Posted by Cheryl on June 19, 2001 at 19:11:06:
In Reply to: A Story -Scene 1/Leo and Chastain posted by Cheryl on June 19, 2001 at 04:29:29:
Angel/Bonds…Part Two
Chastain and Leo
Verity took a while just standing near Cheryl. She couldn't hear the music, she couldn't see the place; all she could see was this woman. Damn. It had been years but it might as well have been last week. She gave herself a couple of moments and then nodded. "Long time indeed, darlin.' To be honest I thought the next time would be never."
Cheryl laughed, the husky sound seemingly almost torn out of her. It didn't last long, and the sound, and the way Cheryl's face looked, a mask just covering her feelings with the thinnest membrane, made her think about why she was there in the first place. This wasn't a reunion, there wasn't time, reason or emotional energy to play it like one. She pulled another chair out, one that put her back to the wall, and sat down herself. She'd picked up a drink at the bar on the way by and she slammed it back before she spoke.
"Cheryl, I'd tell you how sorry I am, ask you how you're doing, but I know how you'd feel about bullshit like that."
Cheryl's lips thinned in something like a smile. "Yeah, sorry girlfriend but the way I'm feeling I might have had to deck you."
Verity considered teasing, telling Cheryl she could try, but again that was all wrong. She used humour to get through horror. But this was too big and the whole situation was too awkward. -Keep it straight--, she thought. -Let's get down to business.-
"I admit I was surprised when you called, Cheryl, even when you told me about Angel. I figured you'd want to handle this on your own and if you needed someone with my-skills-you'd find somebody local."
Cheryl's eyes glittered, but it wasn't the shine they always had. It was like something had lit the fires of hell behind her eyes. "Verity I don't give a damn about what happened with you and me before. And I certainly couldn't care the least about your expectations." She leaned forward. "I need the best. I plan on making this monster suffer things he couldn't even dream of in his own sick fantasies, but to do that I have to get him vulnerable. And he's fooled us all around here, the only one who ever saw him as he was, was-Angel-" She nearly broke down but a few more seconds and her famous control took over.
Verity nodded. "So if you can find someone who can draw him to her like Angel did, you can get him with his guard down?"
Cheryl sighed deeply. "Yeah, that's the plan. This guy has been around here a long time, and you know the things that go on here. I would guess that most of the time he's on guard, and probably so well able to guard himself that we'd never take him without taking a lot of other people out at the same time."
Verity gave a quick glance at the action on the stage. She'd seen stranger. Girls died here all the time, sometimes they played a little first, some stripping and teasing, or sometimes they were tied up and tortured, or sometimes they just found themselves slumped against the wall, a knife in their backs, quick as lighting, with their killer keeping right on going up the stairs. When women hung out here they knew what the deal was. Not every girl was vulnerable, and if a girl wanted to be here and be safe, or at least be safe from certain kinds of games, Sam and the other boys and girls would see to it that the word went out. And nobody, but nobody, went against Sam and his enforcers. Angel should have been as safe in this place as she would have been at Disneyland. But something went wrong and she ended up dead. Not just dead, but raped into death. Verity gritted her teeth. If she'd been able to see the bastard and know who he was right this minute, nobody and nothing could have stopped her from doing him in. She made a point of not looking around. She didn't want to attract attention; she just wanted to look like a typical snuffslut, currying the illustrious Cheryl's favor.
Verity pulled a little silver compact from her pink-beaded purse, and put shiny, flavored hot-pink lipgloss on her pout of a mouth. She and Cheryl were night and day. Her voluptuousness contrasted with the sinuous Cheryl, and Verity's clothing was usually flashy and vampire trashy. But tonight they looked even more different. Figuring that anyone who'd want Angel bad enough to risk Sam and Cheryl would want something sweet-looking, Verity had played up her curves and played down her own considerable dark side. Her hair was layered in that bed-head way and colored a mix of pink and lavender. Her skirt was short and nearly transparent pink silk, covered with sequins. A short-sleeved and low-cut cashmere blouse barely covered her midriff, and her shiny pink stockings ended in satin highheel sandals with ankle straps that made some men think of ankle restraints. She looked up at Cheryl and shot her a subtle grin. Cheryl shook her head, her voice low. "Didn't think anything would get you in pink, girl. Guess you want this too, huh?"
