Acherontia Atropos Part 7
Quatre got me calmed down pretty quick, much to his credit. We
listened to the radio while I got cleaned up enough to pass muster
for dinner, which he wasn't going to let me get out of. The
warehouse was contained - it was a total loss, but no other
building had been damaged. Good, one thing off my mind.
My hand still hadn't stopped bleeding when it was chow time, so
Quatre stevedored me over to the school nurse, even coming up with
a believable story about how I'd injured myself. Some tissue glue
and bandages later, I was good as new and we were trooping our way
across the lobby, toward the cafeteria.
We passed by a lime green plastic public phone, and something
niggled at the back of my mind. Phone?oh yeah!
The little paper slip. I pulled it out of my pants pocket. It was
looking a little less than white now, more of a kind of dusty gray
from all the lint it had picked up in my pocket, and it was half
crumpled from me sitting and walking. I grabbed the arm of
Quatre's jacket and pulled him over to the phone.
"What are you doing?" Quatre looked at me owlishly, but he didn't
bother to resist.
I tossed the paper at him. "Someone slipped this under my door
shortly after I got back from this afternoon's fun and games."
Quatre caught the crinkled paper and did his best to smooth it out
until it looked fairly neat again. He turned it over and over
until the faint penciling, which had somehow miraculously survived
through several hours in my pants pocket, caught his eye. "Who's
the number for?"
"No idea. I figure I could give it a call, though. It might be
some angsty girl, but I doubt it - not enough pink, yanno?" I
started searching my pockets for some change to feed the phone. No
luck. Quatre, ever helpful, produced some and gave it to me.
"Thanks, man. What's the number?"
He read it off to me, pausing several times so he could decipher
the faint traces of pencil. When I had it all dialed, we waited.
It rang, which was a good sign, I supposed. And rang. And rang.
And rang. After about ten times, I got ready to just hang up so I
could save Quatre's change... not that he was hurting for the
money or anything. I just figured that I could borrow it off of
him again some other time.
On ring number eleven, there was a click, and a woman spoke. She
had a nice voice, fairly. A good phone voice. It was obvious that
she said that one phrase a lot, though - she sounded bored.
"Carmelita's. Tell me what dreams you'd like me to make true."
I'd been expecting a lot of things, but that certainly wasn't one
of them.
There was a lengthy pause. "Hello?" she said, with a little more
animation in her voice.
I managed to gather up my scattered brain, took a deep breath, and
launched myself into the conversation. "Er, hi. Sorry, miss, you
caught me off guard." There was silence on the other end of the
phone, which could mean that she'd hung up. Just in case she
hadn't, I bravely forged on. "Uh...My name is Duo. I was given
this number to call and no one told me why, so I'm hoping that you
know."
Pause pause pause.
"Miss? Are you still there?"
"Yes." The woman said, in a normal speaking voice. "I don't know
what you're talking about -- wait."
Weird sounds started coming out of the phone. I think she'd put
her hand over the mouthpiece, but I thought I could hear muffled
voices. Two women. After a moment, someone else came on the line.
"Hello?"
"Yes?"
"You said your name is Duo, right?"
"Yep."
"Good. Can you meet with me tomorrow?"
"What?"
"Tomorrow, five o'clock. The store is on Aoyama, between the
bookshop and Lucky-chan toy department store. Seven blocks south
of the train station. You can't miss it. I'll see you then." The
phone went dead. I couldn't help it. I did that stupid ass stare-
at-the-phone-in-shock thing.
"Duo, what was that about?"
I hung up the phone. "We're supposed to meet a woman tomorrow at
five." I looked at Quatre. "Want to be my backup?"
He looked a little surprised. I don't normally ask for backup, but
this was getting past the point of strange. "Sure."
"Wufei may be back. We should bring a third, so that would be
convenient."
"Trowa and Heero are still out," he said.
"I figured as much. Three should be enough, if we can get Wufei."
I reached over and pulled the white card out of Quatre's hands,
then crumpled it up the rest of the way and tossed it at a garbage
can. Swoosh. Go me.
centerb* * */b/center
The next morning, most of my guilt and uncertainty had receded to
a barely perceptible ache, joining the throbbing mass of Shit I
Have To Deal With Some Day in the back of my mind. It'd dreamed
about Yan and blood in the moonlight. That had done a lot for my
getting my rage levels back up.
