One of the senior living places whose waitlist I got on last year phoned me Thursday and asked me to come in for an interview, so today I'm driving from Omaha to the Chicago area to make my interview scheduled Monday afternoon. I expect to drive back Tuesday. It's an eight- or ten- hour drive one way, which I'm prepared to have play havoc with my usual scrolling routine. Friday and Saturday, instead of just reblogging everything, I scheduled some of my reblogs for today; and Monday I'll schedule some for Tuesday. And of course The Hero of Three Faces will still update (though perhaps from the buffer buffer, on which a three day run won't run it dry) and the usual 11:00 and 22:00 link posts here are expected to go up, though the 11:00 ones might not get pinned promptly.
After failing to get myself moved closer to my stepkids last year, I had resigned myself to waiting on waitlists for a year or five. The idea that now it might finally all get resolved within the next thirty or sixty days is unexpected.
Back at Delaney’s obnoxious house, just after Lavender hung up on him, he finally released Erick from the cross, even catching him as he failed to keep standing.
“Giving up already~?” he said, “I’m not even done with you yet~”
“D-don’t…”
“Hush~”
He pulled his arm over his shoulder to support him, walking him over to the large bed on the other side of the room and sitting him down on the edge. Erick pulled away from him as soon as he let go, but Delaney caught his collar and pulled him back.
“I said I wasn’t done,” he said.
“Then…n-neither am I,” Erick said, finding his voice back somewhat.
He felt sore all over, especially his legs and shoulders, but he couldn’t give up. Delaney just smirked, pushing him to lie down before changing his grip from his collar to his throat and squeezing.
“You know, I was going to suggest taking a nap, but if you’re going to be such a fucking tease…”
Erick tried to pull his hand off, gasping for air. When that didn’t work he tried kicking, but he didn’t have the strength in his legs. Just when he thought he was beginning to feel dizzy, Delaney finally let go. But while he was distracted with catching his breath, Delaney went and cuffed his wrists together, a length of chain attached to a ring on the headboard keeping his hands trapped above his head.
“Cough! They’ll fucking kill you…” the teen groaned.
“That’s just a risk I’ll have to take,” Delaney said, pulling some kind of suitcase from underneath the bed and opening it.
Erick only just couldn’t see its contents, but spotted Delaney pulling out a cable and plugging it into an outlet on the wall.
“What is that?” he asked.
“A TENS unit.” Delaney said, smirking as the teen seemed confused, “Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation,” he elaborated, “I put it together myself, since the store-bought kind just doesn’t have the right oomph.”
“What does it do?” Erick asked warily.
“Depending on the setting it can help relax sore muscles, stimulate blood flow, provide pleasure if you’re into it, or intense pain when you get into the higher range.”
He pulled out a set of sticky patches, attached to the machine with thin wires, which he had to detangle a bit. Erick pulled on his wrist cuffs a bit, not liking where this was going at all. Delaney chuckled.
“Calm down, you had your punishment,” he said, pulling one of the patches free from the rest and approaching him again.
“Don’t fucking touch— No!”
His struggles were pointless and limited, and Delaney easily pasted some patches on the inside and outsides of his thighs, thankfully avoiding the sore welts. Then he ignored his protests and unbuttoned his shirt to paste two on his stomach, and lastly he invaded his sleeves to paste some on his shoulders and upper arms.
“Now, I’ll start with a continuous flow on a low setting. It might tickle a bit first, but then we’ll play around to find a setting you like, okay?”
“I don’t want—”
Click
The machine hummed to life and Erick gasped, more in shock than from the actual result, as he didn’t really feel much at all. A slight tickle radiating from the patches through his body. Delaney chuckled at his expression.
“See? It’s not so bad,” he said, before turning a dial.
Erick hissed a bit, actually feeling his muscles begin to relax. As if he’d stepped into a warm bath.
“Electricity is amazing, isn’t it?” Delaney said, “we rely on it, we run on it. You decide you want to move your arms, so your brain sends an electric signal through your nervous system, causing your muscles to contract in just the right spot. It’s an amazing system, but it’s so easy to hijack.”
He turned the dial again, sending a sudden, stronger pulse through the pads, causing the teen’s muscles to contract all of a sudden, before relaxing again.
“Ah— F-fuck…”
“Hmm such a lovely sound~” Delaney said, flipping a switch so the unit would periodically send another pulse at regular intervals.
