MS - Rav's newest story

[Ravynlee]

Haha awww thanks guys

Sis: I know! :clap:

As promised - here's more.

---

​

“Can you believe this? It’s like 45 degrees out here or something.”

“What, afraid your rub-on tattoos are going to melt in the sun or something?”

Ignoring the twins jibes Oded stirred on the spot, his broad shoulders shifting beneath the sombre black jacket.

“We’re paying our respects. As we’re supposed to,” he grumbled.

“But so many of us? He wasn’t one of us, man, he was a gangster so far as we know.”

Looking down at his younger counterpart Karl frowned in reprimand.

“We’re here because a man’s dead,” he said seriously.

Raising his eyes up the focus shifted across the rolling lawns to open grave and the mourners rallied stately in a sea of black behind it. The solemn face of Mike Shinoda, minus his wife still recovering in hospital, surrounded by his entourage was the focal point to which seemingly everyone stared – while they pretended to look at the coffin. The funeral service was large and it seemed like anyone who was anyone, at least in the local music scene, was there in attendance. The rolling green lawns were awash with people clad in black, complete with hats and dark glasses to shield their eyes as much as they could from the invasive stare of cameras whirring on the other side of cemetery gates. Against the backdrop of sobs and sniffles and the priest as he continued on his sermon, a bevy of newscasters and onlookers gathered as close as security would allow, all under the close scrutiny of the NYPD and patrolling dog squads. Snipers were positioned in key areas atop nearby rooftops and plain clothed officers mingled amidst the crowd of mourners with perfectly stern faces giving their cover away. With a steady sweep of their eyes the NEU officers standing united at a respectful distance also remained on high alert. Even with his own form of protection patrolling the grounds amid uniformed officials it was clear that Mike Shinoda was taking no chances after his recent botched assassination attempt. While his decision to attend had been hotly debated and no doubt a cause for much concern - not just to the city at large but also his influential friends, some of which had stayed away for fears of their own safety in the wake of recent escalating violence - it was obvious that Mike was sending out a clear and concise message: He wasn’t afraid. He was making a point. There was nothing that was going to rattle him from atop this perch he had built for himself. Go ahead and try, he seemed to be goading, do it on a broader-scale and for a global audience so the whole world watching on can see it and condemn you.

Staring ahead across the closed casket of Lupe Fiasco and the rainbow of wreaths that surrounded it, Frib studied Mike with his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Did you hear she’s awake?” he heard someone ask.

Frib frowned as another nudged him in the ribs with an elbow.

“Who?”

“His wife. Rashell. Heard from one of the girls on desk earlier she came out of her coma. The kid’s good too apparently, all things considered.”

“No, I didn’t know. That’s great,” the young detective murmured.

“I still can’t believe the man’s going to be a father,” Joel seemed to wonder with a dubious pout.

“Talk about a kid that will want for nothing,” Benji agreed.

“You talk about the second coming, this is the **** right here, Mike’s kid won’t just walk on water, man, look at who he has as a father. He’s set for life.”

“What are you jealous or something? You want to have a little cry about it?”

“No, do you?”

“Jesus Christ.”

“My point exactly.”

“Would you listen to yourself?” Benji teased. “You sound like one of his groupies. Sure you don’t want to go over there and kiss his *** too? Maybe you want to have his love child? Settle down and have a whole bunch of little Joely-Mikes or something, little half-***-tattooed freaks-”

“**** you.”

“**** me? You mean him, right?”

“Guys,” Karl warned.

Benji and Joel exchanged a guilty glance and skewed smirks before both throwing their eyes to the ground. Noticing Captain Goren watching on from a few feet away Frib also dropped his eyes and only glimpsed up again when he heard the priest resume after a pause in his sermon.

“Amen,” he said.

“Amen,” the crowd echoed. Beneath the dark classes he saw Mike join in reticently.

Mourners were sobbing as the casket began its mechanical decent down into the bowls of the earth. Frib scoffed noticing no change at all to Mike’s stoic façade.

“Wonder who he prays to?” he wondered under his breath.

“What’s that?” one of the team asked him.

Frib hesitated.

“Nothing. I’m just thinking aloud is all.”

“About?”

“About… what a farce this is. Look at it. Doesn’t it seem a little over the top to you? He and Lupe weren’t even all that close so far as we know. They were just friends. Anyone would think he was burying one of his family or something.”

“Well, a few days ago that would have been true,” Karl commented.

“What about Giovanni Ribisi’s service, you remember that, the car bombing last year?”

“What about it?”

“I’m just saying,” Frib said feeling his team mate’s eyes falling upon him one by one. “It almost seemed like a non-event, and we know they were close, he worked at his club, remember? Compared to this, you know-?”

“Think he’s playing favourites?”

“No, I just think what he’s doing is dangerous.”

“And what exactly is he doing? He’s attending a friend’s funeral. He’s showing respect.”

“He’s showing something alright,” Frib muttered.

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

Well....it was playing just as I was reading it. Hmm...coicendence? Lol. I shouldn't listen to them when I read your story.

Edit. Just saw your update. So I can read it while my red hair dye (replacing the orange/yellow in my hair) is doing it's job. Lol.

