Mania and the Executioner (12 page)

“It’s alright. Let’s get to work!” I say while
standing up, feeling like I’m using only five percent of my lung capacity.

“No…we’re done for today.” Cheza
quietly says.

“Come now Chezarei;
you heard what Cole just said.” Tia says.

“YEAH
, I DID! BUT YOU DIDN’T JUST FEEL HIM TIA!” Cheza screams, grabs my hand, and pulls me up the stairs and into my room before I can protest. She slams my door shut behind us and pushes me onto my bed (which is much comfier with the new, not-splattered-with-vampire-brains mattress). I scoot up so my head is on my pillow while Cheza throws herself into my left side. I wrap my left arm around her and set my hand on her hip as I use my right hand to brush away a tear that was rolling from her left eye and onto her nose.

“I’m fine Cheza,” I tell her trying to sound as convincing as possible and hoping my emotions follow suit.

“No, you aren’t Cole. It’s no use trying to lie to me when I can feel how badly that hurt you…” Cheza says while turning her face down towards my shirt so I wouldn’t see her crying.

“You feel so empty…it hurts me to be connected with you when you feel like this. I want to fill this void but I don’t know—” Cheza says, choking up while muffled by my
dampened shirt. After she breathes a few times, she turns her head and looks up at me. “Tell me what I can do to make you stop feeling so hollow…”

I bend my head down and kiss her forehead. “Just you laying here is enough.” I say and then I shut my eyes for a while.

…

A long while apparently because when I wake up, it’s dark outside and Cheza is no longer beside me. It feels kind
of cold…I get out of bed and walk into the kitchen, only to find that no one is home. I hear a voice coming from down Sara and Tia’s hall.

“Yes…According to the reports, it sounds like he is starting to get pleasure from it…Yes, I think that it’s possibly
that he’s being influenced…” Sara says. I try to pick up the voice of the other person, but no matter how hard I push, I can’t hear the speaker of the phone.

“They seem closer now…Yes…Yes, it does seem that he finally came to his senses…I think that influence is also a possibility in this as well…No, it sounds like they are headed to Greenland next…” My mind flashes back to The Kahala
hotel. How had the were-sharks and/or Kamohoali’i known where we were? Oh Sara, don’t tell me that you…I need to find out who she is talking to!

(Knives on the rack.
Ask while holding it to her neck to frighten the truth from her)

I grab a medium size
d chef’s knife from the magnetic rack on the wall and walk silently down the hall.

“I a
gree; it still isn’t time yet…”

I’ll wait until she gets off of the phone,
and I’ll knock on her door.

“Yes,
I’ll keep you updated…”

When she opens the door, I’ll quickly pull the blade up to the left side of her neck.

“Alright, the others will be home soon and Cole will be awake…”

I’ll press the blade in hard enough to draw blood to exemplify my seriousness.

“I really have to go start dinner now…”

Once I have
the information that I need, I’ll quickly slice through her jugular.

“Okay…I love you too, bye.” Sara says
and ends the call as I hear my phone start to ring in my bedroom.

What was I just about to do? Was I going to kill Sara? Did I really just imagine myself sliding this knife through Sara’s throat? I imagine her horrified
expression, the same one she had when she saw what I did to Illapa’s vampires, permanently frozen on her face with her death.

The gravity of what I
almost did hits me and I take off in a full speed sprint to my bathroom. I throw the door open, go past the cabinet sink on the right, and turn right while dropping to my knees. I’m able to open the toilet seat just as vomit flies from my mouth while the knife clatters on the tile floor. About a minute later, I fall backwards over my feet, my head and shoulders slamming into the wall. I rest my left arm on my propped up left knee while grabbing both of my temples with my right hand as my body starts to go numb.

I hear the front door get thrown open as someone runs inside the house
, followed by footsteps pounding against the tile in the hallway. Cheza comes around the corner and drops to my side as she grabs my head and pulls me into her chest.

“Cole! Cole! What’s wrong!?” Cheza asks frantically. I’m unable to speak so I open our link.

“I think I almost just killed Sara…” I tell her while staring wide-eyed at the knife on the floor.

“I just
saw it. Don’t worry Cole; we’ll get this straightened out later.” Cheza thinks while referring to an image I must have sent her unintentionally.

“I was going to kill her once I had the information…If my phone hadn’t started ringing, I would have…I would have…” I think as I wrap my arms around Cheza’s waist. She sits there with me for the duration that it takes me to calm down.

“I’ll be right back.” Cheza thinks as she stands and walks out of the bathroom.

“Tia! Come in here and apologize to Cole!” Cheza shouts from down
the hallway. I hear them both head into the room, shut my door, and walk into the bathroom.

“What happened?” Tia asks quietly when she sees my state and the knife on the floor.

“Sara was talking to someone on the phone. When she mentioned Greenland, Cole realized that he needed to find out who she was talking to. That led him to grabbing a knife, planning to extract the information from Sara, followed by killing her.” Cheza explains for me, filling in the blanks that the image must’ve left with what I told her.

“Cole, was it Airi?” Tia asks.

“She suggested I use a knife and hold it to Sara’s neck to get the truth from her, but pressing the knife into her neck until it bled to show her I was serious and killing her after I had the information? That was just me…” I whisper.

“Please Tia! Just kill me before I hurt Cheza or you or Sara or Nat
a—” is as far as I get before Cheza backhands me so hard that she knocks two of my right molars loose; I think she also broke her right middle finger.

“Cole, if you ever speak that way again, I will make sure that you watch me die first before you get
to.” Cheza says in a flat tone meaning that she is so angry that she can no longer scream. I know exactly what to say in this situation: Nothing.

