The Lagniappe

[Deamon]

((Kimiko Kao continued from Robber Barons))

The door to the hunting cabin gave a low groan as Kimiko pushed it open and crept inside. She had only slowed her run once she had come to the cabin. There hadn't been much hesitation in her decision to enter it, there was no other safe haven. The library and pub were too close to the gym and Kimiko didn't like the idea of that group leaving and searching for her. Instead she had retraced her steps nearly all the way back to the housing blocks. They had proven to be far less secure and safe then she had originally thought so that left the cabin as her only choice.

As things stood she regretted just walking straight in without properly checking the perimeter or through the windows for signs of life. Instead of that she had to settle for a different way of checking. Slipping the nodachi's rope off her shoulder Kimiko lightly tapped the end of the sword on the wooden flooring. When nothing seemed to stir, she did it again but this time harder. The noise almost seemed to echo through the expansive emptiness of the building but she knew that was ridiculous. After there was no response Kimiko finally allowed herself to relax, letting out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

The encounter at the slopes had reminded her that there was no safety and that she needed to be constantly vigilant and alert to any threats. The whole thing could have been much worse for her if that other person hadn't shown up. Kimiko wondered if they were still behind her, they had followed her across the slopes she knew that for a fact but she had lost track in her haste to escape.

Her fingers played with the tantō that was in her pocket before closing around its handle as she withdrew it, removing the sheath which she tucked away Kimiko stepped to the side of the door and crouched in the corner waiting.

If they intended to do harm to her, she'd be able to strike before they could.

[Ruggahissy]

((Caleb Diamond continued from Robber Barons ))

Caleb was getting tired of so much running. He ripped off the stupid Nixon mask. He had stopped following Kimiko's trail and leaned against a tree, rubbing his eyes. He was pretty tired from the previous night. He saw a flash of blonde slip into the cabin up ahead. He took a deep breath and marched up to the door of the cabin. His heart was pounding so strongly he thought he might fall over. He wondered what he should say. What would be best?

He knocked on the door.

"PIZZA, M'AM," he said in a tone much lower than his natural voice.

Was that funny? Would she think it was funny? Caleb waited nervously for the door, listening intently for any stray sounds.

[Deamon]

Kimiko let out a sigh of relief and tucked the tantō back into her pocket when she heard the voice. It was Caleb. She assumed he had been the one that had followed her from the slopes, which in turn meant he had saved her. After everything that had happened, despite her killing two people, when she needed help the most Caleb had been there to give it to her. She almost felt like crying. Instead a stupid grin tried to work it's way across her face.

Moving out of the corner Kimiko pulled the door open. There he was, tall as ever, she had to crane her head up just to see his face. Still it was the first person Kimiko was genuinely happy to see since she had woken up. It was good to know he was alright and selfishly she was happy that it appeared he didn't hate her for what she had done.

In a sudden rush of emotion that she couldn't help Kimiko dove forward and wrapped her arms around Caleb.

She wondered if he'd mind, but truthfully she didn't care. She was just glad he was there.

[Ruggahissy]

Kimiko ran at him and wrapped her arms around him, knocking the wind out of him. Caleb let out the breath he'd been holding and wheezed. He dropped his bag and returned the hug.

"It wasn't fuckin' easy to keep up with you. Grandpa smokes like a chimney."

He lifted her just barely off the ground while still in the hug, took two steps into the cabin and put her down so that they were inside. Caleb then kicked the door shut and shortly after, collapsed lazily onto the floor with his limbs sprawled out haphazardly.

"It's times like these that make me go 'Maybe I should quit smoking.' But then like, here we are. I think the chances of me dying from lung cancer are pretty Virginia slims. Eeeyyy?"

He looked up at her from the floor with an uncharacteristic big smile across his face and bright blue eyes that made him look much closer to his perennially cheerful counterpart. The cabin seemed small, but adequate. He was tired both from the activity and from having not slept, but was now enveloped in a pleasant coziness. Caleb was just happy that she was happy to see him.

<How are you feeling, shorty?> he signed sloppily without sitting up.

[Deamon]

Kimiko allowed Caleb to gently guide her into the cabin and place her down. He followed it up by collapsing, and then making a terrible joke that she couldn't help grinning at as she sat herself cross-legged on the floor. It was pleasant to forget even for a moment that everything wasn't normal. Unfortunately, it was just that, a second. Reality immediately followed when he asked her how she was and her grin fell away with its coming.

It was a question Kimiko wasn't sure she could answer. Honestly she wasn't sure how she was, she wasn't good but at the same time things seemed good for her now. Caleb's appearance had made her happy and she felt guilty about it. She had ruined two families lives.

