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My Life: Chapter 32 - The Smoking Gun

by Fitz ::: 05.Jun.2003

There was a moment of distant awareness, sometime much later, someplace a lot darker and colder. I was moving. Icy air rushed over me, whipping something else around me, something that crackled and snapped in the wind. It flapped in my face, and I flinched away from it, curling around myself for warmth and protection.

The sick roar of an engine, the aching vibrations of the hard bed beneath me... I was in a car--a truck to be more specific. Disoriented and sore, I just stared dumbly at the ridged surface, flinching again when the green, plastic tarp flapped around me again.

The truck turned sharply, and I was rolling, sliding, slamming into something hard. The world disappeared again.

^_^

My head hurt, as did most of the rest of me. The throbbing spreading through my skull like some black, painful... thing was what held most of my attention. The soft pillow beneath my head was a relief, and I relaxed with a sigh against it, absently reaching to pull the blankets over my head.

Reality set in when the movement was brought to an abrupt halt, the jerk sending tingles of unpleasant sensation through my hands. Startled, I opened my eyes, wincing when the light brightened dramatically, forcing me to blink in attempt to grow accustomed to it.

“Welcome to the land of the living, Sleeping Beauty.”

The clichéd line might have made me roll my eyes in any other situation. The voice which said it, however, was enough to convince me to open my eyes fully, and I stared apprehensively at the man sitting so casually on a chair beside the bed.

It was a familiar chair, as was the bed one I knew. Glancing around uncertainly, I recognized the surroundings and wondered how we had ended up in my own bedroom--back at Uncle Hiko’s house.

“Enishi’s out grabbing a snack,” Mike said, strangely subdued. “We’ve been waiting awhile, you know. I thought maybe they’d beat you into a coma.”

He was talking quietly, like he didn’t want someone to hear him. That did not comfort me as I slowly took in my situation. My hands felt strange, almost devoid of all sensation, because someone had gone so far as to bind my wrists together in front of me. I stared at the rope for a few seconds, then followed the tail end up to see where it tied to the bedpost. I was stuck unless Mike decided to turn a blind eye while I attempted to undo that knot at the side of the headboard.

“What...” my voice was hoarse, dehydration taking its toll. I swallowed thickly, closing my eyes in attempt to block out the scene, to keep this calm that came with being barely aware, even as I started to understand what was happening. “What do you want?”

Silence followed, then an impatient sigh.

“What do you think?” he demanded.

A soft, pained groan rumbled in my throat, and the fear rose a notch.

“Serves you right, you fuckin’ moron,” Mike growled, and I jerked, looking at him in alarm. But he wasn’t moving. He just sat there, glaring off to the side. “If you’d have just coughed up the cash, you wouldn’t be here.”

“I don’t have it,” I mumbled, shifting uncomfortably. I was on my side, and one of my arms was nearly completely numb. My legs were slow to react, and I wondered how long I had been out.

“Tough shit,” Mike grunted, glancing at me then. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I need to use a bathroom,” I replied. I didn’t, but it never hurt to feel for my options.

“Hold it,” Mike snorted, not bothering to hide his grin.

I glared at him, less worried since he had not bothered me yet. As long as he stayed where he was, I was fine just being angry at him, at those men for knocking me out, at Enishi for organizing the whole thing. He had probably been waiting for the opportunity when I left the house like that. Seemed like a lot of effort to go through just to push me around. I said as much, and Mike smirked at me.

“You’d think so,” he replied. “I suppose you want to know why.”

“...Yeah,” I said quietly, even though I really did not care for the reason. It was better to have Mike talking than to sit in wary silence. If he kept talking about something else, maybe he would just keep sitting in that chair rather than going anywhere else--rather than coming any closer to me.

“You know, since you left, Enishi’s been keeping a low profile,” Mike folded his hands behind his head, stretching his legs out, shoes resting on my bed. I stared at his large, scuffed Doc Martens for a few seconds, almost missing what he next said. “Police have been sniffing around, you know. Business suffers. He’s losing a shitload of money.”

It was beginning to feel like an old mystery novel. Then, would come the time when Enishi would come in, make his confrontation, and somehow, someone else would hear, and the police would come busting in, guns waving, shouting his rights at him. He would break down, admit all his crimes, and we would all live happily ever after.

Yeah. Right.

