Chapter 35

That afternoon there was a knock on the door. He could hear some movement in the house as he waited for his knock to be answered. A few seconds later the locks were undone and the door was opened, revealing a rather surprised Cree Lincoln. "Hoagie? Hey…what are you doing here?" she asked as she scratched her forehead. It had been quite a while since she had last seen the man standing before her.

Smiling nervously, he crossed his arms, then quickly thought against it and pocketed one of his hands instead. "Uh, I was…I was just wondering how you guys were…doing, you know?" he said, raising his eyebrow at the very end of his question.

"Oh, cool. We're good, I guess, all things considered." She stepped back to open the door further. "Please, come in," she said as she gestured to him.

Walking in tentatively, he nodded in gratitude. "Thanks, I can't stay long though– "

"Nonsense," came the voice of Mrs. Lincoln from the kitchen. Stepping out into the corridor she came face to face with her visitor. "You know some people may not take too kindly to being told that their visitor won't be staying long…unless his presence is not appreciated. But that's a different story," she said jokingly as she gave the brown-haired man a warm hug.

Laughing quietly, Hoagie looked down at Abby's mum. "Nah, it's just that my brother's in the car. We're going for Eva's wake, so…I just," he paused and sighed, "I wanted to see you. I know it's kinda weird, I just felt like I gotta see you guys."

"Well, thank you for coming. It's very kind of you." She gestured for the young man to sit as they walked into the living room.

Jamie, who had been sitting with one leg propped on the chair and the other on the ground, stood up to greet Hoagie. "How's it?" he asked, to which Hoagie responded with a smile and a slight nod of the head.

"Go and say hello to Hoagie's brother, okay?" Genviève said as her son made to pass Hoagie. The youngest Lincoln gave her a cheeky salute. "Aye-aye Cap'n," he replied as he headed for the door.

"And please put on a t-shirt or something," came the exasperated plea from Mrs. Lincoln. "You look like a hoodlum."

Immediately, Jamie changed his bearings as he went toward his bedroom, all the while grinning victoriously. "I'm wearing a vest, it's not like I'm naked…" he mumbled.

"And it's not like I need child welfare all up in my…uh…grill, no?"

Stopping dead in his tracks, Jamie turned to his mother with a horror-stricken expression. "Uh-uh, mama, NO! Let's leave the hoodlum lingo to the professionals," he said as he made air-quotation marks with his fingers.

Hoagie couldn't help but laugh at the random antics these people used to make their days less gloomy.

xxx

Down the street from the Lincoln residence the two pubescent boys walked lackadaisically in the chilly temperatures of the afternoon, their hands shoved down their pockets. They kicked at stones before them, and even went out of their way to kick them again.

"I've not seen much of you at school, hey?" Tommy said as he spared a glance at his schoolmate.

Jamie shrugged. "Yeah, well…I'm not much fun right now, you know?"

"Yeah," Tommy said as he nodded empathetically. In an attempt to brighten the mood, or at least change the direction the conversation was headed, he added, "So, are you dating that chic in our algebra class?"

Voice catching in his throat, Jamie tried not to blush as he thought about Gabriella. "N-nope, why?"

"Why? Have you not seen her? She's a hottie. But that's cool, means I can go for gold now," Tommy said with a triumphant laugh as he kicked another stone. However, the expression on Jamie's face made he's celebratory laugh end prematurely. "Kid-ding," he said slowly, emphasis laid on the syllables as he raised his hands in surrender.

Patting Tommy's back, Jamie pointed at him, "You better be."

The duo was now quite a few blocks away from Jamie's house, when said individual made to turn back. "Dude, chill," Tommy said as he began to walk enthusiastically down the adjacent street. "Check out that ride," he added.

Jamie followed the brown haired boy who had already crossed the street to have a closer look. "Damn," is all he could say when they were close enough to appreciate the beauty of the car without trespassing on the owner's property. "We don't see many Mercs like this around."

"Yeah," Tommy replied in awe as he tried to circle the property to get a better view. "I think I've only seen it on the highways like three times or something. Other than that, I've only seen it on TV; movies, Top Gear…"

"Ok, dude, let's head back or you'll be late for the wake."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Tommy replied dismissively.

xxx

Ever since Saturday, that horrible, horrible day that Abby couldn't remember; when Kensei had…had…

She couldn't remember. She had passed out. And Abby was glad for it. But ever since that day, Kensei had been getting high every day without fail. Sure, so it had only been what, three days? She wasn't even sure anymore, having been tied up and kept away from the world for so long. She was just grateful that he hadn't tried to lay a finger on her anymore.

"Abby," he whispered.

Shit. What now? Abby felt she was about this close to losing her mind. She looked down at the man kneeling before her. She did nothing but raise an eyebrow in response.

He brought his hand up to her face, and gently cupped her cheek before tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "You don't look comfortable they way you're seated. That posture won't do your back much good," he said slowly, the alcohol and drugs having begun to take effect.

Abby ignored him, as she continued to sit in her half twisted position, her free arm behind her between her back and the chaise. Her chained arm wrapped around her legs, which were propped up on the couch as she rested her head on her knees. Finally fixing her eyes on him, she tilted her head, appearing deep in thought. Kensei couldn't help but think how cute she looked when she did that.

"Come closer." A command.

"What?" he asked, taken aback.

"I said, come closer," Abby reiterated in a clipped tone.

Kensei inched closer to her ever so slightly then stopped. "Why?"

"If you're gonna make me your wife, I need to be wife-like. Now. Come. Closer."

Still skeptical, he barely moved, so Abby took the initiative. He was close enough to be of her chained arm's reach, and so she extended her arm towards him. She reciprocated his previous action, and cupped his cheek, before gently twirling his curls around her finger, feeling the texture. In a barely audible whisper, she repeated, "Closer."

This time he did as he was told. Abby too inched closer to him, their lips just millimeters apart, then in an instant she swung her free arm with all the might in her body, bringing the empty Jack Daniel's bottle from the previous night to a thumping halt against Kensei's skull, which resulted in the cacophony that was the breaking glass. As he began to fall backwards Abby grabbed him by the collar and shoved the slivered end of the glass in her hand into the side of his neck. Letting him go, he fell to the ground, and she proceeded to fish the keys to her freedom from his trousers pockets.

As fast as she could, she fiddled with the key till it turned in its lock and freed her arm. She got up and jumped over his body and rushed to the door. Luckily the key was in its place and she unlocked the door, while simultaneously working on the other dead bolts. Kensei's groans of pain only served to accelerate her efforts. Turning the last dead bolt she opened the door and ran for her life, paying no heed to any little stones that might have been poking and digging into her bare feet as she fled.

"HELP! HELP!" she screamed at the only two people she could see further down the road. She saw one of the boys look around before turning to look at her. She waved and continued to scream as she ran towards them.

Now the other boy turned too. Shock, surprise, disbelief – all these emotions were jumbled together as he recognized the lady running towards them. "Abby?" he said quietly as he began to jog towards her. Abigail felt relief as she recognized the two boys before her.

"Abby!" Jamie said again, much louder than before as he now broke into a sprint. "Shit," he swore under his breath when he saw someone ran out of a house after his sister.

"RAN!" Abby heard both boys scream in unison. Cold dread washed over her as she instantly knew that Kensei was behind her. She did not want to look back, lest she lost the will to run. Instead she gathered every last ounce of strength within her to propel her towards her brother.

She was now within fifty feet of her brother, but the look on his face made her heart stop. Behind Jamie she could see Tommy raise his hands and clutch his head in fear at the exact same moment that she heard the click of the safety catch of a gun behind her.