At first he saw nothing, even if his eyes were open. Just a grey veil that moved softly in front of his eyes. He felt comforted seeing that and a cozy feeling surrounded him. It felt like he was back in the womb. No problems and no worries bothered him. He felt free. Was that maybe heaven? But that would have meant that he has died and he couldn´t remember that. But it could have happened.
Now that he thought about it he realized that there were a few hours missing in his memory. Right after he brought Ryan to jump out of the window… Nothing. Empty. Blackout. It was really possible that he died in these hours and was now in some kind of afterlife Nirvana thing.
He should maybe check if he´s dead. With his hand her ran over his face and could feel the old scars which were left from the emergency face transplantation in Moscow. They felt pretty real. But why he could see just this veil? He pressed the lids of his eyes down and opened them then again.
The veil was a bit lighter now. Its color had changed from dark grey to a dirty white. Again he closed his eyes and opened them again. Slowly a picture became clearer. A face. A last time he blinked then he could see it clearly. Parva. The young cat´s face was just a few centimeter away from his face and grinned evilly at him. "Good morning sleepyhead."
As he heard her clear high voice Scratch felt suddenly the total opposite of what he felt as he saw the veil. His whole body ached like he just got tortured.
"Oh my god… that´s definitely not heaven." He moaned. Drowsily he looked down at himself and realized something peculiar. "Uhm… Parva?" he asked confused by his discovery. "Why am I wearing this dress?"
"That´s a good question. But not the only good question you should ask Scratch." Parva pointed, still with that grin on her face, beside him. As he tilted his head slowly to the side he saw, by the shocking sight that offered to him, that Parva was right. Not only that he was chained with handcuffs to a bed, what he haven´t realized yet neither the chaining nor the lying on the bed, and wearing a dress, he also wasn´t alone.
The other victim of the cocaine fog lay right next to him. Kitty wore nothing except her underwear and a big topper that always slipped over her eyes. By the look on her face she was also trying to make sense of that, at least that´s how Scratch interpreted her perplex staring. In the same slow way Scratch moved his head back to Parva.
"Am I on some kind of trip?" he asked slowly.
"Nope..." meant Parva and took out a wire cutter which she put on the chain of the handcuffs. "But you have been."
"I have no idea what happened yesterday…" he mumbled while Parva cut through the chain.
"Me neither…" breathed Kitty like someone who just gained consciousness.
"Luckily, I have." Meant Parva putting away the cutter. "Crazy story…"
"What are you waiting for? Tell it!"
"How about giving her a bit time to get fully back on track?" Parva looked smiling at Kitty in whose head still everything was turning.
"No I´m okay" she meant with a face contorted in pain while pressing her hands against the sides of her head.
"Okay… then let´s see… oh yes!" the young girl exclaimed. "I was waiting in the van for you two as both of you suddenly stormed out of the mansion. But instead of going back and get into the van you two ran down the street like you were crazy or something. I started of course immediately the engine and followed you but, even though your lead was short, I somehow lost you. The next hour I spent driving up and down the road trying to find you. And I actually found you then… sitting together with a few homeless guys in some kind of hang out circle. It reminded really a bit of those circles you see in collage movies. Without the homeless it would have been perfect…"
"Get back to the main story, please." Ordered Kitty.
"Yeah, okay. Well, I get out of the car and stepped closer to you just to hear a dialogue I still can´t make sense of… I remember that Scratch said something like: 'Bloody! The bricks are blood covered, really I saw it. An Indic work had them on his head and carried them. And this worker, and that´s really a thing guys, is a dancer. He dances ballet. Waiting for his breakthrough. But he didn´t know that no normal person is watching ballet anymore, they all go in the arena and watch the gladiators because they hunt the pig.' Strange was that everybody nodded to that… you know, like it would make sense. And then you." Parva turned her head to Kitty and addressed her directly. "You said something like 'You are right, Dud, you are right. And I think it´s totally irresponsible that these gladiator kids are allowed to have such sharp weapons. In my opinion they should put corks at the points of the weapons. But who should drink all the wine.' Then both of you and the homeless guys agreed that they would like some wine."