Kimiko raised her hands to answer but they fell limply into her lap. No words or ideas were forthcoming, just an empty feeling of regret at everything. Maybe she thought everything would have been different if she had woken up and found Caleb. It was an empty train of thought, she knew that.

Raising her shaking hands again Kimiko managed to sign out a response. It was the first time she had said something since they'd been kidnapped.

"Better now." She managed, a weak smile appearing again.

[Ruggahissy]

The warm light broke through the windows of the cabin, illuminating bright spots throughout and highlighting drifting bits of dust that glinted and shimmered.

Kimiko sat down next to him and he rolled onto his side. He forgot everything that had happened before that point for a moment. She hesitated to answer and given how he was even able to find her due to collecting a kill award, it was easy to infer why.

"Don't tell me whatever happened. I don't give a shit," he said quietly.

<Ok, you're better. But how does that help ME?> he signed, making an exaggerated frown.  

He stretched out, laying on his side and looked up at her with his arms dead out in front of him giving him somewhat the appearance of being a giant house cat. It was true, he absolutely didn't care who she killed or why and an explanation one way or the other wouldn't change anything.

"You'd tell me if you were really a Wolverine clone, right? You'd have this in the bag," he mumbled warily.

He wanted to say more to her. He wanted to let her know that he felt like his heart had been replaced by a rock ever since he'd woken up. Everything he did felt pointless. He was just a puppet that was prolonging his own suffering while dancing for whoever put them up to all of this. If he were braver he'd tell her how much she meant to him, but Caleb didn't think himself very brave. He didn't think himself much of anything remarkable. But like she said, for now, it was better.

In the middle of his musings his stomach growled loudly.

[Deamon]

Kimiko appreciated Caleb not probing any further more than he may have realised. He didn't want to ask and she didn't want to talk about it. She was scared of how he would react when he heard about Bradley though and that tempered her feelings of happiness at them finding each other. Thankfully Caleb didn't dwell on the point either, quickly moving the conversation on before things became awkward.

She smiled at the frown he put on and raised her hands to respond.

"Is my company not good enough for you?"

Again she found herself escaping her surroundings, enjoying the moment briefly before everything snapped back into place whenever she blinked. Caleb rolled over and adopted a pose like a sleeping dog...or a lazy cat. Kimiko couldn't immediately decide which, but Caleb had always struck her as more of a cat. She smiled again at his question even though she knew that she shouldn't be losing herself in his company. Not after what had just happened on the slopes. But she was finding she couldn't help herself.

"It would help if I was because no offence, not sure the superpower of being able to vacuum up cigarettes is very useful. She grinned at him as she said it, to make sure he knew that she was only playing around with him. "But thanks for saving me back there." She meant that part.

Her ears pricked up momentarily until she realised it was just Caleb's stomach, which reminded Kimiko that she still had part of her prize left. Her pack dropped off her shoulders as Kimiko searched until she found the wrapped up pizza slices. Carefully placing them on the floor she unfolded their bandage covering and pushed it into the space between of the two of them. She hadn't been able to bring herself to eat all of it when she had been alone, but sharing it helped alleviate her guilt.

"Here they gave me this."

[Ruggahissy]

<Is my company not good enough for you?> she asked.

Caleb shrugged once. He shrugged a second time quickly after.

"How does that help me, huh? What's that do for me?" he said, pointing emphatically at himself. "I was like, fuck, it's Kimiko. I was just clearing my throat loudly while taking a stroll and walked into a clusterfuck. Who are you even? Kimberko?"

A moment passed and he sheepishly signed <Welcome>. She made a crack back at him about him not being much in the way of physical prowess except for his extraordinary ability to chain smoke. He laughed weakly and sat back up, scratching his head through his gray beanie and looking down. Caleb noticed for the first time that they were sitting on a tiger skin rug. Kimiko gave him a slice of pizza. He picked it up and made the sign for "thank you," moving his hand from under his chin.

He took a bite of it and swallowed. Caleb made a harsh gagging sound and looked at the pizza with suspicion.

"Is this vegan? Are you serious? You know how I feel about vegan cheese! I'd rather starve. Literally, Kimiko. We're really about to die here and I don't want to eat this. God, we should have a policy as America to turn away people who can't appreciate cheese. You wouldn't cut it in my America."

He stood up and stretched, looking around the cabin. There was a kitchen. Outside the window he didn't see anything besides trees, no other people. He put the slice of pizza on a counter and delicately touched a small collection of spoons that was hanging on a wall near the kitchen. They were covered in dust, but they looked like souvenir spoons his grandma collected.