 

[Ravynlee]

He squinted through the bright sun to the cameras furiously clicking on the other side of the fence. His lips screwed up in contempt, letting his tired eyes stroll through the sea of faces. Some he recognized but most he didn’t, not that it mattered anyway. Though it was by all outward accounts a respectful send off to one of their own, to Mike, it was obviously nothing more than another platform to give Greyfoxx and now Chester Bennington the proverbial finger for the whole city to see. Maintaining focus on the businessman exchanging kisses and hugs with those now paying their respects, Frib’s eyes shifted to the regular faces standing either side of him; one big black man and one big white man, Ryu and Tak. They were Mike’s Tweedledumb and Tweedle-even-dumber in this farcical operation he refutably ran. The bulky Ryu, looking more like a retired pro-athlete to his darker friend’s ex-con look, had a graze on the side of his face, and his nose looked a little swollen and red. Frib smirked when he saw it. He wondered who had come off worst on that cat fight, Ryu or the hooker that had obviously blindsided him. Again he scoffed watching Mike console Lupe’s distraught parents with a kiss and stiff embrace. Though they were too far away to hear what was being said Frib watched their lips move and wondered what they must have been discussing. That’s when he saw her, a woman, the same woman he had seen entering Mike’s club months ago just before Rob had disappeared. Again Frib felt his thoughts stop dead in their tracks as he watched her make her way through the crowd. How was it he hadn’t seen her before this he wondered? Where had she been? Who was she? She was only a fraction closer now to what she had been that night as he saw her pass on the other side of the street before making her way past security like some kind of starlet, but even now in such sombre settings surrounded by local celebrities she still maintained that confidence and poise that made her stand out from the rest. Immediately he zeroed in on her studying her face as she passed, and felt a heat radiating outward through the rest of his body. The moment he saw her come to a stop in Mike’s welcoming arms and he kissed her cheek, it stopped, and Frib’s mouth fell open in a breathless kind of gasp.

“Forget it, little brother,” he heard Benji stir in his ear as if from some great distance. “She’s not for you. Not only does that kitten have a serious set of claws on her, but she’s also got one **** of a possessive master. You’re no competition there, big boy. Best let that one go.”

Watching Mike utter something intimate in the young woman’s ear Frib huffed out a dejected sound before he lowered his eyes in a sulk to the ground. Figured. The man already had everything at his disposal; a fancy house, expensive car, tailored clothes, even a doting wife and a son on the way, and more money and friends he could count in a life time, of course, why shouldn’t he also have all the gorgeous women in the city falling at his feet too? Frib scowled. It wasn’t fair, in fact, it was more than unfair it was unjust. The whole adage about crime not paying made no sense at all to the young detective’s mind – he saw the benefits it reaped all the time, and still somehow with all his morals and scruples of living a good life by the laws he had sworn to uphold, he still never seemed to get anywhere. He was forever behind the 8-ball, struggling to break even on a cop’s salary, struggling to make a name for himself in a city of rock stars and corporate thieves, struggling to make a difference for the better when it seemed like everyone else around him were driven by their own desires, turning a blind eye when it suited them, and reigning down fire and brimstone when they were otherwise forced. This wasn’t a life, this was a joke, and the worst part about it all was that every day he was allowing it, allowing people like Mike Shinoda to take the **** out of him and everything that he held dear purely for the sake of not wanting to make waves. But the young detective was tired of going home to his dingy little apartment, of eating the same undernourished food for one from a can, tired of sleeping in his big lonely bed dreaming of a happier life that always seemed to be just out of his reach. He wanted what people like Mike Shinoda had, even just a little taste, and it ate him up inside to think he never would, that he had to be like a man of the cloth and give up all the best parts of life just because of an oath he had sworn to his country and to his ***.

Blinking up Frib stared again at the woman at Mike’s side with envy. He berated himself for being the only one not to wear glasses to this shindig but ignored the stares of others to focus straight ahead. He couldn’t help it, but nor did he want to. In his own little masochistic way, Frib almost wanted Mike to look up and see the young detective ogling Mike’s girlfriend. His heart was beating with an illicit little thrill at the thought of their eyes meeting across the sea of flowers and people in tears, and a silent kind of battle would wage on between them. But the minute he saw the young woman’s eyes meet his Frib’s eyes took an immediate and reflexive dive towards once more the ground. His face was hot and his heart was racing. It was ridiculous of course, she hadn’t seen him, she hadn’t even been looking for him as she stood there surveying the crowd like seemingly everyone did around the pinnacle of Mount Shinoda, but still Frib seemed to pulsate with a raw kind of vulnerability beneath her gaze. Hearing the stirring amusement of his co-worker Frib dredged his eyes up and pretended with his jaw tight that nothing was wrong.

But everything was.

This fine sunny day had darkened even if there wasn’t so much as a solitary cloud in the sky.

Staring ahead Frib tried not to focus on the way Mike moved about the crowd and the young woman in shapely black suit pants and top followed. She really was like his pet in some ways but rather than sympathize with her plight Frib fought hard to block out this defensiveness he could feel rising within him. There was no point trying to save someone who didn’t want to be freed, how many times following a rudimentary drug raid had he comforted a battered woman only to see her go back to her psychotic abuser, stitched up and apologizing mere hours later as if all sense of logic and commonsense had been literally beaten out of her? Being a cop had toughened him on many things, but the one thing he was not able to harden himself against was his own inner demons. He wanted to know this girl, **** he would settle right now for a conversation, but it was clear faced with such insurmountable odds, and the goading remarks and stares from those around him, that he was, as usual, going to remain empty-handed.

“May as well stick your **** in a bear trap,” Benji winked as he began walking forward. “Be safer.”

Feeling someone else console him with a clap on the back Frib remained staring ahead as the woman and Mike made their way from the grounds along with the now dispersing throng. His scowl hardened like cement on his face as a few feet away Joel was walking into the comforting arms of his fiancé Joanna and Joanna’s baby girl Haily. He snorted to himself.

Some people had all the luck, he scoffed derisively. When would it be his turn? Would it ever?

 

[Ravynlee]

Then with a sigh the young detective turned his back and followed the rest of his taskforce team away from the hallowed grounds.

“You mean you’re not even going to go over there? Come on, *****. Let’s go say hello.”

“Benji, no-” Frib gasped. It was all he could manage feeling the other man reach out and drag him by the arm away from his friends and across the grass, weaving through the crowd like two men on a mission.

“Oh relax. And pick your chin up. Chicks like a guy who’s in control. Look at the big guy she’s with for instance. If this works you’ll thank me.”

“And if it doesn’t?” Frib murmured in a mild panic. Benji was chuckling but in truth Frib was too embarrassed to laugh along. The thought of picking up anyone at a funeral was in the worst possible taste imaginable and he of all people was not so desperate to try it.