I was right in the middle of brushing my teeth when they started
knocking, calling my name through the door. I was only half
dressed, and my hair wasn't even braided. I didn't wait around to
see if they would actually unlock the door and come in; I just
grabbed my shirt and my hairbrush, stuck the Browning .40 in the
back of my pants waistband, opened the window, and went right out
onto the ledge that lined the building with my toothbrush still
clamped between my lips. Being on the third floor was no problem
at all. I pulled the window shut behind me and ran along the ledge
like a cat until I got to the window that I was pretty sure
belonged to Wufei's room. It would be a perfect place to escape to,
since I didn't think he was back yet, and he had one of the few
singles on the floor. The other option was Quatre and Trowa's room,
but that was on the other side of the hall. I just didn't feel
like taking the detour.
The window locks were pathetically easy to open. I don't know why
the school even bothered with them. Then I was sweeping the
curtains aside and pulling the window shut behind me. Time elapsed,
thirty seconds. Damn I'm good.
"What do you want, Duo?"
"YAI!" I yelled...well, let's be honest. I yelped. I didn't like
being startled. "Just escaping the leeches, Wu." I tossed my shirt
and hairbrush onto the desk and headed toward the bathroom. Wufei
was laying on the single bed with one arm thrown over his eyes.
"Back a little early, aren't you? Not that I'm complaining." He
wasn't wearing a shirt, and I had to force myself to look away
when my gaze lingered on his muscles just a little too long for my
comfort.
"My enemies were weaker than I had thought. I finished them
quickly." Wufei said. He sounded very tired, and therefore, very
grouchy. Not that Wufei wasn't always grouchy. Mornings just make
it worse. "I just got back a few hours ago and was attempting to
catch a little rest. Duo, when precisely did all hell break
loose?" He made the question sound accusatory, like it was somehow
my fault that the school suddenly looked like it was hosting a cop
convention. I hated it when people automatically assumed that any
trouble was caused by me in some way. Never mind the fact that
this time, it was.
I finished brushing my teeth, then rinsed my toothbrush. Life
seems a bit brighter when you're feeling minty fresh, and when I
bounded back out of the bathroom to get my hairbrush, my cheer
wasn't as forced as it had been. It had also helped that I still
had some of the painkillers left, so my ribs weren't hurting me
too badly. "Well, you don't have to worry about class today, Wu-
man. It's been cancelled."
"Cancelled? What happened while I was gone?" Wufei sat up, loose
black hair trailing in front of his face. He'd lost his ponytail
holder somewhere, maybe on the mission. Who knew.
"Vampire attack." I said simply before I plopped down in Wufei's
chair and started brushing my hair out. The Browning dug into my
back and I pulled it out of my waistband and set it on the desk. A
gun in the waistband might look cool, but it was uncomfortable as
all hell, because no matter where you put it, it'll dig into you
when you sit.
Wufei eyed the gun as if he was expecting it to jump up and bite
him, and he was trying to decide what martial arts move to kill it
with. I guess he was a little surprised because he hadn't seen it
before. "Well, Duo, maybe you'd like to start at the beginning."
He was so cute when he was trying to control his temper. For once,
instead of poking at him, I just told him everything as
emotionlessly as possible. He was surprisingly calm about my
little solo hunt once I assured him that I'd been evidence
conscious - he just gave me the same riot act about going in
without backup that Quatre had read off twelve hours before. Of it
all, I Idid/I leave out the entire bit about the weird energy
that I had felt around the vampires, since I wasn't sure what it
was or even if I had been imagining it. When I got done, I was
still trying to get the knots out of my hair, and Wufei had
rearranged himself into a lotus position and was watching me
thoughtfully. "How did you make the vampire follow your orders?"
He asked. He was taking the entire thing a lot more calmly than
I'd been expecting, but then again, Wufei could be one cool
cucumber.
I grimaced internally. I don't know why I had thought I could keep
something from Wufei. He was the first one that had asked, though,
so I'd been hoping that he would just let it slide. "I don't
really know, Wu. I can't think of any way to explain it without
sounding all mystical and shit."
"Then go ahead and sound mystical." Wufei snorted. "I think I
should be able to get the gist of what you're saying."
I blew a long breath out and went back to attacking my hair. "When
Yan died, he released some kind of...energy, power, magic, I don't
know what to call it...into the air. It ran right to me like I was
a magnet and filled me up until I thought I was going to explode.
I somehow used it to actually take control of the vampire and make
it let me go. It escaped almost immediately, though."
Wufei didn't say anything. He seemed to be thinking pretty hard. I
shrugged and went on brushing. Wufei was a smart guy, smarter than
me. I figured that if there was any good explanation for what I'd
said, he'd come up with it. He didn't come out with an answer,
though. Instead, he just said, "Let me think about this." and lay
back down.
"Think all you want. If you figure it out, tell me." I'd finally
gotten all the knots out of my hair. Automatically, my fingers
started braiding it. "Oh yeah, Wu... you wanna help Quatre be my
backup when I meet the woman today?"
"You're still going?"
