Requiem for a Mouse (7 page)

SASHA

Sasha felt like a hypocrite wielding the knife she had taken from Bolt. But what choice did she have? She saw the way the Hawk had looked at the unconscious Mouse. She had seen that look before; she had nightmares about that look.

Around them, pedestrians cleared a way. As usual, they didn’t even bat an eye. It was as if they were ghosts. It was times like this that Sasha missed the days where pedestrians would at least acknowledge her. But those days went away with the Lions.

“You don’t have to do this Mouse.” The Hawk’s knees bent and his knife danced in front of him. It looked like he at least knew a little about knife play.

“You must not know me very well.”

Sasha’s heart thumped against her chest and her muscles tingled with anticipation. She watched a bead of sweat drip down the Hawk’s chin. His tongue flicked in and out trying to wet his lips. His breaths were deep.

He’s tired.

A throbbing pain reminded her of her own handicaps. Blood from her forehead trickled into her left eye, forcing it shut. A string of scarlet dripped out her mouth. Her feet shifted as she fought to maintain her posture. The world hadn’t stopped spinning.

“You think you can stop me?” The Hawk’s grin cut across his face.

“Just who the hell do you think I am?”

It was just a slight twitch of his leg, but Sasha read his movements. The Hawk lunged forward wildly slashing into the air. Sasha leapt backwards and slid to a stop. If the Hawk chose to grab the pills and run, she wouldn’t be able to stop him. But she was more worried about the girl than the pills.

The Hawk seemed to read her mind. He glanced at the plastic bag on the ground before returning his gaze to Sasha. Stepping over the blonde Mouse, he sprang forward, the silver of his knife disappearing in a whirling blur. Sasha ducked and dodged, making sure to keep her distance. The Hawk was much larger than her and almost as nimble. Worse, he was left-handed.

He stuck onto her tirelessly. With every step back she took, he responded with two steps forward. The difference in their strength was obvious. Sasha ducked a horizontal slash, feeling the blade whisk away the tip of her hair. It was all she could do just to avoid his knife. Another slash from the right. Sasha’s ankles burned, unused to always dodging to the left.

Shit!

Her legs tangled together. Luckily, she fell just out of the Hawk’s reach. A twenty-dollar bill floated down beside her.

She looked up to see the Hawk equally as stunned. Nobody moved as they both watched the bill land on the dirt. In a single moment, they lunged toward the bill. Even though Sasha was closer, the Hawk got to it first. Sasha stabbed her blade toward his hand.

The Hawk’s hand shot back as he twisted his body with a retaliatory strike. Sasha leaned back just far enough to avoid the knife and in the same movement flung dirt into the Hawk’s face.

“Fuck!” The Hawk’s arms came up and his head recoiled backwards.

Sasha thrust her knife forward, but at the last moment, turned her stab into a wild punch. She heard the satisfying crunch of her fist against the Hawk’s nose. Blood exploded from his face like fireworks.

The Hawk’s head lunged backwards and hit the ground behind him. “God damn it!” His voice sounded nasally. Blood poured out of his nose in a rich gush of crimson.

Sasha swiped the money off the ground and put it back in her pocket. “I could’ve killed you there.”

“Your mistake.” The Hawk shook with anger, his knuckles white from clutching his knife so hard. He pushed himself up.

Sasha’s head pounded to the rhythm of her ragged breaths. She wiped the blood from her eye only to have more trickle through. For the first time, she noticed that the Mouse had disappeared along with the drugs.

“Where is she?” Sasha demanded.

“What the fuck are you asking me for?”

“Then who took her?”

“The fucking Slasher!” He said. “Are you an idiot? She took off.”

How did I miss that?
Sasha swept her eyes around the circle of people that had gathered around to watch. The blond Mouse had disappeared.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten you, Mouse.” The Hawk raised his knife and pointed it at her.

Sasha returned his stare in kind. With a scornful grunt, the Hawk stepped backward, abandoning his posture. He grabbed his left hand to plug up a gash.

Sasha hadn’t even realized he was wounded. It must’ve been when he had made a grab for Prince’s money. Her knife had found its mark.

The Hawk put his knife away. “Remember me Mouse, because I’ll remember you.” He took off into the crowd and disappeared.

LAO

“I see you’re not a morning person.” Lao’s shoes clicked on the ground.

John bit against the knotted rag in his mouth. His body shook as he tried to inch away from the Dragon. As all the visitors of this room, his hands were cuffed behind him and his feet were chained to the floor.

