Dark Rider

Kassie listened through it all, and though she felt horrible for being so mean and rude to him since he had had it so rough over the time he had spent dead, she couldn’t help but think it was his fault that he was a fallen angel now. He to agreed, she knew, but she felt guilty thinking it. To ease the tension building in the silence of the room, she laughed lightly and patted his hand. “At least he forgave you. You could have ended up in the abyss with my dad as jailbird buddies.”

“True,” he laughed with a grin of his own, he signed a second later and laughed even louder than before, “My turn!” he sat up then and clamped his hands together while staring down at her. Right then, Kassie took the time to notice that Rider was in his black silk boxers and a thin black tank top. She blushed slightly and thanked the darkness for covering her embarrassment to being so slow to notice the small things in life. “Have you gotten that boyfriend you so dearly needed five years ago?”

“You’re never going to believe it,” she laughed and then paused, fighting back a frown until it overpowered her senses and pulled her lips downwards. “Well, you might really believe me. That’s actually really sad,” she shook her head and rose from her laying position on the bed to sit up facing Rider. “I never got a boyfriend, or a date for that matter.”

“Why?” Rider nearly shouted in the silence as his hands flew up in a questioning gesture; Kassie flinched and laughed at the irony. Earlier they couldn’t be in a room together without remarks flying back and forth from and to each other, now they were having the twenty question game and joking around to beat it all. “After all my hard work in making you normal, you never got lucky!”

“Hey watch it,” she blushed and cast her gaze downwards at the obvious hit to her virtue. She grunted to herself a few words before making them auditable for his ears. “I never found a guy I liked okay? Plus I lived on top of a hill, miles away from town in a small place, what did you expect? No one in Fiji besides me and A.J. spoke English and if they did they were tourist.”

“I’m guessing long distance relationships wouldn’t work for you,” he laughed lightly as she leaned back on his elbows. “You know, I never was one for long distance relationships either. I tried it once with this girl from New Jersey, she was fine too.”

Kassie rolled her eyes and laughed while jabbing her foot out, it connected with his kneecap and caused him to groan in mock agony. “I haven’t felt the need to look for a guy; I don’t have time for one. Especially now that stress runs my damn life.”

“Actually now is the perfect time, you can get one night stands every night. It’s called no strings attached, with us going to be moving every week. It would be easy to avoid those crazy stalker types,” he mused as he looked up at the ceiling, smirking as the laughter danced around his eyes. His face had lit up like the fourth of July from the warming conversation going on between the two rebels. He liked being able to speak with Kassie, as she liked to finally understand his reasoning to everything he does. “I could work on getting you a guy.”

“Thanks,” she smiled and nodded towards Rider, she wanted to kick him again just for the heck of it. Being playful suddenly seemed like an amazingly fun idea but she put it on the back burner for the sake of learning more about the Fallen Angel from above before she done something, like usual and make him mad at her. “But no thanks; I can hardly deal with A.J. going through puberty, now I have you to put up with. I have my hands full so, no thanks I’ll pass.”

“Alright, but I’ll be secretly searching for the right guy for you,” he laughed as he pushed her foot with his own. “It’s your turn. Stay on track, child.”

“I’m not a child,” she grumbled as she scooted up to the headboard, she leaned a pillow against it and laid against the pillow for extra padding on her relaxed back. “How old are you?”

“When I died or currently?” he questioned her question as his eyebrows furrowed in a crease on his forehead. Kassie shrugged her shoulders as if saying the unspoken words to whichever he wanted to answer. “When I died I was twenty two, now I’m thirty two. I still look twenty two because when you die your body is stuck in an everlasting moment in time. So in thirty more years, when I’m sixty two I’ll still look twenty two. It may seem weird at first but after ten years of getting used to the fact I’m young forever. It actually seems pretty damn wicked, I’m excited!”

Kassie laughed heartily at his comment, she had to agree that if she were in his position she would be feeling the same way. After a few seconds of laughter between the both of them, it went quiet in the room and the only noise that could be heard was the noisy clock next to the bed. “Your turn,” Kassie broke it awkwardly as she crossed her legs underneath her and laid her head back against the headboard once again.

