I'm alive, I'm alive. I'm almost positive I've already lost all of my readers, but cut me some slack. Pwease?
Review Replies at the end of the chappie!
Hey, fun fact! Chapter 1 (at least according to FFN): 1,821 words. Chapter 2: 1,820 words. I'm one word away! Hehe, I thought that was funny, you people will probably find it dull.
"What's your injury?" Matt asked, staring intently at the bullet wound.
"Bullet to the arm," she said, gritting her teeth.
"That's dangerous, you didn't see anyone about it?" Matt asked, worried. She shrugged, letting out a pained breath with the action.
"I need to be somewhere really safe, like here. That family I told you about earlier today, well the evil brother-in-law figured me out."
"Why is here safe?" Matt asked skeptically. Thorn sighed. "Mello and I are friends of long ago. I trust him."
Mello emerged, now wearing his usual clothes instead of the polka-dot boxers. He glared venomously at Thorn. She shrugged back at him. Matt picked up his PSP, and dropped onto the chair next to Thorn's couch.
"Hey Mello, you've got any bandages? It'd be pretty lame if I bled to death," Thorn commented. Matt immediately ran into the bathroom, grabbing bandages and a cleaning swab. After her arm had been cleaned up, Thorn almost immediately fell asleep. Mello had gone back to sleep and Matt too had retired to his room. He stared at the wall, incapable of falling asleep. He sighed as the door slammed, heralding Carrie's return.
Thorn's eyes flickered open as the door slammed.
"Who-who are you?" a drunken voice rang through the apartment. "Di-did… Mello get a girlfriend… or boyfriend…. or whatever he has?" Thorn didn't answer, choosing to close her eyes again instead. Carrie stumbled over to her and tried to grab her by the front of her shirt. "Answer me, bitch!" she exclaimed.
"Whoa, language!" Thorn groaned, sitting upright. "Sorry… do I know you?"
Matt wandered in, glancing at Carrie and Thorn. His mind was in turmoil, and he needed to end it soon.
"Matty! Who is she?" Carrie pointed immaturely at Thorn. He shrugged. "Friend of Mello's. Now can you please quiet down?" he asked, rubbing his temples. "Fine! Let's go to bed, Matty!" she said in what was supposedly a seductive tone. Matt didn't notice it. He stumbled back to his room, Carrie following, clinging to his arm. When he got to their room, he shook her off.
"What's wrong, Matty?" she asked. Matt shrugged, sitting on the bed.
"Carrie… this isn't really working between us."
"What isn't working?"
"You know…" Matt shifted uncomfortably. "This relationship. Maybe we should just… lay off for a little while, take a break? You could go back to America for a while, I could keep doing what I'm doing… maybe we'd get together again in a while, but you know…" he finished awkwardly. Carrie promptly burst into tears, causing her stripper-like makeup to be smeared across her face.
"I get it! I see now! You just don't love me! You never did! I hate you!"
"No, Carrie, wait, don't be so irrational -!"
"Shut up! I'm leaving right now!" She crammed her belongings into a bag, storming out of the room. Matt started to get up to stop her, but when the door to the apartment slammed, he knew it was no use. He fell back onto his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling until sleep overtook him. It was a dark, dreamless sleep.
"Okay Thorn, it's time you answer some questions," Mello said over breakfast. Thorn finished the spoonful of Frosted Flakes she was eating, and let her spoon drop back into the bowl.
"I s'pose I owe you that much," she said, nodding.
"Question one - How the hell did you find us? We're in a hotel in Russia, and I haven't seen you since we were seven, and you suddenly find us here? How's that work?" Mello asked. Thorn leaned back in her chair, fingers interlaced.
"Okay. So yesterday, I saved Matt here's ass, right?" she said. Matt nodded. "Right. So he mentioned the name Mello, and because I'm pretty sure you're the only Mello on the face of the planet, I knew it was you." Matt remembered something from the day before, when he had first met Thorn.
The girl's eyes widened, and she repeated, "Mello?"
"Yeah. Do you know him?" Matt asked, curious. Thorn shook her head, perhaps a little too quickly. "Nope! Just a funny name. Sounds like Shmello, which is fun to say," she said. Matt laughed a little at the idea of calling Mello "Shmello."
She must have known it was him then. Mello shot Matt a little glare for so much as mentioning his name.
"After I left, I went back to where Matt had taken the Yastreb Chip from, to cover up its disappearance. While I was there, I got onto one of the computers and figured out where there was a Matt and a Mello staying. Thus, I found you," she said, holding up her palm to face them. The room number and address was scribbled messily on her palm, black ink spiderwebbing out through the lines on her skin.
"That means the authorities could find us at any minute, that our tracks aren't quite covered. We need to move, and quickly," Mello said. Thorn shook her head. "Once I found out and wrote it down, I deleted it from the database. We should be safe for now." Mello's eyebrows rose beneath his bangs in skepticism over her saying 'we.'
"Next question - why are you here? I want all of the story." Thorn sighed.
