Episode Eight
The Shipyard
"Yeah, you're probably right," Rally said as she opened the refrigerator. She grabbed a Pepsi then closed the door. "But what should we do about it?"
Akira sat at the kitchen table polishing his katana with a cloth. "I have a feeling we better go check what this Osaka Shipment is. By the means the Mafia's using, it must be extremely important."
"And when and where do you propose we do that?"
"Tonight."
"Oh, tonight?" Rally opened her Pepsi. "You make it sound so casual."
Akira held his katana up to catch the light. "Please. Like you're worried. You probably can't wait to get packed up and ready to go."
Rally smirked while shrugging her shoulders. "Yeah," She sighed.
Akira stood up from the table. He slid his katana back into the sheathe on his belt. "Well then...let's get ready..."
Rally's grin grew wider. "May! We're going out!"
A loud thump hit the floor after Rally's words followed by pounding footsteps. May ran into the kitchen panting. "We're going out?"
Rally smiled and nodded. "Yep!"
May smiled too. "Where we going? Dancing? Movies? Dinner? You know, I've wanted to go to that new club called The Fog..."
"We're going to the shipyard."
May's smile flipped. "The shipyard? What in the heck are we gonna do there?"
"Look for clues. Now go put some warm clothes on. It'll be cold tonight."
May moaned. "Why is it that we never do anything fun around here?" May stopped off towards the steps leading upstairs.
"I better get a jacket myself." Rally followed up the stairs behind May. She went into her bedroom and veered to the left. She opened her closet and gazed over the rows of Kevlar jackets. She grabbed one and tossed it on her bed. Going over to the dresser, Rally pulled out an outfit and tossed in on the bed too. She then headed toward the gun case and looked over her arsenal of firearms. She smiled as her eyes racked over her prized possessions.
"Ready?" Rally asked.
"Yeah," Akira said.
Rally turned the engine off. She pulled the keys out the ignition and put them in her pocket. She got out of the car and quietly just the door as Akira and May did the same.
They peered through the grove of trees they parked by down to the shipyard just north of the Chicago land area. They gazed across the field then started walking toward the buildings in the distance.
"Why do we have to do so much walking?" May whined.
"Sneak attack," Akira said.
"Yeah, well, I ain't no ninja freak like you..."
"Cut it out! Or they'll hear us because of your big mouth!" Rally hissed under her breath. "Just don't make any noise!"
May rolled her eyes.
The three walked about a quarter of a mile through the tall marshy grass before coming to a tall metal fence surrounding the shipyard. Akira ran up and down the fence looking for a weakness before motioning Rally and May over. He found a bent corner of the fence near the ground. He pulled out his wire clippers from his jacket and made a bigger opening.
"Why don't you go first, May?" Akira suggested.
"No!" May hissed. "You'll look up my skirt when I'm trying to crawl!"
Akira shook his head. ""Fine! I'll go first!" He did so by crawling flat on his stomach to get through.
Rally went next but had some trouble because of her thick Kevlar vest. She managed to wiggle through then she helped pull May though.
"Uh...I'm all muddy..." May said.
"You'll be fine, May," Rally said.
Akira started walking off towards the right. "That looks like the offices up ahead. We'll be able to find some paperwork in there."
"Right," Rally uttered. "I just hope it's a little more specific than Becky's information."
"Yeah, me too," Akira said. He carefully took his footsteps as he was trained to do in his martial arts training.
"Are you really a ninja or something?" May asked.
"Well, my family is one of the last pure blood ninja clans in all Japan. My father is from the Shinagawa clan, and my mother was from the Kataro clan. So I suppose yes." Akira moved forward. "We need to be quite though. Please no more talking."
May rolled her eyes as she mocked Akira.
They crouched down underneath the window of the small office building. Akira peeked over the windowsill and looked inside. It appeared to be empty and lifeless. Akira then motioned Rally and May to move towards the back of the building. They came to the backdoor.
