The Beau & the Beast

16 - A letter

  "Where is she?"

I spun around and found Lumiere standing in the doorway. "Out, she should be back soon."

With a sigh he leaned against the doorpost, "I shouldn't be down here."

I raised an eyebrow, "What would actually happen if you defied him?"

"Belmont ..." His voice had a warning tone, "You don't understand... we had nothing and he gave us everything."

"Ehm, yes but that was hundreds of years ago?" His eyes narrowed when he met my gaze but he said nothing more. "Don't you think you've worked off that debt?"

He shook his head and handed me a sealed envelope, "can you give it to her?"

I took the envelope and hid it inside my shirt and nodded. "Hey Lu ..."

"What?"

"Anthony gave Clock a promise, if we win the war for him, he will let us leave." I hesitated before continuing, "do you think he'll honor that?"

Lu nodded earnestly, "Anthony never breaks a promise."

I bit my lip and turned my gaze away, "Alright .."

"You do not trust him."

"I guess .. in a way I do ... But the problem is .." I sat down and glanced at him where he stood in his dazzling white suit, so misplaced among all the dirt and dust, "he will never leave you."

Lu rested his hands in his vest pockets, "Clocksworth?"

I nodded, "Anthony knows that."

"So you want me to run away with you?" He snickered dryly.

"You and Marianne." I gave him a smile and shrugged, "why not?"

With a deep sigh he turned away from me,  "Maybe ... I need some time to think about it."

"What do you have to lose?"

He shrugged before leaving... "my honor."

Geez, I thought. Honor. What the hell was that about? Must be a 17th century thing, I muttered annoyed to myself as I continued to sort out gas masks and bulletproof vests.

The culvert was empty. Clock was training some of the new recruits and Rumi was hacking a database to hopefully give us more information about the gas.

Their little mission had completely failed and they had not succeeded in destroying the lab.
We were too few and they were too damn many.
Which in turn had led Roch to take a group out on a search mission to find anyone who wanted to switch sides, for a fee of course.

I searched through dusty old boxes that looked like they had been there since World War II.
Anthony had collected so much crap over the years.
As I stood there sorting, I suddenly heard a rattling sound, like claws scratching against the concrete.

I looked around but no one was there, so I continued my tedious work without giving it a second thought.

A few minutes later it was heard again. Something felt shady, so I decided to go out into the hallway and look around.
Everything was deserted and quiet. But my vampire intuition told me something was wrong.

I hurried to send a text to Clock. Culvert .. now! someone is here ...

I sneaked around a corner, my heart rate beating faster and faster.

There! The sound again! It came from storage room B.

I walked in as quietly as I could. Probably some fucking lowlife recruit partying in there, I sighed and pressed the code.