So I didn't make my posting yesterday. I am on vacation and my family abducted me. They stole me from my writing frenzy and forced me to be social. Actually, it wasn't really bad at all, though it was hard to be present and keep my mind with them and not in the story.
Here's the next chapter for you today though.
Days Without Sun
Chapter Thirty-Four: Contact
Aikawa was at a complete loss, stunned speechless by this turn of events.
Akihiko moved around her unsteadily though the gun in his hand never wavered.
Stepping over to his previously discarded pants, Akihiko bent over carefully and retrieved them. He drew them on awkwardly with his free hand after moving back over to one of the walls to brace himself.
"I'm sorry, Aikawa-san."
Aikawa blinked a few times. She was still trying desperately to wrap her mind around all that had happened.
She stared hard at Akihiko, this man she'd worked with for years and had considered a friend. She was not truly afraid that Usami would shoot her, despite the fact she'd just seen him do a number of things she would have never dreamed possible.
Rather than fear, what Aikawa felt most was sorrow and a simmering anger.
"Akihiko, what are you doing?" Her voice was quiet, but calm. She used Usami's first name for the second time since their reunion in Korovin's lair: she figured having a gun drawn on her gave her the right to be personal.
"Please, Aikawa-san… I need you to understand…" Akihiko ran long fingers through his sweat-soaked bangs. "I can't… I can't leave him… However he is…"
As long as she'd known him, Usami Akihiko was a man, who, while publicly composed, lived a private life governed by his passions. She knew how much Misaki meant to Akihiko and also without a doubt that he would not be dissuaded.
She sighed heavily and glanced over at Augusto.
The detective was lying much stiller now, though his breath was still labored and his body trembled intermittently with Tasered aftershocks.
Her heart broke for this good man who had been trying to serve them. She looked over at Jadir.
And all Korovin's victims…
"Santo Justino will be out for a bit… there shouldn't be any lasting physical effects."
Aikawa turned back towards Akihiko. Though he still looked awful, he seemed more composed. His rasping voice was far from its usual sensual drawl, but even with its clipped cadence, it too sounded stronger.
Another deep sigh escaped Aikawa. She bowed her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. She felt a quiet fury well in her chest at the thought of all she'd sacrificed in her personal life to nurture the fictional lives of others… and the real people around her.
And now this…
Aikawa felt certain Augusto would be unlikely to forgive her for aiding Usami after Akihiko's treacherous action here. She shook her head.
"What would you have me do, Sensei?"
Akihiko looked momentarily stunned by Aikawa's acquiescence, but he did not allow himself to linger in question.
"Trust me… Please, Eri…"
"Aikawa-san," Aikawa corrected letting Akihiko know she wanted no intimacy in this betrayal of Augusto. "Make no mistake… I am not happy with you, Sensei."
Akihiko nodded solemnly. "I understand."
Like hell you do.
"So?" Now that she had reached a decision, Aikawa did not want to draw things out.
"Korovin is dead… or he will be shortly. He's no danger now." Even as he said this, however, Akihiko's eyes were inextricably pulled to the man's stilled form. "Santo Justino will be safe here… until he recovers."
Aikawa's brow creased at these assertions.
"Please, Aikawa-san… Take Jadir… Get him out of here if you can. He saved my life… We… You… must try and save his."
"How?"
Akihiko rubbed his throbbing temples.
"Carry him… You said you could … You found the Taser… My bag…" Every word was taking more of his energy than Akihiko wanted to expend.
"There's a phone there… the first number… As soon as you're outside, call it. They're waiting… a medical unit. I had them on standby for… Misaki. They'll take you and Jadir somewhere safe… The others too."
Aikawa was amazed at the scenario Akihiko had authored, the impossible hope of it. She was caught off guard, however, at the mention of others.
"Others…?"
Akihiko ignored the question. "They can be here in five minutes… Out on the lawn." He saw the look on Aikawa's face informing him the woman thought he was crazy… well, crazier. He was, but not in this instance.
"Helicopter… I am an Usami, after all."
The barest hint of a smile curved the corner of Akihiko's mouth when Aikawa's jaw dropped at his "arrangements." He pushed off from the wall and stepped forward, his walk slightly drunken, moving the direction that Korovin had emerged from.
He stopped and then waited for Aikawa to rise. He motioned with the gun and nodded in approval as she took the hint and clambered up. She began moving towards Jadir, but then stopped.
"What about the dogs? Makes the lawn problematic."
Akihiko frowned. "Take my gun; it's there on your boyfriend… Somewhere."