"Uhm… well… that is kind of…"
"That wasn´t the whole story yet." Intervened Parva before Scratch could say anything more. "As you realized, after a few more more confusing words, that I was there you ran to the van and drove away. Without me! For me that meant an hour of walking around searching… this time I found you in a karaoke bar where you two sang a duet… To make that short, I neither knew that there was a swing version of 'Chop Suey' nor that it´s possible to sing it as a duet. But to be honest, you two did that very well. So well that the owner of the bar gave you his topper."
Kitty seemed now to realize that she wore a hat. A bit confused she took it off and looked it at with the desperate wish to remember.
"Yeah, that hat." Laughed Parva. "And still it´s not over. Because right after receiving the hat, you ran away again. And again you two stole the van. But this time it was easier to find you two… I just had to follow the lighted sky for a while…"
"I have a bad premonition…" meant Scratch knowing what Parva would say next.
"Yes." She meant like she was kind of enjoying that. "You lighted up the vehicle and danced around the flames. But still we´re not at the end. Again you two ran away in the moment you saw me. One last time I followed you and, believe me, if that happened again I would have said 'Fuck it, I go back to the hideout.' Anyway, you two ran to this apartment building and walked very determined to this apartment."
"Where are we anyway?" asked Kitty.
"You tell me! I just know that you opened the door with a key."
Kitty now sat straight up in the bed and eyed the room closely. Maybe she just hadn´t realized it because her brain was still messed up from the drugs but now she could see it plainly now.
She was in her own apartment. In her own bed. Together with Scratch. And the last thing made her ask immediately. "What happened then?"
"Well… you two rushed into the bedroom and Scratch hung his tie at the doorknob… And then I didn´t want to interrupt. I mean I know what that means."
"No no no…" Thunderstruck Kitty jumped out of the bed. "You kidding me, you kidding me!"
"Kitty, calm down." Scratch also got out of the bed and walked to her.
"Don´t tell me to calm down! I knew it was a bad idea, I knew it!"
"Kitty Kitty…"
"No no no" the tall cat started pacing up and down in the room, on the threshold to a panic attack.
"Well, I think my work is done here." Laughed Parva. "I got to go now, I have an important… appointment."
"What?" Scratch hissed shocked to her. "You want to leave me? Alone? With her in that state?"
"Oh come on please. You are Scratch! A legend! You did things others not even dreamt of. I think you will handle a hysterical woman."
"DO YOU TWO THINK I CAN`T HERE YOU?!" screamed Kitty and stopped pacing.
"I´m out." Parva took a last look at the two knowing that she would be far away when this powder keg would explode. Sure, Scratch, the poor bastard, was alone with Katswell now and he had definitely needed her help but Parva was already too late.
And besides that it was kind of fun to behave like Scratch would do it, antisocial and reckless but with a smile on the face. As she closed the door of the apartment Parva could clearly hear Kitty scream "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WITH 'DON´T BE LIKE THAT'?!"
Parva grinned again. And this grinned stayed until she was outside on the sidewalk. She maybe wouldn´t admit it but she was slowly developing some strange kind of sympathy for Katswell. Especially because Scratch was kowtowing to her so much. It seemed that it was also sometimes a bit uncomfortable for him when she gets angry.
And a kowtowing and uncomfortably feeling Scratch was just so grotesque for Parva that she could just either be afraid of it or amused. It was up to Parva, so she chose amused. She would have stayed and watched them arguing but her appointment was too important. Well, it was more a date.
A honeypot date. Rick was waiting for her in a little café nearby and the closer she came to it the more her hands started to tremble. Tremble, in pure fear. She was able to suppress it all the time but now that it became real what she pictured in her mind over the last days it was hard to suppress the fear.
Parva saw Rick already from the distance. He was sitting outside and drank a cup of coffee while reading a book. He was maybe already waiting a while but that was normal, Parva was always a bit late. As she came closer he laid the book aside and waved towards her.
"Hey Sophia! I´m here!" he called and meant her with that. Sophia… that cover name was her own idea. She wanted something unsuspicious, and Sophia was so often used that nobody would remember this name. And then, to make the bluff perfect she had combined this collective term with another one. In the end her name was Sophia Miller.
Just for fun Parva looked up the name on the internet. About 2,000 Sophia Millers lived in and in the area around Petropolis. If she disappears, what was the plan when Scratch was finally done, Rick would be preoccupied for a while searching through the mass of Millers until he finds out that this particular Sophia Miller had never existed.
