"Stop glaring at them," Riah growled, taking Santi's face in her hands and turning him to face her, the human responding by slapping her hands away.
"Do they have to stay out there all the time?," he retorted angrily, pointing at a couple of Upper Family enforcers that were watching them from a few stores over before Riah grabbed his hand and pointed it away. "I don't like it; they're watching us like they own us."
"I don't like it either," she hissed, "but aggravating them won't do us any favors!" Luckily their door chimed as a customer walked in, sparing the two of them from another one of their arguments and forcing Santi to put on his friendliest face as he walked away. Riah sighed; she could just feel the headache coming along. She looked up two see the two asari Upper Family whores smirking at their anger before she threw up two middle fingers, a hand gesture Santi had taught her. Unfortunately the asari didn't understand the insult, but it was the thought that counted.
She turned away from the window and saw Old Erasnirus waddling in on his old cane, frowning at the sight of the old racist cop.
"Old Erasnirus," Santi said, barely stumbling over the alien name after so long on station, "What can we do for you? Is your golem fine?"
"Oh yes!" the old turian grinned, his old decayed teeth bothering Riah, "It's working just fine, broke a humpback's jaw when he tried robbing me! I left the vermin stomper at home to take care of my son's little cadets while he and his woman are attending a social function…" the old turian let out a wheezing laugh, Santi giving Riah a sidelong glance. "Say, my son is interested in buying one of your robots for himself and so is my brother."
"Oh?" Riah cheered up, the prospect of two sales being brought up. "I didn't know you had a brother here."
"I don't, not here. He lives on Tarnas, one of the border worlds as a prospector. These golems of yours could help keep the humpbacks pirates and their vermin off of him and his boys while they work the mines. I'd appreciate it if you could give them the same discount you gave me."
"Sorry," Riah immediate began, cutting off Santi before he could fall for the turian's spiel. "We can't do that."
Old Erasnirus scowled at her, probably as displeased at having to talk to a suitrat. "Why not?" he asked, "There's a freighter convoy coming in in a few weeks, we cans hip it out then."
"The Upper Families won't allow it." Riah said, crossing her arms. "They don't let us sell anywhere off-station. Just like they wouldn't let us sell guns."
The retired C-sec cop pointed his cane at Riah, who stepped back from the offending stick, "You sell gun parts don't you? Can't you just ship all the parts and my brother can assemble it on his end. These robots are all made out of junk parts, the Upper Families won't notice."
"It wouldn't work," Riah said, before sighing and motioning to Santi. "Tell him it wouldn't work."
Like always, the boy was reluctant to say no. Riah motivated him by sending another glare and readying a fist. As always, Santi flinched.
"No, it wouldn't work," the boy began, "Golems require human Anima to animate, and unless some other humans ran off to Tarnas or wherever your brother is and they also happened to know golemancy… well, if that were the case, you wouldn't need me to send them a disassembled golem. Sorry Old Erasnirus, but there's no way for me to sell a golem anywhere not inside this wonderful space station."
Riah nodded along with him, agreeing with Santi if only to disagree with the old turian. She immediately went into her sales pitch, trying to upsell him on one of their most expensive models. Normally Santi would step in and try to put a stop to her so-called "monumental greed", but he seemed to be lost in thought. Riah smiled, credits flashing before her eyes. She haggled with the old C-sec bastard for about half an hour, selling their priciest model by playing to his interests; namely by pointing out how easily this golem could crush a krogan's skull with a single hand, and chop a mob of vorcha in half with a swing of its sword. It was easy to get him to buy after that. After all, Riah didn't really disagree with Old Erasnirus; krogans really were dirty humpbacks living in dirt hovels, vorcha really were disease-ridden vermin too poor and stupid to control their numbers and asari were the galactic dumpsters for all sexual disease. She almost forgot why she hated the old bastard so much, she'd even learned a few novel insults from him in that short half-hour. But then remembered why he'd been let go from C-Sec. She may hate everyone else, but she hated murderers more. Still, she felt better once the sale was over and his credits were transferred into her bank account.
She vaguely wondered what sort of problems they'd get into once people realized their cheapest golems were being sold on a 500% markup.
But that was a problem for future Riah to handle. Future, rich Riah. And being rich solved almost all problems.
She wasn't worried.
What she was worried about was Santi; he'd taken to sulking over by the window, scowling at the two asari who were still keeping them under surveillance. She swiped a button on her omni-tool and temporarily closed the shop, the lights dimming automatically.
