Chapter 10: "Dear Sachenka, thou art troubled."

Song: "Saint Jimmy" by Green Day

Here ya'll go. Fresh from the corners of my mind. Hope you enjoy. The bold are flashbacks. Italics are song lyrics as usual. This may seem a little buffy-ish, but I'm not trying to make it so.

The pain in one's neck when one sleeps at an odd angle on a park bench can debilitate one for the entire day; however, the one obtained from sleeping under said park bench, can actually give you a better posture. Sacha could write a book on the ins and outs of dispossessed living. The only chapter that would be missing was the one on how to deal with rain, especially thunderstorms, much like the one he and Gypsy were in now. Sacha hated rain. Of course the rain had to start when they were nowhere near any shelter of any kind. Starting to run for shelter, he had reached for Gypsy's hand, assuming she would be running too; but she wasn't. She just stood there, looking up, a smile on her face laughing. He too looked up, letting the rain fall on his face…

"Sachenka, we must go now. It has started to rain." Nurse Yalena held the young boy's hand, speaking to him in Russian.

"Mama is sleeping with the angels, Yalena. I need to tell her goodnight." The adolescent child looked on despondently as the black and silver casket was lowered into the ground. By now the funeral guests had all walked away and stepped into their cars to escape the rain that had started to fall. Sachenka threw a white rose into the grave after the coffin and said a light prayer. Tears began to roll down his cheeks as the workers began to shovel dirt into the hole.

"Sacha, dear." Yalena said, squatting beside him. "Your mother would not like to see such tears. You need to be strong now, young warrior, your father needs you to be."

"He just needs me to fight."

"No, the world needs you to fight, he needs you to live."

Sacha looked at the woman beside him. Until two days prior, he had never known her, now he felt like he needed her more than anyone still living. She smiled at him; not a condescending smile, like the one his father gave him, not a pity smile, like the one the priest gave him, but one full of hope. Hope as if she had seen how his life would turn out and knew he would be all right. He looked into her eyes, and for the first time in weeks, smiled back.

St. Jimmy's comin' down across the alleyway
Up on the boulevard like a zip gun on parade
Light of a silhouette
He's insubordinate
Coming at you on the count of 1,2,1,2,3,4!

He wasn't sure his fifteen-year old body could take it. Running at full speed for two straight miles was taking its toll on Sacha. He wished he'd never agreed to training with a real subject. Being chased down by a werewolf was not how he'd wanted to spend his Friday night. His eyes were busy watching his path through the woods; his hands were busy reloading his .22 with silver nitrate bullets. He shook his head at the thought of his father "forgetting" to load the gun before handing it to him and releasing the hound. These stupid tests were going to get Sacha killed. The thumping sounds of the werewolf knocking down trees were starting to echo. Sacha looked up and saw it. A frickin cliff. He officially hated Siberia. Shaking his head once more, Sacha stopped, and turned on the beast. Holding his gun up eye level with his predator he fired all his fifteen rounds. The lycan leapt into the air, hoping to land on his prey, but Sacha fell onto his back, still shooting. The lycan's momentum carried the dying beast over Sacha's prostrate body and over the edge of the precipice. As a long, loud growl resonated in the valley, Sacha let out a prolonged sigh. His life sucked.

My name is Jimmy and you better not wear it out
Suicide commando that your momma talked about
King of the forty thieves
And I'm here to represent
That needle in the vein of the establishment

"I'm wet!" Gypsy's voice grabbed Sacha out of memory lane. She was looking at him, they were both soaked through and she was smiling at him. He smiled back.

"Well, that's an understatement." He laughed, wiping the rain out of his eyes. "You're soaked."

"So are you!" she was still smiling drunkenly, as if the rain were champagne. Sacha wondered why she liked rain so much. He stared at her a moment, then his hand found hers. Her huge smile was somewhat reduced when she felt him pulling her towards him. He kept eye contact with her as he slid a hand around her waist to pull her even closer. The faintest of smiles appeared on his face as he wiped the soaked hair out of her eyes. Gypsy was sure that that smile would have been invisible to anyone who wasn't looking intently. Her heart jumped in her chest when his hand touched her cheek after placing her hair behind her ear. His body was warm against hers. She bit her lip as his thumb caressed her now-red cheeks.

"You shouldn't bite your lip." He whispered.

"Says who?"

