Keeping Time

Towers rose up from the ground and seemed to touch the sky as Ray and I drove into New Greenwich. We had slept until noon, 5 hours of sleep, and were now surprisingly wide awake. We were going to my old neighborhood. I told Raymond that I just wanted to check my estate for anything I wanted to take with me, and I could get a car from my father's garage to drive me to where ever he was going.

While he was driving, I crawled into the back (much to his discomfort) and began writing him a note he would later find on my body.

Why had I accepted my death so easily?

“Ray, you talk in your sleep,” I said randomly and he looked at me in the rear view mirror.

“I've heard that a couple times,” he replied. “What did I talk about?”

“You were talking to someone. Who do you dream about?”

“Well this morning, I dreamt about you. And you have been in my head for a while now. Do you remember what I said?” He seemed like he was actually going to tell me anything I wanted to know, at this very moment.

“You asked where they were, and asked them not to do something,” I told him and he looked at the road, clearly avoiding my gaze.

“I was talking to my father. He left us when I was 8,” he said and my face fell.

“I'm sorry,” I mumbled.

“Don't be. I don't really remember him, just shapes and shadows now,” he said and met my gaze in the rear view mirror again.

“One more thing. Why did you act weird the day we went to see Howard?” Just thinking of the man made me want to throw up.

“It was about then that I found out I had feelings for you. It was a constant inner battle to control you and myself. And I had to make a good impression for him, make up a good story, or else he wouldn't help us. He's just one of those men. I wasn't sure if you were going to go along with it. And then those men-” he shuddered with a visible anger and disgust. “They were going to destroy you. I could see it in their eyes. I just wanted to keep you as safe as possible, and try to keep my emotions toward you under control,” he explained.

“You shouldn't have told him my real name,” I blurted and Raymond put the car in Auto Mode. He turned around in his seat and eyed me.

“Why? What did he say when you saw him last night?”

I wanted to tell him everything.

“Nothing. Just said he knew who I was, and asked if you and I had a fight,” I said, only telling a little bit of the truth.

“That's it?”

“Yeah.”

Raymond didn't look like he believed me, but after a few reassuring words, I got him to stop being paranoid and a worry wort.

We were entering New Greenwich as Raymond took over driving again. I finished my note to him and reread it:

Ray,
Find Johnny Penning. Tall, blond curls, blood on his hands.
I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I wanted to, but I'm afraid he'd kill you instead.
I'll face this myself.
I wish I had the time to fall in love with you.
I'll wait until it's your time to bite the dust, and fall in love with you then.
-Loveena.

I tucked the note into my pocket, letting Raymond see me do it.

“What's that?” He asked, a soft smile on his face. The freckles on his face looked darker today.

“A note for you. You'll get it later, okay?” I felt sick.

“Okay. So I'll drop you off at your estate, and I'll go to the station to let them know we're here?” I agreed with his plan.
---

I stood at the front door of my estate, Raymond already at the end of the driveway.

I let myself in and the living room smelt like mold and alcohol. I looked around, but there was no sign of Johnny. Maybe I was early? I checked upstairs, and found every door open, just like the night I had found my father. Except my door was closed.

My heart beat was terrifyingly loud, and I was sure Johnny could hear it through the walls.

I opened my door and found him sitting on my bed, waiting for me. He had a phone in his hand.

“I wasn't sure you were going to make it. I thought I was going to have to call Howard back. Close the door,” he said, just as charming as before, but there was something dark about him now too. I closed the door behind me and he was off the bed and had me pinned back against the door in two strides. He locked a hand around my throat and took a long sniff of my hair.

“You have no idea how much I've missed you,” he whispered, and slid his hand to my leg. When I tried to move away, he lifted me, by the throat, half a foot into the air. I closed my eyes and waited for my lungs to just give up. Before they could, he put my feet back on the ground.

“You smell like sex,” he whispered and released my neck. He gripped a fistful of my hair and gently kissed my bruised neck. He bit down on the soft flesh and my hands flew up to ward him off. His teeth broke the skin as he shoved my hands away from his face.

I whimpered and cowered away from him.

“You look tired. Did you make love to Raymond all night?” He whispered in my ear and I shoved him away from me. He had a smirk on his face. “Oh, Howard told me all about the two of you. You reek of him. Do you want to know why he doesn't go to the Ghetto anymore?”

Johnny pinned me to the door again, forcing my legs around his waist. He slammed my back into the door until I whimpered, then he brushed his thumb against my cheek.

“He doesn't go to the Ghetto anymore because of his daddy. He just thinks we're all scum. This will prove to him that we're scum,” he growled and I slapped him across the face when he tried to unbutton my jeans.

