Ch 15: Let Me Be
Leroy turned into the parking lot of the motel. He turned off the car and headed out quickly, followed by Gresha energetically launching herself out of the passenger window feet first. Leroy shook his head and closed his own door and headed to the front of his car. He glanced around the area before turning to the green-haired hound in front of him. The dark shadows almost poured across the sidewalk just as much as the street lights illuminated them, with tall unkempt grass blowing in the night wind giving off an eerie placement for Leroy.
"You're sure this is it?" The bartender asked hesitantly.
"I know the Motel Street Motel!" Gresha exclaimed. "It's where I used to stay until they said I couldn't sleep on the roof anymore."
"I see." Leroy trailed. "You sure this is where River and the Problem Three are at?"
Gresha tilted her head. "Is that what they call themselves?"
Leroy scoffed amusingly. "Probably. Wouldn't surprise me one bit. Smells like body fluids and a college dorm out here."
"Oh." Gresha said. "I thought that was the air freshener thingy."
"Right." Leroy said. "But Is this where they are?"
Gresha nodded before placing her hands in her pockets. "I heard the cat guy talking about it. He comes here a lot. Heh. Come."
"He wouldn't have happened to say anything about the room number, would he?" Leroy asked.
"I can't read numbers." Gresha admitted. "But whatever numbers they were, it felt like blue."
"So we're looking for a room that feels like the color blue." Leroy said. "I'm guessing you know what blue feels like."
"You don't?!" Gresha asked, surprised.
"I'm more of a red person." Leroy said.
Gresha accepted his answer and began to smell for anything familiar. Her nose brought her to the stairs leading up to the second floor balcony and followed upwards. Leroy followed quietly as he watched the steps, taking a look around the dark corners for anyone who might be waiting. Two stopped at the top and made their way across the siding before Gresha came to a stop, with Leroy stopping beside her.
"The smells are recent." Gresha said, intrigued. "This means that they were here, or they were and they still might be!"
"Good to know we're not far behind, at least." Leroy said as he looked out into the street. He saw the stripes of sidewalk and asphalt roads stretch off to the side and disappear against the corners, with scarce lighting throughout. He gave a huff to himself and shoved his hands in his pockets. He glanced to his side.
"Maybe this is just all unnecessary." The bartender admitted, sounding unfortunate. "I'm the one who told River to get lost. Maybe I'm the one who's the fool this time."
Gresha frowned as her ears partly dropped. "But we know they're here! Or they were here!"
"We're, not that they are." Leroy reminded the other sinner. "Could be on the other side of the ring building a business for all we know."
"Then we can go find them there!" Gresha persisted, her tone growing louder before returning to a quieter spot. "I didn't want to say goodbye yet, and I'm not going to."
Leroy shook his head. "It's not that simple."
"Why not?" Gresha asked.
"Because it's not, my dear. It never is."
"Then let's make it that simple."
"How?" Leroy asked.
"Well…" Gresha paused. Her ears finally fell, flattened against her head by the full weight of her sadness. She sighed. "I don't want to go home yet."
Leroy shifted. His demeanor took on a more softer tone as he adjusted the brim of his hat. "That why you've been helping me out so much since everything happened?"
"My mom got upset." Gresha said. "She saw what happened, so now she's treating me like I'm a big danger or something."
"I see." Leroy said. "I was under the impression that you and her were pretty close. I'm sorry that's not the case."
Gresha shrugged. "We used to be. Guess why it's why we're down here together. Guess I'm just… doomed to suck."
"Come-on, now." Leroy reassured her. "You're not doomed. No such thing. We all have pieces of ourselves that we've gotta put together, figure out, and even get rid of. It ain't easy, and it never will be, but it has to be done to get better. It's the part everyone is scared of, but it's the most important part."
Gresha paused. For the first time in a long time, she cleared her head and looked out into the same dark horizon with a star-scattered sky with black crimson hues, and cleared her head from all of the commotion of thoughts. No matter how hard she tried, a voice in her head returned in the form of memories. A picture would shift and converge into different experiences that resulted in more anxiety as they went on. Pictures of her life, her fall, her adoption, but most of it was a blur like static on a television with no signal, and most of it was out of her control. However, this was in her control, and now most of her mind was clear and silent by choice.
"Thanks, L." Gresha said. Her teeth curled into the most genuine smile she had given in a long time.
"Anytime." Leroy returned the smile.
A sudden commotion of rustling and odd swearing brought them out of their moment. Turning around, the duo found themselves watching a rather disgruntled Blitz silently watching Styx remember the process of walking up stairs while simultaneously walking up stairs. Gresha gasped, and the imp and his partner turned the the source. Blitz immediately showed a face of hostility, whereas Styx showed complacency for uncomfortable situations.
"Hey, River, Silent O." Leroy greeted the two.
Blitz grunted. "Fucking Christ in a dick-shaped bread box, the fuck is you and your dog doing here?"
"Hey!" Styx shouted. "Leroy, Gresha! How's it going? I'm not very sober right now. Oops."