"I said I would. Besides... this could be something important." I
tied off the end of my braid with the elastic band that I'd
wrapped around the handle of the brush.
"It could also be a trap."
"All the more reason to go in armed for bear."
He sat up, brushing his hair away from his face. "I'll go with
you."
"You want one of the guns? Heero left the extra Browning. Guess he
didn't think he'd run into blood suckers on the mission."
"No thanks. I'll stick with my sword."
I shrugged. "I'll take it along anyway. It never hurts to have a
backup weapon." I grabbed my shirt and pulled it on. "Hey, Wu?"
"Yes?" He was starting to get the
tired/grouchy/annoyed/potentially homicidal Wufei note in his
voice.
"Can I hide out in here until it's time to go?"
Wufei blew a long sigh out. "Just try to shut up long enough to
let me take a nap."
***
"Duo, are you SURE that this is the right place?" Quatre asked.
Wufei just stayed quiet, but he had a wild look in his eye that I
wasn't sure I liked.
Not that I blamed him. Whatever kind of place Carmelita's was, it
definitely wasn't for family fun. The all leather window display
made that pretty obvious. It managed to look seedier than the porn
shop by the ex-warehouse, and that was quite the accomplishment. I
thought places like that were in violation of Tokyo building codes
or something. It was just begging to be deported to Times Square
in New York City.
I wiggled my shoulders underneath my black windbreaker, trying to
settle the straps of my shoulder rig a little more comfortably.
I'd managed to convince the guys to leave for town a little early
so we could stop and go accessory shopping for the new toys. It
was perhaps the strangest transformation that Tokyo had undergone
thanks to Oz putting a base in the middle of the city. There'd
been an influx of foreigners, and between them and the military
they somehow got the government to legalize guns, though getting
permits was still murder. Suddenly, there were gun shops, and the
occasional little old lady with a Derringer in her purse. It made
my life easier, but I still didn't like it one bit.
But I digress. Quatre's holster hadn't been the right size for the
Browning at all, and mine could have fit better. He had picked up
an inter-pants holster. After I saw that, I got one for myself,
too, for later. We'd actually bought the holsters, though the
original plan (at least in my mind) had been to steal them. I
decided on second thought that it wouldn't be a good idea when I
noticed that the owner of the shop was watching me closely... and
that he was cleaning a rifle. I'd also bought a black windbreaker
from the clothing store next to the gun shop - it had nice big
pockets for more ammo, since there is no such thing as too much
ammo. Besides, I needed something to hide the shoulder rig with.
Walking down a busy street with my guns showing just didn't seem
like a good idea. At least it was still cool enough to wear a
jacket. I had no idea what I was going to do once we hit late
spring. Melt, probably.
So that brought us back to the present. Carmelita's. The all
leather display. The blacked out side windows. The peeling paint
on the outer walls. The bright red neon announcing the name. What
a place. Oh boy.
"Yeah, I'm sure this is the right place." I said. "The lady
answered the phone with 'Carmelita's.' And this is the address
that I was given." I eyed the door with a great deal of
trepidation. I'm not going to say I'm innocent. Not by a long shot.
But considering that I hadn't even gotten all the way home, I
really didn't think I needed to know about the weirder varieties
quite yet. I took a deep breath. "Ready to go in?"
"I'm never going to be ready." I heard Wufei mutter.
Quatre wisely said nothing. He nervously tugged at his own jacket,
a white one that went with his light pink shirt and did a good job
of concealing the Beretta, which he'd tucked into the small of his
back. I'd asked Wufei if he was armed, and he'd said yes. God only
knew what he was armed with, though, considering he didn't have
his sword with him. It would have been a little too obvious. I was
afraid to ask again.
"Here we go." I said under my breath, and pulled the door to the
little shop of forbidden things open.
It was like walking into a cave. Well, kind of. Maybe not. It was
certainly cave-like in the fact that it was dim and fairly cool
inside. That was where the resemblance ended, though. Heavy metal
music pounded through the shop so loudly that if Quatre and Wufei
said something when
we first entered, there was no way I could have heard them. Base
thumped along the floor and buzzed through my bones. The air was
chokingly thick with some kind of musky incense that I think was
supposed to lend it a sensual, dangerous air. It was just cloying.
And there were other things under the heavy scent, faint whiffs of
blood and other bodily fluids that I really didn't care to think
about.
Wufei was doing his best not to look at anything. Quatre was
openly staring at a glass case that contained some whips, several
sets of handcuffs that glinted in the harsh light of the display,
and several...somethings. I wasn't even sure what the hell those
were. Quatre gave me a wide-eyed look, half-shouting to be heard
over the music. "Duo?" he pointed at something that could have
been underwear. Maybe. If you turned your head and squinted. "Is
it anatomically possible to put on something like that?"
