Mania and the Executioner (8 page)

“Sure, I don’t see why not. I’ll have him text the addresses to you, Cole. What’s your phone number?” Pele asks.
I give it to her and thank her.

“Well it’s late and we are all tired so we are going to get going. I’ll call you in a few days; maybe we can go get drunk and take half of a dozen guys back here like the old days eh?” Tia says.

“Sounds good and Cole, don’t feel guilty about it; I would have done the same thing were I in your position.” Pele says.

I give a half smile and a nod in response. It isn
’t so much the act that bothers me as much as my reaction to it. Cheza must have felt this because she grabs my hand as we walk down the tunnel and back to the helicopter.

Chapter
6: Confusion and Alcohol

Th
e buffeting of the helicopter blades lulls Cheza to sleep with her head on my left shoulder. I lean my head on hers and fall asleep as well. I wake up when we land and find Cheza to still be asleep on my shoulder; I scoop her up and carry her off to the room. I’m glad that she wore comfortable clothes so I won’t have to strip her; I don’t really need that level of awkwardness right at the moment. I open the newly fixed door, carry Cheza down the hall, hang left, around the bar, and finally into our bedroom. I am about to set her on the bed when I face the same dilemma I faced three weeks ago, the previous time I carried a sleeping Cheza to bed. Once again I see her steadily heaving chest and her soft lips that are parted ever so slightly.

(Just kiss her)

I’m too mentally exhausted or traumatized to resist Airi’s suggestion. When our lips meet, I feel something like a jolt of electricity surge between them as my lips grow cold and start to feel numb. Cheza wakes up and kisses me back while I lay her down on the bed, before lying down beside her. We start making out and she takes off our pants.

(Don’t turn on the TV)

I laugh out loud and then I notice that Cheza is laughing at the same time she notices that I am too. We are both just lying on the bed in stitches at the joke based on an old Blink 182 song.
5

I don’t know where our actions were headed
, but they end with me in my boxers and Cheza only wearing panties, cuddling in bed.

I know that in this mo
ment, I am right where I belong: by her side.

“Does this mean that I love Cheza?”

(You have always loved her. Back when you were eleven and you woke up to find her crying in your doorway. Back when you were fourteen and saw her bleeding and proceeded to beat that young man into a coma. You have always loved her and you always will love her. It is your fate)

“What do you mean my…fate?” I ask as I drift off to sleep.

…

[May 22nd]

I wake up to the memory of Cheza’s image: my maniacal laughter after I sliced open Ku’s chest. I feel Cheza’s soft breathing as it brushes across my bare chest while she lays topless against my left side. I don’t know how I feel about having the girl that I still sort of see as my little sister cuddling with me in bed while topless.

(Your dilemma lies in your inability to see Chezarei as a woman)

“I know I just don’t know how to stop seeing her as a little sister! I mean, we lived together for a decade and I took care of her like an older brother!”

(Did you act like an older brother? How many older brothers let their sister crawl into bed and cuddle with them, even when they were fourteen?)

I’m speechless…thoughtless.

(Not to mention that Eric never said anything that would have led you into seeing Cheza
as a younger sister and it would have been normal for him to do so if he had. Eric would have seen nothing wrong with you two being in a relationship)

“Yeah, but he was married to his sister so…”

(Incestuous relationships are part of almost every creation theory. Greek’s have Zeus and Zeus’ sister Hera, along with all of the Titans; Egyptian’s have Shu and Tefnut, brother and sister as well as parents to Geb and Nut, parents of  incestuous siblings Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys; Shintoism has Izanami and Izanagi; Incans have Inti and Mama Quilla. Even Christian mythology has Adam and Eve)

“Adam and Eve weren’t brother and sister.”

(That is true, but they were the first humans so who did their children have sex with?)

Wow…I’m pretty sure that isn’t something that is discussed in Sunday
School.

“Wait, didn’t Cain have a human wife after he was banished and fled to a city full of humans?”

(So maybe parts of the bible were a load of bullshit, I don’t know!)

“I think it’s probably more likely that all the different renditions got mixed up in the time before the bible was printed. That’s not to say that people didn’t change things or just make shit up. Hell, who knows if Jesus was actually male? Some transcriber/translator could have been pissed off and decided to change that. ‘My wife was a bitch to me last night so the Saints Josephina and her best friend Mary are now Jesus, son of god, and Mary is getting demoted to Jesus’ groupie.’”

(Regardless, you and Chezarei aren’t related to begin with so there is no incest. Since you are still having trouble with coming to terms with it, think of it like this: Eric ran the orphanage where you and Chezarei lived; there you two fell in love; you are related in no way)

That, actually makes sense…I need a drink.

I slowly unravel myself from Cheza and leave the bedroom. I walk to the bar and start pouring myself a tall glass of rum, pineapple juice, and coconut milk (with less water), that is mostly just rum. I made myself a rum heavy ‘chi chi’; I use the name that an animated TV series about four boys from Colorado gave it because it sounds slightly more masculine than Pina Colada.
6

(WHY IS THE RUM GONE!?)

“Sorry Captain Jack! Captain Morgan was trying to mutiny so I drank him!”
7

“Hey buddy…how you feelin’?” Natasha asks from the table where she is eating a continental breakfast with Tia. I respond with a grunt; the universal man grunt that says ‘it is too early in the morning for us to talk about my mother-in-law’ or something of that nature.

“I just had my mind fucked by a girl in my head about the topless girl that is in my bed; so no talking, just drinking.” I say.

“When I heard
giggling from your room, I thought you two might be getting it on!” Tia exclaims.

“No, we didn’t. Airi made a joke and we both laughed, that’s it.” I explain.

“Then why is Chezarei topless?” Tia says with a surreptitious smile.

