Requiem for a Mouse (24 page)

JAKE

No matter how hard Jake pushed against the door, he felt himself slowly losing ground. “Stop it!” he screamed.

The door swung open and pushed him to the floor. He hit the floor with the sound of crunching glass. Luckily, nothing cut him. He slipped an unused syringe into his pocket.

Sunlight streamed through the door, burning his retinas. He held his hands up to shield his eyes. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen sunlight. Now that was staring right at it, he didn’t miss it.

“You?” Sasha screamed at him. “This was all for you?”

“Fucking Mouse,” Jake grumbled. “What do you want from me?”

Sasha grabbed his collar and yanked him off the ground. She held his face just inches from her own. In a single step, she hauled him outside into the rain and slammed him against the wall.

The blow knocked the breath out of Jake. Worse, the scabs on his back scraped against the wood, sparking pain throughout his body. He grit his teeth and his fingers wrapped around his hidden syringe. No way he’d go quietly. But nothing happened.

The Mouse simply stared him down as rain beat upon them. It was as if she was waiting for something.

“What?” Jake answered her stare. “Do you want me to promise to be forever grateful, to give up my life as a Hawk? Or would you rather I beg you for those pills? Neither is happening.”

“No, I want a thank you. I don’t care who you are, if you’re sick, I’ll get you your medicine because I’m a Mouse. But we Mice go through hell to get you these pills. The least you can do is thank us!” Sasha paused. Her next words came in a whisper, “Even if you don’t mean it.”

Jake stared back at the one Mouse he once wanted to kill. “God, you’re annoying.”

“Do you think I want to be here right now?” Sasha released her grip on Jake.

“Nobody’s forcing you to.”

Sasha shook her head, looking at him as if he was a child. “You don’t get it, Hawk, because you’ve never had family you could call your own. This is a fucked up world where people do fucked up things, but if I can keep that from them, then I’d say I did alright.”

“So you chose to become a Mouse?”

“I chose to show them that the world isn’t so bad, despite all the bad in it.” She sighed with a waning grin. “At least that’s what I wanted.”

It wasn’t the words themselves, but how genuine they sounded that left Jake in awe. One look at the Mouse and he knew she meant every syllable. Jake let go of the syringe in his pocket.

“Stupid.” Jake muttered through grit teeth. “Beyond stupid. You’re just trying to show them a fantasy world, to trick them into believing in a world that doesn’t exist. The best thing for anyone in this place is to see it for what it truly is.”

For how loud Jake screamed, when Sasha spoke, he could barely hear her. “Even so,” she said. “I won’t place my bets on such a hopeless world. There’s nothing wrong with betting against the odds. Even if it’s just a pipe dream.”

“It’s not a bet if you have no chance of winning! That’s what you call suicide!”

Sasha smacked the wall with her palm, trapping Jake within her arms. Her eyes went wide. “I don’t care if I can only lose! How sad is it that not a single person will hope for a better tomorrow? Even if it makes me a fool, even if isn’t right, I won’t accept it!”

“Even if you already know the outcome?”

The Mouse looked down and once again, her voice died. “It’s because I know the outcome that I have to.”

“You’ll never win. Your fantasy isn’t right!”

“But it’s not wrong.” She replied in a fading breath and her arms dropped back to her sides.

“That’s not good enough! It won’t end well and when it does, nobody will be better off,” Jake yelled. “Pretending otherwise is stupid, hoping for more is stupid. This is the place we were born, it’s the fate we were given! How can you go through life knowing that you’ll lose and still wake up every morning?”

Her eyes glistened. The words came out in barely a whisper. Jake couldn’t even hear most of them, but he could read her lips. “Because my dream’s not wrong.”

“But—” Jake held his tongue. These were the same beliefs that had been beaten out of him. From the day he was born, he had learned the true nature of this world. Everyone had, except this girl.

We all used to be like her.

Jake held up the bag of pills Sasha had given him. He opened his mouth to talk but stumbled over his words. There was a lump in his throat and he found his hands trembling by his sides. It was his turn to stare at the ground.

“As soon as I get better Mouse, I’m coming for you on your next drop. I won’t show you any mercy.”

She nodded.

“Don’t think I’ll hold back either. I’ll kill you if you don’t give me the pills.”

