Title: Cut the Ropes
Author: LazyWerewolf
Disclaimer: See chapter 11
A/N: arrrrgh. I said to myself, "You lazy piece of shit, get writing," but I had so much work and a mess of tests, papers, and the like (all of which I failed, btw) so I procrastinated on this... My bad. Forgive me?
Emily is like my little writers block eraser, though, so it's a bit easier :PIn case you miss it, it's been two weeks or so since Emily and Derek's arrival... I gave Emily a pairing XD it's the cutest pairing ever, but it doesn't come in until waaaaay later... You'll be like "I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING"
I've been so frustrated at myself for the lack of Bellice in this fic so far. I've written dozens of kissing scenes, hugging scenes, awkward scenes... That's at least five chapters done in advance. All I have to do is get to the point that I can actually use them -.-" oh well.
Ps: HOLY SHITTTTT its been forever since I tried to update... Its impossible -.- i finished two weeks ago, and ever since then i've been trying, but getting the same error report. A HUGE THANKS TO CECEASH for helping me get past it... Sorry for the lateness...
See u at teh baddom.
Backdrifts
The little tan man with the red vest leaps... And falls to his death on Level 1.
"God damnit, you rigged it," I growled, tossing the old controller at Xerxes. His sunny aura glowed happily around him, turning and twisting at having frustrated me yet another time.
"No, actually, you just suck at this." Xerxes maneuvered the little prince on the screen expertly around the obstacles, even going so far as to walk directly through the spikes that killed my character. Several times, I might add.
"Shut up. At least I play real videogames, like Call of Duty and Halo," I spat out.
He laughed. "Real video games? Those are just 3D versions of the originals. You wouldn't have TRON, Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed, or Mario Kart if it weren't for the originals," he said. But his smug smile was wiped away when the Prince of Persia fell twenty stories onto a skeleton. I smirked.
Suddenly, I heard a high pitched, extremely loud shriek came from behind the bathroom door. Everyone stopped what they were doing, but then continued when yet another shriek came. Derek put his bookmark down in his book and looked up from the kitchen chair, where he was expertly balancing on two legs while simultaneously drinking a cup of coffee. The odd thing was, the ring of aura he had didn't follow him. It remained on the floor, like a shadow.
"She has been here for two week, and she still does not know that Xerxes has yet to fix the shower," Derek said, with a slight accent. Xerxes stuck out a hand to push Derek over, but Derek, with his mad ninja skills, tipped over his cup of coffee, scalding Xerxes' hand just as his little prince ran straight into an opponent's blade.
"Ouch, what the hell was that for!" Xerxes screamed at Derek, holding his burnt hand. He looked at me with a puppy dog pout. Aw. "Pleeeease, Bella?"
I sighed, but handed him the bottle of water I was drinking. He drank it quickly, giving me a toothy grin. "Thank you Bella," he said in a childish tone.
I rolled my eyes. Some yelling found its way past the bathroom door.
"Xerxes, you idiot, do you think this is funny! WHEN I GET OUT THERE, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Emily yelled from inside the shower. The cry fell on deaf ears, however, because Xerxes was too busy trying to get his character to kill the Sultan.
Meanwhile, I twiddled my thumbs while Derek dumped a copy of George Orwell's 1984 that he lent me on the table. "If you dog ear one of my books again, I will cut your hands off," he said, staring straight at me.
I wrung my wrists with my hands. "I believe you; maybe I'll just go buy some later or something."
Suddenly a door from down the hallway slammed shut and small, angry footsteps were heard. Xerxes was still too busy mashing buttons to pay any attention. When Emily turned the corner, wearing nothing but a white towel, Xerxes turned his head away from the screen for a split second, giving the Sultan enough time to deal the final blow to the prince.
Xerxes dropped the controller, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace. "Look, Emily, the water guy isn't cooperati—" his words were cut off by Emily's fist colliding with his face.
Damn.
"Good one," Derek, Alex and I chorused. Emily walked away with a smug smile, an enraged Xerxes holding his face. He chugged more water from my water bottle, but it still didn't fully heal the black eye.
"Nice shiner you got there," I said, almost laughing. He ruffled his hair.