Erick blushed, he wasn’t even quite sure what sound he made, but if Delaney liked it so much he didn’t want to do it again—
“Hgnn!”
“No need to hold back for my sake, let it all out,” Delaney said, sitting down on the bed next to him.
“No!” Erick snapped.
But Delaney just shushed him, getting closer as he stroked his cheek. Erick tried to turn his head away, he couldn’t even tense up properly. Delaney knew another pulse was coming, so he pulled on his collar with one hand, while yanking his head back by his hair with the other just as it hit. Erick moaned in surprise, eliciting another amused chuckle.
“Addicting, isn’t it?” Delaney said, “I could do this for hours, but I really need my beauty sleep.”
“T-turn it off…” Erick pleaded, his cheeks blushing red, embarrassed by his own responses.
“If you’ll let me have a little taste,” Delaney said.
He couldn’t resist it anymore. He’d worked hard for this, took many risks and a lot of attitude, and even with the reward literally in his reach, he still had to refrain. First of all, he was exhausted from staying up all night and felt like he would pass out if he pushed himself too much now. But a little taste would be okay. It was not like the teen could do much to stop him anyway.
He pulled on the collar again, waiting a second for the next pulse to distract the boy before kissing him. Erick tried to turn his head away, but when that didn’t stop him he instead found the first thing that caught his teeth and bit down. Hard.
“Argh!”
Delaney growled in pain, tearing his lip just to be able to pull away. He tasted blood, reaching up to feel a decent cut on his bottom lip. He glared down at the teen, who just stared back with a defiant look before spitting out some blood, smudging his cheek.
“Should’ve specified what kind of taste you wanted,” he said.
“Maybe I should’ve used a cane instead of a crop,” Delaney replied, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket to dab at his lip while getting up.
“Hgnn…you hit like a wimp anyway.”
Delaney didn’t grant him a response. Instead, he just turned a dial on his unit, before flipping another switch.
“AAAH!”
Erick jolted, crying out in pain as a much stronger current suddenly ran through the pads. Delaney waited for him to stop screaming as he began running out of breath, before switching the whole unit off. It took a good couple of seconds before Erick was able to breathe in again. It didn’t help to cough after breathing in some saliva, either.
“Keep breathing,” Delaney advised, beginning to pull the patches off of his skin, “I’ll give you a choice. Either you apologise and you can rest in my guest room, or you keep acting up and you’re never seeing the outside of this room again.”
He put the pads aside and pulled on the collar again to make sure he had the teen’s attention.
“What’s it gonna be?”
Erick unsuccessfully tried to cover a sob with a cough, struggling to form a coherent sentence, or any word for that matter.
“S-s-sor…s-sor—”
“Hm, shame,” Delaney said, “you would’ve looked great in the stockade, but a promise is a promise.”
He let go of the collar, reaching up to uncuff his wrists before trying to get the dazed teen to his feet. Again with an arm around his shoulders, and his arm around the teen’s waist, he escorted him back to the guest room, letting him lie down on the bed while reminding him about the lock.
Erick wisely kept quiet, or he was still too stunned to think. Either way Delaney left him alone, locking the door behind him. He got some ice for his lip, and a drink to calm down, before heading to his own bedroom, applying some extra moisturising cream under his eyes before passing out for a good, long nap.
Meanwhile Lavender had just gotten out of the shower, rubbing her hair dry with a towel while going through the bedrooms until she found Fetch’s things, borrowing another shirt from him. She never brought any luggage when they started this whole thing after all.
She dropped the towel on the floor and headed downstairs, finding Fetch sipping a fresh cup of coffee. He’d managed to clean up almost all of the blood in the kitchen, leaving only a stain on the table as it seemed to have soaked into the wood a bit. Nothing a fresh layer of paint wouldn’t fix, but it shouldn’t be their problem.
“How’s the kid?” she asked.
“Tired, but he’ll live,” Fetch said, “you wanna see the picture now?”
“Yeah, show me.”
He handed her his phone, the picture already loaded on the screen. It was a bit shocking how real it looked. From the wound to the patterns in the blood and the little details like leaving the knife in the frame, the blood on her own arm as if she’d tried to save herself. She shuddered again, but she wasn’t even sure why.
“You okay?” Fetch asked.
Fuck. He noticed this time.
“I’m good,” Lavender said, handing his phone back, “so now I call Delaney?”
“Actually I need your help with something first,” Fetch said.
“Wow you can’t do anything without me, can you?” Lavender said with a smirk.
