“I don’t care, Revy. It’s an emergency.”
“Fine.”
“An emergency?” Tex asked.
“It sure is. We never hang out as a group anymore. If we don’t correct that, someone could die.”
“I don’t think that’s true.”
“Neither do I, but better safe than sorry.”
I didn't want that night to end. I loved being able to just sit around and drink with Vera and Tex, and I was even happier when the rest of the original Black Jackets showed up.
“Hey Scott, are we cooler than the 80’s?”
“By far,” I told Jack. “You guys are way less snobby than they were."
"Were they all rich assholes?"
"Some of them were. Others were just crazy. There was this one guy, Durango, who was totally nuts. I once saw him trying to set the roof on fire, just because he was bored."
"Maybe he's just free spirited and misunderstood?" Rae awkwardly conjectured.
"No, I'm pretty sure he was crazy."
“I need to go,” Tex told us very suddenly. I noticed that his hands were shaking as he got up, and instantly the night took a turn for the worse.
Vera called after him, “Tex, don’t go. We’re worried about you.”
He turned around. “I’m fine. I just have to do something real fast.” He said it casually, as if he wasn't off to stick a needle in his arm.
“If you go, then don’t come back,” she told him. The others looked shocked at how harsh Vera was being, especially Tex.
"You would kick me out?" he asked, initially weak and soft spoken.
"We can't let you stay if you don't get help."
“Do you really think you can order me around?” He screamed, now angry and hysterical. “You’re not Scott! You don’t make the rules!”
“Scott agrees with me.”
“No he… you told him? You bitch!”
“You’re not even trying to get better!”
“You don’t get to tell me what I-”
“You should go.” I cut him off mid-sentence. He stared at me for several seconds in disbelief, so I repeated myself. “You should go, Tex.”
Tears started to well up in his eyes, and my heart shattered as he slowly backed away. He took a few gentle steps, and then turned and ran as fast as his legs would carry him.
“What the hell was that about?”
Vera and I looked at each other, wondering if we should tell the other three, but Revy told Jack and Rae before we could even decide.
“His eyes aren't quite right, but those withdrawal symptoms... he's been doing vapor, hasn't he?”
I nodded.
Revy grabbed the bottle nearest to him. “I need more alcohol. This is fucking crazy.”
We tried striking up another conversation, but the group mostly just sat in awkward, drunken silence for a long while. It takes a long time to recover after you find out that one of your best friends is killing himself.
However, one interesting question did get asked.
“Jack, do you still carry that ax?”
“I stopped.”
“Good,” Vera told him. “You looked ridiculous.”
“I know.”
“So where’s the Jackaxe, now?” We all looked at Rae. “What? That’s what Vera and I were calling it.”
We all laughed, finally starting to move forward, but Tex ruined the moment.
“What the fuck is wrong with you guys?” he shouted, running up to us with eyes even redder than before.
Vera quickly hopped over the counter and stopped him. “Get out of here.”
“No! I need to talk to Scott!”
I turned away and sorted the bottles on the shelf. I couldn't watch this happen.
“I’ll take care of this,” Vera said to me. “I’ll see you at home.”
I heard more shouting, but tried my best to block it out. There was a small scuffle, Tex shouted my name, and when I turned back around Vera and Tex were gone, along with Revy.
“Maybe we should have tried to help him get clean?” Rae suggested, but I shook my head.
“There’s not enough time, and obviously he doesn't want our help.”
“This got left behind.” Jack put Tex’s jacket on the counter. "Revy peeled it off of him when he was helping Vera drag him away." I wanted to cry as I looked at it, but suppressed that urge.
“It’ll be ok.” Rae walked around and hugged me.
“Do you think he’ll be alright on his own?”
“He can take care of himself," Jack said. "Plus, taking a junkie with us during the evacuation would be too much to deal with. I think you did the right thing.”
I wanted to believe him, but couldn't. I had just let my best friend be thrown out, like any of the other junkies. Even with Jack and Rae trying desperately to make me feel better, I didn't feel a glimmer of happiness until I heard Vera's voice coming from the catwalks.
“Scott, I’m waiting on you,” she said from above.
I smiled and stepped out from behind the counter. On the way out, I hugged my friends again, who remained sitting at the makeshift bar, and I would even have hugged Revy, if he had been there.
“Don’t beat yourself up. You did the right thing, Scott.”
Chapter 54 - Rae Johnson
“You really think that was right?” I asked Jack, as soon as Scott was gone.
“Fuck, I have no idea. What was I supposed to say?”
“I don’t know… I’m just not sure we should be kicking Tex out. Maybe we should be trying to help him."
“Let’s talk about something else. This stuff is way over my head and it’s depressing.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
“Your secret boyfriend.” I looked at him in surprise. “That’s why you’ve been sneaking out all the time, right? Did you really think none of us had noticed?”
“How did you know?”
“Because I have one too.”