“Look at it this way, small fry, we’re in a cemetery, yeah?” Benji winked. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“Thanks,” Frib murmured.

A few feet away he saw Mike notice them and come to a stop on the gravelled path in anticipation. Unable to think of anything else to say Frib remained tight-lipped, doing his best good-cop impression as the young woman at Mike’s side noticed them too and met the younger man’s eyes. Frib thought he was going to have a heart attack right there on the spot as he studied the ground passing under his shoes until they came to an eventual stop. Then he looked up again – into Mike Shinoda’s masked eyes.

“Ah, what do we have here? Officers from our favourite Narcotics department,” Mike smiled in his most affable way.

Frib was almost certain he was striking a pose for the cameras still clicking away in the distance as he reached out and offered his hand in greeting. Benji shook it as though they were old friends. It was his team mate’s unflappable nature that had Frib smiling until he felt Mike’s hand against his. Again he froze and stared into eyes much darker than Frib could remember. So much had happened since their last and initial face-to-face meeting that Frib was able to see the lines crinkling the corners of the businessman’s eyes even behind the dark lenses of his sunglasses. Mike looked to have aged overnight but he still wore it well. It was clear despite the pressure he was under, both on a professional and personal level, that each had left their indelible mark on him in ways that would never be undone. But Frib wasn’t interested in studying this hardened edge to Mike’s face; it was to the young woman he now stared.

“Benji, Benji Madden, hey how are you?” Benji offered along with his hand in the young woman’s direction.

At first she just seemed to stare at it, and him, with cold regard. Mike chuckled.

“Uh, gentlemen, may I introduce you to Phoenix, my… close personal assistant.”

“Phoenix?” Benji asked with his head slightly cocked aside. “We used to know of a cop named Phoenix a while back, beat cop, no relation are you?”

Again Mike and the young woman shared their secretive little smirk as Frib and Benji watched on with bemusement. It had all the earmarks of an inside joke that they weren’t about to share with anyone else. So to dispel the awkward lapse into silence Frib cleared his throat as Benji grinned at her.

“So what’s that, like Cher or Madonna or something; Phoenix? So famous you don’t need a second name?”

In spite of her calculating façade the young woman smiled. It was small and like something a snake would do if it were capable, but set against such smooth tanned skin with a hint of feminine softness and those cool dark eyes the gesture still made the young detective’s heart inflate with longing.

“Something like that,” she said. And then she reached out and accepted Benji’s extended hand.

“And this here’s one of my buddies Kris Friðbjörn. We just call him little brother for short.”

Nervously Frib extended his hand feeling a sharp pang in place of his previous joy noting the way she took his hand and let go with her eyes barely leaving Benji’s. The spiel he had began forming on his lips died unspoken, almost convinced she hadn’t even heard his name nor did she seem to care what it was. Little brother? It sounded like an insult! Then she chuckled. The young detective’s eyes narrowed in disbelief but were gone again in an instant as Mike initiated small talk.

“So, have you managed to hunt down those responsible for what happened the other night?” he asked.

“Not yet, no.”

“Uh,” Mike nodded the way a parent would having been proven right and was subsequently gloating in it. “Well, I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time, what with NYPD’s finest on the case and all.”

Frib nodded feeling his skin crawl at the insinuation but said nothing. Beside him Benji was devoting too much attention to this woman named Phoenix. It was an odd name and Frib was almost certain it wasn’t her real name but couldn’t for the life of him take a guess at what her real name could have been. She intrigued him now on close quarters even more than she had from several metres away and he was having a hard time fighting it. Benji however was making no bones about his intentions. He was practically grinning at the tiny woman who’s face seemed to take up both lenses of his dark sunglasses.

“Well… we’re sorry for your loss,” Frib said. It was better than leaving the silence to fester awkwardly amidst them. Watching people pass with a cordial nod Mike accepted the comment with a sigh.

“Yeah. He was a good guy.”

“And… I hear your… your wife-?”

“Yes, she’s doing much better. Now. Touch and go there for a bit but she’s pulled through. Thank ***.”

Yeah, I bet you do, Frib scoffed to himself.

“Well, give her all the best from us, won’t you?” Benji finally contributed to Mike’s apparent relief. “And your kid. I saw the interview the other night on TV. I was meaning to congratulate you-”

“Oh, that, yeah,” Mike smiled. It resembled a dog guarding his prized bone. “And same to you I hear. Like, more congratulations are in order. You’re going to have a new sister-in-law, and a niece? A ready-made family, isn’t that fortunate?”

“You know about that?”

“You know this city. News travels fast,” Mike excused, his smile unwavering. Benji nodded. Then, unbelievably, he even extended the businessman an invitation to Joel’s bucks party that Mike seemed to genuinely consider. “I’ll see what I can do. But thanks. Promise to keep it in mind.”

Another perfect opportunity for you to steal someone else’s thunder, Frib thought to himself. Then he stopped. The woman named Phoenix was staring at him. Frib impulsively thought she had somehow heard exactly what he had been thinking – and obviously disapproved.

“Well, it was nice meeting you gentlemen, but I’m afraid we have a wake to attend. Why don’t you join us?”

“Can’t,” Benji declined, peeling open his jacket just enough to reveal the golden badge inside of it. “Still on duty.”

“Well, that’s too bad,” Mike lied. He slid his arm around the woman impelling her along side him. “Perhaps some other time.”

“Of course.”

“All the best for your brother, from me.”

“And your wife.”

With proprietary nods Mike and Phoenix strolled away followed by Ryu, Tak, and a handful of others as they made their way to waiting cars.

“Some things never change,” Frib heard Benji scoff as the two of them turned and headed back in the other direction. But at first Frib was too frustrated to speak.

“What the **** were you doing?” he blurted out eventually.

Benji too stopped walking and turned to smile at him.

“What?”

“What do you mean what? I thought you said she was out of my league?”