"Yeah, I got it at a gang fight."
Alex emerged from the hallway, holding an abnormally large sandwich. Everyone in the room stared at it, seeing as the wrapper around it read "SUBWAY" in their respective green and yellow print. Xerxes dropped the controller, Derek spilt his coffee, and I dropped the water bottle. Alex stopped mid bite to look at us like we were crazy. His aura of strange orange swirls looked like a mouth, circling around said sandwich. I managed to close my gaping mouth to form a few rushed words.
"Where the hell did you get that?"
He offered no response, but instead finished the bite.
Xerxes' eyes scrunched up. "Why you... That's why he never eats dinner here! You bastard! Who gave that to you?"
Alex had already taken another bite of the sandwich by the time Xerxes stopped fuming. I squinted my eyes at him.
"Who?"
Alex sucked on his fingers individually. "Maybe Elizabeth, maybe Rebecca, maybe an invisible pink unicorn, the world will never know..."
Derek got up from his chair and grabbed Alex's collar, shaking him furiously. "Who?"
"Present! From Elizabeth and Rebecca, who, by the way, are coming over and probably wouldn't want to see me in pieces on the floor," he said, putting his hands up.
"Well, guess what? You're sharing," Xerxes grabbed the sandwich out of Alex's hand, dividing it into three pieces. I split my part in half to give some to Emily. Speaking of which, said Emily ran a beeline toward Xerxes. She was now clad in one of my blue t-shirts and a pair of black SOFFEs that were a present from Rebecca.
Xerxes was literally drooling over the sandwich. He looked like a golden retriever. But just as he was about to take a bite of the sandwich, Emily popped out of nowhere and took the sandwich right out of his hands, eating it in an instant. Xerxes was shell shocked, staring at the air in front of him as if the sandwich suddenly disappeared. He squinted his eyes and turned to Emily slowly, a devilish smile creeping onto his face slowly. I know where this is going.
"Hey Bella?" he asked innocently.
"Yes, Xerxes?" I responded, with a smile of my own.
"Let's play fence."
'Fence' was a game we invented to torment Emily. Because she weighed like, what, forty pounds, we slung her around and basically played catch with her. Well, with her as the object of throwing/catching. Tables, chairs, sofas, or anything that could possibly be used as a net served as the 'fence', an object for Emily to be thrown over. If she touched the 'fence' or ran away, the person who threw her had to do the other's laundry. I had done my fair share of dirty boxers, but Xerxes had done more than enough dirty bras. Emily hated this game with a passion.
Emily's eyes widened for a split second before she turned around and sprinted toward an exit. But she was also a split second too late, and Xerxes had just enough time to scoop her up into his arms, slinging her over his shoulder. She started screaming, kicking and flailing her arms, trying to get Xerxes to let go. He ran toward the empty storage room, where games of 'fence' were frequently played.
This room was once the cocaine lab, but Alex remodeled it easily, getting the cops off his tail too. It was a wide storage room with burgundy walls and a concrete floor, with a few duffel bags on some steel shelves in the corner. There were a few dozen cases of water, totaling up to several hundred water bottles. In case anything were to happen, I suppose.
Xerxes pushed a huge box to the middle of the room for the fence, and then crouched down to send Emily flying toward me. I caught her with one arm.
"PUT ME DOWN!" Emily screamed.
I sent her hurtling toward Xerxes, who grabbed her by the shirt and spun around, sending her flying toward me. I did the same, not wasting any time.
A door opening could be heard from across the hallway. Footsteps came in our direction, and just as Xerxes was about to throw a wailing Emily across the 'fence', Elizabeth lunged forward and snatched her out of the air.
Elizabeth cradled Emily in her arms. "Merde! You irresponsible idiots! How could you do this to her! She's a child, not a toy!" She said, her French coming out in full force. Emily clung to her, not letting go as she reprimanded us. "You should be ashamed of yourself! You two are more children than she is!"
Xerxes spoke up. "She stole my sandwich!"
Some heavy footsteps alerted me that a man was approaching. "Your sandwich? I beg to differ," Alex said, entering the room.
A few more footsteps followed, this time quicker and lighter. Rebecca peeked her head around the corner and saw that we were playing 'fence'. "Can I play?"
