Conflicted

Rain sat on the window ledge, huddling around her steaming mug off coffee, her head pounding. Blaze slept on the bed, curled up in a little ball and whimpering like a child. Rain glanced at Blaze from the window, wondering what she was dreaming about, what could possibly be scaring her. She wondered what it was like to be human, with all these weaknesses and fears that never went away. She couldn't imagine it, always glancing over her shoulder in fear of Death.

Apparently humans could die of practically anything: allergies, car crashes, old age, disease, extreme temperatures, heart attacks, stab wounds, bullets... It was just endless. Rain had drank countless pink drinks the previous night, and it was weird to think that human livers could give out from the amount Rain drank.

She turned back to the window, glowering down at the pacing figure on the pavement below. No one who passed him seemed to notice that he didn't have any eyes, despite the fact that he was bald and wasn't wearing a hat or shades. But Rain knew it was the fog; he had some sort of shields around him that prevented any humans from noticing him. It was all very well, really, because not only did he have no eyes or hair, but he also carried two massive katanas in his belt. He was wearing a white waistcoat with gold trim and matching trousers. Tattooed on his chest was a massive eye. Bandages sheathed his hands and feet.

Irritation flooded through her. She should've known her father would send someone down from the airship to watch her. She should've known how stubborn he was, that he'd get through to Cassiel eventually. But sending the Illuminati? Wasn't that a bit far?

She knew he could see her clear as crystal from down there, even without any eyes. He didn't need eyes because he was the Eye. He saw everything.

Rain smiled through her anger, waving down at him. She had to convince him that she was behaving so he'd leave. As long as he was watching her, she had to behave. The threat of the Operators didn't bother her, but the Illuminati's gleaming swords did a little. She'd seen him in combat before, and not once had she seen him lose. Maybe if Cease actually came he could take care of the Illuminati for her. Rain liked that idea.

Sipping her coffee and trying to ignore the pounding in her head, Rain slid off the windowsill and stripped out of her cardigan. In her favourite matching set of underwear, she slunk to the neat pile of clothes in the corner and perused them, figuring she had to face him if she wanted him to believe nothing was wrong. Besides, she was curious about Blaze's family. Had they reported her missing yet?

She pulled on a pair of denim shorts, a cropped black top and her favourite black boots with silver chains, abandoning her coffee on the nightstand. By the time she was ready to leave, her hair had been pulled back into a braid that snaked down her spine and she had Blaze's purse in her pocket.

Rain crept out of the loft and down the stairs, past the two other flats in the small apartment building, and out the main door, swinging a denim jacket over her shoulder. The Illuminati turned to her, and it seemed like the eye on his chest was looking right at her, so she smiled wide and waved. Several people turned to look at her as she strutted across the road to greet him.

"Manny," she drawled, her smile genuine because she was certain he couldn't stop her. "It's been a while. How are you?"

'Manny' didn't reply, but Rain hadn't expected him to anyway. He hardly ever spoke; he was too busy watching. What exactly he was watching, no one knew.

"I thought I'd go for a walk, since it's a nice day," continued Rain, gesturing down the street. "Did you want to join me?"

He said nothing, but when she started walking he fell into step beside her, his bandaged feet padding silently on the cement. Rain was tempted to 'accidentally' step on his foot with her heavy boot, but she knew he'd probably see it coming.

"I thought I'd get a newspaper," she explained, keeping her gaze in front of her, a smirk playing on her soft lips, "since, y'know, most of us aren't all-seeing and everything. I might sit outside a coffee shop and read it. Have you tried coffee, Manny?"

The Illuminati turned his head to her, but still said nothing. His face was expressionless, and Rain couldn't tell whether he was looking at or through her. She wondered what he was thinking. She knew he mustn't trust her; he must've seen some of the horrible things she'd done in her first week off the airship.

Most of the Operators lived in airships made of glass and reflective surfaces so they were practically invisible in the sky. They could watch over their precious Earth and enjoy the peace and quiet of the clouds. But Rain had never liked being cooped up on one of those things. So, when her father was busy with his important duties or whatever, Rain jumped. Landing in the middle of the road in a small UK city had hurt, but the pain was a distant memory now. She'd quickly learned to fit in down here.

She wondered how many of her endeavours on Earth the Illuminati had actually seen. Had he been watching her on her little rampage? Had he seen her trying to reach out to Cease? Maybe he had seen her, but he couldn't do anything about it. When he was gone, her plan would continue. The only problem was that the Illuminati was very fast with his reactions. She had to be careful.

Under the Illuminati's watchful gaze, Rain picked up a paper outside the newsagents and carried it in to pay with Blaze's money. She added a Twix to the small pile and even let the cashier keep the change before skipping out of the shop and rejoining 'Manny'.

"So you're here to watch me," she presumed, ripping into her Twix as they resumed their walk. She offered him one of the fingers, but he ignored the offer and she shrugged. "Did Gabe put you up to it? I bet he did."

The caramel was sweet and sticky on her tongue, and she chewed slowly, savouring each bite. There were a lot of things on Earth that she hadn't tried yet, and chocolate had been one of those things up until now. Thinking about it, she could name a lot of human activities that she wanted to try. In all her three hundred years, she really hadn't lived at all, and in the time between evading the Eye and waiting for Cease, she planned on trying a few things.

