Jacob Somersbyy stood on the corner by himself reading the message across the street that had been painted with amazing fluency across the wall of the "House". It astounded him that someone had possessed that much paint and the intelligence, let alone the talent, to use it.
He stood outside in the overcast afternoon because the rumors were that the House was no longer safe. The Legion had as much as raided it to retrieve one of their own. He'd heard the rumors. Slick had gotten himself taken in. All of it was amazing. His quarry, he'd also found out, had taken a unique journey. It was all secret, all that Jake could learn was that Gideonn was no longer in the city. He would wait. Gideonn's family was here, that much he knew. He'd be back. Jake had to be very careful about how he pursued the man via his family.
He lit up one of the cloves he'd lifted off the sleeping fools inside the House.
They would waste his time soon and soon enough be of no more interest to him than a room full of fly covered dung.
Chi was proving troublesome, useless a burden. Either she needed to be eliminated or he needed to leave. Choices. There had to be a better way. This blonde woman who knew his quarry� He'd considered her from a distance, knew something about her. Knew her name. It was time to make it much more personal.
The Freemen Lieutenant assigned as Macy Brrace's personal bodyguard pushed his hand through his chocolate brown hair and resettled his cap. "Ma'am," he asked as they stood inside her quarters at the Garrison. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Dark brown eyes followed her motions from dresser to knapsack as she prepared for the short jaunt. He watched her clip on a weapons harness and tug on a light jacket over it.
The Lt. rubbed his eyes, heavy brown lashes almost looking as if he'd used eyeliner on them they were so dark and full -- brushed his cheeks as he sighed softly. Very softly. Macy was one woman he did not want to exasperate.
"I have to know, Lt. I won't feel right until I do." She was in constant motion, checking her weapons and slinging the pack over her shoulder as she characteristically paced like a mother lioness. "I wasn't there when my daughter needed me to be. I need to see this place. Besides, I can handle myself."
"I can understand that, Ma'am, really I can. Since you're determined to go,
I'll be going with you, of course." He stood straight, waiting for her to regard him with those particularly piercing eyes of hers.
"I'm going in alone, Lt. Is that understood ... acceptable to you?" She pivoted to face him as she spoke.
The Lieutenant's eyes widened and his six-foot frame stiffened. "I don't think that's wise. I'll dress in street clothes if you like ma'am. But going in alone..." He seemed for a moment to run out of things to say.
"You'll be right outside if I should need you," Macy tried to reassure the man.
His voice came back right quick. "I think I'll wear civvies if it's all the same to you." Normally, he followed Macy around in uniform or fatigues, but this was very dangerous territory as far as he was concerned. He wasn't dragging along an entire unit to follow this woman he'd been ordered to guard, but he was not going to get killed for looking like a freebie and lose his charge in the process. "And I'll wait outside. But if there's the slightest hint you're in trouble, I'm in there. Agreed?"
"Agreed." She thought this was a good idea. Her own attire reflected nothing of her 'freebie' origin� jeans, cropped tank top and a light jacket.
He stepped out of her room and snapped his fingers to get the attention of yet another Freemen. This one was a woman. "Regina. I'll be right back," he smiled at her and the Corporal nodded in return.
"Yes sir," Regina Landiss said. The Lt. took off down the hall to change ASAP.
After he had changed (sorry for the delay there...) the Lt. Escorted Macy to the streets. The idea was to take an unmarked car, leave it guarded and get as close to the House as possible without raising an alarm among the culties who lived there. This they did rather well.
===
At the "House" Jake leaned against that wall across the street and watched the silent building.
The nice thing about being a kid was nobody paid much attention to you on the street, unless of course they 'liked' kids but Dai wasn't particularly worried. He had his stun gun and his shadows were never more then a few steps away. 'Course, he was going to catch several kinds of flack for going back to the house but it was something he felt he had to do before he went off on his adventure to K-land. The writing on the wall caught his eye when he reached that area so he read it aloud to himself, not noticing anyone else being about.