"I'm surprised you didn't stop me," she said as she walked over to their backroom and retrieved a few of her favorite sweets, her voice still carrying over to the front of the shop. "I just made us 9,000 credits in profit. Sold Pricey over to the old turian." She said with a little song, She waited a moment before frowning, upset at his lack of response. "Hey human, pay attention to me."
"Uh?" Santi said, looking over to her and noticing the food in her hands. "Breaking your diet again? Anyway, shut up for a moment. I'm thinking."
"Fuck you," Riah snapped back, "I earned these today. And you, thinking? Don't overexert yourself." She began drinking her sweets and waited for Santi's retort. It never came. Riah realized that Santi wasn't as much fun when he was ignoring her. "Ok," she began, "What are you thinking about? It's obviously important since you've been thinking about it for about an hour now. Are you dreaming up a more expensive golem?" she asked hopefully.
"What? No. Fuck the golems, I think I've figured out a way to get us out of here." He turned to her, a triumphant grin on his face. "See, all we have to do is kill ourselves..."
"Yes, suicide is one way to escape from your troubles, but I'm too young and beautiful to die. Your plan is trash."
"No, listen!' Santi began as he led Riah to their couch, "Humans don't die when we're killed, all that happens is that our soul is kicked out of our bodies, then we can either reconstruct a new body or we can jump back into our bodies and fix them. Basically, we become ghosts. Quarians believe in ghosts right?" He didn't wait for Riah to answer, "Well, even if you don't it doesn't matter. The point is that I know how to get us off of this station. We deal with any loose ends here, finish any orders, close up shop, buy any supplies that we'll need to make our getaway and hold us over until we reach some new place. You and your mother then buy a ticket on one of the freighters that are coming by soon okay? You've said that the Upper Families are mainly interested in me right? They won't mind if they see you trying to leave right? So we use that to our advantage. You and your mom get aboard a ship while me and my mom stay here, then right before the ships leave me and my mom kill ourselves, turn into ghosts, and just go straight to the ship to meet you and your mom. Boom! We all escape and these Upper Families wouldn't be able to stop us at all!"
"Except that you'll be dead!" Riah growled, "Look Santi, nothing you've shown me makes me believe that there is an afterlife-"
"I'm not saying that there is an afterlife for quarians," Santi interrupted, "or even that there's an afterlife for humans. I'm just saying that there are human ghosts and that we can come back from the dead."
Riah just stared at him.
"Look, let's get home first and then I'll prove it to you."
Riah found out that her mother had stepped out to visit some friends, which only meant that Santi had gotten it into his fool head to kill himself to prove his idiot plan. He barged into his living unit, Katja cooking some human food over in the kitchen.
"Mom, me and Riah need privacy so don't bother us." Santi announced as he dragged Riah along to his workshop.
"Have fun you two."
"Katja, your son is about to do something stupid!" Riah called out, struggling against Santi's grip.
"Part of growing up dear."
"Fuck." Riah cursed, the workshop door closing behind her.
"Look, listen," Santi began as he began searching through his tools or something. "Here's how I'll prove it. I'm going to slit my throat and kill myself," he barreled on at her horrified look, putting a hand over her mask's speakers to prevent her interruptions, "then you are going to go into your room and do something that I wouldn't know about. Make up a long number, or an odd sentence, or hide something somewhere, I don't know. Just make sure it's something that I have no clue about. As a ghost, I'll follow you into the room and see or hear what you are doing. Then come back here, I'll resurrect myself and tell you what you did. That'll prove I'm right!"
"You are fucking cra-no!" Riah lunged forward as Santi retrieved a screwdriver from one of his tool boxes and drove it into his neck, her hands slapped away by a dome of blood that suddenly sprung up around the suicidal teen. Riah gasped in terror before pounding on the red liquid shield, frantic to get to Santi. She tried to force herself through the shield, bashing against it with her shoulder as she readied a first aid app on her omni-tool. "Santi you damn pervert trash, you stop this right now!" she yelled, terrified as she saw more and more blood gushing out of Santi's neck as he continued to stab himself over and over.
"Stick," he stabbed himself, "to," another stab, his voice a gurgle through the blood choking his throat, "the plan!' he then fell limp to the floor, the dome of blood splashing down around the two of them, covering both of them in blood.
"Keelah! Keelah!'
