Wow. I have to say a huge thankyou to my reviewers, but in particular, JoeEngland!
It's often been a concern of mine to just keep going over stuff that has already happened in the game that everyone is familiar with - and by the time I got your review, I'd already finished the second drafts of the rest of the chapters. But you did inspire me to go back and see what I could add or alter, and I've even started toying with my SR2 fic, hopefully it will be a great improvement on this one!
So, without further ado, my next chapter :)
It was a slow afternoon – I'd been on the DL for a few days after blowing up the Kingdom Come Records building (a classic example of what Johnny considered 'subtelty'). I hadn't realised when Gat had mentioned 'Aisha' he had actually meant the hip hop superstar, not just a local girl with the same name. I smiled – he wasn't too pleased about her moving on up in the world, but then, you would have to be blind deaf and dumb not to see there was something going on between them.
I took a drag on my cigarette, leaning forward on my knees, sitting on the grimy steps of the church. Years ago, the Third Street had been a pinncale of neat and comfortable inner-city living. But after a resecssion and the expansion of the northern island of Stillwater it had devolved, property values dropping till it became a refuge for the poor and forgotten. Too close to Shivington, the projects and the industrial area, within a decade the Row lay forgotten. And in it's heart, the church stood tall, architecture once revered now smeared in graffiti. I didn't mind it - churches were supposed to be a sanctuary, and for me, that's what this place was. Hell, one of those large tags was my own art. I'd often heard locals commenting with disdain at the disgrace on the church but I couldn't bring myself to see it that way. I was never religious, so I couldn't be offended for them. But this church, this neighbourhood, was my home. And when you lived in the Row, Saint or not, you were a part of it. It was an unspoken law in the Saints that anyone living threre was protected. You didn't steal from the shops, you didn't hurt anyone local. And you protected them from the outsiders.
I exhaled, watching the orange afternoon light glint through the smoke. I'd never really smoked much before, it was more of a social thing I'd try when I was drinking. But I hadn't done a line in nearly a month now and I figured a couple of cancer sticks a week was a fair trade in addictions. Cocaine, pfft. I'm pretty sure whatever Seth had been feeding me was harder and dirtier than coke.
I paused when I thought his name. His face flashed in my mind again, the bullet hole where his eye should have been now seemed larger and darker in my memory, consuming half his face.
I'd been thinking on Seth with more frequency lately, and I know what had triggered it.
The day I had dropped Aisha off at the KC Records, with a car laden with explosives, I saw one of them. One of those bastards. He'd been walking the street with another VK, but this one was unmistakable. The pale eyes, black goatee and the huge crown tattoo around his arm.
Before I knew it my hand was wrapped aorund the butt of my gun with the full intention of putting a bullet between his eyes, and it took every ounce of my self control not to. It was the first time I'd actually felt an urge to kill someone in cold blood - I wasn't running or fighting or trying to protect someone or defending myself. It was just icy cold revenge.
But this was a carefully laid out plan – I couldn't let my personal vendettas get in the way. Instead, I took out my phone, aiming the camera for him as he approached, and quickly snapped as many photos as I could without him noticing. Once the job with Aisha was done and I was back in the Row, I got the photos printed and blown up to A5's, pinning them to a corkboard in the passage through to Gat's office. I didn't want to forget that face.
I unfroze quickly, shaking my head free of those thoughts and hastily drawing a last deep breath through the cigarette, flicking the butt down and stubbing it out under my sneaker. Breathing out I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling how my arms had firmed and plumped up. Within a few short weeks, my scrawny frame had been filling out and gaining brawn, beginning to fulfil it's destiny to be as voluptuous as my mother's had been. Hell, I was already up one cup size. I know heaps of girls would probably freak about gaining weight but I was loving it – with my hair starting to grow out, every day I was looking less and less like the pathetic, shit-kicking little bitch I had been.
"Hey,"
I blinked and looked up in the amber afternoon light. A short girl was starting towards me, smiling sheepishly and waving. I lifted a hand in response when I recognised her as Aisha's little sister. She jammed her hands in her pockets as she approached.
"Sorry," she said softly, "I never caught your name,"
"You're Aisha's little sister Tia, right?" I said, deflecting the implied question, "How you and the other girls doin?"
"Oh, yeah, they're fine," she said, nodding, "And you? How's your arm?"
I lifted a sleeve to show her the stitches Jamal had set me up with. Jamal had been a private practise surgeon who got some jail time over an assault against some guy who was boning his wife and consequently, lost his business. The Saints were more than happy to pay him cash-in-hand for any work he could do for them.
"It's no problem." I said truthfully; my pain threshold was increasing every day. Tia nodded, letting a short silence fall.
"Hey, uh, you doin anything tonight? Eesha's sending me to Steelport to live with mom and dad. They don't know she's… well, you know, they think she's… dead, but Eesha doesn't want me stayin in this city. So, we're havin' a little send off. Just a place in Chinatown, no where special or where she'd get noticed or, you'd get noticed… if, you know, you'd wanna come?"
I'll admit, I waited for the punch line. Aisha, multi-platinum recording star wanted to go to some teahouse with an eighteen year old scrub from the Row?
Then I remembered I saved her baby sister from becoming a sex slave and allowed myself to be pinned for her elaborate fake death, so it suddenly didn't seem too far fetched.
"I could be up for that," I replied.
I pushed the door open to the Teahouse – it was Mr Wong's place, so I was pretty certain I wouldn't get pulled up about anything in here (considering all the 'problems' I was taking care of for him). Still, I'd done my best to look nice – my cleanest pair of jeans and a black camisole.