Leroy laughed, much to the disdain of Blitz. Styx managed to stumble out of the imp's grip and hug Gresha, who happily accepted and lifted her friend. The two shared an embrace before Styx was returned to the ground before they rested against the side of the motel as their weakened mental state began to return, albeit slowly. Blitz rolled his eyes in a sigh and rested his hands on his hips as he eyed Leroy, who returned the stare.
"Come to kick us out a second time?" Blitz asked.
"Quite the opposite, actually." Leroy said. "I'm here to apologize and make sure you're okay. River wasn't answering their phone." The bartender chuckled. "Guess I can see why."
"It's okay." Styx smiled. "I know things get upset a lot and it's perfectly fine! I'm just dramatic."
"Me too!" Gresha said happily. The two shared a high five.
Blitz looked at the two in question before returning to Leroy. "Yeah, well if you see Shitface and his wife, be sure to tell them to go fuck themselves because this was all for nothing."
Leroy raised an eyebrow. "The two musketeers hung you out to dry?"
"More like they put my dick on a stick and told me to suck it." Blitz colorfully presented. "They're working for some snake fuck I can't remember the name of and just didn't tell us they're out on a job."
"That so?" Leroy asked.
"Oh, wait, it just gets fucking worse." Blitz said. "We were trying to do a threesome at a club, right? Styx went to find a room and the guy I picked was the goddamn guard for the place those mercenary fucks went to."
"You were at a club?" Gresha asked.
"And just so happened to be at the same place as these folks to discover all of this information?" Leroy finished.
"Yeah." Blitz said. "Very convenient shit. There were two guards and they said they ran away because of those two. Oh, and there's a new boss in charge. Take a wild ass-fucking guess who that is."
"The bird in our ass." Leroy deadpanned. "I'll be damned."
"You already are." Blitz said. "We were just getting back here to get the fuck out of dodge and maybe jump off a bridge while we're at it."
"I didn't agree to a bridge." Styx blurted out from the corner of the wall. "I just thought we were gonna go."
"Nevermind it." Blitz said harshly as he grew restless against every soul around him. "The bird bitch is still out here and I don't plan on staying around to get pegged by one, so if you wanna follow our tail to learn everything, be my fucking guest but we're getting out of here."
"You can't leave!" Gresha exclaimed sadly. "At least you're still close if you're here! Where are you gonna go?"
Styx shrugged, looking at where Blitz once was. The imp had entered their room, and Styx watched as he began to remove items from the table, some that were from the room itself, and shove them into one of the bags. They were amused, although that was mostly the influence of the fun they sinner was trying to have in the club. It was enjoyable, if only for a moment as their halfhearted grin faded back into a frown. The world seemed to grow smaller and smaller, with the room in front of Styx on the balcony narrowing into a small room for crazy people, and they felt like they were going mad and looking to enter it with a straight jacket. In Styx's current state, everything was moving around like a padded room, and they shook their head to return their vision, however it did very little.
"What about the fella you were working for?" Leroy asked. "He must have some kind of plan for crazy things like this. Let's go there together and figure this out."
"Figure it out?" Blitz blurted as he returned, continuing to stare at Leroy. "How the fuck do you think these kinda jobs work? You get fucked over, you leave, you find the next guy who will deal with you. That's how this bitch of an underworld works. That snake is probably six inches deep in bird shit right now."
"Still not trying to solve your problems, SIlent O?" Leroy asked disdainfully.
"Don't act like you know me." Blitz retaliated. "It's been, what, two weeks? Fuck me, how long has it been?"
"A while in a short time." Styx slurred.
"I don't listen to time anymore." Gresha added. "It's too loud. Like red."
"I thought it was blue?" Leroy asked.
Gresha shook her head. "No, blue is pretty quiet, red is loud."
"What the fuck is the point of your shit?" Blitz asked. "You can smell colors?"
"Most of them." Gresha said happily. "Except for yellow."
Blitz stared in awe, mostly garnered through the exhaustion of the night and the continuous running and gunning of his life as of late. His bewilderment was that of tolerance rather than genuine admiration at the canine's ability. In truth he doubted her the moment she said it, but he digressed with his own thoughts and rubbed between his eyes in frustration as he closed them, leaving a moment of silence before returning to his thoughts. He suddenly looked up with an idea as he looked back at the group around him.
"What color is that bird bitch?" Blitz asked.
"What?" Styx asked.
"She can smell colors, what fucking color is Sivah?" Blitz asked, pushing forward with the tone of his voice as if to hurry a response. "We fought him like three days ago."
"Orange." Gresha said. "I fucking love orange! Except now I don't, but he was orange."
"Is orange like a citrus?" Styx asked. "I love citrus."
Gresha tilted her head. "Citrus?"
"Nevermind it." Leroy waved his hand, returning his stare to the imp in front of him. "Are you trying to tell me that we should go with you and… sniff out the colors? For what?"
Blitz sighed. "If we can know what color he is, and if he's met with those mercenary fucks that left us here, I'm guessing there's gonna be a lot of fucking orange at that snake's hideaway right about now."
