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 Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 7:58 pm
Liam listened and locked the door behind him obediently.
"You can have my bed," Ike shrugged, "I could bunk with someone else."
"Yeah, sure," Liam nodded.
Rabid was going to kill him.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 8:08 pm
Rocking back and forth slightly, tugging at a bit of her hair, Crow stared at the floor.
"He took her. The son of a b***h took her."
Julian gave a slightly pained moan next to her, shifting in his sleep again. She glanced at him, then up at Liam.
"Just to warn you - he has nightmares sometimes. Unholy screaming, holy-god-someone's-getting-killed kind of nightmares." She paused, whacking him upside the head to wake him. "It's just a phase."
Julian started in wakefulness. Sitting up stiffly, he looked around in confusion. As he laid eyes on Ethan, he gave a groan and sat back, covering his face with his hands.
"Dammit. Thought it was a dream."
Leaning against Julian in sudden exhaustion, Crow gave a rattling sigh and moaned, rocking again. Looking startled, Julian wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rocked in rhythm with her, murmuring to her comfortingly.
"Shhh..."
Ethan, feeling very out of place, looked away to give the two privacy. Looking over at Ike, he waved his hands around vaguely.
"I am an intruder here. I do not have to stay."
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 8:20 pm
Liam fiddled with the chain around his neck, feeling horribly out of place.
"No, kid," he turned to Ethan, "You're staying. Whether we want you here or not, we're staying."
"We do want you here."
He had to clarify.
"Faar? I suggest you open the door. Rabid's gone batshit crazy."
"No! I have a really bad feeling! Who's in there?!"
"Mommy...calm down! FLOOFY MAN! OPEN D' DOOR!"
Liam stood and groaned.
"Alright...here goes."
He opened the door, allowing the family to spill into the room.
"Who's that kid?"
"I WAS RIGHT! I WAS RIGHT! WHAT HAPPENED?!"
"Hi, random-guy-that-I-don't-know..."
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 8:33 pm
Ethan bit back a yelp. After speaking with Ike, seeing the little furry girl shouldn't have been as much of a shock as it was. Or the girl with pointed ears...
"Uh. Hello. Please do not kill me."
Crow stood silently, looking like she was going to be sick. Julian followed suit, his expression unreadable.
"Hey, Rabid." He said, trying to smile a little. Crow waved, the sick expression deepening.
"Remember what we talked about on the balcony? About the past being just that?" She paused, giving a slightly hysterical laugh.
"I've got a bit of a problem."
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 8:40 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 8:52 pm
Starting to shake again, Crow bowed her head down and clutched at it with her hands, fingers tangling in her hair. She made a low keening sound, refusing to look up again. Julian sat beside her again, holding her close and murmuring again.
"She doesn't have her doll. She can't sleep without that god damned doll of hers." Crow said flatly, her voice muffled slightly.
Looking away from Crow in something like shame, Ethan bowed his head low in greeting to the slightly intimidating group of people around him.
"I assure you, I am pleased to hear that. My name is Kristof Cebcharik. You.... you can call me Ethan. It is a pleasure to meet you," he said politely. Looking up at Rabid, he waved his hands around apologetically.
"I am sorry I bled on your blankets. My kneecaps were shot off," he said, trying to offer some weak explaination.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 8:56 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:05 pm
Crow looked up, her eyes glazed and dead-looking. She was about to reply when the phone began to ring.
Ethan's face shuttered into a deeply frightened expression.
"To je jeho." He said, pushing himself as far against the headboard as he could and shrinking back as though the phone was trying to kill him. "The Piper."
Crow twisted free of Julian's suddenly tightened grasp, shaking worse than ever. She looked over slowly at Rabid, eyes huge, pointing at the ringing phone.
"Does that have speakerphone?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:15 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:30 pm
Taking the phone, Crow closed her eyes.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Lethe."
Flinching at the sound of the name, Crow started to turn starkly white.
"Jean Michel."
"You don't sound pleased to hear from me. Tell me, dearest, how are you holding up?"
"Cut the s**t, ********. Where's my daughter?"
"I would advise you to watch your language. The girl is fine - for the moment. She takes after you, you know. She nearly gutted three of my men before they could put her down again."
Tears started leaking out from under her closed lids, but Crow's voice remained calm.
"Kidnapping isn't usually your style. Trying to prove a point?"
"No - I took her to see you squirm, of course. It is a pleasure I was denied during our last meeting. I remember it so well - tell me, when that boy died in your arms, did you feel anything at all? He was, after all, so very close-"
Crow's eyes snapped open again.