What worried me was the way the real world tended to put a nasty twist on the story. Say... a news report about a kidnapping--or those students who disappeared my sophomore year in college. The kidnappers were never found, and if they were found, how much comfort did that provide to the families of those kids whose bodies were dredged out of the Mississippi?

Oh god... I’m going to be a statistic.

I shut my eyes and listened to Mike talk. He didn’t seem to care if I was paying attention or not.

“We’re all a little worried, you know,” Mike said. “It’s really only a matter of time. He’s gonna be caught.”

I doubted that. Enishi was not stupid, and he had evaded the authorities for years... upwards of a decade. If he could outsmart the cops at fifteen, why couldn’t he do it at twenty-three?

“If he goes down, who’s to say he won’t take everyone he knows down with him?” Mike continued, his fingers making an irritating tapping noise against my bedside table. “I don’t particularly want to go to jail, you know.”

“Call in your favors...” I heard myself whispering. Stupid, stupid! I bit my lip, wishing I had kept my mouth shut, and for good reason.

“Like you deserve any better, you little shit!” Mike snapped, and I flinched, my breath catching in my throat as I felt the bed shift with his sudden movement. I didn’t know what he was doing, and frankly, I did not have the guts to open my eyes and find out.

“Better jail than here with you,” I hissed, tugging lightly against the rope that kept my arms up by my face. It was not a loose knot.

“Look at you,” Mike said with an amused huff of air. “Like a little kid, scared of the boogie man.”

I did finally open my eyes then, glaring at the man with all the hatred I could manage. I did hate him. And I hoped he got caught along with Enishi and thrown into the filthiest, most ruthless jail cell. He’d be ripped apart, and I would not be sorry in the least.

All the hatred in the world was not enough to make that come to pass, however, and I could not suppress the sudden flood of terror that swept through me when he kicked up his legs and flopped down on the bed next to me. He was grinning, and all I could think of was getting away from him.

“What’s wrong, Red?” he snickered. “Uncomfortable?”

It was like every nightmare come true. I shoved back against the bed, heel slamming into his thigh, until my body hit the edge of the single bed, and down I went. The bad thing about that was that I was still caught up by the headboard, my arms screaming in protest from the fall. Not only that, but Mike decided he didn’t like getting kicked, and he grabbed my ankle, leaving me to flop rather ungracefully over the side.

“Let go!” I snarled, jerking against the grip, wrists already sore from pulling against the ropes. The pain was secondary. First matter of importance was getting away from him. Then, I would think about what hurt.

“Suit yourself.”

He released my ankle, and I gasped as I hit the floor. Arms bent awkwardly over the corner of the mattress, my weight balanced oddly between them and the floor, it hurt like hell. I had to force my legs to hold my weight, and suddenly I was standing, hunched slightly over the bed. I planted my feet in the carpet and pulled back, hoping beyond hope that someone would smile down on me, and the ropes would give. It was a good day for the world to be frowning, apparently.

Mike was laughing, saying something else, but I couldn’t hear him. Panic set in, and I was jumping away, twisting, slipping on the carpet and falling again. He was getting closer, and I didn’t know what he was going to do, and I sure as hell didn’t want to find out. Yanking and scrambling away, cringing back when I could feel his breath on my face, I distantly heard myself telling him to stay away, back, not to touch me.

Something else banged over the sound of his laughter and my own pleas, and I gasped as he hit me. Shocked, I could only stare as blood splattered over the front of my shirt and in my face. I couldn’t move.

Blood... everywhere. On him, on me, the carpet, my bed... most of it was on my bed. He wasn’t moving. He was... Mike wasn’t... not moving. Blood coming from a hole in his forehead. His eyes were open, but... but he was not... he was...

Dimly, I saw Enishi, impassive as he lowered the smoking weapon. He glanced to the side--Kevin--and then back to the man... thing... Mike. To Mike... no... the body. It. The body on my bed. Blood from its forehead. Blood and... god, and something else...

The world spun around me, the room suddenly too hot, and my legs folded beneath me. Someone said something, but I missed it for my coughing. Something grabbed the hair at my nape. I couldn’t fight it because I threw up right then.

“Don’t you pass out on us again, Himura,” Kevin’s smooth voice warned, that hand on my neck shaking me with his words. I coughed, closing my eyes against the sight of the waste bin in my face.

