white wall. Behind it, a lifeless body lay on the ground; Marlene's blind eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, a red, bleeding hole took the place of her heart. Her expression was surprisingly emotionless, like she was already reconciled with incoming death.

Alexis couldn't speak a word, she just groaned in agony with her face hidden in her hands. She pulled the trigger. She killed the girl she was willing to devote her whole life for.

In those times she started to develop a crush on Marlene, Alexis secretly hoped that she feels the same. That she and Marlene will start dating one day, once she finds enough courage to confess her true feelings. Who knows what could be if Alexis spoke her mind earlier. This way, Kyle ruined their relationship before it even begun. Alexis wasn't mad. She knew that there was only tiny chance that Marlene could be attracted to her.

But she would never have guessed, not even in her wildest nightmares, that in the end, it will be her who will end Marlene's life. Just a slight press on the gun's trigger and years of sincere love, love of a girl towards another girl, were destroyed, drowned in the blood coming from Marlene's bullet wound.

Diane carefully approached her sister and put her hand on Alexis' quivering shoulder. "I know it's hard. I have no idea how hard it is. But we must keep moving. We have a business to settle."

Alexis nodded and stood up, her tear-covered face now consumed by cold rage and a thirst for revenge. "You're right, Diane," she said. "I'll make him pay for this. Dearly."

The girl grabbed Alyssa's gun and went towards the staircase. She nearly fainted upon passing Marlene's dead body. Alexis felt like she was still watching her, judging, silently hating. "I really didn't want to do this," she whispered. "You made me to. Marlene... why did it have to end up like this?"

She wiped off her tears and ran upstairs. They had no time to lose - the twitching in her insignia turned into a pain which was still incomparable with the emotional pain Marlene's death caused.

They finally arrived to the plain iron door labelled Rooftop. There was really some kind of lock below the handle. Alexis was afraid it's only some kind of trick. That Marlene's role was only to play with Alexis' emotions and the door are still locked. Fortunately, the small display on the lock said: Unlocked.

Alexis threw the door open. She stumbled back, hit by both strong wind and ancient evil energy, more powerful than anything she has ever felt in her life. The rooftop was illuminated by the green lights coming from the symbols on the ground which seemed to be smaller on the satellite picture.

And between them, a figure was standing with its hand raised towards the night sky.

"KYLE!" Alexis screamed, her rage growing, and ran towards him. She'd be able to shoot him right away. To mercilessly gun him down just like she did with Marlene. He killed the Latino girl, not Alexis. He was guilty for everything. And Alexis took the role of a judge.

Then she slowed down. Killing Kyle right away could have unpleasant consequences. Who knows how...

Both girls screamed as something massive showed up in front of Kyle. It was about ten meters tall, transparent and somehow distorted, like a static on a dead TV channel or a damaged hologram. It had roughly humanoid, hunched figure and massive hands. From the sphere on the place of its head, two eyes glared at them, pitch-black like two miniature black holes devouring all the light.

They were standing face-to-face with a demonic being, a creature straight out of Hell.

The creature kept appearing and disappearing, like the connection between it and our world was unstable. Its transparency also changed. It was only a matter of time before it fully materializes.

It wasn't only a still image. It was moving, looking around like it was wondering where is it and what is it doing there. Sometimes it looked at Kyle who wasn't afraid of it at all. The joyfulness in his pose indicated that he welcomes his new servant.

"There isn't a way he can possibly control this thing," Diane noted.

>><<

The girl ran closer to Kyle and the man finally noticed them. He turned around with a grin on his handsome face, now twisted by evil and thirst for power. He was holding a knife stained with blood. It was his own blood - Kyle's black shirt was unbuttoned, revealing that the man had to carve several magical symbols into his own chest. These probably served as a link between him and the demon.

"I'm impressed," he said. "I thought you'd never have the balls to do that."

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT DID YOU FORCE ME TO DO?!" Alexis screamed, gun clenched in her trembling hands, her hair flying around her head because of the strong wind, resembling a halo. Alexis herself, in her white hoodie, looked like an angel of revenge.

"You didn't have to," Kyle shrugged. "If you just left and let me complete my business, Marlene could be alive. Actually, I'm a bit mad at you. I really liked her... somehow. And you just come and gun her down. Well, looks like I'll have to get a new toy. Not that it won't be easy when I become the ruler of the city."