Elizabeth glared at her, holding Emily closer. She turned to Emily, placing a kiss on her cheek before setting her down. "Pardon, ma belle, but I believe Xerxes could benefit of a beating," she growled to Xerxes.
Xerxes blanched, before he sprinted toward the window on the right, squeezing through and escaping to the other side. Elizabeth relaxed. Rebecca was laughing her face off. Emily, however, turned her back to me and crossed her arms over her chest. This always happens.
I poked her on the shoulder. "Emi," I pleaded.
"Don't talk to me."
I poked her again. "Emi, pwease?"
"No."
"Aw, c'mon, I didn't even start it. Xerxes did it," I said, holding my arms open. She turned her head toward me, before cracking a smile and flinging herself at me.
"Okay, I forgive you," she said, cuddling into my shoulder. Rebecca "aww"-ed and Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
"Nobody in this house can hold a grudge for more than thirty seconds," she complained out loud.
I picked Emily up, carrying her to her room down the hallway. It was a small square room with a few decorations here and there, but not what you'd expect. There was a dream catcher, a stuffed wolf, and a Linkin Park poster that had a Metallica bumper sticker pasted on it. I tried to drop her down on her bed, but she held tight to me. I had to rip her hands from my shirt for her to let go. She finally did, plopping down on the bed.
I pointed to the blue shirt she was wearing. "Gimme my shirt back."
She clung to it. "You borrow Xerxes' clothes all the time!"
"Yeah, because I run out of clothes frequently! Last time I checked, you had a full wardrobe," I said.
"But I don't like my clothes!"
I walked over to her full closet. I would have worn these if they were my size. Just a bunch of different color t-shirts. One looked suspiciously similar to the one she was wearing now.
"This is the same size shirt! And the same color too! What the hell Emily? These are all my clothes!" I flipped through the closet, examining shirts that were mine. This green one was mine, the black one was mine, the red one was mine, this blue one was mine...I even found my grey tank top.
"But I like your clothes better than mine..."
I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "We'll just share, alright?"
"Yay!" Emily ran over and hug-tackled me. I had to take her up in my arms and carry her back to the living room, where everyone was minding their own business. Xerxes was still glued to the TV, mashing buttons on the console. His healed black eye came back full force, probably post-Elizabeth. Alex, Derek, and Elizabeth were playing cards. I would have assumed that Rebecca was also playing cards, but she was just resting her head on Elizabeth's shoulder. Actually, she was helping the boys cheat by mouthing the names of the cards to them. She mouthed 'King of Spades' before turning to Emily and I to say hello.
My monkey and I sat down on the couch next to Xerxes. He was still mashing buttons on the retro Prince of Persia game. He was sitting on the far end of the couch, eyes glued to the screen, which means he didn't mind much when I leaned back on him because my back hurt. Emily weighed nothing, but having her perched on my back all the time hurt. She settled herself down, cuddling into my chest. I wrapped my arms around her, and leant back a little more on Xerxes. The man didn't move an inch.
After a while, I found myself talking mindlessly to Xerxes while Emily braided the ends of my hair. Xerxes would ask about Phoenix, Forks, London, or the vampires, and I would ask him about Germany. Did you know he was a soldier? He had bullet wounds all over his arms. Emily would pipe up about London (did you know she was English?) and talk about the places and people she met there. One thing that caught my attention was that she mentioned a blonde haired vampire wandering the streets late at night in London, back a few years ago. She knew he was a vampire, but he didn't quite know what she was. They had communicated frequently, but then he disappeared. Said something about a lady waiting for him. He was a gentleman that had a small Southern accent.
Hm. Jasper.
Maybe I can find him.
A couple of hours later, Elizabeth had finally lost the majority of her money to Derek and Alex, who split it with Rebecca behind Elizabeth's back. Emily was dozed off in my arms, and I had settled into Xerxes, who was still mashing buttons on a console.
Alex sat down on the chair to the side, contemplating. He had this strange look on his face, like he was trying to make a plan of action. After a couple of minutes of him sitting like the Thinker, his eyes widened.
Not good.
He relaxed again, though, and sat there for a few more moments contemplating our fate.
"Alex?" I let myself say.
