Death At The Opera - 4
Brian stumbled in through the front door and into the lobby of the apartment building.
“You did what?!” he asked with a horrified look on his face.
“What?” Rykard barked as he stepped in out of the rain, followed by the others. “We needed the necklace and she had it. Things got out of hand.”
Sofia knelt down to look Milo in the eyes, “What happened?”
Milo had maintained pace with the rest of the group the whole way back to the Dreadward but at every step he had contemplated making a run for it. There was no way that Madeline’s death would not attract attention. She had connections with imperial nobility. They loved her. Everyone loved her.
Sofia grabbed him by the shoulders and gently shook him, yanking him out of his deep thought.
“Huh?” he asked.
“What happened?”
Milo looked at Rykard who had his vicious eyes fixed on the short goblin man.
“He killed her.”
“She swung a vase at my head.” Proclaimed Rykard. “I defended myself.”
“You pulled the knife out first.” Said Milo.
Rykard suddenly dashed towards them and pushed Sofia out of the way, wrapping his big hands around Milo’s throat.
“You stop lying you goblin scum. You saw it, tell them! She swung at me! I defended myself!”
Milo attempted to open his mouth to answer but struggled to inhale.
The door to the stairwell opened and a middle aged human woman stepped out and froze at the display. Rykard stood up slowly and released Milo, the goblin man gasped for air. Brian nodded at the woman with a friendly smile.
“Evening. Be careful out there. It’s raining something fierce.”
The woman nodded and hesitantly walked past them and out the front door.
“We’ll discuss this when we get up to the apartment.” Sofia hissed as she started walking towards the stairwell. “Fucking amateurs.”
The three men followed her up the stairs silently. As they stepped back out on the sixth floor balcony Milo felt a sinking feeling of exposure. This open air hallway took them to the apartment but it also left them vulnerable. On their right side was a wall lined with apartment doors and on the other they saw the looming buildings of the Dreadward and the darkened street below, separated only by metal railing. His eyes darted from roof to roof, window to window. He was certain he was being paranoid as he’d kept an eye out all the way here, but he’d rather be paranoid than dead. Nowhere he looked did he find any suspicious figure lurking about, however down at street level he saw a small crowd of people moving towards the building.
Milo tapped Sofia’s hip as they walked and pointed at the crowd. Sofia nodded and maneuvered herself to the other side of Brian and Rykard.
The four of them stopped by their apartment and Brian fished out his keys. The rain that hit them was cold and they were all freezing, however, it was clear that Brian was shaking from more than just the cold.
“Hold on.” He said as he struggled with fetching his keys.
“Oh for kaiser’s sake.” Said Rykard as he snatched the keys from Brian’s hand and pushed him up against the railing.
“Rykard, you don’t have to be an asshole all the time.” Said Sofia.
As the brute unlocked the door, Brian shook his head. “It’s alright, Sofia. He’s just trying to…” and then his head exploded into a splash of crimson.
Blood splattered the walls, their clothes and their faces. Rykard swung open the door and dove inside, Sofia and Milo dropped to the floor while Brian’s lifeless body collapsed with one hand tangled in the railing, propping him up.
Milo now heard voices calling out from the street below and then a whistle was blown. Watchers!
Sofia quickly scampered in through the door and as she did Rykard kicked the door closed and locked it. Milo reached for the handle but couldn’t open it and as he was about to reach for his tools he felt another bullet hit the wall right next to him. And so he dove down and pressed himself flat against the floor. There was nowhere for him to go.
“What are you doing?!” asked Sofia, enraged.
“Cutting our loses, he’s the weakest link and we need to think off ourselves.” Said Rykard as he shrugged.
They heard another bullet hit the wall outside and Sofia knew they had no time.
“He’s gonna die out there!” she said as she reached for the lock.
Rykard grabbed her arm to stop her. “Don’t. If we open up that door we’ll all die.”
“You’re insane!”
“I didn’t come all this way to not get paid, and in order to do that we need to get to Mr Howlett, yeah?”
“We and what loot, dumbass? Milo has the necklace!”
The smug sneer on Rykard’s face quickly vanished once he realized what he’d done.
Milo now heard voices and rapid footfalls ascend the stairwell. They’d soon be upon him and River would be made an orphan. He had to get out of there, if he couldn’t get the money he’d have to find a way to get River out somehow.
He put his hand in his pocket where he felt the wood handle of his folded blade. Against firearms he didn’t stand a chance…but maybe…just maybe…
Suddenly the door to the stairwell opened and he saw two watchers emerge with revolvers drawn. Behind them he saw even more watchers ascending the stairs.
“Don’t move!”
Milo, not knowing what to do, simply put up his tiny goblin hands.
