Control

Control

Chapter 18: Mr Snow

Annie's P.O.V

"They're the men with sticks and ropes; I saw them when I died. Thought they were evil Morris dancers." Alex explained as we sat talking over things…it took our minds off of things that were to come. With Tom, Hal and Sophie elsewhere and Eve snoozing, it was nice to have a little down time. "What's the biggest thing you've ever Rent-a-ghosted with?"

"Err, hey, listen. This is not a party trick. This is an invaluable defensive weapon...an armchair."

Hal's P.O.V

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

The last voice I wanted to hear, Mr Snow, he had finally found us…it was too late. Too late to run and hide, too late to turn away and forget everything in this town, too late to leave everything behind.

"I want you to run Britain for me, when the hurly burly is done." He stated by this time Sophie and I had sat down, her hand gripping my arm tightly as if I was going to be snatched away from her at any moment.

"'The Devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said: All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.'" I answered earning a chuckle from him, I wanted to be anywhere, but here…I could feel myself losing the last little bits of control I was clutching on to, it was inevitable that we would return to him, like good little children coming back home after running away.

"You think I'm tempting you? Surely the point of temptation is to prompt a decision that's not yet been made." He replied as he observed us like he observed anything in this world, believing that he had every right to own everything in this world.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I placed my hand on top of Sophie's holding it in place. She shifted slightly, but she never removed her gaze from the far wall, not wanting to be here at all.

"What do you stay alive for? That endless scurrying from bad to good to bad again, must have been exhausting. And each return to bad brought with it a little flurry of debts. Tell me, if you admired humans so much, why do you keep inflicting your failures upon them?" he answered I had never thought about what I stayed alive for, it certainly wasn't because I was afraid to die, no I had made my peace with death a long time ago. It wasn't because I wanted to see the evolution of man no that had ever interested me in the slightest even during the Renaissance and all of Da Vinci's experiments. Maybe it was the thrill of living…but then why had I given up an adventurous life? There was always one thing that never changed in all six hundred years of my life and that was Sophie, my life would have turned out very differently if it weren't for her, would I have survived all these years? Would I have turned good? Or would I have always remained loyal to Snow?

"Because I think one day I'll win." I replied squeezing Sophie's hand as I looked away from Snow and towards her.

"And if the lion wishes hard enough, perhaps one day he'll become a man." He stated seemingly bored as he examined his hand.

"You have a whole army. Why this interest in me?" I asked the Old Ones were for the most part still intact, except for myself, Sophie, Wyndham, Griffen and Ivan. And then of course were the newer vampires that would follow him blindly.

"For time spent, services rendered, bloodshed, but it's not just that. Having Old Ones on the outside, I don't like the aesthetic." He answered placing his hand closer to mine, Sophie shifted once more further towards me as if she were trying to hide herself from everything and simply just be with me.

"Then we could flee. We've hidden from you for fifty-five years. We can do it again." I stated the fight back in my being, I wanted the life that I had lived for the past few months, for the fifty years I had spent without blood, I wanted it back. Saving Leo all those years ago was the best decision I had made in all my un-dead life, it gave Sophie and I a new lease of life.

"Back to Southend? With a new werewolf and ghost like Leo and Pearl and Tom and Annie? Something about that format clearly appears to you." He questioned Sophie and I both looked up in shock, how could he know? Everyone else thought we were dead, and were never coming back. Then again did we expect him to simply forget about us? He was the only one that had never feared me, so surely he had missed one of his soldiers.

"How did you know?" I demanded had we been living a lie? Had he anticipated our defection and our return? He surely couldn't know everything, no one could know everything.

"Oh Hal, you weren't hiding. I was just giving you the afternoon off." He explained smirking as he began to get up.

"I…we don't want any part of this." I stated as I finally looked him the eyes, although that did not falter his smile.

"A man who wants to stop gambling doesn't move to Las Vegas." He mused, stopping momentarily at the door. "Oh, and Sophie, Hettie misses you so very much."

Sophie's P.O.V

"What are we doing Hal?" I whispered as we walked down towards the warehouse, the same one we had first found Cutler in…I couldn't believe he was now dead…and that we were going to come face to face with the family we left behind.

"We are doing what we should have done a long time ago. We can't run away anymore, and if we leave them to ruin this world then we are worse than the lowliest being on this planet." He replied placing his hands either side of my head and bowing his head so that our foreheads were together. I placed my hands on top of his as he closed his eyes…this was it wasn't it? The end to six hundred years together…but it had been a good life, if you didn't include all the blood and killing, I had been able to see the world by Hal's side, I had met many good people and I had seen the changes that man had made for the better.

"Hal…thank you." I whispered as I laced my fingers with his, his eyes opened he seemed shocked that I was thanking him. "For everything Hal."

"You don't need to thank me." He replied as he pulled me close to his chest. "I should be the one thanking you."

"I love you." I whispered as I looked up into his eyes, we shared our final kiss.

"I love you too." He breathed placing one final kiss on my forehead and embracing before we entered the warehouse. I held tightly on to his hand as we entered the main room, all of them had assembled.

"Celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother and sister, were dead, and are alive again. They were lost, and are found." Snow announced as he came forward towards embracing both of us, Hal squeezed my hand harder, he wanted to do this, but he needed to keep control and make sure he didn't fall for any of Snow's 'tricks'.

"You were right. I stayed here because I knew you were coming, but not to join you. There was something else I had to do." He announced as Mr Snow took several steps backwards, revealing Tom's bomb. And speaking of Tom why was he here with Eve? "Tom, get the baby and get out. It'll never end. I'll never be free until I do this."

"There's no shame in this, I want you to know that." Snow stated and suddenly the fight seemed to drain out of my body, I had no will to fight against my own kind…and it seemed Hal was also struggling too. "It's just the death rattle of your humanity. Mercy's last hurrah."

And with those words we seemed to enter some form of trance, we ended up within the alignment with the other Old Ones, our rightful place side by side, holding each other's hand, under the command of Mr Snow.

"Give me back my fucking baby!" Annie screeched…when had she entered the building? I looked over towards the seen, Annie in a rage standing opposite Mr Snow…she couldn't win against him…did she know that?

"I'm so pleased to finally meet you, Annie. Can I just say it was an honour watching you in action." Snow mused as he observed her, she didn't seem deterred from her efforts of trying to save the child, she didn't want Eve anywhere near the man, even when he told her that no harm would come to her, if she were to leave her in his care. He even went as far to offer her the position of her career.

"I don't understand. How does keeping her alive save you?" she asked he pondered the question for a while…would it benefit the vampires to have the saviour alive? To have the one person who was supposed to annihilate all the vampires alive?

"I've often wondered that myself. Perhaps the remaining humans wait so long for her to save them that they never build a cohesive defence. That's the funny thing about saviours. It can make one a little dependent." He explained, so even the all-powerful Snow didn't know why she needed to be kept alive; he only assumed that humanity would wait for her to save them.

"And what will you do to the world?" she questioned edging ever closer to the bomb that Hal had left in the middle of the room…was she really going to do it?

"Pluck it apart. Like a child with a spider." He replied turning around to resume what he had been doing…when had Alex arrived? Annie picked up the detonator, out of the corner of my eye I saw movement, was that Hettie?

"Hal and Sophie aren't living things!" Annie yelled as I felt Alex move us further towards the wall.

"What?" Alex questioned as Mr Snow realised what was happening, Annie was going to go through with this, and she was going to end it.

"Hal and Sophie aren't living things!" she screamed and then we were outside…and the warehouse immediately blew up…it was over