by Darcy Town
“Right.” Rake patted her head and made for the open front door. He closed it, re-did the locks, and moved a chair against the doorknob. “Hey, Ravil?”
Ravil stared at the man she’d gutted, she had not moved. Rake took her blood-covered hands in his. “Come on, Bebette.” He pulled her into the bathroom. She followed him without protest. He took the knife from her and set it to the side, out of her reach. He stood behind her and turned on the tap. “You saved my life, Ravil.”
“Oh.” She nodded blankly and stared at the blood on the blade.
“Stabbing someone is a lot different than shooting, I know.” Rake rubbed her hands between his, rinsing off the clotting blood. “But you did what you had to and that is all you need to think on it. Okay?”
Ravil watched red swirl down the drain. She’d never killed anyone up close and personal before. She leaned back into Rake, comforted by his presence. She took a deep breath, a mistake. She smelled blood and her stomach churned.
Rake picked her up and turned her towards the tub. He kept her from falling as she threw up. He gazed at the bloody knife, not sure if he should say something comforting, he opted not to. He looked towards the ceiling. When she stopped, he looked down. “Feeling better?”
She nodded and stared at her hands, still red under her nails. Her shirt was splashed with blood. “It smells.”
Rake moved her back to the sink and grabbed the half-used conditioner she’d left from the night before. He squeezed it into his palms and rubbed it across her fingers and wrists. “This will help with the smell, but we really need some good soap to get it all off.” He leaned over and picked at her fingernails. “Blood is shit to get out of things, but it will come off of your hands after a good scrub.” He rubbed her wrists. “Did you get hurt?”
She shook her head. “No, he didn’t even notice me there, he didn’t look down even when I—”
“Good,” Rake cut her off and let go of her hands. He tilted her chin and Ravil looked up at him. “Thank you, Ravil.” He chewed on his lip and leaned his elbows on the counter. He looked over; she still looked pale. “So how about we find breakfast?”
She shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”
“Not what I asked.” He pulled her back from the sink and set her to the side. He looked around and held his hand up. He stepped out of the bathroom and brought in an old blanket. “Dry off.”
“Okay.”
Rake dropped the knife in the sink and gave it a rinse. He looked her over, she stared at the floor sightlessly, her eyes haunted. He felt compelled to say something, anything to get that look off her face. “So.” He nudged her with his foot. “I saw you fell asleep watching the movies again.”
A little color returned to her face. “I couldn’t sleep, so I started them from the beginning. Last I remember they were in the garbage room.”
“Classic.” He grinned and handed her back the knife.
Ravil slipped it under her shirt. She noticed that her shirt was covered in blood. Her hands shook. Rake grabbed the shirt and pulled it over her head. He threw the shirt in the tub and smiled. “Gone! No more blood, Ravil. Look, all better!”
She squeaked and wrapped her arms around her bare chest. She turned towards the wall, humiliated.
Rake frowned at her behavior and cocked his head. It took him a second to realize that she was shy. He hadn’t been shy in years. He smirked and pulled his t-shirt off and threw it on her head for her to take. She did not unwrap her arms from her chest. She wouldn’t look up at him. He closed his eyes and sighed. “Okay pancake, my eyes are closed.”
Ravil snatched the shirt and pulled it over her head. The black shirt went down to her mid-thighs. She turned around and cleared her throat. “What will you wear?”
He popped one eye open. “I think your jumbo hoodie in the other room will suit me fine.” He sauntered out of the bathroom.
She watched him go and followed. “Why did you call me a pancake? That is a breakfast food.”
Rake slipped her hoodie over his head. “You lack certain feminine qualities that men find appealing, Bebette. There’s nothing for you to cover, so I find your shyness rather adorable.” He scratched his black hair and looked back at her. “Why any dudes want to fuck children, yech.”
Ravil turned scarlet and covered her chest. “I have feminine parts. They’re just not very, uh, well defined yet…I’m not a child!”
