Dents

[+Bonus Chapter] The Lost Chord

2D replayed the voicemail Murdoc left for the thousandth time.

There was static. Then, a few scattered snapping noises were followed by a loud series of grunts. I wasn't sure what he was up to when he called. Given the noises we were hearing, I wasn't exactly keen to find out.

"Agh, bloody cheeky prat 'at one is," he grumbled, realizing the call had gone unanswered.

"Listen up, faceache. You and that redhead oughta come back to England. I got somethin' for ya," he cackled. His raspy voice was like sandpaper to the ears.

"'At sounded betta in my head. Listen up, though, right? I'm workin' on somethin'. Somethin' big. You two blokes get over here before I start without ya. Noodle and Russel are 'ere already. We ain't goin' to wait forever for ya so get a move on."

A high pitched voice echoed in the background just before the call was disconnected. It sounded suspiciously like Noodle. I gave her a ring once we'd gotten back to our hotel.

We quickly discovered that Murdoc hadn't elaborated to anyone what this 'something big' was. It was unsettling, considering that you normally couldn't shut the poor sod up. 

Noodle confirmed that she and Russel had already arrived to the old townhouse on Wobble Street. She told us that it'd long since been condemned. That didn't stop Murdoc from making himself comfortable in the squalor. Apparently, the stink in there was so pungent that even the folks from the city weren't privy to setting foot inside. The long and short of it was that they left the lumpy bastard in there to rot with the rest of the building and washed their hands of the mess, literally.

Even though Murdoc had never been a pleasant person to be around, and was blatantly abusive on occasion, and left a wreck wherever he went, and smelled faintly of liquor and piss, he was still a person. He had feelings.

The spitefulness that I carried within me for him had slowly faded in time, eventually settling in to a sense of detached pity. It seemed that, as the years passed, he became softer. His rage unmasked itself to reveal his inner regret.

Needless to say, I didn't feel angry at him anymore. In a parallel sense, it was clear that 2D was no longer afraid of him. With this in mind, Murdoc's request was quite curious indeed. I wasn't sure what he could want from us. If he was drawing everyone together, though, what would be the harm in seeing it through?

I flipped over on the mattress so that I was lying on top of 2D. He reached around me and set his hand gently on my shoulder. With a stray finger, he made nonsensical outlines into the flesh of my arm. The ceiling fan above sent periodic waves of cool air down to where we lay.

"Do you want to go?"

2D was quiet. I raised my head to look at him. The expression on his face was complicated.

"2D? Is everything alright?"

He bit the bottom of his lip. His messy azure hair fell to the side, exposing his forehead. His brow was sewn tightly together. His frail body tensed beneath mine.

"Yeh. Et's alrigh', I guess," he breathed, sounding exasperated.

"Et's jus'... Wha' do yew fink this is all about, Saoirse? I don't know if I feel good about et."

"I... I don't know. Noodle didn't sound put off, though. I don't think we have anything to lose by seeing what the fuss is, right?"

He reached for the crushed pack of Marlboros on the nightstand. He carefully pulled one free with his teeth and fumbled around for a lighter. When he couldn't find one, he patted the back pocket of my pants to check if I had one instead. He found what he was looking for. He slid the lighter out, sparked the cigarette, and returned it to my pocket.