"Rally, hold the light." Akira dug into his pocket while Rally held the flashlight. He pulled out a long, thin, metal pin and jammed it into the lock of the door. He jiggled the pick in the lock for a few seconds then popped open the door.
May wrinkled her nose. "I could of done that!"
"Not quietly, you couldn't of," Akira said while stepping into the building.
Rally quietly laughed as she followed behind. "Come on, May!" Rally hissed as she stopped to wait.
"Buzz off! I'm gonna have a smoke!" May said pulling out a cigarette and lighter.
"I thought you quit! You know I don't like it when you smoke!"
"Yeah, well, we all got problems!" May lit up and took a puff.
Rally shook her head and started walking again.
Akira headed straight for the desk of the main office. He opened the file cabinet and started thumbing through the files.
"You find anything?" Rally asked while standing in the doorway of the office. "Do you even think they'll be records for the shipment?"
Akira pulled out a manila folder. He looked through the documents in the folder. "Same as Becky. It's labeled as supplies."
"Crap."
"You're telling me."
"So what's the shipping route?"
"Hmmm..." Akira looked through the papers. "Chicago, Toronto, New York, London, Cape Town, New Delhi, and the infamous Osaka."
"Quite a network, eh?" Rally said. "Sounds like serious business. I wonder what the shipment is though."
"Well, it sounds like we need to just go and see the cargo ourselves." Akira closed the folder and placed it back in the file cabinet. "Let's go."
Akira and Rally walked out of the office and closed the door behind them. Akira locked it back up and turned around. "It's too quiet. Where's May?"
Rally looked around. "You ticked her off. She probably went back to the car." Rally walked down the small cement steps. "Come on. She'll be fine."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, she'll be just fine. She probably just went off somewhere to pout." Rally looked around the shipyard. "I bet we need to go there next."
"Look's like it."
Akira and Rally slowly approached the warehouse in the shipyard. Cautiously they made their way up to the building and headed inside by the same methods as before. Akira shined the light into the building and saw hundreds of crates. "Bingo."
"Jackpot." Rally said as she saw the crates. "Let's crack one of these babies open." Rally grabbed a crowbar laying off to the side. She started to pry open a crate and had trouble.
"Need help?"
"No, I got it!" Rally pulled harder and popped off the lid to the crate. "See." She wiped the sweat off her forehead. "I can do it myself."
"I wasn't doubting that you could."
Rally turned her attention from Akira to the contents of the crate. She looked at the clear, plastic packages and marveled at the contents. "Pills?" She questioned as she looked back to Akira.
Akira placed his hand on the plastic and shifted one of the pills around to look at it. "Narcotics. Looks like Speed."
"I hate drugs," Rally said, rather disgusted.
"So this is the infamous Osaka Shipment."
"It must be a pretty profitable industry for the Mafia to go to this length of means to protect the business."
"Right," Akira uttered. "Well, we should get going. We better make sure we know where May is before she gets into trouble."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right."
Rally veered off to the left while Akira headed toward the right. She paused for a moment to look behind her. She saw that Akira had completely disappeared in the shadows after a few seconds. She reached into her jacket and pulled out her trusty and faithful partner, her CZ-75 handgun. Rally walked around careful to avoid the light from the lamps. Deciding to check out the action at the dock, she headed towards the water. She came up to the dock and stood against one of the office buildings. She looked around. A group of six men were unloading more of that same kind of cargo in the warehouse.
"Get movin' ya scurvy dogs!"
Rally looked around almost thinking that she heard a pirate. She looked over the six men and watched them as they straightened up and worked harder. She glanced upward and saw another man on the boat.
Rally froze. Every muscle in Rally's body froze except her heart. Blood rushed to her head as her heart throbbed. She startled backward as a cold layer of sweat covered her skin. She closed her eyes for a second. It was so long ago when it happened yet at that moment, it felt like a minute ago. His face was the same today as it was that day seven years ago. She felt backwards, not being able to catch herself.
"Hey, Rally, why did you wander off over here?"
Rally fell into Akira's arms as she lost her balance. As she made contact, she started elbowing and flailing her arms. "Let me go! Let me go!"