He offered her a hand to help her up. It struck him that playing house in this cabin was a bit childish and stupid and he felt embarrassed. As soon as they stepped foot outside the illusion would be broken and even now, there was a wrinkle in the scenario. It would be extremely easy to be seduced by the situation and make believe that they were on a trip to the woods together. Easy, yes. Comforting, sure, but it would only make the shock of going back outside even worse.  

"Did they give you that too?" he asked, regarding the big sword.

[Deamon]

The pizza did not go down well. That was overselling it a bit but Caleb wasn't impressed that it was a vegan. Kimiko had forgotten about that detail due to everything else that had been happening. He took the disgust in stride though, spinning it off into another joke. This time Kimiko couldn't help herself and her body shuddered as she laughed.

Laughing wasn't something she did often, in fact she tried to avoid it as much as possible because people always reacted with shock or surprise. It was the combination of her body making all the movements and actions for laughter but no sound coming out so because of the reactions she always tried to contain it. Caleb had managed to break her down though and the relief of just being with someone she trusted and liked helped loosen her up. She stopped quickly however and took Caleb's hand to stand up.

It was reassuring to have physical contact with someone that didn't involve violence or the imminent threat of it. It brought into stark focus how wrong everything had gone and how quickly. Caleb's grip helped set that off, something tangible that she could rely on. Someone whose company felt removed from everything around them.

She knew she didn't deserve what he was giving her. Not after everything she had done. But she was happy to abandon any worries and enjoy the feeling of being taken by it all. It was the closest she had come to Wu-wei since she had woken up. She didn't want to do anything to break the harmony they had found.

Then Caleb asked about the nodachi and Kimiko's smile dropped away, as her hand left his.

"Yeah," She paused, hands hanging in mid-air as she thought about how to answer. "It was part of the prize."

[Ruggahissy]

Caleb didn't realize he'd been smiling the whole time until Kimiko's smile disappeared. The corners of his mouth ached a little and fell too. He was fading in and out more rapidly now between happiness and dread. Every few seconds he remembered what their true situation was and he felt sick. Then he would forget and it would start over. It was a roller coaster ride he didn't want to disembark from because he didn't know what he would do if he was mired too long in their reality.

He didn't know what he would do. Caleb had only gotten up off the floor of that cell to look for Kimiko. He was scared and didn't know if he could hold together having experienced this illusory distraction and then having it ripped away.

Caleb noticed he had just been looking at her.

She was beautiful.

He immediately felt guilty thinking about that. She was a friend and she trusted him. The hints of his feelings had been there creeping on the edges of his consciousness even in regular life, but there was enough out there to distract him and push those back to the edges where they belonged. Caleb was sure that she didn't feel the same way. There was nothing about him worthy of it.

"Prize, huh?" he said, walking around the kitchen counter, hanging on to the edge and leaning back.

He walked to the front door, dragging a chair behind him and jamming it under the door knob to secure it.

"We can hunker down here for now. You can tell me the entire story of Transmetropolitain through interpretive dance until it's time for bed."

[Deamon]

Caleb didn't say anything more about the nodachi. The whole conversation was peaks and valleys, every time they seemed to be getting comfortable something else would pop up and ruin everything. Then it went back to square one of them falling into a silence that Caleb was forced to break. She hated that she was putting the pressure on him to keep the conversation moving but she couldn't help it. The physically and mentally she struggled whenever she was reminded of what she'd done.

She raised her hands to start to tell him how much what he was doing meant to her but he was moving a chair so she just let them fall down by her sides. When he turned around again he was already talking and the moment slowly drifted away, joining the dust floating through the room.

He made her smile again though. That was enough.

As soon as he mentioned sleep a wave of fatigue washed over her as if brought on by his words. She didn't treat it as a potential danger though. The door was barred and Caleb was with her. She was safe. Eventually she felt the overwhelming need to rest. There was a bedroom on the ground floor so Kimiko moved herself into it, dropping her pack and resting the nodachi next to the bed. Lying down on the soft bed she realised how badly her back hurt, she thought she may have jarred something in her back.

It didn't matter though, for one night at least she had friendly company and a bed. For at least one night she could have peace.

[Ruggahissy]

She'd been asleep two hours. In those two hours Caleb had walked the entire length of the cabin dozens of times. He'd gone back and forth, in and out, counting floor boards, looking at details in the dark. At least, he thought it was two hours? He had no idea how long it had been. He kept moving. He had to keep pacing quietly just to do something.

Caleb was looking for anything to occupy his mind and he was rapidly running out of things that would do.