She nodded again.

“Fuck.” Jake mumbled. He looked up to see her patiently waiting. Maybe it was that he hadn’t eaten in days, or the aftereffects of the drugs, but Jake couldn’t summon his rage. At last, he gave up. “But until then… thanks.”

Sasha broke into a small smile. “You’re welcome.”

BRYCE

Bryce slowly clapped his hands as he came out of hiding. Every clap sprayed water into the air in a wet smack.

“Bravo, red-eyed Mouse. You got him to talk! I was starting to think that he never would,” Bryce said.

Sasha returned Bryce a confused look. Jake, on the other hand, fell to the floor. His face drained of whatever color was left in it as he huddled against the wall.

Bryce chuckled in response. “I’m sorry, you probably don’t know who I am.”

“Are you a Hawk? If that’s the case, the drop is over.” Sasha’s hands curled into tiny fists.

“No.” Bryce shook his head. “Not tonight I’m not.”

“Then, a Lion?”

“Sort of, but I would say I’m more of a friend of a friend.” Bryce thrust his hands into his jacket pockets. In one pocket was Jake’s knife, in the other, his gun.

“Which friend?”

“I believe he goes by Maverick now, but when I knew him, his name was Vlad.”

Sasha raised her brow and put one hand on her hip. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time. Who are you exactly?”

“Like I said, I’m a friend of his from back in the day.”

Sasha frowned. “He had no friends back then.”

“Then I suppose, a fan?” Bryce took both his hands out of his jacket, along with the weapons inside. “Back then, they called me Bryce. Unlike him, I kept the name and I’m not pretending to be something I’m not.”

Sasha’s eyes veered to the gun in his hand. “Nobody’s pretending.”

“We were born warriors.” Bryce said, increasing in volume with every word. A smile spread across his face. “We were gladiators, killers for sport, the best this city’s ever seen. Do you honestly believe we can just drop it all?”

“Maybe you can’t, but Mav is stronger than that.”

Bryce let out a single exaggerated laugh. “Let me tell you something, Mouse, people don’t change. The situations around us change and we act differently because of it, but put us back where we started and we’ll turn right back into the monsters we were born as.”

“So, what do you want from me?” Sasha asked. “If you’re just here to lecture me, I’ll be leaving.”

Bryce held up his gun, aimed directly at Sasha’s heart. “I want Vlad back.”

“Killing me won’t bring him back.”

“Maybe not, but he gave me a list that might. Prince. Flower. Bolt. And you.” Bryce paused between each name, allowing Sasha to fully grasp its meaning before he moved on. She winced after each one, as if stung. “So, what are you going to do, Mouse?”

Sasha gave Bryce a look of uncertainty. It looked good on her. “Isn’t it obvious? I’ll stop you.”

“How? You look like you can barely stand.”

To Bryce’s surprise, Sasha smiled back at him. “You have no idea what I’ve done to protect my family. Compared to that, this will be a walk in the park.”

Bryce walked up to Sasha, his gun raised. “I don’t think so.”

Sasha stood like a statue. Even when he pressed his gun against her chest, she stayed still. Though her breaths became deeper and her heart beat faster and her lips quivered and her eyes watered, she held her ground. Bryce stared at her, his gun pressed so hard against her chest that he could feel the pounding of her heart.

“Are you ready, red-eyed Mouse?”

Bryce pressed a button on the gun and its magazine fell onto the ground. He dropped the gun and put the knife back into his pocket.

Sasha crunched her brow. “Did you change your—”

He swung his fist in an uppercut into her chin. Her head snapped back and blood spewed from her mouth as she fell onto the floor. Bryce let out a steady breath watching her crawl back up.

“I hate guns. A single piece of metal can convince weak men they are strong. The only thing to do then, is to show them how truly weak they are.” Bryce waited for Sasha to stand.

As soon as she was up, he launched a jab into her stomach. Her abdomen collapsed against his knuckles. Sasha bent over and croaked out a small stream of clear liquid. Before she was done throwing up, Bryce threw a wild punch into her temple and knocked her back onto the floor.

“That right there,” Bryce said, “was Vlad’s favorite move. One of those and the fight was over, all that was left to do was to kill the other boy.”

Sasha pushed herself off the ground only to fall to one knee.

