"Oh god...", I gasped in disbelief at the horror in front of us. Lyra continued to stare, unmoving and unblinking. The rope creaked as the body turned. I put the glasses down, and approached Lyra. It was only when Lyra eventually reacted that I realised who this was, she fell to her knees and sobbed uncontrollably. I knelt down to comfort her, cradling her shoulders and squeezing her closer. She could barely look back at him, the macabre man; rotating slowly. It was Bellamy. The message was clear, we had to leave.
"Lyra", I said, trying to get her attention, but to no avail.
"Lyra", I repeated, shaking her slightly. She turned to me, eyes darkened with tears cascasing down her cheeks. "We have to leave".
"No", she said, her speech masked by sorrow. She crawled over and held her head to his feet. "I'm not leaving him".
I stared for a second, empathetic to her loss. I reached out to her shoulder, and carressed it as she continued to sob. I stood up and quickly proceeded to the kitchen, and grabbed a knife. I marched back to the bedroom, to find Lyra still helpless.
"I'm going to cut him down", I explained, waiting for approval. She was unreactive, so I hesitantly reached up to the rope and began to saw at the fibres. After a few seconds of cutting, the rope gave way allowing me to catch him and lower him to the ground. His face remained the same. Lyra threw herself on himin a grieving embrace. I could only stand and watch as she cried over him. After a while, the urgency of the situation couldn't wait any longer. I knelt down to Lyra and held her shoulder.
"Lyra, we can't stay here", I said. "I know you dont want to leave him and I'm sorry, but they know where we are".
She continued to sob onto his chest, smudging the ink from the warning he was covered in. I returned to the lounge, to retrieve our clothes. I heaped them next to her, to which she didn't react. I began dressing myself, observing her crying over this man, contemplating what their relationship had been for a reaction like this. I remained silent however, thinking about our next step, we had no way off the citadel, we were surely being watched here.
"Lyra, Jeet's probably on his way up here now, we have to leave!" I said, forcefully. the crying, subsided. Her breathing got louder and louder. Her fists began to clench on his chest. She rose from where she was and released an earsplitting cry of pain and anger. She pounded a wall with her hand, repeatedly smashing into it, her biotics flaring. Blood began to appear on the wall, in larger and larger volumes. I stormed over to her and grabbed her shoulders. She turned to me, with a look of unparalleled fury.
"Lyra, listen to me, this isn't going to help", I said, looking deep into her black eyes. "You want to get revenge? That isn't going to happen if we stick around here any longer".
She looked straight at me, shaking with anger. "I know you don't want to leave him, but we have to. I'm sorry", I continued. Her eyes darted back to Bellamy, her face growing less angry now. She looked back to me and flung her arms arond my neck. She pressed he forehead into my chest, squeezing me tightly.
"That fucker", she whispered, harshly.
"I know", I said, gently rubbing her back as we embraced. I moved back to look at her, she raised her head. "Let's go and get him", I said, giving her a half-smile.
She nodded, wiping the tears away from her cheeks. I picked up her clothes and handed them to her. "Here", I said. "Go into the bathroom, I'll get him cleaned up". She hesitated slightly, looking back to Bellamy, before heeding my words. After she'd left, I took a deep breath and crouched down next to him. I cut the underwear from him and cast it to the other side of the room. I walked to the kitchen and retrieved a wet sponge. I returned to the bedroom and got to work on wiping the words from him. As I worked, the threat of Aria burned deeper into me: ONE RULE. I managed to get most of it off his face and arms. It was more difficult to get it off the hairier parts of his body. I rooted in the drawers to find a pair of boxers. I managed to slide them up his legs to cover his modesty in death. Despite his eyes bulging, I managed to close his eyes before lifting him onto the bed. I wrapped his body and neck in the sheet to make him look as peaceful as possible.