Aikawa turned and moved over to Santo Justino. He was still out. She struggled to roll him over after a quick pat down and at last found the gun tucked into the back waistband of his trousers. She tucked this cautiously into the band of her skirt.
Then she resettled the detective back into a more comfortable position. She ran a soft hand over Augusto's brow.
"Ex-boyfriend, no doubt now. No thanks to you!" Aikawa had meant this to add a bit of black humor to an already dark moment. She was shocked, however, at how much the possible truth of it pained her.
She turned to see how her joke had been received by Usami, but he was gone. Santo Justino's gun lay on the polished stone where he had been standing just a moment before.
Aikawa felt the urge to suddenly chase after him, but a quiet whimper from Jadir stopped her. She moved quickly to Jadir's side.
The boy was curled in on himself, holding his abdomen. Aikawa lifted the jacket and saw that the black fabric strips she'd bound his stomach with soaked through.
"Jadir…"
Jadir didn't respond, though his eyelids fluttered at the sound of his name.
Aikawa was hit with a sudden dread. She bent down and scooped Jadir into her arms. She was amazed at how light he was.
With one last regretful glance back at Santo Justino, Aikawa turned and started down the hall in the direction she'd first come. Her eyes were already anticipating the pale crosses that would guide her and Jadir hopefully to safety.
Misaki was struggling back to consciousness when he heard a distant scream. His head shot up and he was filled with fear for Usagi-san. Fueled by this, he forced himself up and began to crawl forward again. His belly slid along the polished stone corridor.
After a moment, Misaki stopped to roll onto his side and tucked his cock and balls up between his thighs. As humiliating as such an action felt, it certainly beat the burn he was already feeling from his bare skin grazing the cement.
He wished he'd thought to take a bit of sheet or something to put between himself and the floor now. Flipping back onto his stomach his still-terrified mind was spurred to a memory by this.
Misaki had learned from his time with Korovin that his thoughts would go to the most unexpected places at the direst of times. He'd stopped wondering about such strange intrusions months ago and usually ignored these mental hiccups as best he could.
But not now.
His remembrance was of when he'd once scooted across the glossy wood floor on his back on the landing in Usagi-san's flat and told Usagi he was doing this to polish it.
I want that back…
I want to have times like that again… wonderful, awkward, embarrassing times with Usagi-san. I want to have a life with him…
Misaki's heart stopped for a moment when new sounds of pain carried down the halls to him. He knew where Usagi and Korovin had collided, and this point was still quite a ways. Even farther at the rate he was going.
Please don't let him be hurting Usagi-san. Please…
His thin body was slick now with sweat from his exertion and his flesh stung where the salt of this wept into his abraded skin. Misaki drug himself along faster despite this, oblivious to the tears of pain and fear that were rolling down his cheeks.
He stopped, however, frozen, when the next anguished cry ricocheted off the dims walls of Korovin's maze.
"MISAKI!"
There was no doubt that the voice belonged to Usagi-san but Misaki had never heard the man sound like that before.
He was glad of this: the anguish in Usagi-san's voice was so immense, Misaki suddenly felt as though he was suffocating beneath the weight of it.
A tremor shook him and Misaki found he could not make his body stop trembling.
I am too late.
There was no doubt in his mind that his Usagi-san was dying. Only a terrible death would ever wring such a baleful cry from a man like Usami Akihiko .
Misaki tried to swallow the sobs that gathered like a storm in his chest. He rolled over onto his side and curled into himself, his body quaking with shock and his stifled cries.
Usagi-san called for me. It was my name…
He came for me and Korovin killed him.
Within Misaki's battered mind he suddenly heard Korovin's jeering voice.
No Misaki, he came for you. And in this you killed him…
Misaki put his hands to his ears as if this would protect him from the cruel taunts ringing inside his own skull.
Now Korovin would come for him, but with Usagi-san dead Misaki didn't care anymore. A harsh gasp shuddered his already shaking frame.
He curled himself tighter and wept.
Aikawa moved through the hallways as quickly as she could, carrying Jadir.
Once or twice he shifted slightly in her arms and moaned softly, but other than this, he lay still.
Following the crosses, at each one Aikawa found her thoughts drawn to Augusto. She muttered quiet curses and whispered soft prayers for both the detective and Usami.
When she at last reached Akihiko's abandoned duffel she set Jadir gently on the ground. Aikawa stretched her stiff arms. Even as light as he was, she didn't think that she could have carried him much further without a break.
She dug through the bag and located the phone. She tucked this into the top of her bra and after readjusting the gun at her waist bent to gather Jadir up again.
