By: Forlay
Chapter Two - A Game of Cat and Mouse
Ed and Gaia left school that afternoon in an uncomfortable
silence. Gaia because she only had questions for Ed, but they'd established
the rule long ago about no questions, and Ed because he wasn't entirely
comfortable around Gaia yet. They'd been estranged for awhile, ever since
he and Heather had started going out again, and now that that relationship
was over...he was entirely sure if he could slip back into the easy relationship
he and Gaia used to have.
"I don't want to go back to the apartment yet,"
Gaia announced abruptly. "I'm going to play some chess. You want to come?"
she added as an afterthought.
"No, I've always sucked at chess. I'd better be
going home," Ed answered, trying to sound natural, but he could tell from
his voice he was failing miserably.
Gaia shot him a look that, from her, was concerned,
but she didn't press him. Sometimes he absolutely hated their 'don't ask,
don't tell' rule, not only because he didn't get to find out anything about
Gaia but sometimes he wanted her to ask about him. She had to be dying
to know about his breakup, she was probably viewing it as a victory of
sorts, he was finally getting out of Heather's clutches, but because she
didn't want to give him a chance to dig into her past, she was remaining
quiet.
"Okay, then," Gaia finally said. "I'll see you later
then. You going to call tonight?"
Ed smiled. It'd been awhile since they'd had their
late night phone conversations. "If you'll be there."
Gaia smirked. "I can't make any promises Ed, but
I'll try."
"That's all I can ask, I guess. I'll see you later."
"Hello Ceendy," Zolov said, not looking up from his game.
Gaia smiled and shook her head. She had no idea where the man had come up with the name Ceendy, but no one had been able to convince him that her name was truly Gaia. "Hey, Zolov, hey, Mr. Haq. How's the game going?"
"I'm going to learn one of these days not to challenge this man," Mr. Haq said with a sigh. "I'm going to go broke if I keep playing with him."
"Check mate!" Zolov cried happily. Mr. Haq didn't even bother to analyze the board. He knew he'd lost. He took out his wallet and pulled out a crumpled twenty dollar bill. "Another game?"
"No, I've got to get back on duty," Mr. Haq said. "Besides, that was the last of my money for today."
Zolov looked up at Gaia. "How about you, Ceendy?"
Gaia was just about to say sure when she heard a scream from across the park. She tensed and looked around. Near the exit of the park she saw a group of men, in the middle of them was a woman. "In the middle of the afternoon?" Gaia muttered to herself. "Pathetic." To Zolov she said, "I'd love to, but I've got other things to do." Without waiting for Zolov's answer, she ran off, her messenger bag thumping against her legs.
"Hey guys," she called when she reached the group of men. "What's up?"
One of them, a guy with a greasy black pony tail, turned to her. "None of your business, girlie."
"Oh really? I'm afraid I beg to differ on that one. Why don't you four leave the nice lady alone and no one will get hurt."
Grease laughed. "I'm really afraid of you, sweetie. You just wait right there and we'll get to you in a moment."
"I'm a rather impatient girl, I want my turn right now." With that, Gaia delivered a sound kick to Grease's chest, knocking him down to the ground.
His three cronies looked startled for a moment, but quickly forgot their original target and moved quickly towards Gaia. She threw off her bag and readied herself. She knew she could take these three punks easy.
One of the guys, wearing a black wife beater with a tattoo of a skull and crossbones on his bicep, approached Gaia first, slowly, measuring her up. Gaia didn't let go of his stare, yet she remained keenly aware of the other two guys that were on their feet, and saw Grease in her peripheral vision standing up from the ground. It'd be a four on one fight. More difficult than some fights she'd been in, but far from impossible.
A guy with dark sunglasses moved behind Gaia, she knew it was time to make her move. Tattoo lunged forward and she heard a grunt from behind her as Glasses did the same, Gaia ducked down and rolled out of the way, letting the two thugs crash into eachother and fall to the ground in a tangled heap. She shook her head as she faced down the third guy, a fairly clean cut one, with curly blond hair. He looked like he should be in some preppy college, not in a street gang.
"You going to be as big an idiot as your friends here?" Gaia asked, indicating Glasses and Tattoo.
"Nah, I've got somethin' better in mind." Curly pulled a knife out of his jacket.
"Please," Gaia easily kicked the knife from his hand, then delivered a roundhouse kick to his head. She heard a crack when her foot met his cheek bone. He was going to be out of the fight.
Grease was back up now. He'd grabbed Curly's knife and had one of his own. He ran towards Gaia, without any finesse or style at all. Gaia wondered momentarily if she should even bother to fight him or simply move out of the way and let him plow into Tattoo and Glasses, who were finally on their feet again. But what would have been the fun in that?
