Fan Fiction ❯ Black Phoenix ❯ Silent Killer ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter Five

Rian was sitting beside me. I, for a very embarrassing reason, was currently sitting up in my white hospital bed, my legs pulled up to my chest in mock comfort. My head was pounding but I didn't care. I didn't care about anything besides the fact that Rian, the person I cared for more than anything in the world, had found the need to run away from our apartment this morning and I didn't know why. And he wasn't exactly being very forthcoming about it.

I had thought that it was my fault, and I was deeply sorry for that. I never wanted to hurt him, not him, not ever. But when I tried to make sense of everything, he told me that the reason he left had nothing to do with me. So what then?

"Rian!" I cried, less angry than before, more desperate. "Rian, please tell me why." I broke into a sob, my words dying on my lips. "What did I do to drive you away? If not the insult, then what?"

I hated the fact that I compared Rian to my father, but Rian's silence hurt me so much more. What had I done?

I was hysterical, and I knew it, but so much had happened to me today I was surprised that I wasn't a screaming wreck. And yet, out of everything that had happened, this was the most painful.

I was barely aware that Rian was looking at me in just as much pain. For some reason I never associated the ex-assassin with expressing his feelings. He never cried, never let anyone see what he was thinking. I'm sure it was all part of the job, and more recently he had been smiling, become more expressive. He cried once too. We were watching something stupid on TV, and at the end (although it was so obvious) the main character popped her clogs, and when the credits rolled I turned and saw tears in Rian's eyes.

"Could it be that Rian of all people is crying?" I said, laughing. "And over something so lame!"

"I am not crying!" he snapped, although the corners of his mouth were curving into a smile. And before I could say anything else he had thrown a pillow at me. So I threw one back, defending my honour and all that, and the incident was forgotten.

But I had never seen such open pain on his face before, and it almost broke my heart in two. For a long moment we both looked at each other, both pained, both because of a reason that only one of us understood. And it wasn't me.

Loss of control again. I hated it. It reminded me of my father. I closed me eyes, took a deep breath, put a hand to my chest in comfort and then looked at Rian. "Please," I whispered, "just tell me why you left this morning. It's because of what I said, wasn't it? I'm sorry. You don't have to hide the truth from me. I know I hurt you and I'm sorry. That's it, isn't it?"

He could have lied and gotten away with it. Instead he shook his head. "That's not the reason."

I had to smile slightly, to hide my emotional turmoil. Seconds seemed to drag as I waited for him to continue. And then I remembered something.

"I was with you all night."

I shook my head. No!

"I was in the kitchen," Rian said slowly. "I heard you wake up and knew that you were doing your daily cleansing thing on the balcony. So I walked towards the doors and you were smoking. And I told you to put out the cigarette."

I nodded. Yes, this had all happened.

"And then -"

"And then," he interrupted, "I heard a noise coming from your bedroom."

No . . . No!

"And Cindy walked out with a sheet wrapped around her."

I froze. Oh my God. I remembered Cindy's words so clearly now. "I was with you all night." No, it couldn't be true. It just couldn't.

But I knew it was. Cindy had been outside the nightclub when I left, just stumbling home. It was perfectly possible that she had staggered out after Rian had left, and before I did. Damn it, if only I hadn't been so obsessed with sitting in the wicker chair. If only I paid more attention to what happened in my own home.

And then I realised two things, both of them equally shocking.

Number one, Rian appeared to be jealous by the fact that Cindy had emerged from my room. Or hurt. So hurt that he ran without an explanation.

And number two, the most disturbing, was the fact that Rian thought I had slept with Cindy. And for all I remember I did. I mean, I didn't even remember that the girl was in my room, so what else didn't I remember?

I felt sick again. No wonder she'd been so flirty. She even groped me! Maybe she thought we were a couple now.

It was then that the doctor decided to make an entrance. He was young, and good-looking with his sandy hair and bright eyes, I had to admit. But apparently someone else found him attractive too. Cindy, shrieking, entered the room, following the doctor like a dog. She may as well have been drooling. I saw Rian tense immediately and I knew that my suspicions were right. Rian was acting very strangely about the fact that I had apparently slept with Cindy. My skin crawled.

"Ah, Mr Black, I see that you're awake," the doctor said, a clipboard in his hand.

"Apparently," I said dryly, and I shocked him.

"No need to be rude to Matthew," Cindy drawled. 'Matthew' turned a shade of crimson as Cindy grabbed onto his arm, while Rian hissed in disgust.

"It's Doctor Murray, actually," he struggled to say. I'm sure that Cindy was holding onto him so tightly that little blood was getting to his brain.