"I hate you so much words can't explain," Alexis uttered between her clenched teeth.

"Yeah, kinda understandable. But why should I mind when I have this?" he made a theatrical gesture towards the distorted figure of the demon. "It'll be my faithful servant. And the very first thing I order him will be sending you to Hell, where you belong!"

"Not if I kill you first!" Alexis shouted.

Kyle smiled. "I know you want to expand your killing streak now, but I wouldn't recommend it. I guess that my new servant is about halfway through the Hellgate and if you kill me, it'll lose the anchor that keeps him at bay. If I die, my friend will unleash the destruction."

I was right, Alexis thought.

"Just look at it!" Diane shouted. "There is no way you can control it! Unsummon it while you still can. As you said, it's only halfway through and it's already hard for you to control it." She was right - Kyle was sweating and his face looked pale and exhausted. "Send him back while you can. Once he steps out of Hell completely, he'll kill you and then destroy the whole city!"

"That won't happen. I am in charge and it's obeying my commands."

"For how long?" Alexis said. "Diane is right. You're going to kill us all. McWaller lost control while the demon was still partially in Hell - that caused him to wither after some time, after he lost his link to this world. If you manage to pull him through completely, he won't just disappear!"

"And why should I care? Even if he killed me, I'd be dead. I wouldn't give a shit about what's happening in the material world. It's worth a risk - I have nothing to lose. I can already feel his power pouring inside me. Powers incomparable with yours. Immortality. Once he'll be out completely, I'll be unstoppable. Able to manipulate people's will from the distance. To kill anyone I point my finger at. First, I'll take control of Gabriel's Gardens. Then the United States. And then... the world."

"Oh great, a megallomanic supervillain with a world domination plan," Diane uttered.

"I have no idea what's worse," Alexis said. "A rampaging demonic being, or Kyle's world rule."

The scars on Kyle's chest started to glow as if his blood turned into lava. The man gasped in pain. The demon's blackness grew stronger as he materialized into the human world a little bit more. For a while, Kyle looked like he started to panic. The girls knew what's going on - the imaginary reins allowing Kyle to control the demon were slipping through his fingers.

The being was growing stronger than Kyle could handle, but he didn't stop the ritual.

After a moment, Kyle regained control, but his clenched teeth and sweaty forehead gave away that he won't be able to withstand the demon's full power. It seemed that the man was aware, too, but his pride and stubbornness didn't let him unsummon the horrific being.

Maybe it was already the other way around. The demon started to possess Kyle's mind, forcing him to finish the ritual. The tables have turned - Kyle was now a puppet used to fulfill the goals of a malevolent being.

"Okay, sis," Diane said. "Since we can't talk sense into this Faust-wannabe, it seems that we'll have to fight for our thing. Get ready. This can get pretty messy."

>><<

"So you want to dance?" Kyle jeered. "I'm afraid you picked a wrong partner." He closed his eyes and focused for a moment, then fell to his knees and emmited a long, painful scream. The demonic figure behind him started to flicker even more.

"I think he's borrowing the demonic powers," Alexis noted. "This isn't good."

She was right. His right hand started to deform and twist in inhuman angles. Then it went black, like it was rotting. The fingernails turned into long claws. Judging from Kyle's screams, this transformation had to be agonizing, but not even this stopped Kyle from gambling with the Devil.

"What is he doing?" Alexis looked horrified. "Gathering so much evil powers... he probably has no idea that it will rapidly shorten his lifespan!"

"That's good for us, isn't it?" Diane noted.

"I think he won't die soon enough to get us out of this situation," Alexis replied.

Kyle, while still moaning in pain, covered his left eye with his human hand while the demonic claw was still twisting, probably assimilating Kyle's flesh and nerves.

"We have to cooperate," Alexis said. "I will create a barrier to keep that demon at bay and prevent it from escaping. You'll have to eliminate Kyle. No mercy. He must die."

"My pleasure," Diane nodded. "But are your barriers strong enough to hold that thing?"

Alexis smirked. "Right now, I'm so pissed I'd be able to hold Satan himself."

"In that case, let's dance."

