by Darcy Town
Ravil leapt off an outcrop and came down on the brown and green netting that covered the top of Tasanee’s workshop. It dipped, but held her. “Rat! Rat, where are you?”
Oro heard her calling. He picked up his pace. “Ravil!”
Ravil slipped under the webbing and hung from it. She climbed arm over arm, looking down her feet at the parts below. “Rat, I need you!”
Tasanee shoved the door open of the Russian ship and looked around. “Ravil?”
“Rat, help me!”
Tasanee looked up. “Ravil, how did you get up there? Hold on, I’ll help get you down.”
Oro dropped into the workshop and banged his hands and knees on the compact ground. “Shit!” He spied Ravil hanging from the webbing. “You get down from there!”
Ravil ignored him and looked to Tasanee. “Please help me! They’re trying to send me away!”
Tasanee looked at her feet. “I know, they told me.”
Ravil sagged. “You knew they were trying this?”
“Yeah.”
Ravil kicked her feet through the air. “Why didn’t you warn me?”
“What am I supposed to do, Ravil?” Tasanee met her gaze. “It’s Danny’s place, he’s the commander.”
Oro limped over to Tasanee’s side. “Ravil, get down now.”
Ravil glared at him. “No! I am not going anywhere with you!”
He looked to Tasanee. “Do you have a ladder?”
She nodded, unhappily. “Are you kidding? I have three.”
***
Rake sat up in bed. He frowned. He pulled his hand to his face, freed; he looked at his other hand, also freed. Interesting. He looked down the bed. There was a syringe on the blankets. His heart skipped a beat. He grabbed it, held it in his fist. He chucked it at the wall and watched it break. He smiled and flopped back into the pillows.
Keto came around the silk screen divider. “Well, that was encouraging behavior.”
Rake smirked from the mattress. “Ass.” He rolled up and undid his ankles. “Do I get to leave now?”
“What’s the hurry?”
“Danny told me that he’s shipping Ravil off, I have to stop him.” Rake jumped to his feet. The world spun round and he slipped to the floor.
“We already have. She’s out of the country by now.” Keto reached down to help him up.
Rake punched him in the face. “Bastard.”
Keto rubbed his jaw. “Danny said you were upset. You’re still weak, let me help you up.”
“Fuck off.” Rake climbed up the side of the bed. “Upset is a fraction of what I am feeling right now.” He stumbled towards the bathroom. “I need to piss and take a shower.”
Keto followed him. “Rake, I untied you, but that doesn’t mean you’re going anywhere.”
“I am too.”
Keto grabbed for his arm. “No, you need to spend a day or two here resting.”
Rake ripped his arm out of Keto’s grip. “I am fucking fine.” He took a deep breath. “Lungs are working right, heart’s going strong.” He thumped his chest. “No more cravings. I am A-OK.”
Keto waved a bottle at Rake. “You aren’t craving because you have medicine in your system and you’ll need to keep taking these for a few weeks.”
Rake reached for the bottle. Keto pulled it back. Rake folded his arms. “What is this?”
“You’ll get them when you sit back down on that bed.”
Rake smirked. “You want me to get better. You’re not going to withhold medicine just so your little scheme will work.”
Keto turned stony-faced. “Yes I will, I’ll withhold it until you’re too weak to stand with the shakes, then you’re going back in that bed.”
“Screw you.” Rake dashed into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He skipped looking in the mirror, heading straight for the shower instead. He turned the water on hot and peed while it heated up. He ignored Keto pounding on the door. He hopped into the shower and hummed a melody as he washed himself down with rose scented soaps.
Rake sniffed his armpit as he soaped his arm. “Ooh, yummy flowers.” He stretched, feeling good, relaxed. He wondered how much of that was the medicine and how much was just being off junk.
“Probably the medicine.” Dead Lara let water run over her hair; she picked off parts of dead flesh and watched it swirl down the drain.
“Gross.” Rake made a face. “Get out of my shower.”
“I’ll see you later.” She smiled and disappeared.
“Right.” Rake rinsed his hair and reached for a towel. He threw back the shower curtain as he tied the towel around his waist. Keto stood in the doorway, Betty looked around him. Rake gave Keto a once over. “A little privacy?”