“You look like one, so you might as well be.” He picked his leather jacket up from the floor and slipped it on over Ravil’s hoodie. He sidestepped the growing blood pool around the man she’d stabbed and picked up both guns. “It’s okay. I was a late bloomer too. I was actually your height once.” He grinned and stepped out onto the balcony. He looked back at her and hooked a finger. “Come on, flatty.”
Ravil picked up the discarded movie player and followed him out. She glared at his back as he jumped down to the dumpster in the alley below. “How old are you anyways? You don’t look very old! You don’t even have man face hair!”
Rake looked up at her. “That’s genetics working against me, not age. I’m, uh, twenty…” He tapped his skull. “…Six, or seven, pretty sure one of those two is right.”
“How can you not know?” She jumped. He caught her and set her on her feet.
Rake shrugged. “Not really sure what year it is.” He looked down the empty alley. “You lose track of time in a place like this, you lose track of a lot of things.” He searched his pockets and found his sunglasses. He slipped them on and stared into the blue sky. He looked back at her. “Put your glasses on.”
Ravil did, she looked up at the sky and towards the populated street at the end of the alley. “They make everything pink.”
“You’ll get used to it.” He grabbed her hand. “Having those is better than trying to cover your eyes all of the time. Keeping your eyes to the ground in this place screams victim.”
Ravil looked at their linked hands. “Is that why you hold my hand too?”
He nodded and joined the foot and bicycle traffic in the street. “It’s this or a leash and I think you’d be upset if I collared you.”
Ravil blushed. “Yes I would! I wouldn’t stand for it!”
“Well, there you go, princess, hand holding it is.” Rake smiled and sauntered in the opposite direction of the market. He found her blushing endearing, quaint, just like her shyness. He grinned and took a deep breath. He leaned down and spoke softly, “You should be glad I’m not going to brand your face.”
She tore her hand out of his grip. “Brand me?”
He laughed, just the response he expected. “I hear it only hurts for a few days. Now that I think about it, it’s sounding like a good idea. What do you think?”
“No!” She took a step back and bumped into a fruit cart. “What kind of barbaric practice is that?”
“The ownership marking kind.” He snapped his fingers at her. “Hand, now.”
“Don’t order me around.” Ravil glared and put her hands on her hips.
Rake did the same with his hands. “Why not, didn’t your guardians or whatever you called them order you around? I distinctly remember you not wanting to be in that gambling house, yet you were there.”
“Calpsan—”
“Ordered you too?”
Ravil frowned. “He was my guardian.”
Rake bowed. “And now I seem to be. Ravil, your hand, in mine, now.”
“You are not!”
He stood up straight. “Oh really? Good, I can leave.” He wiped his brow. “That’s a load off of my mind. Bye!” He took off down the street.
Ravil dashed after him. She weaved around pedestrians. “Wait! Rake, stop!”
Rake stopped and held out his hand. He wiggled his fingers. Ravil glared at his hand, but she thrust hers into his. He looked down at her. “Not so bad is it?”
She looked away. “Why are you helping me now? Yesterday you wanted me to leave.”
He shrugged. “You’re kind of a fun dist
raction, and you saved my life, though…” he mused, “If I had not been with you last night I would have been sleeping somewhere else without a prize worth so much, so they would not have bothered with me at all. Hmm you’re right.” Rake looked down at her. “Why am I helping you?”
She trembled. “Please…”
Rake pointed at her face. “That’s right, you’re pathetic! That’s why.” He hurried her towards a row of carts. “Come on, slow poke. I’m starving.”
“I am not pathetic!”
Rake eyed the street vendors that lined the sidewalks. He sniffed and pulled her towards a noodle stall. “Really?”
Ravil stomped on his foot. “I’m just scared!” She scratched through her short hair. “What’s so wrong about being scared sometimes? Fear is a healthy emotion if it keeps you out of trouble.”
Rake read the chalkboard menu and cleared his throat. “Fear is the path to the dark side.”
