Chapter 15 - The Decision

Sounds of footsteps reach my ears as I shake myself out of my reverie. The moonlight seeps in between the two houses. I watch as my prey walks up to her house. “Hold it,” I announce, coming out from my hiding spot. She turns, and I see the same blue and green eyes as mine staring back at me. “Kathrine.” “Katrina.” “At last. We can confront each other.” “Indeed.” “In that case, ready yourself!” “Wait! I suggest we go onto the roof first.” “Why?” “So we don't hit any innocent people. And so neither one can just run and hide.” “You always were a softie. Fine. As you wish.” We climb up onto the roof and stand back to back. Both of us count to three, taking a step at each count. On three, we spin around, but rather than shooting, I focus everything on dodging her attack. Now the two of us stand face to face, guns pointing at each other's hearts. “Why don't you shoot, Kathrine?” I stay silent. I recall the words that Blake spoke the night before. “I suppose I would want revenge.... But that doesn't make it right.” I don't have to kill her. I can just let the police handle her. It doesn't have to be my problem anymore. How long have I thought this way? How long have I been chained down by my own hatred? If I back down now, will I be forgiven for killing my father? I can't even remember killing my father. I can only remember the emotion I had at the time. At that time... was it fear or hatred I was feeling? Was I shooting in self-defense? Or was I shooting to kill? Am I a murderer? I begin to lower my gun. Do I really want to kill my only family in cold blood? Will lowering my gun, give me freedom? “Pathetic,” Katrina says. I see the glimmer of hatred in her eye, I hear the shot of the gun in her hand, I feel the pain course through my chest and I think to myself that now, at last, is the end. “Sister. Forgive me.”

~*~AK~*~

Blake and Jack hurried through the parking lot to the organization building. The full moon shone bright above them and the air was crisp and cool, unlike any of the previous nights. The two of them snuck around to the back where there was one guard making his rounds. Blake snuck up behind him and hit him over the head with the handle of his gun. He fell silently to the ground.

“Now this is the kind of work I was expecting to do,” Blake said. “But we never had to because it was so easy to catch all the criminals. I guess now we know why it was so easy to catch them all and why none of them wanted to go with Ally Kat.”

“True. I've always wanted to use this, but there was never any cause for it,” Jack agreed.

“What is it?”

“It's a special key that I invented. It's designed to change it's form to fit any lock. It'll open any door.”

“Hey, that's pretty nea-! Wait a sec, you didn't happen to give one of these to Ally Kat, did you?”

“Yeah, I did. When I showed it to her one time, she asked me to make her one.”

“So that's how she was always able to get in and out of my apartment!” Blake exclaimed.

“Hey! I heard a noise! Over there!” Some of the other guards came running towards them.

“Oops,” Blake said.

“I think you might have been a bit too loud there, partner.”

“You think?”

Blake took out a pea shooter that Ally Kat had given him and shot out tranquilizer darts. They too, fell silently to the ground.

“This thing is pretty handy. No wonder Ally-”

“Stop getting so excited and lets go, before you get us into more trouble.” Jack grabbed Blake's arm and pulled him to the door. The blonde man inserted the special key and turned it. The door easily unlocked. They stepped inside and Jack slipped a card into the slot in the security system and hacked the code to turn it off.

“This is too easy,” Blake said.

“Ally Kat said that because they aren't ever dealing with criminals escaping, they never put in any major security systems. She also gave me the ideas to invent this stuff in the first place for when she was breaking in.”

“I see. It must have been difficult for you to keep your mouth shut all those times I was talking about my best friend. You knew her even longer than I did.”

“Nah. It was kind of fun fooling you, actually.”

“I feel like I sensed just a hint of an insult in there,” Blake glowered.

“No, you're just imagining things. Ah, this is the room!”

“You know, what of the security cameras? Ally Kat never actually turned them off because she could easily knock out all of the guards who came her way.”

“Ah, don't worry. I built this and I've been using it this whole time. Nobody's seen us.”

“A remote?”

“Sort of. It disrupts the wavelengths of the-”

“Okay, okay, it turns off the video cameras, don't go all techy on me.”

Jack grinned at him and opened the door where the main computer was. He turned it on and used Ally Kat's special hacking program to get through all the passwords and codes. He inserted a disc into the drive and began uploading a virus onto the computer while Blake kept watch, gun in hand.

“You finished it yet?”

“Just one more second.... Done! Now when everyone turns on their computers and checks in, all they'll see is the organization's own confession of it's true identity. I love computers, don't you?”

“Sure, sure. Let's just get out of here.”

“Sure thing, boss!”

The two of them left the room and ran through the building. By this time, the guards were sure to have noticed that the video cameras weren't working and they were soon met by a few guards. Before they could call out to the others, however, Blake and Jack both shot tranquilizer darts at them and continued on their way. They did the same with the guards at the door and ran out to the car where they sped off. There was one van on their tail, but with some slick maneuvering from Blake, he managed to shake them off.

“I didn't know you could do all that,” Jack commented.

“Well, there was never much call for it before.”

“True.”

“Now we just have to go pick up Ally Kat at Pepper's house.”

They parked on the street just before Pepper's and walked quietly through an alley way and peaked around the corner. There they saw Ally Kat and Pepper both standing on the roof with guns pointing at each other. Blake could tell they were speaking, but he couldn't hear what it was. He only saw Ally Kat slowly lower her gun, and then Pepper shot out and Alameda fell back off of the three story house and into the alley below.

“Ally!” Jack and Blake yelled out as they ran to the house. Blake shot at Pepper and hit her in the leg so that she couldn't escape.

“Jack, take care of Ally,” Blake said as he ran to the other side of the house and climbed up the back of the brick fireplace. Once he reached the roof, a shot rang out at him and hit his shoulder. Blake winced, but ignored the pain and shot Pepper's shoulder so that she dropped the gun she was holding. He got up on the roof and handcuffed her, then he carried her over his good shoulder to the ground below. Blake dragged her over to the alley where he found Jack just standing and staring down. Blake walked up beside him and stared down with him. There, instead of Ally Kat, was a gaping hole in the ground where workers had dug to fix the sewer. The sound of rushing water could be heard from below. The two of them just stared in silence. There was no chance. Pepper began laughing.

“She's finally gone! Gone from under my skin!” she declared.

“Quiet, you! You murderer!” Blake shoved Pepper back into the ground.

“Blake! Look!” Jack exclaimed, rushing forward and picking something up from the ground at the end of the alley. When he stood up and came back, he was carrying a tabby cat with one blue eye and one green eye and with a bell tied around its neck. “It has Ally's bell around its neck. You know what that means?”

“It means-”

“It means Ally Kat must have turned into a real cat!”

Blake just stared in utter silence, then he shoved Pepper into Jack's arms, walked off to the car and got in, turning on the ignition.

“Hey, come on! I was only joking! Blake! Blake! I was joking, hey!” But Blake had already driven off.

“Aw, nuts.”

The End