Exitus - 4. Part I, chapter 4

- IV -

He stood by the window in the living room, blindly staring outside, and ignoring a muffled, distant growling of the vacuum cleaner that came from somewhere upstairs. He held onto his own elbows so hard that his fingernails turned white; he didn’t care. Suddenly, the phone that he put on the windowsill let out a shrill sound, and Raven grabbed it with speed of light.

“Yeah,” he breathed into the gadget after he flipped it open, almost dropping it while he was doing that.

“Tomorrow at eleven in the morning, Oak park,” a female voice said shortly. “Third bench from the entrance.”

“Thank...” Raven started saying, but the line clicked dead.

He sighed and looked at the phone in his hand for several minutes. Finally, he let out another sigh and slowly punched in a number.

“I need to move a grand piano,” he said a minute later. “Yes, the address is...”

****

He arrived to the park almost forty minutes earlier than he was supposed to, and was relieved when he saw that the third bench from the entrance was empty. Today was Saturday, and there were quite a few people in the park. He made his way to the bench and sat down, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He smoked with narrowed eyes, his back stiff and rigid, when someone sat down next to him. Raven’s neck all but snapped to the right, and then he sighed with frustration. It was just some girl, he realized. A skinny blonde with messy long hair, light-green eyes, and freckles on her nose.

“Get off this damn bench,” Raven thought darkly. “Bloody hell, just get lost!”

The girl gave him a smile, as if not noticing his hostile expression.

“Could I bum one of those?” she nodded at the cigarette in Raven’s hand.

“Yeah,” he muttered and handed her the pack and the lighter, hoping that she would leave after she grabbed a cigarette.

To his even deeper frustration, the annoying blonde sighed with great satisfaction and leaned on the back of the bench, slightly stretching her legs. It was clear that she wasn’t going anywhere; at least, for a while.

“Thanks,” she said brightly.

“No problem,” Raven said and turned away from her, cursing silently in his head.

“Waiting for someone?” the annoying blonde asked several minutes later, and Raven gritted his teeth.

“Yeah,” he said without looking at her.

“Cool,” the blonde pest said in the same bright tone of voice, and Raven just sighed without saying anything.

Five minutes later, he started beating his fingers on the bench in an impatient rhythm, hoping that the pest would get the hint. “Good God,” he thought irritably when she wouldn’t make a single move. “You are really thick, aren’t you? Dammit...!”

Suddenly, the blonde annoyance let out a defeated sigh and flicked away her cigarette.

“All right,” she said unexpectedly seriously. “Why did you want to see me?”

Raven blinked several times and slowly turned his head towards her. Is she kidding him?

“Look...” he started saying, but the blonde interrupted him.

“Out of curiosity,” she cocked her head to the left, her eyes never leaving Raven’s face. “How in the world did you manage to talk Renee into arranging this? She almost hated her brother, and I know for a fact that she can’t stand you,” she nodded. “How did you do that?”

Raven blinked again, this time dumbfoundedly. This annoying blonde pest is actually...

“She wanted the grand piano that Julian had,” he said mechanically, without finishing his thought. “She wanted it for fifteen years; he wouldn’t give it to her... I promised to deliver it to her house if she arranged this...”

“Clever,” the blonde nodded with a small smile. “Did you?” She narrowed her eyes with sincere interest. “Did you deliver it to her?”

“Yes,” Raven said slowly, unable to look away from her light-green eyes. “A promise is a promise.”

“Indeed,” the blonde said somewhat thoughtfully. Then she sighed and threw one leg on top of another, lazily swaying her foot. “So...” she said. “Why am I here?”

Raven took a deep breath.

“I am asking... begging...” he stuttered slightly. “...for a favor.”

“A favor,” the blonde repeated and pulled another cigarette out of Raven’s pack. “What kind of a favor?”

“I need you to send me back in time,” Raven said quietly without looking away from her face. “So I can prevent a...” he paused for a second. “A certain event from happening,” he finished slowly.

“I see,” she said thoughtfully, slightly twirling the lit cigarette in her fingers. “Why would I do that?” she asked without a smile, her expression solemn. “Your mate was a sadistic murderer and a rapist; why would I do anything that could prevent his death? The world is a better place without him.”

Raven gritted his teeth.

“The world would be a better place without quite a few people,” he said in a strained voice. “However, they do not drop dead left and right.”

Here Claudia did smile.

“Indeed,” she agreed and puffed on her cigarette. “Why would I do it though?” she asked again with interest she didn’t fake. “What’s in it for me?”

“I’ll do anything you want,” Raven said quietly. “I’ll give you my soul if you wish, I...”

“And what would I do with your soul?” the blonde interrupted him. “Keep it; you might need it later,” she nodded.

“I’ll Pledge to you,” Raven said desperately. “I’ll do anything, just name it...!”

“I don’t care if you Pledge to me,” she shrugged. “Sorry to break the news to you, but you are not that important. Your Pledge wouldn’t change anything; it would be pretty much useless to me.”

“Name it,” he said without looking away. “Anything... Just name it...!”

Claudia narrowed her eyes, thinking about something. Finally, she let out a small smile.

“All right,” she said in a low voice. “This is what I want...” She leaned closer to him. “If you succeed, I want you to die.”

Raven stared at her without blinking. She seemed to be dead-serious.

“After the entire ordeal is resolved,” she continued meanwhile. “And after it’s clear that your mate will be alive and well, I want you to take your own life.”

Raven’s hands started to shake and he squeezed them into fists to hide that, getting dizzy from an insanely loud thudding of blood in his ears.

“Fine,” he said in a breaking voice after several minutes of heavy, stunned, shaking silence. “Fine... Do you want me to sign something with my blood or...”