Lao circled him, tugging on the noose around his neck. “Do you know why you are here?”

John screamed against the rag in vowels.

“Let me answer that question for you, because the answer isn’t actually all that exciting. You broke one of my rules.” Lao sighed, placing both his hands on his hip. “And I don’t really like you. In the short time since I’ve made your acquaintance, you have not only bullied children, but you’ve been bullied by children!” Lao clutched his sides laughing.

It didn’t seem like John found it as funny as Lao.

“Excuse me John, I thought you would appreciate some humor.” Lao grabbed the rag around John’s mouth and yanked it out. “Sorry, but I’m a little hard of hearing, I must be getting old. Could you repeat that?”

“I’m sorry. Please—” John coughed, his entire body shaking with its force. “—let me go.”

Lao shook his head. “Ugh, the same words that everyone says. If I knew this would be the quality of our conversation, I would’ve left the rag in your mouth.”

“I’m sorry I broke your rule. It won’t happen again Mr. Dragon.”

“First off, just Dragon, no mister. Secondly, you don’t even know what you did yet. How can you be sorry? No, I want you to guess which of my rules you broke. Here’s a hint, I only have three.”

John returned a blank look. “Um… the first one?”

“Do you know which rule that is?”

“Is that the one about—”

“It’s the one about violence. All violence belongs to me.” Lao pinched his own chin in a theatrical manner. “Good guess, but not quite right. You almost broke that one, but then you got stabbed and beaten by a fifteen-year-old boy. No, you broke my second rule.”

It still didn’t seem like John was getting it.

“You cheated,” Lao clarified. “During your chess game with Prince.”

John’s mouth gaped open in disbelief. “That’s why I’m here?”

“To be frank, no. It’s your humanity that brings us here.”

“What?”

“You are violent, arrogant, selfish, and sadistic. That’s why you’re here.”

“But that’s not part of your rules.”

“Which is why I’m so glad you cheated.” Lao chuckled and produced a silver flask from inside his jacket. He unscrewed the lid and sniffed its rancid odor. No matter how many times he performed this ritual, the smell always made him retch.

Lao wagged a finger in front of John. “But this wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t give you a chance to save yourself. So, here’s your chance, tell me how Owen snuck a gun into my city.”

“I don’t know, ask him,” John stammered.

“Unfortunately, that’s the answer he gave me... only, he told me to ask you. Oh John, what pitiful creatures we are.” Lao held his flask up over John’s head and poured out its contents.

John squirmed as if he could dodge the liquid if only he tried hard enough. He spit out the bit that got in his mouth. His face flushed red as he gagged on the taste. “Stop!” He shouted in between dry heaves.

Lao stopped. He flung his head back and drank the rest. As soon as the liquid entered his mouth, his body panicked. His heart jumped into an erratic dance and his stomach did flips. With a grunt, Lao gulped down the poison.

It took a while for Lao to put himself back together. He clenched his eyes shut and prayed that he wouldn’t vomit. At last, the nausea passed. “Would you like to know why I drink this?” he said in a pant.

“You’re fucking crazy!” John screamed.

“Not crazy, disgusting,” Lao said.

It was too hard to hold in. He lunged sideways and vomited a clear stream of what smelled like kerosene.

“What the fuck?” John tugged against the noose around his neck trying to inch away.

“Excuse me.” Lao dabbed his mouth with his tie. “I drink this is to remind myself of how disgusting I am, how disgusting what I’m doing is. You see, I believe that what I’m doing is a sin. This is my punishment.”

Lao’s eyes stung. His stomach felt like a knife had pierced it. He paced around John with unstable steps. “But I’m only human and this is the best I can do. I’m violent, arrogant, selfish, and sadistic. What else can you expect? At least I have the good sense to punish myself.”

“Please, I’ll do anything you want!” John begged. “Whatever you want, it’s yours!”

“You already know what I want. How did Owen get the gun?”

John’s eyes grew large. “It was given to us.”

“Was it by someone named The Boss?”

“How’d you know?” John stammered.

“Owen already told me this much. Now go on, what did he look like?”

John slowly shook his head. “I never saw the man. I only heard the name because the package came with a letter from him. We just got a package outside our door one day, that’s all. This isn’t my fault.”

“Then I suppose you’re even less help than Owen.” With a swift kid, Lao knocked John over.