"I've been living with my sister, Laurie, for a while. She's a blogger, or freelance, or something, I don't really know," she rolled her eyes. "But she married a scumbag of a dude who's one of the lead researchers on the Yastreb Project. He's corrupt, creepy, and overall horrible. For a while, I've been posing as a worker at a factory, and the duo bought it. I've been working with a band of people fighting the Yastreb Project for a while, now, and I guess they hired you guys, too. Klemens - Laurie's shady husband - figured out that I was working as a guard for the Yastreb Chip a while ago, working as head of security. But he didn't know that I've actually been working towards its destruction for a while. I guess he figured out, and he didn't like it. So he tried to kill me. Yeah. And ended up shooting me in the arm, and then I made my way over here, and here I am. Happy?" Mello digested her words while also digesting some chocolate, thoughtfully taking bites now and then. He finally nodded.
"I have a question," Matt said.
"What is it, then?" Thorn prompted.
"How do you two know each other?" He waved his spoon around as he asked.
"Thorn was adopted and left Wammy's House shortly before you came," Mello said.
"And Shmello here was my best friend!" Thorn finished, laughing at the look on Mello's face at her overly girly statement.
"Shut up, skunk," he growled. Thorn just laughed at him some more.
"So you're a Wammy's Kid?" Matt asked, surprised. Thorn nodded.
"Hey Matt, where's your girlfriend?" Mello asked. "Usually she's up by now, complaining about her hangover." An awkward silence fell momentarily over the kitchen, Mello and Thorn watching him, and Matt staring at the ground, twiddling his thumbs. "Well?" Mello asked impatiently, piercing the deafening quiet.
"We broke up," Matt finally said.
"What? In the middle of the night? What'd she do this time?" Mello asked.
"She overreacted when I asked to 'take a break,' and left. In the middle of the night. Yeah."
"Good riddance," Mello groaned under his breath.
"Hey Mells," Thorn said, standing up. "Yeah?" he said. "I'm gonna' run back over to my house… I left some stuff there that I need to pick up."
"Are you crazy? They've probably got guards, security cameras, and who knows what over there!" Mello said. "The last thing we need is for you to go out there and get captured! You might leak our location!"
"Why thank you Mello, for your vote of confidence," Thorn said sarcastically, cocking her pistol.
"I'll go with her," Matt volunteered. Mello sighed. "Fine, be back soon though."
Matt raised an eyebrow as Thorn swiped Mello's motorcycle keys. She grabbed her jacket, holding the door open for Matt. She stopped when they got outside
"You can just go to a bar or whatever. I'll be back at around 12, so if you come back at 12:30 I can just tell Mello you were keeping them off of our tails."
"What?" Matt asked.
"You heard me. You aren't actually planning on coming with me, are you?"
"Well, I was…" he started uncertainly. Thorn chuckled.
"You're callow, dear. That's not how this business goes. We all take care of ourselves here. We die, we die. We live, good for us. Now go get yourself a smoke or something. They're fantastic for nerves." Matt found it slightly ironic that she was telling him, the chain smoker. He shook his head, walking up to her and swiping the motorcycle keys out of her hand. "Maybe that's how you do things, but not how we do things. Just come on. Mello'd be pretty pissed if you just went and died." He hopped onto Mello's motorcycle, and she followed, hesitantly placing her hands around his waist. Matt chuckled slightly, before zooming off through the streets. Thorn glared at his back as they flew through the vacant streets.
The ride to her house was no more than 10 minutes. Matt slowed the vehicle to a halt about a block away from the home, as snow started falling in a light dust. Thorn hopped off and tossed a pair of binoculars at Matt.
"Keep an eye on me. No doubt Klemens has the placed decked out with security cameras. Chances are I'm gonna' be out of there in a hurry," she said, leaning back and cracking her back. Matt placed a hand on her elbow, about to argue back against him staying by the bike. She turned, a determined glint in her sky-blue eyes.
"...Be careful, okay?" he said weakly, instead of questioning her plan. She laughed, nodding.
"Falling in love with me already, Matt?" she laughed, joking. Without another word she dashed off silently through the street.
Matt scoffed. Fall in love? Please.
HAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAAHAHAHAAH YOU'RE SO WRONG MATTY! *ahem* Had to say that….
but yes! I updated! I hope you are happy! :3 And yes… I got rid of Carrie THAT FAST… XD
R E V I E W R E P L I E S ! ! !
CrimsonTears57: Happy Birthday ~ horridly late ~ and I hope I cleared up your questions…. :3
AikoRose: Yeah, I know, shooting pretty ladies is very uncool. But Klemens will get his! Because I'm really psyched for whenever I get to beat him up… XD Yeah. Their conversational skills are sub-par…. which I really shouldn't say, considering that line's what makes up most everything I say… xD OH MI GOD VIRTUAL MUFFIN OF AWESOMENESS THANK YOU SO MUCH! :D You made my day.
HimuraRen: THE MENTOS ARE MINE! MUAHAHAHA! But thanks for shooting Cynical with them! She's not making an appearance this chapter…. she's too busy dying by mentos! XD Just don't drool all over your iPod, dearie! XD
Eviltea: I know you're a fangirl….. though I can't remember why I originally put it in there, let's say that we put it in there for you! :D
icysu22: Awesome! Maybe you're secretly Carrie's twin, who is far more awesome than her? :) And yes, for the time being, she's okay… until I go on another OC-torturing spree! :D