“Did you know your father beat your mother?” the moment it was said, Rider instantly regretted it for the sound of a pin drop would have been deadlier than the sound of an atomic bomb in a crowded room. It took a few minutes for his mind to come up with an apology worth uttering past the remembrance of his foolishness said just prior.

“Yes,” Kassie finally spoke, she debated whether telling the truth but figured if he could speak the truth and be honest with her about things so precious as his death and his dishonorable rule breaking that cost him so dearly. “That’s the reason I began to be his punching bag,” it took her a few minutes to be able to speak without her voice breaking with emotion so thick it could cause her tears that would open a flood gate. “I tried to stop it once and when I tried to stop it, I became his main target. He would hit mom every now and then and then one day he stopped, stopped hitting me and her for about a week and then slowly he would—he would shout at me, cuss me and then slowly he began hitting and kicking me again.”

“Did you ever want help?” Rider asked so softly she barely heard it, she nodded her head as her eyes began to water and her face turned red from anger being held within. “If I would have only known…”

“But you didn’t,” she smiled softly and wiped her hand under each eye to rid the tears away. She sniffed once and moved to climb off the bed; she had enough with the questions for the night. Though it had been eventful and nice to speak with him, she was tired of feeling like stomped doggy poo. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

It took Rider a few seconds before he thawed the blank look on his face enough to smile gingerly. “I’ll see you in the morning; I’m expecting eggs and bacon with a little toast for breakfast, I hope you know.”

“Then your expecting way to much from a woman whose going to be sleeping in till noon,” she smiled as the door opened without a sound, she stepped through the threshold and poked her body half way in the door to keep speaking with him. “I’ll see you at noon, Rider.”

“See you in the morning,” he waved his hand in a full circle before he leaned over to grab the slack sheets and pulled them over his body, Kassie took that as a hint she needed to go and sleep for herself. Peacefully and almost floating from her relaxed high, Kassie made her way to her room where she laid down and fell asleep almost immediately. No thoughts woke her during the night, no nightmares that plagued her dreams and most of all she didn’t hear every sound in the house. Being the light sleeper she is, she would wake with a whisper. But that night she slept like a rock, hard and unmoving when the wind blew. When she woke up a little past noon, she smiled and stretched her arms out in a wide stretch; once she was done yawning and stretching her limbs she stepped on the cold hardwood floor and made her way into the kitchen. Since she hadn’t spotted out any of the rooms besides hers, A.J.’s and Rider’s when they first arrived in the condo built for an angel, literally. She was lost for about five minutes, peeking in and out doors, she found two bathrooms, a laundry room, a hall closet and a room that led to the living room before she found the kitchen which was at the end of the first floor hallway. “Good morning, Pumpkin.”

“You made breakfast,” she smiled brightly as she glanced around the kitchen, on the counters were pans completely in need of dishwashing liquid and a good scrub but what really amazed her was the table full of foods she hadn’t seen in her entire life. Eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, waffles, plain pancakes, blueberry pancakes, chocolate pancakes, gravy, French toast, omelets and other things that she had no clue what they were, many looked like deserts you could find in a five star restaurant. She was entranced, so completely in love with the table fit for a queen that she didn’t notice Rider walking up, she did notice however when he gripped her shoulders in his hands and moved her to the table, sat her down and placed a plate in front of her. And right when she couldn’t possibly think of more ways to become intoxicated by food, he began to load up the plate with one of each thing on the table. “Dear God it’s a feast…”

“As much as I love the big man, he had nothing to do with this. I made it all on my own,” Rider smiled as he held up a spatula, then glanced over his shoulder with a sour expression on his face. Once she followed his gaze she knew why, the clean up would be worse than the cooking process. “Oh man I wish I could get that cleaned up without touching it.”

“I’ll do it,” Kassie volunteered her services as a dish cleaner; it was the least she could do after the mountain of food laying on her plate, and the reason behind it happened to be Rider, so she could help him out just once. She was sure his back either was broke or his feet were swollen from the time spent on the sweet intentions and delicious food. “It’s the least I could do.”

“He didn’t tell you I helped did he?” A.J. walked in and glanced at Rider with a frown on his face, when he turned to stare at Kassie he raised only one thick brown eyebrow. “Kassie, did he say I helped or did he say he did it all by himself?”

