Chapter 19: Where we are is hell, and where hell is, there must we ever be

Now Faust, must you really be damned,

And can you not be saved?

What use is it then, to think of God or Heaven?

To hell with your vain fancies and despair.

Despair in God, and trust in [redacted].

That was the start of a long letter the Intelligence agents had found at Faust’s place. It read on and on — like the lines in a play from a time long forgotten. Parts of it were scribbled over, some were written in ink of different colours, some of it was typed. Other parts were torn off. Various pages had been clumsily stapled together, to form this peculiar piece of literature that served as the suicide note of Johann Faust.

It ended with an abrupt section, written in the red of blood. Perhaps Faust’s own.

Where we are is hell,

And where hell is, there must we ever be.

And, so, when all the world dissolves,

And every creature shall be purified,

All places that aren’t Heaven — shall be Hell.

“The handwriting there at the end seems different,” Greens remarked, as she looked at the photograph of the document projected on the screen of the conference room at HQ.

“There’s two distinct hands I can see in this note, for the parts that aren’t typed… Good catch, Cap’n!” said Lily as she flipped through the pages of the original letter.

“Careful with that Jones!” Greg said precariously, a bit concerned at Lily’s reckless handling of it.

“If the writing at the start was Faust, since the f’s and the s’s match the ones in his signature… That means the final lines aren’t written by him,” Kyd said, as he raised his head to look at Greens. “This isn’t a suicide note. It’s a message left by a murderer.”

“Who do we think killed Faust?” Toby asked.

“Probably the ones responsible for orchestrating this entire Deity extravaganza,” Kyd said as he gritted his teeth, and clenched his small fist.

“Did they have a falling out?” Greg asked.

“I doubt it,” Greens replied, as she mused at the photo on her desk of Faust’s dead body lying in his apartment, blood dripping out of a slit wrist. “Juding by the exchange documented in this letter… I think this fellow with the redacted name tricked Faust to help them with false promises. ‘Course we can’t be sure. But that’s what seems the most likely to me.”

“Wait…” said Lily, as she held the last page of the letter up against the light tube. “This thing’s signed with Vitalis.”

The other Wits jumped to their feet, on hearing Lily’s words. She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen as she copied it down.

It read Mephisto.

“Mephisto…?” said Greg, “Isn’t that the name of some demon in mythology?”

“They’re fucking with us… Pardon my language” Kyd muttered.

“This entire ordeal does feel very… dramatic,” old man Toby said, as he nodded his head, “Right from the very first attack. They’ve been very particular about the theatrics of it.”

“What kind of psycho super villain are we up against this time…?” Greens sighed.

The heavy vault door to the room beeped open as Nate Tomson barged in. His eyes were hysteric, and his lips shook as he blurted out, “Marl’s dead…”

“She’s what?!” yelled the ancient rickety voice of the stately man all of PRECIPICE answered to. Shree Amarnath was here now. “I need details,” he said, as he seated himself at the head of the table.

“Sir!” Nate said as he fumbled with a VHS tape before he inserted it into the computer connected with the projector. A video tape started playing on the screen. “We… we… found this surveillance footage… She was at some bar, really drunk… She got into a fight with some other inebriated fucker and… She got stabbed with the neck of a smashed bottle.”

“Unbelievable…” Kyd said, as he looked away from the footage that played on the screen, with Marl’s body lying on the floor, dead and pathetic.

“How could that kill her…?” Toby said, as he scratched his chin. “There’s no way that’s it…”

The entire room fell silent. Amarnath cleared his throat before he spoke, “Well, good riddance. It’s better this way than having to execute one of our own. It makes us look bad. Okay… In other news, I can see that the Deity has been almost dealt with. We need to start making plans for what comes next.”

The Agency Wits nodded. There wasn’t much for any of them to say.

Toby was still looking at the frozen frame of Marl’s body lying on the floor. He peered his gaze before he suddenly spoke up, “Hey Tomson. Can I get a zoom in on the visual?”

“Huh? Oh… Sure… Where?”

“400%, 2 o’clock to her body. Yeah, right there. Stop. Okay, zoom in a bit more.”

“Okay…” Nate replied, as he pressed a button.

“More?” Toby asked as his brows furrowed.

“Sir, that’s the most I can zoom.”

“Fine. You’re useless. Miss Jones, do you see the little piece of paper sticking out under the chair leg right there?” Toby asked, as he pointed at the projection.

Lily leaned in towards the screen before she nodded her head furiously saying, “Uh huh!”

“Can you read it?”

“Let’s see…” she said, as she got up from her seat, and walked up to the wall. “Where… we… are… is… hell… And…”

“...where hell is, there must we ever be!” Toby and Greens finished the line, as they looked at each other.

“Fucking hell!” Kyd exclaimed, before he immediately grimaced in reflex, and bowed before Amarnath in apology, “Pardon my language, sir.”

“You’re excused,” he said with a wave of his hand.

“Can anyone tell me what’s going on?” Nate asked, confused.

“The same people that killed Faust, also had Cap’n Marl killed. Keep up, dude…!” Lily said before she hopped back onto her chair.

“Wait… Huuhhh? Didn’t Faust kill himself? I’m so lost right now…”

“That can wait, Tomson. I’ll explain it all to you later. We have more pressing issues at hand,” Toby said as he looked at Amarnath. “I’ve been feeling the presence of one particular man in town for a while now, sir. I’m sure you do too.”

Amarnath shook his head, “We needn’t concern ourselves with him, presently. He’s no threat right now.”

“So what’s our main concern then, chief?” Greg asked.

“Cleaning the dust up once it settles…” the Lieutenant General said, before he gestured for one of the Division Five agents on standby to play a live feed of the Northern front. The brass looked on at the broadcast of the Deity as its strength dwindled.

“It’s a good thing Yang is in town now…” Amarnath said quietly, “We need his opinion before we can proceed…”

“His opinion?” Kyd said as he stood up, “So we’re taking the opinions of traitors now?!” he said with a bitterness in his voice, and hints of tears in his eyes. “What about Marl… You were dead set on having her killed, weren’t you? If it wasn’t the enemy who got her first, you would’ve had her encounter the same fate… So why the double standard? Why is Yang Ruoxuan walking free?”

Amarnath looked at Kyd with a puzzled look on his face, before he realised. He chuckled as he said, “Oh, you’re new here… You don’t know the full story, do you?”

“What story…?” Kyd said, wiping his eyes.

“Yang Ruoxuan was the first of our agents to make a contract with a Deity. He didn’t break the taboo because he wanted to. We were experimenting and we needed a test subject who could take it. Of course we couldn’t let that be known. So, Yang chose to take the blame for us. He’s a good man…”

“But…” Kyd said, “He killed all those agents…”

“He didn’t kill them. The Deity did. We knew there would be casualties. It was a necessary sacrifice,” Amarnath said, his voice as cold as the chill that ran down Kyd’s spine. He’d always known of the agency’s shady practices. But this was of a totally new degree, even for PRECIPICE. He didn’t even want to think about what other skeletons the administrators might be hiding in their closets.

It was quiet again there for a while, until old man Tobias spoke.

“So… Are they going to take Liahan in, if he succeeds in taming the beast?”

“That’s the plan…” Amarnath said with a little nod, “It all depends on how it plays out.”

> To be continued

Author's Note:
I'm an English major if you guys can't tell, btw. Yes I like referencing literature LMAO

I'll try to do another two chapters tomorrow, or the day after. We're close to the end!!