[Abe's son]

[Abe's Son: Not completely dead, reatarded or... something. I just finished Vurt so expect similarites. Gawd that book rocked.]

<<.Black


<<.Black


ACT 1 –
These Muses of Mine.

I made my way up the stairs to my apartment. It was 6 something in the morning and I had just stopped into Dunken Donuts for some breakfast. I’d picked myself of a breakfast sandwich with cheese, egg and sausage on a bagel, and an English muffin with peanut butter for Nix. She was up early, probably because she wanted a chance to actually thank me for the food and see me out of a suit. I never wore it in the morning, something about it. Just didn’t jive right. Nix was watching TV on the couch. It was either the TV or drawing. “Hey!” I was greeted with a smile which I returned. “You’re up early…” “Yeah, couldn’t get back to sleep. Got something for me?” I tossed the redhead her bag and placed mine on the table. I opened the coffee as she got out her English. I got milk and sugar from the pantry and fridge. Just a bit of milk, and a lot of sugar. Nix must’ve noticed because she proceeded to badger me about it. “You know that’s going to kill you, right?” “No…” I said as I made my way to the couch with my bagel and coffee. “The drugs, the salt and the job are going to kill me… the sugar’s probably helping.” I started on my bagel. She was already half way through her English. “What’s Alice got you doing today?” I looked over and spoke between bites. “Customer service.” “Christ, Sach…” That was unexpected. “What?” “Do you have to be so damn cliché?” “…I don-“she cut me off. “You always do that! You drop the one liners like you’re in some shitty action movie! Why can’t you just say ‘I’m gonna kill some cartels.’” Obviously I struck a festering nerve… or something. “Because, it sounds cool.” “No! No it doesn’t!” Wow, right for the throat. “It… it doesn’t?” “No, it’s a shitty one liner.” Right in the balls Nix… “Okay fine, I won’t say it anymore… I need to leave anyway.” I stuck my tongue out at her to let her know I was still playing and went into my room. I took a clean black and white suit from it and my glasses. I got into the shitty Hyundai Toho Alice had forced me to buy and went to the way point on the GPS nav. Hell, we could afford one of those but no, a Taurus is too much. We lived in the suburbs around Boston, near all the abandoned industrial parks and warehouses. As cliché as that sounds it was actually a rather nice neighborhood and no one really bothered as with the exception of complaining about Sol’s stupid behavior which was quickly dealt with Alice in a rather vicious manner.


I stepped out of the car, the waypoint on the GPS lead me to a side door into a warehouse. I looked at the storm doors construction. If they had locked it, the locks would be on the outside, so that wouldn’t be a problem. I went around to the side of the building, using my switchblade to pry open an electrical box. I scoped out my wires and walked back to the car, opening the trunk. I kept a USP 12 in 10mm strapped to the top of the trunk and my beautiful Thompson 2019 with a drum mag in the trunk itself. This baby was simply a retooling of the original street sweeper. It still fired .45 ACP and looked exactly like the old one, rather than that redneck bastardization of it that Sol owned. I hefted the beast into my hands and walked to the open electrical box with a knife in my left hands. I cut the wire quickly and pocketed the knife, cocking the SMG as I moved to the door. 1, 2, 3. I kicked the door in, firing wildly, creating a strobe effect. The bodies seemed to dance as the fell, and it was graceful in a weird way. I lowered the gun and straightened my tie. I was good at what I did, even though it wasn’t the nicest of things. I worked as muscle for a drug dealer. The street knew her as The Rabbit. Her higher up clients knew her as Alice, as did the residents of the house. Her parents and I knew her as… well… I’d rather not ruin the surprise. The only reason I knew her name was because before Sol and Nix, it was just me and her, and we used to ‘share a bed’. That was until I left to work for Dem. The last time I shared a bed with the Rabbit was 5 years ago. Now I was set on marrying Dementia. I worked as a bodyguard for a year for her and we fell in love in that time. After I got back to working as muscle for the Rabbit, we agreed that as soon as we had enough money to get out of these business, we’d marry, move to Canada and raise a child. I wanted nothing more in the world…

