Chapter 26 - The Come Down

Chapter 26 - The Come Down
Author note - Hey everyone, I want to apologise for the lack of updates for a while. Truthfully, I have been in hospital and with the pandemic going on I was unable to get a hold of my laptop to update to the site. Not to worry though, I am on the mend and am back home safe and sound. And though I wasn't unable to get a hold of my laptop, I did have the classic paper and pencil so expect more updates :D I just need to transcribe them onto my laptop and update here; once they've been edited and read through of course. So enjoy guys :D

Raine

As she lay in her bed, Raine found herself once again cursing the damned sunlight and all of the stupid birds. Only today, her hatred for both were tenfold as she felt like someone had run her over with a truck and then backed the truck over and then run her over one more time, just for good luck.

She lay with her head under her pillow, not daring to move. Her head was pounding, like there was a live drummer performing in it. Her mouth felt so dry it could easily be mistaken for the Sahara desert. She wanted to throw up and rid her system of all the bad things plaguing it but she didn’t physically have the energy to do so. She was also terrified to move in case she was actually sick because, let’s all be honest, no one likes the sensation of being sick. Her body felt heavy, like it was made of cement.

She knew as soon as her eyes had pried open that morning and she felt all of this that it meant one thing. She had been the chosen victim by their serial spiker, for the second week in the row. As she lay in her pathetic state, she could only hope that Sigi kept the bastard alive long enough so she could exact some of her own personal revenge on him.

She was just plotting some of the wonderfully awful pain she would inflict on the bastard when she heard her door creak open. She didn’t need to lift her head from underneath her pillow to know who it was; she knew instantly when she heard them place a tin can on her bedside table and then when she felt the bed dip from their weight as they sat by her.

“Wakey wakey, sleepy head.” Joe called to her in a sing-song voice.

“Shhhh, shut your mouth box! Too loud!” Raine complained and flapped her hand at him, pretending to try and turn him off like an alarm. He laughed at her and lifted the pillow which earned him a loud and disgruntled groan from her.

“Seriously, you know it’s better to get up now than to leave it to later.” He chuckled down at the glare she was giving him.

“But later sounds so much better than now!” Raine moaned, pouting at him which only made him chuckle even harder.

“I brought your cure for everything, but you’ll need to sit up to take it.” He waggled his eyebrows.

Carefully, being sure not to move too quickly, Raine glanced at her bedside table and saw the great elixir he spoke of. It looked so beautiful in its orange and blue tin can and she saw cold droplets running down the side, which meant it had to be icy cold. She instantly knew that she had to have some and that she would feel better the moment she did. Like Joe said, it was basically an elixir to her at this point.

She slowly raised her body on her arms, feeling the world spin as she did so. Joe helped her, returning the pillow he stole so she could prop herself up comfortably against it. Once she was propped with her back against the pillow and the room was standing still again, Joe opened the can of Irn Bru and handed it to her. She took it gingerly, in both hands. She tipped it back against her lips and welcomed the ice cold liquid that ran down her throat.

Raine was careful not to take giant mouthfuls, no matter how much she really wanted to, and a few sips later she felt surprisingly refreshed. She knew it was mostly because she was dehydrated, but a little part of her liked to believe that it was because her fizzy drink was really some kind of elixir.

Once she had finished drinking, for now, she turned to look at Joe disapprovingly. He was still perched beside her on the bed and looked a little confused by her reproachful gaze.

“Where have you been!?” She demanded, before he could ask her why she was upset. “I thought you were gonna be there in case anything happened!” She accused.

Despite her accusatory statements, she was surprised when Joe avoided her gaze and looked down at the floor with a guilty expression.

“I know.” He sighed. “I was there, but something came up and I had to deal with it.” He said sadly.

She was about to ask what had happened, when he looked up at her with a look she knew all too well. It was a look you got used to when you worked at Runagate. A look that only surfaced from those who lived here in the mansion when news of their past reached their ears or eyes. It was a look that was sad, melancholic and the tiniest bit angry, all at once.

There was an unspoken rule in Runagate when someone would wear this expression. You don’t ask them more! You don’t pry, you don’t try to get them to spill their hearts out to you, you drop it! You let them deal with it the way they like to deal with it! If someone wants to tell you their problems, let them decide when the best time is; don’t force someone you love to relive their past when they’re not ready.