Rian snorted and got to his feet immediately, pacing strangely around the room. I was too confused to be thinking or saying anything, and then I realised that I was in a hospital and I didn't know why. "So, what's up doc?" I asked.

He didn't look too impressed.

"Concussion, Mr Black," he said, looking down at his clipboard. "I need to advise you how to deal with this, so I need to speak with a family member."

"I don't have any family members," I said stiffly. Doctor Murray raised an eyebrow. I don't think he liked me too much. Rian turned and faced the doctor for the first time.

"I'm taking him home," he said loudly, as if he wanted Cindy to hear.

"And you are?" Dr Murray asked. I groaned. Another self-righteous, smug git had entered my life, and unfortunately, this being a well-respected doctor, he probably had every right to be smug. I was, after all, just another runaway teenager who spent too many nights getting drunk and partying instead of working to be a decent citizen like him. I grit my teeth.

"Syrian and I live together," Rian said promptly.

Dr Murray glanced at me, then at Rian. He immediately looked away from both of us, turned up his nose slightly and said, "Oh, I see."

I cursed him under my breath. He knew sod all, and I knew sod all.

"Spill it doc, cos I'm getting bored," I snapped, "and I'm tired of your superior attitude. Now what the hell am I supposed to know about concussion, and when can I leave?"

"You can leave as soon as I discharge you," he said, and he sounded damn happy about that prospect. Then he told me what not to do when you have concussion, and it was quite a list. Do not go to bed and stay in bed. Do not drive. Good luck there. Do not put yourself in a position where you're likely to bang your head again. Oh, and that was on my To Do list. Do not drink alcohol. Like I was ever going to drink alcohol ever again anyway. Not after all this crap.

"So can I leave now?" I snapped. My head was pounding and the room was spinning, but I didn't want anyone to know. I just wanted to leave, go home and sleep for the rest of my life. Oh wait, I was now banished from doing that.

When Dr Murray left, Cindy exhaled. "Damn, that guy is fine, and a doctor too!" She grinned as she plopped onto the bed next to me, obviously contemplating what she'd like to do with 'Matthew.' I was too tense to deal with this crap. I was faintly aware that Rian moaned some excuse and left. As soon as he disappeared I turned and faced Cindy, who was barely paying any attention to the real world.

"What happened?" I demanded.

She blinked, looked at me in confusion. "What happened when?" she asked.

"What happened last night?" I said. "You were in my room this morning."

She blinked again, cupped her chin in her hand. "Of course I was in your room this morning, since I fell asleep in your room last night."

I groaned, lifted a pillow to my face and weakly attempted to suffocate myself.

"What's this about?" she asked, attempting to remove the pillow from my face. Then her eyes shone and she grinned wildly. "Oh I see. You don't remember anything about our night of love."

"Don't call it that!" I hissed. Then I let the pillow drop to the floor and looked at her like some pitiful little dog who was about to be shot. I swallowed. "So it's true then?"

Cindy laughed then, and the noise annoyed me because she was just stalling like she always did. Eventually the laughter died down and she looked at me, smirking. "Syrian, do you honestly think that last night you and I slept together?"

I swallowed again, confused. What was happening here? So I went defensive. "Well, you made it seem that way! Coming out of my room in a sheet!"

Cindy tutted. "Men, men. All they ever have on their brain is sex. Syrian, we didn't sleep together. Since you obviously can't remember what happened, I'll have to inform you. Me, you, party party. And me you drunky, drunky. So as I attempted to get home last night, I managed to face vault and when Larry started to lead me away, you decided, very loudly I might add, that I could sleep in your room. So I did, and I have to thank you for that because . . . Larry!" she shivered.

I was baffled. "So we didn't sleep together. You just slept in my room?"

"Duh!" she said, rolling her eyes. "You're not irresistible, you know. Oh wait, this is about Rian isn't it? Cos he made a very fast disappearance act this morning. I bet he's jealous."

"Shut up!" I hissed.

"No, he's obviously got a problem with you sleeping with anyone other than him," she slurred, jumping out of the way before my pillow could connect with her face. I wasn't about to discus anything with Cindy: not my sex life, not Rian, and not anybody's sexual preferences.

Truth be told I didn't know anything about Rian's sex life, or his sexual preferences.

Dr Holier-Than-Thou returned and seemed relieved that Rian was gone. After all, being an ex-assassin, that guy had an aura around him that screamed trouble. Nobody would ever mess with him if they were sober, and apparently the doctor felt that too.

I just wanted him back so that I could go home. And I wanted someone to come and sit next to me, and not try to kill me, and to open a huge book with all the answers in it so that finally everything would make sense. But I suppose it was all one step at a time. So I settled for pulling myself out of bed, thanking 'Matthew' as politely as I could and leaving to find Rian.

