fallen angels — chapter 3.6: hunt

Warning: Foul Language. Mild Sexual References. Violence. Pictures may take a moment to load. It is recommended you read this chapter on my blog, not Reader. The song for this chapter is This is the Hunt by Ruelle.

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The night is cold when I carefully shut the door behind me, the chilly breath of fall beginning to settle over Bridgeport. I’ve stolen some old black clothes from the back of Lilith’s wardrobe, taken the spare key and some of the money I brought from back home, and a small knife from the kitchen just in case. I’ve hidden them in the inside pocket of the jacket, the blade in a makeshift sheath underneath. I feel my nerves begin to prickle over my skin as I walk out onto the street. The city looks so ominous at night, even with the sparkling lights, and as Gabriel said, I’m not safe out here all alone. I need to be constantly watching my back.

Gabriel and the others are long gone by now, in the car. I’ll have to catch a taxi, which is a little daunting since I have no idea around this city, but Lilith did mention the name of the club. The trouble is finding my way to the nearest taxi stand, and while I remember one from my car trip to the coffee house yesterday, the distance through the shadowed buildings is quite far.

I push down my anxiety and try pull my resolve together. It’s not like I’m defenseless — Mom has made sure of that. It’s just Bridgeport seems so much more dangerous than I’m used to, and there could be all kind of characters hidden in the many dark alleys. I take a deep breath and set off along the seaside road, trying to keep as close to the tarmac as possible. Cars rumble past me every few minutes, but generally I feel very small and alone.

I curse at my blind left eye under my breath. In the night, it’s much more of a hindrance than usual, and I strain my ears as I walk quickly towards the city centre. The city seems so much more… alive in the night. Although this road is quiet, with the still ocean on one side and silent apartment blocks on the other, there’s a deep, thudding heartbeat to the city that I have never felt before; a menacing presence that keeps me light on my toes.

As I walk, I wonder what I am getting myself into. Gabriel told me to stay in the penthouse with good reason; only yesterday he had told me to never go out alone. And yet here I am, walking by myself at night with little clue of where I am going. I’m being reckless. Should I continue to disregard Gabriel’s order? Or should I go back to my safe, comfortable bed and sleep the exhausting day away?

I should, but curiosity and fear for what I might get myself into if I go any longer blind, is what keeps me going. Naturally, growing up under the strict hand of a distinguished police officer, and receiving two years of law enforcement training myself, makes me want to uncover what criminal activities my new flatmates could be involved in. And on the other hand, the naive part of me wants to be assured that Gabriel really is a good person. In truth, I don’t want to leave this place, no matter how scary it is.

A bird calls, low and longing, jarring me out of my thought-clouded head. I need to be alert and keep my senses open to every little sound of the night. Although the breeze that sweeps down the road is icy, the nerves sparkling across my body are like tiny hot needles. I’m almost to the bright lights of the taxi stand when I pass a particularly shadowed alley and my nerves spark even more. There’s movement in there. Two men emerging out of the blackness. I tense up and begin walking faster, desperately hoping that I’m not the focus of their attention. But I can hear their footsteps on the pavement behind me, and my breathing speeds up, fear suddenly running cold through my veins.

“Hey.” A hand grabs roughly at my shoulder and I whip around to face them, moving back into a defensive position instantly. “What?” I snap, and I am surprised at how irritated I sound compared to the fear I’m really feeling. The two men definitely have shifty intentions, with black cloth wrapped crudely around the lower halves of their faces and rendering them anonymous. They look like your typical city street mugger; middle class white boys with nothing else to do on summer break. The kind like Teddy Schnauzer. My strong retort must have caught them a little off guard, for they glance at one another, but the next second they advance, pulling switch knives out of their jackets.

“Bet you have some cash somewhere on that pretty little body.” One of the men leers, his dark eyes gleaming as he looks me up and down. The other man snickers and burning anger flares in my stomach. “Go away,” I snarl, slipping my own knife out of the sleeve behind my back. “You aren’t getting anything, and if you try, you’ll really regret it. I mean it.”

