by Carver Pike
“No, Rico. Don’t,” Riker said sarcastically. Belgrave laughed.
Belgrave watched as Goody Bones wiped some of the blood from his chest and rubbed it between his fingers.
“The Slums are mine. You can hunt here, but if you find Cutter on my land, I get half of the bounty,” Belgrave informed him.
Goody Bones took his time contemplating the offer, still looking at the blood on his fingers.
“Are you Belgrave?” he asked with his focus remaining on his hand.
“Maybe he is. Maybe he isn’t,” Riker answered.
Goody Bones looked up from his fingers and glared at Riker.
“Someone needs to shut your fucking leprechaun’s mouth.”
Riker started to raise his weapon again when Belgrave reached over, put his hand atop the muzzle, and lowered it towards the ground.
“Yeah, I’m Belgrave.”
Goody Bones turned his attention to him and sneered.
“Well hell, why didn’t you say so?” he asked.
“I’m lookin’ for Cutter too, so we’ll help you find him. But I get half the royce, not a measly five thousand. I want half of what Colossus is really offering,” Belgrave said.
Goody Bones nodded. He raised his gun slowly and turned so that the barrel was pointed at one of Belgrave’s men. The man in the crosshairs looked nervous. He glanced over at Belgrave.
Goody Bones pulled the trigger and shot the man in the face. Riker started to raise his gun to fight, but Belgrave once again gestured for him to lower it.
“There. Now we’re even. Now we’re both down one head of cattle,” Goody Bones said. “By the way, my name’s Goody Bones.”
“Fair enough,” Belgrave replied.
***
Ivy rested on the bed as Gabe cleaned her face with a warm rag. She winced as he gently wiped the caked blood away from her cuts. She looked over at him and saw that he was preoccupied.
He was worried about Lisa.
She didn’t quite understand why she felt a connection with the plain Jane girl. She’d always hated women who couldn’t take care of themselves, and Lisa was no different. But for some reason, she felt sorry for switching places with her.
Ivy looked intently at Gabe, examining his face. She’d never been with a decent man before and was curious what was on his mind. The guys she’d been with in the past only had one thought and she’d been more than happy to assist with that desire.
For some reason though, Gabe didn’t seem to have that on his mind. She wondered how his mind worked. Men in her life were never nice, and she was confused by Gabe’s willingness to help her even though she was the cause of Lisa’s possible demise.
“You’re worried about her,” Ivy said questioningly.
He concentrated on cleaning one of her cuts.
“Do you love her?” she asked.
Gabe looked into Ivy’s eyes and then looked away.
“You look so much like her.”
Ivy winced and sucked in her breath when Gabe accidentally brushed a sensitive spot.
“You’re gonna be okay. Just relax.”
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
“How much trouble do you think Lisa’s in?” Gabe asked.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Cutter killed a lot of people over there already, but he seems to still have a soft spot for me.”
“Yeah, there’s evidence of his soft spot all over your face.”
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, he kicked my ass all over the place, but he didn’t kill me,” Ivy said. “He’s horrible, but I used to be his girl.”
“He won’t kill her, but he will hurt her,” Gabe replied.
“He’ll hurt her,” Ivy assured him. “That’s what he does.”
Gabe shook his head and slammed his open palm down against the bed. Ivy jumped, surprised by his sudden anger.
“Then why does Allycat seem to be so in love with him?” he asked.
The mere mention of Alleycat’s name brought a flash of anger across her face.
“Alleycat?” she asked as she sat up on the bed. “Fuck Alleycat! He doesn’t care about her. He’s only using her to get to Belgrave.”
“What does he want with Belgrave?”
“Darkar is falling apart, and everyone there wants to kill Cutter.”
“Tell me about it,” Gabe interjected.
“Here in the Slums, Belgrave’s running a pretty solid operation,” Ivy continued. “He gets money from all of the Coral coming in, as long as he keeps control of the streets for Colossus. Colossus makes no money if the city falls apart.”
“So Cutter wants what Belgrave has.”
“Power.”
“This place is crazy.” Gabe began to pace. “I just need to get to Cutter before he kills Allie or Lisa on the other side.”
Ivy rolled her eyes at Gabe and patted the bed next to her. Gabe sat back down.
“What’s so special about Lisa anyway? She didn’t even have the guts to seduce you. She needed me for that.”
She touched Gabe’s inner thigh and moved in close, offering a teasing kiss. Gabe backed away.
“You two are so different,” he said.
Ivy stood up angrily and towered over him at the foot of the bed, her hands on her hips.