“No,” Benji corrected, his smile growing downright sly as he resumed walking. “You said that. I said she was dangerous. I happen to find that quality appealing in a woman. I’m up for the challenge. What can I say, little brother, you snooze, you lose, huh?”

With a chuckle Benji clapped Frib on the back as he wandered ahead leaving Frib behind with his eyes wild and his mouth agape.

---

​

 

[Ravynlee]

---

​

“What were you doing back there?” Mike asked her.

Mel shrugged settling backwards into the soft leather.

“I don’t know. Nothing.”

“You were flirting.”

Mel’s mouth opened in response but no words immediately came out. For a moment she seemed to think before she confessed, “He seemed nice enough,” and shrugged.

“Uh hu,” Mike grunted.

He was staring out the window as the rolling green lawns slid past and had been from the moment they’d gotten in to the car. It was clear his mind was already miles ahead of them, but then again that was how it usually was with him at any given moment of the day. It seemed to take on a whole new depth as the cemetery and mourners and reporters all crying for a comment slipped away behind them.

“Let me tell you something,” he said at last as though he were imparting words of great wisdom she would do well to heed. “Nice girls fall for bad guys, not the other way around, you get what I’m telling you?”

Sliding his eyes aside Mike looked at her and held her focus until Mel looked away. She huffed and screwed up her lips like she had just been lectured. On some level she had and she hated him when he got like this.

“What are you saying, that I can’t move on with my life? He left me, okay, not the other way around.”

“I know, you told me.”

“I deserve a little happiness in my life.”

“Yes you do, but not with him. People like our detective friend… well, let’s just say, they’re a dime a dozen in this city. You can do a lot better.”

“You’re not my father, Mike.”

“No, I’m not,” he agreed patiently in his calm and articulate way, “but I am your friend and I’m just doing what friend’s do, I’m looking out for you. I’d hate to see you get hurt again so soon after… what was his name again?”

“Shwag,” Mel uttered.

“That’s it,” Mike smiled.

Seeing it Mel sniffled lost to her reflection superimposed over the city sweeping by on the other side of the tinted glass. Though it was quiet in the vehicle’s interior she didn’t think Mike had heard. She didn’t really care if he had. She shifted in her chair uncomfortably feeling his eyes on her as the car took a corner.

“Any word on his whereabouts yet?”

“No.”

“Well… I’m sure he’s fine, wherever he is,” Mike stated.

Slowly Mel rolled her eyes to face him. She stared until Mike met it with his half-hearted smile.

“Do you know where he is?”

“No,” Mike shook his head.

“Would you tell me if you did?”

With a scoff Mike rolled his eyes aside to stare out the window again. The city was lumbering past at a lazy pace but the look on Mike’s face suggested he wasn’t seeing any of it. Mel clenched her jaw and sunk back further in her seat like some rebellious teenager. The tension in the car was heavy but far from stifling. It could have just as easily been due to the atmosphere following like some dark cloud from the funeral service.

“You think I’d hurt him? Huh. I’m not the cold-blooded killer in this car, am I?”

“You think I did it?” Mel ground out. “I loved him. I would never do that.”

“I’m just saying,” Mike shrugged as if his point had been made regardless.

The vehicle rocked as the car slowed behind a set of lights and idled a few minutes behind traffic.

“You think I’m that much of a monster?” Mike eventually asked.

Though his words were muffled for the most part behind his fist his tone was in direct contrast to the stare he was giving the rest of the city. Mel shrugged without conviction. There was a part of her that knew she was in no position to judge someone like him but still her inner voices debated hotly.

“I never said you were one in the first place.”

“But you didn’t say I wasn’t either,” he said.

He met her eyes. A moment later he leant forward and tapped the glass. The driver on the other side of it slowed the car to a crawl. It arced towards the curb before it drew to a stop. Mike stepped out revealing a busy Manhattan street through the opened doorway.

“Where are you going?” she asked. “What about the wake?”

It was Mike’s turn to shrug as he sniffed at the spring air and shoved his fists inside his hip pockets. Though he looked well to do in his Armani suit glimpses of the old Mike, the hip-hop loving teenager trapped in a grown-man’s body, came through as he surveyed the bustling crowds and buildings through his dark glasses like someone out of place and up to no good.

“Change of plans,” he said.

He reached out and closed the door. Mel drew the window down between them.

“I’m going to stop in on an old friend for a while.”

“Need some help?”

 

[Ravynlee]

“No. You go. Put in an appearance for the both of us,” he said.

He stared ahead watching a yellow cab stream past with an advertisement for his televised interview plastered on the door. ******** up his lips Mike looked down at his shoes scuffing at the sidewalk. When he looked up it was in the other direction. It was anywhere but at Mel’s cautious and curious face.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’ll see you around. Might stop in and visit Rashell later. At the hospital.”

“Okay.”

“Keep your cell on. I’ll call you if I need you.”

Mel nodded. She hated the way she felt inside with those few words but forced a smile regardless. It was her duty after all, she didn’t have to like it, she just had to do her job and that was all there was to it. Be his slave girl. That was what it felt like, anyway.

“Here.”

Noticing the money Mike was feeding in through the window Mel balked and blinked up in shock.

“Take it,” he urged, still studying something across the car’s roof as though he were too distracted to face her or the look on her face personally. “Get yourself something. Whatever kids your age are into now. You deserve it. Like you said.”