"Yes?"
"What's up?"
He stiffened for a quarter of a second. "...You need to pack."
No.
Fucking.
Way.
"Pack?"
He stood up, directing everyone's attention to him. "...Zeus is looking for Bella."
Shit.
Everyone in the room blanched slightly, the hairs on the back of our necks rising. That name. Zeus. My torturer. My executioner.
Fuck.
Wait a second.
I looked around the room. Derek was shuffling cards. Rebecca was clinging to Elizabeth, hiding her face in Elizabeth's hair while the taller woman wrapped her arms protectively around her. Alex stood there with no expression, probably finding a way to get everyone out safely. Xerxes was mortified, holding me tightly against his chest. Emily cuddled further into me, her hands clenching around the neck of my t-shirt.
All of them could die because of me.
I gently scooted Emily onto Xerxes and stood up.
"So, how are we gonna do this? Should I just go?"
Everyone in the room started blurting out protests and squeals, particularly Emily and Xerxes.
"You don't have to do this alone!"
I flinched slightly. Alone. Again.
"We can go with you!"
No.
"No."
They all stood still for a moment before Emily started tearing up. Alex spoke.
Rebecca took her head out of Elizabeth's hair. "Do you have the apartment keys?"
"Yeah. I could get the bike and just drive. You guys could split up so nothing happens."
Alexander spoke. "Xerxes could go with Emily and Derek to one of my old apartments, and I'll go with Elizabeth and Rebecca to theirs. Then, one of us makes a false trail heading upwards to Jordan. You go to the apartment."
"She's not going by herself!" Emily screamed.
"The decision has been made. She's going."
All of them looked at me, and continued to stare at me even as I left the room. Xerxes gently displaced Emily, and then roughly got up.
"You can't go."
I turned to face him. "Yes, I can."
He grabbed my wrist lightly. "No, you can't. Not without us, please," he pleaded.
It was heart wrenching, that was for sure. If I looked to the right, I could see Emily's eyes tearing up.
A huge thump came from the front door. The thudding became louder, until the door was shaking. Loud yells came from outside, along with several shadows. The world stood still for a split second, until Emily got up and opened the bookcase door, gesturing for everyone to go down. Everyone who had gold eyes fled quickly down the stairwell, with exception of Rebecca. Elizabeth looked to her lover for a split second, then disappeared down the stairs as well. I closed the door behind me.
There was an uncomfortable quiet and claustrophobia in being trapped underground with eight other people. I was pressed in between Elizabeth and Derek as all of us moved down the stairwell. I don't know how Elizabeth got behind me in the small space, but she was shoving against me, trying to urge the line forward. Derek shifted, sending me in front of him. At least someone's courteous.
Once we were all to the main floor, I immediately fled to my room to pack some belongings. Emily squeezed in just before I slammed the door shut.
I hastily grabbed the essentials: My iPod, my phone that now had everyone's number, a bottle of water, the keys to the apartment, the map with detailed instructions on how to get to the apartment, and my necklace. The necklace was a small pouch of sand. Alex had taught us to always keep sand around us, even in small quantities, because any and all amounts of it could help us. I tried to fasten it around my neck, but my hands were shaking too much from excitement. A pair of small hands took the ends from me and quickly tied them together. Small arms wrapped around my neck and hugged me closely.
"Emi, you can't come with me," I said. She held on tighter.
"Bella, please, it'll just be me! I promise I won't bring anyone, and with that thing you can do with sand and we could both hide in that apartment with the things and Dubai is a big city and-" I cut her off, holding my hand up in a gesture to stop.
"Stop for one minute and think," I said. She froze, listening to me. "If any one of you comes with me, then they could follow the trail. It's much more probable that I'm travelling with someone rather than travelling alone. It's been two weeks, and once everything simmers down for a while, you could come visit. Give it a week, maybe a month at the most. We'll see each other again."
Emily still held on to me, quietly sniffling. The door from upstairs thudded even more violently. It sounded as though any minute now they would break down the door. Shelooked to me, her eyes wide with fear.
I whispered so no one could hear us. "Xerxes and Alex are in the room across from here. Go," I said. She reached into her pocket and grabbed a pair of motorcycle keys.
