Thaddeus

Chapter 17

                                                  (A day after Ferret's last chapter)

Thaddeus found himself walking the streets of downtown Caelfall, which was quite busy given it was late afternoon. He had his hands in his jacket pockets, one of them fiddling with the whistle he'd used against Alastor yesterday. It was a neat little weapon Thaddeus found he could use since Alastor has a hearing aid; it was a fun way to bring pain to his cousin. 

He kept his head low, feeling paranoia sink into the pits of his stomach. Thaddeus felt like someone was following him, and sure, it could've just been he didn't like being around crowds of people, but this felt different. 

Thaddeus turned into a dark and narrow alleyway, preparing himself to whirl around and punch something. When he was ready, that was exactly what Thaddeus did. However, he ended up just punching air.

Thaddeus sighed; he couldn't count how many times this'd happened. How many times his paranoid mind got the better of him. It wasn't even two seconds later when Thaddeus saw a flash of white, then he was pinned against the side of a building by a woman with a very tight grip and a gun to Thaddeus's head.

The women's long white hair hung over her shoulders, her amber eyes staring into Thaddeus's soul practically. She held a very serious expression on her face.

"I hate to be the one to break it to you," she said, grinning a little, "but you're under arrest for the death of Dolus Hudson."

"Oh, and I thought I'd covered my tracks well enough to get away with it." Thaddeus basically sang, he knew he wasn't going to let himself be arrested, and he knew this girl had no chance against him. 

"I'm surprised you haven't confirmed that you have the right guy," said Thaddeus, "unless, of course, you already know who I am. You're Alastor's sweetheart, aren't you? Athena, was it?" Now it was Thaddeus's turn to grin.

Athena scowled before bringing her knee to Thaddeus's stomach. "You don't get to call me that, I'm arresting you for murder! And don't even try your whole fire thing, I know all about it."

"You may know about it, but do you know how to defend against it?" Thaddeus's words were followed by Thaddeus grabbing Athena's arm, easily burning it. Athena yelped, dropping the gun as she took a very small step back, but that was all Thaddeus needed.

He tried going in for a smooth punch, however, Athena grabbed his arm, then moved to his wrist. Then Athena tripped one of Thaddeus's legs as she twisted his wrist, sending him to the ground. 

A loud crack was heard, as Thaddeus had landed on his side. He sent a wave of fire towards Athena, who narrowly avoided it, as Thaddeus got up. The whistle he used against Alastor was in pieces, he felt it break in his pocket. He scattered what was left of the whistle on the ground, glaring at Athena.

"Do you have ANY idea how long it took me to weaponize that!?" He screeched. "It was a dog whistle, it took forever!"

Athena smiled and lunged at Thaddeus, who failed to dodge a punch. The two wrestled and fought for a tiny bit, both landing hits on each other. The only reason Thaddeus hadn't burnt Athena to a crisp was because he loved how much of a good fight she was putting up.

After Thaddeus landed a hit on Athena, cracking her lip, she shoved him away, breathing heavily as she readied herself. Thaddeus, on the other hand, began looking out of the corners of his eyes, trying to find where Athena had dropped the gun.

Athena seemed to pick up on it so when both locked their eyes onto the gun, both lunged for it. Athena had managed to grip the gun first, but that's when Thaddeus used a flaming hand to push her away and take it from her. Thaddeus had burned Athena's side when he did it, which caused her to yell and wince as Thaddeus aimed the gun at her head.

Thaddeus panted, as did Athena as clutched onto her burning side. "You can put up one hell of a fight, Athena." Thaddeus said, but then shrugged lightly. "Well, you TRIED to anyway." Though his cheek was bleeding, and he was bruised, Thaddeus didn't consider that a win for Athena.

Athena froze, her eyes wide as she stared at the gun. "If you do this, you'll only make things worse on yourself. It doesn't even matter if the cops won't find you, but I think even you know how dangerous Alastor can get when he's angry." She said as she slowly raised her hands.

Thaddeus scoffed loudly, throwing his head back for a moment. "I know he's dangerous, but he loves to underestimate how dangerous I am. I can take whatever he throws at me, his guys are nothing. And if comes after me himself...well, that'll be interesting." He grinned.

Athena didn't dare move at first, however, as Thaddeus continued ranting about Alastor, she tried to make a run for it, which caused Thaddeus to leap forward, grabbing her arm and yanking her back as he shoved the barrel of the gun into her skull. 

"That was a mistake." Thaddeus smiled, a psychotic edge to it. He pushed her back a little, still pointing the gun at her.

"Now, be a dear and say hi to the devil for me." And with that, Thaddeus fired, the bullet immediately landing in Athena's head, rendering her dead instantly. The gunshot, luckily for Thaddeus, was silenced thanks to the type of pistol it was. Athena's body fell to the ground, the bullet wound staining the ground under it in red.

Thaddeus stared at the body, then towards the streets. He knew he had to run away pretty much now. Somebody would surely notice a body soon, and the fact the shot wasn't all the way silenced didn't help anything. So that's exactly what Thaddeus did. He ran away, tossing the gun into a dumpster near by. Sure, the police would probably find it....if they had the chance to get involved first. Thaddeus knew his family would probably find a way to take over Athena's case from the cops.

Thaddeus didn't know where to run to, but then again, he never had a destination in mind. So he just decided to keep running until his legs gave out and hopefully by then, he'd have found a good place to lie low at.

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Thaddeus never knows when to stop killing. ☠️