“By himself,” Kassie grumbled through the large amount of bacon and eggs that was mashed in her mouth, she pointed at A.J. with her fork and then to Rider while she chewed her food, waiting to swallow it and speak. “How did you help Rider?”

“I went down to the store and got all the food, and then I came back and fixed the table,” A.J. admitted as he placed his hands on his hips, looking extremely feminine at the moment, and Rider seemed to notice it because he placed his spatula held hand, on his hip and cocked it to the side with his leg pushed out forward.

“Let’s not forget, Alexander that you also sprayed butter in the pans like the good little girl you are,” he batted his eyelashes and then turned around to flip whatever was in the pan on the stove top, A.J. turned to Kassie and glared in annoyance at her, she merely shrugged her shoulders while she chewed every more bacon.

“Bacon?” she offered A.J. but he rolled his eyes and walked out of the kitchen, muttering how he should get more credit for things when Rider popped up beside Kassie with his mouth open. “What?” she questioned as she looked from his mouth, which kept widening while he whined deep in his throat. “You want me to feed you?” she questioned again with shock and wonder in her voice, when he nodded his head with his mouth still open wide, she couldn’t help but start laughing. Placing a piece of buttered toast into his mouth, she giggled and watched him have trouble eating it without his hands being used for help, he grumbled and groaned as he moved his head side to side trying to fit it all in his mouth. “Good going.”

“I’m talented like that,” he grinned at his obvious amusement with himself, he nodded towards a piece of bacon innocently and whined like a two year old when Kassie shook her head and ate the piece instead of sharing. “Heartless Harlot.”

She chuckled at his childishness which seemed to be on affect at all times and chewed it well before speaking, there was no rush because frankly if she were to die soon she wanted it to not be because she ate her bacon just a bit to fast. “Brainless Beast.”

“Isn’t that a song?” he questioned randomly as he leaned against the table and looked at the wall, frowning in thought as he crossed his arms. “Something like Harlot and the Beast, by that band, you know. That band.”

“Oh of course I know that band,” she rolled her eyes at his lack of description on which band it was, though she knew it since she had heard it from A.J. when he went into his metal stage of music, the band was a American based band called Avenged Sevenfold that held a bunch of young boys with tattoos covering them more than their own skin. “Its Beast and the Harlot by Avenged Sevenfold, A.J. listens to them frequently. He’s a metal music junkie.”

“That’s it! I like the drummer,” he mocked playing the drums, with one air drumstick and a spatula in his other hand. Kassie watched in her own amusement as he went around the whole kitchen area hitting the surfaces with the grease covered spatula, when he reached the utensils he grabbed another spatula and used it.

“Here’s a tip,” she took a bite of her toast and waited a few seconds to chew and swallow the dry wheat before she spoke again. “Don’t quit your day job; your future doesn’t involve tattoos and piercing’s and weird hair colors.”

“For your information,” he paused in his solo to point the clean spatula at Kassie. “I have tattoos, many actually and I had piercing’s but seeing as when I died they kind of stayed with my body—I no long have my lip ring, earrings and nose ring. And the weird hair coloring was never my kind of thing.”

Kassie shrugged her shoulders at his explanation, smiling soon after she placed another piece of bacon in her mouth. “I think I lost my job as the breakfast cook.”

“No!” his eyes widened and his feet skid on the flooring as he ran quickly and slid on his knees to Kassie’s legs, which he held onto like his life depended on it. His eyes, while wide, had that certain puppy dog look to them that make Kassie ‘Aw’ when she wanted to laugh. “You can’t leave me with cooking for you guys, its hard!”

“Welcome to my world,” Kassie held her hands up and laughed as she scooted the seat back and stood up, she patted his shoulder and hiked her thumb backwards towards the living room. “Go, I’ll clean up.”

“Aw you are a doll,” he climbed to his feet and pulled her into a tight embrace that had every inch of Kassie’s body squished against Rider’s, she coughed at the sudden impact and laughed as he began to kiss her cheek over and over, if anyone else would have done it she would have simply knocked them out but the way he approached it, it was a playful friendly thing.