"The truth is," she continued, selecting the second finger from the packet and throwing the wrapper in a nearby bin, "being an Operator is boring. You sit around in an airship all day, trying to help people, and don't get me wrong, that's great for the people you help. But where's the fun? Don't you want to ride a rollercoaster or swim in the ocean? You're immortal, Manny, you can do whatever you want. Why would you choose to spend your days in the clouds, watching everyone else live their lives?"

The Eye continued to face forward, and his face remained expressionless. Rain wasn't even sure if he was listening to her, but she had to try to convince him.

"I'm not doing anything wrong," she lied with a small shrug. "I just want to live."

They reached the coffee shop, and Manny took a seat at one of the tables outside, unsheathing one of his blades to clean it. Rain shrugged and went inside to order, figuring she'd buy Manny a drink to soften him up. Maybe he'd ignore the gesture again, but it was worth a try.

But it seemed Rain's misfortune wouldn't end with Manny. Recognition tugged at the back of her mind as she made her way to the counter, but she didn't understand why until the guy at the counter straightened up.

Behind the counter was none other than the boy who had tried to stop her setting the fires, who afterwards tried to hand her necklace back to her. He wouldn't recognise her as the arsonist, obviously, but it didn't stop her getting irritated. If the Eye of Providence himself wasn't metres away she would've killed the boy then and there.

"Can I help?" he asked obliviously, not registering for a second, and Rain rolled her eyes.

Because first off, what a stupid question to ask. If she didn't want his assitance she wouldn't have approached the counter. Second, she was obviously the most stunning person he'd ever seen, so why didn't he recognise her straight away? Idiot human.

But then he did recognise her, and his eyes widened and his cheeks grew red. Rain smirked. That was much better.

"I-I know you," he stammered, clearing his throat loudly, "don't I?"

Rain shrugged, pretending she'd never seen him before in her life. "I don't think so. I mean, I was here a few days ago..."

"...And you weren't sure what to get," he finished, and it was Rain's turn to be surprised. "You hadn't tried coffee before. I remember."

Rain frowned. She never really paid much attention to humans and their appearances, because to her they didn't matter, but of course it didn't occur to her that people would take notice of her. She should've known, since she was beautiful and everything. All the Operators were.

But what were the chances that she'd encountered him before the fires? The very first human to notice her properly, for what she really was. The very first human that she'd grown to hate for any reason other than the fact that they were stupid, useless creatures that her fate had linked her with. Why did he keep popping up everywhere at her inconveniece?

"Get me two iced lattes," she all but hissed, venom laced in her words.

But the stupid boy didn't seem to register her malicious tone. He began cheerfully preparing her drinks, humming a tune she was familiar with. She listened to the quiet melody, trying to place it, and when he got to the chorus she pinpointed it. It was a song she'd heard quite often on the music channels, a song she quite liked, and now he was singing it. Worse still, he didn't have a bad voice. She glowered, desperate to kill him now more than ever.

He handed her the drinks with a smile, and she couldn't help noticing he was quite handsome for a loathsome human. He almost looked like he could belong with her family, with his smooth skin and soft hair. Her frown deepened, and her gaze flickered to his name tag.

"Rags," she read aloud, still frowning. "Is that short for something?"

Surprise registered in his handsome features and he grinned sheepishly. "I was expecting you to ask what sort of peasant name that was. Most people do."

"That was my next question, if you didn't answer the first appropriately."

"Raguel," he said, and Rain nodded.

"I thought so," she grumbled. "Your parents are religious?"

"I suppose so," he said with a nod. "Yours too?"

"You have no idea," she growled, grabbing the coffees and turning away.

"Hey," he called after her, and something made her hesitate when usually she would've just ignored him and left. "Um, you didn't pay."

She rolled her eyes. She was wearing her favourite pair of shorts and all he noticed was that she didn't pay? Honestly. She slammed the coffees down on the counter and snatched Blaze's purse out of her pocket, shoving a tenner into his open palm.

"Keep the change," she hissed, picking the drinks back up and storming out.

There was something about this boy that affected her. It was something beyond the fact that he'd tried to stop her setting those fires. Somehow he just managed to get under her skin, irritate her to the point where she was feeling murderous without even really doing anything. How was that possible? Was it just the fact that he not only noticed her, but that he saw her?

Humans had seen Rain do things beyond their power before, but none of them had really seen it. They'd just presumed their eyes were playing tricks on them because no one believed in that sort of stuff anymore. But Raguel had seen her doing those things. He believed in her.

It just set her on edge and she just wanted to hit someone.

If it weren't for the sound of cloth against metal, Rain would have forgotten that the Illuminati was still following her. She turned to the chair he still sat in and sat opposite him, pushing his drink towards him. She wondered how much the Illuminati actually saw. He'd probably watched her in there, talking to Raguel, but had he heard their conversation? Had he seen the hatred in Rain's eyes?

