Suffocating

Unravel; I

~ Unravel ~

verb

{become undone.}

It was a bad video quality, especially by his standards. It was blurry. You could barely hear what they were saying. And the camera - which he knew must be an old, cheap phone - was hidden in what appeared to be an article of clothing, meaning you could only see half of everything.

No one as important as him should be watching this video.

He watched it anyway, leaning into a loveseat chair that looked more comfortable than it actually was. Tsk, place looked more comfortable than it actually was.

"Wait!"

He found that the voice was annoying. Sure, for some, it might've sounded cute, but to him, it was simply shrill and ear-piercing, like a kid's voice. He hated kids. He hated lots of things, really. He enjoyed hating things.

There were ragged breathing and the sound of shoes shuffling against dirt. It sounded light, so it couldn't be boots. Sneakers? Maybe?

"Be quick."

That voice. Inhuman, more akin to a distorted audio or an old tape from the twenties, if tapes existed from the twenties. It could easily be edited to sound the way it did. He knew it wasn't.

He leaned down, pulling his phone up as though it would allow him to see better. Someone knocked on the door. He ignored it. This was important, more important than he'd assumed.

"W-what do I call you?"

The sound of flapping, like a bird's flaps, only louder and more powerful.

"Whatever you wish to call me."

The flaps got louder, meaning it was getting closer.

He paused the video when he saw something white.

The quality was horrible, especially by his standards. No one should be able to tell what they were seeing. He was able to tell. He knew the white lines that traveled down its skin must've a kind been roots and flowers patterns. He knew the eyes were glowing, and that had nothing to do with the camera's poor lighting. And he, of all people, knew that the blurry thing moving behind it were wings.

An angel's wings.

He looked at the hazy, unfocused image of a person. No one should be able to tell their gender, but he knew it was a 'she'. It was in her tone. He could tell. That, and the hair that flowed down to her shoulders.

He resumed the video.

He heard more shuffling. The wings' flaps grew louder. Then the camera tilted back and all he could see was black.

"Don't do anything you'll regret-"

And that was the end of the video.

He, with gritted teeth, pressed at the note attached to the video, sent by an anonymous source.

I cut off the last part because it revealed my identity. I call her 'Angel', feel free to come up with your own name. She is our hero, she has been for the past year, and perhaps years before that. Click this to read more.

The act of posting this already puts me in danger. But I did so to show the truth to everyone. I know you're all smart. I know you know the cops aren't the real reason why this city is safe from many crimes. Some of you have probably seen her too. This, as well as the link above, proves that she is, indeed, real, and she will continue to protect us.

She is our hero, our guardian. She is real. It's time for everyone to realize that, and to realize that those who deny it knows about it and is trying to cover the truth.

Don't be fooled. This is the truth.

He smiled the longer he read the message, not because he actually liked it - it was sappy and cliche and looked like it was written by a middle schooler - but because of what the message meant. What this all meant.

Chaos.

And he loved chaos.

He found himself taking a deep breath to calm himself down. He didn't calm down. He sprang from the seat, pacing around the empty, well-kempt hotel room.

He wanted to break something, anything. Something hard. Something that was satisfying to break. Like metal. Or bricks. He wanted to crush it. Crush, crush, crush, until it turned to dust. All with his bare hands.

But he didn't think the hotel staff would appreciate it. And as much as he disliked them, he had to keep up appearances.

It was early. Too early for anyone to be up. He was up, anyway. He had had a feeling - waking up - that something about this day would be different. And he was right. His hunch was right, just as it always was.

He rewound, and he played.

"Wait!"

"Be quick."

"W-what do I call you?"

"Whatever you wish to call me." A pause. "Don't do anything you'll regret-"

He was hyperventilating. He knew he was hyperventilating, but he couldn't bring himself to care, anyway. Not with what this all meant.

Rewind. Play.

"Wait!"

"Be quick."

"W-what do I call you?"

"Whatever you wish to call me." A few seconds passed where no words were spoken. "Don't do anything you'll regret-"

There were more knocking on the door.

"SHUT UP!"

Usually, he'd care about about his appearance, and dance around his words like they were poems. Plus, he was sure whoever had been knocking was doing their job and hadn't meant to disturb him.

But he couldn't bring himself to care. Not when he knew the knocking was just one of his men trying to convince him to meet the mayor of this oh-so-great city, even though the mayor was most likely as bland and boring as this sad excuse of a city was. All of them, trying to tell him what to do, as though they knew better, as though they knew why he really was here, why he intended to stay here for weeks, months, even.

He could see it. Everything. The way it all worked. It was obvious. What they wanted. What they knew about him. What they didn't know about him. 

Anyone who thought he was here for business purposes was a fool.

Turns out, this city was filled with fools.

Not like it mattered. In fact, it was a good thing for him, wasn't it?

Finally, fucking finally, Robert Price found the one thing he'd been looking for the moment he stepped foot into this generic, shitty, boring nowhere;

A lead.

...

Now, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the second part of Suffocating!

This will be different from the first part, and you can even see it here, where we dive into a POV of someone other than Claire and Roxanne.

Unfortunately, my beta reader and editor couldn't help me work on this part, so if there's any inconsistencies or mistakes of any kind, feel free to point them out to me, and I'll do my best to fix it. 

This part has 14 chapters in total and took 2 months to finish (not necessarily because it was hard, but because I was just lazy xP)

See ya next time!