"So instead of running away, your plan is to put Gresha in harm's way?" Leroy asked.
"My plan is to either run far enough away so that whatever shit Sivah has planned doesn't catch up and grab my ass, or try and do…" Blitz paused. "Whatever the fuck plan we can come up with in the next five minutes. You already said I should go figure it out. Who's side are you on?"
"You've said Sivah's name a bunch of times in a few minutes." Styx said slowly with a lack of energy. "You must be serious."
"You already said something like that at the club." Blitz said.
"I can repeat words!" Styx exclaimed.
"I'll do it." Gresha said suddenly, causing the group around her to turn their heads. "We need to get this guy."
"I'd hate to be a hypocrite to myself." Leroy added. "However it isn't a bad time to think about running if the only solution is to put you in danger again.".
Gresha shook her head. "No, we need to try and stop him now. I'm tired of everyone trying to make us do all of their own shit! We could get the jump on him! Comeon, Leroy, don't you wanna stop this bird ass bitch?"
Leroy paused, however only for a moment. "I would, but not at the expense of us."
"We can do sneaky stuff!" Styx exclaimed. "I can sneak, I think. Blitz can sneak. We can all sneak in there and kick his ass!"
"Assuming all of this is correct." Leroy said.
"You're doubting me, dick face?" Blitz raised his voice, retorting in irritation as he leaned into Leroy's personal space.
"Not at all." Leroy started. "I'm just not a fan of unclear plans. Most ideas this big have a lot of thought put into them."
"Not all of them." Blitz said as his voice began to lower and he took a step back from the bartender, turning to Gresha. "But I've got a pretty big fucking dick that's looking for some revenge for the bitch that kidnapped me, and we already gotta get the fuck outta here, so fuck it. Why not?"
Gresha smiled. She threw her fist in the air in celebration. Styx appeared to agree, however appeared hesitant at the sudden enthusiasm, albeit in the best expression they could muster with their heightened state that was starting to fade. They were worried for Gresha, but wanted Sivah gone as much as everyone else. They looked around at the group and had a moment of reflection. Less than an hour ago, them and Blitz were in a confusing state of self indulgence, ignoring the big problems that life had thrown at the little sinner and imp who were just trying to get to know each other in a world that disallowed that, or at least appeared to. Still, however, they smiled, looking at Blitz, who was grinning ear to ear with a toothy smile, a far change from him trying to run away just moments ago. They were curious.
"Hey, Blitz." Styx said. "Why'd you change from running?"
"The what?" Blitz asked calmly, turning to Styx.
"You know." Styx softly elbowed the imp. "Wanting to leave and stuff. What changed?"
"Good question." Leroy said. "I'm still not entirely on board myself."
Blitz gave the question a moment and considered a genuine answer. He looked down, although his perspective was more inside his mind than it was gazing at the ground in front of him. "Guess I'm just fucking tired of running."
"That so?" Leroy asked.
"That your fucking catchphrase?" Blitz retorted. "Yeah, I tried running away when we first fought the bitch. I went with those two dicks that left us here because I was scared. That what you fucking want to hear? I was afraid, dick nips. I didn't want to get involved then and I don't want to get involved now."
Leroy stared. He crossed his arms and gave a sigh. "Blitz, I wholeheartedly disagree with everything going on, but I admire your resilience. If you wanna go after this bird fellow again, I'll go along with Gresha."
"Good enough." Blitz said.
"On one condition." Leroy added. "If things get all messy, we go. No grand display or show of horns. We all leave."
Blitz groaned. "Fine. If I gotta die getting rid of this bitch myself, consider it done."
"Great." Leroy smiled, outstretching a hand that Blitz hesitantly shook. "I'll get us a few weapons."
"Yeah, you do that." Blitz said as Leroy returned down the stairs and to his car. The imp smiled and rested his hand against his hips in a prideful stance, which was followed by an awkward silence that reminded him why they were all there in the first place: Dysfunction. Blitz's smile faded at the realization that the situation only existed, in his mind, because he wanted to have fun underneath a bridge with someone that he hardly knew at the time. He looked to Gresha, who gave him a thumbs up. He nodded, but Styx gave a thumbs up back before the sinner suddenly fell into contemplation. Blitz noticed.
"Something wrong?" Blitz asked sincerely.
"Am I gonna be ok?" Styx asked.
Blitz did not know what to say, but took a hold of the sinner's hand in an attempt at comforting them. "Yeah, why the fuck wouldn't you be? I've taught you enough to handle yourself. I'm sure you know shit, too."
"I mean the weed, Blitz." Styx said.
"Oh, right." Blitz said. "That should be wearing off before long. These cheap clubs have strong shit that hardly ever lasts an hour or two. How are you feeling now?"
"Somewhere between yellow and magenta." Styx said.
"Oh, yeah." Gresha added before beginning down the stairs. "That's where I'm usually at."
Blitz sighed. "Maybe this will finally make me feel aquamarine."
Gresha had already descended her way down towards Leroy, but she smiled, now finally feeling contempt with her choices regarding her life being in her own hands now.