MS - Rav's newest story

[woodyloveslinkin]

^ I'm with Mel on the good update line

But make my day and tell me that you're going to twist Ava's death like you did with Rob's death and hit me with a update (haha not literally I would totally own you in reality height has its many advantages *and disadvantages lol* back on topic now) that Ava suddenly and somehow the doctors made a mistake and she gets brought back to life! I'm still gonna kill that son of a *****...in fact, have a face off! Ravyn VS Sarah....lmao. Gotta love Sacred Heart, it's such a lovable dramatic hole.

Again, kudos, such a relief from stressing out about upcoming exams and assignments that I have barely started. Hope to see an update some time in the future and keep the updates coming please

Lol. December's Shadow is a catchy son of a ***** story to get addicted to ain't it? I've got MSS - MS Syndrome (it's like me normally lmao and that's the last thing I think everyone wants to become...individualism <3) and you've got DSS - December's Shadow Syndrome. Oh well. We can be sick together. Just make keep an eye on Rob. I have a bad feeling something is seriously going to push him into spastic crazy guy mode (think Dan as a fine example *sigh* *men*).

BTW. I saw the time of that chapter/posts (and I know I am the only that has the correct time in this thread other that you Rav) and I was like WTF? I know your a night person, but you're sick (and get better dear as well and that makes two of us...smokers cough + some **** thing Dan's little sister gave me) and you need to start going to sleep at the appropiate time try 1 am instead of that stupid time you stayed up to writing that update (I do appreciate the effort btw). I'm dead tired so I'm gonna have a nap and I even missed a class today cos of it, but take care of yourself! I worry about you sometimes.

 

[andrea]

You know what just a cured to me as I was reading this update just now? This story really need to be made into a movie. I loved Rob's confession and his "break down" for everything that he had done in the past. I also had the feeling that Mike couldn't have done anything to Rav (the Rashell character insistences are kicking in, hehe). I'm so looking forward to the ending of the "mob war" between Mike and Chester and like Jojo, I'm cheering for Mike (obviously ).

 

[Pheonix791989]

to be honest with the mob war.... im not sure who i want to win. I don't like confrontation so yeah. but if anyone has to win i guess i'd go for mike like every one else seems to be rooting for.

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

I didn't mind the confrontation. *shrugs* probs anything doesn't matter to me after the **** of the night I had last night......fever...vomiting and ******* everything else. But somehow reading this over settled my stomach then threw up again thirty seconds later....lol.

 

[Friðbjörn]

very intense, veryy good

I'm excited about how this will go

 

[Pheonix791989]

my dear sarah i believe that's what they call withdrawal. you're having withdrawal symptoms from lack of MS. wel atleast it makes senst to me. cheers.

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

Lol. withdrawal symptoms. And I thought it was just some piece of **** thing Daniel's little sister gave me.

Yep. Withdrawal symptoms all the way, now it all makes sense to me....and Daniel was going to take me to the doctors...In fact, 4 am not tired! Been sleeping for like forever!

 

[crazy robster]

Brilliant! Though I could never think Rob in his always calm and polite manners could commit such crimes!! I still feel so sorry for him His confession was the strongest part of the update! Really great sis! Adrenalin is on high levels and not only for the characters, trust me <3

 

[Ravynlee]

Hey guys, sorry it's been a while, I have been pretty sick this last week, so haven't had the strength to do much let alone write. Still not thrilled with what I've penned but had to get something done, just to keep this alive (in my head) and so you all know it's kicking... Apologies for keeping y'all waiting

So... just a few pages tonight. This was the chapter I started prior to the previous update but had to switch them around. In my copy of this story this update goes before the one I previously posted where Rob's having his confession with Fribs. Shouldn't confuse you too much - bearing in mind I'm still a little unsteady with this pneumonia so what makes sense to me might not make sense to you for real this time. Just have to pull me up and say something if something you read doesn't seem to cut it. Hopefully all's good.

So without further ado here's what I have tonight. Working on more as we speak. See what I can pull together in the next day or two

Enjoy - if you can.

---

​

Beneath the golden statue Mike stood staring at the inscription with his eyes tracing the words reverently.

"Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire to earth that hath proven to mortals a means to mighty ends."