“Johnny, you can kill me, but there is no way I'm going to-”

“It may not to consensual, but it can happen if I want it,” Johnny growled, and threw me to the bed. I rolled onto my back just in time for a knife to dive into the place where my head had been. I screamed and leaped off the bed. I was out of my room and halfway down the hallway before Johnny caught me. He had left his knife and now all he had were his bare hands.

“You little bitch!” He screamed and sat on my stomach. I scratched at his face and he held my hands above my head with one hand.

“Fuck you!” I screamed back and he backhanded me across the face. I bucked my hips, trying to throw him off, but he just looked turned on.

“Maybe you will,” he replied, completely switching from angry to suggestive.

I said a few choice words that resulted in me getting thrown in several walls, down the hallway, and down the stairs. I could hardly breath by the end of it.

“Come on Love, where's that feisty whore from the beginning?” He kicked me in the ribs as I tried to climb to my feet and I began to sob uncontrollably. He kicked me several more times, then pulled me to my feet by my hair. “Want me to just end your suffering? Want me to just put a bullet in your head?” He breathed, his breath tickling my throat.

“If it will make you happy and move on,” I murmured and he howled with laughter, throwing me back to the ground.

“You know what will make me happy? Having your lover-boy here with us. That way, he can watch me kill you, and then he can end me, since my mission in life is to make you suffer,” he said and my jaw dropped.

“No, please, don't bring him here. I'll do anything,” I whispered and he bent down.

“Anything? Would you strip down and fuck me? To save your lover?” He asked and I bit my lip. He took that as a yes. “Come on then. Do it.”

I stood up slowly, and began to pull off my shirt. While I was pulling it over my head, he gripped my wrists and ran his fingertips over my stomach. “Stay like that.” As he took his hands away, I didn't move. He gripped my hips and ground his own onto them.

A moment later, I heard the dialing of a phone and the familiar voice of Raymond on the other end of the phone. I pulled my shirt off completely and watched Johnny's face light up.

“Hey, Ray! Look, my name is Johnny, and I've got your girl here. Loveena, say hi,” he struck a match and pressed it against my stomach, earning a scream from me. “We're at her estate. Come alone, or you wont see her again.” Johnny then hung up and grinned down at me. His blond curls had grown out so they hung in his eyes, adding to his crazy act.
---

Raymond showed up 10 minutes later, and Johnny let him draw his gun. As Raymond came into the estate, he was greeted with the sight of me, shirtless, held at point blank by Johnny. I stared at Raymond as he came closer.

“You don't have to kill her,” Raymond said and Johnny smiled.

“She fucking deserves it. She sent me all the way back to the Ghetto, after all the hard work I put into coming here. Besides, why not prove to you that all people from the Ghetto are scum. I mean except from yourself of course. You became a Time Keeper, for fucks sake! You're the enemy everywhere,” Johnny said, and pressed the gun harder against my temple. I winced and Raymond took a step toward me.

“Watch it Time Keeper!” Johnny screamed and fired the gun, just missing the bridge of my nose.

“I'm sure we can work something out,” Raymond said, his gun trained on Johnny's head.

“You know, your whore was ready to fuck me, just so you'd stay away. She didn't want you to see her in her moment of weakness. And look at her now. I said, look at her!” Raymond met my eyes, and I began to cry. I didn't want him here because I knew it was breaking his heart to see this. I didn't need another broken heart in my possession.

Johnny suddenly threw me at Raymond, and 3 gunshots went off. I was thrown into Raymond and we hit the ground, Raymond taking most of the impact. I heard Johnny hit the ground behind me, and a strange, wet gurgle come from his general direction.

“Loveena, you're going to be alright,” Raymond said, as I groaned in pain. I looked down at his hands on my chest, and blood oozed out from between his fingers.

“I don't think so, Ray.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the note. “Here's your note.” I tried to smile, but when I took my next breath, I started to choke on my own blood.

Raymond ignored the note for now, and began to chant no and please don't leave me. I gripped his hand tightly, and waited for my lungs to give up. I was guessing the bullet hit a lung, and now I was dying. Dying was painful.

“Please don't leave me Loveena, I love you,” Ray whispered, tears streaming down his perfect, freckled face and I smiled through all my pain.

“I-”

I coughed up blood, and I just couldn't catch my breath.
---

The year is 2161 and Raymond has been working as a Time Keeper for 50 years. When asked why he's so bitter towards people from the Ghetto, he doesn't answer, but his mind goes straight to Loveena and Johnny.

Her note, blood stained, wrinkled, and old is in a drawer back home like a photograph of his deceased wife. He doesn't want to look at it, but sometimes he just needs to.

Sometimes he wonders if she's still waiting for him. When he wonders this, he hopes so.