Mel frowned. Though the offer was appreciated it was actually daunting coming from someone like Mike. It almost sounded, at least to her ears, like a threat – or worse, inferring their recent argument in the car about him trying to ‘father’ her – it was a little late in life to be attempting that. Maybe it was his paternal instincts finally kicking in, maybe the bullet that grazed his arm and had lodged itself inside his wife’s ribcage had given him a new perspective on things, and then again maybe he was just buying her compliance. When he added something about getting herself a treat to help take her mind off Shwag Mel’s defences finally went down. Her heart sank along with it. Though she had gone out the night he had left to sell the ring he had given her in spite, Mel hadn’t been able to part with it and she felt even more of a failure in her inability to do so. In spite of everything she still loved him and she probably always would, she missed the little things about him that she couldn’t possibly share with anyone else, like the smell of his skin when she woke up of a morning in his arms, or the way his eyes seemed to hold all the answers of the universe those times they would just sit together and smile without so much as a word passing between them. She missed him but she didn’t want Mike to know how much, nor did she want to let her guard down in such a vulnerable manner. The rest of the guys would be like vultures, like sharks sensing blood in the water, and she wouldn’t be able to tolerate their snide remarks and their blatant disrespect when they faced her not as one of them but instead as nothing more than an ‘emotional woman.’ Mel needed them to fear her. She didn’t want to lose standing in anyone’s eyes, especially those she so closely worked with. She had a reputation to uphold, and though it sometimes felt like it cost her more than she had inside to give, she forced it because she had to, she had to save face, she was a warrior, and sometimes a warrior’s greatest strength wasn’t measured by stamina but something less tangible but just as real – her spirit, her heart. Shwag’s departure had left an ugly scar inside but Mel fought hard not to show it. She couldn’t. At least, she thought she hadn’t. Glimpsing now into Mike’s face, or that part not masked behind those ridiculously large and secretive glasses, Mel felt her certainty slipping away with the passing seconds.

“You don’t have to do that,” she said.

It wasn’t like she didn’t have the money; she had been well compensated for her efforts at least financially. But Mike wasn’t willing to take no for an answer, the man was as stubborn as they came. Eventually Mel reached out and took the cash from him. It was as much a bribe as it was guilt money. For all the things Mike wanted to say the silence and the face of Ben Franklin on the crisp notes were forced to say it instead for him. Mel uttered a word of thanks and Mike nodded at her. The smell of flowers and car exhaust wafted past on the slipstream of a passing garbage truck.

“I’ll call you,” he said.

Then he tapped the car’s roof, stepped back, and watched the vehicle pull away from him. The imposing steel and glass monolith that was ‘The New York Times’ building shot up into the sky like a giant mirror penetrating the heavens. Surveying the sidewalk and shifting his fists further inside his hip pockets, Mike bowed his head and made his way towards the nearest revolving door and discreetly slipped inside.

---

​

 

[Ravynlee]

---

​

Juicy Couture, the billboard read.

Cocking her head to the side Ravyn read it again as if trying to gain something significant from it. The scantily clad blond, brunette and typically sulking male model between them stared in opposing directions, striking amorous poses. With a frown Ravyn followed their line of sight. To her left more billboards, more crowds, more traffic in jams, to her right the exact same thing. The sky above was lazy and boring. The sidewalk beneath her feet was dull in shadow. Juicy Couture, the sign said. Ravyn frowned down at her baggy jeans and loose grey parker that she’d worn from Green Meadows and made a self-conscious grunt. How the mighty had fallen. This was how angels falling from Grace must have felt, she thought to herself. Then she scoffed again in reprimand. She didn’t believe in the Bible, she didn’t even believe in ***, how could she? What kind of comfort could she glean from an entity that toted the words ‘suffer the little children to come unto me,’ was He running a pedophile ring up there or something? She didn’t like the idea of anyone up in space or within arm’s reach telling her how she should live her life, she was in control, she wasn’t some worthless meat-puppet on a string being dangled about like the rest of humanity. She couldn’t understand the idea that anyone could worship anything they couldn’t see. She wasn’t comforted by the notion of His grand plan either, and when she looked up into the sky she didn’t think of heaven she just saw clouds. If there was a *** she hated Him as He must have hated her. He had taken away everything that had meant anything to her and nothing would ever compensate her that fact.

Kicking at the sidewalk with her sneakers Ravyn shoved her fists inside her jacket pockets and stirred uncomfortably beneath the cooling shade. Her flesh crawled but she wasn’t cold. She sniffled as she studied the street choked with people with her eyes narrowed and nervous.

Where the **** was he?

“Ready?”

With his arm around her Nick was moving her forward across the sidewalk before she even met his eyes. He was smiling at her but he looked distracted. The sunlight was too bright out and the weather too warm. She didn’t like spring with its pollens and fresh-faced babies and the songs of love springing up everywhere, give her the blustery grey winds of autumn any day.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

It didn’t really matter where they were headed, for once in her life she was free of obligation, having no job to hurry to, no nagging family to answer to, not even so much as watch to suffer by, she was freer than she had ever been, but there was an eerie chill to that knowledge too not knowing where the next meal was coming from or when and where they would be spending the next night she could feel slowly creeping up upon them.

“Nowhere,” Nick answered.

He was focused intently ahead.

A man walking towards them bumped him in the shoulder. He didn’t so much as stop to apologize. Ravyn glared at him but the man just kept walking. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Nick’s hand slide into his pocket and she thought she saw a glimpse of something small and silver disappear inside. A moment later his hand withdrew. It was empty.

“What?” he smiled at her. Ravyn smiled back. It was weak and uncertain.

“Want something?” he asked.

He nodded ahead to the familiar golden arches of a McDonalds restaurant. Though Ravyn was hungry she shook her head. Behind her the three pouting models on the Juicy Couture billboard were watching on in reprimand.

“I thought we didn’t have any money?”

“C gave me a couple bucks. Wanted me to get smokes for him. I’ve got some change left over.”

Ravyn continued to frown back dubiously.

“Come on. My treat. What, you’ve got more important things to do than let a guy take you out to dinner?”

“To McDonald's?”

“Hey, you want fine dining you can go back to the clinic,” Nick said with a toothy grin.

It was hard to tell whether he was being serious or sarcastic so Ravyn said nothing.

Feeling his arm tug at her playfully she chuckled along with him. Still she was guarded. Something about the look on his face troubled her, and she still didn’t know him well enough to perceive what he might have been thinking. Avoiding his piercing blue eyes she shrugged down at the sidewalk. She could practically feel her stomach muscles clenching but she didn’t want to come across too eager. He was paying for her food but in the back of her mind she was anxious at the prospect of what she would owe without having any real collateral by which to pay him back.