Lyra returned to the room, dressed. She entered the room with a small rucksack. She stopped when she saw him, cocking her head slightly. She walked over to him and kissed softly him on the forehead. She brushed his hair back and smiled. She returned to me and took my hand in hers. She shook it gently, looking down at it before saying, "Thank you". She reached up and kissed me on the cheek, before leading me from the room and closing the door.
As we walked into the kitchen, Lyra placed the rucksack on the counter. She grabbed a few cans from the cupboard and threw them in. She opened a drawer and pulled out a pistol, throwing it in the bag. She pulled out another one, cocked it and handed it to me. I tucked it into my waist, before concealing it with my shirt. She grabbed her jacket and threw it on.
"Ready?", Lyra asked, in a surprisingly upbeat manner.
"Uh...yeah", I said, hesitantly.
Lyra picked up the bag and threw it over her shoulder. I followed her to the front door, ready to face what could be our death. However, both of us had gained an indifference to the idea, both of us experiencing heavy loss and now on a path of revenge. Lyra opened the door and peered out. She scanned both ways, before cautiously proceeding out.
As we neared the entrance to the building, we were anxious of everyone we passed: a salarian on a communicator, the janitor eyeing us as we passed, the two krogan arguing by the door. Everyone was suspect; Aria was everywhere. As we emerged onto the street, we quickly hailed a cab, hurrying over to it before it landed. Lyra threw her bag onto the back seat and piled in next to it, allowing me to follow.
"Where to?", the turian said, looking at us in his mirror.
"Dock 5, C-Sec outpost", Lyra said, fumbling in her bag.
"You got it", he said, firing up the cab. After we'd been flying for about fifteen minutes, Lyra pulled out a datapad and started typing on it. She extended it into the front so the driver could see, meaning I could also see it. It read: Don't say anything. Drop us at the Fuckpit-Lower Wards if you wanna keep your head. She pulled her pistol out the bag and leant forward, barrel fixed on the driver. He immediately pulled out of the traffic and descended into the ward.
As he landed, he turned around and aid, with a crack in his voice, "15 credits". Although he was shaking his head as he spoke. We climbed out of the taxi, which sped away as soon as we closed the doors. We had arrived at a small market place, brimming with people moving in every direction. The floor was damp and shone in the artificial lights. There were steaming pipes running overhead, which dripped every now and again. There were a few makeshift stalls, which seemed to be selling food or guns. The edges of the market were flanked by people standing around, shiftily looking around at the denizens of the market. As we proceeded through the crowd, a neon sign became gradually unobscured. It read: 'fu k pit', with a few letters flickering and the c completely non-functional. The krogan outside stared me down, making me quiver in nervous anticipation.
"Hey, Lyra", he said, gruffly.
"Hey, Torck", she replied. "Dario in?"
"Yeah, he's in back", he answered. "Who's the grub?"
"This is my associate".
He grunted in acknowledgement, before asking, "He cool?"
"I don't know about cool, but he's a good guy".
"Ha! Grub have a name?", Torck said, addressing me.
I looked to Lyra for approval before speaking, "Isaac".
"Hm. Think I like grub better", Torck replied, staring at me though his reptilian eyes.
"OK, have a good one", he continued, stepping aside and slapping me on the shoulder.
"Thanks, Torck", Lyra said, smiling.
As we passed him onto a dark corridor, Lyra chuckled, "Grub".
"Shut up", I retorted, smiling slightly.
We emerged through a dangling bead curtain into a small, cramped room with a bar at the far edge. The room was flanked on the left by stripper poles, being utilised by asari and humans alike, and on the right by red doors. A turian emerged from one with his head down, glancing around the room as he headed for the exit. In the middle of the room were small tables dotted around, people on them trying to have hushed conversations ofer the deafening, thumping music. We proceeded over to the bar and sat on the stools. An asari barmaid hurried over, smiling.
"Hey, Lyra", she said, reaching out to Lyra's cheek.
"Hey, baby", Lyra replied, leaning in and kissing her hard and dominantly on the mouth. It continued for a few seconds, before the barmaid pulled away and asked, "Who's your friend?"