I scanned the teahouse, spotting Tia and Eesh in a booth up the back. I don't know why I had been expecting more people – everyone save a handful of people on earth thought she was dead. As I started over, Aisha spotted me, smiling warmly and waving me over. I suddenly wished I had borrowed something nicer to wear from one of the other girls – Aisha might have dressed for comfort day to day but whenever she was going out, it was obvious how much she had made at Kingdom Come, even if they were ripping her off left right and centre. This time it was a perfectly fitted white dress and cropped blazer. I didn't know anything about labels but I knew enough to feel sheepish wearing the bit's I'd gotten from On the Rag and Leather and Lace.
But the open and warm welcome the sisters gave me soon set me to ease, and I slipped into the booth, letting Aisha pour me a drink from the very expensive bottle she'd had set on the table.
We settled into talking easily, and I soon got to know the sisters pretty well. Tia was cheerful and excitable, and clearly very proud of her older sister. Aisha was surprisingly down to earth and very sweet, if a little talkative. That suited me fine; I wasn't much of a talker. She spoke passionately about her music, proudly of her sister and fondly of her past (I had to suppress a smile when she mentioned Gat and quickly changed the subject). We'd soon worked our way through nearly three bottles of champagne and a plate of Cantonese tea-cakes, and the discussion turned to the gang life. Eventually, Tia bit her lip and and leaned forward.
"So… who was your first?" she asked me, wide eyed, cheeks flushed from the wine like the rest of us. I blinked, not wholly certain what she was referring to.
"Tiana!" Aisha hissed, nudging her. I raised my hand.
"It's cool," I said. Aisha leant back, giving me an apologetic smile. A short silence had fallen on the table.
"My first what, Tia?" I asked. She fidgeted.
"You know, the first person you…"
"Fucked?" I asked with a smile. Aisha snorted a laugh of surprise into her drink and Tia burst into a fit of giggles.
"No, no, not that." She managed to compose herself. "The first person you… shot."
She wanted to say killed, I know. I chewed a fingernail and glanced to Aisha.
"Girl, you don't have to answer that," she said to me, then added "If you don't want,"
But weirdly, I wanted to. It could probably be the bottle of champagne swimming in my veins but still, I wanted to.
"Ok," I said, taking a breath like I was about to plunge into the ocean. "First person was my first boyfriend." I said bluntly, leaning back and taking a sip of my drink. Aisha blinked; Tiana gaped.
"He had it comin." I added, as if to make an excuse for murder one. Tia edged forward, eyes wide, hungry for me to continue. Aisha moved forward a little too, but her expression was different – it was reading into me the way her naive little sister couldn't. Suddenly, I needed to talk about him. Someone needed to know what happened to me.
"He was my kickboxing instructor when I was in high school. I thought he was the finest thing I'd ever met," I had to laugh at that, I'm not sure why. "I'll save you the sob story about the abusive parents, suffice to say it was easy for him to convince me to move here to Stillwater with him nearly a year ago." I paused as I thought on how to continue.
"He had a… an addictive personality. He had debts. Some were to the Vice Kings."
Aisha became very still.
"I mean… he changed over time. I was young and stupid and infatuated like only a high school girl could be. I didn't want to see it. Some guys, VK, come knocking on the door one day and… anyway. Se- my ex didn't have the money so he managed to… negotiate a deal with them." I said, trying not to stumble over his name. "Two nights later I was drinking a glass of OJ and passed out."
As I said the words the images began to flash back into my mind… groggily coming round to see them over me, my numb body barely feeling them ripping my clothes off, each taking payment in turn. Each face became clear and ugly in my mind's eye. The black guy with the bald head appeared to me with blood over his face… he was dead. Two left to find…
I was rattled from my reverie by Aisha's hand on my own, squeezing tightly, her large dark eyes shining and lips pursed into a restrained grimace. She understood.
Tia was looking back and forth between Eesh and me, confused.
"The VK took the debt out on me." I said for Tiana, for once not being blunt, "Two nights later Seth and I got into a fight and… I shot him."
I let my shoulders drop after that. It wasn't nice to relive, but it felt good having let it out to someone. I had to break the mood and looked up at them levelly.
"But, you know if you tell anyone this I'll have to kill you." I said, arranging my face into a cocky smile. Both sisters responded, Tia's smile nervous, Aisha's sad.
"Ladies," announced a familiar voice.
"I see you girls started early,"
Dex and Gat had arrived and strolled over to the table, completely oblivious to the heavy air around us.
"You're late." Tia took the liberty of informing them.
"Sorry Tia, had some stuff that needed taking care of." Gat responded.
I heard Aisha sigh as she observed Gat.
"You couldn't have changed your shirt?" She nagged.
"You bought me this one." He replied with his usual irreverence.
"It's got a god damn bloodstain on it." She said with some exasperation. Gat glanced down his torso, decorated with directional blood spatter.
"Well, look at that."
Aisha looked away, trying to look annoyed, but I saw the laugh curl at the corner of her mouth. Gat crashed down in the vacant seat next to me, smiling broadly at her. Dex just shook his head, "What're we drinking?"
"Verve." Eesh responded, casual as anything. Gat and Dex exchanged a glance.
"Beer it is." Dex said.
As Eesh and Dex began talking, Gat had leant in to me, lowering his voice.
"Got something for you back at the church," he said, "Present for helping Eesh out."
I looked at him quizzically, but he didn't elaborate. So we both relaxed back, determined to enjoy Tiana's last night in Stillwater. My curiosity could wait.
Ok then! Editing the next chapter, it should be up soon