Before she gathered him up again, however, she opened the jacket the boy was ensconced to check on his wound.
The dark fabric made it almost impossible to tell how much blood Jadir had lost. Aikawa shivered involuntarily as her eyes swept over the teen's ruined body.
So much suffering.
Aikawa reached out and gently touched Jadir's cheek.
Jadir made a noise in his throat and Aikawa saw that his eyes were halfway open, his gaze cloudy. She leaned in seeing that Jadir was trying to say something.
Aikawa was torn from trying to decipher his words as her ears now also caught the sounds of movement coming from the hallway ahead of her. She jumped up, stepped to the side of Jadir, and pressed herself close to the wall. Drawing the gun from her waistband with a shaky hand, she pulled it out and aimed it at the empty space ahead of her.
I have never even shot a gun before.
Her grip on the gun tightened as the sound of heavy feet rapidly drew nearer.
Akihiko stumbled down the mazed hallways. He tried not to imagine what it was that Korovin had injected him with or how much farther he could go before he succumbed to it and collapsed.
His pale brow shone with fevered sweat and his newly-donned trousers clung to his wet skin. He could never recall aching so badly: every step was painful.
A new wave of dizziness gripped him and Akihiko lurched sideways. He put out his hands and steadied himself against the wall to keep from toppling over.
Jadir had given him some basic directions as they'd traveled on the location of Korovin's playroom. Akihiko struggled against the pain in his skull to remember the details the boy had given.
His lungs hurt and he wondered if breathing was truly becoming harder or if it was his fear of not being able to breathe that was really constricting his chest.
I'm so close… I can't stop now.
He closed his eyes and drew as deep a breath as his taxed lungs would allow. He exhaled this slowly. After a few more measured breaths his dizziness abated enough for him to recall Jadir's directions.
He pushed himself away from the wall and shambled forward.
Akihiko moved slowly, his steps unsteady.
His mind was drawn to a montage of moments of Misaki zombie jokes about his morning manners. It was true; he often woke after a long stint of writing in a rather deathly state.
Now he really did feel more dead than alive, however.
Akihiko's vision was suddenly blurred: not a consequence of the injection, but of his memories.
He amended his earlier thought.
Dead men don't suffer.
Rounding a corner, Akihiko blinked rapidly. He brought a bloodied hand to his eyes and wiped away his tears.
Before him, lying in the middle of the hallway was a thin, battered body.
Another one of that animal's victims…
Then as Akihiko's gaze swept over the prone form ahead of him again, his troubled eyes took in the details… the close-cropped brown hair, the twin casts… His mind reeled at the impossibility as these elements snapped into his last image of his beloved.
Then the figure stirred and struggled up onto quaking arms.
The dark head lifted and Akihiko found himself staring into a pair of wild, green eyes. Akihiko felt his heart seize.
He took two more steps forward before his knees gave way and his legs dropped out from beneath him.
Aikawa lost her breath and the gun fell from her trembling fingers when the hall before her was suddenly filled with half a dozen armored men wielding significantly more firepower than she. She suddenly felt faint and was glad the wall was behind her or she'd surely have crashed to the floor.
The men looked just as stunned as she felt.
The lead man raised his hand and behind him the fearsome weapons suddenly lowered.
"Miss Aikawa?"
Alvarez stepped forward and reached out to support her.
"Oh, Kami-sama… Mr. Alvarez…"
Alvarez was concerned with the editor's disheveled state, but he was ecstatic to find her alive and mobile.
He'd had the men staking out Akihiko's flat contacted the minute Santo Justino had called and told him he was headed after Usami. The two men stationed at the condo had left immediately and were soon not far behind the detective.
When S. J. slipped through Korovin's gates and made his crazy plans clear, Alvarez had the tail men stop and detain the vehicle that had left the estate. It had not taken Santo Justino's men much persuasion to get the gate code from Vasca.
When Alvarez learned that the international team was still hours away from being properly mobilized, he called his own troops together. Despite the warnings from the global assault team, they had all agreed to go rogue and back up their director.
They'd assembled with haste and in the meantime, the two men in possession of the gate's code, and a small arsenal, mobilized their own additional "distraction."
When Alvarez and his troops arrived, the gate was jammed open; Santo Justino's car was a smoldering heap in the drive, and there were almost a dozen of Korovin's guards lying dead or wounded.
The rest of the Doc's staff had surrendered relatively easily, with the exception of the hounds. A number of furry carcasses now littered the estate's normally pristine grounds.
"Miss Aikawa, are you hurt? Where's S.J?"
