by Andre Pisco
We dried up and got out of there. The body aches reappeared, and I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. I kissed her again outside her room before I headed for mine.
As soon as I lay in bed, I didn't get up again until the following day.
Chapter IV
I woke up with someone knocking on the door. Three abrupt knocks on several hallway doors. The sound echoed and lasted even after the person went down the stairs with what could only be boots, probably leather ones. I rubbed my eyes, yawned, squeezed and got up. It was like a layer of extra fatigue had left my body.
"I can see you're still the same." A familiar voice said, while I still had my eyes on the ceiling and was wearing boxers.
"Victoria?" I asked, swinging forward and sitting on the bed with my feet hovering centimeters from the floor. I leaned my head against the wall and looked at her. It had been two or three months since we last saw each other, but for us it was as if they were just days.
"What the hell have you gotten yourself into, James? They came and woke me up early in the morning, saying it was urgent and I had to come. They skirted roads and roundabouts several times so I wouldn't know where we are."
"I'm sorry, I didn't expect them to pick you up so soon. I even thought that I would still have time to call you,' I replied, still half sleepy and seeing her twice, 'do you still remember what my father tried to find out?
"Corruption? I see. It's true, isn't it? For you to be here, in a secret place... The rumors of a special group within the organization are true. Hm, let me guess, you were the one involved in that mess at the Lenetius owner's house, weren't you? Every Hunter knows that already."
"As insightful as ever, Vic. Yeah, it was me and my group. It didn't go very well," I said, as I saw her adjusting her glasses, her amber eyes hidden behind the lens, "our watcher was captured. We need a new one, someone who can tell us about the beasts, where to go, those complementary things that you've always liked. You were the first person I thought of. I know it's all very unexpected, that you don't even know what the mission is, but I'd like you to join us. I know you're trustworthy and we make a great team."
"Of course, we do. No wonder we were considered the best duo of our year. Well, it's not like I have anything better to do. So why not? What's the plan?" She answered me and walked up to the bed, sitting next to me and straightening her skirt with a red and black chess pattern and a red top upholstered by a leather jacket.
"Aren't you in any group?" I asked her, following the contours of her body. The years went by and she got even better. Her hips had enlarged in a few months and the clothes she was wearing diminished, "we're supposed to act like normal Hunters but also accept certain side missions. Good to see you're in rank C, too. Didn't you bring your bow?"
"I'm in a group. I've been in others, but none of them can hold me. Most of them are impulsive and fight with no plan. You know I've never been that type," she said and placed her hand on top of mine, intertwining them, "they wouldn't let me in armed. Just because you trust me doesn't mean they will, does it? But that's it. Are you thinking of getting up?"
"I see. I got lucky in the group I managed. I'll explain later. You'll love them, I think. Well, I'd be dressed by now if you hadn't come in with me in boxers."
"So, James, it's nothing that I've never seen before," she said, facing me and whispering in my ear, "as I recall, we have a pending matter."
"And you say it was me who didn't change." I answered her, her hand scrubbing my groin area.
"Well, I never said I'd changed" she told me and pulled off her glasses. She put them on the bedside table and tied the long blue hair in a ponytail.
She was already leaning over me when Maggie walked into the room without first knocking on the door. The glancing was embarrassing until I felt obliged to break the silence.
"Maggie! Are you better?"
"I have been much better. My head and body still hurt. And waking up with someone knocking on the door like he was trying to force the door didn't help... but who is this? Where did she come from?"
"Hi, I'm Victoria. Your new teammate." Vic answered her. Then she extended her arm, grabbed the round glasses and put them back on, "we were just catching up."
Maggie wasn't convinced, but she didn't say anything. Vitória got up, straightened her clothes and sat down on the table. I could tell she was wearing a pair of pink string panties under her glass tights.
"Was it you who banged on the doors?" Maggie asked her, having a sad look on her face and her sorrowful, twisted lips in the corners, "Let's not forget that Gordon exists, are we?"