"Rally, it's me!" Akira put his hand over Rally's mouth.
Rally panicked since she couldn't break free. Tears almost poured from her eyes as she threw her arms into Akira's chest. Akira spun her around and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Rally! It's me! It's okay!"
Rally shook her head and snapped out of her trance. Still breathing heavily, she gazed her eyes over Akira and studied him for a few moments.
"Are you okay?"
Looking extremely petrified, Rally fell forward into Akira's arms. She closed her eyes, and everything went black.
Rally flinched her eyes when she felt something cold on her face. She opened her eyes to find May holding a wet cloth. "Are you okay, Rally? What happened?" Rally fluttered her eyes. "What did happen? I don't remember anything." "You passed out at the shipyard. Don't you remember?" That same face flashed into Rally's mind again. She shook her head trying to lose the vision of that face as she held her hand over her throbbing chest. "Rally? Are you okay? Do you want me to call the doctor?" May asked, extremely worried. "What's wrong?" Rally tore her mind away from such thoughts and faked a smile. "I'm fine, May. It was probably just fatigue. Maybe I should take a vacation day from work or something." May thought for a moment, fooled by the smile. "Well, alright. If you say so." May stood up from the side of Rally's bed. "Why don't you come downstairs?" Rally slowly crawled out of bed and placed her feet on the floor. She stood up and stretched before following May out of the bedroom. She carefully took each step down the stairs until she reached the bottom. Feeling cold, she headed toward the living room and sat down on the couch with a blanket. "You're finally up. You feeling better?" Akira walked into the room. "I'm fine," Rally said. "It's just fatigue." Akira paused for a moment and pondered. He shook his head and took a seat in one of the chairs in the living room. "Are you sure?" "Yes, I'm fine. Really." Rally turned her face away to the floor. "I'm just fine. I just need some rest." May walked into the living room from the kitchen with a soda. She looked up at the clock. "Man, it's already midnight! I'm starving!" Akira glanced up. "Yeah, me too. Where we gonna get any food though?" "There's a Wendy's a few blocks down. It's open all night." May headed toward the door. "You guys wanna come?" "I suppose I will. Even though I'm sick of fast food." Akira stood up from the chair and started heading toward the door. "What about you, Ral?" "No, I'm not hungry." May peeked back into the living room. "You sure?" "Yes, just go." "Do you want us to bring you something back?" "No." "Okay then." May and Akira headed out the front door. They walked through the grass in the yard instead of the sidewalk and headed to the street. They walked a few minutes not saying anything due to they never really had a conversation before. "Something is wrong with Rally, isn't there?" Akira asked, breaking the silence. "Rally says she's fine." "She's obviously lying." May stopped in the middle of the street. "Rally wouldn't lie to me! We're best friends, you know! She might lie to you but not to me!" "May, she was obviously acting funny!" "She's just fatigued! Rally works really hard, you know!" "Fatigued? Ha! You obviously didn't see her when she passed out! Rally was terrified just before she passed out! She saw something!" "Rally doesn't get terrified!" "Everyone gets scared, May! Even you, even me, and even Rally!"
Just after Akira and May left, Rally stood up from the chair in the living room. She walked into the hallway while flipping every light switch she walked by. The house was dark and silent. She only heard her footsteps against the wood floor as she headed down the hall. She stopped at the hallway closet and opened it. She dug though a few boxes and pulled out a small, black case. She carried it back to the living room and set the case on the coffee table. With her fingers, she unlocked the clamps on the side of the case and opened the lid. Rally sighed as she reached into the case. Up came her hands with a violin. She placed the violin against her shoulder and in-between her chin. Gently holding the bow, she started to stroke it against the strings of the violin. Suddenly beautiful music filled the empty darkness of the house.
"You know what, sock head? I'm sick of your attitude!" May hollered. "All you ever do is screw things up for Rally and I!" "You're the only one who seems to have a problem with me! Maybe you're the one with the problem? And I'm sick of being called sock head!" "Just leave me alone! Go home! And I do not mean my house! Go back to Jap- land!" May stormed off towards the Wendy's in the distance. Akira moaned and turned around back towards Rally's house. "Women!"