Both of them laugh now. “You’re just a girl, what are you going to do, sweetheart? Cry for help?” The man on the left sneers. The remark makes my blood boil further and I pull my own knife out from behind my back. “Fine. I’ll see who’s crying by the end.” It shocks the two men — I can see from the way their eyes widen. “I bet you’re all words and no action.” Mugger One regains his composure and chuckles, his eyes roaming over me again in a way that makes me feel sick. “You’ll be screaming for help soon enough.”

He lunges at me, the knife flashing silver, and I dart out of the way, my own blade hitting the hilt of his, and I twist down hard so his weapon skitters out of his grip. The redhead comes in from the other side, and I use my body weight to swing around Mugger One so the other man has to recoil to avoid stabbing his friend. In the second where both men are disconcerted, I slam my foot into Mugger One’s chest and send the man I swung around crashing to the ground.

I roll neatly to a stop and brush myself off, scooping up the three blades which now lie away from the two groaning men. “I said you would regret it.” I give the men a hard kick in the side each for good measure, and walk away from them, adrenaline still racing through my blood.

“The Grind,” I tell the taxi driver.

***

There’s no sign of Lilith and the guys when the taxi pulls up in front of what looks like a disused warehouse, the front softly glowing with green neon. After paying the driver, I nervously walk towards the front doors, glancing around for Gabriel’s tall, lean figure. They are nowhere to be found, and I can only conclude that they have already entered the club, if that’s what they are really doing.

The rave has no bouncers, and it’s seething with many young women in tight dresses and crowds of rowdy men, already hopelessly drunk. I instantly feel out of place, not least because of my outfit, and I duck my head down, trying not to get noticed. It’s uncomfortable. Brightly coloured lasers keep on flashing through the darkness and smoke that covers the dance floor, and the music pounds in my ears. And there are so many couples making out shamelessly in the club, their drinks slopping all over themselves. Lilith was right when she said this was not my type of scene.

This is exactly the kind of place my mother would have never let me go to, and with good reason.

I stick close to the walls as I search the crowd, struggling in the darkness and general confusion of many bodies. Suddenly, I hear a rich, tinkling laugh through the loud music, and I turn around quickly. That sounded like Lilith’s voice, and I think it came from the other side of the rave. The dancers on the floor are so boozed up they don’t even notice when I push past them, the air sticky and warm from their collective body heat. Yes, there she is — sitting with a man in such a provocative way I turn away instantly.

Jeez. This is such an uncomfortable situation I’ve managed to land myself in. I didn’t think of what Lilith would do if she was really going out clubbing. Maybe I should just give up and get the hell out of here. But as I make up my mind to just return to the apartment, I notice the many empty bottles littered around the man by Lilith.

He’s very, very drunk — and she’s plying him with more alcohol and a hard, triumphant smile. I frown, my senses firing up again. Surely she knows about alcohol poisoning. Too many drinks and a person can pass out. Her posture is sure and calculating, as if she herself is not drunk at all…

I begin looking around the club with a renewed urgency. If Lilith is purposefully sedating him, then she must have darker intentions, and also one of the others should be close as well. My focus darts around the rave almost dizzily and all of a sudden, I see him — a stocky, tall man in a hoodie slipping out through one of the back doors, a shadow that looks just like Lucifer.

I begin darting through the teeming crowd to reach the door, not caring if I knock a few people over. The icy night air cleanses me of the sluggish vibe I had begun to catch in the rave. There’s a car driving away, and although it’s unfamiliar, I know it’s them from the shadows of three men I manage to glimpse in the darkened windows. I turn in a circle frantically. There’s no way I can follow them unless I find another vehicle. A bicycle, or something; and yes, there’s one chained to a pole nearby in a feeble attempt to keep it safe. A few slices from my kitchen knife, and it’s free. I can return it to the club once I find out what’s going on, for once and for all.