A rare grin slid into place. "A culty that can read, write and actually spell...look out New Rydynn." Daimonn had heard about the writing on the Abyss wall from his mother. This didn't look to have the same skill, so he thought it was probably just a copycat. That was the Cult. One of them gets a good idea, they all think it's theirs.
Jake was watching the streets carefully and smiled as he recognized a familiar face. He did not know Daimonn, but he had seen him that day. He'd seen several things... had even given the 'young lovers' a bottle of clean, unopened booze before Slick had taken Riane up to his room and Jake had left the premises but not the area.
Macy climbed out of the car and closed the door abruptly, pivoting to start down the street with a sharpness that if it drew any attention - unlikely - it would seem she was slightly irritated with the occupants within the car - though in reality she wasn't.
The Lt. clambered out of the car after her, playing along with the game, behaving as if he would follow. The car was left guarded and he did indeed follow, at a distance. The stalking jilted lover? Let the people on the street guess.
Daimonn was right, the house was nothing to be frightened of. He took a long, hard look at the building and that's all it was, a building. Okay, so it was fully of whacked out culties. That just meant it wasn't a place he should be going inside again any time soon.
Macy strode purposefully, a veiled anger in her steps that 'was' real, just not directed at her companions. A piercing green gaze missed nothing, though she dismissed the 'artwork' as she passed; her quarry and any 'dangerous types' were the extent of what mattered to her just now.
The Lt. moved carefully, trying not to look like an officer of the Legion, though it was difficult to slough off his training and incorporate the slouch, the gait, and the attitude of a civilian. Macy didn't have as many shadows as some of the others... she was a grown, lone woman. Riane, her daughter had her own shadows and thus, taking care of one woman, as opposed to say, the Legion leader's wives and their various offspring, was much "easier" and required fewer 'shadows' though, the Lt. thought, no less steadfast attention to detail.
She gave him a run for his money, all right. He smiled slightly to himself as he saw how she moved and where she went. He too dismissed the manifesto on the House wall, surrounded as it was by other graffiti, as the ravings of a more coherent Cultie mind, but a Cultie mind none-the-less. This was perhaps one of the reasons why he was a Lt. still and not yet anything higher.
Oh, Daimonn knew the blonde marching up to the house by sight and barely managed to keep a groan behind his teeth. Now he better understood what he saw as Ri's lack of brains, it was a genetic thing because here came her mother. Dai made a note to ask his own mother a few questions but he was truly coming to the conclusion that women, on the whole, were not terribly intelligent creatures.
The Lt. rounded the corner and stood in shadow. He saw the man across the street, he saw Macy, and he saw Daimonn and he in turn groaned silently. The kid was not supposed to be here! He tapped his subvocals and tried to connect with Dai's shadows. He wanted to know what they thought they were doing...
The Lt. moved in more closely. He was determined to be in the right place at the right time.
Mace allowed herself a glance back toward the Lt and frowned as though piqued. She quickly crossed the street, feigning an irritation and desire to distance herself from him.
Daimonn he leaned his shoulder up against a broken lamppost. He wasn't trying to hide. He also wasn't about to go back in that building, not even after Ri's mother. She was a grown up and on her own.
Ss for Dai's shadows, they informed the Lt. that were following orders and orders were the boy could go where he wanted, within reason. If he tried to go in the building again, they would prevent it. The Lt. simply growled at the answer he got and remained where he was. He had his job, they had theirs.
Macy wondered at Ri's having entered the house at all - from the outside there was nothing that she could imagine would draw her daughter in ... except, well the danger itself. Damn, why did she have to be so like Ric and herself? Why couldn't she be more like Mik?
At first the figure by the lamppost didn't make an impression on Macy, but at second glance she drew a hissed intake of breath in recognition. A muttered expletive left her lips - what was he doing here? Mace had spent several weeks --after finding out Ric and Roan were pregnant-- living at the Firehouse with Bliss & Mik and their boys. Of course she knew that Dai had been the one to rescue Riane... but he shouldn't be anywhere near this place.