"Shut up. Shut up, you son of a b***h."
"Still sore about the whole rat poison thing, aren't you? A pity you did not take the needle yourself, Lethe - so many people would have been spared so much if you had died."
Crow gave a humorless laugh.
"Not like you didn't keep trying. You shot me when my back was turned."
"I had the opportunity, and I took it. And now... now I am the Piper, and you... ah, Lethe. You are going to die. You have been a terrible thorn in my side for too long."
"So why take my girl? A trade-off?"
"Precisely. You are like a rat, Lethe. The first sign of danger, and you abandon ship. You scurry away to hide. I have something you value much more than your own life, and I know you well enough to realize you would walk through Hell to reclaim her. As long as I have her, you will not try to flee."
"Eloquent."
"Isn't it, though? I put much thought behind it. Well, my dear, it was lovely catching up - must be going. I'll keep in touch. Say hello to Julian for me, would you?"
Click.
Crow kept the phone to her ear, the silence in the room and on the line deafening. Her eyes were blank and empty, and she stared out onto the scarred floor in perfect, dead calm.
"s**t."
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:36 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:47 pm
Crow let the phone fall out of her hand and onto the floor. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't -
"Gra'azt!"
Jumping up and running to the bathroom, she slammed the door behind her and stumbled towards the toilet. Bending over it, she gave into the urge to be violently sick at last.
Julian winced at the sounds, looking fairly ill himself.
"Rat poison?"
Ethan was quaking, eyes wide with a mix of relief that Jean Michel had not mentioned him, and terror that he would still be discovered. Looking over at Ike, he shook his head slowly, eyes overly bright and welled up with tears.
"I do not think we can," he said, terror tinging his voice. "Not without someone dying."
Ethan was not a cowardly person. But the suffering he had endured at the hands of Jean Michel, in such a short time, had broken something in him - he had learned to fear and bow before the Piper, and nothing else held power over him like Jean Michel did.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:54 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:12 pm
Julian closed his eyes, rubbing his temples in exhaustion and thinking hard. He should have done something. He'd been a weakling, a coward - he should have tried to help stop them. It was his fault.
Gasping for breath, Ethan bowed his head low and rocked back and forth as Crow had done. Terrible memories of the things he had seen, the things he had been forced to do, flooded his mind.
"Boh..."
Taking a breath, he scrabbled at a pocket in his worn out flak jacket. Drawing out a battered rosary, he squeezed his eyes shut and held the tangled strand close to his heart.
In the bathroom, splashing water on her face and ignoring the roiling in her stomach, Crow leaned over the sink and took a long, deep breath. She could hear the others talking, and wondered what they thought of her now.
Julian looked over at Ethan, remembering something.
"Kristof. Who was the man you mentioned before?"
Ethan jumped, looking confused.
"The man? Ah.... the one who supplies Piper? Wheeler?"
Crow's eyes widened. Wheeler? She darted for the door, cracking it open slightly.
"Yes, Wheeler. What does he have to do with all this?"
Ethan paused, tucking his rosary away again.
"Wheeler's couriers - they deliver to Piper often. Very often. I know where they are stationed for pick ups. They all go back to him, and Wheeler... he knows where Piper is at all times. Piper trusts him. I thought, that if we could find Wheeler..."
"-We could find Jean Michel. He would have Lenore with him - she's too important to leave with the Brigaders to look after. He'd keep her with him."
Crow leaned against the doorframe, an unreadable expression on her face. Ethan looked surprised, then nodded.
"Yes. That is what I was thinking."
Julian made as though to go towards her, but she waved him off. Looking around the room, she swallowed painfully.
"We don't have to bother with the couriers - I know where he is." She said, her face starting to harden into a manic, plotting expression.
"He thinks I'm dead. I think it's time I paid him a visit." She hesitated, looking dour. "I'll need you guys to help me. I can't do it alone."
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:18 pm
Ike hissed, feeling the rosary physically burn his skin. He recovered quickly and just sat back, watching the grown-ups talk.
"Clemmie, dearest," Rabid warned, ignoring the burning agony in her gut, "Please try to stay away from the religious icon."
Clematis took a step back. She had her amulet, of course, but one could never be too careful.
Liam abruptly stopped crying. So there was hope. He wiped his bloodied nose on hi sleeve.
Upon Crow's statement, all from the extended Devreaux household spoke in unison.
"Of course."
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