The car speeds through the city, and it’s obviously really difficult to keep up on a bicycle. But I think I have an idea of where it’s heading; the bridge that connects the wealthy hills and the metropolis. It’s lit up in all sorts of pretty colours tonight, the spectrum of lights glittering upon the river. I can’t appreciate it for more than a second, however, for I’m falling further behind and my legs are beginning to seriously hurt.

To my relief, the car pulls off into a dead end road once it crosses the bridge. By the time I reach it, my lungs screaming, it’s parked underneath the bridge and empty. I only allow myself a second to rest, leaning against the cold wet concrete underside. The air is sour with the stink of forgotten beer cans and salt. Everything is quiet here, except for the gritty rumble of vehicles above my head.

From here, I leave the bicycle and set off on foot, carefully looking for any sign that indicates where Lucifer and the other guys have disappeared, my nerves rattling. The experience in The Grind and the darkness is making me jump at any sound. I hear a rustle some way behind me, and I whip around to see… nothing at all. The night is still and silent. My panicking mind must be playing tricks on me.

I take a deep breath and try to calm down. This is exactly the sort of situation my mother spent two years training me for and I am certainly not letting all of that fall out of my hands. Instead of frantically looking around, I close my eyes and let the sounds of the night wash over me, the same way music does. After all, two ears is better than one eye.

A cricket chirping to another in a nearby bush. The river slowly sliding over rocks and washing up gently onto the shore. The lonely whistle of the wind as it passes under the bridge, the whispers of trees as it passes through them too, a sleepy call of a sparrow, the scuff of boots on concrete-

My eyes shoot open and I begin running towards the source of the sound. A few hundred metres away there is a flash of black, a man disappearing into the dense trees on the hill. It must be them. And I have a good suspicion of where they are heading.

The shadow that is probably Gabriel scales the tall spiky mansion fence as effortlessly as a cat. I crouch down behind a tree to watch the other two men, who I assume to be Luc and Raphael, follow him over the wall almost as quickly and silently. My heart thuds in my chest as I process the situation in my head.

The seconds tick by agonisingly as I wait for some alarm to start shrieking, for they are surely trespassing. But the night stays quiet, the mansion remaining lightless and still. It must be around ten minutes before the three men appear again, dropping down from the wall without a sound. I take a sharp breath and duck down when one of them glances to where I’m hiding, his grey eyes gleaming eerily in the faint moonlight.

I close my eyes as I lean heavily against the tree. Thieves. They are thieves. The bulges in their jackets tell me that much. I can’t say I’m surprised, yet I feel sick to my stomach and my mouth tastes bitter. I came to Bridgeport to start a new life, but not this. Somehow… I was hoping with all my heart that Gabriel would be a better person and I was mistaken. But I have been disappointed, and it’s time for me to really forget him and leave this poisonous city.

Goddamn my mother’s genes that I want to find out where they are going now.

I find myself following them through the dark streets of the city’s industrial district. I can see what Gabriel meant when he talked about poverty in Bridgeport yesterday. The apartments here are in obvious disrepair, and there are a number of people huddled in the alleys, despite the cold weather. I take a nervous swallow and draw my jacket tighter around myself. This place is far from friendly.

The men disappear into a small, dingy shop with no signage, but judging from their significantly smaller pockets as they leave, it’s a trading or pawning shop. So they must have sold whatever they stole from that mansion, and I suppose they have money out of it. And what will the money be used for? Shopping sprees, or decorating the apartment? The thought only makes me feel more sick, and more angry with myself.

But what happens next surprises me.

Gabriel heads towards one of the alleys across the street with whom I assume to be Raphael behind him. In the alley, huddling on the ground under a thin blanket, is an obviously homeless woman. Frowning, I inch closer to the road with curiosity burning along with my suspicion and fear.