Kyle's transformation was complete. The carvings on Kyle's chest were glowing, his blood dripping on his muscular stomach. The infernal hand was scary enough, but his left eye also underwent a change. The sclera was now completely black with a shiny yellow iris. It was the eye of a beast.

He's slowly losing himself, Alexis thought. Sold his soul to the demon.

"Hey, ya ugly bastard!" Diane shouted. "It's you and me now. Bring it on."

Her rose-shaped insignia started to glow as she charged towards Kyle. The young man just smiled and raised the black demonic claw, now radiating with corrupted blue and purple energy.

Diane's feet lost connection with the ground as she ascended, feeling like being choked. Kyle laughed and kept holding her in the mid-air, waiting for her life to slowly fade away.

He fortunately forgot about Alexis who took a quick shot from Alyssa's gun. The bullet buried into Kyle's belly; it caused the man to groan in pain and release Diane. The girl quickly took the chance and rushed to punch the man. He blocked her fist with the demonic claw while looking at Alexis. Suddenly, the gun was jerked off her hand by some invisible force and flew away from the rooftop, ending somewhere under the Arlington Tower.

Alexis was now defenseless.

Fortunately, Diane was a weapon on her own. She pushed her insignia to the maximum overdrive. She didn't use such force before, afraid that it may damage her muscles somehow. She really felt strong pressure in her tendons, but at least it allowed her to keep up with Kyle.

"Are those Darth Vader tricks all you can do?" she mocked her opponent. Kyle tried to grab her using telekinesis again, but Diane managed to pull a quick punch which connected with his chin, sending him into the air. Then she performed a twist kick which fell on his ribcage like a sledgehammer and sent him flying.

The girl rushed to him, ready to finish him off. Kyle raised his hand again, ready to use the telekinesis again. Diane was defenseless. Fortunately, their team consisted of two members - a barrier of soft white light appeared in front of Diane, blocking Kyle's corrupted energy.

"Cool, sis!" Diane shouted while running and showed thumbs up.

Kyle didn't know what's going on - so he decided to counterattack. He was fast and aggresive, like a venomous snake. Diane, though, was able to block all of his strikes; her insignia strengthened her reflexes so much that everything seemed like slow motion to her. She felt another wave of pressure in her muscles, afraid that the insignia's power could destroy them. But she kept fighting.

>><<

The fighters seemed both equally strong. Diane drew power from her insignia, Kyle from the demonic being standing behind them like a silent judge. Kyle already managed to break Diane's defense a few times, using his demonic claw to inflict painful scratches on Diane's body. The girl, however, always dodged quickly enough to avoid serious injuries.

In the middle of the fight, the demon materialized even further. Kyle grinned. He was only dragging the fight out to let the demon come into our dimension.

Suddenly, Kyle used his elbow to quickly strike Diane's chin and then kicked her kneecap. The girl gasped and collapsed to the ground. The man grinned devilishly and raised the demonic arm to complete the job, but he was once again stopped by Alexis' shiny barrier.

"You little blonde annoyance," Kyle grumbled and turned to the girl.

"Kyle," Alexis said. "You didn't really wanted to prevent us from coming here, did you? If you didn't want us here, we porbably wouldn't have a chance. Marlene wasn't your line of defense. It was only a game, a way to break me. Am I right?"

Kyle shrugged. "What would be a party without a few guests? And about Marlene... I love games, you know? It was a test for both you and her. What are you both willing to do to stop and protect me, respectively? In fact, I thought you won't be able to do it. I also thought Marlene will break, turn her coat and let you in. Especially after your lovely confession... that was truly heartbreaking," he smirked.

Alexis clenched her fists. Millions of nasty curses were on her tongue, but she kept silent.

"I guess it's my fate to be chased by crazy lesbians," Kyle continued. "That police officer, then you. Killing your love interest must be hard, right? That's why I never have any. They're either naive chicks willing to bonk with me for a nice gift - they usually don't realize they basically turned into prostitutes. Or they're pawns important for my plans. By a coincidence, Marlene was both. She was really useful."

Alexis had to use all her self-control to make herself not attack him. Tears were rolling down her face as Kyle laughed at her. "Oh, crying? How touching. I'll do you a favor - you'll meet Marlene soon! Isn't that great? But first of all, you'll be a witness of my triumph. I'll make sure that you'll go to Hell broken and hopeless. After all the trouble you caused me, it's fair, right? You got out the jail, destroyed that drone I sent your way... I decided it would be much easier if I just let you come here. It's always worse to fail just a little bit away from accomplishing the goal. I will..."