He snorted. Shifting the cap’s brim closer against his brow Mike lowered his eyes to the cascading water with an introspective smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“M?” said a voice behind him.

“Yeah,” he acknowledged.

As he turned around his shoulders fell noticeably with relief. Facing his friend he reached out accepting Tak’s hand. The two embraced briefly and slapped each other’s backs. Tak nodded and stepped back allowing Ryu to take his place. Uttering a few words of greeting the two men embraced before retreating, and Mike’s eyes narrowed a little as he watched Ryu pull away. Though the weather was pleasant out, invariably still for a spring night, beads of sweat glistened on the other man’s temples and brow. He uttered something of a guilty sound, apologizing for his and Tak’s lateness as he smeared the back of his neck and face with his hand. Mike nodded returning his fists inside his hooded jacket with his focus unwavering. Around them a handful of eyes lingered saying nothing. They didn’t have to. Though crowds as always had gathered on the sunken plaza to stroll beneath the lit trees or to take in the ambiance of one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, the few familiar faces of Mike’s crew stood out to those who were observant enough - they were tense anxious faces amidst a chorus of laughter and sea of smiles.

“So, we all here?” Tak asked.

“Who’s missing?” asked another.

Mike rolled his eyes aside, scanning the crowds that had stopped to take photographs, to laugh and regale with the naivety of tourists, and met Jared’s eyes seriously.

“Bam,” he said.

His voice was so low only the few closest to him actually heard him over the din of the surrounding noise. As nervous glances were exchanged someone bravely uttered another name.

“Where’s Phi?”

Mike’s frown disappeared beneath the shadow cast by his hood and his cap. His broad shoulders squared themselves determinedly to match the sharp sting in his eyes. Strolling towards the crowd and careful not to stray too far amidst it, Mike wandered over towards a small escarpment of foliage and loitered as his retinue soon followed suit. Here away from the general prying eyes of the patrons and pedestrians steadily flowing from the assortment of café’s and stores above, Mike’s attentions quickly turned inwards.

“Man, she should be here by now.”

“They both should be.”

“Unless they got something to hide-”

“Enough!” Mike snapped, smartly silencing their growing unrest.

When he looked up the look on his face was dangerous. After news on Brad, and before that Rashell, Mike was a hair’s breadth from losing what tentative hold he had left on his temper and was primed to go off like an atom bomb if someone was stupid enough to provoke him - and no one particularly wanted to be in that firing line if they could at all help it. But as the seconds ticked down and the sound of conversation and revelry of the rest of the NYC crowds - enjoying the splendorous weather and without so much as a clue as to the underlying tension simmering beneath the city streets like a volcano set to erupt – grated away what little joviality was left with Mike and his crew, the eventual doubts that the duo’s now noticeable absence created came out in the open in the form of questions and speculation and now could no longer be ignored.

“No, she wouldn’t do that,” Mike defended to their distrustful stares. He shook his head and dug his fists deeper inside his jacket pockets to keep himself from swinging them in insult. “There has to be an explanation. I know, Mel, alright. If there’s a traitor here she’d be the one hunting it out. I won’t buy for a second she had anything to do with it. Bam on the other hand…”

“Yo M, man, we just like not long saw them,” Ryu said.

He was by now sweating profusely and his quick discreet gestures were now drawing everyone’s attention rather than diffusing it. Frowning sceptically Mike opened his mouth in rebuttal before he stopped, appeared to reconsider, and approached his taller friend with a less than hospitable look scored upon his face. But Ryu didn’t appear to be seeing him. Maybe he was trying to appear subservient and came off shady instead. His face was pale and his eyes, on the brief occasion they met Mike’s, were wet and glazed. To anyone else he might have appeared feverish, but to Mike, and to the worrisome stare of his big ebony counterpart beside him, Ryu looked disoriented and scared.

“What the **** is wrong with you?” Mike asked, stopping a few mere inches from his friend’s sweat-slicked face. “Are you sick?”

“I think I’m comin’ down with somethin’, man,” Ryu uttered. His teeth were beginning intermittently to chatter.