“Here,” Enishi spoke, and something small and light hit the side of my head. Kevin pushed the waste bin away and picked it up--it was a cloth of some sort--and shoved it into my face. I did not have it in me to resist it, and thus I suffered the humiliation of having the bastard wipe my face. “What a waste. Well, throw it away.”

I shuddered, the heat fading slowly to be replaced by a deep chill.

“Y-you... you j-j-j--you just...” I couldn’t form a complete thought. Gasping for air, cowering away from the arm that hung loosely over the side of the bed, I couldn’t think beyond the dead man in the room. The dead man on my bed.

“You know what they say about finding good help,” Enishi said callously. “Perk up, kid. Doesn’t it make you feel a bit better?”

He walked around the bed, which was good, because I couldn’t look at him over it. Not without seeing the dead man... and the blood, and the gore, and... I felt the sickening wave of heat again, and I swallowed, closing my eyes in hopes that I would not vomit again.

“Please...” I whispered hoarsely. “Stop...”

“Stop?” Enishi echoed incredulously. “I’m doing this for you, kid. You can’t tell me you did not want to see this guy dead.”

“God...” I groaned. I had the awful feeling I was going to get sick again.

“You want to know the real kick in the ass, kid?” Enishi wouldn’t stop talking. More than anything, I needed him to stop talking. “I only met Jensen a year ago.”

I barely heard him. There was a body in my room, on my bed, and I couldn’t focus. It was a mess of frantic chanting, and I might have even said it a few times.

This is not happening to me. This is not happening to me. This is not happening...

“He used to live in Reno... until last year,” Enishi went on. “And you know... I saw him and he just reminded me so much of that guy... what was his name again? Oh, it doesn’t even matter anymore. He’s dead too. It happens sometimes.”

...not happening... He didn’t just shoot... He didn’t just say...

“What?” It was little better than a strained whisper.

“‘It happens sometimes,’ I said,” Enishi repeated.

“No,” I cut off his words, lifting my gaze, unfocussed though it was, to stare at him in shock. His smile... no, there was no smile. Just Enishi, a blur of features, but he wasn’t smiling. “Jensen... Mike. You... he wasn’t--”

“The guy who tried to screw your brains out?” Enishi offered. “Nah. Guys like that generally don’t live very long. He’s gone. Been dead for years.”

Couldn’t... I couldn’t think. And all that...

Just said he wanted to apologize and explain a few things about Wednesday...

A call...

Seems like a thing we need to discuss in private--

An attempt...

You’re a fucking idiot, Red! You deserve what you get!

Oh god. And he’d tried... tried to tell me... but I--

“But Jensen looked so much like him, reminded me of him, you know?” Enishi said carelessly. “Well, I guess they were more alike than I first thought. Neither lasted very long.”

I could have stopped it. If I would have listened to him... not been such a selfish coward... I could have--I could have stopped it. But I didn’t. And he was...

“Don’t look so upset, kid,” Enishi murmured. He was moving, sitting, leaning back against the wall next to me. Blocked in. He closed up the walls, sitting next to me, a wall to my back, someone... Kevin? Kevin in front of me, the bed... the thing on the bed next to me. My arms were still folded up, hands next to it.

Groaning, nauseated, I pulled on the ropes, ropes digging into my wrists when I tried to twist out of them. There was a way... a way to get free of them... but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it and not pass out.

“I’m doing this all for you, kid,” Enishi said. An arm over my shoulders, shifting when that proved to be awkward, behind my back and around my waist. I shuddered. “One last thing, you know. Loose ends. Going traveling after this. Don’t suppose you’d like to come with?”

Once started, I couldn’t stop shaking.

“Stop...” I gasped.

“Wrap it up, Enishi,” Kevin’s voice cut in, icy and flat. “Neighborhood like this, people are bound to jump at the gunshots.”

Why was he even here? What did he have to do with any of this?

“It’d be like old times, kid,” Enishi’s breath was hot in my ear, and I flinched away.

Not happening... This is not happening to me...

“Enishi...” I could hardly breathe, the words strained and soft.

“Old times...”

“Go...” I coughed, squeezing my eyes shut and pressing my forehead against my forearms. “Fuck yourself.”

He stiffened, cutting off my breath as his arm suddenly squeezed my chest. Slowly, he relaxed again, letting me breathe, even chuckling a bit.

