Chapter Ten – Tensions

Chapter Ten – Tensions

“Never let anyone tell you you’re not valuable! You have organs after all!

*Organ sales are non-refundable

-Organ-do ad, 2051

***

Franny was a little different in person. A couple of years older than in the picture Gomorrah had shown me, and she wasn’t quite as clean. Not that she was dirty or anything, but her clothes had a few dusty stains on them, and she was obviously not wearing any makeup.

She looked past the fat man blocking her path, just a glance, but one that turned into an outright stare as Gomorrah stepped up… then paused.

I slowed to a stop behind Gomorrah. There was still a half-dozen metres between her and Franny, and yet she seemed reluctant to move.

“What’s going on?” Raccoon asked when the moment started to stretch.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I muttered back to her.

“Franny,” Gomorrah said.

The fat man turned, his frown disappearing in an instant when he locked eyes on Gomorrah. “Ah, Miss Samurai, you’re here at last. As you can see, I kept the girl here. I did as you asked.”

“You made him hold me back?” Franny asked.

“I didn’t want you running off before I could arrive.”

“I’m not twelve, Delilah,” Franny snapped. “I’m an adult.”

“One who’s currently in one of the worst establishments I’ve ever had the misfortune of laying eyes on,” Gomorrah retorted.

I felt my eyebrows rising. There was a whole heap of tension between the two, and not the fun kind. I imagined that Delilah was Gomorrah’s real name. A bit weird to have spent so much time with her without knowing, actually. “Are you two alright?” I asked.

“Who’s that?” Franny asked with a nod my way. “You hired a bodyguard?”

“That’s Stray Cat,” Gomorrah said. “She’s a samurai. A friend.”

Franny crossed her arms, the gesture bunching up the black cloth of her robes. She was wearing a mostly nun-like outfit, though her robes ended near her knees, which I was pretty sure wasn’t standard, nor were the jeans underneath, or the all-black combat boots and choker. “So, you’re making friends with more people playing God? I’m impressed you’re even managing to make friends at all.”

I raised my hand. “I’m not playing God. I wish I could play God. Right now I’m stuck in a permanent game of hide-and-go-seek but with high explosives. So, Gomorrah, this is the girl you ran halfway across the city to save? Because she doesn’t look like she needs saving.”

“I’ve never needed saving,” Franny said with the snap and bluster of someone who had very much needed saving at one time or another and who didn’t appreciate it.

“Yes, Cat, this is Franny. Now that the introductions are over with, let’s go home, Franny.”

Franny shook her head. “No, Delilah, I’m not just going to let you drag me back home like I’m some unruly kid. The old bags can live without someone to bitch at for an evening.”

My ‘unresolved issues’ radar was pinging like mad, but I decided not to poke at it. “Can we sit down?” I asked. “Maybe get a drink?”

“I don’t drink–“

“I don’t drink–”

Gomorrah and Franny turned to each other, then snapped their attention away and back onto me. “Uh, hey, I bet they have cola here? Rac, you like soda, right?”

“Fuck yeah,” Raccoon said.

“See, you’d be depriving the poor homeless girl of a free drink,” I said. “And you can spend the time educating her about the glories of proper language or whatever the fuck it is two nuns that need to get laid talk about around impressionable children.”

“Where did you find this one, Delilah?” Franny asked.

“I almost lit her on fire.”

“Have you maybe reconsidered the almost?”

I laughed. “Oh good, that’s where all of Gomorrah’s snark went. Come on, it’s… about six in the morning. Damn. I want to sit down and eat some breakfast, maybe get a few hours of sleep. But seeing as we’re here, I’ll settle for a bottle of something.”

I stepped between and past the two nuns on my way towards a corner of the room where a few booths sat empty. I guessed that even this place was quieter at this hour. Then again, the dance floor was nearly full.

Gomorrah let out an audible sigh and followed after me.

I gestured Raccoon ahead, and the girl slipped across the bench before I sat down. Gomorrah took her seat across from me, then scooted over to make room for Franny, who stood by the side of our table.