Inside they took a back corner booth and ordered their meals. The restaurant wasn’t busy but it was cramped and ugly. Cardboard cut outs of the restaurant’s mascots grinned idiotically from either end of the counters and the air conditioning only circulated that same stale burger and grilled meat smell that was recognized universally. Devouring her burger and fries Ravyn sucked her fingers of the oil feeling the food sink like lead inside of her stomach. Her appetite once kindled couldn’t be satiated and she ate another helping before Nick had even finished his first. Guiltily she sat in her seat watching a mother soothe her baby a few tables away. Her eyes lowered miserably and her appetite was now gone. When she looked up Nick was watching her.

“Done?” he urged.

Inside she wanted to shake her head but externally she felt herself nod. She cringed and followed him back outside.

Afternoon in Manhattan was chaos personified. Traffic was clogged back as far as the eye could see and people in suits and heels were clattering their way past struggling to make it home on time before night set in. Though the sky was not yet starting to fade it was starting to lose its warmth as a chill began settling over the city. Drawing the hood of her parker up Ravyn shuddered against the unseen breeze. She felt sick now and the scents of fried food and exhaust fumes and perfume and the general stench of a city in motion was only making it worse. More than ever she could feel that instinctual pull for home in her stomach. Maybe it was indigestion. Thinking of Joanna and Haily Ravyn studied the sidewalk rather than reveal her vulnerabilities so openly on her face. Smoking a cigarette a few feet away Nick was wandering restlessly.

 

[Ravynlee]

“So, where do you want to go now?” he asked.

Ravyn shrugged with her hands still drawn into fists inside her jacket pockets.

“I don’t know.”

“We’ve got the whole city to ourselves and that’s all you can say?”

“Well, I don’t know. Where do you… normally go?”

“Me? Anywhere. Nowhere. If I feel like going somewhere I just go.”

“Don’t you need money to do that?”

Nick smirked as he sucked the last vestige from his smoke and tossed it away. He chuckled. It sounded like a cartoon villain scoffing in the face of danger. Making his way over to her Nick reached out to take her hand. At first Ravyn didn’t give it to him. She looked around feeling awkward again, out of place, lost like a tourist in her own back yard. In a week she had gone from someone to nothing, she had been chewed up and spat out again, and reborn to a life now that she had no knowledge of. It was like learning to walk again as she felt his hand take hers and felt the world shift on its axis, making things normal again – or at least as normal as they were going to be now.

Nick had a place in mind he wanted to show her. He led her without pomp or ceremony down the busy street like any other couple that traversed it before. Only time seemed to be moving a little different around her, she couldn’t see it, but she could feel it, it was like watching the trail of car lights against a darkened street, delayed and contorting. Feeling the food starting to set like cement in her system Ravyn’s tread began to slow along with it. She felt heavy and tired. She just wanted to go home but knew the home she yearned for no longer existed for her anymore; she was chasing ghosts and had been all her life. Coming to a stop outside some basement club Ravyn felt her palms grow clammy beneath Nick’s.

“I can’t,” she struggled out.

Though the building was nondescript in this veritable plethora of run-down photocopies, something about it made her blood run cold. There was no one guarding the door and darkness now gathering on the descending steps was tainted red from the internal lights. Something about the way it pooled reminded her of congealed blood. That was probably the idea. It was a bar popular with Goths, metal-heads, and other unaffiliated types that opposed mainstream culture. It also just happened to be the place, he told her, where the woman known as Chester Bennington’s successor Greyfoxx was reported to frequent. Since Chester’s release people had flocked to it hoping to catch a glimpse of the infamous pair that had once practically had this city on its knees. Most nights had people lined up for hours just to get in, but during the day however it was nothing but another clubhouse where the disillusioned and disparaging would meet and seek shelter from the blinding sun and heat outside.

Nick however was amused by her protest.

“Come on, we used to come here all the time, me and the Chemist,” he said as if it were meant to appease her. “I know them here, they’re cool, trust me.”

Ravyn stared at the windowless façade chewing her lip unsurely.

“Why do you call him that?” she asked.

“I don’t know. That’s just his name. That’s just what we used to call him. Easier, you know.”

“Do you have another name too?”

“Why do you ask? You hear something?” Nick smiled at her.

Ravyn smiled back and for a moment actually meant it. Though he looked rough with his face shaded in growth and a little dirty, he still resembled something of a mischievous kid with his eyes like frozen seawater staring back at her.

“He gives me the creeps,” Ravyn blurted out a moment later.

Nick laughed.

“What?”

“Chester-”

“Shh!”

“I mean-”

“You don’t ever say his name here, okay? Not out loud,” Nick warned. He had grabbed her arm and dragged her close, admonishing her with a matching stare. “It’s not safe. Not yet.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“You want to get us killed? He’s laying low remember? A slip up like that can get us all killed. Are you willing to die for something like that?”

Ravyn shook her head, her body rigid and tense tucked in cowardly against her shoulder. Nick’s breaths were blasting down over her hotly. He huffed out a sound rather than say anything more. Ravyn apologized again.

“I didn’t mean to insult him, I just… you know… I know he’s been inside for a while but I don’t like the way he looks at me. It doesn’t feel right.”

“Give the guy a break,” Nick said discreetly. “He hasn’t had a woman in two years, he’s only human. The man has needs. Right now, he’s probably not feeling too choosy.”

Ravyn pouted and nodded as if she understood but sniffled to herself dismally.

“Okay, wait here,” he said.

He added that he had business to attend to inside and he would only be gone a moment. She nodded watching him hurry down the stairs feeling her heart racing at a million beats per second. With frantic eyes she looked around, scouring the streets for something she didn’t yet know. She wanted to run but there was no direction to head. She had no money, no friends, no bridge left unburnt that she could safely cross, and there was no way of knowing what she was walking into by attempting to reach out to her sister again. For all his faults Nick had been right, her family had turned on her and she was asking for what she got if she willingly went back there to seek any kind of absolution. No, she had left her past behind when she left Green Meadows, no even before that, when she had walked out of her sister’s house. No, when she had left Rob so soon after losing Nicky. Staring down at the sidewalk Ravyn sighed heavier than she had in a long time. When she looked up it was to the sound of yelling.