Beside him Tak was explaining how Ryu had been like this on the ride over, and even suggested, with the absence of other immediate tell-tale signs like a breath free from the reek of booze, it might have been, among other things, food poisoning. Mike pursed his lips dubiously and studied his friend. Half way through asking what Ryu had eaten Mike’s cell phone began to ring. With an irritated little hiss Mike swept his face and dug a fist inside his hip pocket. Already walking away from his posse he glimpsed down at the screen and stopped.

Phi.

“****.”

Digging his tongue into his cheek Mike glimpsed up at the many flags that gartered the plaza all lying still for the most part like dead life forms slumped against their poles. He glimpsed higher up towards the sky but his eyes never made it past the imposing bulk of the skyscraper before his focus fell once more back to Prometheus. He sighed and raised a hand signaling privacy. Jared, Tak, Ryu, Celph, and a handful of others fell back uttering words amongst themselves. When Mike raised the phone to his ear his voice was vastly different from the scathing stare to which he gave the ancient Greek Titan several meters away. Clearing his throat he readied himself to speak.

“Where are you?” was the first thing he asked her.

He listened to her explain that she was nearby, that she had information, and that she had something he needed to see, and his fingers gripped tighter to the phone. He was practically rendered mute as he clenched his jaw and slowly, carefully, turned on the spot to face his old friend Ryu.

 

[Ravynlee]

“Is that a fact?” he asked, as eventually, one by one, what remained of his crew too slowly raised their eyes to face him. Only one person wasn’t looking back in Mike’s direction, too preoccupied with sweeping his eyes or his mouth or struggling to remain upright though there was no external force by which to assault him. When everyone else realized Mike’s stare was fixed determinedly on Ryu so too did each one of them curiously and cautiously follow suit. Realizing that he was now under scrutiny Ryu blinked up and chuckled. It sounded nervous.

“What, man? Is that her?”

Mike sighed and throwing his eyes aside in disgust he shoved the phone in his pocket and cleared his throat once more.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

“Well where is she? What did she say?” Tak wanted to know.

The others were speaking but for the most part their words were garbled and drowned out in the general drone of surrounding conversation.

For a while Mike didn’t speak. With his head low and his face for the most part obscured by shadow he was studying the ground as the rest of them threw questions and comments between them. Mike didn’t appear to be hearing any of it but in true form the look on his face set like stone assured he was absorbing everything. As his companions spoke Mike took a moment to collect his thoughts and intermittently scan the crowd just to make sure no one recognized him before he looked up and stared at his friend intently.

“What?” Ryu croaked. His stance was unsteady, made all the more prominent by his attempts at masking it. “What are you looking at me like that for?” he asked as Mike continued to stare at him. “What did that ***** tell you? Yo, M, man, she’s ******* crazy, alright?”

“I doubt it,” Mike uttered.

But Ryu kept talking right over the top of him.

“I don’t know what she’s saying but- her and Bam, right- man, they jumped me, before-”

“Just stop it.”

“I’m ******’ serious man!”

“When?”

“Before Tak showed up.”

Mike turned his attentions to Tak. “Did you see anything?”

Tak slid his eyes aside to Ryu. Ryu looked back at him.

“Don’t look at him!” Mark barked, thudding himself in the chest. “Look at me! You tell me! Did you see it?”

“No.”

“No,” Mike repeated. “Are you sure?”

“Come on, man, M, Mike, you know me man,” Ryu said.

He winced. He was rubbing at his eyes so viciously that he was rendering himself blind from the force of it. But Mike wasn’t moved by his plight anymore. Whether it was his grief carried over from Brad, whether it was anger at what had happened to Rashell, whether it was something internal or something Mel had said, Mike was looking at his old friend now with fierce suspicion, and Ryu was making noises like he was sensing this tide now turning against him and felt powerless to stop it. He looked gravely ill now and he staggered backwards a step when Mike approached him. The others uttered amongst themselves. A few went to help him stand. Mike silently told them to leave him alone. He was following Ryu as the bigger man was retreating away from him, defensively at first but in a matter of seconds becoming so sluggish that he could barely stay upright. When he hit the ground people around them gawked, some even stopped and stared. Wary of the spectacle he was creating Mike strode the few meters up to Ryu and seized him by the collar. He tugged him close. Anyone else may have thought it to be nothing more than a friendly gesture in helping an obviously inebriated man. But the flash of Mike’s dark eyes screamed another story and the tension by which he held Ryu close and upright had his knuckles glowing white with the strain. By the time Tak had joined them, needling something in Mike’s ear about letting his friend go and needing to calm down and think, Ryu’s eyes were struggling to focus.