Bryce shook his head and spat on the ground. “Get up.” He grabbed a clump of Sasha’s hair and hauled her up. “Let me show you how Vlad used to kill.”

Sasha raised her arms to guard herself, but they were too frail. So Bryce hit her, again and again. Her head was a pendulum with her hair as the string. The first hit sent blood gushing down her nose. The second swelled up her left eye. The third cut her lips. Again and again he pummeled her face until her arms fell to her sides and her eyes rolled back. Even then, he kept going.

“How weak are you?” Bryce giggled in between punches. “I thought you were going to stop me!”

Bryce winced at a prick in his leg. It felt like a small mosquito. He looked down to see Jake crawling on the ground. Despite his pathetic position, his teeth were clamped shut and he had a look of purpose. And in his hand was an empty syringe.

SASHA

Sasha dropped to the floor and crumpled onto her side. It felt like she was floating on a cloud. Just keeping her eyes open proved difficult. The only indication that she was still alive was the raspy breaths that came out of her nostrils.

“… Fucking traitor…”

It was too hard to make out the entire sentence but she could hear bits and pieces of it. The voice belonged to Bryce.

“… Kill you…” Bryce again.

Who is he talking to?

Sasha squinted at the two blurry figures, one on the ground, the other standing.

“…How dare you…”

Little by little, her hearing became better until she could hear Jake’s soft grunts. Her vision cleared enough to see Bryce repeatedly kicking Jake.

Why are they fighting?

“…Weak! Fucking weak!” Bryce screamed. He bent down with his fist raised and crashed it into Jake.

Sasha let her head rest on the ground. Her swollen cheeks burned on contact with the floor. One of her eyes had swollen shut and the other was threatening to close at any moment. The world dimmed. She reached out with one hand in a feeble attempt to push herself up and hit something that felt like ice.

The gun.

Sasha grabbed it and pulled herself off the ground. The gun was heavy, so heavy it took both hands to hoist. With a grunt, she hauled it in front of her. Her body swayed as if she was drunk. She was unable to see anything more than shadows in the distance. She angled the gun toward the shadow and pulled the trigger. But the trigger wouldn’t budge.

Sasha cried out as he squeezed as hard as she could. The trigger remained up.

I’m too weak to even pull the trigger…

A shadow stood up and turned toward her, attracted by her cries. “You’re still up?” Bryce’s voice was an echo carried by some distant wind.

Sasha grunted as she squeezed with all her might. She put both her fingers on the trigger and pulled. It moved, but only slightly.

Bryce came close enough for her to see him. His shirt was splattered with blood and his hand looked like he had dipped it in red paint. Clenched in his fist was a bloody knife. He limped as if one of his legs had fallen asleep.

Bryce stood over Sasha with his knife raised. With a roar, he sent it down. Sasha rolled onto her back to avoid the blow. But she was too slow, the knife slashed through her thigh like it was paper. Sasha shrieked and pulled down the trigger. The gun ignited and cocked back in her hand, shooting off the last bullet left in its chamber.

The pain consumed her. It was all she could feel and all she could think about. She dropped the gun and clutched her thigh, screaming her throat raw. Blood gushed onto her fingers and the floor. It came in torrents and spilled everywhere. How long she was like this, she couldn’t tell.

I can’t do this.

She felt a prick in her arm and the pain lessened.

“Don’t fall asleep.” Jake’s voice said right beside her.

She felt herself being dragged up against a wall.

“I can’t stop the bleeding.”

Sasha opened her eyes to see a trail of stained earth. It looked like a giant red snake was making its way up her leg. Even now, a small puddle was forming around her.

“Look at me, Mouse.”

Sasha turned to see Jake with cracked and bloody lips. His nose bent awkwardly and whenever he opened his mouth, she could see teeth missing.

“Did you hear all that?” Jake asked.

Sasha nodded slowly.

I’m bleeding too much. You can’t stop it. I’m going to die.

“I’m sorry, Mouse. I’m going to give you something for the pain. It’s the last that I have, if you live through this, don’t let The Dragon see you with these. I have to go…” his voice trailed off.

Sasha turned away from him and looked at Bryce, motionless on the ground, a puddle of blood under him. Sasha closed her eyes.