 

[Ravynlee]

“Bully! Hey, Bully! Get your ******’ *** back here you son of a *****-!”

“Run!” Nick demanded in her ear.

Before Ravyn knew what was happening she felt his fingers snag her arm and drag her up the footpath. She ran blindly driven by sheer instinct. She didn’t know what she was running from or why until she heard the sound of what sounded like gunshots behind her. She screamed.

“Go! Go!” Nick was yelling at her.

In a mad dash the pair sprinted across the road and rounded a corner where the sounds of yelling and chaos died away behind them. Ravyn’s lungs felt like they were bursting though she had only run a few blocks. By the time they took another corner Ravyn’s legs were turning to jelly. Her run shifted gears from a jog to a skip to a breathless wander. When Nick realized she wasn’t going to keep up he rushed back to her and took her by the arms.

“We have to go now!” he barked as if she were an idiot.

Ravyn squinted up at him.

“Why? What were they- shooting at us for? What did you- do? What-?”

“Nothing,” Nick lied.

He made a strange kind of wincing sound like a man battling his inner demons as he strode away hotly then came back again.

“Okay I ****** up, you happy? Is that what you wanted to hear?”

“How?”

“Those guys… I owe them some money… I didn’t think they’d be there, that’s all… Look, we have to keep moving. If they catch us- alright?”

“Why were they calling you that? Why did they-?”

“Look, it doesn’t matter alright? We have to go. We have to move now, come on.”

“I can’t,” Ravyn wheezed.

She was in no condition to be running for her life through the back streets of New York but with a stomach full of fast food and with the fear and adrenalin now coursing through her system her limbs were rendered beyond useless. She was shaking so bad she couldn’t control it. Looking frustrated Nick rubbed his face then ran his fingers through his hair. That was when a car turned a corner towards them. In an instant he tore the pistol from his back pocket and pointed it at the car’s windscreen.

Ravyn choked on a muffled squeal.

“Get out of the car! Get out of the car! I’ll shoot you, I swear to ***!”

The man on the other side of windscreen slowed the car and raised his hands in automatic submission. Nick reefed the door open and with a fistful of collar reefed the man out. Ravyn stared at him. The man glaring at her with his gun trained on his victim was alien to her, she was beyond terrified, she didn’t know him or recognize him as being the carefree Nick she knew at all.

“Get in!” he barked at her.

Obediently she did as she was ordered. Once inside she slammed the door shut with a loud bang. The vehicle rocked. Nick was busy dragging the other man away. Terrified but drawn by a morbid sense of curiosity she watched on the edge of her seat bracing herself for the second she expected to hear the gun go off and the man’s head would spray all over the sidewalk. But when she saw Nick rush over and slip in behind the wheel her relief was short lived. Though he hadn’t murdered anyone he was now car-jacking them. The terror gave way to a tiny thrill that made her smile through the nausea as she watched him slam his door shut and reef the gearstick with hot agitation. As the car lurched forward Ravyn’s head turned on it’s axis, looking for the man to appear behind the car, shaken but otherwise uninjured. That was when she felt the cold hand of shock slam into her face at the realization that she thought she knew the guy. He was pulling himself up with his arm tucked in against his rib cage and wearing a strange kind of hat that made him look like he had the ears of a beagle. That wasn’t the worst of it. What little breath she had was wrenched from her lungs when she looked down and realised there was another person on the back seat staring at her. It was a child, a small girl, with a familiar squared face and the most intense blue eyes she had ever seen staring back at her wide and wet in horror.

“Mommy,” she squeaked with a voice barely human.

Reaching out Ravyn gripped Nick’s arm. She couldn’t speak. Irritably he swung his eyes around to see what was back there and swore out loud when he saw her.

“Jesus Christ,” he uttered now, his voice shaking from the rush of adrenalin. “Where the **** did she come from?”

“Nick,” Ravyn uttered, unable to tear her eyes away from the traumatized child. “Do you know what we just did?”

“Yeah, we just stole a ******* car with someone’s ******* kid in it, I know, alright!” he snapped.

Ravyn shook her head and slowly, anxiously, faced him. Her lips were dry but her eyes were wet as she stared a moment, barely able to comprehend it herself.

“No… I think we just found Chester’s- The Chemist’s daughter. It’s his kid, I know it – And I think we just stole her. What the **** are we going to do?”

---



​

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

YEAH WHAT THE **** ARE YOU GONNA DO DAMMIT?

How about give Sarah's daughter back??? THINK OF SARAH NOT CHESTER !! Chester is as useful as a father to Ava as me trying to read instructions properly when dying my own hair!!

Sorry lol. I had to write what I yelled at the screen.

Spice Girls is the best music to listen to when reading this story I've concluded.

Wow. This story DOES **** with your head (or is it just mine?? I'm dead set certain it's mine that it likes to **** with a lot).... a lot.

Congrads. Good chapters.

 

[crazy robster]

Breathtaking...every bit of it... I just can't wait for a Mike-Chaz confrontation and of course see what happens with Rob!! He SHOULD show up again at some point right? I would never believe he died. Robbie, my darling drummer boy *snuffle* If that were a TV series sis I would make sure the VCR worked overtime to record all the episodes so I could watch it again and again! Brilliant!

PS: Ain't our Fribsy the cutest guy? Blushing lil darling how squeezable he is *squeezes Fribs*

 

[Ravynlee]

Haha aww yeah - imagine it on TV, haha that'd be amusing to say the least! (Imagine what I could write if this were for mature audiences, rather than this G/PG rating *insert evil laughter here* Oh ***, what fun!)

