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 Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:29 pm
Liam's brow furrowed. Sure, he could try and pop the guy back to life, but he had a feeling there wasn't enough of him left to stay sentient. He just stood back, watching in horror. Yeah, this could have gone better.
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Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:33 pm
"Creepy, innit?" Andy said sagely, popping a handful of chips into his mouth. "And it was in specific areas of the body. Not the most painful places to get cut up, just...well, not random, in any case. Don't know what to make of it."
Glancing at Ethan's face, Andy hurriedly covered up the body.
"M'sorry," he said. A beat later, the sympathetic expression turned vaguely suspicious. "If I could ask...who are you and what're you doing down here?"
"No one," Ethan said faintly, shaking his head. "I'm no one. I'll leave."
Andy gave him a perplexed look as he turned and walked blindly towards the double doors leading out of the morgue.
"Um," he said to Liam, looking concerned.
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Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:37 pm
"He knew 'im," Liam said with a shrug and started after Ethan. Doctors would ask how he got there, no doubt. He wasn't ready to have Julian kick his a** just yet.
"Hey. Hold on." The statement was entirely useless, but spoken anyway as Liam tried to stop Ethan.
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Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:42 pm
Ethan halted obediently, eyes cast downward.
"I'm sorry I bothered you with this, Liam," he said, voice fluctuating between a deadpan and bone-deep fright. "Thank you for helping me."
His face was still gray, and he looked as though he was going to be sick. His thoughts whirled out of control in his head, wanting to spill to Liam about the names he'd collected, the growing list of people he'd known being picked off. But the words didn't want to come out. So he stood there, looking at the linoleum floor like he was considering vomiting on it.
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Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:59 pm
__Part 5
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"I'm not leaving him to die."
"Rich, he shot you."
"So? I lived."
"Hnnn....Richard. I admire your loyalty and s**t, but we've got our own skins to worry about. You heard about Gavin and Anthony-"
"Gavin was a stooge. He was never careful. He liked the attention being a hood. Anthony just put up with him because they were friends."
"-yeah, they stuck together, and look where it got them-"
"So you're saying we shouldn't stick together? That we'd fare better on our own?"
"Well..."
"Hnn."
"Yeah. That's what I thought. We're going."
"What if he doesn't want to come?"
"He'll come."
"You sure?"
"Pretty damn sure..."
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Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:12 pm
__Part 6
"Tell me."
Ethan's head jerked up from its chemistry book-turned-pillow, blinking stupidly at Lenore.
"Tell you what?"
Lenore regarded Ethan silently for a few moments.
"Tell me your secret. I'll tell you one of mine."
"I don't have a secret."
"You do. Tell me. I can see it on your face. Every time you read the paper or watch TV, you turn gray and you get all...nnh. Like you were before."
"Before?" Ethan parroted, curious. "What do you mean?"
Lenore rubbed at her side thoughtfully, where an old scar curved across her ribcage.
"When you talked about the Piper," she said slowly. "The few times you ever did talk about him. You'd get that look. Scared, but....more than scared. Like you'd met the worst, most frightening thing in the world, and you didn't know what to do if it noticed you again."
Ethan sighed, mussing his hair and propping his elbows up on the table.
"People I know are dying," he said after a while, voice flat. "People Piper kept as slaves. Just like me."
"People you were friends with?"
Ethan considered the question, reflecting. Anthony Harper, who had once passed him rations when Piper had withheld Ethan's food for three days as punishment. James Townsend, grudgingly teaching him poker and letting him play. Others, so many others...
His thoughts dwelled on Ethan Martin, the man Piper had killed. The man the scared, drugged, soulsick teenager Kristof had replaced in the Brigade.
"Not friends," Ethan said, shaking his head slowly. "Friends and not friends."
"I tried to kill you out of mercy once."
Ethan jolted, staring at Lenore in shock.
"What?"
Lenore shrugged, and got up from her chair.
"One of my secrets for yours," she said, kissing him on the forehead and leaving him sitting shellshocked at the table.
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Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:21 pm
__Part 7
Finding the apartment had been startlingly, disturbingly easy. Getting in took a bit more effort. The lady of the house had a right to her paranoia, but fifteen locks really was rather excessive. By the time Richard had forced his way in, he had pretty much given up trying to be stealthy and go unnoticed.
"Hello?"
The apartment was empty, outside of a rather lengthy, eyesearingly blue and unnervingly two-headed snake lying on a bed, sunning itself from light that streamed out one of the windows. Richard gave the serpent a wide berth, looking around the room.
"Cebcharik?"