"His name is Isaac, he's workin' with me", Lyra answered.
"Oh. Isaac, huh?", she said, looking me up and down. "I don't know how you'd get any work done with a man like that around". She giggled, before leaning over revealing some impressive cleavage, "You wanna get to know each other a little better, honey?"
"Uh...I-I-...", I stuttered, glancing nervously at Lyra.
"Sorry baby, maybe another time. Your boss in?", Lyra asked.
"Oh, all business. Yeah, he's in back", she replied, with mock disappointment in her voice.
She shot me a smile as we walked toward the office door. The office was tiny, only big enough for a desk, a safe and some security monitors. A heavy-set turian sat behind the desk, a scantily clad girl perched on his lap. He looked up as we entered, studying us.
"Lyra, baby!", he exclaimed, gently tapping the girl's bottom, allowing him to rise and greet Lyra. He gave her an amorous hug, which lasted a good ten seconds. "It's good to see you!". He studied her face, noticing the bruising in the light of the office, "Woah! You been fightin', baby?"
"That's the work of Jeet and his boys", Lyra replied, pulling away from his hand.
"Wait, Jeet did this?", he asked, still studying her face. He turned to the girl, "Give us five would ya, sweetie?". She obeyed immediately, retreating from the room swiftly. "What's with you two, now?".
Lyra sighed, staring at the floor before replying, "He's finally got us".
Dario paused, taking in her answer. He tried to speak a few times but was prevented by thought. Finally, he said, "How much does he know?"
"He caught us moving the Hallex", Lyra answered, still looking at the floor.
"Us? You and, uh, him?", he asked, gesturing to me.
Lyra nodded. Dario's nasal passage flared at her answer. He paused a second before speaking again, "Uh, Aria knows?".
Lyra hesitated and then nodded again.
"FUCK!", Dario screamed, before punching the wall next to Lyra's head. He panted aggressively for a moment, staring at her. All of a sudden, he lifted her by her collar and slammed her into the wall. "You stupid bitch!", He said through gritted teeth. I reached for my pistol, but Lyra held a hand out to stop me.
"She dosen't know anything about you, neither does Jeet", she reasoned.
"You expect me to believe that?", he asked, aggressively.
"The run was quick, unplanned. The only people they know about are me and Isaac. I swear", she said, quickly. Dario glanced at me, and back to Lyra.
"They thought Bellamy was the distributor. Jeet had no idea", she said, staring into his eyes. "He's dead".
Dario sighed, before saying, "I-I'm sorry to hear that, Lyra".
He released he gently, and took a deep breath, "I'm sorry".
Lyra rubbed her neck, looking up at Dario. He paced around the room, in deep thought.
"So, why the fuck aren't you light-years away? Why the fuck are you here?", he finally asked.
"We can't get off the station. Jeet'll see the transport records if we get on a transport", she said. Dario eyed her sternly, silent as she continued, "We need you to get us on a cruiser, without C-Sec seeing it".
Dario walked around to his chair, Lyra and I watching him. He slumped down and tilted his head back. He drummed his fingers on the table in a methodical tune. After half a minute of silence, he began tapping away on his computer. After a few more minutes he rooted in a drawer to pull out two cards, before looking up at us, "You need to get down to dock G2, there is a passenger cruiser leaving for Ilium in four hours. I changed the manifest so you two are on it". He looked down at the two cards and handed one to me, "Brian Newman", and one to Lyra, "Tiona Resali".
"These cards look enough like you that you'll get away with it, no one will give a shit on that ship", he explained.
"Thanks, Dario", Lyra said, smiling.
He nodded in acknowledgement, before saying, "You need to get going. G2, remember?".
Lyra nodded, before gesturing to me to follow her. As we left, Dario spoke once more, causing us to turn around again,
"I don't ever wanna see your fuckin' faces again, got it?"
"We're done".
A/N: I'm going to put this on the backburner for about a week while I come up with a good direction for it. I'll maybe post a new story to keep myself from going insane.