“Mike, man, don’t…” Ryu uttered. His words were low and laborious. His eyes were closing. With a fierce shake Mike forced him to open them again.

“Where were you tonight, huh?” Mike was hissing into his friend’s face as again he shook him. The rest of the gang were huddled close, making noise, conversation, causing a distraction to the wary eyes of those streaming all around them. “It was you wasn’t it? You ran down Brad, didn’t you? You come here and what, pretend you didn’t? Huh? Is that what happened? Is it? Say something!”

But Ryu’s responses, and garbled as they were, went ignored as Mike’s fingers were forcibly wrenched loose from the other man’s collar.

“M,” Tak said, his face like his voice like the look in his lowered and stinging eyes, implored him for composure. “Not here. We can’t do this **** here.”

With his jaw set tight Mike nodded and set himself right with another quick assessment of the surrounding crowds. But in that instant that he let go Ryu’s solid frame took a few steps backwards and pitched across the concrete with an arm splashing into the water. For a moment Mike stood watching as the rest of the team arced around their fallen own. He sniffed and nodded and flicked his eyes up once more at Prometheus, the titan who had risked it all for the fortunes of others. Again he snorted to himself before he looked away.

“You’re right,” he uttered, and motioned Jared and Celph to pick Ryu up. He smiled to himself but his eyes were averted. “Take him to the club. Wait for me there.”

Tak nodded. It was clear by the look on his face that he was torn between loyalties, but trusting Mike had insight enough to know what he was doing.

“What are you gonna do?”

“She tells me she has proof. I have to see it for myself.”

“Come on, man, this is Ryu! Ryu! He wouldn’t do that ****, you know that! You’ve known him for years-!”

“I knew Chester for years too,” Mike muttered, “Look at what happened.”

 

[Ravynlee]

Silent and scorned Tak kept staring at his shoes sullenly.

Reaching out Mike slapped a hand against his friend’s chest as if in consolation. He huffed his breath out in a sigh. It was dismal, yet angry, just as Tak’s was. He didn’t want to believe it himself but somehow, in some way, if he thought about it something about Ryu’s deception just seemed to add up. It had to, what he had witnessed tonight was just the proverbial icing in the cake.

“I can’t believe it. Not Ryu man. Anyone but him. He loves you. We all do.”

“I know,” Mike said, staring aimlessly in another direction as the others led Ryu back to the nearest available vehicle. “I know… either way I’ll soon find out.”

He nodded as Tak excused himself to join the rest of his companions. Reaching out again Mike stopped him. Shoving his fists in against his biceps Mike struggled with his delivery as he said, towards the dancing jets of water, “Get some bleach.”

“What?” Tak scoffed.

Mike rolled his eyes and his head aside slowly to face him. There was no humor on his face there, nor a hint there had ever been, any more.

“Bleach. What they use to clean toilets with.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” Mike said, and sniffed sharply at the warm tantalizing air of the plaza. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this tonight if it kills us. If he has anything to hide we’ll flush it out of him. One way or another.”

“Yeah, but with that?”

“You have a better solution?” Mike offered.

Tak dubiously shook his head. After the events of the last few days it was clear he wasn’t sure which way to answer. He watched Mike begin to stroll away before Mike stopped and turned back around to smile at his friend again.

“Solution; You know they use it to cut stuff with, right? Acid, **** like that. I heard that somewhere. Not all of them, but some of them. Those like our redheaded friend and ****.”

“Yeah,” Tak said vaguely, “I guess.”

“Yeah,” Mike agreed. “Maybe we could just ask him when he wakes up.”

“But you don’t think Ryu’s into-”

“It doesn’t matter what I think!” Mike snapped, in close to Tak’s face viciously. “You saw him just now! You tell me! He’s been losing it for weeks, if it’s not his ******* temper it’s his constant wailing on Melissa! He’s going overboard, he put that chick on the hospital when all I told him to do was-” Mike said, then fell silent, realizing his voice was getting too loud and too heated and in the wrong environment of all places. Clearing his throat he studied the ground a moment before he looked up to where his friends had gone, lost to the gently streaming crowd. Again his shoulders rose and fell heavily.