Alexis smirked through the tears - their plan came together. While Kyle was distracted by his monologue, Diane stood up and grabbed his human hand, swinging him like a baseball bat and crashing him to the ground, leaving a small crater in the concrete.

"So you think you're some kind of God, huh?" she said. Kyle tried to fight back, but the sudden attack surprised and incapacitated him. Diane lifted him up again; this time she felt intense pain in her right arm. That force was too much for her muscles to take. She had to finish it quickly.

She slammed him to the ground once again. Kyle was groaning in pain, several limbs twisted in weird angles - and this time, it wasn't because of the demonic powers. "Puny God," Diane smirked. Then looked at Alexis and shouted: "Sis, get ready! Don't let that sucker escape!"

Alexis nodded and focused on the half-materialized demon. She raised her hands - five transparent walls similar to shining glass surrounded the demon. The piercing white light was even stronger than the venomous green shine coming from Kyle's magical circles.

Kyle stood up, not giving up yet. Diane's thunderous attacks, however, weakened him to the point that he was still able to move only because sheer power of hate and darkness. He looked at Diane in front of him - sweaty, messy, exhausted, covered in bleeding scratches, her right arm lifelessly dangling.

"You've had enough?" he smiled.

"You wish," Diane returned the smile. "I'm just getting started."

>><<

She crouched and her leg went straight up, connecting with Kyle's chin from the bottom and sending him airborne. The man landed on his back and spat out a few teeth. The beastly eye gave Diane a hateful look. Before he could recover again, Diane stomped on his chest with a crushing force of a drop hammer. Kyle could only emmit a gasp. Diane felt several ribs breaking.

"This was for your uncle which you killed," she said. "That was really dirty."

Kyle couldn't react as another earthquake stomp landed on his chest, crushing the rest of his ribcage. He coughed out some blood. The black on his demonic arm started to fade away, claws were growing back in. The demon in Alexis' sacred cage started to act nervously. "And this was for Marlene," Diane noted.

Kyle was still alive, even though even his left eye turned normal again. Also the symbols carved into his skin stopped glowing. He was losing control of the demon and he was fully aware of it. However, he smiled devilishly once more. "There's no way that this blonde chick can stop him," he whispered through the desolated throat. "Have fun."

Diane grabbed him with her uninjured left arm and tossed him across the rooftop. Screaming Kyle flew off the Arlington Tower's rim and continued down, down, down. His scream was fading away as he fell deeper, and was finally cut off once he hit the ground.

"I just hope he didn't land on someone's head," Diane muttered and ran to her sister, ignoring the agonizing pain in her whole body. "Did you see it?" she said. "It can be said that he fell for it."

"Do you mind if I appreciate that pun later?" Alexis muttered through clenched teeth. "I'm trying to hold that thing in. And I'm not sure if I manage to pull it off."

Once his summoner died, the demon felt a sudden surge of freedom. He planned to kill the summoner by himself, but as soon as he materializes completely. That tiny human ruined his plan by killing the summoner. That means he'll have to slowly fade away to his world again. But first, he wanted to take revenge on those who ruined his plan. But that wasn't so easy. Some kind of holy barrier was surrounding him.

Alexis felt the demon's immense power colliding with her barrier. She was foolish. Even though not in full power, this is a creature straight from Hell. How could she think that she, a tiny girl with only a little advanced knowledge about demonology, could be able to keep that thing at bay?

The demon raised its enormous fists and started to thump on the barrier. Alexis felt each impact in her head; it felt like it's about to explode.

She had to focus all her power into maintaining the barrier, knowing that her failure can and probably will have horrific consequences. She felt something warm on her face - it was a stream of blood coming from her nose. Her body protested against the massive exertion.

She already felt weak, felt like passing out at any given moment. Her vision was blurry even with her glasses. And the demon was still clearly visible behind the shining glass, banging on it, trying to set itself free. It was about to win. Just a little bit more...

A strong pat on her back brought her back to full consciousness. "Sis, don't give up!" Diane shouted. "That sucker is fading away, I see it. Please, hold on just a little bit longer. For me. For Father. For Annie and all our friends! Their lives now depend on you. Just fight it for a couple more minutes and I promise that I'll become your servant for a week... well, maybe for three days. You're a hero, sis. Hold on."