“I can do it without you, but with you it’s just easier,” Fetch said, “the contact I mentioned…we didn’t exactly part our ways in a friendly manner, but hearing your side of the story might persuade them.”
“My side?” Lavender asked.
“You’re the one who wants Keller dead,” Fetch said.
“You’re no fan of him either!”
“Listen,” Fetch said, “she takes things personally. And your beef with Keller is more personal than mine.”
“She?” Lavender asked, raising a brow, “What’d you do? Write her some poetry? Didn’t call her back after spending the night?”
“It’s a long story,” Fetch said, “now stop wasting time. The sooner we find Erick, the better.”
“Right,” Lavender said, deciding to focus, “go on, call her. Put her on speaker. I’ll talk some sense into her.”
Fetch nodded, opening his phone for the right number and hitting dial, putting the phone on speaker and laying it on the table. Lavender sat on the edge of the table next to him, watching the loading wheel spin as the call was connecting. Finally, the line stopped beeping as someone picked up.
“I thought I told you to delete my number?” a deep, female voice answered, not sounding too pleased.
Lavender threw Fetch a look, wondering what he’d done wrong, but he ignored her.
“I wouldn’t bother you if I didn’t really need your help for something,” Fetch said.
“If you’re going to ask me to put a hit on Peter or any of his associates, I’ll assassinate you instead,” the woman replied.
“Jesus, Fetch, what did you do to her?” Lavender asked.
“Who else is there?” the woman asked.
“The woman I need you to help,” Fetch said, “her name is Lavender Rhodes. Rhodes, you’re talking to Keira Thorne.”
“So you’re not calling for yourself?” Thorne asked.
“Yes and no,” Fetch said, “it’s a long story.”
“I got time,” Thorne said.
“The short version is I made him back out of a job and now the guy is pissed and bothering us both,” Lavender said, “kidnapped his kid.”
“You have children?” Thorne asked curiously.
“She means Erick James,” Fetch elaborated, “the kid Allard tried to sell?”
“I thought you killed him,” Thorne said.
“No, I just burned a corpse and left enough of his blood around the scene for the police to get tunnel vision.” Fetch explained, “He’s very much alive.”
“For now.” Lavender chimed in, “Listen, Thorne, I dunno what your beef is with Fetcher, but this isn’t about him. This is about a pervert who’s been kidnapping, abusing and killing kids for years. We’ve got a chance to off him, but we need an extra person to make sure the odds are in our favour. Fetcher recommended you.”
“What’s his name?” Thorne asked.
“Mateo Keller,” Fetch and Lavender replied in unison.
“I heard that name before,” Thorne said, “he spreads…questionable pictures, no?”
“Yup, that’s him,” Lavender said, “we’ll meet up with him and a partner of his soon. We want to kill Mateo and use the partner to find out where the kid is.”
Thorne was quiet for a moment. Fetch even checked to make sure the call hadn’t disconnected when she spoke up again, having made her decision.
“Text me the time and place. I’ll bring my long-range,” she said, “oh, and bring cash.”
Beeeeep…
Fetch ended the call, seeming relieved as he pocketed his phone.
“She’s on board,” he said.
“She said bring cash,” Lavender pointed out, “do we have much cash?”
“I can give her some, then we offer her a third of Virgil’s ransom,” Fetch said.
“You mean half of your share,” Lavender said, “I’m not the one who got beef with her.”
“You started this whole thing!” Fetch said, “You know what? We’ll argue about this later. You can call Delaney now.”
“Fiiine, what do I tell him?”
“That you want to meet up, you’ll text him the time and address, yada yada yada— We’ll figure out the actual schedule later.”
“Got it. Now you shut up, it’s probably better if he thinks I’m acting alone.”
I ordered a whole bunch of crap for the house on amazon prime last night and I can't remember what. I'm not going to look at my account. I want to be surprised. Like a low grade xmas. 'Ooh look, picture hooks! And a door mat!' I'm easily pleased.
An alleyway, the back end of the suburbs where the forgotten are found and the found find themselves forgotten. His eyes searched here, seeking a sign, looking for something...
These guys from Bell Canada wasted over an hr of my time yesterday to not even submit my supposed internet installation request for the 10th that I blogged about yesterday. If it weren't for my awesome new roomie setting up a better installation date with videotron (for tomorrow afternoon) we would have had a terrible surprise on the 10th when no one showed up to set up our internet. Omg I'm honestly so pissed and it's hard to piss me off.