“Look I don’t want to believe it myself,” he uttered, his voice low, dry and parched with angst. “But what choice have I got? I’ve already lost too much that’s close to me and if anyone around me is a risk I have to act and I have to act now. We’re only as strong as our weakest link, remember that. I can’t afford to lose anyone else. If I have to, I’ll get rid of him myself. I’ll just add him to the list of former friends who’ve turned on me.”

Tak swallowed loudly and nodded. His dark eyes trailed sadly to the ground. Mike could only mimic the gesture in kind, the memory and emotion of recent events too strong still to let him lose to grief just yet. His dark eyes still smoldered and his face was still blank. Without so much as a second glance or parting word Mike bowed his head and inconspicuously made his way through the milling crowd and disappeared from sight.

---

​

 

[Pheonix791989]

ooh great update!! i wonder what I have for mike to see. lol. im glad your back mum. just get better soon ok?

 

[Friðbjörn]

very very solemn, very grave atmosphere, chilling really

hope you get better =)

looking forward to more of this

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

I hope you get better as well Great update. More.....?

 

[Ravynlee]

Thanks guys. Have another chapter almost done. Hope to have it up soon. *hugs*

 

[woodyloveslinkin]

So where's that update ma? *draws up a chair and sits*

 

[andrea]

Loved the Mike in this latest updated, lol. Although I kind of felt bad of Ryu in some of the parts of the update I'm glad he's getting what he deserves. So can't wait to see what happens next.

 

[Ravynlee]

Thanks! Glad you liked.

As for update bear with me. I have been writing yes but so far what I have isn't coherent enough to post yet. It's basically 3 or 4 parts of incomplete chapters I need to tie together, so will endeavor to do that next day or so and post as soon as I can.

Soon guys.

Thanks again.

 

[Ravynlee]

Small update, as promised. Well, AN update as promised. Have about 4 chapters to post, but was annoyed at how it was all progressing so might just have to wait and see how they go. Already re-written a few several times, deleted something like 30 pages, but decided to just post something in essence just as a bridge to get me where I really need to go. So, while I will probably kick myself later on, here's something for now to tide you over - and give me a chance to concentrate on getting Mike and Chester in the same place at the same time in the right context! :shoot:

At least SOMEONE might get what's coming to him very shortly

Enjoy, and more soon.

---

​

“Don’t,” Foxx grunted, sweeping his arm away.

Ignoring David’s sullen snort and matching stare, she pushed herself up and reached for the nearest bottle that littered her bedside table. Taking a long thirsty swig she rolled the cool glass against her forehead and expelled a sigh before she set it down. Reaching out she snapped on the nearest light. With a groan she pushed herself up to sit on the edge of the mattress and shield her eyes from the sting. Behind her she could hear the sheets rustle and David groan as he slumped backwards against the pillows. Fumbling around for a cigarette Foxx opened two packets, both empty, before she tossed them away disappointedly. She huffed out another sound of irritation.

“I’m not in the mood, alright?” she murmured.

“That’s not what you said before,” David reminded dryly.

“Well I’m saying it now!”

Glaring over her shoulder Foxx met his eyes before she swung her eyes away once more. She winced rather than say what it was she wanted to – but David already seemed to know as he sighed towards the ceiling.

“It’s him isn’t it?”

Foxx reached back and shoved at him, at the few inches of mattress that divided them and hissed out another sound like a reprimanding parent.

“Why does it always keep coming back to Chester with you?” she snapped, snapping her bra and shirt up off the end of the bed to wrench back on in quick, agitated movements. “Is that all you think about?”

“Is that all you think about?” David countered, eyeing her lazily from the pillow behind her.

He dug his fists in beneath the material to prop his head up a fraction by which to better see her, but Foxx was doing her best impression of a sulking teenager as she hurriedly made her way back into her clothes. The red glow from the cloth-draped lamp cast his bald scalp and three quarters of his face in a sombre red glow, adding a blood-like sparkle to his eyes, along with the walls and ceiling too.