I did my best not to stare. Yeah, that's me, Duo, the well-
traveled Gundam Pilot that's seen it all. Right. "Hell if I know!"
I yelled. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I spun around, my
hand automatically going for my gun. Me? Jumpy? Of course not.
The only way the woman in front of me could have worn less was if
she stripped completely. I kid not. I hastily directed my
attention to her face. She had a nice face, though she was wearing
way too much eye make up. It made her look tired, instead of
achieving the desired effect. Whatever that was. Her hair was very,
very blonde, obviously a color that came out of a bottle, and it
really offset her chocolaty skin tone.
"Er... sorry, ma'am. What can I do for you?" I grinned disarmingly.
The woman gave me a hard look, the expression on her face changing
from something that had been almost predatory to nearly maternal
concern. Put with the rest of her getup, it looked too weird for
words. "Aren't you a little young to be in here?" She said sharply,
pointing a finger at me. She had on fake fingernails. They were
painted bright red.
I backed up a step so that her fingernail wouldn't impale me, and
shrugged helplessly. "We're supposed to meet someone here."
"A lot of guys your age are supposed to meet someone here. So you
met someone. Now get out and come back after you've reached
puberty." She gestured toward the door and moved forward,
obviously planning on chasing us out, if need be.
I dodged. "My name is Duo. I called yesterday. One of you ladies
told me to come down here for a meeting. I'm not joking!"
Whatever the magic word in my spiel had been, it stopped the woman
cold. "Duo, huh?"
I nodded. That's me. Ever helpful.
"She didn't say anything about any friends. Just one guy named
Duo." The woman crossed her arms, mercifully covering her breasts.
I had been starting to get embarrassed on her behalf.
I risked a glance back at Wufei and Quatre. Quatre was blushing.
Wufei looked like he was going to faint. He hissed at me. "Don't
you dare leave us alone out here!"
"I'm not going anywhere without my backup, ma'am. I hope that
won't be a problem."
The woman glared at us, then finally shrugged. "It's Carmen's own
business if she wants to take on three boys. Follow me." I let out
a soft sigh of relief and followed her, doing my best not to look
at her butt. I'll never understand how someone can stand wearing a
thong. Can you say "butt floss?" Dear god.
At least we had a name now, though. Carmen. I was hoping that was
who I talked to. If not, we were in big trouble.
She led us quickly through the little shop of horrors, which was
nice, because it didn't give us a chance to look at anything else.
The nice little conga line we formed followed the woman down a set
of steps covered with extremely worn carpet and into a long, bare
hallway. The hall was white and lit starkly with several bare
light bulbs. The paint was peeling badly, revealing an older
coating of grey paint beneath it. Graffiti covered every available
surface, but it had the flat look of something put there for
effect, as opposed to vandalism. There were doors on every side,
covered with the same crappy white paint as the rest of the hall.
Someone was moaning behind one of the doors. I really didn't want
to know.
When we were almost at the end of the hall, the woman stopped and
opened a door. "Go in. I'll get Carmen." She shut the door behind
us.
Silently, all three of us took in the room. It was small, no more
than four meters by four meters. There was a bed along one of the
walls, and it took up most of the room. The light was provided by
a dim, unshaded light bulb, and there were all sorts of
interesting looking hooks on the ceiling. There was also a chest
against the wall opposite the bed. It had faded red hearts
stenciled on it. That was it. The only places to sit were the bed
and on top of the chest. All three of us opted to stand.
Wufei glared at me. "What kind of place have you brought us to,
Duo?"
"Sorry! I didn't know." I shrugged helplessly. "You have to admit,
it's certainly educational." I winked at Quatre while Wufei
sputtered.
There was a scuffling sound outside the door, and the knob turned.
As nonchalantly as possible, I tucked my hand into my jacket for
easier access to my gun. Call me crazy, but I was nervous. The
door opened, and woman entered.
The best word I could think of to describe her is "statuesque."
She was tall, she was beautiful, and even better for my personal
comfort, she was wearing a bathrobe. It was dark green, threadbare,
and very tattered, which looked odd when compared to her heavy eye
make up, her carefully done up curly brown hair, and her pale skin.
But it was a hell of a lot better than what the woman upstairs had
been wearing, so I was definitely not going to complain, even if
it looked a little odd. Without hesitating, she padded over to me.
She wasn't wearing any shoes, and she was still at least a foot
taller than me. "You're Duo." She said.
"Yeah. How'd you know?"
The woman held out a hand and I hesitantly took it. Her handshake
was firm and business-like, nothing more. She smiled, and suddenly
the hair on my arms stood on end. "I'm always happy to meet
another practitioner of the Art."
