All characters mentioned from the Bloody Roar series are copyright their respective owners.
"Azefardinomiganitarrenopinopidabiomiat!"
Ah, the crazy ranting of an old hobo who is standing between you and the car door. Needless to say, I was not amused. Neither was Alex as we stared blankly at the rank old man, ranting endlessly and waving a bottle in a paper bag to and fro. It finally ended when I got so frustrated that I went to take a swing at him, only to have Alex stop me when my fist was a couple inches from his face.
The hobo lurched backwards and his back hit the driver's side door of the car. "Gurretifonartifyster!" He screamed as he stepped to the side and ran full-tilt down the street. I can only assume that that's some kind of gibberish for, I'm calling the cops, or something along those lines.
Alex and I just stared blankly at the hobo stumbling down the streets. "How did that work at all?" Alex asked, completely confused.
"I have no freaking clue," I replied, "But let's get the hell out of here before he comes back."
We both got into the Trailblazer and buckled up, just as I noticed the discarded beer bottles piled on the windshield. Not wanting to leave the hobo-less environment of the car, I turned on the wipers and veered onto the main road, sending beer bottles rolling down the sidewalk and into the streets. I could hear the sound of car tires squealing behind me, but I didn't hear a crash, so I didn't stop (not that I would have if I did). I honestly didn't care if I crashed the car and killed the both of us.
"DUDE! SLOW DOWN!"
Alex did seem to care, though. I was dodging my way through traffic at about eighty miles per hour, weaving in and out of the three-lane highway and even passing on the shoulder, just narrowly missing a truck on the side of the road. Fortunately for me, there were no highway patrol cars in our path during my temporary lead-foot phase as I slowly let off the accelerator. Alex watched me with concern, probably for his own life.
"Are you gonna be alright, Scott?"
"I'll be fine as soon as I get home." I spoke frantically, "Then I can relax, get a two-by-four from the basement, lie down in bed, and bash myself in the head until I either pass out or forget any of this ever happened!"
It was a very quiet ride home the rest of the way. Then Alex reminded me that he wasn't my brother, so I drove him back to his house and floored it until I got home again. Thankfully, there weren't any cops or deer on the side streets I took because I wasn't stopping for anything.
It was Saturday, 12:15 a.m. and I couldn't remember the last time it felt so good to be home. Everything about the house felt relaxing; the creaky front door, the ant traps sticking out from underneath the fridge, the stack of dishes in the sink, hell even the answering machine with five new messages on it. Though I desperately wanted to just go to sleep, I decided to see if any of the calls I missed were actually important.
click
Two –old- messages, and five –new- messages.
"Hello, I'm calling for a Mr. Scott Bronsin from the Federation of Federation Management Commission and-"
click
"Good evening. We'd like to inform you about an exciting new offer from-"
click
"You may already be a winner!"
"So far, so good." I said aloud.
click
"Hello, jerk-off. I'm-"
Goodbye, Jack.
click
"Scott? Hey, it's Uriko, from school."
Uriko? It's not that I didn't like hearing from her, it's just that it was the last thing I needed at the time.
"I hope you got your teeth taken care of. You looked like you got hurt pretty bad. That's not why I called, though."
Oh great, what now?
"I'm going to have a small party at my house on Saturday to try and get to know some of the other guys at school, and I wanted to know-"
If I could skip it, stay at home playing computer games all day, and avoid a psychotic episode?
"If you'd come."
Damn. Oh well, just because I was invited didn't mean I had to go.
"I heard that you were into music, so I was wondering if you could bring a few cds over. Alice has nothing but ABBA and Human League."
I stand corrected.
"Also, I'm going to have some of my friends over from the mall trip."
Terrific! Then I can shoot myself in the eyes with a pellet gun and call it a day!
"Hope to see you there. Bye!"
click
End of messages
It was the first day in about a week and a half that it hadn't been snowing, but the roads were still incredibly icy. Even though I was in a four-wheel drive car, I could still feel the Trailblazer gliding through some of the turns on the way to Uriko's house. I had a plastic bag in the passenger seat, filled with more cds than I cared to count. That's when I could see Uriko's development coming up on the left, and I immediately noticed that there were a few more houses built since the last time I was there. That was the first time I could remember construction of any kind in my neighborhood being done fast. Why couldn't they have fixed the torn-up roads this fast!?
I digress. There were already too many cars (and one motorcycle) taking up the driveway, so I had to park on the street, just far enough away from the fire hydrant for it to be legal. With my bag in hand, I cautiously crept to the front door, trying my very best not to slip and fall on the huge sheet of ice that the driveway had become. Unfortunately, the walkway and the porch were just as bad as the driveway. Have these people ever heard of something called salt? Fortunately, I managed to keep my footing and make it to the front porch, when my feet shot out from under me and my face slammed into the doorbell before I fell to the ground, my head bouncing off the ice and leaving a small crack over it. The cd bag was unharmed, which was more than I could say for myself.
