We Come Out At Night 4

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The Rev
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Once again, the drama found it’s way to my floor. All five of us were together in my living room. I had been pretty out of the whole Kristina / Izzy drama, but it was evident who was taking what side.
On one hand you had Gates and Christ who were Team Kristina and then you had Vengeance and Shadows who were Team Izzy. Then you had me, I’m friggen Switzerland here.

“I just don’t understand.” Shadows was devastated. His heart was broken and aching for Izzy. In no way had he expected that she would leave him. “She told me she loved me only last night.”

“Well maybe she was to terrified to stay because of what she did to Kristina!” Gates yelled at Shadows. If nothing else drove them apart, this would. “I’m going to find Izzy and when I find her, I’m going to drag her back here and torture her right before your eyes.

Shadows stood and Vengeance rose up behind him and grabbed his arm, but Shadows had been hurt and he was angry. “We don’t know what happened and we don’t know why it happened. Until we find out, you better not touch a fucking hair on Izzy’s head.”

“How can you say that?” Gates shouted back. “It doesn’t matter what happened. She could have killed Kristina and there is no reason good enough to justify that. There is NOTHING Kristina could have said or done to Izzy that would warrant her being stabbed.”

We still had no word on Kristina’s condition. Gates and Shadows hung around the hospital emergency room for a while, but Gates kept asking questions and the doctor said it would be best if they went home and he would call them when there was any news about Kristina.

Johnny as tough as he was acting lately, he seemed himself to be on the verge of tears at the thought of losing his friend. I honestly believe if given the chance, Johnny would kill Izzy himself.

“London?” I looked over towards the kitchen door and she peeked her head out. “Sugar Plum, bring Gates a beer.” I think he needed something a little stronger than a beer, but I’m sure the hospital staff wouldn’t appreciate him showing up to see Kristina completely blitzed.

London cautiously approached Gates who had on other occasions made his hatred for London known to everyone in the room. She refused to make eye contact as she handed him the beer.

“Thanks.”

She turned and walked back to the kitchen and I turned my attention back to Gates who seemed to be out in left field somewhere. Every five minutes he seemed to be checking his watch. It surprised me that he even thanked London for the beer.

When his phone finally did ring, Gates got up to answer it and Johnny followed after him out to the terrace where he took the call. Meanwhile Shadows and Vengeance were still sitting on the couch. Shadows was still completely baffled by the way Izzy acted.

“It’s not right. I know she loves me. Her biggest fight with Kristina was over me. How could this happen?”

Now it was time I enlightened him. “Didn’t I tell you that she was trouble from the start? Didn’t I also tell you that Izzy would hurt you worse than Kiera and we would all be left picking up the pieces? Maybe now, you’ll believe me and start taking my word for it when I say something.” Nobody understood why I was so mean to Izzy when she got here, well I think Izzy just proved my reasons.

When Gates came back into the living room, he seemed to be in a rush. “Kristina needs a blood transfusion. The doctor said they usually ask family and friends for blood first before going to the blood bank to find a match for her. They are going to take us two at a time so Johnny and I will go first and then I guess you guys can go.

Shadows and Vengeance both nodded and then Gates turned his attention to me. “I’ll call you if we need your blood.”

“Sure thing.” I nodded and the four of them left immediately after. I looked towards the doorway to the kitchen and got up off the couch. When London worked downstairs in the bar she was beyond comfortable being around the others. Since being found out, she seemed to get nervous if they were anywhere in the vicinity of my floor. Although she had grown comfortable around me, she feared Gates and Shadows. If there were any one of the two she should fear more, it would be Gates. Shadows was forgiving, that is what got him in this mess to begin with, but Gates holds onto a grudge forever.

“What are you doing?” I asked when I walked through the kitchen door.

“I was just having some coffee. Do you want some?”

Do you want some? Now, there was a loaded question if I ever heard one. Alas, I’ll keep my dirty thoughts to myself. “No, thanks.”

On the counter sat a plate of oatmeal cookies. “Did you make these?” I asked as I picked up a cookie from the pile on the plate.

“Yes. There are no raisins though, I don’t like raisins.”

“Me either.” I turned the cookie over to examine it like it was poisoned or something. I took a bite and turned around to look at her while she sipped her coffee.