Nonstop music filled the atmosphere of the house as Rally played more passionately as time went on. Even though she hardly ever played anymore, she sounded like she practiced for hours on end. She closed her eyes as she played. Memories started to fill the darkness of her mind as she played.
"I don't want to play violin!" "Nonsense, all girls of good upbringing and fine taste play violin. Now go practice, Irene." "Mom!"
Rally stopped her music. "Mom..." She softly uttered. It seemed so strange to say that word. She hadn't called out for her mother in seven years. She sighed deeply. "You and I never understood each other, did we? Yet your death haunts me." Rally started to play again. Akira walked up to the front door of the house. He stepped inside and looked around to see nothing but darkness. He paused for a moment to listen to the music. "Rally?" He followed the sound of the music which led him to the living room. He paused in the entrance to the living room as he saw Rally standing in the darkness making the music. He took a step forward and the floor creaked. Rally spun around quickly, stopping the music. She gasped once she saw Akira standing in the middle of the living room. She quickly threw her arms behind her back trying to hide her violin. "Rally?" Akira questioned. "Akira!" Rally gasped. "Are you okay?" "Uh...I'm fine..." Akira took a step closer. "What are you doing alone in the dark playing that instrument." Rally gave a nervous laugh. "What? This old thing? I was going to sell in the newspaper. I just needed to make sure it worked and all..." Rally shrugged her shoulders and faked a smile. Akira grabbed onto Rally's wrists. "Rally?" Rally's fake smile melted. "I..." Akira's stern voice broke her. As much as she wanted to fight it, she couldn't. Tears, for the first time in many years, filled her eyes. Her breath caught in her throat as her throat started to close up. "Rally?" Akira questioned with a warmer tone of voice. "What happened? What did you see?" "His face." "Whose face? Rally, you have to tell me. What happened? Whose face?" Rally closed her eyes. Tears spilled from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks "I was twelve years old when it happened. I was spending the summer with my dad in Pakistan at his gun shop. My mom came to pick me up at the end of the summer to take me back to London with her. They were arguing and fighting about the divorce papers until this man walked in. He ..." "Rally, tell me. You have to tell me what happened." "He shot her in the head...I...I...there...there...was...so much...so much...blood...I...I..." "Rally? Did you see the man who murdered your mother?" "It's him. It's the same guy. It's the same face! The same voice! The same everything! I'll kill him! I'll kill him for what he did to her! For what he did to me! I'll kill him!" "Rally, killing him isn't going to bring your mother back." "But he'll get what he deserves!" Rally grinded through her teeth. "I'll make him pay! He'll pay!" "Rally, I want you to listen to me. You are not going to find peace in killing him. Doing something wrong can never fix anything. Do you really want the pain to go away?" "Of course I do!" "Then don't kill him. Leave it in the hands of God." "Why didn't God save my mother?" "I don't know." "Please just leave me alone." Akira placed his hand on Rally's shoulder. "Please, promise me you won't kill that man. Not out of revenge. Promise me." Rally remained silent for a few moments. "I promise." "Thank you." Rally closed her eyes and hung her head from Akira's sight. "Please, just leave me alone. I don't want you to see me like this." "Like what?" "Weak." "You're not weak, Rally Vincent. You've proven that a hundred times over that you're not weak."
More tears flowed from Rally's eyes. She brought her hand to her face to try to hide from Akira.
Akira grabbed Rally's hand and pulled away from her face. He slowly slid his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. Surprisingly, Rally wrapped her arms around Akira as he pulled her in. Feeling Rally's heart pounding through her chest, Akira was prompted to say little things to calm her down but nothing seemed to soothe her. He rested his chin on top of Rally's head and said nothing for the rest of the night.
Rally closed her heavy eyelids and fell asleep. Once realizing what happened, Akira picked her up and carried her to her room.