I could hear the door open and saw Uriko appear in my field of vision. "Scott!? What happened!?"
"...Ice." Was all I could say, as the fall had knocked me slightly senseless.
I spent my first fifteen minutes of the party sitting on a couch in the living room with a plastic bag filled with ice on my head, checking out who else came. I quickly realized that there was not a single snobby member of the high school social elite present. In fact, I knew and spoke to on a regular basis every single person there. Bob, Joey, Jeanie, Mike, Katie, Randy, Carl, Jenn, Dave, and even Alex were there. I would have tried to join in on their conversation, but my head was still throbbing from the fall, so all I could pick up were random bits of speech, most of which were punch lines to jokes I didn't get.
"So then," Bob said, "The giraffe looks at the lifeguard and says, "Because I couldn't find the buffet!""
Everyone started laughing, which made my head hurt even more as I gripped the ice bag, now realizing that most of the ice had melted. "Uriko!" I shouted.
"I'm right here."
Indeed, she was actually sitting right next to me. I'll just blame that one on the head shot. "Where's your kitchen? I need to load up on ice."
"Okay. First, you go down the hall across from us, then you'll want to make a right at the first split. Go down two doors and make a left at the wreath hanging on the wall. That will take you to the den. Once there, go through the only other hall on the left of that room and make a right, and you'll be in the kitchen!"
What followed was a long, awkward silence as I let the ice bag fall from my hand. "You're kidding, right?"
No, she certainly wasn't. I could have sworn that her house didn't look so freaking huge from outside! Of course, I didn't remember all of the directions, so I got mildly lost, occasionally wandering into either a bathroom, a closet, or a room that didn't really seem to have a purpose at all; just a couple of chairs and a table. Not taking it to mind at the time, my quest for the kitchen continued. I felt like I was wandering through underground catacombs as I hear the sound of my friends' voices fade... painted and badly-decorated catacombs. After ten minutes of aimless wandering, I finally found a wreath hanging on a wall.
"A wreath." I said aloud. Suddenly, Uriko's directions came back to me. I made a left and was in a room that I assumed was the den and crossed it , making a right in the opposite hall. I almost jumped for joy when I saw a refrigerator come into view. Jogging toward the fridge, I ripped open the ice bag, then threw open the freezer door, only to realize there was an ice dispenser on the door itself. I sighed and closed the door, punching the button for ice as I held the bag underneath the opening. Of course, I forgot to empty the water in the bag, and wound up getting the floor in front of the fridge wet when the ice came. Cursing my own stupidity, I quickly got a couple napkins and mopped up the mess. At the time, I was also a bit parched, so I checked to see if they had any soda in the fridge, but found nothing except for milk, orange juice, and the other usual drinks that don't go well with junk food. They have to have at least something with caffeine in it, besides coffee, I thought. That's when I saw something next to the hallway from which I entered the kitchen.
It was a door, propped open that seemed to lead down.
"Of course! They probably keep it in the basement!" I told myself as I set the ice bag on the kitchen counter and approached the doorway. On the way through, I felt my foot catch on the doorstop, and I nearly fell down the stairs, but managed to catch my balance and awkwardly landed on the third step down, hearing the door shut behind me. I paused a moment to regain my composure, and started looking for a light switch until I realized that I could see a faint glow around the corner, thinking that a light was already on somewhere in the basement. Well, there was, but it wasn't quite what I expected.
The basement was set up to double as a place of rest and exercise. To one side I could see a couch that was folded out into a bed with a few sheets tossed around on it and a dresser (or armoire, the weird design made it look like a cross between the two) next to it. In the corner was a tall lamp, which provided almost all of the light in the basement, save for the occasional bulb in the ceiling here and there. On the opposite end there was a weight-lifting bench and a stack of weights next to it, a set of bars leaned against the nearest wall, a treadmill, and a punching bag. Set against the wall next to the bars was a table with a sizable stereo on it, some random cds cast around it. I was taken back by the scene, but even more so when I heard a sudden-
"What the hell are you doing here!?"
Words cannot describe how high I jumped as I heard that sentence. I quickly spun around and was surprised to see Shina standing not more than six feet from me. That's when something in my brain didn't quite connect.
"Wait a minute," I asked, "What are you doing here?"
"You first."
"There wasn't any soda upstairs, so I was checking to see if they had any in the base-"
"Wait a minute... Was that sound earlier the door shutting?"
"Yeah, why do-"
"SHIT!"
Before I could say "confuzzled" she had run up the staircase and tried the door, then came back downstairs, a look of frustration on her face. "What's wrong?"
She walked to the punching bag as she spoke, not so much as glancing at me. "The lock on the door upstairs is busted, so it has to be kept open at all times. Otherwise, it can't be opened from the basement."
I was a bit slow at first, but when I put two and two together, all I managed to say was, "...S...So we're...."
"Yeah."
Trapped in the basement with her? This would either be a day I'd look back and smile upon, or a day I'd be struggling to remember from a hospital bed...if I'm lucky.