Kat woke up to find herself in a hospital room. Her leg was bandaged and elevated on a pillow. "Where am I? Oh, wait ..." She had to be losing her marbles. "A hospital, dork. And it's October 7, at 2 in the afternoon. Jesus, can't you wake up on time?" It was Joe. "Ohmygawd!" Kat exclaimed. "You're alive. Living, breathing, damned alive!" "Really?" Joe looked at himself. "So I am. I suppose you're lucky to be alive. Do you know how much blood you lost? Enough to donate to the Blood Bank, I'm sure. Have you ever donated blood before?" "Uh, yeah, once. Why?" "It's just that you're O positive and there doesn't seem to be a lot. I think they used your blood from when you donated it. Good thing you're not O negative, because then you'd probably be dead, and I'd be crying because then I would have to carry that Tongue Ring and why the hell did you pierce your tongue? Did you know you practically swallowed it in your sleep? I had to take it out." Kat was a little rattled at his long, run-on speech, and also a little unnerved that he had reached in her mouth. "Where is it now?" she asked. "Your bloody tennis shoe. Let's just see if you want to put it back in your mouth now." She gave a slight nod. "So, where's everyone else? And what happened at the bridge?" "Well, you were there, not me." He lit up a cigarette. "Everyone else is waiting for us." "Are you allowed to smoke in here?" She shut her mouth at the look he shot her. "Seriously, what happened?" "Simply put, you almost goddamed killed yourself. Who did you think you were, MacGyver? James Bond? Indiana Jones?" "Uh, no, not really. I was feeling like Suki in 2Fast 2Furious." Joe leaned back in the chair he was sitting in. "Exactly. Those are movies. Special effects. Blue screens. Did you think the cursed pirates in 'Pirates of the Caribbean' were real? Or how about 'Finding Nemo?' Oh my god, the fish talked!" "You're far too sarcastic to my liking. And there seems to be a lot of references to 'Pirates of the Caribbean' in this story. Anyway, I meant, what happened after that?" "Taichi had to wait until the bridge went down, and he stopped at the side of the Interstate, and you and Johnny Depp switched places, and Johnny Depp was a little mad at all the gas you used, plus the damages to his Pontiac GTO. Well, Taichi brought you here, and your expenses are insured." "I have just one more question." "Well, what the fuck is it?" "Can I leave?" Joe crushed his cigarette on the bedside table. "OK, but you have to use crutches." He pointed to a pair against the wall. "Great." Kat sat up and started to get up. Joe went to her side to help. She got on the crutches and unsteadily made her way out of the room and down the hallway. They went down the elevator, signed out, and Joe hailed a taxi. "Oh yeah," she said when they got in the taxi, "where the hell were you?!" Joe looked taken aback. "Oh, that. Simply put, I forgot to come back!" "What?" "Sure." The taxi stopped at a curb where there were a lot of people standing and shouting. "Why did we stop here?" Kat asked. "The Celebrities are up here, for a meeting." He led her through the mob. "Hey, wait," said Kat. "We're at TRL! Who's up there?" "Just Clay Aiken." "Oh. Fuck." She got in the elevator and Joe pushed the top button. When they got out, they wre in a lobby with couches and chairs in a circle. Sora, Mimi, and Kat wre sitting there. When the elevator doors opened, they jumped up and ran over to hug Kat, who nearly fell over. "That's the fifth person we've done that to this morning!" exclaimed Sora. Joe pushed them off. "Kat has a meeting to go to," he said, leading her down the hall. They entered a large room with big windows and a long table in the middle, covered with snacks and drinks. There were plenty of people seated here, all guys. Kat sat down and reached for a Mountain Dew. "How blind are you?" asked a voice. She looked to her left. Joe was talking with someone else. She turned to her right. "Joe's Brother!" She gave him a big hug. "See, you do miss me," he said. "Man, you look like shit." She punched his shoulder and turned back to the table. The man at the head of the table was speaking. "Is that Nikki Sixx?" Kat whispered to Joe's Brother. Nikki Sixx stopped talking and looked at her. "Shut up," he said. She lowered her head and reached for a package of Fruit Gushers. She looked around the table. Tai was there, so was Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt and Andy Roddick, plus a lot of people she didn't know. Nikki Sixx spoke again. "Well, that is Kat, daughter of ... well, who cares. She's on a very urgent mission." "I am?" Kat popped a Fruit Gusher in her mouth. He then introduced everyone. There was a boy named TK, sitting next to his father. Also a guy named Izzy, and a Celebrity named Matt, even though Kat had no idea who he was. She took a drink of her Mountain Dew. They were talking about boring things in the other parts of the country, and she was getting rather bored. She put her elbows on the table and put her chin in her hands. She closed her eyes and dozed. Her head slowly slid forward, and she hit the table with a loud bang. Kat immediately sat up, embarrased, a red mark appearing on her forehead. Nikki Sixx glared at her. "Are we boring you?" "Well, yeah, kind of." "Then, I think we should get to your business, and I will tell everyone here the whole story of the One Tongue Ring." So he did. Then he talked of something Kat was interested in. He was talking about the fight in the Dollar Store parking lot. "The knife that Tai-pei used was broken, and it still is. I remember going with Tai-pei to Nevada, and urged him to take it to Battle Mountain, but--" "You remember that?" interrupted Kat. "It wasn't that long ago." "But you're not that old." Nikki Sixx didn't say anything. "Anyway, um, Taichi?" Everyone looked at Tai. He stood up and threw a broken knife on the table. "There it is." Many people gasped. "How'd you get a hold of it?" asked Kat. Everyone looked at her. "Is my ignorance showing again?" Joe snorted. "He is Taichi, son of ... somebody, and he is descended from the