Hey everybody! New chapter time! To the most awesome reviewers in the history of fanfiction: Sihlouette, twighlightangel61090, Jelly Babes 101, bookwormgrl101, .225, Blood And Fangs27, Sparrow's Lassie, XxJinxieUnluckyxX, BlackRabbit23, love-30stm, malia81167, just me 33333, xXxCrAzY4VaMpIrEsxXx, JadeeXbooks, BlazingWolfFire, xXcrazyemoXx, fallinginlovewithanangel, Ghost In The Snow, rosalynn23, Winged Angel Girl, Sabira Wolf, Kiana and Patch, Anaik, Turdle, Elena3Patch!!, GirlGoneMad.x – all your praise and offering of bribes for updating is awesome!!! I love every single piece of feedback you give and I do think about when I'm writing, so thank you all again! Hope you like the chapter, please review!!!
CHAPTER 17
"Pull in here," I said to Rixon, pointing to the small service station on the side of the desolate stretch we'd been travelling along for an hour.
"Do you think they'll have one?" Rixon asked as the car went over the bumps of the driveway.
"The better question is: will it work?" I replied. The engine deadened and we both got out of the car, swinging our doors wide open in the empty row of car spaces.
As we entered the shabby red building that was the service shop a bell rung above the door. The clerk called out to us from behind a newspaper.
"What do you need?"
I let out a sigh and a smile. For a second I had truly believed it was going to be empty. Glad that someone was going to help us, even if was from behind a newspaper, I called back, "a payphone…please." I held an anxious breath as we reached the counter.
"Hmm, payphone's for customers only," he said folding his newspaper, revealing the cracked skin of a mechanic. "You want to use it, you make a purchase." The way he said this made me think he'd missed his calling as a high school teacher. Rixon dropped a lollipop and a quarter on the counter.
"Opposite wall, press the buttons down hard." The man said taking the quarter with a look of disappointment.
"Thankyou," I said, flashing him a smile in case it didn't work and we had ask for the staff phone. Rixon too smiled, and snatched up the lollipop, although his smile was saying something more along the lines of 'fat chance you were gonna get more than a quarter out of me'.
The phone was ancient and for a second I thought if we touched it, it would break. Rixon took a deep breath before picking up the receiver. He was about to dial when I stopped him.
"No, I should talk. Otherwise they'll think it's just you coming." Rixon considered this for a moment before nodding and passing the receiver to me. I could feel the dust on it as my hands wrapped around it. My fingers gave a slight twitch as I dialled the familiar number. I pressed each key down as hard as I could, scared it wouldn't work unless I put my whole weight behind each key.
It started ringing as soon as I'd dialled the last nine of Patch's number. I bit my lip with anticipation. I was scared. It could have been anyone picking up the other end. Dabria, Bad Patch, Good Patch. But at the same time I was anxious, but in a good way. This would be the first time I was going to hear Patch's voice in days. The ringing stopped and I took in a deep breath.
"Yes," a cold voice came through the speaker. It seemed so loud that I unintentionally jumped.
"Nora….I mean, it's Nora." I corrected myself. If I had felt nervous before Patch had picked up, it was nothing to the way I felt now.
"Nora," the voice spoke again, dragging out my name. "To what do I owe this honour?"
There was silence while he waited for me to answer. I knew what to say, or rather what I was meant to say. But I just couldn't. Something was stopping me. The words just wouldn't come. I wanted him to speak again, to say something. But he didn't. I waited. I knew he was still there, there was nothing that would've made him put the phone down. He wanted to find me, to kill me. I knew this, but I waited for his voice again. I could hear him breaths into the phone. I wanted to know where he was taking those breaths, who else was hearing them. I wanted to know if they were coming out of busted lips, I wanted to know if it was hurting his ribs to inhale them. I wanted to know so much. In that moment I realised how much I'd been missing him. Yet nothing could bring the words to my lips, not even the 72 hour deadline hanging over our heads.
I felt the phone being taken out of my hands. I turned around and Patch was there. He smiled. So did I.
"Now," Patch said. I looked around for what he was talking about. There was nothing. Rixon was gone, the store, the mechanic. The only thing around us was black.
"Patch?" I asked. The word just emerged when Dabria collided with me.
"Nora!" Rixon said, clicking his fingers in front of my face. Patch and Dabria disappeared from my vision.
"What?" I asked glancing around at the wallpapered walls and the pea green couch to my side.
"Geez, you totally zoned out…. You sure you're fine to do this?" Rixon asked, looking concerned.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again just to make sure I really was back. "Yep, 72 hours. Right? I don't have a choice. It's be fine or lose Patch."
Rixon nodded. I got up and walked around the dim room. Rixon was marking the walls with something translucent. The way he was holding the stem from which it was flowing made me think there was something special about it. He'd explained it all to me in the car on the way here but I didn't understand it for the life of me.
"What is that again? And why are you covering the walls of your own house with it?" I asked.
A soft smile came over his lips, "I had a feeling you weren't really listening in the car." It was only a small smile, but it was the first smile I'd seen since we'd been given our 72-hour deadline. "It's wax from a hallowed candle. And trust me, nothing I put on these walls could possibly make them any uglier." Rixon continued, as if he was talking about something as common as paint.
"And what's it meant to do?"
"Long story short, its just going to help us tonight." Rixon said finishing a final swirl. A droplet of wax dripped onto his hand but he showed no sign of pain.
"So tonight?" I asked, hoping he would explain it again in a way that I could understand.
"Yes?" He asked as he put the stem down, checking his handiwork.
"This thing that we're doing… I mean, I don't understand it all, but it should work, right? You think it's going to work…right?"
"Well I was sure enough to call them here wasn't I?" He spotted the uncertainty that was splayed across my face. "Look Nora, tonight's going to be intense… And if you want to stay out of it, that's cool. I can do it."
"No, I want to be a part of it." I shot back, my words a little too loud and fast.
Rixon let out a breath, "good, because I was lying. There's no way in hell I could do this alone."
"That's why I'm here, I've got your back." I replied. I took a deep breath and summoned all the concentration and focus I could, "so one more time, the plan is?"