He had held it together more or less for two days barring some outbursts here and there. Caleb had kept from becoming unglued because he had convinced himself he had to, but he was being held together with the psychic equivalent of paperclips and chewed gum.

In regular life he didn't even consider himself all that "together." Caleb paced up and down the stairs slowly like a video game character unsure of the next step towards progression. Of course he wasn't the picture of mental or physical health even at home. It was put into even starker contrast against his fitter twin. A duplicate that was better than him in every way that also just had better luck.

I don't have a chance do I?

He walked back up the stairs one more time and walked into a bedroom, swaying and lightly running into a wall. Kimiko had said it herself. It was a joke, sure, but she was right. What could he do? Nothing. He had nothing worth offering, nothing he could do to defend from something.

Why am I so worthless? Will anyone even miss me at home? Who would when there's good version of you? He hugged himself and rocked a bit.

[Ruggahissy]

Some hours passed. Was it hours? Maybe it was minutes. Definitely some amount of time had passed that was between 1 minute and 3 hours. He'd been nearly continuously tortured for 2 days, going on three. To him it wasn't just that. Without sleep to break it up the whole experienced stretched and warped to be one horrible, inhuman day.

He laid down on a bed of the upstairs bedroom and stared straight up. Outside all he heard were the usual sounds of nature. By all accounts someone would describe it as soothing, but it was terrifying to him. Lying on that bed in the silence with his thoughts ricocheting in his hollow skull, he felt it. The fear was oozing just on the periphery of his consciousness, held at bay weakly by his efforts to keep from panicking. Staring into nothing, doing nothing, being nothing, his defenses faltered and the fear struck him in the chest like sickening, cold lightening. No one was going to help them. They would die. There was nothing he could do to save himself or Kimiko. All was lost. Caleb imagined the terror and helplessness of being lost at sea, drowning for days rather than to be done with it. He rolled over onto his side and curled inward. Despair consumed him, ate his organs and crushed the air out of his lungs.

Evil has won, hasn't it?

Shakily he got to his feet and made another trip downstairs.

Caleb was sitting back in the living room staring at his half-eaten piece of pizza. How much later, it was impossible to tell. It felt like years had passed. A prize. It was a prize they had given her. They gave her food and a weapon like a rich sorority girl tossing a treat to a shivering inbred dog on the floor.

The sludgy, wary, painful cogs in Caleb's mind started to turn and click together.

I love her, don't I?

A prize for a kill. An advantage in trade for a piece of your soul. What was his soul worth?

Not much, I'm trash.

Trash for supplies and weapons. A good deal. A total bargain on his part.

[Ruggahissy]

One minute later? Another hour later? He sat watching Kimiko sleep from the door of the room she'd chosen. He'd become obsessed with the prize for the "best" kill. Gazing at the girl, he felt that he was obsessed with her as well. His heart was pounding out of his scrawny torso. The more he considered it the more it felt like someone had reached in and scooped his insides out like a molded pumpkin.

Getting more supplies and maybe a gun would be a huge advantage for anyone. On top of Kimiko's current weapons, it could be enough to boost someone to a win.

Part of him told him that it would be unspeakably cruel to do that to her. How could he do that to her? He would have to be a monster to destroy the peace that they had found. He bit his lip so hard it broke the skin and a pinprick of salty blood ran into his mouth. Caleb's whole body shook with one hand over his mouth to cover the sound. Tears moved over and around his hand.

He got to his feet and silently walked over to her. His face twisted as he continued to cry and shudder.

I have to do this. I have to do this. I have to.

It was the best for both of them. Staying like this would only mean more attachments, better to sever them early and if it could be done in a way that would lend an advantage, all the better.

With trembling fingers he reached down to her throat and jerked her awake while squeezing.

Do it. Do it. Do it.

[Deamon]

She felt the hands tighten around her throat and lashed out in panic, ramming her own hands into the wrists and arms, there was no give however. As Kimiko's vision came into focus she saw Caleb's tear covered face over hers.

Why?

She felt the pressure on her throat and the wetness as tears started to form in her eyes and roll down her cheeks.

Why was he doing it?

The pressure wasn't letting up and she tried to get him to stop, mouthing his name but he didn't let go.

She was crying openly now. She didn't understand why Caleb was doing what he was, but she didn't want to die. So she only had one choice.

Her right hand fumbled in her pocket until it got a hold of the tantō, she pulled it out and pushed the sheath off with her thumb, she felt a dull pain but ignored it.

She tried mouthing one more thing as she looked up at Caleb's tear streaked face through her own tear filled eyes.

"I'm sorry."

Then in one quick, jerky motion she ripped the tantō along his throat.