Mara: *yawn* It is 2:24 AM and I am spending the night with Bonnie. 3 We have a midnight Repo showing that we will be going to at midnight tonight (Saturday) and it will be bundles of fun! We are both going as Z-addicts and it will be a great show. It's not definate yet but my Shadowcast group should be preforming our first show in November. *squee!*
Pavi: Oh, are we-a going to the opera?
Mara: We are, you aren't. You can't be trusted in public, you or your just as worthless brother.
Pavi: Awww.
Ch 11: Not So Thankless
Tanner shifted nervously, standing in Nathan's lab located beneath his home. She had changed into her outfit that had come to represent death for anyone unlucky enough to have not paid for their organs and twisted her scalpel in her hands, staring at the large, upright table that their first victim of the night was securely strapped to.
"Please! Let me go! I'll pay later! You have to believe me! I will!" The man pleaded, pulling against his restraints in a desperate, animalistic need to escape. Tanner looked up, hearing Nathan begin to descend the stairs after checking on Shilo for the final time, and shifted again.
"I'm sorry, I wish I could but...Why couldn't you have just paid?" She whispered to the man harshly, her mind conflicting with her own morals and the job she knew had to be done.
"I tried! Please, you have to let me go! Give me another chance!" His voice was frantic as they listened to the Night Surgeon approach.
Tanner quickly stepped to the side, allowing Nathan to get a good look at his prey. Nathan slid his black rimmed glasses from his face and disappeared from the two, without a word, so he could don his Repo outfit.
After a good five minutes of waiting, Tanner heard the phonograph spark to life and the dull sound of the old machine's music fill the room. She smiled slightly, hearing Nathan's voice singing out the words "It's a thankless job." as he danced his way back into the room, his eyes full of a need that could only be fulfilled by blood and clearly not in his right mind. He was the creature of the night, the man everyone cowered in the presence of, spinning in circles so the slick coat of his flared out slightly.
It was almost comical. He placed his helmet down on the medical table that rested beside him and moved over to Tanner, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and continuing to sing. Repo pulled her closer to the man strung up on the table and gave a smirk. "Somebody's got to do it!"
Tanner looked from Repo to the man before her and shook her head. "I...I don't think I'm ready to be doing it myself yet." She tried to step away from the fearful victim but Repo held her firmly in place, narrowing his eyes at the resistant girl.
"How self absorbed people can be."
"What? I'm not-" Repo leaned closer to the man, grabbing his knife from the side table and keeping his arm around Tanner's shoulder so she was forced to stand just as close.
"With a slice!" The blade pressed into the man's skin, making a clean cut all the way through. Very little blood resulted from the wound but Tanner felt her head spin at the sight of Repo peeling the skin down from the cut he had previously made. "Or a snip!" He released Tanner, snatching the medical scissors from the table and going to work on the man.
A distinct, sickening sound came from the stainless steel scissors snipping through the skin and muscle of the poor, unfortunate being who was still, unfortunately, alive. Tanner felt her stomach twisting into knots at the sight before her. Yet, she was strangely intrigued. Repo worked with great precision and it made all of this seem almost professional, if it wasn't for the singing that was still taking place.
Tanner dared to venture closer as Repo worked. He glanced at Tanner and grinned widely in a way that always made her shudder to think someone she had known so well seemed so gone from who he was just earlier. Stepping back, Repo held out a hand towards the prey that had long since been slaughtered, as if offering her the chance to redeem herself.
Tanner squeezed her scalpel tightly in her hand, holding her breath as she stepped forward. This was her defining moment. She reached forward, taking hold of the intestines that were stained with blood and still warm.
Tanner choked back the strongest urge to be sick and continued, stripping one vital organ to the next from the body. She felt her own heart racing, the sound pounding in her ears to drown out anything else. It was...excitement? Of all the things to feel, she felt excited?
Tanner's hands began to shake slightly, from the sheer pleasure she got out of this event, as she reached up through the man's abdomen and took hold of his stilled heart. She pulled it out, cutting cleanly through the large arteries that would have held the organ in place.
With each cut, Tanner could feel a little more of that line she had defined for herself, the one that kept her on the right side of everything, the one that had it locked in her mind, how she would live and not lose herself beneath the mass hysteria and death dealing that came along with this world, slipping from her. Tanner wanted to stop herself. She wanted to drop to her knees and just scream until her throat would no longer allow it, until she would be able to cry and curl up to finally withdraw into herself.
All these years of keeping herself from falling into the overall devastation of this lifestyle were now gone. It had been such a waste of time. It was so wrong.
Then why was she enjoying it oh so much? Tanner stared down at the still heart that rested in her palm and felt sickness threaten to overcome her once again. She choked it back, standing tall as she turned on her heels, facing the Repo Man with her prize outstretched, being offered to the man. He suddenly looked distraught.
Nathan said nothing as he snatched the heart away from Tanner and packaged it. He quickly began stripping off his Repo outfit and hanging it in the shower room, proceeding to start up the water and wash the blood from the slick materials as well as his knives. Tanner had followed Nathan and was watching as he cleaned everything, almost as if he couldn't stand the sight of blood everywhere.
"Nathan?" He looked at Tanner and stared for a moment, still in a bit of a daze then glanced over her outfit, frowning.
"Take off your dress." Quickly, Tanner stepped away from Nathan.
"Excuse me!? I am not taking off my dress!"
"You're covered in blood, I need to rinse if off. Just go stand on the other side of the wall and hand if around to me." She shifted, uneasy, but stepped back around the wall.
"Just...stay in there. I have nothing else to wear and need it back when you are done." Tanner held out the bloodied material so Nathan could take it from her and shuddered from the cold that seeped in from outside.
He took the dress and Tanner wrapped her arms around herself, trying to shield her exposed skin from the frigid air that infected the room. The cold made the time drag by and it seemed like a long while before Nathan finally threw the dress in Tanner's direction.
"Thank you Nathan." She scrambled into it, pulling it down as Nathan came back around to the other side of the wall. He nodded and hurried to the other side of the room, placing the newly gained heart into the cooler and looking back at Tanner.
"You...um, good job." She bowed her head slightly.
"Thank you. I try." Nathan glanced at Tanner and continued with what he was doing.
"We have another job soon so don't get too comfortable."
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Mara: And there you have it! This one was probably my favorite to type out. Nathan is so out of his mind and so lovable for it! I adore his Repo Man change over. So much love for that man!
Pavi: Hey, what about me?
Mara: Yeah, wahtever, and I guess much love for you too. To be honest, Pavi will always be my number one man! Him and his brother.
Luigi: How the fuck do you have two men as your number one? Can't you fucking count or should I be thinking about reopening Luigi Largo's School for Kids Who Can't Read Good?
Mara: Bwahaha! I would so go too! Anyways, enjoy chapter 11!