The Shipyard
"Yeah, you're probably right," Rally said as she opened the refrigerator. She grabbed a Pepsi then closed the door. "But what should we do about it?"
Akira sat at the kitchen table polishing his katana with a cloth. "I have a feeling we better go check what this Osaka Shipment is. By the means the Mafia's using, it must be extremely important."
"And when and where do you propose we do that?"
"Tonight."
"Oh, tonight?" Rally opened her Pepsi. "You make it sound so casual."
Akira held his katana up to catch the light. "Please. Like you're worried. You probably can't wait to get packed up and ready to go."
Rally smirked while shrugging her shoulders. "Yeah," She sighed.
Akira stood up from the table. He slid his katana back into the sheathe on his belt. "Well then...let's get ready..."
Rally's grin grew wider. "May! We're going out!"
A loud thump hit the floor after Rally's words followed by pounding footsteps. May ran into the kitchen panting. "We're going out?"
Rally smiled and nodded. "Yep!"
May smiled too. "Where we going? Dancing? Movies? Dinner? You know, I've wanted to go to that new club called The Fog..."
"We're going to the shipyard."
May's smile flipped. "The shipyard? What in the heck are we gonna do there?"
"Look for clues. Now go put some warm clothes on. It'll be cold tonight."
May moaned. "Why is it that we never do anything fun around here?" May stopped off towards the steps leading upstairs.
"I better get a jacket myself." Rally followed up the stairs behind May. She went into her bedroom and veered to the left. She opened her closet and gazed over the rows of Kevlar jackets. She grabbed one and tossed it on her bed. Going over to the dresser, Rally pulled out an outfit and tossed in on the bed too. She then headed toward the gun case and looked over her arsenal of firearms. She smiled as her eyes racked over her prized possessions.
"Ready?" Rally asked.
"Yeah," Akira said.
Rally turned the engine off. She pulled the keys out the ignition and put them in her pocket. She got out of the car and quietly just the door as Akira and May did the same.
They peered through the grove of trees they parked by down to the shipyard just north of the Chicago land area. They gazed across the field then started walking toward the buildings in the distance.
"Why do we have to do so much walking?" May whined.
"Sneak attack," Akira said.
"Yeah, well, I ain't no ninja freak like you..."
"Cut it out! Or they'll hear us because of your big mouth!" Rally hissed under her breath. "Just don't make any noise!"
May rolled her eyes.
The three walked about a quarter of a mile through the tall marshy grass before coming to a tall metal fence surrounding the shipyard. Akira ran up and down the fence looking for a weakness before motioning Rally and May over. He found a bent corner of the fence near the ground. He pulled out his wire clippers from his jacket and made a bigger opening.
"Why don't you go first, May?" Akira suggested.
"No!" May hissed. "You'll look up my skirt when I'm trying to crawl!"
Akira shook his head. ""Fine! I'll go first!" He did so by crawling flat on his stomach to get through.
Rally went next but had some trouble because of her thick Kevlar vest. She managed to wiggle through then she helped pull May though.
"Uh...I'm all muddy..." May said.
"You'll be fine, May," Rally said.
Akira started walking off towards the right. "That looks like the offices up ahead. We'll be able to find some paperwork in there."
"Right," Rally uttered. "I just hope it's a little more specific than Becky's information."
"Yeah, me too," Akira said. He carefully took his footsteps as he was trained to do in his martial arts training.
"Are you really a ninja or something?" May asked.
"Well, my family is one of the last pure blood ninja clans in all Japan. My father is from the Shinagawa clan, and my mother was from the Kataro clan. So I suppose yes." Akira moved forward. "We need to be quite though. Please no more talking."
May rolled her eyes as she mocked Akira.
They crouched down underneath the window of the small office building. Akira peeked over the windowsill and looked inside. It appeared to be empty and lifeless. Akira then motioned Rally and May to move towards the back of the building. They came to the backdoor.