Much to Rain's surprise, Manny reached forward and took his drink, lifting the straw to his lips. She watched him drink, expecting some sort of reaction to the strange, bitter drink, but he just sat there, slurping it through the straw. Could he even taste anything? Did he ever feel anything?

She flicked through the paper, searching for Blaze's face and sipping her own drink. Past pages and pages of kidnappings, deaths and muggings, she finally found it: MISSING: DAISY DAWES. Blaze smiled up at Rain from the page, her skin glowing in the afternoon sun. It was a nice picture of her. Rain scanned the article, reading quotes from family members and friends and wondering how Blaze would feel if she saw this. Would she even remember, past Rain's hypnosis?

Rain shrugged and closed the paper, pleased her antics had made local news. She leaned back in her seat, unable to stop herself glancing through the window at the human boy she so badly wanted to maim. He didn't look at her, but something told her he had been. Her eyes narrowed.

"Hey Manny," she muttered, still watching Raguel, "you see everything, right? Obviously, since you're the Eye of Providence and everything. But do you ever just watch a person and find you can't help hating them? Even though you're not supposed to, they're just so annoying or cruel or something and you just can't help yourself. Do you ever get that?"

The Illuminati didn't answer. He finished his drink and continued cleaning his sword. Rain felt a fresh surge of anger.

"Hey Manny," she thundered, clenching her fists so her nails dug painfully into her palms, "why do you never answer any of my fucking questions, you dick?"

But again he ignored her. It was as if she hadn't even spoken. She rolled her eyes.

"Whatever," she grunted, seizing her paper and getting to her feet.

Seeing she was leaving, the Illuminati stood up and sheathed his sword. Rain hesitated, the fury inside her threatening to spill.

"Why are you following me?" she demanded.

Because he obviously knew, to an extent, that she had tried to contact Cease. He was the Eye of Providence. Of course he'd seen her setting those fires. Of course he knew she was up to no good. So why didn't he just cut to the chase? There was no evading his gaze. He saw everything.

"You know what," she growled, turning back to face him, suddenly letting the anger overcome her pretty features. She came so close to him that they were almost touching, but the Illuminati didn't react. "Stop. Go back up there and tell my father everything. Tell him all about my plan to talk to Cease. I know you know, and I don't want you following me for who knows how long. I'm already sick of it."

She didn't expect him to reply, so she turned to storm away. And suddenly a bike came out of nowhere, almost running her over, and she instinctively pushed it away, sending the rider crashing into the road. All eyes were on Rain, but she didn't care. She had become her fury, and she was going to take it out on someone. She didn't know whether it had been Raguel or the Eye who had stirred her anger to boiling point, but she didn't care. She was done suppressing it.

A flame materialised in her palm, and she fed it her anger, letting it grow bigger and hotter, and she pointed at the cyclist with her free hand. The cyclist was crushed beneath her bike, whimpering, too afraid to move, but before Rain could throw the fireball she felt pain rocket through her chest and she sucked in a breath.

The flame disappeared, and Rain slowly looked down to see a long, thick blade protruding from her chest, right where her heart should've been if she had one. Her body jolted violently as the Illuminati thrust his sword deeper into her body, and she cried out, going limp. She would've fallen to her knees if the blade hadn't been holding her up. She could feel his breath on her neck, and for the first time in all her three centuries she heard his voice.

It was deep and raspy and growly, and it was laced with a million threats. It echoed in her head and chilled her to the core.

It said, "You will fail."

And suddenly the Illuminati was gone, and Rain was left with a gaping hole in her chest, kneeling on the pavement, breathing raggedly. She wasn't bleeding - Operators didn't bleed - but pain pulsated through her like burning lava.

She staggered to her feet and glanced around. The humans were drinking coffee, chatting and laughing as if nothing had happened. The cyclist had gotten up and sped away. No one noticed her.

Coughing slightly, she began the short trek home. When she reached the house, she was practically on her knees. She crawled up the stairs to her attic home and collapsed on the floor. She barely felt it when Blaze dragged her to the bed and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Rain...? Can you hear me?"

"Mm."

"What happened?"

She lifted her heavy lids to peer through her lashes at Blaze. Concern masked the pretty girl's face, and Rain felt herself smile despite herself.

"The... The Illuminati," she groaned, trying to sit up, but Blaze gently pushed her back down.

"The what?"

"One of my people," she spat bitterly, wincing at the pain in her chest. "He ruined... My top..."

"Are you dying?" Blaze whispered, panic setting into her voice.

Rain snorted. "Please. Dying. No, idiot, I am not dying. He just stabbed me, that's all. It'll heal by tomorrow, hopefully."

"Why aren't you bleeding?"

"I don't bleed, that's disgusting."

She shifted off her bulky braid, pulling it out from under her back and groaning at the agony she felt when she moved.

The Eye was gone, but she knew he'd be back. And she didn't care. She welcomed him back, because next time she saw that bastard she was going to tear his ugly bald head off. She was going to kill him.

And tomorrow, she was going back to the coffee shop. Raguel had to pay for whatever it was he was doing to her. He couldn't just piss her off and get away with it. Tomorrow, she was going to kill Raguel.

And tomorrow, she was going to contact Cease again.