Sensibly, there was no reply. Richard sighed, then froze as something gave a croaky, breathy laugh behind him. He whirled around, gun in hand and aimed unerringly at...
....a weird jade-plated skull on a bookshelf. Richard sighed.
"Paranoid," he muttered, shaking his head.
"And ugly," the skull added. Richard jolted and stumbled back a step.
"NNGH."
"Come closer, ugly. Coatl doesn't bite."
Richard aimed his pistol at the skull, watching it in building alarm. The skull cocked a dizzy ivory eye at him, and it laughed.
"What are you looking for, ugly?"
Richard, feeling it would be spectacularly stupid to talk to a skull, stayed silent. The skull tutted.
"What's wrong, ugly?" it said in a mock-sympathetic voice. "Demon-child got your tongue?"
Richard gave the skull a startled look, not comprehending.
"What?"
"Stranger."
Richard jolted yet again, turning on his heel and finding himself nose-to-nose with a tall boy with mercurial eyes and a mouthful of very sharp teeth. And suddenly the boy swung at his head, and Richard saw nothing at all.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:38 pm
__Part 8
It was the sound of breaking china and crashing bodies that made Ethan apprehensive to go inside the apartment.
"That really doesn't sound like something I want to walk into," he said to Liluno, looking at the door uneasily. The skull-faced dog gave a cheerful yip, tongue lolling and splattering a copious amount of spit onto the hall's worn carpet.
"Hmm."
Deciding he didn't want to investigate alone, he passed through the door to Rabid's house and stood awkwardly on the porch, feeling like he was imposing again.
"Hello?" he called, knocking. "There's a fight going on in my house. Can someone come with me in case it's an axe-murderer?"
It was only half a joke.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:49 pm
Axe murderer? The Hell?! Liam was the first to the door, closely followed by Björn. Hellis didn't dare touch that. Axe murderers, he didn't like.
"You're kidding, right?"
The bizarre view from outside must have been somewhat amusing, what with 5' 5" up against 7' 1".
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:54 pm
Ethan didn't smile.
"Two murders downtown this morning with both bodies torn apart don't give good odds in my favor," he said, patiently grabbing Liluno's collar as the dog tried to jump happily on Liam. "Crow and Julian aren't home. Neither is Lenore. So..."
He looked over his shoulder uncomfortably.
"I need to do my chemistry homework," he added plaintively.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:59 pm
Who better to go to than a meatshield and a sniper when people who were not supposed to be at home were?
"Alright," Björn nodded, "We'll come check it out. All else fails, you come with us, got it?"
Liam simply pulled Ethan into the house, closed the door, opened it again, and headed into the hallway that was suddenly there.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:04 pm
Ethan stood silently, arms crossed and shoulders hunched as if against sudden cold. Liluno nosed at his hands, then bounded off to harass Hellis.
---
The door to the apartment was cracked, bowed in the middle as though someone had kicked it. Vicious snarls like a mad animal reverberated through the hallway, and a strangled, very irate voice with an unexpectedly Scottish accent was cursing ******** suddenly the door flew off the hinges as the intruder was thrown bodily into the hall.
"JESUS CHRIST, BOY, WHAT THE HELL IS-" the man began, rolling away in abject terror as Jeddeth sprang roaring out of the room, reaching for him as he tried to flee.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:12 pm
"JEDDETH, FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST!"
Liam leaped forward, aiming for the boy, while Björn reached for whoever said 'stranger' was, attempting to quite literally pull him up and out or harm's way.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:21 pm
Jeddeth didn't let up. He thrashed against Liam, expression bordering madness.
"He came with a weapon!" he hissed, jaw gnashing. "I confronted him, and he tried to kill me with it-"
"Ya ********' jumped me, you psychopath!" the battered man retorted, shying away from Björn instinctively.
"Not welcome," Jeddeth snarled. "You're not welcome here."
"Says you! I'm trying to save Cebcharik's damn hide and-" the man suddenly choked, face going pale and biting so hard on his tongue that a dribble of blood leaked between his lips. "You didn't hear nothin'. I'm no one. No one, you hear? I'm no one. I'll go."
He turned away, staggering slightly and cradling one arm, and tried to duck away down the hall. Jeddeth gave a low rattling growl, still struggling against Liam.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:32 pm
"Jeddeth!" Liam near-shrieked, "I have a weapon, and I'd sure as Hell pull it on you if you jumped me! This ain't the congo! Calm your s**t DOWN!"
Björn gave a cynical laugh and turned slowly, reaching out and grabbing this Stranger by the shoulder.
"Iiiiii don't think so, buddy. What's goin' on here."
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