"Of course not, Maggie," I told her, "This is just a precautionary measure."
"It wasn't me. It was the man who brought me up here. Tom, if I'm not mistaken. He said it was time for you to wake up." Vic told us, "Do you know him? I don't think he slept tonight. Slow pacing, dilated pupils and trouble keeping his eyes open. Not to mention the slurred speech. All signs of an exhausted person," she added.
"Probably." I answered her. I wasn't surprised. Tom didn't seem like the kind of person who could stand idly by at such a crucial time. Even I couldn't, "We better hurry then. Maggie, do you know if Elisa is still asleep?"
"I saw her go to the bathroom. It shouldn't be long now." Maggie answered me.
We remained silent for a couple of minutes until Elisa came in. She didn't knock on the door, either, and kept her eyes on Victoria. We didn't need her to speak to understand that she wasn't particularly happy that day.
"Have you heard from the hospital?" she asked me, not even questioning who the new girl was.
"Yeah. Kendra's going to be there for a few days and Ashen might be there for two weeks. They're not sure yet. I think Tom's downstairs waiting for us."
"All that's left is for you to get dressed." Vic said it and laughed, much to the disapproval of the other two.
"You're right, you're right." I said, and just now, I noticed that Maggie and Kendra had new clothes.
Maggie wore a yellow dotted dress that almost reached her ankles and Kendra had a black top, a cross-chain that went from her shoulders to her hips and a pair of grey sweatpants.
"This is all they had. " Elisa said when she first noticed I was staring.
"Now that you mention it, I need to go shopping. I can't wear this. I don't know how many people have used this." Maggie said, "I appreciate the effort, but still, damn it."
"Do you have any money? I don't think you can go ask to your father now." Elisa asked her while I was wearing my pants.
"I saved up some of the money we collected in our missions. I hadn't even thought about it. I don't even have a place to live now." she replied, absolutely dismayed.
"If you can't stay here, don't worry, you can sleep in my house. We get a mattress, open the sofa bed and give it to you and James, if he wants." Elisa answered her while looking at Victoria.
"I also have room for one or two people if necessary." Victoria added, "Oh, that's right, James, Tom said you had clean clothes in your closet. He's not sure if they're your size, but that's all there is."
"Good, that's what I needed. Clothes that might get too loose or too small for me," I vented out, before I got up, their eyes all over my body and on my cock's silhouette.
I opened the closet and searched among dozens of black pants, some skinny and others that the hem reached my foot, and more than a dozen black or gray t-shirts and long sleeves of the same colors. I ended up removing the ones that fit my size and dressed them while they looked at me, very quietly.
"We better get going." I told them while I was putting on my shoes that I had placed under the bed.
We went down the hollow staircase. I hadn't noticed the day before perhaps because I was tired or because of Tom's voice, but now that we were coming down without anyone talking, I could hear that constant drumming at every step that each one of us made. It sounded as if there was nothing else under the stairs and that they were made of plastic that could tear or break at any
time. I opened the door and let them through me before I went out, too.
The room was asleep. The tables were almost all empty, except for one, where three boys had gathered and exchanged impressions about what they were seeing on the screen. There was also a white-haired woman in her 40's, who was in the corner of the room filling a plastic cup using the steaming coffee machine. Unlike the previous day, there seemed to be no danger on the horizon, no warning that made them alert, their eyes bulging and their fingers red and swollen from thrashing the keys so much.
"Now what? Shouldn't Tom be here?" Maggie asked, "isn't that the guy who helped us before?" she asked and pointed to one of the rooms whose windows were transparent.
Foxel was talking to someone who was standing on the right side of the window. We couldn't see who it was, but the conversation didn't seem to be going well. The red-haired boy, known for his arrogance and carelessness towards even Rank A beasts, agitated his hands and frowned until a vein emerged and he also seemed to be screaming. The room contained all the noise inside him but the way he opened his mouth until he revealed his gum was a sufficient sign that he was angry and upset with someone or something and was not stirred to display it.