He crouches down to converse with the woman, who miraculously smiles at him, a smile that is weary but full of gratefulness. He takes something out of his pocket and gives it to the woman, who thanks him copiously. Did Gabriel just give his money to her? But that means-

An arm wraps around my waist and a gloved hand pins my wrists on the wall above my head. Before I can shriek, a man pushes me against the wall, his weight stopping my arms and legs from moving. Even so, I try my best to escape, attempting to reach for my knives. “Stop struggling, for fuck’s sake!” The man growls, and when I glance up, startled by the familiarity of the voice, I recognise the sharp bone structure and green eyes underneath the shadows shrouding his face.

“Luc?” I stop wriggling, forgetting the situation for a second in my surprise. “Damn right,” He snaps, loosening his grip on my arms a little. “I’m not going to hurt you, relax.” The words have the exact opposite effect on me — I glare up at his face, now extremely pissed off at him. “Then why the hell did you attack me for?”

“To stop you from running away.” Lucifer says easily. “Stop it, I said I’m not going to hurt you.” He repeats slowly as I resume my futile attempt to push him off me. “And why should I trust you?” I snarl, finally losing my temper. “I’ve found out who you really are -petty-fucking-criminals– and I’m over and done with you and your brother! Let me go right now because I’m leaving. It was a stupid mistake coming here in the first place-”

“Is that what you really believe?” Gabriel says softly from behind his brother. I stiffen at his voice, a confusing wave of some overwhelming ache rising up inside me. “I would rather live in another city alone then live with such people like you. I heard you and Lilith talking last night, and I saw the blood,” I spit out at him, barely registering Lucifer stepping away from me, and Raphael hovering nearby. “None of that was real, Cherry. It was a ruse to interest you into following us,” Gabriel says evenly. A prickle of relief flashes through me before being drowned by anger again. “That doesn’t make things much better,” I laugh, and the sound is bitter in my throat. “I don’t want to be involved in your life!”

Gabriel’s grey eyes are cool and calm. “That’s not what you really think, Cherry. You cling to your mother’s beliefs when you know that this is the first place you feel you have been accepted for who you are. You feel this new life is where you really belong. You feel that here, you can let go of your pain and anger. Do you truly feel hatred for what we do when you have faced the same injustice as we have? You must have guessed why from following us tonight. It is not us you feel hatred towards, but the kind of people we take deservedly from.”

I don’t realise I’m crying until a hot tear drips into my hand. “You don’t know anything about me,” I hiss, shaking my head furiously. Gabriel carefully touches my arm, the act nearly burning my skin as much as my tears. “You know that everything I have said is the truth, Cherry.” He says in a low voice. “I know what you feel…”

“You feel that this is the first place where someone truly cares about you.”

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Wow this took so long to post 0__0 *throws confetti in the air…*

I’m pretty damn disappointed with this chapter. The pictures were incredibly hard to take and they ended not being detailed or accurate enough, especially in the club scene. I got really pissed off while I was trying to take them because of the restrictions on where your sims can go and also the lagginess + emptiness of Bridgeport. For a supposedly lively city it’s just darn dead. So sorry, sub-standard pictures this time… but good news! I think I’ve finally figured out the plot for this generation! It will kick in about 2-3 chapters from now. I’ve been writing a lot!

As you can tell, both the elements of romance and crime are growing to be quite prominent in this generation; the R-16 rating is beginning to show up. I know some parts don’t flow well, especially the Gabriel + Cherry moments, but I’m hoping to improve as time goes by. Lmao actually since I wrote the last part a while ago, I admit it’s quite bad, unfortunately I’m too lazy to rewrite it.

Also, I do know I haven’t actually explained what the Torres do, but maybe you guys have gotten the basic idea? You may have seen too that I edited Luc and Gabriel a bit. They both looked so ugly I just couldn’t help myself! 

Looking forward to hear your thoughts!

P.S: My favourite pose creator fyachii has created a story on wordpress and you should really check it out! The story is called Only Mine- Revamped and it’s got amazing sims, pictures and writing! It’s also very funny and I laughed out loud more than one time. So go read it now!