Quatre got me calmed down pretty quick, much to his credit. We
listened to the radio while I got cleaned up enough to pass muster
for dinner, which he wasn't going to let me get out of. The
warehouse was contained - it was a total loss, but no other
building had been damaged. Good, one thing off my mind.
My hand still hadn't stopped bleeding when it was chow time, so
Quatre stevedored me over to the school nurse, even coming up with
a believable story about how I'd injured myself. Some tissue glue
and bandages later, I was good as new and we were trooping our way
across the lobby, toward the cafeteria.
We passed by a lime green plastic public phone, and something
niggled at the back of my mind. Phone?oh yeah!
The little paper slip. I pulled it out of my pants pocket. It was
looking a little less than white now, more of a kind of dusty gray
from all the lint it had picked up in my pocket, and it was half
crumpled from me sitting and walking. I grabbed the arm of
Quatre's jacket and pulled him over to the phone.
"What are you doing?" Quatre looked at me owlishly, but he didn't
bother to resist.
I tossed the paper at him. "Someone slipped this under my door
shortly after I got back from this afternoon's fun and games."
Quatre caught the crinkled paper and did his best to smooth it out
until it looked fairly neat again. He turned it over and over
until the faint penciling, which had somehow miraculously survived
through several hours in my pants pocket, caught his eye. "Who's
the number for?"
"No idea. I figure I could give it a call, though. It might be
some angsty girl, but I doubt it - not enough pink, yanno?" I
started searching my pockets for some change to feed the phone. No
luck. Quatre, ever helpful, produced some and gave it to me.
"Thanks, man. What's the number?"
He read it off to me, pausing several times so he could decipher
the faint traces of pencil. When I had it all dialed, we waited.
It rang, which was a good sign, I supposed. And rang. And rang.
And rang. After about ten times, I got ready to just hang up so I
could save Quatre's change... not that he was hurting for the
money or anything. I just figured that I could borrow it off of
him again some other time.
On ring number eleven, there was a click, and a woman spoke. She
had a nice voice, fairly. A good phone voice. It was obvious that
she said that one phrase a lot, though - she sounded bored.
"Carmelita's. Tell me what dreams you'd like me to make true."
I'd been expecting a lot of things, but that certainly wasn't one
of them.
There was a lengthy pause. "Hello?" she said, with a little more
animation in her voice.
I managed to gather up my scattered brain, took a deep breath, and
launched myself into the conversation. "Er, hi. Sorry, miss, you
caught me off guard." There was silence on the other end of the
phone, which could mean that she'd hung up. Just in case she
hadn't, I bravely forged on. "Uh...My name is Duo. I was given
this number to call and no one told me why, so I'm hoping that you
know."
Pause pause pause.
"Miss? Are you still there?"
"Yes." The woman said, in a normal speaking voice. "I don't know
what you're talking about -- wait."
Weird sounds started coming out of the phone. I think she'd put
her hand over the mouthpiece, but I thought I could hear muffled
voices. Two women. After a moment, someone else came on the line.
"Hello?"
"Yes?"
"You said your name is Duo, right?"
"Yep."
"Good. Can you meet with me tomorrow?"
"What?"
"Tomorrow, five o'clock. The store is on Aoyama, between the
bookshop and Lucky-chan toy department store. Seven blocks south
of the train station. You can't miss it. I'll see you then." The
phone went dead. I couldn't help it. I did that stupid ass stare-
at-the-phone-in-shock thing.
"Duo, what was that about?"
I hung up the phone. "We're supposed to meet a woman tomorrow at
five." I looked at Quatre. "Want to be my backup?"
He looked a little surprised. I don't normally ask for backup, but
this was getting past the point of strange. "Sure."
"Wufei may be back. We should bring a third, so that would be
convenient."
"Trowa and Heero are still out," he said.
"I figured as much. Three should be enough, if we can get Wufei."
I reached over and pulled the white card out of Quatre's hands,
then crumpled it up the rest of the way and tossed it at a garbage
can. Swoosh. Go me.
centerb* * */b/center
The next morning, most of my guilt and uncertainty had receded to
a barely perceptible ache, joining the throbbing mass of Shit I
Have To Deal With Some Day in the back of my mind. It'd dreamed
about Yan and blood in the moonlight. That had done a lot for my
getting my rage levels back up.