The noose tightened around his John’s neck. The chains on the ground clanked as he twisted and turned. Lao paid him no attention. Taking his time, he pulled out a box of cigarettes.

PRINCE

The black river sparkled with glints of moonlight. Each ripple a small flash of silver, like the glisten of a diamond. It was easy to get lost in such a sight.

Prince sat in his usual spot, beads of sweat dripping down his chin. He hated working out, but it was necessary. Nobody as weak as him could protect someone. Since the incident at Hawk’s Lair, he hadn’t missed a single day. If anything like that ever happened again, he would be ready.

“Hey Prince.”

He knew the voice. “Sasha.”

“You smell awful. What are you doing at this hour?”

Prince shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.”

Sasha returned his answer with a smile. “Nobody can. Bolt and Flower are wide awake and Mav’s off doing his own thing again.”

“Our final drop is tomorrow. I’d be surprised if anyone could sleep,” said Prince.

Sasha took a seat beside him and looked toward the river. “This is so pretty!”

Prince glanced at her. Her red eyes widened as if she could see the entire world, if only she opened them wide enough. The silver of the moon glimmered through her red making her eyes look like rubies. It was easy to get lost in such a sight.

“Why didn’t you tell me the river looked this pretty at night? I would’ve been here every night.” She wielded no authority in her voice. Right now, they were equal.

For the first time in a while, Prince found himself at a loss for words. He had only seen her so relaxed a handful of times before. It was hard to believe that this was the same proud girl that headed their family.

“I think a fish just jumped out the water!” Sasha laughed. She hugged her knees and pointed a finger at the river. “Did you see that?”

Prince brought his hand up to his chest, surprised to feel the rapid thumping of his own heart. He could hear the blood pounding through his head. Though he tried, he couldn’t contain his laughter.

“Did I say something funny?”

“I never thought you were such a girl.”

Sasha grinned back. “Asshole.”

They sat there a while, enjoying the breeze. It was Sasha who broke the silence. “We’ve been getting in a lot of fights recently.”

If it was anyone else, Prince would’ve given a sharp retort. Instead all that came out his mouth was an apology. “Sorry. It’s my fault.”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “You’re letting me off too easy.”

“On the bright side, we’re almost done.”

Sasha nodded in agreement. “Seriously, can you believe it?”

“I can’t even imagine.” Prince chuckled. “I bet we’ll be bored within a week.”

“No way, I have big plans for us.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

Sasha gave him an innocent grin. “We’re going to finish this last drop, escape this city, and see Paris!”

Prince snorted. “Why Paris?”

“So I can show you guys the stars.”

Prince pointed toward the sky. “They’re right there.”

“There are more stars than the ones in the sky.”

Prince stared into Sasha’s eyes. “Do you know what a star is?”

Sasha nudged Prince over. “Idiot, I’ll show you one day, then you’ll see.” She stuck her tongue out.

Prince’s brow raised. “What are we, ten? And you come up with a new plan every week. Get back to me when you actually have something.”

Sasha stared back and for what seemed like the longest second, she stayed silent. “Sorry Prince, but for now, this is all I can give you,” She said, her voice almost a whisper.

The sincerity caught Prince by surprise. He looked away, his face already hot. “I couldn’t…” Prince stopped talking, realizing that he was speaking too softly even for himself to hear. Making sure to project, he said, “I couldn’t ask for more.”

The silence stretched forever. Prince peeked at Sasha, and then, to his surprise, she started laughing. “Calm down Prince, you didn’t have to yell at me.”

“What?” Prince clamped his mouth shut, thinking back to how loud he had been.

Shit.

But Sasha’s laughter was music. It was contagious, and pretty soon, Prince joined her. He glanced over to see her head tilted toward the full moon, just like his.

We must look mad, laughing at the moon.
The thought made him laugh even harder.

“Anyway,” Sasha turned away from the moon to once again watch the silver ripples of the river. “I tried returning your money but the bartender wouldn’t let me. Can you believe it?” Sasha took a deep breath and dropped a handful of crumpled bills beside Prince. “You win. How you spend your money is none of my business. Sorry about, you know…”

“Wow, an apology from Sasha?” Prince’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “And such a well thought out one too.”

“Shut up.” Sasha’s face was so red, it was noticeable even in the dark.

“Thanks Sasha.”

Sasha grinned back in the stupid way she always did. “I’m serious about this one. Even if we fail tomorrow, even if it kills me, I’ll take us to Paris.”

In unison, they returned their gaze back to the moon.