Anyway, thanks sis, and Sarah. Appreciate your passion screaming at the screen like that. But hey, at least you know she's alive now... sorta... haha

Fribs, yeah, he's always sweet regardless the role he plays - he has his moments but still, can't help but like the guy. Haha. Way to go, Frib has a fan-base *thumbs up for Fribs*

As for Rob *shrugs*

Thanks again.

More later.

 

[crazy robster]

Oh my sweet I got this sudden flash of inspiration like a thunderbolt in my head about the way you can end the story like I told you during our chat earlier. It has to do with Rob of course...Since you told me you have no idea about whether you should bring him back like POW "I'm alive" or not...

I love my Robbie... the scene that played in my head was so poignant that LITERALLY (I'm not ******** you) made my hairs stand and my eyes go misty. Well, I guess an artistic way to end this story would be with a happy incident like, let's say, Joanna and Joel's wedding. Now picture this as I'm describing it, though of course, my description will be more like a TV episode, meaning it will also have a music theme playing in the background.

There's Joel waiting for Joanna at the altar. He's all shiny and glowing and happy. The garden is packed with people all smiling happily and waiting for the big moment. Joanna crosses the aisle with a beaming smile in her face, wearing a white gown, holding a bouquet in her hands, looking at Joel with adoration. Somewhere near we can see Ravyn watching proudly next to her significant other (I dunno who you will choose I just want you taken by the end of the story), Benji with his new girlfriend, all the crew, whoever you want anyway and all of a sudden... TAH DAH! The theme starts playing in the background... "I dreamed I was missing..." (Linkin Park's Leave Out All the Rest for those of you who are not quick in recognising lyrics ) Slow motion scene...Rob appears somewhere in the back of the garden behind some bushes (or hedge, I leave the choice to you) with a Jesus Christ look on his face, something like a man who's suffered a lot but has come to terms with his fate and can do nothing but accept it. His eyes are sad but the rest of his countenance is peaceful. He's standing there in the back all alone, looking at the happy couple *keep picturing that with the song playing in the background ok?* His eyes stop on Joanna's smiling face...then looks aside at his daughter...then back at Joanna. This is the moment when she accidentally sees him too. In the background the song plays "When my time comes forget the wrong that I've done, help me leave behind some reasons to be missed..." Joanna freezes there looking back at him...No one else has seen him. His eyes look straight in hers with a sad yet loving look. He smiles and turns his back to slowly walk away while the song ends "...don't resent me, when you're feeling empty, keep me in your memory, leave out all the rest..." Then THE END and credits...:'''''''(

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH Almost made me cry for good...Poor Robbie, what a tragic figure... But anyway yeah this is how it played in my head. I found it brilliant for an ending and thought I'd share *hugs*

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

****.

You two women rant more than me talking on the phone.

Now I know why you are sisters.

Lmao.

 

[Ravynlee]

Aww my *** sis that was soooo sweet! Now you know I am not a huge fan of hallmark moments and stuff but that truly was adorable... I could SEE it, **** I could FEEL it, poor Robbie (why does he never have a happy ending that man I wonder?? Poor schmoo) But anyway, it was intense. Visual. Sensory. Dramatic. Only thing is at the end I saw Rob walking into a kind of glare. I don't want to say bright light like at the end of the tunnel business, that would assume he's dead and I don't know if he actually is for the purposes of this story or not, but the way I saw it, it was like he walked away and if you were inside looking out (from say Joanna's POV) you wouldn't see the street, you'd just see glare. So he disappears for good. In some manner, if you look at it in an esoteric level, he's walking into the light... and really disappearing for good. Either way I simply ADORE the scene you painted for me. I honestly don't know where it will fit in, be it the very end (after the Mike vs Chas confrontation) or after the proverbial smoke clears, like an epilogue or something, or maybe in a Joanna dream or something? I don't know... but I DO love it. Hope I can use it. See what comes from it. But right now sis I have to say a huge whopping thanks for that my sweet... makes my jaw drop sometimes when I see how others see this world I've created... very humbling. Thanks for helping to make it 'real' for us, at least as real as it's likely to be.

*squeeze hugs and sniffles*

<3<3<3

 

[Pheonix791989]

comeo n mum update more!! pretty please!!?? just a tiny bit more for the road.

 

[Ravynlee]

comeo n mum update more!! pretty please!!?? just a tiny bit more for the road.

I take it you liked it then??

More later. 20 pages a day is enough dammit. My eyes are going ga-ga

 

[Friðbjörn]

haha awwwww

my fanbase is the best ever then

but yeah...awkward, that character definitely resembles me, lol

can't wait to read where this goes...so are you telling me it's Frib and Phi?

 

[Ravynlee]

haha awwwwwmy fanbase is the best ever then

but yeah...awkward, that character definitely resembles me, lol

can't wait to read where this goes...so are you telling me it's Frib and Phi?

Of course! What's not to love about (the virtual) you? I don't know you face-to-face Vi (old habits, sorry) but I still think you're a pretty cool guy. Hope that shows in this. Awkward? Yes I seem to have a habit of making you rather insecure too don't I? Again, my apologies, just responding to the situation as honestly as I think it deserves. Might not personally agree with it but hey, it's entertainment if nothing else. And glad you enjoyed my little attempts at humor. I know the twins in real life can be rather playful, it's ideal in a way.

And to answer your question as it stands right now, its not even an bizarre love triangle, maybe rhombus!

You like Phi yes. Mike likes Phi. Benji likes Phi. Phi... has her options open at the moment, though she's still a bit hurt over Shwag. I dunno. See what wins, huh? Heart, brains or brawn. Aww

And you said you wanted a love interest... you failed to specify who and when, so... I kind of threw her back in there. Worked well I think. You're okay with that? See what eventuates. You may get no further than that... then again, imagine the look on Mikey boy's face if he found out you had wooed her when he couldn't.... ooooh! hahaha

Gawd I love my drama.

More later.

Thanks again.

 

[Pheonix791989]

either benji or mike.... sorry fribs but you're my brother and it would feel like im commiting incest or something like that. *cries* but no more?? aww ok.