“If you two go pulling a Romeo
and Juliet on me, I am going to be so pissed! Henceforth, both of you are forbidden from talking to any friars or entering any apothecaries.” Tia declares and we all chuckle a little bit.

“
Cheza, let me see your right hand.” I say as I stand up, able to notice the swelling already; plus my own right hand feels like it’s throbbing a bit.

“No,” Cheza replies.

“Cheza…” I say.

“N—” she starts before I interrupt her with a kiss while grabbing her right hand.

“OW!” Cheza exclaims into my mouth. I break the kiss, pick up the knife, slash open my left hand and make a small incision in her right middle finger.

“Airi, you know what to do.”

(Yeah, yeah)

My blood streams into her right hand and accelerates the mending of her bone
. (5.6 Liters remaining)

“Hey Tia!
Have you seen the medium sized chef’s knife?” Sara shouts from the kitchen.

“NO I HAV
EN’T!” Tia replies.

“By the way, where were you two with Natasha?” I ask while desperately trying to get my mind off the current subject.

“We were running some errands. We were actually headed back here when Chezarei told me to drive faster, saying that something was happening to you. That’s when I told her to call you and when you didn’t answer, I picked up the speed to eighty and got us here about a minute later. Chezarei didn’t even wait for the car to fully stop before she jumped out and ran to you.” Tia explains.

“Anyway, let’s head out there. I’m going to sneak into Sara’s room and look at the call history to see who she’s been talking to. I need one of you guys to distract her.”
Tia says.

“I’ll do it.”
Cheza volunteers.

“No, I will. I have something I need to talk to her about anyway.” I say.

“Are you sure, Cole?” Cheza asks, concerned. I nod in response.

“Alright, let’s go.” Tia says and we walk out
.

Chapter
9: Who needs barbiturates when you’ve got
style
?

“Hey Sara, I need to talk to you about something. Is now a good time?” I ask.

“Sure, I just have to let this simmer anyway. What’s up?” Sara inquires.

“I want Cheza to have a plated jacket. How long would it take you to plate something like a North
Face fleece jacket for her?” I ask.

“I could probably sew one together in less than a week if provided with all the plates.” Sara replies.

“Okay, I’ll make the plates. I also want a hat or hood to be plated too. How could we go about doing this?” I ask.

“A malleable hat or hood?
I could probably plate it the same way as the jacket, but it won’t have the shock absorbing tendencies of the jacket and it will probably be useless against any heavy arms fire.” Sara informs me.

“Okay, I’ll go to the mall tomorrow and try
to find Cheza a hat and/or jacket. Next topic, I need a new holster, or we may be able to modify my current one. I’d like to make the pouch detachable and have a spot for a Sic dagger…I guess that making a sheath for one would be smart…So a spot to attach a sheath for a Sic dagger.” I tell Sara.

“
Whoa! Where is all this coming from?” Sara asks.

“Well I was thinking that, with a detachable pouch, I could still be armed even if it calls for a situation where walking around with a sword sticking out of
my jacket attracts some attention. Oh, and I’ll need a spot for a detachable silencer for my gun…or maybe I’ll just make the silencer permanent, in which case, I will need a longer gun holster on the pouch.” I ramble.

“Ask Tia about the silencer and then talk to me, but as for a new pouch, I’ve b
een working on an idea that I’ll show you after dinner.” Sara says.

Cheza, Natasha, and Tia are alread
y sitting at the table when I walk over. Tia sends me a wink across the table as Sara starts serving the chicken alfredo that she made.

“Cole, didn’t you need to talk to me about something in the armory?” Tia asks.

“Yeah I do. Shall we head down there after dinner?” I ask.

“Yeah that works.” Tia says.

“Sara, is it alright if I see the holster design after? Since it is going to heavily depend on a silencer, it would be a good idea to figure that out before we make modifications.” I say.

“Yes
, that’s fine Cole.” Sara says.

The rest of dinner goes on in silence. After Tia and I clean up our dishes, we walk down to the armory.

“So I figured out who Sara was talking to. It was her mom, Saraswati.” Tia says.

“So I almost killed Sara for talking to her mother…” I say while taking a steep spiral into despair.

“It’s most likely okay, but it could also mean that someone in the Buddhist or Hindu pantheons has turned.” Tia says.

“Buddhist or Hindu?”
I ask.

“Saraswati is a prominent figure in both of them. There are so many deities in both pantheons that it gets complicated. Last I heard the consensus among them is to remain neutral in all this and should the world end, so be it. However, Saraswati has taken an active interest in this for some unknown reason and holds a spot in The Faction. I’ll look into it some more and I’ll keep an eye on Sara.” Tia informs me.

“Yeah…okay.” I say, still feeling like shit, and then I remember what I needed to ask her.

“Hey Tia, how do silencers work?” I ask.

“They decrease the pressure being forced through the barrel by increasing the volume of the barrel with the added attachment. Why? Do you want to make one?” Tia asks.

“Yeah.
The situation with the were-sharks made me wish I had one because I ended up having to dispatch each one silently with a knife; whereas I could have just shot them all with a silencer and avoided the whole ‘firecracker’ excuse, getting shot, and consequential bullet removal.” I explain.

“Well that should be easy enough to do. You definitely want to make a detachable one though. If you need to get into close combat, you won’t be able to use the disarm bar easily with an extra six inches on the barrel and the larger cylinder partially blocking the opening. I’d say let’s make one tonight, but we wouldn’t be able to test it because that barrel isn’t outfitted for a silencer. You’ll have to take it to Archer; he has the equipment necessary to modify the barrel.” Tia informs me.

“Well, I was planning to go to the mall tomorrow to buy Cheza a coat for Sara to armor and one that will be warm enough for Greenland. I could stop by Archer’s place since I’ll be down there.” I tell her.