Keto held up a syringe of sedatives. “You’re not leaving this room conscious.”
Rake’s lips twitched up into a smile. “That will make two of us.”
“You just came out of two days with only liquids, you’re pumped full of sedatives, and you have been hallucinating. There is no way you’re going to overcome me.”
“I feel fan-fucking-tastic.” Rake threw his towel to the side. He looked around and grabbed a black silk robe, it came up to mid-thigh. He tied it at his waist and leaned on the wall. He grinned at Keto. “You really want to try messing with this?”
Keto glared and pulled out his cell phone. “I will call and get Evgeniy over here. He will not be pleased to be roused.”
Betty grinned in the background. “Ooh, Rake, yes get big Russian here!”
Rake laughed. “Betty! Did someone make friends?”
Keto stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, blocking her. “Rake.”
“Keto.” Rake eyed the needle. “I am really tired of needles.”
“Then behave.”
Rake’s green eyes burned. “Don’t tell me what to do!” He took step forward. “I don’t want a fix. I don’t want to get back in that bed. I want to go home, I want to see Ravil!”
“She’s gone, Rake!”
Rake grimaced. “I doubt Danny would be so stupid.”
“Fine.” Keto opened his phone and hit speed dial. He put it on speaker.
Danny answered, “How is he?”
Rake yelled at the phone, “I’m fucking great! Where is Ravil, Danny?”
“Oro left already, Rake.”
Rake grimaced. “Danny...”
Keto glared at Rake. “He won’t settle down, Danny.”
Danny sighed into the phone. “Rake, just listen to him, he’s a doctor.”
“I don’t want to be in that goddamn bed anymore! Keto is trying to fucking stab me with sedatives!”
“Are you on your feet already?” Danny’s voice was tinged with surprise.
“Yeah. I was taking a lovely shower, but Keto doesn’t respect boundaries.” Rake stuck his tongue out at Keto.
Keto glowered. “Rake is being a brat.”
“I’m twenty-seven.”
Keto thrust the phone at him. “Then act like it and listen to me!”
“I am acting like it! I am asserting myself.” Rake pointed to the door. “Now leave.”
Danny laughed. “Keto, can’t Rake convalesce at home now that she’s gone?”
Rake folded his arms. “Yeah Keto, can’t I convalesce at home?”
Keto glared at Rake. “Danny, he will be hard to keep tabs on at the house.”
Rake batted his eyelashes. “I’ll be a good boy, I swear, I promise, oh please let me come home! Home sweet home!”
“Rake, stop the bullshit,” Danny’s voice faded in and out. “Keto, let him come back. You’re going to get hurt trying to put him down anyways.”
“He is going to escape and look for her!”
“How can he escape when you have his medicine?” Danny laughed. “Rake, are you going to escape on some stupid chase after that girl?”
Rake made his face blank. “Nope, I’ve realized the error of my ways. I am a reformed man, a new Rake, Rake transformed, Rake the sequ
el.”
“He’s lying!” Keto yelled into the phone, “He’s not even trying to pretend otherwise!”
Rake frowned. “I am too trying, but lying is hard.” He sighed. “I hate lying.”
Both men heard Danny hitting the wall. Danny struggled for calm. “Rake.”
“What?”
“Can you logically explain why you can’t leave this alone with the girl?”
“Nope.” Rake grinned. “Not at all, and I’m not even going to try. I just know I have to see her.” He kept the smile on his face, but his voice lost its friendly tone, “You fucks couldn’t even let me say goodbye. We had traumatic times together.”
Keto scoffed. “Shooting up in whore tents.”
Rake’s smiled faded. “She shot down a helicopter for me and she gutted a guy that had a gun to my face. We both ended up in the Dead and escaped on a motorcycle. Oh yes, she saved me from that too because I passed out while driving the bike. Oh and what did I do in return? Besides trying to sell her to brothels, I pretty much almost got her killed on an hourly basis. All that I want right now is to say ‘thanks Ravil, you saved my life’ and ‘I’m sorry I was a fuck up’, but you two gigantic douche bags have taken that closure away from me. So thanks assholes, I really appreciate it.”