So, following the unspoken rule, Raine instantly dropped the subject and didn’t give Joe a hard time for not being there when she was drugged. She knew all too well, when a difficult past you’d rather forget is forced before you, it’s hard to concentrate on everything else going on around you.

“Did I do anything bad this time?” She asked, cringing away from his answer.

In response, the look he had melted away instantly and he burst out in loud, mirth filled laughter; which only made Raine cringe more.

“Oh god! What happened!? Did I try and burn the place down again!?” She asked, recoiling into her soft pillow at the thought of what she could have possibly have done.

Once Joe managed to calm himself down enough to form actual words, he filled her in on the events of the evening. Despite not actually being there, Sylvia and the others who had been present at that point in the evening had wasted no time in telling everyone who was not there.

It wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. It wasn’t great, but none of it was as bad as the fire she nearly started last time.

She wasn’t surprised to hear she had stage dived off of the speakers; it was something she liked to do when she was high from the drugs apparently, though she feared the regulars of The Basement would start thinking it was her new gimmick and expect her to do it every time. The rest sounded pretty standard. She crowd suffered; which made her recoil a bit again, she didn’t like the idea of strangers having the opportunity to have their hands all over her. And she danced like a ‘hippy,’ which was apparently a direct quote from Jack.

‘Damn traitor!’ Raine thought ruefully, when Joe told her how he described her ‘hippy’ dancing.

“That’s all?” She asked, feeling a little relieved by her lack of antics.

“I mean, I was only really present for the tail end of it. But yeah, that’s it. Nothing else happened.” He replied, a bit too quickly for Raine’s liking.

She eyed him carefully and Joe did everything in his power to avoid meeting her eyes; which only made her more suspicious.

“Joe!” Raine said his name firmly and narrowed her eyes when he flinched from her tone. “What else happened?” She asked.

“Nothing else. Just the normal stuff…you know, all cool, nothing to report.” He joked nervously.

“Joe, what are you not telling me?” She demanded and he still avoided her eyes, pretending like he couldn’t hear her.

What happened next made the both of them jump with surprise and whip round to face Raine’s open door way.

“I can tell you.” Sylvia’s voice appeared.

She was standing in Raine’s doorway, leaning against it with the biggest grin on her face. Raine noticed Joe giving the Were-Cat a warning shake of his head, but Sylvia chose to ignore him as she licked her licks devilishly and eyed Raine with absolute glee.

“He’s leaving out the part where you jumped a complete stranger and decided to have your way with him.” She purred deliciously at Raine.

Raine felt the blood drain from her face and her mouth fall open in absolute shock. She looked wordlessly from the extremely amused Sylvia to the uncomfortable Joe; waiting for them to tell her they had planned this before she woke up to teach her why drugs were wrong and that she shouldn’t make plans of capturing potential criminals without them. But the more she waited for them to tell her she hadn’t actually jumped a complete stranger and they were just joking, the more amused Sylvia got and the more uncomfortable Joe looked.

“No…” She breathed out, as if to encourage them that it was a lie and they were just having her on.

Joe finally looked at her with a sorry expression, while Sylvia looked downright gleeful.

“Oh yeah!” She grinned, showing of her pearly whites. “My goddess, you looked like you were really enjoying it too!” She chuckled, watching Raine shift uncomfortably.

“Please don’t.” Raine covered her eyes, absolutely mortified.

“Don’t be shy, you certainly weren’t last night!” She laughed, making Raine feel even worse. “I mean, if I’d had a camera I could have made a fortune from the footage!” She continued laughing at her friend’s misery.

“Sylvia!” Raine complained, begging her to stop.

“You could feel the heat coming off you from a mile away! The guy didn’t seem to mind though; he looked like it was the best day of his bloody life!” She continued taunting. “Like Christmas had come early, just for him!” At that comment, Raine groaned loudly into her hands.

“Alright, I think that’s enough cat!” Raine heard Joe growl at Sylvia.

“Shut up dog!” Sylvia hissed in response, no longer laughing.

And just like that, the two of them fell into arguing just like always. But it gave Raine time to dread over the information.

She couldn’t remember a thing; it was a giant blank spot in her memory between realising she must have been the victim of the drink spiker to waking up in bed less than an hour ago. A giant blank spot that she now wished no one had filled in.