The Lt. watched to intervene if needed, if Macy spoke to Dai and it went badly. He was having a hard time imagining any of this going well at all... His eyes stayed on Macy.
So did Jake's. "Bless the Messiah," he barely dared to breathe. She'd walked right into his life. Now he prayed that something yet more marvelous would happen.
In the realm of the chaotic, it did.
Down the street opposite where the Lt. and Mace had left the car came a small group of men... they were laughing together and joking, dressed in whatever they could scavenge to cover their bodies. They seemed to have been successful in a long day's work and were returning to the Cult House -- though it wasn't considered completely safe -- as a stopping point on their way elsewhere. The three drew Jake's attention as well as the Lieutenants. "Axann's balls," the Lt. muttered and tapped his subvocals to inform his two fellow shadows that they might have a situation.
Mace shot Daimonn a dark look that said, "Stay put" as clearly as she could make it.
Daimonn caught the look and gave a bland one in return. He had no intention of going anywhere but back home.
She heard the voices and decided it would be a good time to get off the street.
She stepped into the house with a guarded expression and a wary glance about the premises. What a dump� it reeked with as much foul air as the look of the place and the actions that went on within. The perfect place for a dangerous adventure for a bored kid.
The Lt. cursed. Jake smiled and thought about strolling across the street and into the house, but he wanted to see what the three men coming along were planning.
The three men came down the street, paused outside quietly laughing about how they'd scored that day off an old man, a tinker, who dragged a cart around the streets pulled by an old vory'kk named Karott. "Stupid ol' man..."
"I still say you should'n'a beat him up so bad."
"Aw shut up, he had good stuff I wanted." And it went on like that.
A small voice in the back of her head said, "Okay, you've seen it now get the hell out." But of course she didn't listen to common sense any more than
Riane had. The angry maternal nature wanted more, though how she would appease that need was unclear even to Mace.
He took a few steps back, away from the street and back into the shadows. Daimonn wasn't a stupid kid and he wasn't sure who'd seen him in the house with
Ri so he felt it was a better idea to fade into the shadows while these men were about.
One of them spied the kid as he was stepping away. He had that look to him of a predator of the young. Jake saw the expression on the man's face and was disgusted. He came from a world where laws were obeyed and an iron fist ran the world. This corrupt land was not his ideal, he hated it, but he was obsessed with one goal. Even when he wasn't doing things right, it seemed the Messiah brought members of his quarry's family right into his lap.
Mace reined in her anger, forcing herself to slow down as she moved to the bar, her eyes taking in the sprawled form on the floor - passed out on drugs or alcohol.
The man took a step toward Daimonn but one of the others said, "I'm going in. I'm dry."
As Macy entered, she looked toward the fabled hole of the Spider. The darkness there didn't stir and no signs of eyes were seen there either. Though she didn't know it, the Spider had left it's hiding place when Slick was taken by the Freemen and it had not yet returned ... Her gaze followed the line of the stairs for a moment, knowing it led to 'The' room.
One lone kid drifting back into the shadows and while he didn't have his mother's talent for knowing when trouble was about to strike, he was raised to be cautious. He knew there was another person nearby even if he hadn't actually seen the man yet but at the moment the small group was of greater importance.
The guy looking after Daimonn weighed his need for something wet with his need for something sinister and the need for drink won out. "Arigh'" he said and they moved out of the street into the building. Though the man glanced back once before entering.
The Lt. was now nervous as hell and made sure he got a lot closer. He crept to a window and found a division between the old plates of metal that covered the dead eyes of the House so he could see what went on inside. Regina had his back from down the block.
Jake shook his head and strolled across the street and into the building as if he owned the place. It was a chance he wasn't about to miss out on.
The three who entered just before him were shoving sleeping bodies out of the way so they might have one of the tables to go over the bit of booty they had acquired but the one who'd said he was dry caught sight of Macy. He nudged the others with him. "A bit of fun, boys?" They laughed low and nodded. She wouldn't be here would she if she weren't looking for something� they just thought they were the something.
