thegriffin88

As Jay perused the bookshelf a framed photo caught his eye. It was Cain, his arm around a gray winged Divine. He was smiling. “Her name was Charlotte.” Jay whirled around to see Cain leaning against the wall of the living room. He’d clearly just gotten up, his dark hair was tussled and he had a bleary look in his eyes that wasn’t caused by fever. “It’s about time I told you,” Cain continued, approaching Jay and carefully taking the photograph off the shelf, “You’ve been here long enough.” “Y-you really don’t have to…” Jay protested. “If we’re going to work together you need to know.” Cain replied. He gently touched the glass of the frame, a weary smile barely forming on his lips. “Her name was Charlotte; she was my wife.” Jay barely had time to process the fact that his partner had been married when Cain continued. “We were captured together...on a mission. Lucifer’s men tortured us for...I don’t know how long it was. We never gave them anything. She was so strong...through

Victor shuddered awake, taking a second to force himself to realize that he was in Doomstadt, not Hell. The flames licking his flesh while Mephisto leered at him had been nothing more than a dream. He took a few meditative breaths, trying to tell his body that so his heart would stop that infernal pounding. He thought briefly of calling Handler, but no. It wasn’t so much that this was a secret, she had long since known about his occasional (“Like, every other night!”) nightmares, it was that he was not going to interrupt her this evening with such a petty problem. She should have just fallen asleep by now. Or, more embarrassingly, was with her husband. Victor huffed, that was almost worse than the nightmare. He gave another, more annoyed, huff and rose from his bed. He knew he was not going to sleep again anytime soon so he might as well dress and get some work done. Truthfully, he contemplated as he made his way down the familiar stone halls, most of his dreams (‘Ya don’t lose

The mission had gone well, by Phi-Delta standards. Minimal casualties and some minor destruction of the local terrain. But the most impressive thing so far was that Ruth did not need to use 076’s recovery protocol. He had come willingly after dispatching the lizards. (Great things wreathed in flames; but made of flesh and bone nonetheless. 076 had even managed to avoid being burned horribly, letting the Phi-Delta air team douse the place in CO to dampen the things before making short work of them.) Not having to detonate her prized pet was certainly a cherry on top of this victory. But now that she looked over at him, she could see something was off. 076 had been quiet since they took off, which wasn’t anything new he wasn’t exactly talkative unless she started a conversation with him. She’d had no reason to do so this time, assuming he was tired and wanted to get back to base so he could wash the blood and slime off of him. Now that she looked closer, however, she could see that