I was right in the middle of brushing my teeth when they started
knocking, calling my name through the door. I was only half
dressed, and my hair wasn't even braided. I didn't wait around to
see if they would actually unlock the door and come in; I just
grabbed my shirt and my hairbrush, stuck the Browning .40 in the
back of my pants waistband, opened the window, and went right out
onto the ledge that lined the building with my toothbrush still
clamped between my lips. Being on the third floor was no problem
at all. I pulled the window shut behind me and ran along the ledge
like a cat until I got to the window that I was pretty sure
belonged to Wufei's room. It would be a perfect place to escape to,
since I didn't think he was back yet, and he had one of the few
singles on the floor. The other option was Quatre and Trowa's room,
but that was on the other side of the hall. I just didn't feel
like taking the detour.
The window locks were pathetically easy to open. I don't know why
the school even bothered with them. Then I was sweeping the
curtains aside and pulling the window shut behind me. Time elapsed,
thirty seconds. Damn I'm good.
"What do you want, Duo?"
"YAI!" I yelled...well, let's be honest. I yelped. I didn't like
being startled. "Just escaping the leeches, Wu." I tossed my shirt
and hairbrush onto the desk and headed toward the bathroom. Wufei
was laying on the single bed with one arm thrown over his eyes.
"Back a little early, aren't you? Not that I'm complaining." He
wasn't wearing a shirt, and I had to force myself to look away
when my gaze lingered on his muscles just a little too long for my
comfort.
"My enemies were weaker than I had thought. I finished them
quickly." Wufei said. He sounded very tired, and therefore, very
grouchy. Not that Wufei wasn't always grouchy. Mornings just make
it worse. "I just got back a few hours ago and was attempting to
catch a little rest. Duo, when precisely did all hell break
loose?" He made the question sound accusatory, like it was somehow
my fault that the school suddenly looked like it was hosting a cop
convention. I hated it when people automatically assumed that any
trouble was caused by me in some way. Never mind the fact that
this time, it was.
I finished brushing my teeth, then rinsed my toothbrush. Life
seems a bit brighter when you're feeling minty fresh, and when I
bounded back out of the bathroom to get my hairbrush, my cheer
wasn't as forced as it had been. It had also helped that I still
had some of the painkillers left, so my ribs weren't hurting me
too badly. "Well, you don't have to worry about class today, Wu-
man. It's been cancelled."
"Cancelled? What happened while I was gone?" Wufei sat up, loose
black hair trailing in front of his face. He'd lost his ponytail
holder somewhere, maybe on the mission. Who knew.
"Vampire attack." I said simply before I plopped down in Wufei's
chair and started brushing my hair out. The Browning dug into my
back and I pulled it out of my waistband and set it on the desk. A
gun in the waistband might look cool, but it was uncomfortable as
all hell, because no matter where you put it, it'll dig into you
when you sit.
Wufei eyed the gun as if he was expecting it to jump up and bite
him, and he was trying to decide what martial arts move to kill it
with. I guess he was a little surprised because he hadn't seen it
before. "Well, Duo, maybe you'd like to start at the beginning."
He was so cute when he was trying to control his temper. For once,
instead of poking at him, I just told him everything as
emotionlessly as possible. He was surprisingly calm about my
little solo hunt once I assured him that I'd been evidence
conscious - he just gave me the same riot act about going in
without backup that Quatre had read off twelve hours before. Of it
all, I Idid/I leave out the entire bit about the weird energy
that I had felt around the vampires, since I wasn't sure what it
was or even if I had been imagining it. When I got done, I was
still trying to get the knots out of my hair, and Wufei had
rearranged himself into a lotus position and was watching me
thoughtfully. "How did you make the vampire follow your orders?"
He asked. He was taking the entire thing a lot more calmly than
I'd been expecting, but then again, Wufei could be one cool
cucumber.
I grimaced internally. I don't know why I had thought I could keep
something from Wufei. He was the first one that had asked, though,
so I'd been hoping that he would just let it slide. "I don't
really know, Wu. I can't think of any way to explain it without
sounding all mystical and shit."
"Then go ahead and sound mystical." Wufei snorted. "I think I
should be able to get the gist of what you're saying."
I blew a long breath out and went back to attacking my hair. "When
Yan died, he released some kind of...energy, power, magic, I don't
know what to call it...into the air. It ran right to me like I was
a magnet and filled me up until I thought I was going to explode.
I somehow used it to actually take control of the vampire and make
it let me go. It escaped almost immediately, though."
Wufei didn't say anything. He seemed to be thinking pretty hard. I
shrugged and went on brushing. Wufei was a smart guy, smarter than
me. I figured that if there was any good explanation for what I'd
said, he'd come up with it. He didn't come out with an answer,
though. Instead, he just said, "Let me think about this." and lay
back down.
"Think all you want. If you figure it out, tell me." I'd finally
gotten all the knots out of my hair. Automatically, my fingers
started braiding it. "Oh yeah, Wu... you wanna help Quatre be my
backup when I meet the woman today?"
"You're still going?"