He'd seen Macy go in the building so once the men went in and yet another person was walking that way as well, he signaled his guardians. He was not about to make the same mistake twice. That would disappoint Mik entirely too much. He muttered under his breath. "Uncle Sparky should ground Ri's mom too..."
Mace gave a casual glance toward the three as they came in, keeping her expression as bored and uninterested as anyone else in the room. One or two heads looked to see what booty the men had with them, but also took into account their size and weapons and returned to their own business.
The one, who'd suggested fun with Macy, strolled up to her. "Hey pretty. Wanna see the upstairs?"
Now Macy wanted to see the upstairs, in a gruesome sort of way that you can't not want to know what things were like for one who'd gone there, especially with that girl having been her daughter. "Yes, why don't you show me the upstairs." A guided tour was just what she wanted.
He rubbed his hands together. "Sure thing doll. This way." He started up first, with the hopes of lulling her into a sense of security that would prove false.
The Lt outside the window nearly choked on his tongue.
"I'm Tom," the man said to Macy. "You got a name?"
"Yeah, I'm Lee." She smiled at the guy, just short of egging him on.
Her green eyes peeked out from the fringe of her liquid gold hair, the twinkle within them hiding the festering rage beneath.
Daimonn was quick in explaining to his guardians about where Macy had went, not that they didn't probably already know but he said he would stay with one guard so the others could go help Mace's guards get her out of the building if they were needed. He even offered to head home right then with the single guard so they'd know he was safely out of the way. There was a part of him looking forward to the trip to K-land, the adventure, the learning of new things but there wouldn't be any guardians hovering just out of sight once he left town ... and the shadows had always been there for him since he joined Bliss' family.
His Shadows showed new respect for the young man they guarded and dispersed to both contact the Lt. of the Legion who guarded Macy and fan out to secure the area from further unsavory elements.
Tom let Macy go by him a step or two. "Lee," he echoed. I like that. Then he made his first mistake. As she passed by him on the stair toward the upper floor, he reached out to squeeze at something he ought not to have touched.
The Lt. couldn't see what he'd done, the old banister blocked it, but he unclipped and withdrew his weapon. He took note of the kid's shadows moving in. Sub-vocalized to their head man and received confirmation that they were at his disposal. Good. Gonna need 'em... he reasoned.
Mace spun and quickly brought her knee up and around, impacting with Tom's groin. "That was not on the agenda. See, yes. Touch, no."
Maybe Macey wasn't so dumb, Dai mused as he headed for home with his guard in tow. Maybe she needed to 'face' the building the same as he had. See it for what it was instead of what it had become. Then again, maybe Ri had left something important behind, like her underwear and her Mom was just going back to get it ... which would have been a dumb idea in his estimation. He and his shadow disappeared into the haze of the day.
The two with Tom started up from their seats as their friend doubled over and misstepped on the stair to stumble down it.
"That was a mistake, bitch," the one who'd eyed Daimonn into the shadows told her, bringing up a knife. The Lt. moved toward the door.
"Yes." Mace agreed. "His." Her own knife was in her hand at ready and her other hand drifted to the gun.
Jake moved forward before the Lt. could come through the door. "Ease off gentlemen... " Jake told them, his sidearm, a very black, very deadly looking semi-automatic, in his hand.
Knives to guns, they didn't like the odds. "We was only jokin' Get on yer feet Tom..." like all bullies, when confronted with greater firepower, greater opposition, they retreated to their table to 'lick' their proverbial wounds... both body and pride.
"I think I'll take that tour some other ... time." The pause implying a different tour guide as well.
Tom got on his feet and made his way, limping, back to the table. Jake moved to the stair and up one or two. In a soft voice, his eyes bright and lively as he looked up at her, he said, "you're unharmed?" He gently eased his weapon away, now that he was on the stair instead of Tom.
She moved back down the stairs at an easy pace. "I'm fine. Thank you. Your timing is � impeccable."