But plans change. With her heart pounding madly she sat on the little glass table on which Rick sat.
"Hey cutie, how are you?" whispered Rick head over heels in love.
"Not well…"
"What´s wrong?" Rick grabbed her hands which lay trembling on the table gently with his hands. Immediately this warm shower ran down Parva´s spine.
Something she normally enjoyed but this time it just brought her away from the decision she made. She closed her eyes and tried to command her body not to feel what she felt. An impossible undertaking.
"I just… had a rough time that´s all." It came out of her mouth. But that weren´t even partially the words she wanted to say.
"Tell me…" he said softly and looked at her with his big eyes. These big wonderful eyes. The part of Parva who wanted to fulfill the mission cursed them. But the rest of her lost itself in those eyes.
"My boss is giving me a hard time…" she mumbled staring hypnotized at his eyes.
"What is he doing exactly?"
"He… he…" the longer she looked into those eyes the more Parva saw of Rick. You could say that she somehow looked into his soul.
The poets were right, the eyes were really the window to our soul. She could see deep into Rick and what she saw there, more what she felt was amazing. He already sat that to her but Parva never had the certainty that he really meant that, that he really felt like that. He loved her. The pure affection filled her, surrounded her with some kind of warm, cozy feeling.
Like someone had giving her a blanket made out of pure luck. He really loved her and she realized again that she loved him too. The moment Scratch said she should avoid came. And with this moment the shock. She has fallen in love! The blanket made from luck was finally ripped away from her and the rational part of her pushed her to the ground. Now the fears came to the surface.
You are a thieve and he´s a T.U.F.F. agent, that´ll never work
Are you really want to build up a relationship on a lie?
He will dump you if he finds out who you are… maybe also arrest you.
What should she do in that moment? Leave Rick? Of course that would be an option but that would break his heart… and hers too. No, he deserved something better. And that was nothing more than the truth. The plain truth.
Parva began to blink like waking up from a bad dream and shook her head. "No" she said and got her hands loose from his grip. "No, that´s not true… nothing is true."
"W… What do you mean." Stammered Rick bewildered.
"This all, this is not true… I am not true."
"Uhm… I see you in front of me." Ricke laughed insecurely. "For me you are very true."
"Not that… Rick… I am not the person I pretend to be." Parva sighed and let her gaze sank down to the table. "My name is not Sophia Miller."
"What do you talking about? Is that some kind of joke?" Rick grinned confused like someone who doesn´t understand a jokes punchline.
"No, listen to me." She begged. "My actual name is Marry Stevens… but you maybe know me as…" Parva took a deep breath and then looked directly in Rick´s eyes. "Parva."
Rick´s smile suddenly froze. And Parva could see how all information about her flashed in front of his eyes. "You…" he whispered as his first shock wore off. "You… are Parva…"
"Yes." She sighed.
"The Parva that is a team member of Scratch…" murmured Rick pensively. "The Parva that helps this psychopath!"
"Right."
"I understand." He said and really understood it. Everything. Why Parva wrote him a message on the online dating portal, why she was always around him and asked him so much.
He thought that she liked him maybe even loved him, like he does. But no, she just wanted the information he had. He was the victim of a simple honeypot.
"So you betrayed me all the time huh?" he asked.
"Yes, but please understand…"
"What should I understand?" hissed Rick and stood up. "That you just spend time with me because you had to? That you have been just so kind and friendly because this disgusting psychopath dictated it? Oh god… how blind was I?"
"Rick, please…"
"Shut up, just shut up." He shouted and that so loud that everyone around them turned towards them. "You know that I could arrest you now?" he added threateningly.
"Rick I… I…" Parva couldn´t form a complete sentence anymore. Everything she feared of happened. And for Rick her stuttering was pure provocation.
"Now I finally understand why you never replied when you said I love you… and I thought that I just overwhelmed you." Rick turned around and started walking away.
"Rick!" Parva screamed after him as tears run down here cheek.
A last time Rick stopped but without turning around. "What?" he roared over his shoulder.
"I love you."
Rick sighed, he turned deigned a disgusted look on her and said. "Go to hell." Then he turned around again and walked away leaving Parva crying back on the table.