I think back to last night and where things were going before Airi’s joke. I choke on my drink as a response to Tia’s qu
estion and then my phone answers my prayers for a much needed distraction. I walk into the bedroom and grab my phone, seeing a text message from an unfamiliar number that contains a single address. Only one address? Woohoo! That makes things so much easier! I consider taking a shower but then I realize that I might be able to leave Cheza here if I don’t, so I quietly gather some clothes up and start to leave the room.

“Don’t think that you are leaving here without me Cole.” Cheza says. “Hurry up and get in the shower while I get ready and don’t even consider knocking me out.”

I stay quiet and do as she says. Wall to wall jet showers feel great and they really wash your troubles away; like worrying about if you are a maniacal sadist, or the possibility of loving the girl who is almost your younger sist—

“Hey Cole, can I come in and join you?” Cheza asks.

“Uh…I’d rather you not, Cheza. I’ve got a lot on my mind and I’d rather not add to it at the moment.” I reply

“Oh…okay…” Cheza says, sounding downtrodden. Great, now I feel like
a dick in addition to everything else.

“
Don’t worry, he’ll come around eventually.” I hear Tia say to Cheza before the other shower turns on. I jump out and quickly dress in cargo shorts, a white t-shirt, my holster and my jacket, not knowing what to expect and remembering Natasha’s words from two nights ago. I go out into the main area where Natasha and Tia are sitting.

“Hey, are you guys coming too?” I ask.

“Nope, I have to get Natasha caught up to speed on the whole liaison thing, Kira told me to, so it will just be you and Chezarei today; be careful Cole.” Tia says as Cheza comes out of the bathroom wearing a short cut blue and white sundress. I’m surprised that took so little time.

“Hey, Cole?
Can we walk there if it’s close enough? It’s a nice day…” Cheza asks in a somewhat timid fashion that is too damn cute.

“Yeah, sure!
Let’s go!” I say and then we start walking toward the elevator. I just realized, I probably should have looked to see how far away this place is before saying yes. I enter the address into my phone’s GPS and, as luck would have it, the location is only about three miles away. We exit through the hotel lobby and start walking down a street that has shops on the left side and beachfront on the right. The sword hilt that is poking over my right shoulder is attracting a few glances in my direction, but so far it hasn’t been any cause for alarm. Thank you cosplay enthusiasts/street performers and your numbing of people’s sensibilities.

“Ooh! I want to go in here!” Cheza says while grabbing my hand as we pass a shop.
She tries on clothes for fifteen minutes and buys this silk skirt thing after modeling it for me. Cheza grabs my hand on the way out and we walk for about a mile before I’m pulled into another clothing store. Cheza finds a pair of sandals that she likes and I end up carrying her bags. About a half a mile later, I feel Cheza’s heart pick up as she keeps glancing between a jewelry store and the ring on her finger.

“Do you want to stop in there?” I ask.

“WHAT!? NO!” Cheza screams in a complete overreaction as she yanks my arm down the street.

We walk for a while when I realize that we are getting close and if Cheza needs to run for any reason, she wo
n’t be able to while holding these bags. I start thinking that we will have to head back to drop off the bags until I see a building on the beach for storage lockers. Their sign says ‘Now proudly serving the CT Channel,’ which catches my eye because of Jason’s strange explanation when I was dead. Jason also told Cheza that we would know it when we saw it. I pull Cheza across the street and over to the building.

“Wait here for a second; I’m going to put these in a locker in case things go south.” I tell Cheza and then I h
ead inside.

There are several rows of lockers, probably numbering up to 300. There is a pe
rson working/reading at behind a counter; I assume he is there mostly for supervision because these lockers are coin operated. Okay there are three numbers that Jason used during the course of our conversation: 77, or 7&7, the drink that Jason gave me and also his favorite; 247, or 24/7, the amount he had been partying lately; and finally 86, or 86’d, the term used to describe us getting thrown out of that bar. It has to be one of those lockers so I look for the one that has the key missing.

They all have the key missing. I guess I’ll just choose at random. I walk up to the counter because I’m betting that this guy probably deals in lost and found keys as well.

“Hey, I lost my key on the beach, has anyone turned it in?” I ask.

“What’s your locker number?” The man asks without looking up from his book.

“69,” I tell him.

Let’s face it; this is Jason we are talking about. Chance of him using carefully coded words and actions during our conversation is highly unlikely; chance of him thinking about sex at any given time?
Highly probable. The man hands the key over while he continues reading. I go down to the first row closest to the door and walk towards the back wall until I reach locker 69. I set the bags on top of the wall of lockers before squatting down to open the locker that is one up from the bottom. Inside is a shoebox-sized package that has been wrapped in brown paper and twine. Considering that nobody has used brown paper and twine to wrap anything in the past thirty years, I’m willing to wager that someone from Jason’s harem wrapped this…or its drugs. Drugs being something that I’ve seen wrapped in brown paper and twine…on TV at least.

(Chezarei on line two)

“Hey Cole? We might have a bit of a problem here. Three guys are making a beeline for this building and something is off about them.” Cheza thinks while sending me an image of them.

I see three
swirls of color, but it is midday and they aren’t sparkling. The one good piece of news is greatly eclipsed by the bad. How are they outside though? This is confusing…maybe vampires are just nocturnal and the legends are exaggerations from when some vampire went outside and said “AH! The sun bright! It burns!” like some people I know…

“Cheza, those are vampires and th
ose swirls of color you are seeing are their auras. Now, they are most likely after you.” I think calmly.

“What swirls of color?” Cheza asks.
I guess she can’t see them.

“
Never mind; I need you to go down the beach away from them. When they pass by the building, I’ll come out and kill all three before any of them know what is happening.” I think.