“London?”

“Yes?”

“Have a drink with me.” She looked a little confused, but trust me there is a method to my madness.

“It’s still early.”

“It’s only one drink.” She’ll do it. She can’t say no to me no matter how much she wants to.

“I suppose one drink is ok.” Mmm hmm, I thought so. Now comes the fun part.

“Come on.” I winked at her, what’s in a wink anyway? We could have stayed in the kitchen and had our drink there, but I was in the mood for something a little more fun.

I led her through the kitchen and through the dining room to the bar. “Why don’t you stand behind the bar?” Again, she looked confused by my suggestion.

“Ok.”

I sat down as she stepped behind the bar and set two glasses on the bar top. When she found the bottle with the amber color liquid she poured it over the ice cubes that sat in the center of each glass. London passed a glass in front of me and picked up the other one in her hand.

“So, by now I’m sure you’ve guessed that I don’t want to just have a drink with you.”

She nodded and sipped her drink. “I might have picked up on that.”

I held the glass in my hand and swirled the liquid around in it. “I was just thinking about how when you used to bar tend down stairs and how everyone used to come to you with their problems.

“So, you want to tell me all your problems?”

“Think of it as an experiment.” I told her as I set my glass down on the bar.

“Ok.” She agreed. This was going to be fun. I stood for a second before going and getting a pack of cigarettes and returning. London set an ashtray on top of the bar in front of me.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around here. You new in town?” I asked as she poured a little more of the liquid in my glass.

“Yeah, you could say that.” I smiled at the sound of her slight giggle.

“What brings you to Vegas?” I must have sounded so lame, but she was being a real sport and playing along.

“Business.” One word answer. Nice.

“What kind of business?”

She seemed slightly uncomfortable now. “I guess you would call it family business.”

“So you have family here..” I noted. This was just a game to get some answers out of her. I figured by putting her behind the bar she would be a little more at ease and a little more forthcoming with her answers to her past.

“Yeah, if you can call him family. My father lives out here, but I hardly know him.”

She poured herself another glass and brought it to her lips while I continued with my line of questioning. “I’m curious. You came out here to work for your father, whom you hardly know, and yet, you are behind a bar.”

She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the bar. I could see perfectly down her shirt and I liked the view. “Well, can you keep a secret?”

I nodded and picked up my drink to sip it as I watched her over the rim of the glass waiting for her to tell me her secret. “I needed the money to save my mother. So, I asked my father and he told me I had to earn it. His way of making me earn it was taking a job at a bar in the casino that his rival’s own and make one of them fall in love with me. He said if I made it happen, he would pay for the surgery to save my mother.”

This time I picked up the bottle myself and refilled my own glass before bringing my eyes back up to meet hers. “Did you get one of them to fall in love with you?”

“No.” She shook her head and let out a sigh. “They figured out the plan before I could get the chance.”

“So what happened?”

“Well, they were angry, really angry and rightfully so. So, one of them decided to take the plan that my father had set in motion and throw it in his face to backfire by forcing me to marry him.”

She seemed to be looking around for something. When she found it she set a small bowl on the bar top and reached for a bag of pretzels that sat under the bar and poured them into the bowl. I reached for a pretzel and held it in between my fingers as I continued.
“Must suck.” I popped the pretzel in my mouth and waited for her response.

“Kind of, not as much as it used to. I hated it at first.”

“Why? What was so bad about it?” This one should be interesting considering I already knew the answer.

“Well, the man I was forced to marry… She made it a point to stress the word forced. “He was so mean and hurtful and really abusive towards me. I was scared probably more than I have ever been in my life.”

“And now?” I asked popping another pretzel into my mouth.

“Now, he’s not so mean. He’s kind of a control freak, but I don’t mind that so much so long as he inst abusive anymore.”

I’ll admit it was strange hearing her talk to me about me like I was someone else and even stranger that I was asking questions about myself.

“So, you don’t mind being with him?”

She shrugged. “Not really. It doesn’t hurt as much anymore now.”

“What doesn’t hurt as much any more?” I wasn’t sure what she meant by that comment. The bruises were gone now, so she couldn’t have meant that.

