I've never noticed how cold, dark, and ominous this building is. It'd old, not just in design but in honest to god age. You could do anything here and nobody would ever find out. Perhaps that's why he lives here. It never occurred to me before but knowing what I know now leads me to believe that he runs a crime ring of mammoth proportions.
I don't want to do this. It's too much. Maybe a week from now would be ok. I know I'm really mad, and I was riding that wave of disgust all the way here, from this afternoon on. But suddenly my support is gone.
Ok, time to breath, time to reach up and touch that buzzer right now. Why am I doing this again? First rule of surprise visits; don't talk about surprise visits. Second rule of surprise visits; well you know where I'm going with this one. Third rule of surprise visits; don't get emotionally involved.
I'm so stupid, what am I doing? This won't work.
"Ok," I whisper to nobody else but myself. "Give me a sign. Should I knock on that door?" Nothing happens. "Are you sure?" I ask again. Nothing happens. "Ok, this is kind of important here, whatever deity is out there, the force even, I'm calling on you now. Should I knock on that door?" I whisper getting very frustrated. But before anything, anywhere, gives me any kind of sign, the door opens.
"Awree?" says the voice in a surprised manner.
"Um, hi Geranto," I say meekly.
"I thought I heard something out here, I just wanted to check and here you are." He says acting pleased. "Come in, you must be cold out there and we really need to talk. "
"Yeah, you know that's what I came here for, to talk ….only, that's it. Thought we needed to have a nice conversation." I say nervously.
"Quite. May I take your cloak?" he asks. I realize that I'm hugging my cloak to myself as if it's a safety net situated next to a plunging metaphorical cliff.
"No, thank you," I say quickly, "I'm just getting over this cold and you know it's better to be safe than sorry."
"Suit yourself. Please sit down." He says gesturing to the couch. I sit and he sits next to me and stares. "I like your hair that way, it looks very…athletic." He says of the two long braids that have been wrapped around my head in a sort of headband.
"Thank you, I do find it easier to jog when I'm able to keep it out of my face." I say.
"You jog?" he asks, " I always wondered how you kept in such good shape," he says putting a hand on my cloak-covered thigh. I blush and silently rejoice knowing that my plan is working. I know this man too well.
"I'm glad you're ok with this. You know I just wanted to come over and make sure that you knew that I forgive you. We all make mistakes. And about that whole blaster thing, I didn't want to tell you this but I kind of stole it. The manager down at the store had it, she said someone had left it there or something, and I just wanted to borrow if for a bit. You know how we used to shoot out on my farm all the time; I guess it just reminded me of home. " I say and move in a little closer.
"Of course," he agrees, " you know she was nothing compared to you," he says sleazily.
"I've missed you," I reply back before crushing my mouth down onto his. I force him back onto the couch and he wraps his arms around me.
Realizing that his arms could be a problem I take them and raise them above his head. "Let me do all the work," I say. I begin to move down his body and am just about to unbutton his pants when I decide it's time for action.
"Hey, Geranto?" I say.
"Yes," he replies breathlessly.
"If she wasn't anything compared to me, why did you sleep with her?" I say roughly. The sight that meets Geranto's half-closed eyes is one that I hope he will remember till the day he dies. I have now shed my cloak and am clad in my black jumpsuit. A holster encircles my waist but its companion is out and pointed right in Geranto's very shocked face.
On cue Rabe bursts through the door. She walks over to the window and closes the blinds before locking the door.
"You," I continue, "are under arrest." I yell at Geranto with a gigantic smile.
"What is going on here? You can't arrest me! If I knew you were going to take it this hard I never would have slept with that chick." He yells. He tries to get free from my grasp but Rabe quickly steps in with hand rings and locks them behind his back. He looks from me to Rabe before saying," this is just some kinky fantasy thing isn't it. Alane? Is that you? I always thought you had a thing for me." He can barely get the words out of his mouth before Rabe's blaster is out, powered up and pointing at him as well.
"Do you see the side of my blaster?" she yells at him, "Cocksucker, does it seem odd to you that both of them have a royal seal on the side? Sabe you were right he is a dumbass." She says to me.