"Rally, hold the light." Akira dug into his pocket while Rally held the flashlight. He pulled out a long, thin, metal pin and jammed it into the lock of the door. He jiggled the pick in the lock for a few seconds then popped open the door.
May wrinkled her nose. "I could of done that!"
"Not quietly, you couldn't of," Akira said while stepping into the building.
Rally quietly laughed as she followed behind. "Come on, May!" Rally hissed as she stopped to wait.
"Buzz off! I'm gonna have a smoke!" May said pulling out a cigarette and lighter.
"I thought you quit! You know I don't like it when you smoke!"
"Yeah, well, we all got problems!" May lit up and took a puff.
Rally shook her head and started walking again.
Akira headed straight for the desk of the main office. He opened the file cabinet and started thumbing through the files.
"You find anything?" Rally asked while standing in the doorway of the office. "Do you even think they'll be records for the shipment?"
Akira pulled out a manila folder. He looked through the documents in the folder. "Same as Becky. It's labeled as supplies."
"Crap."
"You're telling me."
"So what's the shipping route?"
"Hmmm..." Akira looked through the papers. "Chicago, Toronto, New York, London, Cape Town, New Delhi, and the infamous Osaka."
"Quite a network, eh?" Rally said. "Sounds like serious business. I wonder what the shipment is though."
"Well, it sounds like we need to just go and see the cargo ourselves." Akira closed the folder and placed it back in the file cabinet. "Let's go."
Akira and Rally walked out of the office and closed the door behind them. Akira locked it back up and turned around. "It's too quiet. Where's May?"
Rally looked around. "You ticked her off. She probably went back to the car." Rally walked down the small cement steps. "Come on. She'll be fine."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, she'll be just fine. She probably just went off somewhere to pout." Rally looked around the shipyard. "I bet we need to go there next."
"Look's like it."
Akira and Rally slowly approached the warehouse in the shipyard. Cautiously they made their way up to the building and headed inside by the same methods as before. Akira shined the light into the building and saw hundreds of crates. "Bingo."
"Jackpot." Rally said as she saw the crates. "Let's crack one of these babies open." Rally grabbed a crowbar laying off to the side. She started to pry open a crate and had trouble.
"Need help?"
"No, I got it!" Rally pulled harder and popped off the lid to the crate. "See." She wiped the sweat off her forehead. "I can do it myself."
"I wasn't doubting that you could."
Rally turned her attention from Akira to the contents of the crate. She looked at the clear, plastic packages and marveled at the contents. "Pills?" She questioned as she looked back to Akira.
Akira placed his hand on the plastic and shifted one of the pills around to look at it. "Narcotics. Looks like Speed."
"I hate drugs," Rally said, rather disgusted.
"So this is the infamous Osaka Shipment."
"It must be a pretty profitable industry for the Mafia to go to this length of means to protect the business."
"Right," Akira uttered. "Well, we should get going. We better make sure we know where May is before she gets into trouble."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right."
Rally veered off to the left while Akira headed toward the right. She paused for a moment to look behind her. She saw that Akira had completely disappeared in the shadows after a few seconds. She reached into her jacket and pulled out her trusty and faithful partner, her CZ-75 handgun. Rally walked around careful to avoid the light from the lamps. Deciding to check out the action at the dock, she headed towards the water. She came up to the dock and stood against one of the office buildings. She looked around. A group of six men were unloading more of that same kind of cargo in the warehouse.
"Get movin' ya scurvy dogs!"
Rally looked around almost thinking that she heard a pirate. She looked over the six men and watched them as they straightened up and worked harder. She glanced upward and saw another man on the boat.
Rally froze. Every muscle in Rally's body froze except her heart. Blood rushed to her head as her heart throbbed. She startled backward as a cold layer of sweat covered her skin. She closed her eyes for a second. It was so long ago when it happened yet at that moment, it felt like a minute ago. His face was the same today as it was that day seven years ago. She felt backwards, not being able to catch herself.
"Hey, Rally, why did you wander off over here?"
Rally fell into Akira's arms as she lost her balance. As she made contact, she started elbowing and flailing her arms. "Let me go! Let me go!"