"The bike is across the street. Don't get hurt."
There was a parting hug, her aura quietly settling into me, before the door shut behind her softly and I could hear her running off to find someone.
Do or die. Alright.
The door was too obvious; someone would hear me all the way from upstairs. The drain pipe I crawled through the first day I got here was loud, and would lead me to the other side of the building and nowhere near the bike. The small window in the corner, however, appealed to me.
I bounced on top of my cot thing, which was directly below said window to look outside. A few feet away was Mr. Rusty, in all of his now repaired glory. I fumbled with the window clasp, finally managing to open the small rectangular window. I grabbed my bag, throwing it out the window first. Next, I swung my legs onto the windowsill and launched myself out.
The bright light burned my eyes. Midday had turned into afternoon, so the light was shining in one direction. I grabbed Mr. Rusty's key out of my pocket and pushed them into the ignition. It started up with a loud roar, and I kicked it to go forward.
The wind swept through my hair, going me a feeling of liberation as I rode the bike down the small street. I put new rubber on the handles so my hands wouldn't get chopped up, and the new seat felt much better than the old one. I'm pretty sure someone had stuffed some dead thing into it. The fixed bike rode like a charm.
This back alley was relatively quiet, with no one within it. The door was on the other side of the building, but I could see the lights of a police car. I turned down another alley before racing down to find a traffic jam in front of a red light.
I took advantage of a red light to look at my map. If I keep heading in this direction, then I would get to the bridge, and then I would take a few turns onto the highway, and probably a couple of hours later, badda bing badda boom, Dubai. Rest stop, then I am on the way to a cozy apartment in Dubai's capital. Fun.
I revved the bike past some weary pedestrians and to a busy road. People were screaming and probably cursing as well, all trying to fit down one path. The sun beat down on my shirt and skin, making everything feel heavier. I need a pool. A huge, gigantic pool.
Wait.
...
Maybe if I found an exit, I could get out and...You know, sand teleport or whatever?
The line was long. Very long. Extremely. Fucking. Long. People just wouldn't shut up. A string of curses directed at me was the first thing I heard. The next thing I heard was a bottle hitting my bike, denting it. I screamed, but didn't want to form any words. Not like they would understand, anyway. After a while, I finally got to the outskirts, where even less people lived. But somehow, there were still angry people screaming.
With a quick turn, I maneuvered the bike off of the set road. More pedestrians shook their fists at me and started screaming even more. The dust kicked up by the bike as I sped down the sand was billowing up in a cloud around me. In a few seconds, the sand was so thick I couldn't see past it. I immediately dismounted the bike and sunk my lower half into the sand.
Home.
I grabbed a spoke on the wheel and pulled down, trying to force the bike under the sand. It protested, sinking only slightly. Instead, I turned the bike over on its side and yanked downwards, and the bike slowly tipped into the sand.
A good five minutes of wrestling with the bike like you would wrestle with a swim noodle to get it underwater, it was completely under the surface. I wondered if maybe the sand would clog up the engine, but really, I had no time to worry about that.
Is this why everything seems to weigh more underwater?
As soon as the whole bike was under the level of sand, I immediately sunk under with it. I tried to lift it up, but it would only just budge. Swimming would just have to do.
And, yes, around fifteen minutes of dragging a two hundred pound bike under sand while simultaneously reading a map and swimming, and I was completely worn out. At least I had gotten somewhere, right?
I poked my head over the surface. It was an extremely small, one lane dirt road heading off into the horizon. I pushed myself upwards, dragging the bike with me. As soon as the tip of the handle broke the surface, the bike returned to its normal weight.
Physics sucks. Mr. Banner can kiss my ass.
I'm sure that didn't happen in most instances, but I didn't want to worry about that now. My legs carried my momentum over the surface, where I could drag the bike out. It was minimally damaged, save for the seat and handles being smothered in sand. Good enough.
Mr. Rusty was now up, being inspected for faults. The engine revved happily, and the only real problem was the extremely unattractive paint job. I mounted it, kicking my legs up when the bike began to soar.
It's a liberating feeling. Imagine flying, but with less work. The sun hung low in the sky, heating up my back. The road below me was flying by, looking like a tan blur. If you looked closely at the flat horizon, you could see the edges of the sky turning to the deep black of night.