"Sabe?" Geranto says quickly. "Who the hell are you people?"
"You really want to know?" I ask. He nods. "YOU screwed up. Ya know those handmaidens you're always seeing on the Holonet. Ya know the ones that you thought would give good –,"
"Oh I know he did not say that! Sabe please let me shoot if off now that he's all vulnerable," Rabe says exasperated.
"Rabe I think they're here, go tell the transport all the information, k?" I ask trying to get her out of the room. She looks at me mad, takes her gun away from Geranto and walks out the door.
"As I was saying, Rabe and I are Handmaidens, so those hot girls you could only see wearing heacy cloaks were actually me, Alane, and some other girls. There was a message sent out that you were a suspect in some robberies going down at the palace and I thought it would be a nice idea to get a little closure ya know."
He sits there for about five minutes in complete silence just staring at me. The smile on my face is one unparalleled by any ever shown on my face.
"Whew, felt good to get that out," I say.
"Hey, Sab, a transport is waiting outside to take him to the tunnels," Rabe says reentering the room.
"HA HA HA!" Geranto suddenly yells from his position on the couch. "Like I'm going to believe that one. Very clever! Is this what we call revenge Awree?"
"You told him already?" Rabe says chuckling. "Didn't believe you did he?
"They never do," I say shaking my head.
"Hey, cocksucker," She says turning to Geranto. "We're taking you down soon."
"You're handmaidens?" he asks.
"Yes, but I don't do what Rabe does. She does all the hair and that stuff. I'm First Handmaiden; they keep me around for protection purposes. " I tell him. "Time to go, take one last look at your place, you won't be seeing it for a long time." Rabe carefully but forcefully leads him to the door and down the hall to the transport waiting outside.
It's my job to search the apartment and I look around wondering where to start. This place has so many memories. To the left of me is the chair I sat in when he cleaned a cut on my knee. I remember how careful he was, how tender, and how he kissed it to make it all better. In the kitchen I remember when he tried to bake a cake. When I got there he had made a mess, used tons of supplies and was covered in batter… which made for some fun later on. Right outside his front door is where he kissed me for the first time. Right over there, on the floor, is where he told me he loved me after a big tickling fight. Maybe I never really loved him back, and maybe he never really loved me to begin with but it was fun pretending.
"Hey, " I hear a soft voice from the door way. "Good work babe, it went perfectly," Rabe congratulates me.
"Yeah, it went perfectly. Come on, lets get this over with so I can go home." I say solemnly. Rabe nods and we begin scanning the apartment wordlessly.
An hour passes and I've searched and relived every moment I've had in this place when I hear Rabe calling.
"Sabe, come here quickly, I think I've found something." Rabe yells from the closet.
"What is it?" I ask her.
"Well it looks like it's a compartment of some kind, it's just kind of hidden back here behind some of his clothes," she says. She puts her hand onto the panel and it slides open revealing four bottles that look all too familiar.
"What the hell are these doing here?" I blurt out. Rabe gives me a questioning glance. "Ok, I may be totally wrong but these look an awful lot like the "special medicine" that Dr. Humperlot injects me with," Rabe just stares at me and shakes her head.
"You are so weird, the stuff is clear, lots of things are clear. It's probably just some kind of drug we don't know about. I wouldn't be surprised to find that he's a dealer," Rabe says.
"I'm in that office every other day, I think I would know what it looks like," I say frustrated.
"Ok, well it's weird either way, come on let's get these out of here and go home." Rabe says calmly. We grab the bottles and are just about to leave when one slips out of my hand and crashes to the floor. The cap pops open and the serum spills out over the floor.
"Oops, sorry," I apologize to Rabe who looks very perturbed. I lean down to clean it up when a sudden tingling comes to the back of my throat. Not able to control myself I begin with a simple sneeze and quickly progress to an all out sneezing fit.
"I'll clean it up, Sabe go wait outside." Rabe suggests.
"Ok, I'm SNEEZE really SNEEZE sorry about all SNEEZE this." I try to get out. Rabe just waves me off and I go out into the dark of hallway again.