Welcome to Gaia! ::

((OK! I try and post now... YOU CAN DO IT, AKA!! *shakes herself*))

Cherokee, once inside, instantly felt claustrophobic. He wasn't a man for this sorta thing, though in his younger days, which felt ages and decades ago when in reality it had not been too many years passed, he remembered sneaking out more than once just to be around people that felt alive. Everyone was breathing and moving, forgetting everything about home and about their shitty lives.

That man's wife at home was now forgotten as he held a stranger in his arms, or that woman who danced more passionately than the others forgot about how she lost her job that day or that her boyfriend hit her when he had had too much. The single mother drowned halfway into her drink forgot about bills to be paid or the hungry mouths waiting for her at home. It was a place where people came to forget and to feel just for a moment that they were more than just people, but something else... a someone they only pictured themselves in dreams came alive: happy, free, and without debt or regrets.

Cherokee knew that feeling... it was what had gotten him into trouble in the first place and had kept him there.

He looked around, trailing after Enzo lightly. He had a much better view of the party being that he could see over everyones' heads. Though, he made himself very small to avoid touching the party goers. Looking around and seeing nothing but drunks, flirts, and dancers his mind instantly wandered to where Amma might have gone off too. It might have been all the smoke, or the strong smell of alcohol that made him so dizzy in his thoughts, but right then he wanted more than anything to dance with her.

The tall man was jerked from his thoughts however as he was elbowed in his ribs. He looked down to Enzo, and then quickly followed his gaze. It was quickly apparent what he was worried about, but Cherokee's expression did not change to show his worry. He let Enzo ramble for a moment, but he crouched to make himself shorter. His dark head vanished beneath the dancing crowd and became one with it.

"Cool it." Cherokee said lowly. "We don't know that's why they are here." He replied in an even voice. "Just cool it, alright? Let's just lay low." Cherokee rolled his slouched shoulders, already feeing cramped. "We'll just figure out why they are here and see if we can't get them to beat it. They might just be here to screw around and rile people up. Just some thugs."

His light eyes looked about for a moment and he looked thoughtful. "Alright. You stay right here. I'll try to see what they're asking about." Without giving Enzo a chance to stop him he loped off and vanished into a swarm of dancing bodies.

Cherokee moved strangely easily for his slouching posture and soon came to where one of the thugs was questioning a group of young women. Cherokee turned his back and looked at them at an angle. He fiddled with his pocket pretending to look for a light.

"You seen a biy guy around here? Looks Indian?" The large man was booming over the music. "He's real tall... got some tattoos on his back and arms? He'll have a little guy with him. A little Italian rat b*****d."

A few of the women began to shake their heads or mention that they had seen a very tall dark man, but Cherokee didn't stick around to listen.

"s**t." He said under his breath as he began making his way quickly back to Enzo... and he would have made it too if he hadn't run into one of the thugs.

He had only brushed passed his shoulder, but that had been enough, in a second the big guy had turned around and gripped Cherokee's shoulder in a vice like grip. "Chief Sitting Bullshit... we've been looking for you."

"Found me." Cherokee replied in a low voice, looking at him with a hard gaze.

"Where's Enzo?"

Cherokee tossed his gaze over the crowd. "I'm alone."

"You're shitting me! Don't you LIE to me!" The large man screamed. His bald head wrinkled and a tattoo on his arm stretched as his muscles flexed. The dancers began to stop and the music was left pumping with no one to dance to it. All eyes were fixed on Cherokee and the gang member grasping a hand painfully on his shoulder. Some began to back off, sensing trouble. "We asked up front! They said they saw you BOTH come in. Where the hell is Enzo? We KNOW he's in here too."

"I'm not shitting anyone. I'm alone." Cherokee repeated in his even voice, his eyes not leaving the bald thug's own.

"I see... you and him are real buddy buddy aren't ya? Him and you look out for eachother, eh? Well, maybe this will change your mind." The man drew a gun from his pocket and shoved it in Cherokee's face. "I'll say it again... one more time. I'm sick of being so nice. Where. Is. Enzo."

((UH OH'S!!!... and I hope that works... and doesn't ruin ANYTHIGN anyone was thinking... SO IF IT IS LET ME KNOW AND I'LL CHANGE IIIIIT! The end.))

((OKAY! Time to do that thing... Where I post... And... yeah. XD))

Enzo wanted to follow after Cherokee, but it was rather hard. For one, he'd disappeared in the mass of bodies almost instantly, and two, he'd told him to stay. And he was freaking out enough as it was.

So he did his best to stand and wait (though it turned into pacing and waiting, hands shoved roughly in his pockets), but his waiting seemed to be irritating people. Maybe it was the constant muttering, or the fact that his shoulder was twitching. He didn't know, and didn't much care.