There was silence from Danny and Keto. Rake glared at Keto. Danny cleared his throat. “If you could see her and say goodbye would that relieve this desire of yours?”
“Yes!” Rake nodded. “That’s all I want!”
Danny mumbled, “Fine, I’ll call Oro.”
Rake grinned. “Ha! They’re not even far away are they?”
“They left under an hour ago.”
Rake looked positively smug. He raised an eyebrow at Keto. “Well, let’s get going, I just can’t wait to convalesce with you as my attentive doctor.”
Keto replaced the cap on his syringe. He opened the door, but held the needle threateningly at Rake. “You try and escape and I will stab you.”
Rake winked. “Oh Keto, I always knew you wanted to stick me.”
Keto looked disgusted. “God Danny, he’s back to himself. As annoying and—”
“Lewd.” Rake stepped up behind him. “Ill-mannered.” He looked at himself in a full-length mirror. “And fucking hot, damn. Betty, can I keep this?” She nodded. He gave Betty a peck on the cheek. “Thanks for the bed.”
Betty smacked his ass with a riding crop. “No, thank you, Rake. Tell the Russian hi.”
Rake smiled. “Will do.” He watched Keto hang up the phone. He pirouetted. “I feel so fucking good, Keto. I just want to run, move around.”
Keto eyed him. “You’re supposed to be feeling like shit.”
Rake ran his hands over his silk robe. “Nope, not anymore.” He eyed his wrist and ankle bandages. “These look awful, can I take them off?”
Keto struggled to maintain calm. “No Rake, you may not.”
Rake frowned and flashed him puppy dog eyes. Betty walked over with leather cuffs in hand. She covered the gauze on his wrists with the bondage cuffs and secured each one with a buckle. She flicked the last one with a red painted nail.
Rake grinned. “I know you have a collar to match.”
Keto packed up his medical bag. “We’re leaving.”
Betty threw Rake a leather collar. “Now we’re even, Rake.”
Rake bowed with a flourish. “Betty, you’re my leather clad goddess of love.”
Betty pushed him down until he was kneeling. She put a spiked heel against his chest. “You may kiss my foot in thanks.”
“Thank you.” Rake kissed her foot, her ankle, and worked up her boot, each kiss getting more involved with the leather and metal eyelets.
Keto grabbed Rake’s arm and hauled him to his feet. He inclined his head to Betty. “Thank you for keeping him safe.”
Betty nodded. “My pleasure, truly.”
Keto pulled him out the door. Rake waved to Betty. “Love!” He followed Keto wearing a shitfaced grin.
Keto hit the elevator button. The door dinged and opened. “What are you so goddamn happy about?”
“I just feel good.” Rake shrugged and leaned against the elevator as they rode it down. “Refreshed.”
Keto looked at his bottle of pills. “Then I probably need to lower your dose.” He made a note on the bottle.
Rake pushed his wet hair back. “I don’t feel high, I just feel content, happy.” He stretched, drawing the robe up dangerously high.
Keto stared at the door. “Right.”
Rake wrapped an arm around Keto. “I want to party.”
Keto shrugged him off as they stepped out into the foyer. “You can forget it, no parties, no nothing. You say goodbye to this girl and then you spend a week in bed doing nothing but watching your movies and staring at the painted walls.”
Rake had no plans on doing anything like that. He followed Keto out of the building. “Can I have beer in bed? Ooh and cookies, I want cookies in bed, can I have those?”
Keto unlocked his car door. “Get the fuck in and shut up.”
***
Oro hung from the brown and green netting above Tasanee’s workshop. He was drenched in sweat. His phone rang in his jacket, he did not notice it. He’d dropped his jacket to the ground when he’d started to climb. He took a swipe at Ravil. “Get down!”
Ravil kicked at him from where she hung a few feet away. “No.”
Tasanee watched them from below. “Hey guys! Hey guys!”
Ravil swung further away, going towards the rubbish corner of Tasanee’s workshop. The ground below was a mess of metal shards and spikes, spare parts and old building material left over from the former construction site. She eyed it, but was not worried.