Watching her with a snort David eventually pulled himself up to find his clothes as well. His joints popped and groaned accompanied by the squeaking of bed springs as Foxx lifted herself a few inches to draw her underwear back on. As Foxx reached back to flick her flowing hair back over her shoulders David sat watching a moment, his distant smile slowly being replaced by a frustrated scowl. Their moments of passion had been too fleeting and too brief in staying for his likings as he drew his knees up beneath the covers to stare at her. Even with the dim red glow the faint dark smears on her shoulders and neck made him smirk a fraction until he lost sight of them beneath the corset shirt again. The rings encircling his chin glimmered as he bowed his head towards his chest and cleared his throat. Reaching up he let out a heavy sigh as he sat scratching at his round scalp.

“You know it’s not like that,” Foxx was explaining with her back still turned. “You know how I feel about him.”

“No, actually, I don’t,” David uttered as he leant forward against his knees. He clasped his wrist against the crumpled covers with his focus barely wavering from their lowered stare. “Why don’t you enlighten me?”

Sarcasm was rife in his tone causing her to glimpse back over her shoulder again and glare at him. It took him a moment to look up. When he did the two of them locked eyes. Somewhere close by the sound of grinding guitars and a club in full swing droned back tirelessly. Sirens as always were wailing in the distance. Foxx’s shoulders fell a little as she lowered her eyes to the mattress.

“Why are you acting like this?” she murmured.

She reached for the bottle and took another long hard drink as David merely sat there watching her. A moment later, divided by silence, David reached out and snatched the bottle away from her and took a thirsty guzzle too. Foxx shook her head at him as he ran his forearm across his mouth and continued to glare.

“Like what?”

“Like this! Like some… jealous boyfriend or something. I never said I was committed to you.”

“That’s great. Thanks,” he murmured.

Foxx snatched the bottle back and took another drink before she leant forward again and set it back down on the bedside. She drew her boots over and began tugging them on as behind her she felt the mattress shift as David stood up and pulled his clothes on. Against her better judgement, Foxx stopped what she was doing, leant over her lap and crossed her arms defensively.

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it came out,” she uttered towards the floor.

“No, I’m sure you didn’t,” came his low grumbling response from the other side of the bed.

“It’s just… I’m worried about him okay? Not a word. Nothing. It’s not like him. Normally Chester can’t keep anything from me, at least that’s what I thought before I found out he had this whole ******* family out west somewhere this whole time.”

“That’s not my problem.”

“Who said it was? I just said I was worried about him, that’s all.”

“Why? He’s a big boy. He can handle himself.”

“I don’t expect you to understand.”

“That’s good. Because I don’t,” David muttered, tugging his shirt back on.

As he lingered now a few feet away at the foot of the bed Foxx shoulders fell heavily. With a sharp scoff she reached for the bottle only to find it swept from her grasp as David threw it viciously into the nearest wall. Glass exploded and the clear liquid reigned down like tears from heaven as Foxx uttered a sound of shock and disapproval at him. She was about to bark at him for wasting at least half a bottle of good alcohol but was smartly silenced as he snagged her by the jaw and jerked her face up towards his.

“I’m worried about you!”

“Get your hands off me-” Foxx grit out through clenched teeth.

She managed to jerk her head free only to meet his scowling stare mere so close that she could feel his breaths burst against her face like a series of hot winds.

“Of course I don’t ******* understand!” David said. His low voice sounded like a menacing growl at such close quarters as he poked himself in the chest like some martyr imploring for mercy. “I’m just a **** to you, huh? Is that it? Some puppet you can jerk around on a string until Chester comes back? Is that all I am to you?”

“Get off me. I mean it.”

“Or what? You’ll tell your boyfriend on me?”

With her jaw still locked tight and snarling Foxx glowered into David’s face with her nostrils flaring as though she were struggling to keep her breaths even. As he bowed closer she jerked her head back again and drew away from him in an arc, making ready to stand. David grabbed for her but she shook his hand clear, slapping him, them pushing him enough to make him stagger aside a few inches. With a wordless growl she warned him again to back down from her. She didn’t want to hit him but she wasn’t afraid of him either as she swung her eyes at him, meeting his vicious stares with one of equal ferocity. It was hard to believe that they could be anything but enemies as David grabbed for her once again, seemingly unable to take no for an answer. The fiery red-head’s lips twitched but nothing came out as she continued to stride from the room.

“Go **** yourself.”