I looked at him with even more surprise, but Jack just smiled and laughed a bit, making it very difficult to tell whether or not he was joking.
“Goodnight, Rae.” He got up and left without saying anything else, leaving me alone at the slop shop and very confused.
Since no one else had bothered to do so, I started packing up the bottles and storing them back on the shelves. I found it relaxing, even though I was a little tipsy.
“Can I get a shot of vodka?”
“You scared me,” I told Durango. I had nearly jumping out of my skin after his first syllable.
“Sorry. I came to bring this back to you.” He put my jacket on the counter, right next to Tex’s. “You left it at my place.”
“I spent twenty minutes looking for this before I left. Where did you find it?”
“Tucked in an air vent.”
“How did it end up in there?”
“I put it there. You’ve been to my house plenty of times. I wanted an excuse to see yours.”
I put a bottle on the counter and poured two shots. “You’re such a jerk.”
“I know.” He downed what I gave him in one gulp.
“This is my last drink of the night,” I told him.
“But I just got here.”
“I was drinking with my friends earlier.” I drank the vodka and it burned the whole way down. “One of my friends just got kicked out of the district because he started doing drugs.”
"What drugs?"
"Vapor."
“Damn.”
“Yeah, it’s horrible. I feel bad for him, though. We were the only family he had left.”
“Whatever. Everybody has a sob story.”
“Not me. I was the proper virgin princess who did everything her daddy told her.”
“Really?”
“Yup.” I poured another shot and downed it. “What’s yours?”
“What are you asking?”
“What’s your tragic backstory? You just said everybody has one.”
“I mea
nt everyone but me. My parents were rich. I was a pretty spoiled kid.” He sounded convincing, but something told me he wasn’t telling the whole truth.
“You don't like talking about yourself.”
“That’s right I don’t,” he stated. “And you constantly beat yourself up for not being as fucked up as your friends, even though you should consider it a blessing. Having fucked up parents isn’t fun.”
Well, there it was; the confirmation. Now, I knew he was keeping something from me.
“What happened to you?” I asked, leaning over the counter.
“Nothing. I already told you, my parents were rich and I was spoiled.”
“Durango, quit playing hard to get and tell me.”
He sighed and finally gave in. “My parents had a shit ton of money. That's the absolute truth. They weren’t mean and they never beat me or anything, they just… they didn’t really want me. One time, when I was a kid, I went to spend the night at a friend’s house. A week later, his parents called mine to ask why they hadn’t picked me up yet. They tried bribing them to just keep me a while longer, but it didn’t work. Then, they tried taking me to the city orphanage, but they were told they made too much money to give me up.” He laughed. “Can you believe that? Having too much money actually bit them in the ass. Anyway, when the city wouldn’t let them just buy the orphanage, which they tried to do, I went through about ten nannies and a thousand babysitters before I finally ran away and started going by Durango.”
“Durango isn’t your real name?”
He raised an eyebrow at me, and I realized how dumb that question was.
“What’s your name?”
“Peter Watts.”
I held my hand out to him. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Peter.”
He shook my hand. “Nice to meet you too, Raincloud.”
My jaw dropped to the counter. “How did you know…”
“When I first got here, I asked a few people where to find you and they sent me to your mother’s house. I told her I was one of your friends. She’s really nice by the way, and she makes great cookies.”
“You got cookies from my mother?”
“She invited me inside. It would have been rude to say no.”
“Oh god. You’re such a jerk.”
“I know,” he said, reaching over the counter and planting his lips on mine. “But I’m your jerk.”
Chapter 55 - Paige Wilson
“I don’t care what it takes, just get it done.”
“Yes, Madam President.”
The engineer ran off to finish his work. It seemed like everyone needed to receive their orders in triplicate before anything could get done.
“Finishing your special project?”
“Yes, the project that’s going to save my city.”
“Whatever you say.”
I got into the elevator and pressed the button for my office. It was nice to be alone, where no one could hear me talking to myself.
“This is something that needs to be done.”
“Do you really believe that? You could always leave with the Black Jackets.”
“They won’t survive. Leaving the city is far too hazardous.”
“And spraying mind-altering chemicals into the air is a safe option?”
“Stop being a sarcastic. It gets on my nerves.”
“Maybe you should get your thoughts under control. Then, I wouldn’t be such a dick to you.”
After reaching the top floor, I strode out of the elevator as quickly as I could, but his voice was inescapable.
“Can you believe all these tragedies? The death of the Truands. The eradication of the Men of the Temple. The fall of the Sunset District. The infestation of monsters.”
“The archivists have made note of all of it.”
“That’s all you have to say? Are you even sad?”
“No, and do you want to know why? Because one day, the children of this city will read about these dark years and call them what they are; a speed bump on the road to a brighter future for my city.”
“Stop calling it that! It hasn’t been your city in years! Don't live in denial!”
“I’m not in denial, you are!”