"We better stay here and wait for Tom." I told them while I was trying to figure out what he was saying.
"He's complaining about Shinner not being arrested." Victoria said, "Is he a traitor? Who else is involved?"
"Since when can you read lips?"
"I'm taking classes. I thought I could use it someday, I just didn't expect it to be so soon." Vic said, "You didn't answer me, James."
"Yes, he's involved. We don't know who else. But we assume there are still a few of them. Shinner still doesn't know we know, we hope he'll take us to the others," I told her, keeping my eyes on the window a few meters from the door.
Apart from the room where I had been yesterday, all the rooms there had a window facing out. I assumed it was so that nothing would happen there without people knowing, thereby maintaining an ideal of transparency to which everyone was exposed.
"That Lenetius is also with the Reapers, right? I always told you that businessmen would be the reason for our fall. The ads in the cities only make us seem above normal people and drive them away." Vic said, still unaware that Maggie listened to her attentively and who she was a daughter of.
Maggie cleared her throat before she said, "I'm his daughter. You're not that far from the truth as that. My father, when I was younger, told me that the advertisements offered a certain security to people. That the public tests indicated that the idea of new weapons and shields, which were even stronger, calmed people."
"Sorry, I didn't know he was your father." Vic said and put his hand on Maggie's shoulder, "We don't always deserve the parents we have. But I understand what he told you. People like to feel safe but don't like the idea of having a group that could dominate them. These new events will not help."
"It would be foolish to spread what happened yesterday." Elisa interfered.
"Oh, you don't know? Your fight on the highway is on every channel. They're saying it was a fight between Hunters from different groups. They've already called a meeting with Dr. Parseus and protests in several cities."
"Parseus? Isn't he the current Hunters president?" Elisa asked, still a little suspicious, "Hell, they're all shit, feeding on lies. Stupid people are the ones who fall for these things," she added.
"Yeah, I saw the news on that TV when they brought me here. It was last-minute news all morning."
We all looked at a TV strapped to the ceiling. It was one of those square, old TVs that sometimes filled itself with static scratches. I hadn't even noticed her existence until Vic got our attention. It was an object displaced from time itself. In a place with so much cutting-edge technology, it was strange to have that TV, a reminder of another time.
"Look, Foxel's leaving the room." Maggie told us.
He left the room with his sword behind his back, stored in the scabbard, whispering something to himself and only stopped when he noticed us.
"Look who they are. I haven't forgotten what you did to me." He said, before he was interrupted.
"Foxel, it's not the best time." said Tom, leaving the room behind him, "you already know what they went through last night. Leave them alone. Go back to your life, they already have work to do."
"Okay, fine. Send Ashen my regards. And don't ever summon me here again. You know how much I abhor this place. It always stinks of sweat and I'm allergic to dust. Damn it." He said it and left with his right hand in his pocket and whistling a melodic song.
Even the boys in front of the computer looked at him as if him being there instigated frustration in everyone. They couldn't focus with him making noise and he didn't care either. The woman refilled another cup of coffee and used her free hand to massage the left side of her forehead.
"Excuse me. Foxel is quite... how to say this, impulsive. But he's one of the best Hunters we've got, and I have explicit orders not to piss him off." Tom said, the skin under his glasses looking like it was about to turn into sticky liquid and leak down his nose and cheeks, "Come with me. You haven't eaten anything yet, have you? You better eat your breakfast before you leave. We have a mission for you. I also talked to Aldrin last night, and he thinks it's best if you sleep here for a few days. At least until the dust settles," he added.
"We know about the news on TV." I told him.
Tom looked at Victoria and then turned his gaze at me, "Don't worry about it. Do your job and then come back here. Avoid prolonged contact with the police or the population. Moving on, I got you some cupcakes. You like doughnuts, right? I didn't know if you had allergies or different tastes, so I bought various types. Follow me."
