The Rake

Our follower finally made his move.

It happened while I was asleep. 330 was once more on guard duty full time, so when someone tried to pick the lock on our door, she was waiting. I woke up when I heard the struggle, and the first thing I saw was her using a bed sheet to tie a man to a chair.

“Mornin’, Lisa!” 330 said, as she showed me a CIA badge. “I was right! It was one of Lupine’s men.”

Looked more like a bum than an employee of the CIA. The man was middle aged, with a patchy attempt of a beard on his chin and a dirty old coat loosely hanging on his shoulders.

“I ain’t gonna tell you nuthin.” He said, glaring at 330.

“Really? Well, that’s a shame.” 330 said, searching through his coat pockets. “Course, you’re assuming that I’m interested in questioning you…. Ooh, this looks fun.” She pulled a revolver out of his coat. All but one of the rounds were removed, and 330 spun the cylinder around. When it stopped, before I could shout, she pointed it at her own head and pulled the trigger. Didn’t fire. “Nope, of course it wouldn’t.” 330 said. She spun the cylinder again, and pointed it towards the man. “You, on the other hand….”

“Wait!” I shouted. “You can’t just shoot him!”

330 didn’t lower the gun, but she did look at me, confused. “Um… yes. Yes I can. I’m pretty sure the gun works, and it’s not like he can dodge when he’s tied up….”

“No, I mean… I just…. It’s… not right to just kill people like that…. You’ve already tied him up, there’s no reason to shoot him!”

The confusion shifted into shock. She turned away so I couldn’t see her face, and pointed the gun away from the man. Pulled the trigger, and the bullet flew into 330’s empty room. Then she threw the empty gun onto the ground.

When she turned back to face me, there was a smile on her face. “Alright, new plan, we don’t shoot him.” Did I hear her voice crack slightly? Not sure…. “Still leaves the question of what we’re supposed to do with him. He is stalking us, you know.”

The man spoke up. “Like I said, you ain’t getting’ nuthin out of me. I won’t talk. Specially now that I know that girlie there doesn’t have the guts to-”

That’s when the whispers began.

Same as the night in the car, but this time I was awake to hear them. Quiet, subtle, incoherent, but still slipping into my ears, into my thoughts…. The ceiling above us creaked as something paced back and forth on that floor.

“Okay, I have just one question for you.” 330 said, her eyes following the pacing sound. “And this is one that you really, really want to answer.”

The man was also keeping his attention on the sound. He slowly nodded his ashen white face.

“Why is the Rake following the CIA agent sent to follow us?”

It took a few false starts, but eventually he stuttered out a reply. “Lupine… recruits us. People stalked by Fears. For… for suicide squads. If the hitman doesn’t manage to kill the target, there’s a chance that… that the target will get caught up as collateral damage from the Fear following the hitman. We’re usually only sent after supernatural targets, or people who… who’ve proven impossible to kill by human means. We… usually only survive two missions…. Oh god please get me out of here please I’m sorry that I was supposed to kill you it was just my job I’m not even very good at it I’m not a real hitman they told me they could keep the monster away if I worked for them they told me I could go back to my normal life once I was done I don’t want to die I don’t want to die please god I don’t want to die!”

“Calm your shit.” 330 sighed. “Usually I’d just leave you here to deal with your own problems, but…. Lisa, you wouldn’t agree with that, would you?”

Of course I wouldn’t! How could she even think I would….

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She started to untie the man from the chair. “Where’s your car?”

“In the alley behind this place.” He said.

“That’s closer than ours. We’ll use the fire escape and make a break for it. Lisa, grab a bag and get ready to leave.”

Didn’t take long to do so. I’d been expecting the need of a sudden escape for a while now. Although not under these circumstances.

As 330 was about to open the door out, the whispers and pacing stopped. Everyone stood still, trying to catch any noises. Nothing.

“330….” I said. “What exactly is the Rake?”

“Another monster. You’ll know it when you see it. Just run to the car and try not to let it get close.”

“It comes to you in your sleep.” The man whispered. “Night after night, every night, coming to me and whispering in my ear, clawing at my arms, night after night reopening the wounds, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t look into its eyes, if I look into its eyes it will kill me….”

“Yeah what he said.” 330 threw the door open. Nothing on the other side. “Fire exit’s just a few doors down. Follow me, and no matter what, don’t stop running.”

And we ran. Down the hall, down the stairs, into the alley. The car was close. Before we could reach it, this… thing… jumped from the roof of a building and landed between us and the car. It looked kinda like a human… same basic shape, at least. But it’s skin was deathly pale, and there was no hair anywhere on its body. The ends of its fingers had claws that looked more like knives than anything natural, and its eyes were black as tar. Guess that’s the Rake.

330 fired a shot at it, hitting it directly in the chest. Black blood seeped out of the wound, but it didn’t seem to bother the creature. It charged at us… damn it was fast. Ran by both of us before 330 could fire again. But it wasn’t interested in killing us. The hitman… he only had started to scream before one of the Rake’s clawed hands impaled him through the chest. The Rake held the man up and opened its mouth so that the blood drained down its throat, then it turned towards us and smiled with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. 330 fired the rest of her clip into the thing, but to no effect. It threw the man onto the ground, and vanished.

Even if we already knew what we would find, we checked the man anyways. He was dead, those claws having shredded his insides.

-Lisa