"Rally, it's me!" Akira put his hand over Rally's mouth.
Rally panicked since she couldn't break free. Tears almost poured from her eyes as she threw her arms into Akira's chest. Akira spun her around and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Rally! It's me! It's okay!"
Rally shook her head and snapped out of her trance. Still breathing heavily, she gazed her eyes over Akira and studied him for a few moments.
"Are you okay?"
Looking extremely petrified, Rally fell forward into Akira's arms. She closed her eyes, and everything went black.
Rally flinched her eyes when she felt something cold on her face. She opened her eyes to find May holding a wet cloth. "Are you okay, Rally? What happened?" Rally fluttered her eyes. "What did happen? I don't remember anything." "You passed out at the shipyard. Don't you remember?" That same face flashed into Rally's mind again. She shook her head trying to lose the vision of that face as she held her hand over her throbbing chest. "Rally? Are you okay? Do you want me to call the doctor?" May asked, extremely worried. "What's wrong?" Rally tore her mind away from such thoughts and faked a smile. "I'm fine, May. It was probably just fatigue. Maybe I should take a vacation day from work or something." May thought for a moment, fooled by the smile. "Well, alright. If you say so." May stood up from the side of Rally's bed. "Why don't you come downstairs?" Rally slowly crawled out of bed and placed her feet on the floor. She stood up and stretched before following May out of the bedroom. She carefully took each step down the stairs until she reached the bottom. Feeling cold, she headed toward the living room and sat down on the couch with a blanket. "You're finally up. You feeling better?" Akira walked into the room. "I'm fine," Rally said. "It's just fatigue." Akira paused for a moment and pondered. He shook his head and took a seat in one of the chairs in the living room. "Are you sure?" "Yes, I'm fine. Really." Rally turned her face away to the floor. "I'm just fine. I just need some rest." May walked into the living room from the kitchen with a soda. She looked up at the clock. "Man, it's already midnight! I'm starving!" Akira glanced up. "Yeah, me too. Where we gonna get any food though?" "There's a Wendy's a few blocks down. It's open all night." May headed toward the door. "You guys wanna come?" "I suppose I will. Even though I'm sick of fast food." Akira stood up from the chair and started heading toward the door. "What about you, Ral?" "No, I'm not hungry." May peeked back into the living room. "You sure?" "Yes, just go." "Do you want us to bring you something back?" "No." "Okay then." May and Akira headed out the front door. They walked through the grass in the yard instead of the sidewalk and headed to the street. They walked a few minutes not saying anything due to they never really had a conversation before. "Something is wrong with Rally, isn't there?" Akira asked, breaking the silence. "Rally says she's fine." "She's obviously lying." May stopped in the middle of the street. "Rally wouldn't lie to me! We're best friends, you know! She might lie to you but not to me!" "May, she was obviously acting funny!" "She's just fatigued! Rally works really hard, you know!" "Fatigued? Ha! You obviously didn't see her when she passed out! Rally was terrified just before she passed out! She saw something!" "Rally doesn't get terrified!" "Everyone gets scared, May! Even you, even me, and even Rally!"
Just after Akira and May left, Rally stood up from the chair in the living room. She walked into the hallway while flipping every light switch she walked by. The house was dark and silent. She only heard her footsteps against the wood floor as she headed down the hall. She stopped at the hallway closet and opened it. She dug though a few boxes and pulled out a small, black case. She carried it back to the living room and set the case on the coffee table. With her fingers, she unlocked the clamps on the side of the case and opened the lid. Rally sighed as she reached into the case. Up came her hands with a violin. She placed the violin against her shoulder and in-between her chin. Gently holding the bow, she started to stroke it against the strings of the violin. Suddenly beautiful music filled the empty darkness of the house.
"You know what, sock head? I'm sick of your attitude!" May hollered. "All you ever do is screw things up for Rally and I!" "You're the only one who seems to have a problem with me! Maybe you're the one with the problem? And I'm sick of being called sock head!" "Just leave me alone! Go home! And I do not mean my house! Go back to Jap- land!" May stormed off towards the Wendy's in the distance. Akira moaned and turned around back towards Rally's house. "Women!"