And he suddenly hated just how short he was. He could hardly see over the heads of any of the girls there (those damn platforms that were in style), much less anyone else. The problem? There was SOME sort of commotion going on. Yelling, shouting, and he was pretty sure he heard a shot.

Then one of the more blonde ravers screamed bloody murder. As the masses of people suddenly decided it was GOOD to leave the rave (being that the blonde was suddenly splattered with blood that wasn't hers), he was able to see what was going down. First off, there were more guns than not pointed at Cherokee, and one of the members of his OWN GANG was down on the floor, bleeding. Badly. He wasn't going to make it.

At this point, something in the back of Enzo's head snapped; right at the bottom there. He felt it, well, maybe. Either way, he was fugging pissed. Who the HELL pulled a gun in a crowd of people? An idiot. But who the hell SHOT ONE?! Were they ASKING for death? Or the cops? Prison? He didn't know who'd made that shot, but it wouldn't have been Cherokee... He didn't have one in his hand. But Amma did. And that Joker guy... Not to mention the two thugs who'd not been all but killed.

Had he had his phone, he'd have dialed the paramedics.

Thing was?

He didn't.

And that pissed him off.

So, the "Little Italian rat b*****d" pushed his way through the crowd, drawing his own handgun, cocked it, and shoved it into the soft part under Joker's jaw. He cocked the hammer, and glared dangerously. "You even think about letting a charge fire from that weapon, you're dead." His dark gaze snapped over to the two in his own gang, "And you two. What in the bloody HELL are you two doing here? If you're looking for me, which I do believe you are, you DON'T PULL A ing GUN ON YOUR OWN MEN!" He was shaking violently now, and by the look on Joker's face, it was something to worry about. The poor kid looked horrified.

"AND YOU," he growled at Amma, far beyond looking 'about to snap,' "What are you doing?! Did you shoot him?!" He pointed at the man on the ground, unconscious. "YOU FUGGING SHOT HIM, DIDN'T YOU?!" His shoulder gave a dangerous twitch. "I don't care who you are, you don't open fire in a ROOM SO CROWDED MOST PEOPLE CAN'T BREATHE!" By this time, the room was all but empty, and the Bouncers were coming in, their own guns waving.

Snarling, Enzo wrenched his gun from its place under Joker's jaw and began pointing it from the bouncers to Amma, then back to Joker, to the members of his own gang, and back. "What is it you guys wanted, huh? You found us. Spill it."

One of the men, who didn't quite look as threatening as he thought he might have been, opened his mouth to speak, but it was drowned out by the shot that Enzo's twitching finger let loose... The bullet grazing the side of Amma's thigh. He heard himself scream, then hit the ground hard, his gun being wrenched from his shaking hand by Cherokee's far stronger grip.

((haha HE WENT NUTS, DAGGIT! NUUUUTS!))

Amma's hand tightened on her gun when Enzo began yelling at her and she was about to turn around and scream at him, try to beat something into him. She was doing it for THEM, she was trying to save THEM! She was putting her life on the line every second she was with THEM! Her life was literally hanging by a chance that no one would say her name at this second...otherwise it was no doubt those punks would put a bullet through her skull.

Then again...maybe she wanted it to happen that way.

When the sound of a bullet sounded Amma's hand twitched and once again when she felt the sting of a new somewhat deep gash on her thigh from the bullet. She remained still, however Joker snapped around and was about to beat the man up, though Cherokee, who was bigger than him, already was holding him down.

"YOU COULD HAVE ********' KILLED HER YOU DIRTY LITT-"

"Joker..." Amma whispered, her voice wavering from insanity to paranoia to excitement, nothing good. "It doesn't hurt. I'm used to it." Joker seemed to calm down but moved closer to his close friend and glanced down at her bleeding leg, the blood slowly soaking her pale jeans crimson.

At the mention of "The Boss" being dead, Amma's eyes widened extremely as did Jokers and they both looked at eachother, not sure what to think of what the guy just said.

"Dead? You mean...cold?" Joker muttered, to himself of course and Amma tried to think fast when the guy accused Enzo of being the cause.

"Phones don't kill people." Amma said with such a coy smile it could chill right down to the bone. "People kill people. Ah...wait..." She paused, trying to get on the men's nerves. "I do recall seeing one of my friends carrying a new phone around...oh..." Her dazzling eyes glanced to Joker.

"Yeah." Joker, playing on like a good dog would, "You mean HIM? Yeah I saw him carrying a new phone, maybe he killed their boss man?"

"You could be right!" She explained pointing with fake enthusiasm. "Yeah! He must have! Man, we should go give him a party right now! Got a lot of problems off OUR shoulders, huh?"

"Yah, girl, really, I think he's off dealing right now."

"I believe so. Let's go and take him out to dinner or something. A strip bar, how about that?"

