Confrontation
He stared at the blood on his hands, breathing heavily. He had collapsed to his knees beside the body of one of the Council’s guards.
Charlie slowly picked up the gun he had thrown in shock and turned it over, not so much to look at it, but to really think about what Kinslow had just done. Her face wasn’t even half as distressed as his, instead, it was almost a mad amazement.
She moved over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He flinched back.
Charlie crouched beside him and leaned forward to look at his face, processing everything. He met her startlingly calm eyes with his, wide and terrified.
“It’s a good thing he turned out to actually be one of Archie’s,” she murmured.
Kinslow shoved her away with more force than he had intended. She stumbled and stood up again. “What...what just...what did I just do?” he stammered.
She chuckled and swept her hand in the direction of the corpse. “Do you really need me to answer that?”
“No. No, that’s not what I meant.” He slowly stood up, treating his hands like they were explosives that could be set off at the slightest touch. “What did you just do?”
Her mouth twitched into a smirk. He hadn’t noticed, but despite her calm appearance, her breaths were also unevenly heavy. There was something...different giving light to her eyes.
She shrugged, immediately winced and grabbed her shoulder before she could hide her pain. “I didn’t do anything, hun. This is your work.” She looked again at the corpse, shot directly in the heart. “It’s not bad work, either.”
“No no no no, I know you did something,” he laughed, still in panic. “I know. Something - you did something. I could feel it. In my head, I didn’t-”
“Shhh, calm down, calm down. You sound like a three year old that just broke Mommy’s flower vase.”
Kinslow stopped talking and stared at her. “Are you really making jokes? Does this really mean that little to you?”
Charlie cocked her head to one side. “Does what? This guy?” She poked the corpse with her foot. “Nah, not really.”
Kinslow’s blood ran even colder at the complete absence of emotion in Charlie’s eyes. Any
doubt of what she used to be was far gone by now.
She took a step closer to him and narrowed her eyes in contemplation. “Why? Does it bother you?” She got even closer, so close that Kinslow reflexively took a step back.
Charlie smirked. “Does it...scare you?”
He went to push her away, but noticed blood seeping through her fingers from her shoulder. His eyes darted from her injury to her face.
“You got hit?”
“And you were his karma.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
Charlie had started to laugh before she was distracted by something behind Kinslow. “We need to leave. Like, now.”
Kinslow noticed her sudden tension and slowly turned around to see Archimedes strut in, flanked by bodyguards. A smirk that incredibly resembled Charlie’s was plastered on his face.
“It was a trap. You knew it was a trap!” Kinslow hissed at Charlie.
“Duh, Detective. Thought you were supposed to be observant.”
“Then why the hell did we come here?”
Charlie and Archimedes stared at each other with a nearly tangible intensity.
“Because I’ve got something she wants,” Archimedes said.
Charlie rolled her eyes. “You two are such damn cliches,” she sighed.
Archimedes moved his hand, and Charlie’s grip on her arm tightened. Kinslow could tell she was in pain and trying to hide it. She was good at hiding things, but Kinslow was good at learning people. Even though he understood like he only knew what she wanted him to know, he still felt like he knew her more than she thought he did.
“Yours worked too, huh,” Charlie said through gritted teeth.
Archimedes smirked again. “Yeah, and it seems like I’ve got the hang of it before you have.” He clenched his hand into a fist and Charlie crumpled to her knees with an exclamation.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Kinslow took a step toward Charlie. Archimedes shook his head.
“This doesn’t concern you right now, detective,” he said, his voice dripping with disdain. “It’s in your best interests to just stay out of this. I’ll forgive this…” he motioned to the corpse, “offense. But unlike some, I prefer to only get rid of the ones that cause trouble.” He looked at Charlie and squeezed his fist tighter. She screamed in pain. “So don’t cause me trouble.”
“Stop it! Dammit, what is with you people? Do you like to watch people suffer? Is that what this whole damn Council is about? You just exist to bring pain?”
“Shut the hell up, Kinslow, you dumbass,” Charlie managed to choke out. She threw her head up to give Archimedes one of the most terrifying faces Kinslow had ever seen her make.
“Who the hell do you think you’re messing with?” she hissed between pained breaths.
Archimedes approached her and crouched, closer to the same level but still above her.
“Not my queen, love,” he whispered, kissing her on the forehead. She spat at him. He dug his nails into his palm and left her a crumpled heap on the floor. Charlie didn’t move.
He laughed as he stood back up. “What’s the chance of that being effective?” he jokingly asked one of the bodyguards.
Kinslow ran to Charlie. Her arm was twisted in ways arms should never go, and bleeding profusely. He felt nauseous just looking at it.
“You should probably take her to a hospital,” Archimedes said, turning to leave. “That’s not going to heal on its own.”
“You’re just...you’re just going to let us go?”
Archimedes shrugged. “Charlie Jupiter is not an asset I’m going to waste. I’d rather not keep her broken.”
Kinslow laughed in amazement. “And you’re saying you can’t fix her? What’s the point of doing any of this?”
“Because now she knows her place,” Archimedes sneered. “That’s how this works, detective. Trust me, I learned from the best.”