The Fall [2]

Twenty-Two

❝ down in mexico ❞

She doesn't recognize him at first; shaved jaw, clean-cut black-and-white suit. Seth Gecko, like she hasn't seen him in a long time, stands in front of her. A larger-than-life character; one that she forgot he is.

Eddie slowly lowers a cannon, muttering, "I feel like a goddamn motel today," which causes the young woman next to Seth to smirk. Amber draws her brows together.

"Bambi," Seth goes, more of a statement than a question. "A word." With a quick side glance to Eddie, he grabs Amber by the wrist and pulls her into the bedroom, leaving Sonja and his uncle in the living room. Eddie snorts.

"Bambi. Cute."

In Eddie's bedroom, Seth closes the door behind himself, several expressions running through his face, as though he's conflicted which one to stick with.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Amber stares back at him in bewilderment. "What am I- What are you doing here? I thought you were still in-"

"Mexico? You mean in that hole of a motel down south you just left me in?"

A hot breath hitches in her throat.

She snaps, "I left you a message."

"What message?" he asks, but then shakes his head, "you know, sweetheart, don't even bother, 'cause it doesn't matter. The whole thing is history. Mexico is. Everything is."

A bitterness flits through his voice and somewhere, deep and sinister, her insides hurt.

Her eyes rush over him, but he looks nothing like the addict she used to live with. Cognitive dissonance; she can still see the same resentful Seth in the shell of someone who appears to have their shit together, nothing like the Seth that used to wallow in self-pity. And Amber feels terrible, realizing that the flicker of disdain for everything on this earth that he used to carry in his eyes and that's now suddenly missing, it's something familiar, something ironically comforting. Something she can't believe she misses.

Quietly, she says, "What happened to you?"

Seth pulls at his collar, the room growing hotter by the second, and he averts his gaze from her as though he can't stand to look at her. "Cold turkey, but Sonja helped me through it. Now I'm as good as new." He walks past her through the room, and Amber can't believe what she hears - that's what it takes for him to finally drop the poison circulating his veins? Sonja?

"How's your mother?"

She registers his question belated, turning around to him, by which time his eyes have already wandered her up and down twice. She, for her part, must still look the same, apart from the big shirt and shorts Eddie allowed her to throw on while her blood-splattered things roll around the washing machine.

"I don't know," Amber admits. She's got more questions than before, specifically concerning his appearance with Sonja. "I went to look for her, but she wasn't there...I reckon she's in some sort of witness protection program."

There is a pause from his side.

"Are you okay?"