Trinity Blood Fan Fiction ❯ Children of Tragedy ❯ Chapter Three: When in Rome... ( Chapter 3 )

AN: Sorry for the late update for those who have read so far. My co-author and I have been rearranging the plot, inserting a lot of events and things along with changing one of the pairings so enjoy for now. Hopefully someone out there will enjoy the pairings when they are reveled (bet you can't guess what they are.)

 

Chapter Three: When in Rome

(Beware of the hissing cockroach. "IT'S HUGE!")

 

`What a dump,' Abel mentally sighed, dropping his bag on the floor of his tiny hotel room.

 

The priest was correct in his metal description, it was a dump. One that any normal self respecting person would have taken one look at andbacked away from slowly. But what could he do? His orders were to dig deep into the rundown outskirts of Rome for any proof, to put away the suspected arms dealers. In translation, that meant he had to stay down in this rundown rat hole instead of his nice warm bed at the Vatican, till such time as his mission was complete.

 

Taking in his room, he struggled to suppress a shudder at the sight before him. The unidentifiable shade of green paint was peeling off the wall that looked like they were crumbling down around him. The floorboards squeaked underfoot and the itty bitty bed's metal frame looked like it was about to fall apart with sheets and blankets covered in stains, whose origins he really didn't want to know. And he swore he saw the tip of a condom sticking out from under the mattress.

 

`Oh, God help me.'

 

Slouching his shoulders, the lanky priest sat down on the bed even though he had reservations about its structural integrity. He sighed at its size. He sure wasn't going to have much leg room that was for sure. In fact, he wasn't even sure if his whole body would actually fit on the bed at all.

 

`Oh, God help me please,' he mentally pleaded again, taking out the case folder from his bag. Flipping through it once more he reread document after document, trying to kill time before he would go out and investigate. Though, no matter how many times he looked over them though he couldn't seem to put all the pieces together. Something just didn't add up and Abel just couldn't seem to put his finger on the missing piece.

 

Sighing again,Abel gave up on the documents, stuffing them back into his bag before coming to stand before the only window in the room. His keen bluish-grey eyes stared out, taking in the slowly setting sun, allowing his mind to wander. Something was nagging him in the back of his mind just out of reach. It was like he was waiting for something, as if something was about to happen though. What, hecould not say. It felt as if he was being drawn in by some unseen force, but to what again he could not pin point.

 

Abel shook his head, casting the thoughts away just as the floorboards overhead squeaked, and the muffled sounds of two people arguing floated through the near, paper thin walls. Looking up at the ceiling he couldn't help but smile,hearing that at least he wasn't the only one that disapproved of this hole.

 

Shaking his head a bit Abel moved away from the window.

 

`I guess I should get ready, this is going to be one long night. The faster I finish this mission,the faster I'm back in my own bed.' He began to dress, half heartily listening to the conversation of the muffled voices above.

 

~*~*~

 

"This place is a dump," Kendra stated bluntly as she entered the shabby little room.

 

Azmaria rolled her eyes at her friend, dropping her book onto the single bed trying hard not to wrinkle her nose at the pungent smell. "At least it's an upgrade from that dumpster at the train station that we got evicted from."

 

"Hey if it wasn't for that damn police officer we wouldn't haveof had to leave.I still say I could have taken that old homeless bum," Kendra grumbled, wandering over into the tiny bathroom.

 

Sighing, the red-eyed girl stayed behind in the main room running her hand through her black hair. She was thankful that it wasnot tangled, though she had not yet grown accustomed to its new length.

 

Her hair was no longer then the tangled mass of cobwebs and dust that it had been at the mansion, now itwas much much shorter. Kendra had grown annoyed with Azmaria's constant protests about going bald or something, as she tried to brush out the knots back at the train station and simply chopped it off. The hair was short and spiked out in the back, coming just to the base of her skull, while the front bangs hung long along the side of her face, stopping just above her shoulders. It gave her a more boyish appearance then before, but she was very happy with it.

 

`Somehow I doubt father would approve with this,but it feels ….right for some reason.'

 

Aglass-shattering scream rang out from the bathroom, causing poor Azmaria to jump as Kendra dashed out and vaulted over the end of thebed,causing the metal frame to groan in protest as she scrunched herself against the far wall.

 

Azmaria simply blinked at her. "What was that all about?"

 

"C…Co… coc"

 

"What," Azmaria repeated, staring at her friend standing on the bed, back against the corner of the wall stuttering.

 

"Coc…Cockroach!"

 

Azmaria arched an eyebrow, "a cockroach? You're afraid of a cockroach?"

Kendra nodded vigorously. "It's BIG! A big cockroach. Fucking huge cockroach. The mother of all cockroaches," she ranted moving her hands about wildly in incomparable jesters.

 

Rolling her red tinged eyes,Azmaria turned to examine, she said "mother of all cockroaches". Not the most proper thing for a girl to do as her father might have said, but damn it she wanted to see it now.

 

"Wait,where are you going? Don't leave me with that thing!"

 

"I'm going to see what you are whining about."

 

"Don't! It probably eats small dogs and well, you aren't much bigger, so it might eat you too," Kendra whimpered out.