line of Tai-pei. Didn't you notice their names were almost the same? They even rhyme. Uh ... kind of." "Then the Tongue Ring belongs to you," she said to Taichi. Taichi sat down. Nikki Sixx spoke: "Bring forth the Tongue Ring, Kat." She froze, remembering what Joe had told her in the hospital room. "Um ... now?" "Yes." "Well, I don't really have it." "You lost it?" Joe's Brother slapped her across the head. "Remind me never to leave anything with you again." "No! It's in my shoe ... that I'm not wearing," Kat protested. "Joe did it." "Joe also has your shoe." He put his backpack on the table and took out a blood-stained KSWISS sneaker. He tipped it upside-down and a small silver Tongue Ring fell out. "Well," said Kat, uneasily. "Uh ... there it is, I guess." Then Joe's Brother thought he needed to tell his story, and by god, it could've filled a book. Suppertime was approaching. Kat reached for some Doritos to munch. "Good enough," said Nikki Sixx. "Kat, tell your story." She froze, chips in her mouth. She finished chewing and swallowed. "Well, um ... I came down the Interstate and almost died, and I'm really traumatized, so I'd rather not." "Tell the fucking story." So she did. When she finished, she said, "Now it's time for Joe to explain himself, because he doesn't 'simply forget.'" Andy Roddick spoke up. "I'd like to hear it too, because I noticed that Ken is not here, and he is a Nerd who knows much about these rings." Joe cleared his throat. "Well, uh, me and Taichi had talked to CAC, and after that, we left him with the Celebrities in Iowa ..." Matt stood up. "And this is why I'm here," he said. "Uh, CAC escaped." There was a murmur that fell over the table. "Well, he's gone," said Joe. "But I have to answer the questions about Ken. After I left Kat in ... June, I think, I went to Chicago to see Ken. On the way, I met another member of my Chess Club, George, who told me the Grim Reapers were up and about, and they were looking for an uncooth land called 'Maine.'" "Hey!" said Kat. "We're civilized." Joe continued. "And George said that Ken sent him and if I needed advice, to go to him. And Ken is the President of the Chess Club, so I was encouraged. That night, I stayed in Peabody, and decided that I had no time to go back to Maine. My bad. So I left a message with Joey. My bad again. "I got to Chicago, to the Sears Tower, where Ken lives. He seemed ... different. But I told him of the Nine, and that George told me. And he started making fun of George. And he said, 'The time of the Celebrities is over; the time of the Nerds is just beginning.' And basically, he wanted me to join him with Card Sharp, can you believe! And he asked me where the One Tongue Ring was, and I said, 'I don't know.' "Then he put me on the roof of the Sears Tower, and being that high is really unnerving. But I looked at Chicago, and it used to look ... decent, I guess. But it really was a mess. Huge factories and landfills and all sorts of shit was there. "And a hippogriff came to me one night--" "A hippogriff?" asked Kat. "Aren't we in the wrong story here?" "A hippogriff," said Joe. "And he took me to Laramie, Wyoming, where I could get a fast car. They specialize in Ferraris down there." "Ferraris are Italian," Kat said. "Would you just shut up?!" shouted Joe. He cleared his throat. "Evil had already started to take over Wyoming, so the Governor of Wyoming told me to take any car. So I took his Ferrari. The best one. Sucker. Anyway, it was so fast, it outran police, and I got to Maine when Kat was in New Hampshire though we both left on the same day." "I told you; we got lost," Kat muttered. "So I went to Portsmouth," he continued. "But there was too much traffic, so I had to follow the speed limit. Somewhat. When I got to Portsmouth, I noticed everything was torn apart, and some of Kat's clothes were on the floor, and I lost all hope. But I decided to go to Peabody anyway. I've always loved Boston. I found out that you left that night with Tai. So I stayed there for the night. The Black Mustangs came to the Super 8 again, and I left for Bridgeport, driving as fast as I wanted to. Made it there in record speed, too. So I went to the library. I really don't know why. I didn't want to stay, because a Ferrari in front of a library would draw attention. And, uh, that's about the end. Now, we have to decide what to do with this Tongue Ring." Andy Roddick spoke up again. "I expect Card Sharp will expect us to go east to the Canadian Border. So we can't take it that way ..." Johnny Depp spoke up. "Well, it seems obvious to me: we hide it forever, or we destroy it." Nikki Sixx again spoke. "Then we must take the Tongue Ring to Battle Mountain, deep in the deserts of Nevada." Izzy stood up. "Maybe the Tongue Ring has come to help us. Bring it to Utah, where we can use it as a weapon." "No one can control it but Card Sharp himself," said Nikki Sixx. "What about the 3 Celebrity Naval Rings?" asked TK's father. "Don't the Celebrities still have them?" "They weren't made by Card Sharp," said Nikki Sixx. "They're pretty much useless, partly because two of them are worn by men. Anyway, I'm not supposed to talk about those." Joe's Brother sighed very audibly. "I get it. I started this, so now I have to go to Nevada and finish it." Izzy started to laugh, but he was the only one. "You didn't start it," said Joe. "Besides, you're too old." "I'm 22!" "God, almost over that hill, aren't you?" said Kat. "Jesus, it's 9 o' clock. Is this meeting almost over?" No one else said anything for a while. "Well," said Johnny Depp at last," it seems like there is only one person to do this: Kat." Kat looked up. "I think not." "No one else really wants to touch it after it was in your mouth and your shoe." Nikki Sixx spoke up. "This task was appointed to you. And if you do not find a way, no one will." "Yeah, right," she said. "She's not going alone!" cried a voice under the table. Sora crawled out. "Damn, I'm hungry." |
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| The Cult of the Tongue Ring part eight |
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