"I said I would. Besides... this could be something important." I
tied off the end of my braid with the elastic band that I'd
wrapped around the handle of the brush.
"It could also be a trap."
"All the more reason to go in armed for bear."
He sat up, brushing his hair away from his face. "I'll go with
you."
"You want one of the guns? Heero left the extra Browning. Guess he
didn't think he'd run into blood suckers on the mission."
"No thanks. I'll stick with my sword."
I shrugged. "I'll take it along anyway. It never hurts to have a
backup weapon." I grabbed my shirt and pulled it on. "Hey, Wu?"
"Yes?" He was starting to get the
tired/grouchy/annoyed/potentially homicidal Wufei note in his
voice.
"Can I hide out in here until it's time to go?"
Wufei blew a long sigh out. "Just try to shut up long enough to
let me take a nap."
***
"Duo, are you SURE that this is the right place?" Quatre asked.
Wufei just stayed quiet, but he had a wild look in his eye that I
wasn't sure I liked.
Not that I blamed him. Whatever kind of place Carmelita's was, it
definitely wasn't for family fun. The all leather window display
made that pretty obvious. It managed to look seedier than the porn
shop by the ex-warehouse, and that was quite the accomplishment. I
thought places like that were in violation of Tokyo building codes
or something. It was just begging to be deported to Times Square
in New York City.
I wiggled my shoulders underneath my black windbreaker, trying to
settle the straps of my shoulder rig a little more comfortably.
I'd managed to convince the guys to leave for town a little early
so we could stop and go accessory shopping for the new toys. It
was perhaps the strangest transformation that Tokyo had undergone
thanks to Oz putting a base in the middle of the city. There'd
been an influx of foreigners, and between them and the military
they somehow got the government to legalize guns, though getting
permits was still murder. Suddenly, there were gun shops, and the
occasional little old lady with a Derringer in her purse. It made
my life easier, but I still didn't like it one bit.
But I digress. Quatre's holster hadn't been the right size for the
Browning at all, and mine could have fit better. He had picked up
an inter-pants holster. After I saw that, I got one for myself,
too, for later. We'd actually bought the holsters, though the
original plan (at least in my mind) had been to steal them. I
decided on second thought that it wouldn't be a good idea when I
noticed that the owner of the shop was watching me closely... and
that he was cleaning a rifle. I'd also bought a black windbreaker
from the clothing store next to the gun shop - it had nice big
pockets for more ammo, since there is no such thing as too much
ammo. Besides, I needed something to hide the shoulder rig with.
Walking down a busy street with my guns showing just didn't seem
like a good idea. At least it was still cool enough to wear a
jacket. I had no idea what I was going to do once we hit late
spring. Melt, probably.
So that brought us back to the present. Carmelita's. The all
leather display. The blacked out side windows. The peeling paint
on the outer walls. The bright red neon announcing the name. What
a place. Oh boy.
"Yeah, I'm sure this is the right place." I said. "The lady
answered the phone with 'Carmelita's.' And this is the address
that I was given." I eyed the door with a great deal of
trepidation. I'm not going to say I'm innocent. Not by a long shot.
But considering that I hadn't even gotten all the way home, I
really didn't think I needed to know about the weirder varieties
quite yet. I took a deep breath. "Ready to go in?"
"I'm never going to be ready." I heard Wufei mutter.
Quatre wisely said nothing. He nervously tugged at his own jacket,
a white one that went with his light pink shirt and did a good job
of concealing the Beretta, which he'd tucked into the small of his
back. I'd asked Wufei if he was armed, and he'd said yes. God only
knew what he was armed with, though, considering he didn't have
his sword with him. It would have been a little too obvious. I was
afraid to ask again.
"Here we go." I said under my breath, and pulled the door to the
little shop of forbidden things open.
It was like walking into a cave. Well, kind of. Maybe not. It was
certainly cave-like in the fact that it was dim and fairly cool
inside. That was where the resemblance ended, though. Heavy metal
music pounded through the shop so loudly that if Quatre and Wufei
said something when
we first entered, there was no way I could have heard them. Base
thumped along the floor and buzzed through my bones. The air was
chokingly thick with some kind of musky incense that I think was
supposed to lend it a sensual, dangerous air. It was just cloying.
And there were other things under the heavy scent, faint whiffs of
blood and other bodily fluids that I really didn't care to think
about.
Wufei was doing his best not to look at anything. Quatre was
openly staring at a glass case that contained some whips, several
sets of handcuffs that glinted in the harsh light of the display,
and several...somethings. I wasn't even sure what the hell those
were. Quatre gave me a wide-eyed look, half-shouting to be heard
over the music. "Duo?" he pointed at something that could have
been underwear. Maybe. If you turned your head and squinted. "Is
it anatomically possible to put on something like that?"