“You’re fucking crazy!”
“Madam President!” I turned to the voice.
“What is it?”
“I’m so sorry ma’am. It’s just that…”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Officer Rennecin, ma’am.”
“Well, Officer Rennecin, what is this ridiculously important news?” I asked him, completely consumed with anger that I have should have been directing towards myself, rather than taking in out on an innocent.
It took him a while, but he finally spat out the message, and when he did, my heart sank lower than ever before. “Your nephew is missing.”
Chapter 56 - Scott Vale
She whispered one last warning in my ear. “If you can’t do this, things will get ugly. Bring my nephew back, so I can kill that fool who took him.” I didn’t need the reminder. I was more than aware of how closely I was being watched.
Everyone was holding their breath. My hand shook as I reached for the doorknob and the police stood ready to storm the tiny building, sitting just beyond the barricade. Even the President was more on edge than usual. On a regular day, she was the kind of person who would feed you to a pack of rabid dogs to further her own interests, but today, she looked capable of something even more extreme.
I walked inside. The stupid junkie sat with his back turned to the door, probably praying for a bullet to the head.
“You’re here for the kid right? Just take him and finish me off.”
“You wanted them to kill you that badly?”
He turned around at the sound of my voice, like an excited puppy. “Scott!”
“Hello, Tex.”
His happiness faded a moment later. His eyes were almost completely red, and glowing residue leaked from his mouth. He quickly wiped it away with his forearm, leaving a glowing smear across his skin. “I was hoping they would have the decency to burn my body. I didn’t want you to see me like this.”
“I’ve seen men in worse condition.” I pulled up a second stool, the only other piece of furniture in the house, and sat facing him.
We sat in silence for some time. I knew the President was anxious, but she’d promised me all the time I needed. I planned to take full advantage of that.
“We were such assholes,” he mumbled.
“When?”
“When we first came here. To the Sunset District, I mean. Do you remember how we acted when we became 80’s?”
“I was the one being an asshole. I thought having street smarts made me better than everyone else, but you were never that way.”
“I was always way too fucking nice.”
“Since when is being nice a bad thing?”
He chuckled. “Since always. I remember every bad thing I ever did, in graphic detail. Back in the firing range, I killed six rabbits and two pigs. You had to put down that second one. Do you remember that?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“I still remember being there. I still feel bad for killing rabbits, but they’re just animals. I’m not supposed to feel sorry for them. How pathetic is that?”
“It’s not.”
He obviously didn’t believe me, but didn’t bring it up again.
“Do you remember how we became the 80’s?" I asked him. "How we got the name?”
“Oh yeah.” His smile reappeared. “The Men of the Temple wanted to call us the Infinite Zeros.”
We both laughed. “God, that was stupid.”
“I know. Byrd just ripped the sign in half and put the infinity sign up sideways.”
“And thus, the 80’s were born.”
He laughed, but I looked down at the floor. My next question wasn’t an easy one.
“Was Byrd the one who told you to do this?”
He nodded, tears welling up in his eyes.
/> “Why would you help him?”
“He found me when I was running low. He said he could get me more if I brought…”
He trailed off. His whole body shook, and blood red tears ran down his face.
“Scott, if they hadn’t found me… I almost traded a kid for drugs. I don’t know what Byrd would have done to him.”
I hugged him. “It’s ok, Tex. It’s ok.”
He kept crying and his tears stained my jacket.
“I’m sorry this happened.”
“I wish I’d been strong, like you.”
“You don’t need to be like me.”
“You would never have done this. You would have told him to fuck off.”
“We all do bad things sometimes, buddy.”
I pulled away, sitting back on my stool. As I did, I reached down to my holster, but found it empty.
“What the hell?”
I looked up and I saw that Tex now realized what was happening.
“You came here to kill me?”
We both stood up. “Tex, I…”
He pulled a grey revolver from his waistband. “Stay away from me.”
“I was just…” I couldn’t finish my sentence.
“Just what? Finishing me off? Did you tell the President to back off, because you wanted to kill me yourself?”
“No. She asked me to talk you down.”
“Then why did you reach for your holster?”
“Because I don’t know what she’s going to do to you. She murdered one of her own officers for disrespecting her. God only knows what she has in store for the man who kidnapped a member of her family.”
“You don’t know anything. I’ll give him back. Either she’ll understand, or I’ll escape.”
“No, Tex,” I said, not trying to sound bleak or hopeless, just honest. “You’re not going to escape this, and you know that. Weren’t you just sitting there expecting a shot in the back?”
“Not from you,” he said, through trembling lips.
“Maybe you should explain this to the President. She’s standing right over there.”
A split second after his gaze turned, I knocked his gun away and grabbed him. I wrapped my hands around his throat, and squeezed until my knuckles were white. He struggled for a moment before falling to the ground, allowing me to pin his shoulders under my knees and keep him still.
Black Light: The Deplorable Savior Page 21