“Looks like you won’t give me any choice!” David snapped back indignantly as he watched her go.

 

[Ravynlee]

Running a hand over his brow and across his face he ground out another heavy sigh as Foxx made it to the door and reefed it open. Suddenly the wail of grinding guitars and pounding drums flooded the room and fragmented the silence as David called out her name. Foxx didn’t appear to hear it but turned around anyway, tugging the low dipping collar of her black velvet top back into place. She snorted again but the scowl on her face was mixed with a hint of regret as she turned her head and continued away from him.

“Foxx! ****!” David barked as he swung his arm angrily.

He paced back the way he had come towards the foot of the bed. The sounds of the squeaking springs were lost now behind the angry riffs as he sat wrenching his boots back on. Seeing movement in the doorway he blinked up and paused. It was two of his friends, Jon and Dan. They were both clad in typical black with long hair and wary looks on their faces as they made their way into the bedroom. David sighed through his nose as they cautiously approached. Dan, gleaming from lip and brow with his piercings, smiled at David as he looked in the direction that Foxx had just exited.

“Don’t bother,” David muttered by way of eluding explanation.

He sat reefing up the laces as Jon lingered just inside the door. There was something about both men’s faces that screamed nervousness – and David picked up on it straightaway.

“What?” he demanded.

He tasted the alcohol that had splashed onto his finger before smearing the side of his face absentmindedly. When he looked up, having received no answers, he urged them again with a little less steam.

“There’s someone here, to see you,” Dan said.

Jon looked back, craning his head out into the hall that was foggy and dim from aging yellow lights and fake smoke that had managed to curl its way upstairs from the club below. David shrugged awaiting further details that didn’t come. Slapping his thighs he stood. Lazily he approached his taller counterpart and looked up evenly into his eyes.

“Well. Who?”

Dan couldn’t hold the shorter man’s piercing stare as he cleared his throat and looked back over his shoulder as if seeking validation. When he met David’s eyes again the stare he was given was practically intrusive.

“It’s Joe.”

“Joe?”

“Hahn.”

“Joe Hahn? What’s that fat **** doing back here? I thought someone had cut his fat *** into millions of pieces-?”

“He’s not alone,” Dan intercepted.

David’s goading smile fell away unsurely as he asked, “Who?”

Dan swallowed loudly.

“Who?” The frown on David’s face gradually became loathsome.

“Chester,” he answered, as if against his own better judgement. “He’s here.”

Outside the song ended and the roar of applause vibrated through the walls and floor. It echoed around them like some bodiless entity.

“What?”

“With him. With Joe Hahn.”

“You’re ******** me.”

“They’re outside right now.”

“You left him, out there, with all those people-”

“He’s covered up. No one would recognise him. I didn’t at first-”

“Then how can you be sure it’s even him! He’s probably long gone from-”

“It’s him, man, it’s The Chemist-”

“Are you sure?”

“I’d know that face anywhere.”

“****,” David snapped, shaking his head.

He rubbed at his brow and scalp again in a few quick agitated strokes as his shoulders rose and fell in frustration.

“Foxx-”

“No. He asked to see you,” Dan explained.

David glimpsed up and met his eyes sceptically.

“What? Why?”

“Didn’t say.”

“****, why now, of all times?” he uttered, as Dan and Jon exchanged wary glances inside the opened bedroom door.

Beyond it the fake smoke curled like a lazy finger, beckoning them out into the hall where the noise of applause was slowly starting to abate. With his face lowered and his brow sharp David Draiman glared at his taller counterpart. He huffed out a slow decisive breath. The rings around his chin glimmered like malformed metal canines protruding from beneath his lip as he scowled.

“Show me,” he said.

---

​

I know. A tease. At least we know where Chas has been sort of - wherever Joe's been hiding - and welcome back Mr Hahn! And now that that tumultuous trio or Chas, David and Foxxy are distracted by their bizarre on-again-off-again tug-of-war...

Mike's distracted by punishing an 'innocent' Ryu...

The NEU Calvary is readying to descend with guns blazing...

And Rob and Frib are smuggling the body of Chester's late daughter around somewhere...

hahaha

Whoa! Caught up yet?

More soon - well, as soon as I am happy-ish with what I have to follow.

Thanks as always.