I did my best not to stare. Yeah, that's me, Duo, the well-
traveled Gundam Pilot that's seen it all. Right. "Hell if I know!"
I yelled. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I spun around, my
hand automatically going for my gun. Me? Jumpy? Of course not.
The only way the woman in front of me could have worn less was if
she stripped completely. I kid not. I hastily directed my
attention to her face. She had a nice face, though she was wearing
way too much eye make up. It made her look tired, instead of
achieving the desired effect. Whatever that was. Her hair was very,
very blonde, obviously a color that came out of a bottle, and it
really offset her chocolaty skin tone.
"Er... sorry, ma'am. What can I do for you?" I grinned disarmingly.
The woman gave me a hard look, the expression on her face changing
from something that had been almost predatory to nearly maternal
concern. Put with the rest of her getup, it looked too weird for
words. "Aren't you a little young to be in here?" She said sharply,
pointing a finger at me. She had on fake fingernails. They were
painted bright red.
I backed up a step so that her fingernail wouldn't impale me, and
shrugged helplessly. "We're supposed to meet someone here."
"A lot of guys your age are supposed to meet someone here. So you
met someone. Now get out and come back after you've reached
puberty." She gestured toward the door and moved forward,
obviously planning on chasing us out, if need be.
I dodged. "My name is Duo. I called yesterday. One of you ladies
told me to come down here for a meeting. I'm not joking!"
Whatever the magic word in my spiel had been, it stopped the woman
cold. "Duo, huh?"
I nodded. That's me. Ever helpful.
"She didn't say anything about any friends. Just one guy named
Duo." The woman crossed her arms, mercifully covering her breasts.
I had been starting to get embarrassed on her behalf.
I risked a glance back at Wufei and Quatre. Quatre was blushing.
Wufei looked like he was going to faint. He hissed at me. "Don't
you dare leave us alone out here!"
"I'm not going anywhere without my backup, ma'am. I hope that
won't be a problem."
The woman glared at us, then finally shrugged. "It's Carmen's own
business if she wants to take on three boys. Follow me." I let out
a soft sigh of relief and followed her, doing my best not to look
at her butt. I'll never understand how someone can stand wearing a
thong. Can you say "butt floss?" Dear god.
At least we had a name now, though. Carmen. I was hoping that was
who I talked to. If not, we were in big trouble.
She led us quickly through the little shop of horrors, which was
nice, because it didn't give us a chance to look at anything else.
The nice little conga line we formed followed the woman down a set
of steps covered with extremely worn carpet and into a long, bare
hallway. The hall was white and lit starkly with several bare
light bulbs. The paint was peeling badly, revealing an older
coating of grey paint beneath it. Graffiti covered every available
surface, but it had the flat look of something put there for
effect, as opposed to vandalism. There were doors on every side,
covered with the same crappy white paint as the rest of the hall.
Someone was moaning behind one of the doors. I really didn't want
to know.
When we were almost at the end of the hall, the woman stopped and
opened a door. "Go in. I'll get Carmen." She shut the door behind
us.
Silently, all three of us took in the room. It was small, no more
than four meters by four meters. There was a bed along one of the
walls, and it took up most of the room. The light was provided by
a dim, unshaded light bulb, and there were all sorts of
interesting looking hooks on the ceiling. There was also a chest
against the wall opposite the bed. It had faded red hearts
stenciled on it. That was it. The only places to sit were the bed
and on top of the chest. All three of us opted to stand.
Wufei glared at me. "What kind of place have you brought us to,
Duo?"
"Sorry! I didn't know." I shrugged helplessly. "You have to admit,
it's certainly educational." I winked at Quatre while Wufei
sputtered.
There was a scuffling sound outside the door, and the knob turned.
As nonchalantly as possible, I tucked my hand into my jacket for
easier access to my gun. Call me crazy, but I was nervous. The
door opened, and woman entered.
The best word I could think of to describe her is "statuesque."
She was tall, she was beautiful, and even better for my personal
comfort, she was wearing a bathrobe. It was dark green, threadbare,
and very tattered, which looked odd when compared to her heavy eye
make up, her carefully done up curly brown hair, and her pale skin.
But it was a hell of a lot better than what the woman upstairs had
been wearing, so I was definitely not going to complain, even if
it looked a little odd. Without hesitating, she padded over to me.
She wasn't wearing any shoes, and she was still at least a foot
taller than me. "You're Duo." She said.
"Yeah. How'd you know?"
The woman held out a hand and I hesitantly took it. Her handshake
was firm and business-like, nothing more. She smiled, and suddenly
the hair on my arms stood on end. "I'm always happy to meet
another practitioner of the Art."