He took us to a room next to the coffee machine where the walls were light blue and the ceiling white, matching with the different colored pouffes. In the corner there was a long table with orange boxes, all of them of the same size, all open and containing sugary donuts, sugar-free doughnuts, some of them with chocolate, others with jelly, among some white and others that I had never seen before. The aromas blended with the flavor of coffee and the orange juice that Tom had put next to the Donuts, as well as the chocolate milk next to it. The three of them sat on the pouffes and I sat on one of the pillow chairs that were against the wall.
"It's the rest room." Tom said, "When you're done eating, meet me in that room where I was. I know it's early and you may still be stunned from yesterday, but I have a mission for you. There are people in the administration who want to put you to the test as soon as possible. It will also be good to see how you work together," he said and left us alone.
We hadn't eaten anything in nearly half a day. We threw ourselves at the cakes, devouring one of each, the sugar and the chocolate getting on our chin and above the upper lip. Vic ate only two, Elisa and I ate five each, and Maggie ate only three white ones. She told us she didn't like chocolate and avoided any sugar. Something about keeping the body she had and hydrates. My mind had turned off at that time and I was only focused on one photograph in the lower left corner. It was an old photo of Ashen with his arm around Tom's neck, both looking at the camera, smiling as Ashen made a peace sign with his fingers.
"Strange to know he used to smile, isn't it?" Elisa asked me.
"Yes, he was genuinely happy in this photo." I answered her as I looked at the photo and rubbed my fingers so the sugar would drip.
As soon as we were done, we headed to the room where we had seen Tom arguing with Foxel. He was sitting in front of a table, among reams of papers, with a pair of bottle bottom glasses.
"Someone has to check yesterday's reports," he said, his throaty voice and a fuzzy smile, "I'm starting to get tired of saying this but follow me."
Victoria was right. He was much slower than on the previous day, the tie with a gray and black pattern was curved, and he had a pale, almost ghostly tone. He took us into a room in one of the perpendicular corridors. Apart from one or another p
erson on the way, the place seemed almost empty, a rest after the storm that had hit the organization yesterday. He opened the door to an amphitheater with dimmed lights and with a naphthalene ball smell as well as cheap cigarettes. Five people, three men and two women, were seated, far from each other, with a computer lying on their lap. They looked at us as soon as we came in, but quickly went back to the work of seeing multiple images flashing on the screen and making calls to other Hunters.
"They're watchers. Older people, who can no longer fight, tend to stay here and give out information through calls or communicators. Younger people, like you, can help in battle. It's not always like this, but it's the usual. We get the requests for help minutes before they reach headquarters and we can analyze which ones are special. They have a different frequency, you know? You probably know that, but let's keep going." Tom said as he walked down the stairs towards the stage table, " This room is usually fuller than this but after yesterday most are resting. Take this, you'll need it." He said and took one of the laptops off the table. It was all black and it had a sticker that said "Hunters."
"Don't we win anything?" Elisa said.
"The computer is for the group. There's a program that shows you special missions that no group has yet accepted. You can accept them without having to come back here. Try it."
Victoria turned on the pc and, with the help of Tom who explained everything to her, accessed the program and a list of missions came up. She scrolled down, ignoring the missions that had an acceptance stamp and those that were against rank A beasts, until she found one that seemed right for us.
Rank C beast - city of Eretreia - appearance reported 7 minutes ago.
Victoria read out loud, "Can I accept?"
Chapter V
We all agreed. We were all C rank, except for Elisa who was above us, but we needed to maintain our cover. We had to start somewhere, and it would be a good start for the current team. We still missed Kendra, but we couldn't get sloppy just because she wasn't there. We had to fight for her, get revenge for what they'd done to her and punish them for it. Tom told us that there was still no news about Gordon and even the infiltrators they had in the Reapers were in the dark.