 

Azmaria rolled her eyes again and made an inappropriate hand jester to her friend, before entering the bathroom, only to come racing out three seconds later flattening herself against the wall near the bathroom door. "That's a fucking big ass cockroach!"

 

"Told you dumbass," Kendra said sticking her tongue out. "I knew they could survive a nuclear bomb but goddamn, they survived fucking Armageddon! And they mutated too, because that's not normal."

 

Now up to this point Mr. Whiskers had paid little to no attention to both girls since their arrival, but upon hearing the uproar they were causing, he looked up from the spot in the corner where he had laid down after entering. And,Kendra could have sworn she had seen the panther roll its eyes at them, though he wasn't able to keep that bad kitty image when he himself went over to investigate. No.In fact it was the complete opposite. Upon seeing the "super roach," he high tailed it under the bed that Kendra was currently standing on, trembling as he whimpered pathetically.

 

"Useless!" Azmaria grumbled at her pet.

 

"Azmaria, catch!" Kendra called tossing a blanket from the bed to her friend,who stared back at her a little more then confused.

 

"What good is this?"

 

"Trap it in it, and then we'll throw it out the window."

 

Azmaria glared at the cowering girl as the vermin in question began to crawl its way out of the bathroom and over the poor inspecting girl's shoe, causing her to jump back in surprise before she threw the ratty blanket over it.

 

"Ha got you," she said standing on the ends of the blanket, trapping the poor mutant bug, "now what?"

 

"Get rid of it," Kendra screeched, pushing herself farther against the wall.

 

Azmaria frowned. "No, maybe I want to keep it."

 

"It a cockroach, filthy, nasty, and disease prone. So get rid of it."

 

"No," the small girl smiled, knowing that by keeping this `super roach' she would fulfill her sadistic side that she had just recently found by pissing Kendra off. "I'm going to keep it as my new pet. And I shall call it Peter. Does that sound good to you Peter," she asked getting down on hands and knees to talk to the roach under the blanket in an affectionate manner.

 

She was genuinely surprised when it moved and took her with it. Azmaria grabbed onto the blanket as the entrapped roach began to scamper around the room dragging the poor girl along.

 

The sight of this sent Kendra into hysterical fits of laughter from her perch on the bed as she watched her friend being dragged back and forth across the floor, by a cockroach none the less. “Hey, Azmaria I don't think Peter liked your idea very much,” she laughed.

 

“Go to hell! Help me,” came a reply.

 

Kendra kept laughing at the complete absurdity of the situation and the expense of a small red eyed girl.

 

Azmaria somehow failed to see the humor in it all as she was dragged into the edge of the bed and onward to the middle of the room. Suddenly the little joy ride stopped.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Hey, what happen? Ahh, Azmaria did you break the roach?” Kendra questioned between breaths and small chuckles.

 

Sitting up the small girl was perplexed though thankful that it was over. She crouched over the limp blanket and drew back the material to examine the problem only to find nothing. No roach. It has simply vanished or so it appeared at first but upon closer inspection Azmaria noted a large crack between the floor boards.

 

Kendra had by now regained her composure and crawled over to the edge of the bed to look down at the crouching girl. “Where did it go?”

 

Shrugging Azmaria leaned down to look through the crack to see the answer to just that question.

~*~*~

 

Abel stood, straightening out his clothes. It had been a long time since he had worn something other then his priest robes and adornments, and the feeling was quite odd but that was what the mission called for,and at this point in time he would do anything that would get him out of here faster. Between the sad, disgusting condition of the environment, combined with the racket of curses and thuds, he was ready to get the hell out of this hell hole.

 

Stretching, he combed long fingers through his long silver tresses, drawing it all back and securing it tightly behind his head with a black silk ribbon, just as he felt something drop onto his head.

 

"Huh, what was that?" he pondered scratching his head. A hissing sound came as a reply catching the priest's ear. Looking down, there at his feet was a big shock, the largest cockroach he had ever seen preparing to crawl up the priest's pants leg.

 

Abel's left eye twitched as he struggled to suppress his horror but failed. A high pitched scream pierced the room, echoing through out the entire building.

 

~*~*~

 

"Cardinal Caterina," the holographic figure flicked on in front of the cardinal's desk.

 

"Yes, Sister Kate?"

 

"I've received word that the Inquisitorial Department is on the move. They are heading towards the location of the alleged arms dealers in the lower section of Rome. Their goal is to apprehend the very same suspects that we dispatched Father Nightroad to arrest."

 

The cardinal's eyes widened at the news, then quickly returned to their normal stern demeanor. "This is unfortunate news. Knowing the Inquisitorial Department, they are bound to make a big spectacle of the matter, drawing unwanted attention yet again to the Vatican, and our efforts to quell any disruption that may tip the already delicate balance of peace."

 

"What to you suggest we do?"

 

"There is nothing we can to do at present."

 

"What about Father Nightroad your Eminence? Should we inform him of these turn of events," Sister Kate questioned, looking a bit uneasy about the matter.

 

"No, Abel has his orders. I'm confident that he can handle the matter. Keep an eye on the situation and inform me should anything change."

 

"As you wish," Kate said as the hologram flicked once again and disappeared.

Caterina closed her eyes, rubbing her temples to ease the throbbing head.

 

`This is not good and I have a very bad feeling about this. Let's just pray it doesn't turn into a big disaster.'