It took Aikawa a few moments to process this rapid shift in her circumstances. "I'm fine. But… She stepped back from Alvarez and looked down at Jadir.
Alvarez followed he eyes.
"Holy fuck…" he breathed when he saw Jadir. "Herrera, Moreno, get up here! You guys have EMT training, right?"
Two men stepped up from the back of the squad.
"Yeah, but we don't have our gear." Herrera was kneeling down at Jadir's side, even as he spoke.
"Usami-sensei has a medical team waiting, I just have to call. They have a helicopter…"
"Sensei's looking for Misaki." Aikawa couldn't bring herself to say that Misaki was dead.
"Augusto is with Korovin… Korovin is wounded, maybe dead. Follow the crosses and you'll find them." Aikawa motioned to Santo Justino's marks on the wall. She omitted the details of Augusto's own condition, hoping for the sake of face that he'd be on his feet by the time Alvarez and the other men found him.
Though his brow had risen at the mention of the helicopter, Alvarez took in all this information with little other display of emotion. There was a reason Santo Justino had made him his second.
"Have you seen any guards, any other personnel down here, Miss Aikawa?"
Alvarez's guarded eyes widened when Jadir suddenly began wailing.
The boy had roused enough to become aware of the men surrounding him and the strange hands upon him. He was terrified, despite Herrera and Moreno's attempts to calm him.
Aikawa quickly dropped down and reached for Jadir. The boy latched onto her with his good arm and clung to her, sobbing, as she tried to soothe him.
She shook her head. "No, I haven't seen anyone else, but Sensei said there were others."
Alvarez suppressed a shudder at the thought of finding more boys in Jadir's condition. He had been appalled by the youth's appearance, though outside his initial exclamation he'd done his best not to show it.
"Moreno, you help Miss Aikawa get out. And get that chopper here pronto! Diaz radio the guys outside and let them know what's going on. Herrera you drop back in with us in case we need you for Korovin, or the others…"
"Moreno, as soon as you get Miss Aikawa and her friend squared away, you get your tail back here immediately! Keep your radio on so you know what's what. Got it?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Let's move then!"
The sound of Jadir's weakening cries was quickly drowned out by the murmurs and shuffling of the men as they re-mobilized. A moment later Santo Justino's posse was gone and Aikawa found herself alone in the hall with Jadir and Moreno.
Moreno helped Aikawa to rise. It was cumbersome as Jadir had buried his face in her neck and was holding on with a surprisingly iron-like grip.
"Can you manage him, Miss Aikawa?" Moreno felt badly that the petite woman beside him should bear the burden of the boy, but at the same time he could tell the youth was in a severe state and he didn't want to tax the traumatized teen further by forcing him away from someone he obviously took comfort in.
Aikawa nodded her head solemnly after shifting Jadir in her arms just a bit. She felt like she could carry Jadir for miles now, as long as she could escape this pit.
Moreno nodded back and pulled out his gun again: just because the woman said she hadn't seen any more bad guys didn't mean he should be lax.
He gave Aikawa a grim smile. "Let's get you two out of here!"
Misaki had stopped his silent weeping when he heard the footsteps approaching.
They didn't sound like Korovin's.
After months of being held by the Doc, he had memorized every nuance of the man's motions.
Or if it is Korovin, Misaki suddenly thought, something's wrong with him.
A sudden warmth filled Misaki's aching chest at the notion perhaps Usagi-san had at least managed to wound the man before he died. At the same time however, in the back of his mind, though he didn't want to admit it, was also the idea that Korovin was somehow invincible.
Misaki had no doubt that whatever had happened, Usagi-san would have been brave to the end. Knowing that Usagi would be waiting for him now on the other side filled Misaki with a new kind of courage.
He would not meet his fate curled up like a dog.
Misaki summoned the last of himself and unfurled. He pushed himself up on his trembling arms and lifted his head to meet his captor's gaze.
His eyes grew huge when he saw the man stumbling towards him.
You are going to think me a cruel as Korovin, drawing this out... But I want things to be properly wrapped up, which leads to more words than I most always originally think I'll need.
At least you know your two lovers have seen each other now. Next chapter will start with their reunion... I just want to get it right.
So I am traveling today and tomorrow and have to be back at work on Friday. So the next installment will be this weekend.
While you're waiting, please drop me a review. Even if it's to rail at me for my treacherous posting habits... But seriously, your response to the last chapters has been amazing and I am immensely warmed by all the feedback.
MiniBlueSkirt, thank you for letting me know that you're still out there.
Still planning to add post-post AN's to thank all the rest of you!