She put a foot out in Grease's path, he saw it in time to try and leap, but Gaia caught him first, grabbing his knives and throwing him down to the ground. She threw the knives out of the reach of any of the thugs and turned back to Tattoo and Glasses, who were finally getting a little sense and looked a little frightened.
"Still think I'm a harmless little girl?" she asked. Glasses shook his head and began to back away, but Tattoo was thicker than his friend. He reached in his jacket and pulled out a gun.
Gaia didn't move for a moment, letting Tattoo take aim, but as soon as the pistol cocked she shot forward and grabbed his arm, pulling it back behind him so it almost, but not quite, snapped.
"Ow! Oh, shit! Let me go, bitch!"
"Soon as you promise to get out of here, I will," Gaia said, only slightly breathless from the exertion.
"Dammit, let me go and I will!"
"Promise not to come back?"
"Let go!" Gaia put more pressure on the arm. The tendons were straining, just another half an inch and... "We'll go! We'll go just let go of my fucking arm!"
Gaia complied and pushed the guy away from her. He moved to pick up his gun but Gaia kicked it away. He didn't bother to look at his friends as he ran off, Glasses just behind him.
The woman who had been hassled ran up to Gaia. "My God, that was brave of you! I just got back from a pay phone, the police should be here any moment. What can I do to thank you?"
Gaia rolled her eyes as she sank down next to a tree. She always hated it when the victims she saved stuck around, they always wanted to repay her, or help her out when she began to black out, just like she was now. "Nothing," Gaia managed to say. She rolled over and tried to push herself up. "I'll be fine. I-I've got to go."
"Let me help you," the woman took Gaia's arm and helped her to her feet. As soon as Gaia was balanced, though, she yanked her arm away.
"I can take care of myself, just let me go." Gaia walked slowly past Grease and Curly, picked up her bag and began to stagger away from the woman and the thugs. As soon as she was out of their sight she flopped down on a park bench.
"Wonder what her problem is?" Tina wondered off handedly. She sent a pointed look to Heather.
"What, you think I'm going to go over there and ask her?"
"Hunter and prey, remember? Check out the prey's habits. Don't tell me you've forgotten your wonderful metaphor already!"
"I-I don't know enough yet. I couldn't go over there and act in character," Heather stumbled, for once finding herself having to struggle to find words.
Tina rolled her eyes. "I knew you wouldn't be able to follow through with this challenge. Come on, my apartment's closer. We're going to go call Megan and tell her that you can't go through -"
"I can do this on my own, Tina," Heather spat. "You didn't give me a time limit, I just need to...."
"Date her," Tina supplied with a smirk. "And within a reasonable ammount of time. That should go without saying."
"Well what do you expect me to do? Go over there and act all concerned for her?"
"You're the master hunter. You tell me."
Heather glared at her friend. Sometimes she really thought she needed to get new friends. But now wasn't the time to argue about that. She set her shoulders straight and began walking. "Watch and learn, Tina, watch and learn."
Gaia's strength was just beginning to return when a shadow fell over her face. She slowly opened her eyes to see Heather Gannis standing over her.
Shit.
"What the hell do you want?" Gaia managed to say.
"I saw you fall to the bench," Heather said simply. "I was curious."
"Well, I'm fine, no need to waste anymore of your precious time." Gaia pushed herself up to a sitting position, praying the sudden dizziness she felt wouldn't make her pass out in front of Heather, that was the last thing she needed.
"Well excuse me," Heather said snidely, forgetting for a moment she was supposed to be getting close to Gaia. "I knew I should have just left you to fend for yourself in here, like you did with me."
"You still think that was my fault? If you hadn't have been such a bitch that evening I would have warned you!" Why on Earth was she arguing with Heather?
"So two wrongs make a right? How I was acting shouldn't have stopped you from warning me. Any decent human being would have warned me."
"You already think I'm the lowest form of life on the planet, why should I live up to more than you expect of me?"
"You should always live up to your potential," Heather quoted her guidance councilor haughtily.
"And if all the potential I have is kicking your ass, what are you going to do about it?"
Heather looked Gaia up and down slowly. She considered for a moment accepting Gaia's challenge, her arms and legs look larger than a normal person's for a reason: She had muscles. Lots of muscles. Heather really would get her ass kicked if she tried to fight Gaia. So she decided to go the cryptic route, fighting Gaia with words. "There's always more than you think, Gaia. Always more." She spun on her heel and walked back to Tina.
"She looks just slightly pissed," Tina said when she and Heather resumed walking.
"I was playing with her."
"Like a cat with a mouse?"
Heather smiled at the image. "Exactly."