John's Lawn

I awoke an hour later, brain pulsing. I was in the back of the van laying on the floor, “The prodigal son returns, welcome back you crazy son of a bitch!” Tucker laughed.

“Took on a god face to face. Pretty sure the only one with bigger balls than that would be Abraham. Though, balls didn’t save you.” Doc said, looking up from his book.

“Took the last core I had, but at least I can say I’ve killed a god now.” Tucker snickered with a smirk.

“Concentrated light, can’t say it’s what I would have thought of, but it was effective.”

“Yeah, wasn’t effective portably until we came across some anti-matter from a crashed–”

“What?” I tried sitting up but failed.

“Right.” He stood, propping up the left row of seats, and pulled out a black case. Flicking it up he aimed it down at me, “Anti-matter annihilation laser. Think you can piece it together.” There were about five lenses that each shrunk, narrowing the barrel to a tip. Everything but the lenses was coated in a vanta black paint, “Each lens reduces the energy state while also–”

“I couldn’t give less fucks if I pulled them out of Doc’s patients. You killed him with that thing?”

“Yup, his head’s probably gettin’ breathed in from the wildlife out here.” He clicked the case shut, put it back in place, and sat.

“And the data is intact?”

There was a brief pause, “While it is, I feel it’s important to be more concerned about yourself. You have major skull fractures, a concussion, you’re missing your face flesh, your back had to be clotted to avoid you bleeding out, and you are severely low on blood. You should be sleeping right now.”

“I just, I had to know.”

“Knowing you, you’ll be back on your feet in–”

I passed out again before he finished talking.

———————————————

When I awoke, I was on my bed, Sepratine was applying herbs to my face, “Ho–”

“16 hours, Doctor Sadist and Rachel are busy. You really ought to be more cautious, this isn’t one of your video games.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind. You heard from Jones?”

“No, apparently he passed out at the wheel after he parked. The Sadist said they’d be out for a while. He’s having Rachel look them over once she finishes a project she’s working on.”

“Shouldn’t you be helping her?”

She put her mortar down and sighed, “Flip onto your side, I need to replace the bandages on your back, then you need to eat.”

She finished tending to me in silence, then went to cook. The whole time, I just wanted to get up and finish everything. But even if I did, the data wasn’t fully recovered until it was sifted through. So I resigned to wait until the detective got back to me.

Sepratine came back a while later with a plate toppling over itself and a glass of water. Not to get too detailed, but both were empty in a matter of… 30 seconds or so? “Now get back to sleep. Your face should be back to normal in another day, and your skull is still fusing back together.”

“Let me know when Jones has the info.” She stood, taking my plate and cup.

“Someone will I’m sure. Get some rest, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t. You were reckless enough… Whatever, goodbye.”

——————————-

When I came to again, my face was dry, the medicine Sepratine had put on felt like a cracked desert, leaving a green crust behind. I stood, heading to the bathroom to wash my face. I took my meds, then removed the bandages from my back. Heading back to my room, I grabbed my phone, seeing several missed calls and texts. I immediately opened the message from Jones.

Call me when you wake up, I’ve got it, you’re not gonna believe where it is.

The phone rang four times, “Eh? Terry, that you?” He yawned.

“Yeah, what’s the deal?”

“You remember when you first met me?”

“No.”

“Well, I was headed to a town down in southeastern Oregon, one that wasn’t on any maps. And you’re not gonna believe this shit, but Tenyit Lane, the place I went, that’s where he’s being held.”

“So you know where I need to go?”

 “Yeah, the place is a hot zone for organizations. There’re at least seven that I’ve recorded since I first went, and that’s not including–”

“And?”

“Well, point is, there’s security everywhere, people are gonna be everywhere, and the police and government officials are gonna be too busy counting bodies to care about one missing person.”

“Send me the coordinates.” I took a picture of my wall, putting the phone back against my ear.

“I’ll do you one better, I still have an old map to the place, I’ll send it over.”

“I don’t care what you say, I am paying you after this.”

I was already out the door, wearing nothing but a hoodie and sweatpants. I started the car, threw on EDM, and headed down to find Joseph.