“Very well...” he murmured, and I tensed at the sensation of something cool and hard shoving into the underside of my jaw. Moaning in protest, I looked at him, a hair’s breadth away from fainting. It didn’t matter. He was going to kill me.

“You’re done, Enishi,” Kevin talking. I couldn’t focus on him. I couldn’t breathe, my vision wavering, fading in and out. The gun was shoved so far into my throat it hurt. My back was already shoved into the wall, feet digging into the carpet as I tried to push back further.

“It’s your own fault,” Enishi reminded me. “Just say the word, kid, and this’ll all be over.”

Talking was impossible. When I opened my mouth, all that came out was a breathy sob. And one, fleeting thought...

I don’t want to die...

The shot was deafening, the following shot a muted cough in comparison. I barely felt it, a strange feeling of numbed finality sweeping over me. Enishi looked down, his face a missive of confusion and odd relief. He coughed, my vision going red as he fell against me.

“Finally,” he whispered, and then nothing.

^_^

Aunt Tokio’s house was always immaculate. Shoes, lined up perfectly by the front door, hardwood floors gleaming a yellowy brown. The air smelled of lemon-scented cleaner.

She was the same, dressed in dark green pants and a cream, short-sleeved blouse under a matching, fitted green vest that buttoned up the front. Her dark hair was pulled up into a shining twist, held in place by a large-toothed comb that she showed me once. Thin gold hoops decorated her ears, and they glinted when she turned her head to smile at us. They swung under her ears again when she bent down to greet us.

“Hello Tomoe, Kenshin. Looking forward to going to Valley Fair?”

I glanced at Tommie, saw her smile and nod.

“We can’t wait, Aunt Tokio,” she said lightly. “Are you coming with us?”

“After I change my clothes, we’ll go,” Aunt Tokio nodded. “Remember that we’re taking along your new cousin.”

“Uncle Hiko said something about it,” Tommie said. “Is he here?”

“He’s in the next room,” Aunt Tokio told her. “Why don’t you two go meet him. He’s anxious to meet you as well.”

I grinned and shifted impatiently, waiting for Tommie. When she went, it was okay. Before that, and I got in trouble for being rude.

“Come on, Kenshin,” Tommie suggested, and I bolted ahead of her, slowing when I got to the end of the hall and had to turn the corner.

He was playing Nintendo, a little two-dimensional Mario running and hopping over mushroom-like baddies. I hit the back of the couch, leaning over it slightly to look at him. His hair was dark brown, almost black--kind of like Tommie’s--and he was bigger... though it was hard to tell when he was sitting with his slouched back to me.

“Hi!” I greeted, a little nervous to meet him. We’d been hearing about him for weeks, and finally we got to see him.

He didn’t even look at me. He just kept tapping away at the control in his hand, a big Mario hopping over brick barriers.

“Can I play?” I tried again. Uncle Hiko said it was rude to ask normally, but he was already playing it, so I asked anyway. Besides, Uncle Hiko was probably already gone.

Brown eyes looked at me carelessly, and he shrugged.

“Sure,” he agreed. “You be Luigi.”

“Cool,” I grinned again and hurried around the couch to sit on the floor next to him.

“Dang,” he muttered, and I glanced up when I heard the bold music of Mario dying. The squished little character went up, then dropped down out of view. “Well... let’s start a new game. I just hit a save point.”

“I’m Kenshin,” I said quickly, twisting to point at Tommie, who had just come up behind us. “That’s my sister Tomoe.”

“Enishi,” he offered a little smirk. “You my new cousins?”

“Yep,” I picked up a control and smiled at him. He was older than me, I could tell. He didn’t look as old as Tommie, though, and she was sixteen. Curiosity got the better of me. “How old are you?”

“Thirteen,” he said carelessly. “What are you? Eight?”

“Ten!” I scowled at him. “I’ll be eleven in two weeks!”

“Sorry,” he laughed, and I glared at him, irritated and thinking he was making fun of me. “You’re so little.”

“It’s not my fault I’m short,” I grumbled. “And you’re not so big. Tommie is taller, I bet.”

“She’s older,” he reminded me.

“So! Everyone ready to go?” Aunt Tokio came in then, and we looked up at her. She frowned. “Enishi! I told you to shut that off. We’ve got company.”