Nonstop music filled the atmosphere of the house as Rally played more passionately as time went on. Even though she hardly ever played anymore, she sounded like she practiced for hours on end. She closed her eyes as she played. Memories started to fill the darkness of her mind as she played.
"I don't want to play violin!" "Nonsense, all girls of good upbringing and fine taste play violin. Now go practice, Irene." "Mom!"
Rally stopped her music. "Mom..." She softly uttered. It seemed so strange to say that word. She hadn't called out for her mother in seven years. She sighed deeply. "You and I never understood each other, did we? Yet your death haunts me." Rally started to play again. Akira walked up to the front door of the house. He stepped inside and looked around to see nothing but darkness. He paused for a moment to listen to the music. "Rally?" He followed the sound of the music which led him to the living room. He paused in the entrance to the living room as he saw Rally standing in the darkness making the music. He took a step forward and the floor creaked. Rally spun around quickly, stopping the music. She gasped once she saw Akira standing in the middle of the living room. She quickly threw her arms behind her back trying to hide her violin. "Rally?" Akira questioned. "Akira!" Rally gasped. "Are you okay?" "Uh...I'm fine..." Akira took a step closer. "What are you doing alone in the dark playing that instrument." Rally gave a nervous laugh. "What? This old thing? I was going to sell in the newspaper. I just needed to make sure it worked and all..." Rally shrugged her shoulders and faked a smile. Akira grabbed onto Rally's wrists. "Rally?" Rally's fake smile melted. "I..." Akira's stern voice broke her. As much as she wanted to fight it, she couldn't. Tears, for the first time in many years, filled her eyes. Her breath caught in her throat as her throat started to close up. "Rally?" Akira questioned with a warmer tone of voice. "What happened? What did you see?" "His face." "Whose face? Rally, you have to tell me. What happened? Whose face?" Rally closed her eyes. Tears spilled from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks "I was twelve years old when it happened. I was spending the summer with my dad in Pakistan at his gun shop. My mom came to pick me up at the end of the summer to take me back to London with her. They were arguing and fighting about the divorce papers until this man walked in. He ..." "Rally, tell me. You have to tell me what happened." "He shot her in the head...I...I...there...there...was...so much...so much...blood...I...I..." "Rally? Did you see the man who murdered your mother?" "It's him. It's the same guy. It's the same face! The same voice! The same everything! I'll kill him! I'll kill him for what he did to her! For what he did to me! I'll kill him!" "Rally, killing him isn't going to bring your mother back." "But he'll get what he deserves!" Rally grinded through her teeth. "I'll make him pay! He'll pay!" "Rally, I want you to listen to me. You are not going to find peace in killing him. Doing something wrong can never fix anything. Do you really want the pain to go away?" "Of course I do!" "Then don't kill him. Leave it in the hands of God." "Why didn't God save my mother?" "I don't know." "Please just leave me alone." Akira placed his hand on Rally's shoulder. "Please, promise me you won't kill that man. Not out of revenge. Promise me." Rally remained silent for a few moments. "I promise." "Thank you." Rally closed her eyes and hung her head from Akira's sight. "Please, just leave me alone. I don't want you to see me like this." "Like what?" "Weak." "You're not weak, Rally Vincent. You've proven that a hundred times over that you're not weak."
More tears flowed from Rally's eyes. She brought her hand to her face to try to hide from Akira.
Akira grabbed Rally's hand and pulled away from her face. He slowly slid his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. Surprisingly, Rally wrapped her arms around Akira as he pulled her in. Feeling Rally's heart pounding through her chest, Akira was prompted to say little things to calm her down but nothing seemed to soothe her. He rested his chin on top of Rally's head and said nothing for the rest of the night.
Rally closed her heavy eyelids and fell asleep. Once realizing what happened, Akira picked her up and carried her to her room.