“We’re different? What about you and Cutter? Think about it. Your darkest desire was to kill your ex-girlfriend, and that brought over Cutter. Lisa’s darkest desire was to get up the nerve to go after you, and make you love her. She’s in danger right now all because you were too blind to notice her in your world. It’s a shame that she had to go through so much for you to see her.”
“Yeah,” Gabe agreed. “You’re right.”
Ivy threw her hands in the air and walked away from him.
“I don’t even know why I’m trying to win you anyway. I know how the story goes. You’re the Haissem. You’re gonna change the world. What would you want with a bitch like me?”
“What is it with all this Haissem stuff? Everyone’s calling me that, but no one wants to explain it,” Gabe said.
Ivy glanced around the room and spotted some of Lisa’s belongings on the dresser. She snatched up a tube of red lipstick and turned back to Gabe. “Don’t move,” she ordered.
“What the. . .”
She shoved Gabe onto the bed and straddled him. With the lipstick in hand, she wrote the word “Haissem” on Gabe’s bare chest in large red letters. She hopped off and grabbed his arm, yanking him to the bathroom.
Ivy flipped on the light and shoved Gabe towards the mirror. There, in the mirror, written in large red letters was the word “messiaH.”
Gabe looked down at his chest and saw the word “Haissem,” and then stared back into the mirror. Again, the reflection read, “messiaH.”
“You’re going to change things, Gabe. You’ll change the darkness to light,” Ivy informed him.
“Cutter! Property of Colossus! Five thousand royce for help in capturing him. He’s traveling with six of his gang!”
The words cut through the air. Ivy froze in place and glanced at Gabe, who looked as worried as she felt.
Gabe backed out of the bathroom and dashed over to the window. He pulled back the curtain, slightly, and saw the parade of vehicles on the street below. He looked back at Ivy.
“We have to get out of here,” he said.
“They might not find us,” Ivy argued.
“Trust me. Several people saw us on the streets headed towards this hotel. You images would do just about anything for money. No offense.”
He began to get dressed.
***
Sergio also stood at his window and watched Goody Bones’ caravan. Conductor was spread out on the bed, his arms behind his head, as comfortable as could be.
“Don’t ye be a worryin’ nah,” Conductor suggested. “Theys a keep goin’.
“You think so?” Sergio asked.
No sooner had he said that than the hotel clerk ran out into the street
and over to Goody Bones’ jeep.
“Wait! Wait! He’s in there!” the clerk yelled.
Goody Bones slapped his driver in the back of his head and told him to stop the vehicle. The driver did as he was told in time for the clerk to catch up with them.
“Hey, Mister!” the clerk yelled. “Your man’s in there. In my hotel. Upstairs!”
Sergio let the curtain fall closed.
“That son of a bitch,” he said.
***
By the time Gabe and Ivy gathered their things and made it out into the hallway, the others were already there, waiting for direction.
“Gabe, they know we’re here. The clerk downstairs just told ‘em,” Sergio said.
Gabe looked over at Ivy with an “I told you so” look. Ivy shrugged her shoulders.
“I guess we will do just about anything for money,” she said.
“We should head up to the roof,” Dozier suggested. “There’s gotta be a fire escape.”
“Yeah, they’ll be blocking the lobby for sure,” Gabe agreed.
He turned towards Haylay, who was nervously biting his bottom lip.
“You should leave us now. It’s gonna get dangerous.”
Haylay shook his head.
“No, baby. Being around y’all has been dangerous from the start, and it’s too late now,” he argued. “They done seen me with y’all. They seen me at the opera house, and that nasty ass clerk saw me with you downstairs. I’m as much a part of this now as y’all are.”
“Just say that you didn’t know who we were or what we were up to. You’re a prostitute, they’ll believe you if you say that we paid you,” Gabe said.
Haylay shrugged Gabe off and passed him as he headed up the stairs.
“Hangin’ with y’all has been kinda fun,” he called out over his shoulder. “Believe it or not, I ain’t got any friends. I think I’ll stick with you a little longer. If things get too hot maybe I’ll do what you said.”
Gabe followed him up the stairs.
“How much hotter can it get?” he said under his breath.
***
Armed men charged through the front door and fanned out in all directions, sweeping the place, ready to open fire on anything that moved. Outside, the remaining men set up a perimeter to make sure that no one would escape.
All of Goody Bones’ soldiers had fire in their eyes and blood on their minds. They were hyped up on Coral and ready to fight. Goody Bones laughed as he watched his bloodthirsty hounds on the hunt. He held the vial that dangled from his neck up to his nose and sniffed in the orange powder. He wiped the residue off with the back of his hand.