"I spend a lot of time here. One must keep the unsavory element in its place. Is there something you'd like to see upstairs, miss? I can make sure no one bothers you..." He was tall, almost perfect posture a young but rugged look to him. Clean. That was the word that probably described him best even in his worn street clothes. He was inscrutably clean.
Outside, the Lt. breathed again and fell back a little to watch from the window slit.
She slid the knife back in place as she offered the man a smile. "Efforts well spent and � appreciated ... at least by me. I was simply interested in seeing what the rooms upstairs were like. Though no mention of more than 'seeing' had been made." She affected a wry grin as though acknowledging a slight error ... though who's she did not specify.
"It's easy to see why the poor fellow was so overcome, miss. He must have merely forgotten himself in the presence of such beauty." He smiled at her as if it were a private joke between them, as if he knew she knew it was a line. His smile was almost perfect. It was immediately clear he was not the typical sort who lived here. He didn't try to hide it from her. She didn't "belong" here either.
Mace chuckled softly, almost rolling her eyes. "Heard quite a few of those, haven't we?"
"Indeed." He looked her up and down. "If you've no business here, you really shouldn't stay. I don't' want to sound threatening. Its clear you can take care of yourself... I hope only to spare you and our," he coughed. "Friends over there anymore undue stress."
"Hmmm," she mused thoughtfully. "I suppose. I wouldn't want to be a bother to anyone, of course." Spoken in an innocently apologetic tone, though her eyes gleamed with a determined purpose.
"Is there something in the house I can show you then?" There were scattered snickers from below, but the man ignored them.
"Actually, I ... thought I might have left something here last time I visited."
"Feel free to look... but perhaps I should come with you... just in case." The statement felt lame but it would have to do. He held up his hands. "I promise, I've no desire to suffer poor Tom's fate. I won't touch you."
"Alright. If you behave I'm sure you'll be safe from harm." She went along with his joke in similar vein. Mace turned and began to ascend the staircase one more.
He darted ahead, careful to lead the way up the stairs unlike Tom, so as not to give her any unnecessary targets. He paused at the top. "Which room where you in when you were last here?"
She ignored the snickers completely, they weren't important. Though it did make her jaw tighten as she thought of Riane in this same place. "All the way at the end of the hall� on the right." She knew from Riane's recount of the place all too well where the room was.
She followed Jake to the hallway at the top of the stairs and pointed in the direction of 'The' room in question.
He stopped beside the room. "It hasn't been touched since the Legion was here." Why dodge the issue. "Did you know the couple?" The door to the room stood ajar and the stench that blew through with the dusty breeze from outside was foul.
"The girl is an acquaintance of mine," Macy answered without pause, though his words had given her a momentary jolt. The reek stunned her. Her daughter had slept here - and then� She coughed utterly aghast and finding it difficult to hide in her expression. She turned away as she felt the blood draining from her face. How could this have happened? How could she have allowed it - what kind of parent was she? She cleared her throat, trying to regain some semblance of composure. She couldn't lose it here of all places. "She's not like this at all. Not the girl I know anyway."
The reek was from the mess that Slick had made when his body had been hit by the stun gun. Feces were smeared into the carpet. Empty bottles lay about the room. Slick and Riane had both been drinking. The bedclothes were still there, but for the sheet that lay on the floor where Slick had lain when Ri covered him after he'd lost control of his bodily functions at the stun.
"Of course," he said non-committally.
Below, the Lt. holstered his gun and went into the building to wait where he could better hear. She wasn't supposed to be out of his sight.
Riane's story combined with the sight of the room set Macy's imagination into override for a few moments. The bed was stained with what looked like dried blood, and a distinct scent hung in the air - Macy shuddered and turned from the room. Her daughter's first experience with intimacy - She could barely stand the thought of this anymore. "I've seen enough. Let's go." Her voice was low, crowded with narrowly controlled emotions. Mace swallowed and started down the hall.
And the Lt. was there, at the top of the steps. He eyed the man with her as they came toward him. The man leaned in to speak to Macy but the Lt. couldn't hear what he said.