She leaned over the bar again and looked at me. “Being married and not knowing my husband. When I first met him, he was so charming, attractive and so nice to me. I really liked him and I could totally have pictured myself with him. Now, I never know what to expect, whether he is going to kiss me or kick me.”

My finger circled around the rim of the pretzel bowl. I wondered to myself if I should feel guilty or not. I had manipulated her in more ways than one. “So you want to get to know him then?” I looked up to see her looking back at me and I think she knew by the way that I asked the question that I was genuinely interested in the answer.

“Well, yes and no.” She stood back up and poured herself another drink. “Quite honestly, I wish he could understand why I did what I did. When I first came here, I had no intentions of falling in love. I had one goal and that was to save my mother. To him, I betrayed his trust, his friends and infiltrated his family. So, to him, I’m the enemy. I don’t want to be my husband’s enemy.”

“What do you want to be?”

She sighed and stared at my face for a minute before answering. “His friend, his lover, his everything. I want what every girl wants in her marriage. I want him to trust me and confide in me. I want him to be patient and understanding as well as kind and loving. I want him to look at me like he used to when we first met.”

As she picked up her glass to drink from it I could see a glaze in her eyes that wasn’t there before we started our little game. I had gotten more than I was looking for out of her. She set her empty glass down on the bar and I didn’t want to push her any further, but I had one last question. “You’re in love with him aren’t you?”

She didn’t answer right away. I sat there waiting for a response, but she took the bottle of alcohol that we had been sharing over the course of our conversation and put the lid back on and slipped it back under the bar. Then she emptied the bowl of pretzels and set the empty bowl under the bar. When she was done, she wiped the bar down and put the rag away.

It seemed like she was ignoring me, but she stepped out from behind the bar and I spun the stool around to face her when she walked over to me. She was nervous, but she walked right over and stood between my legs. Still she hadn’t said anything and I don’t know what to make of her right now. She let out a sigh and put her arms around my neck. On instinct, I held my hands on her hips. “To answer your question, yes. I am in love with him.” Wow. Now, that I didn’t expect. I expected her to say hell no or never, but not yes.

Our faces were so close that you couldn’t slide a piece of paper between them. “Maybe you should tell him how you feel.” I whispered against her lips just before she kissed me. I was so lost in our kiss that it felt almost like I was kissing her for the first time. It was me who broke the kiss. I stood up in front of her and took her hand in mind.

While holding on to one of her hands, I reached over the bar for the bottle of alcohol and walked her out of the bar back to the bedroom.

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Gates
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When we got to the hospital, the four of us had our blood tested and Vengeance had the same blood type as Kristina. Shadows, Christ and I sat in the waiting room while Vengeance gave his blood for Kristina. After he was done, they kept him in the room for a little while making him drink orange juice and eat cookies to regulate his levels and gain his strength back.

Now, the four us sit waiting for word on Kristina’s condition. It had been an hour since Vengeance had returned to us. We were silent while we waited. No one knew what to say to anyone else. No one wanted to start the drama all over again. The tension among the four of us was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

When the door opened we all turned and watched as a doctor appeared.
“Is one of you Brian?”

“That’s me” I stood and the doctor and I met each other half way as we walked across the waiting room floor.

“She’s stable. The transfusion went well. She is in and out of consciousness, but she keeps asking for you.”

“Can I see her?”

“Yes, but only for a few minutes.”

I followed the doctor back through the door and he led me right to Kristina’s room. “She needs to rest. Don’t stay long.” I nodded understanding what he was telling me and walked through the door.

I walked over to the bed where she lay with her eyes closed. Johnny’s words to me the night in the bar kept playing over and over again in my head. Seeing her like this made me realize he was right. I should have been the one to man up.

After pulling my hand from my pocket I took her hand in mine and she opened her eyes and looked up at me. “Brian.” She whispered my name.

“I’m here.” I said as I traced circles around the top of her hand with my thumb.

“Izzy.” She whispered just before closing her eyes again.

I knew she was out of it and probably couldn’t hear me. “I know, baby. Don’t you worry about Izzy. I’ll make this right.” I leaned forward and pressed my lips to her head just before setting her hand back down on the bed as gently as I could. Izzy was going to suffer like she’s never suffered before.