thoth
we spend all our time running for our lives, going nowhere
Cypress didn’t look okay. Her facial expression was difficult to read but she was shaking. Shaking was a side-effect of laughter, but in the absence of mirth it usually meant fear. Her dark brown hair had turned almost black under the rain and now framed her face in untidy straggles. A droplet of water ran down her cheek, looking for all the world like a tear. Thoth withdrew his fingers from hers and placed both hands around her waist, pulling her into a hug. He rested his chin on her shoulder and exhaled, feeling his pounding heart begin to quieten. They needed to get out of here. Life on the run had taught him to move on as quickly as possible after an attack.
Danny and Cypress seemed to be on the same wavelength. As Danny nudged the yapping Pomeranian into the closet, Thoth released Cypress and took a step back, assessing their situation. It was pretty bleak. Not only had they not gotten what they’d come for, they were also stuck for a ride home. His mouth twisted into a grim line while the emotions displayed clearly across his face. In the absence of knowing where to go, the only thing they could do was deploy a favourite outlaw trick.
“Let’s go.” He sighed, glancing at the door. It looked like he was probably going to have to sell that journal after all, at least in order to have something to show for the excursion. “We can figure out what to do once we get away from here. Grab anything you – ”
Something struck his wrist hard and, for a moment, time seemed to slow. Thoth glanced down just in time to see the lump of crystal clatter to the ground and the digital screen on his wrist light up. He didn’t even have time to look surprised before he vanished into thin air. As he disappeared, a sight which had been blocked from Danny and Cypress’s view by his body became visible: the female Auran woman, crouched next to the bed, her murderous face twisted into an expression of triumph. She stood, plucking a pistol from her hip, and pointed it straight into Cypress’s face.
“Alright, you little shits.” Her hair had come out of her ponytail and now clung to her shoulders in wet, bedraggled rat’s tails. Her dark, narrowed eyes flicked between the two teenagers, keeping them both carefully in her sights. Her nose was straight but her mouth was bloodied where Thoth’s punch had caught it, and she was missing one of her front teeth. “If either if you want to see your friend again you won’t move a fucking muscle unless I tell you to. You,” she gestured to Danny with the gun, “open the closet. My partner had better be back to his ugly self by the time I get off the phone.”
With her free hand, she pulled her mobile phone back out of her pocket and pressed her thumb against the speed-dial on the screen. She lifted the phone to one ear and kept her eyes – and her gun – fixed on the two trespassers.
“Yeah, Dalton here, up in Everglade.” She said into the device after a moment. “Sent you a package. Yeah, that’s him. Got his two accomplices here with me. What do you want me to do with them?” There was a pause. “Sure, I’ll hold.”
She glared pointedly at Danny, keeping the phone to her ear. The seconds ticked by and became minutes. The woman professionally maintained her pose for a quarter of an hour until the buzz of an indistinct voice could be heard through the speakers of the phone. Dalton frowned.
“I mean, sure, but that was my last hop loop.” Another pause. She grimaced. “Fine, they’re on their way. See you within the hour.”
She tapped a button on the phone’s screen and slipped it back into her pocket.
“Alright, assholes,” she growled at Danny and Cypress, “we’re gonna take a little flight down to Auran HQ to see your friend. Put your noses against the wall and your hands on your heads.”