I flicked the buttons on the dashboard, hoping to find a radio. A few buttons flicked on the night lights, a few put the turning signals on, but one finally turned on a radio. Immediately, a voice started babbling in Arabic, probably attempting to rap or something. I flicked a few more buttons, but no matter how catchy the beat was, it was always in Arabic. However, the last button yielded some results. It was a few set tracks, the first of which I instantly recognized. U2's Spanish Eyes boomed through the speakers, setting a nice beat that changed the way I rode the bike. It was hard not to want to sway to the music.
I looked around, suddenly feeling self conscious of the noise. And then I felt stupid, because I was alone in the middle of the desert. I turned the volume knob to its highest, letting the male voice echo throughout the desert air. I screamed along with it, trying my best to mimic the lyrics I didn't know.
"Way hay hay! Baby hang on!
Way hay hay! Here she comes!
Way hay hay! The night is young,
Cause I love the way you talk to me!
Cause I love the way you walk me!
Cause I need your grace,
In your Spanish eyes, Spanish eyes!"
The song ended just as I took my first right turn. It immediately followed up with a song called "In God's Country". I sand along to the chorus, but I didn't know the verses.
"Sleep comes like a drug,
In God's Country,
Sad eyes, crooked crosses,
In God's Country,
Set me alight
We'll punch a hole right through the night,
Every day the dreamers die,
See what's on the other side,
Sleep comes like a drug,
In God's Country,
Sad eyes, crooked crosses,
In God's Country..."
The track list continued on, spouting U2 songs one after the other. I sang along to most, smiling as the bike swerved from side to side in time to the beat. It was fun.
Time passed quickly, the songs getting slower and slower, my thought process getting slower and slower, until I finally realized that the tracks changed artists. It went from U2 to this new band I hadn't heard of called "Iron & Wine". It was a creative name, I'll give them that.
"... Have I, found you,
Flightless bird,
Jealous,
We belong,
Lost you,
American mouth,
Big pill looming..."
The male singer's voice was an aphrodisiac. I felt myself becoming drowsy, a familiar weight settling itself over my eyelids. I was just starting to doze off when a jarring noise jerked me awake.
I looked up to see that I had reached... Nowhere. There was nothing. Just me, Mr. Rusty, and the road. It was late. Very late. And I was tired. Very tired.
The moon shone brightly over the desert sand. Stars lit up the night sky, creating a blanket of light over the darkness. Several ridges and plateaus were ahead, but the road cut into the rock face. There were no hotels, motels, rest stops or gas stations to be seen. But I was fucking tired.
Keep driving?
Eh, no. Too long.
Sleep here?
Fucking freezing.
...
Sand nap?
I dismounted, walking the bike along for a bit. There came a small patch on the road that looked less steep than the others, so I rolled the bike down. The sand greedily swallowed the wheels of the bike once I set it down.
Seeing no other way, I pulled it down only slightly into the sand. I then kicked sand onto it, making it look like a worn down, dead bike. Mr. Rusty looked rustler than ever.
The world was blue around me as I sat down, lowering myself into the sand. It swirled around me, honestly making it feel like home. I looked around one last time before ducking my head under. There were no demons or anything, so I just positioned myself horizontally to sleep.
Maybe I could stop running for a few hours.
A/N: CHRIST I AM SO SORRY. this chapter came out waaaaaay too late. And i sort of had to force an idea out, which, when you think about it, didn't help much. I promise I will try really hard to get a new chapter out sooner.
(This is mean Lazy telling you to review, so I get inspired to update sooner.)
Sorry for the bad grammar, again. I'll get it to my beta Asap. I am just ashamed... But really, I had a mess of things going on. Funerals, inconsiderate professors, the works. And on top of that, I got a puppy :) there's always a silver lining in dark times :D
I don't think anyone actually reads the a/ns. But I'm really thinking of getting Bella a puppy. Review, and tell me what breed, if Bella gets one at all, it should be. For now the default is a German Shepherd.
Soo...
Don't be mad? (Be mad. I deserve it.)
Cheers,
The Lazy Werewolf