Ravil gawked at him. “There is no dark side! That is a movie thing!”
Rake tossed a few bills at a vendor and motioned for food. He grinned at her. “Ravil, I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
She tugged on his arm. “Stop it! Now you’re just trying to irritate me.”
“Do or do not, there is no try.”
“Stop it, Rake! I am being serious.”
“So am I.” He picked up two bowls of noodles and handed one to her. “Breakfast.”
She ate as she walked. “You quote fiction. I hardly find that being serious. I am in a bad situation.”
“Just because it is fiction doesn’t mean that it is without truth.” Rake smiled and slurped.
Ravil swallowed and muttered, “There are plenty of things not truthful about that movie. Like why are there sounds in space? And they go into hypers-space, or whatever. What is that? They can’t go lightspeed, that’s not possible!”
Rake stopped walking and looked down at her. “So?”
She pushed at him with her free hand, getting looks from those on the street. “Why do their guns make pew-pew noises? And if they really blew up something as big as the Death Star there would be consequences! And how do the—”
“Ravil.” He dropped to a crouch and got his face in hers. “Did you enjoy the movies?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re just doing this to irritate me, so shut your mouth.”
“No!” She leaned towards him until their noses were touching. “I can say what I want. You can’t say what you want unless you expect me to say what I want!”
“Oh is that how this works? I thought I was the adult and in charge and you’re the kid and have to take orders from me. Damn, too good to be true.” Rake jumped up. “It’s always too good to be true. I guess you’re just irritating by nature.”
“And you’re arrogant and mean by nature?” She glared at him. “And…and you do stupid things like use drugs! That’s really dumb, Rake!”
He set his jaw. “No clear conscience is worth this. It’s like I’m being followed by my nagging mother.”
“At least you had one.”
He rolled his eyes. “Are you going to add being an orphan on to your sob story? What next, you don’t have any friends your own age? You’ve been on the run your entire life? You were born into slavery?” He looked down. “Everyone has a past.”
Ravil struggled not to cry. She chewed on noodles with a trembling lip. Rake felt like an ass. “I’m sorry.” He gave her hand a squeeze. She swallowed and calmed down. He nudged her with his elbow. “Which one was it?”
Ravil sniffled. “All of the above.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Calpsan didn’t pick anyone to be nice. You just have to keep me safe.”
“Pick me?”
Ravil wiped her eyes and stopped her tears. “You don’t want to know, I don’t want to know. Isn’t that what you said?” She pointed down the road. “Where are you headed?”
He frowned, but didn’t push her for an answer. “I have friends.”
“Hard to believe.” She snapped her mouth shut. “Sorry.”
Rake grimaced. “Don’t be, it is hard to believe. It’s not my doing, they’re very persistent.”
“Mica called you friend. Do they all try to steal from you and kill you?”
“Some of them.” They walked in silence for several blocks. Rake looked up at the smoggy sky. “There are a few who are good people and even harder to believe I know, they would care for you. Mica was right in that.”
Ravil stared at their linked hands. “I don’t want to go with strangers.”
“I’m a stranger, Ravil.” Rake sighed. “Problem is I can’t really go around them right now.”
“Why?”
“It’s a bad season for dropping in on old friends.” Rake looked around and changed their direction. “Still that area is a nicer neighborhood and is generally a better place to hang out than this.” He finished his noodles and chucked the container in the street. “Much less likely to get chopped, shot, or stabbed there.”
Ravil followed suit and tossed her empty noodle bowl into a dumpster. “So you’re going there regardless of whether you drop in on them?”
He nodded. “We’ll check it out, see what it’s like. If I think it is okay, we’ll visit them and we’ll go from there. How’s that sound?”
“Good.” Ravil hid her smile, her mood brightened. She looked up at Rake; his mint green highlights brought out the green in his eyes. She’d never seen anyone with green eyes before.
He noticed her gaze. “What?”
She looked away. “Nothing.”
“Don’t nothing me.” Rake squeezed her hand. “You looked like a drugged idiot.”