Diane's words stimulated Alexis to make a last stand. The demon was almost transparent again, its evil presence slowly disappearing. The girl's insignia shone bright like a star in the sea of darkness. The pain in her head became so strong that she, paradoxically, almost couldn't feel it.

She remembered the stairway where she shot Marlene. Kyle's confession that forcing her to kill Marlene was just a game, an entertaining insertion. She put all her anger into the barrier which started to shine even more. The intense light drained the power out of the demon. It became merely a shadow in the blinding light.

"Go back where did you come from," Alexis shouted, "and take your summoner with you!"

And suddenly, it was done. The demon disappeared and the occult marks on the ground became only interesting drawings. Alexis could finally let the barrier disappear. She sighed and fell into Diane's arms.

"Ouch sis, not there," Diane groaned. "I think I'm kinda hurt. But I'll endure it. You're a hero, sis."

Alexis passed out with a smile on her lips.

>><<

Was it only a dream?

After Alexis woke up in her bed, she remembered some disturbing things that may have happened, or may have not. She didn't know.

Creepily disfigured Kyle Fletcher. A huge demonic being. A gun... Marlene...

Suddenly, she wished that everything was just a dream. She remembered her hopeless scream after she shot Marlene right in the heart. The girl she has been harboring feelings for. Alexis really loved her, sincerely, with all her heart. She can't be dead. She mustn't.

She tried to move. It was like a thousand suns exploded in her head. The rest of her body felt weak, like it somehow lost connection with her brain. She remembered the immense power she had to use while maintaining the barrier which kept the demon away from the human world.

So it really happened...

Marlene is dead.

But so is Kyle.

Once again, tears started rolling down her cheeks and soaked into the pillow under her head. She felt like she has been crying all the time lately and she hated herself for that. But the emotions combined with tormenting migraine were just too strong to handle.

Is it over? Is it finally over? It resolved in the worst way possible - Marlene was dead and she killed her. But at least she'll finally find peace. Kyle won't make trouble anymore. If I just close my eyes and let go, maybe I'll die, an irrational thought flew through Alexis' head. Would I go to Heaven? Of course not. I killed.

"She's awake," she heard a voice with no body so far. "Hey... Lex? Could you please turn your head and pay attention to us?"

The girl slowly turned her head. The migraine was almost unbearable. But it was quickly shoved into the background as soon as Alexis saw the people in her room. Diane was right in front of her, with her right arm covered in plaster. Her visible skin was covered in band-aids, some injuries were stitched. She probably picked a black cropped top just to show off her brand new scars.

Behind her stood a crowd. Anna was sitting on her wheelchair right next to Diane. Alyssa was smiling like Alexis was her daughter which made her very proud. Lenny and Noah were also there; Lenny was holding Dante in his massive arms. Next to them stood Sandra and Kevin Kent along with Gray Forrestal junior.

"Wait... what?" Alexis protested. "I'm wearing only a nightgown, come on."

"We just wanted to thank you," Alyssa said. "Both you and Diane. What happened on the rooftop... it was something spectacular. You two saved the city. I salute you." She began to clap her hands and the rest soon joined her. Alexis blushed during the applause, Diane was trying to bow as much as her damaged body allowed her. "Damn, it hurts," she noted.

"I see you both are kinda bruised," Gray Forrestal said. "Once you start to feel better, I invite you to a huge party in my mansion! You're all invited. Those two chicks saved our lives, so they deserve a reward! Lyss, make sure to bring Melody, too."

Next, the sisters were forced to tell everything about the rooftop clash. The part with Marlene had to be told by Diane. Alexis looked down in shame, expecting everyone will judge her for her decision. Everyone just kept silent; it was an understanding silence.

After this gruesome part, Alexis joined the narration. Diane described the fight with Kyle and the demon like a movie or a videogame boss fight - the rest decided to play with her, cheering after Diane described the beating she gave Kyle. "He didn't go down - literally - easily, but he was still no match for me!" she boasted.

Alexis learned what happened after she passed out - Alyssa sent a chopper to get them out of the roof and transport them home.