He wasn't hard to find at all. In fact he was standing just outside the door, leaning against the wall. It was almost as if he was guarding the room in case something was going to happen. He looked at me, and he was wearing his sunglasses again. I was almost saddened by that fact. Then he looked at Cindy and said, "Do you need a lift?"

She seemed surprised, but then she smiled brilliantly. "That's fine," she said, "I'll make my way home later."

He shrugged, but I was impressed. Feeling a lot happier about the fact that I hadn't slept with Cindy, I followed Rian out of the hospital and into the harsh reality of the world.

*

I sighed gently as I sat on the beige couch, feeling slightly depressed and lonely. I had been at home for roughly ten minutes and abandoned. Honestly! But then, I wasn't really abandoned. Rian was fixing me something to eat, but I would rather have sat and talked to him. Food could wait. All this crap couldn't.

Be he was not easily persuaded, that guy. He definitely had a mind of his own. So I sat and waited, wondering how much food he would burn before he finally realised that the only thing he could make was a sandwich. Which I really didn't want anyway.

"Rian!" I called.

He shouted something back that sounded suspiciously like, "I'm making the damn sandwich." But I think he was shouting at the sandwich more than he was shouting at me. He's that type of guy. A bad workman always blames his tools.

I was practically asleep when he finally emerged from what could barely be called a kitchen. "Hey, none of that," he remarked. "Remember what that nice doctor said about sleeping."

I chuckled, glad to see that his sense of humour had returned. I was pretty sure that we both had the same opinion about the 'nice' doctor. I blinked my navy eyes and realised that Rian was sitting beside me on the beige couch that was barely big enough for both of us, holding something in his hand too triumphantly for my liking. He had a huge grin on his face.

"What did you make?" I asked.

"A fine delicacy," he said with pride.

"A sandwich?" I guessed.

He laughed and nodded. "A sandwich."

So I sat and ate the sandwich quietly, and Rian watched me quietly, and it was way too silent for my liking. There was a huge unspoken something between us, and I wanted to bludgeon it to death very quickly.

"Rian . . ."

"Ssh," he said quickly.

"No, Rian -"

"You don't need to say anything," he said, interrupting me again. "I'm sorry if I sounded domineering today. This is your apartment too and you can do what you like in it with whoever you like."

I swallowed the last of the sandwich, suddenly wishing I hadn't. At least eating the sandwich gave me the excuse to be silent. Now I didn't trust myself to say anything. Rian had turned away from me slightly, his fingers playing with the sunglasses that he had thankfully removed.

"Rian, that's nice for you to say and all, but to be honest I don't want to do anything with anyone in this apartment. Especially not Cindy, she's just my friend. Cos this is where you and me live."

He turned to look at me for a moment. "But -"

"But what about this morning?" I smiled slightly, never realising how good it would feel to tell Rian this. "I don't remember anything about last night, but Cindy thankfully informed me that since Larry was hitting on her, and she was drunk as a skunk, I told her she could sleep in my room. Sleep. And this morning she left. End of story. Cindy's nice and all, but -"

I stopped, but Rian got the message. "I'm sorry," he said again, although there was a slight smile on his face. "Your sex life has nothing to do with me."

"Sex life?" I echoed. "Gotta get me one of those."

We both laughed, but I was thinking about Mr Harada. And I wondered if Rian was too. Yeah, Rian knew about my relationship with the teacher. It was one of the things that brought us together.

It was then that I raised a hand to push long strands of hair out of my face, and when I lowered my hand I noticed a nasty black smudge on my skin. For a long moment I was baffled, and then I remembered the mysterious black phoenix tattoo. I still didn't know where it came from, or why the assassin had looked at it so strangely. Silently I stood and walked towards the bathroom, wanting to see it in the mirror.

I wasn't aware that Rian was following me in concern, but then I did have concussion. I just walked into the bathroom, looked at my face in the mirror. The tattoo, which I had realised was only temporary, was now nothing more than a black smudge down the side of my face. I raised my fingers to it slowly. I could just about make out the shape of the wings, and the head turned to the side. But most of the detail was gone.

Rian's face appeared beside mine in the mirror, but I wasn't scared like Larry had frightened me earlier. He looked into my mirror eyes, and then at the black smudge on my face as if he had seen it for the first time.

"That looks . . . interesting," he said slowly. "What is it?"

"It used to be a tattoo," I said. "A black phoenix."

Then Rian's emerald eyes widened and he shook his head. "No," he whispered. "Dear God, no!"

~TBC~