Ravil frowned. “Like you then?”
He snorted. “Oh, someone’s starting to get an attitude.”
“Sorry.” She closed her mouth.
Rake bumped her with his hips. “Don’t apologize to people when they get on your case. Snap back at them with a witty retort. Saying you’re sorry is just opening yourself up to be at someone’s mercy and that is something you of all people do not want in a place like this. Oh, and stop the crying, I know you’re a little girl and all, but—”
“Fuck you.” Ravil kept her eyes on the ground.
He laughed. “Not quite witty, but an improvement.”
She smiled and looked up at him. “What does it mean?”
“What does what mean?”
“Fuck.”
Rake swung her hand. “It’s kind of a catch-all curse, like saying goddamn it, or shit. It’s a verb too, like fucking something that means sex. But fucking something up means typically beating on someone. Saying you’re fucked means that you’re screwed, or in a bad spot. You can pretty much use it for anything really. It just makes things sound that much more intense. Haven’t you heard it before?”
Ravil shrugged and thought that over. “So when you asked Calpsan watch or fuck?”
Rake looked away. “I wanted to know if you two were going to watch me shower or if he wanted to fuck me.”
Ravil gaped. “Sex?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.” Ravil blushed. No wonder Calpsan had said Rake wouldn’t hurt her that way, he didn’t even like girls. She frowned, disappointed.
He squeezed her hand. “You do what you have to, to get by. Don’t think about it.” He looked at the street signs and then back at the sky. “You mentioned last night you thought pilot stuff was cool.”
She brightened. “Yes!”
Rake stood on a street corner and looked both ways. “Want to see a spaceship? A real one?”
“Yes!” She pulled on his hand. “More than anything!”
“Good.” He saw a break in traffic and pulled her across the street. “It’s kind of on our way and gets us out of this area.” He took a right turn and set them on a new course.
Ravil remembered what he’d said the night before. “But I thought everything was scrapped?”
Rake nodded. “In the American Empire yeah
, but in places like this, the stuff was abandoned or went to private collectors. There used to be a spaceport here if you can believe that. This city was a thriving place once, getting ready to be a big space spot for the Chinese Empire. Huge population move with people ready to manufacture ships, service them, the works. When the Space Silence came, this place was fucked.” He smiled. “See fucked meaning screwed up, in a bad spot. These people were discarded just like the pilots were.”
Ravil looked at the people that passed them by. “So all the empty buildings?”
“Used to have people. Lots of them have moved back out to other cities or to the farms since then, but some stayed. Each year the place gets emptier and more violent. There’s nothing for anyone to do here.” He waved his hand towards the east. “There is a hot spot over there where the local government sits, they have a university, nice places, but it’s all walled off and guard posts are around it. It’s the core of the city, the only reason there’s power here, water. The politicians there get things from this area.”
“Things?”
“Drugs, whores, kids.” Rake looked down at her. “They use middle men like Mica to come out here and collect what they want.”
“How can they do that? Why doesn’t anyone stop them?”
“Power, money, influence.”
Ravil tugged on his hand. “That’s not right!”
“Ravil, those on top are always in control over what is right.” He made a face. “Those in the middle follow without thinking.”
“Why?”
“They are seduced by money or even worse, idealism. They think that they’re working for the greater good.” He pointed at his feet. “It’s only those on the bottom that can look into the game and see it for what it really is. That’s why it doesn’t ever matter who is in charge, really. Who cares what Empire you’re in? The system is always the same.”
Ravil followed along at his side. “You don’t think anyone in leadership can be good?”
“Maybe at first, but once you get established, the wealth and goods always go to the top first. I suppose if a leader lived like the rest, they’d be trustworthy, but I have yet to meet one that does.” He smiled sadly. “Anyways, that’s how I live at least. I’ll never be at the top and I refuse to be in the middle swallowing someone else’s shit. I’d rather be at the bottom shoveling it and knowing where I stand.”