“Huh,” she said, watching him very thoughtfully. Then she straightened up and shook her head, glancing at her cigarette for a second. “Relax,” she said and looked at him again. “I was just curious how far you would be willing to go for this... Far,” she nodded, as if not noticing Raven’s stunned expression. “Your death would be useless for me as well... Even though it would have a decent entertainment value,” she added thoughtfully and shook her head again. “I don’t need your demise.”

“What do you want?” Raven was finally able to squeeze the words out of his throat. “What do you want? Just tell me and I’ll do that...!”

“You just did,” she replied without a smile, grabbing another cigarette. “You surprised me,” she nodded after she lit it. “It has been a very long while since the last time anyone managed to do that. Feels nice,” she nodded again. “Refreshing... All right,” she lowered her leg and pressed both feet into the ground. “You get one single chance...”

Raven forgot how to breathe.

“Is that a ‘yes’?” he thought wildly. “Holy hell, she just agreed to it? Just like that...? What about the whole ‘responsibility’ thing? What about taboo on time-meddling...? What about...”

“If you fail,” the blonde continued in a business-like tone of voice, interrupting his thoughts. “Don’t bother trying to get to me again. It would be futile. You have until midnight tonight to get someone to help you...” She narrowed her eyes against the cigarette smoke when the wind suddenly changed its direction. “Believe me,” she nodded. “You will need help; if you try performing such a task by yourself, it will be much harder. Anyway,” she sighed. “You and whoever it will be who’ll agree to help you, if you actually find anyone, will keep your memories. There is no special ritual or anything like that... Verbal agreement would be enough...”

“I...” Raven tried saying. “You... This is...”

“If I were you,” she interrupted his stutter. “I wouldn’t waste any time right now; you don’t have such luxury. You got a little more than twelve hours left, and that’s not a lot. You have until midnight,” she nodded and stood up, shoving one of her hands into the pocket of her jeans. “Thanks for cigarettes,” she flashed him a quick smile before walking away.

“Thank...” Raven started calling after her, but she just waved her hand in a dismissive gesture without turning around, and he stopped talking and whipped the phone out of his pocket.

****

“You just had to show off...”

The blonde smiled without slowing her pace. She shoved both hands into the pockets of her jeans and glanced to her left.

“I wasn’t showing off,” she said calmly.

“Like hell you weren’t!” her sudden companion interrupted her. “Helping someone who is supposedly mine...?”

“You are so full of yourself,” the blonde sighed with fake regret. “They are not yours; neither one of them has ever Pledged.”

Her companion – a tall, dark-haired woman with sharp, almost foxy features and slightly slanted blue eyes – laughed in mild disbelief.

“Oh, dear,” she said after a minute or two. “You think that if you do that, they will actually Pledge to you? Now who is full of herself?”

“No, I don’t think that,” the blonde ignored all the sarcasm. “Frankly, I couldn’t care less whether they Pledge or not,” she shrugged.

“Then why did you do it? You know as well as I do that trying to change the past could be disastrous; you have never done this before... Why did you do it?” Her companion narrowed her eyes in a thoughtful fashion, studying Claudia’s face intently. “Because he demonstrated a decent pair of balls...? I mean...” Now it was her turn to shrug. “You have to admit, that was somewhat admirable... Not everyone would go for it.”

“It was,” Claudia agreed lightly, and slowed down just a bit. “He did it not because he is that ballsy, though...”

“Then why did he do it, oh the wise one?”

The blonde ignored sarcasm just as she did before and her expression became more serious all of a sudden.

“Because he loves him,” she said solemnly, and the brunette narrowed her eyes even more. “He was willing to die for him.”

The brunette looked at her very thoughtfully for several long minutes.

“This is your way of making amends, isn’t it?” she asked finally, and Claudia shot her a quick look. “By granting this favor, you feel like you are getting your redemption or at least, some of it, isn’t that right? If I remember correctly, there was someone who was willing to die for you a long time ago... Right before you made your choice... You still feel something for her, don’t you? It never fully went away... However...” she tilted her head slightly to the left, her expression thoughtful again. “ ‘Making amends’ wasn’t the one and only reason you agreed to do it. You would never plunge into taking such dangerous and potentially catastrophic risk just because you suddenly became so absurdly sentimental...”

She fell silent for several seconds, ignoring a quick, sharp glance of the light-green eyes.

“You need this fixed as much as I do,” she continued with a slow nod. “But you couldn’t perform any time-tricks of your own volition, isn't that right? Wasn’t there some condition or a rule that prevented it...?” she glanced at Claudia whose expression was as untroubled as it was several minutes ago.

The brunette let out a tiny smile when there was no reply.

“But there is always a loophole, isn’t there?” she continued a couple of seconds later. “If you, for example, were to grant someone a favor, it wouldn’t go against any rules and you’d be in the clear. Say...” she frowned with fake thoughtfulness. “Wasn’t it that nobody knew about this particular ability of yours...? I wonder how that old man managed to...”

“I’ll talk to you later,” the blonde interrupted her with a lazy smile, her expression serene. “Goodbye, Reagan,” she said when the brunette was about to say something else.

She turned around, and suddenly, disappeared into thin air. Reagan hemmed with mild satisfaction.

“Works for me,” she muttered, resuming slower pace and enjoying the surprisingly pleasant weather. “I just hope he does it right,” she sighed. “I would hate to lose Julian again... Pledge or not, but he was very useful... Plus, I might be able to clean up that mess the second time around...” she stopped talking and sighed again, this time, more heavily, kicking a pinecone out of her way with the tip of her shiny black shoe.