At that moment the door to the apartment swung open and Sofia’s hand reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him in as gunfire rained down on him. In one swift motion Milo was pulled and thrown into the apartment as Rykard closed and locked the door.
“Are you okay?” asked Sofia as Milo sat up.
His red eyes found Rykard and for a moment the two of them exchanged hateful glares at each other.
“I’m fine, but now what?”
“We’ve got to find another way out. Is there a crawlspace here?” asked Sofia as she started inspecting the various walls of the apartment.
The wallpaper was peeling off and there were plenty of small holes that had been created by either rodents or the previous occupants.
“Probably but I don’t know if I’m going to fit in there.” Said Rykard.
“You’re just gonna have to think thin.” Said Sofia just as they heard it.
Footfalls approaching the front door and muffled voices.
Sofia motioned for the door and Rykard gingerly stepped to the other side of it, pressing himself up against the wall, while she ducked behind the corner of the kitchen. Milo stepped into the bedroom, looking for a way out.
The door handle turned slowly but with the lock engaged the door remained closed. Sofia and Rykard exchanged a worried look as the door handle turned back and everything went quiet for a moment. Then, without warning, the door was kicked in. It swung on its hinges and hit Rykard in the face. Two watchers stepped in and opened fire into the living room where a covered lamp stood. Sofia rounded the corner and threw a knife at one of them, embedding the blade’s edge into his neck. Blood sputtered as he wailed and gripped the hilt.
The other watcher turned his gun towards her and opened fire just as she ducked behind the corner, but not before one of the bullets hit her in the arm. The watcher emptied his revolver at her, hitting nothing but wall, and as he prepared to reload his weapon he felt a strong set of arms grab him by the face. The watcher, a human man in his mid thirties, only managed to let out a muffled gasp before Rykard slammed his head into the wall, breaking a fresh new hole in the bricked surface and crushing his head in the process.
Another watcher stepped in through the door, taken aback by the scene of violence before him. One of his compatriots lying bleeding on the floor with a knife in his throat and a another with his head shoved through a wall by a hulking man. The watcher raised his pistol and pulled the trigger. Boom, a spurt of blood exploded from the man’s thigh. The watcher smiled as he took aim again. But then he felt a shock of pain rock through his head and suddenly he couldn’t see or understand what was happening to him.
The watcher collapsed to the floor with a small folded out knife embedded in his head, just below the brim of his helmet. And expert throw.
Rykard looked towards the bedroom doorway where he saw Milo standing with an out stretched arm.
“Heh, I knew you were a killer, Valghastian spy.” Rykard growled.
Milo quickly approached to retrieve his knife. “I told you I’m not a spy.”
But as he gripped the knife handle the door swung open again and another watcher stepped in. For one fleeting moment, that seemed to stretch for an eternity, the two of them locked eyes in terror. But as time began spinning once again the watcher swung his steel toed boot into Milo’s face. The goblin man tumbled backwards, losing the grip on his knife in the process. With adrenaline flooding his veins, Milo quickly sat up, ready to fight for his life but was met with a clenched fist into his face sending him back down to the floor. He could feel the hardwood panels underneath him fracturing under the weight and when he looked up all he could see was the barrel of a gun.
This was it, he knew it. He’d never see his son again. The boy would be forever lost to the criminal underworld of Lexingrad, never knowing what his father had done to try and get them out of there.
A shadow moved over Milo and as the gun disappeared from sight he saw Sofia’s leg connecting with the watchers head, sending his helmet flying into the ceiling. The man tried to maintain his balance but just then Rykard came in like a freight train and slammed into him, pushing the watcher out the front door, out onto the balcony and over the railing, disappearing out of sight.
Rykard then closed the door and collapsed to the floor.
“You okay Milo?” he heard Sofia ask, out of breath.
“I’ll…live.” Said Milo as he sat up.
“That makes us even.” Said Rykard with a bloodied smile.
Milo looked the man straight in the eye and sneered.
“Fuck you. We’d be making our way to Mr Howlett now with the authorities being none the wiser if you hadn’t come into Madeline Keen’s dressing room.”
“I…had a score…to settle.” The man said, regaining his breath after the fight.
“You doomed us all.” Said Sofia.
The three of them remained there in silence for a moment, catching their breath and dreading what their next move might be, when they heard a booming voice outside. It reverberated throughout the street outside, clearly enhanced and amplified with magic.
“To the criminal rats holing up in apartment 612; this is Watch Captain Powell. You have one minute to submit yourselves to arrest. Do so and you will not be harmed.”
Rykard shook his head with a scowl. “There ain’t no way I am giving myself up.”
The voice outside continued. “If you refuse, once the minute has passed, we will send in a squad of the Crimson Guard.”
All expression drained out of their faces and their blood froze in their veins.
“The countdown beings…now.”