The guests stayed a little longer and their presence made Alexis feel much better. They congratulated the girls and the words "Good job" became the most used phrase that day. Even though Alexis still felt guilt, she at least thought that their efforts were successful after all.

>><<

Later, Alyssa was the only one to stay for a little longer.

"I have a few more things, mostly unpleasant, so let's cross it out quickly," she said. "Santiago Sanchez and his wife are already aware of Marlene's death. They are devastated, as you can probably imagine. But I won't tell them that the bullet was fired by you, Alexis. It wouldn't help anything."

"Thank you, Alyssa," Alexis said. She knew she'll have to visit the Sanchez family sooner or later. How to feel about it? Will she be able to look them in the eyes again? She's responsible for their daughter's death and it will be hard to act like nothing happened, especially if Santiago will keep treating her with almost fatherly love he usually treats her with. She'll also have to attend her funeral.

Seeing that Alexis keeps falling into depression again, the officer changed the subject. "During your fight, we literally had to keep the crowds away from the Tower," she said. "The lights scared some people pretty much and everyone wanted to know what the hell is going on here. We had to say that 'Mr. Fletcher is having a Halloween party and doesn't want to be disturbed'."

"Did they believe it?" Alexis asked.

"Mostly. Fortunately, we managed to get the people away from the Tower before Kyle landed. It wasn't a nice sight. He was like a ragdoll, there didn't seem to be a bone which remained whole. You had to enjoy him a lot, right, Diane?"

The girl smirked. "I couldn't help myself."

"Right now, both him and Marlene are in the morgue and we're trying to cover up the truth. The official version is that Kyle had a date with Marlene on the rooftop. Kyle got drunk and got into an argument with the girl. In effect caused by alcohol, he drew the gun and shot the girl. Then he probably realized what did he do and jumped off the roof. A murder and a suicide. Easy and believable enough. Lots of people can confirm that Kyle was quite short-tempered."

"I think it's unfair," Alexis sighed. "Everyone should know I'm a murderer. That I didn't even hesitate much to shot her! I'm a monster. I loved her... and then I just gunned her down like a rabid dog."

"Telling you that you had no choice seems to be useless right now," Alyssa said. "It's too fresh and nobody is able to convince you right now. I'll give you just one advice - think about it. And when you're done thinking, think about it again. One day, you'll be able to forgive yourself what happened and give yourself peace."

Alexis just nodded quietly.

Alyssa grabbed her hand. "You're not alone, girl. I've also made several decisions which haunt me even now, after many years. Yes, these decisions were about life and death. No person can even convince you about the rightness of your decision - except yourself."

"Thank you, Alyssa."

The officer left and the girls remained alone. "So it seems that we're heroes, sis," Diane shrugged. "Kyle is gone, the city is saved, the demon terurned back to Hell. All thanks to us. Admit it, we're good."

Alexis gave a slight smile. "Yes, we are."

"God, I need a long vacation," Diane sighed. "That fight took its toll on both of us, it seems. I need several months on the beach, no work, just relax. We deserve it after all."

"We'll see what can we do about it."

"Just one more thing," Diane suddenly seemed insecure. "What you said to Marlene. You know what. Is it true that... you... like girls?"

Alexis smirked. "If you ask me about my sexuality, I'm afraid I won't be able to give you a straight answer."

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

"You know. You just mock everything and me being a lesbian would be a welcome ammunition."

"Who the hell do you think I am?" Diane said, seemingly offended. "Sis, listen up. I can mock your horrific fashion sense. Your uptightness. How goddamn nerd you are. There are million things about you worth mocking, but I would never, I repeat NEVER mock your sexuality."

Alexis smiled. "Thank you, Dee."

Both girls stayed in silence for a while. "Well, I don't know what more to say," Diane claimed. "Maybe... I'm sorry for all the times I used gay as an insult."

"I know what to say very well," Alexis replied. "And I'll probably never repeat it, so listen closely." Diane leaned towards her and Alexis continued: "You are the best sister in the world and I'm so glad I have you."

"What did I tell you about making me emotional?" Diane grumbled. The sisters looked at each other for a while, then they spontaneously hugged. For a while, Alexis forgot about the horrors of the final fight with Kyle and sensed only the connection between her and her sibling. They made it. They survived the first big test that came their way and they were sure that they can take on anything the Fate throws at them.

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