——————————

A grey smoke rose in the night air above the town. I had a good ten miles left on the empty road before getting to the one stop on the entire strip. As I climbed the mountain, I turned my windshield wipers up more and more. The road was coated in a light crust of white, the speckles dropping ever so carefully in the light wind.

As I rounded a bend, I saw a flicker of headlights through the pine trees. Rounding the next one, I saw the lights again, this time coming around their own turn, before heading in my direction. The snow picked up as I met the gaze of the other driver, it was her. 

I screeched to a stop, whipping a U-turn that nearly sent me into the rails. I stopped, having noticed her car was pulled over to the railing too. I jumped out of my car, running over to her, and grasping her in my arms, “I thought I’d killed you Tresca!”

Setting her down, my brain fully processed its surroundings. The person in front of me was Joseph, he was a bit shocked, but the rest of him reminded me of how he looked when we first met, “I-I’m sorry, I just–”

“Look, Terry. Honestly, it’s great to see you, great to have clear evidence I’m not crazy, great to know all those fun ass memories at the apartment were real. But…”

“I’m just so glad you’re okay.”

He smirked, but his eyes were hollow, “Yeah, okay…”

“I mean, you’re alive though!”

“Terry, this isn’t going to work.” He looked up, “I can’t ignore what you said when you saw me.” He looked back at me, nervous, “I read up on you, it was intrusive, and I’m sorry for that, but I can’t keep being a replacement. I need to live my own life, I need to get away from all this, I…” His eyes filled, but refused to streak, “I want to live a life away from all of this. I know a normal life isn’t really an option anymore. But I still wanna do what I can.”

“You… read my files?” I glanced at my phone, thinking about the picture I’d taken before leaving, “Which ones?”

“Your old life, hers too. Once I got ahold of my files, I decided to do some digging. I was me, but not I guess, I had to get an understanding of who the people I used to know were. I know about Tresca, I remember your conversation with Maerod.”

“I…”

He waited for a while, a few cars flew by us before he took the rope, “I will never regret the time we had. We had fun, we had some adventures and even a few emotional tipping points. Without you and everyone else, I’d probably have a slab of a ruck on top of me now. I don’t feel like dying anymore, but I also don’t feel like living. I’m sorry, but… I need to find my life out there.” He threw his arm up, gesturing around, “But if I stay with you, I’ll never get that chance.”

I tried to maintain myself, for seemingly the first time, taking Joseph as a person in. His overgrown brown hair, his blue eyes, broad shoulders, bland outfit. “You look different from before.”

“I feel different.” He shot a breath out his nose.

I staggered, “Let me grab something from my car before you go. You mind coming with?”

He nodded, gazing up at the grey sky. Several more cars flew past us as we made our way to mine. When we got there, I pulled out a small bag, 

I reached into my car, pulling out the contract, “This was the guy that placed a hit on your wife. He’s dead now.”

A car flew by, lighting up his face to reveal his frozen face, “Y-you mean it? Who killed him?” He snatched the paper from my hand, looking over the entire sheet.

“The detective put on her case, the original guy is my understanding. Goes by Jones, he’s a P.I. now.”

“Really? Where is he?”

I cleared my throat, “You su–”

“Positive, where is he?”

I rubbed my arm, but looking at his hopeful face, I caved, “Apex Investigation Office, downtown Albany.”

He hugged me, “Thank you… Seriously, this…” He cried into my stomach for a time before pulling back and recomposing himself. Rubbing his nose dry, he turned around.

“Wait!”

He stopped, turning his head to me, “Yeah?”

I held onto my phone, debating to show him the picture or not. We stood still as two more cars flew by, followed by one with sirens. I pushed my phone back into my pocket, “Where are you going?”

He turned back to his car, holding up the contract, “To repay a debt. You’ll get yours too one of these days.”

Sitting in his car, he drove off without another word.

I sat in mine, pulling the phone from my pocket, and opened the gallery. I had one recent picture, it was one of the walls in my room, one with several posters. All of which were had drawn anime style portraits of Tresca. “Maybe Abraham was right, and maybe, Joseph has the right idea too.”