She wished that Sylvia was joking and trying to take advantage of her lack of knowledge from the previous evening, but from the way Joe was acting she knew it was true. She had kissed and made out with a complete stranger! And from Sylvia’s description, it didn’t sound like a quick peck on the lips kinda situation. She was absolutely mortified!

What if it was one of the regulars? What if it was one of their fans!? She would most likely see them again and that would just make things awkward and weird and she didn’t want to have to deal with awkward and weird. For once in her life she wanted things to be clean and simple; just once, was that so hard to ask for!?

She was contemplating asking Sigi to bench her from performances for the next couple of weeks when a thought occurred to her and she felt a grin spread on her face from beneath her hands.

“Who was it?” She asked them, interrupting their silly squabbling and keeping her face still hidden behind her hands.

“Dunno, just some guy on the dance floor.” Sylvia’s answered; no longer sounding as gleeful as before, an after effect of her arguing with Joe.

“Was he a regular?” She continued questioning.

“Nope, definitely not.” Joe spoke this time; strangely confident in his answer.

Raine finally revealed her face again, dropping her hands to her sides and grinning at them.

“Then it’s all okay.” She informed them.

Sylvia and Joe exchanged confused looks with one another before turning back to her.

“How?” Sylvia asked, crossing her arms.

“Thanks to my little deal with Sigi, I am now officially off work from the club all of next weekend. Which gives me just under two weeks to hide out here and until, whoever he is, leaves.” She smiled, impressed with her own genius.

The only shift she had next week was her Saturday in The Basement, but since she had swapped with Boa she could literally avoid the club and hopefully whoever she had been making out with would just return to wherever they came from and forget the whole thing. It was the perfect plan. Until Joe ruined it!

He had begun chuckling at her again and when she demanded to know what was so funny, he asked her a very annoying question that brought reality crashing back to her.

“You haven’t looked at your calendar for this month, have you?” He asked pointing to the calendar pinned to the wall above her bed frame.

Raine glanced behind her and stared blankly at the calendar, totally not getting what he meant. Until her eyes drifted to today’s date and she spotted it. Just two boxes away.

“Ugh!” She very vocally protested, throwing her head against her pillow.

“Yup, sorry sweetheart but you are working on Tuesday.” Joe chuckled at her.

Sylvia walked over to observe the calendar as well; clearly confused as to why Raine would be working on a day the club was closed but she soon spotted why and the first emotion that passed through her eyes was unadulterated fear. She then turned to look at Raine with a considerably paler face.

“Full-moon.” She whispered with a gulp.

“I hate full-moons!” Raine moaned.

Sylvia nodded in absolute agreement, while Joe just continued to chuckle.

“And I hate her!” She moaned even louder.

That statement made Sylvia visibly stiffen and look at Raine fearfully, but Joe just laughed at the effect it had on the normally fearless cat.

“Be careful, she might hear you!” He said to her, wiping tears from his eyes.

“Can she hear you!?” Sylvia gasped.

“Oh she hears everything, but I won’t let her hurt anyone. Don’t worry.” She said thoughtfully to Sylvia, she knew how much ‘she’ scared the poor Were-Cat and they had only met once.

“Good!” Was all Sylvia said, before swiftly gliding from the room.

“I feel tricked!” Raine quickly rounded on Joe after Sylvia had left. “That bloody vampire knew about the full-moon when he offered me this weekend off and suggested the shift swap!” She complained.

“I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.” Joe laughed at her, but Raine had her doubts.

“It’s fine!” She sighed after glaring at him for a while. “The tickets to see her are so expensive, he won’t be there.”

“He?” Joe asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Whoever I kissed last night! If he was in The Basement, I don’t see him being able to afford Full-moon tickets.” She said, more to comfort herself.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Joe chuckled and continued after Raine gave him a sceptical look. “People have ways of surprising you…and what if he can’t get you out of his mind after you rocked his entire existence last night?” He asked her jokingly waggling his eyebrows.

“Ugh, I need more elixir!” She grumbled, climbing carefully from the bed and choosing to ignore Joe’s question.

But the damned werewolf followed after her, asking her silly questions and all together just trying to irritate and annoy her. She just wanted to forget what they had told her and concentrate on not accidently murdering anyone on Tuesday during the full-moon; after that she could relax and not have to worry about ‘her’ until the next full-moon.