***
Dozier threw his body into the door at the top of the stairs and smashed it outwards. The lock and wooden frame shattered and crashed to the ground. Gabe and Dozier ran to the right side of the building while Sergio and Conductor ran to the left. They were all seeking out a fire escape and checking the ground below for any hired guns. When Sergio peered down at the street, one of Goody Bones’ soldiers saw him.
“They’re on the roof! They’re on the roof!” the soldier shouted. A second voice and then a third echoed the words.
“Nothin’ over here, but there’s a guy on the street watchin’ out for us,” Sergio informed the others.
“Dang, for bein’ such Coralheads, they seem to know what they’re doin’ down there,” Dozier said.
“That’s all Goody Bones’ men do is fight,” Ivy said. “They fight, get high, and fuck. That’s about it.”
Dozier peeked over the side of the building.
“There’s a ladder over here, but there’s a fuckin’ lynch mob down there waitin’ for us,” he said.
“N’aint gon be climbin’ a down on is side,” Conductor said after checking his side.
“Same over here,” Gabe called out.
They could hear the soldiers racing up the stairs. Language yelled something that couldn’t be understood by anyone and frantically pointed towards the stairs.
“They’re coming up!” Dozier yelled.
Dozier and Language took up fighting positions at the right side of the door. Gabe and Sergio positioned themselves on the opposite side. Ivy, Haylay, and Conductor ducked down behind random rooftop objects including a smoke stack and a ventilation fan. They were prepared to battle anyone who made it through the others.
The first of Goody Bones’ soldiers appeared and Language greeted him with a bullet between his eyes. Several more goons made it to the top, but were more prepared and crouched down and hid behind the wall on the floor below.
Bullets flew back and forth, as both sides tried to gain the upper hand.
“Goody Bones followed us all the way from Darkar?” Gabe asked.
“Colossus must have put a really big bounty on that goofy little head of yours,” Dozier teased.
***
Goody Bones walked with his hands in his pockets and a smug look on his face as he climbed the stairs at his own pace. As he neared the top of the stairs, one of his thugs yelled down at him.
“They’ve blocked the door up there!”
“Let’s set this joint on fire then,” Goody Bones called out, laughing and clapping his hands. Several of the goons laughed with him. Bottles of liquor were passed up the stairs.
Goody Bones made sure to grab one.
“No sense in wasting it all,” he said as he popped the top and took a long swig.
The rest of it he poured onto the ground around him. His men followed suit and poured liquor all over the ground, flinging it onto the walls of the stairwell as well.
***
Gabe and the others watched as Goody Bones’ men went to work, dousing the building. One of the soldiers threw a bottle at the rooftop doorway. It almost hit Language in the face, but she blocked it with an open hand and received a small cut on her forearm.
“They’re gonna torch the place,” Gabe said.
“They wouldn’t burn the whole place down would they?” Haylay asked.
“They damn sure would, and they are!” Dozier yelled.
Bottles were smashed all over the place below them. The soldiers started to drop back, and the soldier who threw the bottle at Language held a lit match out in front of him and grinned up at the doorway. Language grinned back and then put a bullet in his forehead. When his lifeless body dropped the match, the flames ignited instantly.
“He was gonna do it anyway,” Dozier defended her before anyone else had the chance to challenge the decision.
Gabe backed away from the doorway and watched as the flames licked at the doorframe like a demon lashing out at them. In some ways, the flames were no different from any of the other beasts that had tried to kill him since crossing through the mirror.
“They’re bringing the building down,” Gabe said under his breath.
Dozier pointed at Gabe and wagged a finger in his direction.
“Well whatever this Haissem is meant to do better play out real quick ‘cause we ain’t got a way off this roof,” he said.
Ivy looked over the edge of the building.
“We can shoot our way down the ladder,” she suggested.
“Lisa, you are out of your mind,” Sergio said.
“Ivy,” Ivy corrected him.
“What?” Sergio asked.
“She’s Lisa’s image, Ivy. Lisa’s back on the other side,” Gabe informed him.
Everyone turned towards Ivy and glared at her as if unsure of whether or not they should trust her. She paid them no attention and continued to explain.
“I’d rather die fighting than stay up here and burn to death,” she said.
“Even if we make it down from here, we can’t go into the alleys,” Haylay reminded them.
“I ain’t worried about the alleys. Let’s do it,” Dozier said as he marched towards the side of the building.
“Maybe you’re not worried about the alleys, but them things in the alleys are worried about you. You shouldn’t go messin’ where you shouldn’
t be messin’,” Haylay argued.
Sergio glanced over the edge of the building and saw that the back alley was empty. There were no guards waiting for them at the bottom of the ladder.