I was on my way to visit her. I had time and Alice didn’t know how quick I was with business like that. Well, at least I was pretty sure she didn’t know. I flipped around the channels on my way into Boston. Shitty Euromixes that all the kids who thought they were hard core jammed too. XTC and that bastard Sebastian Belmont. I had no respect for the one hit wonder, but I did respect their manager, Rick Steel. He knew how to get it done. I hated all the bands he signed though. Shame. Finally I decided on no music and parked a few blocks from Dem’s café, Utopia. She used it as a front to sell her goods, and she usually hooked me up with some treats for the Rabbit now and then. I look inside at the skinny girl at the counter. Her dark hair blocked her face but I knew just how bored she was. I pushed the door open and almost in unison with the bell her face lit up. “Sachiel!” “Dementia…” I leaned over the counter and gave her a kiss. “How’ve you been?” “Good... but bored. Take a walk with me?” Something was on her mind. “Sure thing.” I walked behind the counter with her, behind the black curtain covered in moons and stars and into the store room where she had a table set up. She grabbed me and pushed me into one of the shelves, practically knocking me over. She kissed me deep this time. It was good. She broke it too soon though. “Jesus Christ how ****ing long do you think I could stand?” We went in again. “Sorry, didn’t seem like it was that long.” She rested her head on my chest as I wrapped my arms around her waist. “It’s alright… I forgive you…” I looked down at her. Only a few more months… just a few more months and then we’d be free. She looked up at me “I got a present for you… well… more for your boss. I guarantee she’s seen nothing like it.” Nothing like it? Now you’ve got me interested, Dem. “What is it?” she lifted her self from me and I let go. She walked to the opposite shelf and got a small wooden box from it, she held it out, eager to show me. “Well?” she opened it, 10 brown bottles with droppers for caps sat in it. Some kind of fluid was in each one. “Adrenechrome… got it from a Yakuza guy who said he got it from the Red Mafia.” “Yeah? What is it.” “Heavy hallucinogenic stuff. Say’s its real pure, real nasty. Worse than straight Psycho.” Nothing was worse than uncut Psycho, nothing legal on any place in the world at least. “How much you want for it?” She set the box on the table. “For clients… 15,000 a bottle.” I whistled and she wrapped herself around me again. “But for a lover.” Her lips met mine. “More visits.” I smiled. I missed her too, but I never kept track of time, I only knew it’d been too long. “Looks like that won’t be a problem. I’m getting more free time from Alice, which means you’ll be getting more time with me.” She smiled and we kissed again, She set 3 bottle aside. “Now Sach, you need to promise me something.” I walked forward, hands in my pockets. “What’s that, hun?” “ You won’t touch this shit.” She knew me too well. I was a junkie for hallucinogenic stuff. I had a chip put in just so I could enjoy all of them fearlessly. Most dealers got chipped with it too. It suppressed physical addiction to any substance, but that didn’t keep me from just wanting to do it. “Dem you know I w-“ “Promise me. I don’t want you ending up dead, this shit is seriously bad voodoo.” “I promise you.” We kissed again and we walked out of the back room. I went on my way after waving good bye.


I drove back to the apartment with the bottles in my pocket. I knew we had somewhere to go. I couldn’t think though, not about anything else. My mind was locked on her again. It happened every time I visited her, just couldn’t stop day dreaming. I parked the Assmobile and jogged to the room, opening it. The Rabbit smiled wide. “Sorbet!” that was my pet name. I’d get into the story but it’s stupid, and I really don’t feel like remembering. “Where were you?” I sat next to her at the table. Sol was up, watching TV in place of Nix who was probably drawing in her room or surfing on her deck. All I got from the devil was a “You’re in late.” It was 12 something by this time due to all the traffic and whatnot. “Yeah well I had something else to do.” “You were ****ing your girl friend weren’t you?” “**** off, Sol.” Alice shot me a look and then a harder one to Sol. “**** off, Sol.” She turned back to me. “So, any presents? Or do you not love me anymore?” I pulled the three bottles and smiled. “Yeah, nice ones too. Dem’s pricing them at 15k and only selling them to select customers.” She didn’t say it, but I knew it. We knew how the other worked, but not how us ourselves did. Not like we knew each other. “Adrenechrome she called it.” The brunette leaned forward, staring intently at the bottles. “What does it do…” Her eyes darted up to me. “She says it’s like Psycho pure and un-cut.” She smiled that wide Cheshire grin. “Trip balls for 3 days and not remember it?” He nodded. “From the way she was treating it, seemed so.” She sat back up straight and took a lit cigarette I hadn’t noticed from the ash-tray in the center of the table. “Then we sell it for 25,000 a bottle to anyone. That’s 75,000 for all three bottles. That’s a lot of money, isn’t it?” I was smiling wider still. “It is.” I couldn’t help myself. “I know how bad you want out, Sachiel. I’m impressed you stayed with us rather than just dropping everything. You’ve got some real honor about you, and I respect that. You’ll have enough cash to retire by the end of this month.” Jesus H. Christ on a ****ing cow riding into the sun tripping on mescaline ****ing the Queen of England. “…what?” Shock, awe, hard on! “The end of this month?” She nodded, cool as ever. “I promise.” There was a reason I ****ed her. “I think I love you.” “No, you love Dementia. Now, to sell these we’ll need to go club diving.” Aw ****.. Alice’s clients usually hung around the heavy bass clubs, where you could straight jack into the beat machines and trip to the music or just dance the night away. As much as I loved these clubs, business there usually involved me, Sol and Alice dealing with assholes who thought they were king shit, until finally we tricked or convinced them into paying the price. Nix loved going because she actually got a chance to dance rather than sit around the apartment all day. At least someone would be enjoying the night…



[Sorry for wasting your time if it sucks.]