“Sorry,” Enishi pulled the game from the slot and shoved the control into the cupboard. Sighing in disappointment, I did the same, pulling my hand back in time to avoid getting my fingers caught in the door when he closed it. “Hey, Kenshin. Race you to the car.”

I grinned and tore off after him as he shot to his feet and ran toward the garage door. Behind us, Aunt Tokio called out an annoyed, “No running in the house!” and I slowed, sheepish for breaking that rule. Enishi was already out the door, ignoring Aunt Tokio’s warning. I heard her sigh, and I wondered why she didn’t yell at him for that.

“Let’s go, kids.”

Slinking back behind Tommie, I followed them to the car.

^_^

Utter stillness.

The silent, pulsing echo of gunshots fired.

Death.

It passed like a dream. Objects and people moved in slow motion, colors blurring together, sound warping into rounded, resonant syllables.

Kevin. Muttering, moving, crouching near me. Talking. To me, maybe. I couldn’t hear him. Nothing. I felt nothing. I watched in fascinated silence as he bundled up something and pressed it to my shoulder. It seemed it should have hurt, but there was nothing.

Am I dead?

Suddenly, it was not as scary as it seemed minutes ago. Certainly, it was better than being in this room of the dead.

Enishi...

I looked at him. He was finally smiling. The whole time, he didn’t smile, but with blood down his chin, more on his chest, eyes closed as if in sleep, he was smiling. Was he so unhappy? For someone who got his kicks from making other people miserable, how was it he was so happy to go?

When I looked back, Kevin was gone. It was just me. Me and the bloody bodies. Just the three of us. If any of us were even alive...

The world was rocking again, distorted, swimming as I felt myself floating away from it all.

Then, Kevin came back. I stared at him, wondering why... why would he do this? Why would he help Enishi... only to kill him in the end? Why...?

His mouth was moving again, right in front of me, telling me something... important, possibly. My chest was starting to hurt, burning as I struggled to breathe. Kevin’s hand was in my face, fingers snapping, the sound painfully loud. I gasped and startled back.

“Kid?” Brief, sharp yanking of the hair in front of my eyes. I shied away from it, staring dully at him. “Kid, you listening? Come on, you’re not dead yet.”

Yet...

The best I could offer was a nauseated groan. Nothing made sense. I couldn’t think when I was pressed against the bed where Mike’s body was, the other body brushing my side. What did he want from me? What did I ever do to him?

“Enishi was wrong about one thing, kid,” Kevin said, smirking, glancing over his shoulder in wary display, back to me again. “The guy you knew isn’t dead yet. Probably will be soon, but not yet.”

My head hit the wall when he bent toward me. I heard it rather than felt it. But I felt the lips brushing against mine. I couldn’t stop... A violent shudder rushed through me, and I sobbed. What hell was this?

“I guess everyone does stupid things now and then,” Kevin snorted. “Don’t bet on seeing me again, kid. You just get me into trouble.”

Coughing, trying to contain the queasiness, I shrank back further. The room faded away...

^_^

Drifting...

Silence...

Waiting...

Darkness and light blurred together. Pale, pale blond hair that fuzzed and went blank.

^_^

Bloody ropes. Stained carpet. Blackness.

^_^

Noise. A shout. Watery gray.

^_^

Cursing. The clatter of a phone not quite reaching the cradle. Ringing, blocking out everything else.

^_^

Words. My arms were moving. I wasn’t doing that.

“Open your eyes, Kenshin.” A familiar voice. Something pressed into my neck, the soft underside of my jaw. “Come on, kid. Say something.”

My eyes did not want to open. Was it real? What if I opened my eyes and Enishi stared back at me? Mike, with his unseeing, gaping eyes. What if it wasn’t done? Kevin... maybe he was still there... If I didn’t say something, would Uncle Hiko leave? Would he leave me for dead with the others?

It was too much to endure.

Don’t leave me here!

Shaking, crying, I forced my eyes open to look at him. He stared at me, shock etched in his solid features. Never had I been so happy to see him. I lunged forward, grabbing for anything, my only intention one of desperate origins.

Don’t leave me alone!

His arms closed around me, huge and nearly suffocating, but I didn’t care. Choking, coughing, sobbing, I clung to him. I said something, but the words were just tumbling from me, meaningless and jumbled. Then... it disappeared again.

^_^