"Caution!" Riah jumped at her omni-tool's voice, "Pocket Medic v.3.1 is detecting a –HUMAN- in critical condition. Apply pressure to-" Riah didn't bother for instructions, putting her hands up to Santi's neck, blood gushing from between her fingers. She could feel his neck torn and shredded beneath her hands. "Pocket Medic v.3.1 does not contain HUMAN anatomy. Contact medical authorities."
Riah felt Santi go deathly still beneath her hands, and panicked.
"Katja! Katja help!" she screamed out, the short second that it took for the human woman to barge through the door feeling like an eternity for her.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Katja asked as she burst into the room, a pistol in her hand. "I-oh, what's going on here?"
"Santi! He-he-he," Riah doubled over, the contents of her stomach coming up as she dry heaved inside of her visor. "Keelah…" she groaned, Katja putting her arms around her and pulling her to her feet.
"Dear, Riah dear," she wiped some of the blood off of Riah's visor, "I'll take care of Santi, you go and clean yourself up ok? Ok? I can handle this, it'll be alright. Ok?"
Riah nodded dumbly, stood up and walked out of the room where he only friend had just killed himself, blood staining her suit. She walked back to her own living unit in a daze, and headed for her restroom. The blood clung to her suit, and she noted tiny pieces of flesh stuck between her fingers. She raised her hand and plucked out a piece of neck from between her fingers and watched it wash down the drain. Then she threw up.
She was in the process of cleaning out her mask, a tough process that involved flooding her helmet with cleaning fluid and releasing a cleaning valve near her mouth, when the entire room shook, the mirror rattling against the wall.
"Stick to the plan."
Riah yelled and ran screaming into her bedroom, throwing her covers over herself and hiding under them, shivering as something followed her. She could feel it! Someone was there with her! She peeked out from under the covers as everything in her room began to rattle and shake, something tugging at her bedsheets and touching her feet. Her heart yammered in her chest as she felt something looming over her, an oppressive weight on top of the covers that seemed to crush her in. Then it left. Riah shivered in fear underneath her covers for what felt like an eternity, crying. She wished her mother was here.
Her skeleton nearly jumped out of her skin and through her suit when her omni-tool rang, a call from Katja. In Riah's frantic state of mind, she released its' clamps from around her wrist and flung it over her dresser. It kept ringing for several seconds.
"Riah dear," it was Katja's voice that suddenly washed over the room, "Santi's better now he says-what?-here, take it then."
Riah looked over at her dresser, the soft glow of the omn-tool coming out from behind it, her heart in her throat.
"You crybaby," it was Santi! His voice was weak and hoarse, but she knew that voice anywhere! "You threw up, then cried in your bathroom… still hiding under your covers?" She heard him laugh, a choking wheezing laugh that ended in a few grunts of pain before Katja's voice came over the call again.
"Dear, why don't you come over and we can explain?"
"Ok." Riah called out as she scrambled out from under her covers and picked up her omni-tool, relief flooding her voice. "I'll be right there," she replied, already running towards Santi and Katja's living unit. She passed her mother, who was startled to see her dart out of their home, past Katja who was walking out of the workshop with a smile on her face and finally reached Santi, sitting on a couch, pale as can be.
Then she punched him as hard as she could.
"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" she yelled as he slumped over, "Fuck you for scaring me like that you trash! Bosh'tet! Don't you dare do that to me again, or I'll kill you again when you come back!"
Santi rubbed his jaw and spit out a tooth, groaning all the while. "I needed to convince you!" he said before she readied another punch, "Fine! Fine! I'll stop. Fuck, did you have to hit me so hard?"
"Idiot! Bosh'tet!" Riah growled before storming out of the workshop. In the living room she could see her mother peeking her head in and Katja at the kitchen.
"What happened?" her mother asked, Katja waving her in. "Where you picking on Santi again Riah?"
Riah bunched up her hands into fists, her knuckles pulsing in pain after having collided with Santi's jaw. Her whole body tensed up, she wanted to scream. The entire situation with the Upper Families and now this stunt with Santi killing himself and resurrecting himself was too much on her today. Suddenly she relaxed, noticing the grocery bags her mother carried.
"Mom, do you have any of my favorite sweets in there?" she asked innocently.
"Yes,"' her mother was thrown off by the question. "I keep buying them for you, even though I know I shouldn't."
"Good," Riah said, taking the bags from her mother and walking over to her door. "Ask Katja to fill you in. I'm eating my sweets and then going to bed."
"Sorry for scaring you."
She turned to see Santi come out of his workshop, his lip bleeding.
Riah scowled and turned her nose up at him, turning away and heading to her room.
"Bosh'tet trash," she muttered.