Sacha smiled. "Says me." His right hand at the nape of her neck drew her face closer to his own, and before she knew it, contact. Her heart stopped as he placed feather soft kisses on her lips. Once again, Sacha's head spun when he felt her returning the kiss. Her lips were warm, and wet from the rain. He was amazed at the spark they ignited in him. He pulled her waist closer until it was touching his own and he deepened the kiss. He could feel her placing her hand on his chest. Then he felt her touching his jaw, her thumb running along his scar. He winced at the touch, breaking the kiss, and startling her, making her take a step back. She instantly looked down at the ground.

"Sorry…" she said quietly, her voice nearly getting lost in the rain. He shook his head, not realizing she couldn't see him.

"Come on, let's get out of the rain." He said, taking her hand once more.

"What do you mean I fail?" Sacha asked the man he'd called father.

"You fail! You lost the subject. I wanted it alive!" The large, burly man bellowed at the seventeen-year old. "You disappointed me."

"I nearly died! I probably would have if the sun hadn't risen!" Sacha lay in a hospital bed in his room at his father's estate. His head was wrapped up in gauze, holding his broken jaw shut enough so that it didn't hurt to talk. His leg was in traction, internal bleeding stopped, finally, and arm broken; shattered more like. Sacha was not in the mood to deal with father. His head was pounding and he itched from the morphine.

"It's your own damn fault for taking too long. It should have been easy. You made it too hard." The man was pacing now.

"I made it too hard? Bull! You sent me out there without anything! No weapon! You bastard! How dare you even think you can screech at me over your own damn mistake! You're the one who keeps putting blanks in my gun. You're the one who keeps sending me out there to die. And you're the one who is always disappointed when I come back alive! Well, screw you! Or better yet, go and screw yourself, and stop screwing me!" Sacha's jaw really hurt now, he felt it snap and it aggravated his headache. He looked at the man, who had stopped. His eyes were flashing with rage. Sacha braced himself for the inevitable physical pain. Father took a step towards his son, eyes on his throat, when a shrill voice stopped him.

"No!" Yalena placed herself between the man and the teenager. "I will not see you harm this boy again." She rattled off her words in Russian. "If you lay one finger upon him, causing him pain, you will not wake up the next day. I have had enough!"

The man looked at his son's nurse for what seemed like forever to Sacha. With a growl, he stalked off, disappearing down the hall.

Cigarettes and ramen and a little bag of dope
I am the son of a bitch and Edgar Allen Poe
Raised in the city under a halo of lights
The product of war and fear that we've been victimized

The carousel seemed haunting at night. The lightning flashed and the horse's faces shone for a brief moment. Gypsy stayed close to Sacha. Standing under the awning kept them out of the rain, but not the cold. She shivered, chills running down her body. She watched her travel companion as he stared out at the rainfall. She wondered what had made him jump. She hoped it was nothing she did, but knew it was. Her gaze floated away as she thought of possible ways of getting a scar like that. But her attention and gaze snapped back to Sacha when she felt his eyes boring into her.

"I can't explain it now, but I will." He said simply. She leaned against the wall, keeping his eye contact. She simply nodded.

"Take your time."

She felt like when he looked into her eyes, she was really looking into her soul, her very being. It made her shiver. She held her breath as he took a step closer to her, standing dangerously close to her, his hand resting on the wall beside her head. There was that almost invisible smile again. She found herself falling in love with that.

She kissed him this time. Wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him towards her, she pressed her lips against his. He smelled wonderful, like a candle she once had. Sandalwood Spice. After a moment of startled stillness, he made a move, kissing her back harder than before, placing his hands at her waist, pulling their hips together again. His whole body felt on fire when she touched him. Her knees went weak. The kiss became deeper with each touch. Sacha's fingers fiddled with the hem of her shirt, lifting it up slightly to feel the warmth of her soft skin. She gasped at his touch and she felt his tongue lightly brush against her bottom lip. Their heads were spinning as they came up for air.

I'm the patron saint of the denial
With an angel face and a taste for suicidal

ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?

I'll give you something to cry about.

ST. JIMMY!

My name is St. Jimmy I'm a son of a gun
I'm the one that's from the way outside
I'm a teenage assassin executing some fun
In the cult of the life of crime.

I really hate to say it but I told you so
So shut your mouth before I shoot you down old boy
Welcome to the club and give me some blood
And the resident leader at the lost and found

It's comedy and tragedy
It's St. Jimmy
And that's my nameeeeeee...and don't wear it out!

Ok. Yeah. And the character list, well partial character list will come shortly. It needs some sprucing. Cheers!