Verity's voice was low and expressionless. "I want it, Shadow-Sister. I can't say that I want it the way you do, Angel wasn't my girl the way she was yours, I didn't suffer like you did. But there are two things that make me want this like fire. First, I may want to die under some man's blade, but that makes me even more determined that no woman will be hurt against her consent. Second, Cheryl-"at this Verity reached and took Cheryl's hand-"We went through hell together, hell we made ourselves. But that put a bond between us that nothing will erase. You asked me to do this for you. I'd walk from L.A. to here to come to you to avenge your Angel."
She let Cheryl's hand go and wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing them as if she were cold-or very vulnerable. No way to know who the hell was watching. "Cheryl, love, I swear to you, I might die doing this-" she cut off Cheryl's protest-"although I know if it's within your power that won't happen. But never, never will another Angel die at the hands of this man."
Cheryl sighed deeply almost as if some of the tension she'd been holding for so long had flowed away from her. "Thank you, Verity. I owe you."
Verity laughed loudly, but with a bit of a high-pitched sweetness that was never there normally. "Two Against Nature" by Steely Dan came on the jukebox. There was a lot of Dan on the box, and it didn't surprise either of the women that this song would show up now. "Nope, that won't wash. Like I said, we walked through hell together. After that, you can't owe anyone anything. You can just know that for the rest of your life if you need, you get. Deal?"
Cheryl put out her own hand this time. When they touched it felt like sparks. "Deal."
Verity waved her pink fingernails to attract a waitress. She'd gotten a shot of tequila from Sam, but the show had started now and when the blond girl in the transparent toga came up smiling, Verity smiled back. "Can I have a cosmopolitan, please?" The girl's smile froze. "Um, I don't know if the bartender can make one, I've never heard-" "It's okay,"Verity went on. I know he can handle it, it's just vodka with cranberry and lime juice, and anything orange-flavored he's got. Just do me a favor?"
The poor thing looked really dazed. "Give me a lot of extra cherries?" She walked away, shaking her head, and Verity was blessed with that slightly tense laugh from her table-mate. "I know I'm going overboard, but I'm not a little girl like Angel, so I'm going to have to push it. Especially right now." Cheryl looked quizzical. "Well this guy has got to suspect that you're onto him, or at least he knows you're looking. And we need to talk, so I have to look like some typical little suck-up with you, and you have to look like you're either too depressed to get rid of me or amused enough to keep me around. Okay?"
Cheryl nodded. "I'd thought of that, babe. I'm going for sort of halfway between the two. And besides, the room can only really see my profile, so if you can do that laugh again sometime, we can get the questions out of the way."
Verity nodded. "Great. I have a few, want me to get them out-oh, thanks so much!" she told the waitress. A glance at the bar showed her that Sam was watching them quizzically. "I'll just ask everything and let you fill me in and there, glaring in this general direction, is question number one. Why isn't Sam handling this, or handling it with you?" Cheryl started to answer but Verity held up one finger. "Let me finish, that way it looks like I'm trying to impress you with my ability to string a couple of sentences together. Okay, now-you told me you think you know who it is. Do you know where he did it? If the scene of the crime was the alley the Usher boys would have seen, and they're seriously sick fucks but they're loyal to Sam. Third, how did anyone get her out of here without being seen? I mean even if he had been trusted six or seven people would have said 'The last person with her was Angel' or whatever…"
Cheryl nodded, running her fingers through her hair again. "Lot of questions there. Some I have the answers to, others I don't." "You're Gonna Show Me Everything You Did" came on the jukebox next and Verity nearly laughed. How appropriate. She decided when they got this bastard she'd tell him exactly that.