"Let's do it."

Both Joker and Amma laughed and walked towards the door just when Darius opened it, nailing Joker in the nose and causing him to yelp and grab his face. The man looked extremely pissed, frowning, eyebrows burrowed, his eyes nearly slits in his dark black face. His mud brown eyes went directly to Cherokee, then Enzo, then the other two, and finally Amma and Joker.

"You've burried us DEEP in s**t little girl." His voice was dangerously shadowed and thick with fury. "Why haven't you killed these dogs? Do you want ME to do it?"

Joker tilted his head back and pinched his nose, blood dripping out of his nostrils and over his thin lips. "I thought puberty was over with..."

"Don't touch them..." Amma said blankly, eyes dark and confused. "It's all my fault..."

Enzo found quite suddenly that he couldn't move very well. And his gun was gone from his hand. He knew somewhere in his rage-driven brain that that was probably a good thing, and that he was supposed to be the thinker... But that was why he did his best to avoid any actual field work - he usually lost it. Like he had now. After all, he looked the exact opposite of calm. He was squirming, yelling profanities, and doing his best to get out of Cherokee's iron grip. He knew it wasn't going to work.

That, and Cherokee had just upped his strength, quite effectively pinning Enzo to the floor so tightly he could hardly breathe. He DID manage a very sharp, angry gasp though, at the news the thugs had brought.

Suddenly, he didn't feel like struggling anymore.

He hardly heard Amma and Joker... And the fact they were trying to pull blame away from him. All he heard was "the boss is dead" over and over in his head, followed by 'it's your fault, Enzo. YOUR FAULT."

Needless to say, he felt a bit ill.

Oh, and what was the ONE thing that could make matters worse? Hmm? There was only one. Oh wait, no need for it to be answered. It walked through the door, big, hulking, and angry.

Darius. The big dog.

"ooooh s**t." Enzo said into the floor, tugging his arms over his head. "Uh, I'm okay now I think," he said slowly, trying to twist around so he could see Cherokee. "You can let me up." Though, to counter the statement, he gave a rather nasty twitch.

If nothing else, he refused to be killed by the other gang while laying down.

If he thought things had been tense before, the fact that Darius was there (and the realization on the face of the other thugs that that was AMMA and Darius), well, that just made it a whole lot worse.

((haha err, tah dah? It's a big post of nothing, I know. I R SORRY HAWHAW.))

(( XD You posted like two minutes before I got out of the shower! That is creepy stuff right there, dude.))

Amma stared at the ground, her whole body frozen cold with terror. She could sense the radiating hatred from behind her. Nothing ever truly scared her, besides that feeling. Impending fighting and arguing. Her fear was born out of her childhood, and she never could get rid of it. The anger from a man scared her immensly, even if she didn't show it.

Darius noticed her wound and was standing in front of her in an instant. "Who the ******** did that to you?" He snarled and touched her shoulder, she flinched noticably and cringed. Her heart skipped a bit as she met his eyes.

"No one here...they ran away...before you got here." She looked away quickly, not wanting him to see her blatant lie. If she told the truth, all of them could end up dead, and she didn't want that. "I've got worse." She laughed harshly and then looked past him to Cherokee who spoke after her.

"It is...if I had never been so stupid as to tag along none of us would be in thi-" She couldn't finish her excuse because King had turned around at Cherokee's voice, hearing the truth in it. She saw his hand grab his gun.

"Stop it!" she yelled, her voice not authoritative, now only fearful and worried. He didn't seem to care that Amma grabbed his arm, for he flicked her hand off like a bug.

It seemed to happen so fast. In that instant it was as though her mind was hostage to her emotions and heart. That gun which was raised to Cherokee and the large fingers a split second from shooting made her brain shut down.

A gun shot sounded.

Joker's yelling curse broke Amma out of her trance. Darius clenched at his chest and his knees buckled while his faithful sidekick, Joker, caught him before he tumbled to the ground.

The heat of metal in her hand startled her, she glanced down and suddenly her hands began to shake violently. The weapon clattered to the ground. The sound of her heart and blood filled her ears and she shook in tremors. Looking around she saw Joker take out his phone, dialing a driver of theirs, and ripping off part of his shirt to try to stop the bleeding.

She screamed, tears immediatly running down her face, mascara and eyeliner making a gray stream across her chocolate cheeks. Her eyes turned to Cherokee, face twisting in shock. Turning around she ran out the door, and into the snow.

((dun dun dun! Haha I had planned that for a long time...but in a different way...I dunno...but YES! Action action! Excitement! XD ))

((GO. GO. GOOOOO!!! *types like the wind*))

Cherokee had faced Darius fearlessly as he had raised his gun. His secret was out, and it was the worst moment it could have happened, but he didn't regret it. Somehow he felt more at peace with it, somehow feeling that he could accept the fact that he had fallen in love again... and this time it was right even if it was wrong.