Oro reached out for netting and grabbed hold, pulling himself closer. “Ravil, this is dangerous!”
“Only for you, Oro,” she called over her shoulder.
“You’re not a gravity-defying monkey, Ravil!”
Tasanee cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hey guys!”
Oro glared at her. “What, Rat?”
“Can you not hang there?” Tasanee hopped from foot to foot. “You’re making me nervous.”
“You’re nervous!” Oro eyed steel foundation beams that stuck out of the ground. “I am going to be a spiked Cuban if I fall.”
Ravil turned around and kicked her feet back and forth blithely. “Then go back.”
Oro chewed on his lip. “You are going to get tired and you’ll fall eventually.”
Ravil shrugged. “Maybe, but I bet you’ll go first.”
“Oh come on.” Oro took another swing, bringing him closer. He could almost reach her, but he would have to hang on with one hand to do it. He glared at her. She glared right back.
Tasanee climbed on top of a mineral trawler and watched them. “Hey guys!”
Oro snapped at her. “Shut up, Rat!” He turned back and the net around him made a ripping sound. Ravil and Oro froze. Their eyes locked and trailed upwards. A length of the roped netting unwound as they watched.
Tasanee covered her mouth. “It’s dangerous over there!”
Oro slowly breathed in and out and tried not to move. “We can see that.”
Ravil swallowed. “This is your fault, you’re too heavy. It can’t hold you.”
“Oh yeah, like you know anything about the load bearing qualities of this net, Ravil.”
Ravil glared at him. “I knew it could hold me and that was good enough at the time. I didn’t have an idiot following me carrying extra weight. I thought pilots were supposed to be smart!”
“Extra weight? Are you calling me fat?” Oro looked down at his stomach. “I may not have a six-pack, but I am not chubby. I’m pretty fucking attractive actually. So stop comparing me to emaciated Rake.”
“Whatever.” Ravil rolled her eyes and the material ripped a little more. She reached to climb away and the rip spread to another rope. She made a face and looked down at the metal beneath them. “Why did you follow me
?”
“I am just as stupid as you obviously!” Oro hissed and tried to keep still.
Ravil looked at Oro, at Tasanee, then back at the ground. The net frayed in another spot, dropping them half a foot. They bounced and the material ripped more. Twenty feet up, the spikes looked sharper and larger the longer the pair stared at them.
Tasanee paced on top of the trawler. “I told you not to chase Ravil, but you just had to do it anyways, Oro!”
“Rat, shut up!” Oro’s voice cracked in fear.
Ravil could feel the strings in the air all around her. They throbbed, waiting for her to grab hold. She watched Oro. She took deep breaths and focused.
The material frayed and ripped in three spots. The pair plunged like lead weights.
Ravil disappeared in mid-air; her hands appeared around Oro’s wrists. Oro disappeared. The pair flashed into the space next to Tasanee, knocking all three of them to their asses on top of the trawler. The net sagged and collapsed, leaving it only a foot above their heads.
Oro screamed, stopped, and stared into space. “I’m not dead!”
Tasanee gaped at them both. “You’re not dead!”
“I’m not dead!” Oro grabbed and kissed Tasanee. “I’m alive!”
Ravil scooted back and eyed the pair. She managed to look smug and nervous simultaneously. “No one is dead.”
Oro sat down. Tasanee stared at Ravil in shock. Ravil scrambled towards the end of the trawler. Oro reached for her. “Ravil, wait!” She stopped at the edge of the trawler and looked back. Oro wrung his hands. “Just wait a second.” He looked at Tasanee. “What did you see?”
Tasanee swallowed. “She disappeared, you disappeared, then both of you appeared right here, in like less than a second total.”
Oro looked at Ravil. “How is that possible?”
Ravil inched back. The strings fluttered against her skin, responding to her, beckoning her in. She could run.
Tasanee held her hands up. “Ravil, wait.”
Oro rubbed his wrist. “Can you do that again?”
Ravil looked at them confused. “Huh?”
Tasanee nodded. “Yeah, do it again! Whatever you did, do it again!”
Ravil looked at her hands. “Do what again? I didn’t do anything. So there’s nothing to do now.”