Staring down the barrel of Darius's gun, Cherokee flickered his eyes to Darius's angry and dark gaze with that same look that could have looked through stone. Do it, his expression clearly said. Somwhere in the back of his mind he loved Amma for trying so desperately to stop him... but that was when the gun had gone off.

Cherokee's blood ran cold as he saw Darius fall. For a breath of a moment he had the breath knocked out of him. He glanced to Amma who had a gun in her hand and struggled to comprehend just what had occured, even though he knew very well what had just happened.

Amma was shaking violently. Joker was pulling out a phone and dialing a number. His voice was desperate and deadly serious. Darius lay upon the ground wtih blood slowly pooling about his large body. The two thugs were gaping in a mix of confusion and horror. Cherokee could only stand there looking from Darius to Amma, but finally his eyes remained on Amma, his mouth working to form words.

The woman let out a scream and tears quickly slipped down her face. Cherokee began to step forward, his feet clumsy with shock, but she quickly tore out the door and left him there with a terrible pain in his chest.

She shot him for me. He thought numbly. She shot her boss for me... her PARTNER for me.

Cherokee glanced around for Enzo, but he was gone. He then threw a glance at Joker and his fallen boss and tore out the door after Amma into the snow. He ran desperately and fast so that the city was a whirl of greasy street lights and powdery white, the horrible wrenching pain in his chest driving him. He called her name into the darkness, loud and pleading, begging strangers on the streets to point him into the direction a young black woman had taken off to.

He had to find her.

((I dunno where she is... soooo... I'll LEAVE THAT TO YOU, MY SWEET. AND WHE! This character is for Enzo... cos I was talking to Ala... and he is SO LONELY. So... we are giving him someone... sort of. KINDA. We'll see how it plays out. THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT FUN!))

When her phone had rung, she had known it was him. It wasn't the fact that she knew that number as it came up on her caller I.D., but she knew because business was slow as this hour, and he was the only one who called when business was slow.

As she picked up the phone she had smiled at his shaky voice; a broad full lipped smile that could make any man weak at the knees. "I'll be there." She had replied in a husky voice, the sort of voice that made one think of fires and the thrill of the night. She gave a throaty chuckle as he hung up, and put her own phone back into its cradle.

Beatrix was a woman who was good at her job. She was beautiful: a gorgeous body that was full and a face that was coy, cold, cruel, powerful, passionate and loving. All those things that every woman could posses. She had been doing her job for so long she had gotten down how to talk, how to walk, how to dress, and how to impress.... and men had loved her for it. Not all of them were pleasant... or attractive, she grimanced at some men she could recall, but business was business and a woman had to eat.

Enzo was one of many regular callers... but out of all of them he was the only one who she would come to see any time of day. He was different and strange... but that was what kept her coming back. No other man had managed that with Beatrix.

Stepping into some warmer clothes and something more comfortable than the outfit she had been strutting around at her corner that day (some jeans and a sweatshirt), she caught a cab to where they usually met: his apartment.

Paying the cab driver and ignoring his obvious approving glances she stepped out into the cold air and made her way into the building. A bag of food was clutched in one of her hands as she made it to his door, and without any hesitation she opened it and walked in like she owned the place, and she felt like she did own any room she walked into.

"Hey, honey." She said as she strutted into the room, tucking a lock of dark hair behind an ear.

((THAT WORKS! I hope that works, anyway...))

((D'awww, WHORE! *would like, pet her, but that might be taken the WRONG WAY*))

He didn't remember making it back to his apartment. Somehow his feet, or a taxi... Maybe both, got him there. And before he knew it, he had walked into the room, popped a few too many pain-killing pills, and all but fell into a sit on his mattress. He was still trying to get his hands to stop shaking.

Worries about where Cherokee was sprung up in his mind, but he shook them off as best as he could. His friend would be alright... And who they left Emily with was completely trustworthy. He just needed to forget everything... And what'd he do to do that? Called Beatrix. Yeah, he had called a whore.

It wasn't too long after he'd gotten there that said woman arrived, as always, carrying a bag of food with her - something Enzo tended to forget about. Eating, that is.

He smiled at her when she entered, climbing to his feet and running a hand through his hair. "Hey," He said quietly, snapping the door shut behind her. "Thanks for coming over..." He stumbled back over to the only place in the apartment to sit and offered her a seat beside him. "Always looking out for me, yeah?" the junkie gestured towards the bag she'd brought.

A moment later, despite his best efforts, and biting his lip so hard it bled (he couldn't feel it anyway, the drugs were taking effect), he started crying, burying his face into the woman's sweatshirt, either unaware, or not caring that he was getting a face full of boobs.

((HAWHAWHAW BOOBS. XD))