Too Far Gone (Urban)

50.5| One Man's Junk...

The sky was filled with black smoke, tiny flecks of color attempting to peek through the thick clouds. They still whirred and cheered as they rose to their climax, yet their explosion caused more panic than joy. Chenelle cradled Josh as they huddled behind a hedge. She popped her head up ever so often to see if she could spot Gat in the chaos, but she didn't see him running around anywhere. She was tempted to text him, but what if he was being pinned down somewhere -- not that he couldn't handle it.

Chenelle peered from behind the hedge once more just as the fireworks died down. From the flames of the fire, she saw a tall, broad figure rising from the water.

Her eyes lit up and she came completely out of hiding, kicking off her flip flops to meet him halfway. The smoke and ashes of the ships and fireworks burned her throat, but she swallowed it down and kept pressing on. It was when she was only a few feet away that she realized something, which caused her to go from a sprint, to a run, to a jog, and eventually to a stop. The figure stopped too, staring at her blankly. Up close, it didn't look to be Johnny Gat anymore.

“Curly?” The figure spoke, taking a few more steps towards her. The voice sent a chill down her back, for she was caught. She wanted to run away, but her feet were glued to the dusted sandy shore. A tidal wave rode in, bringing the water up to her ankles.

“N-Niqo,” she stuttered. The boss kept stepping towards her until they were face to face. His happened to be covered in smut and smog from the smoke, making him look darker than usual. He gazed at her with a blank, emotionless expression, his eyes empty and unreadable. “I-I didn't think you'd be here.”

“Neither did I.”

Chenelle looked around for Gat again hoping he'd pop up and save her if the boss suddenly decided to take up his word and kill her in cold blood, but he didn't. He only stood there and stared, stared as if he had something to say yet couldn't find the voice to speak. Chenelle bit the inside of her cheek and chewed off a piece. “Aren't you going to do something?”

“What’re you talking about?”

“You said if you saw me on your turf, you'd kill me on sight, yet here you are staring at me doing nothing.”

The boss’s eyes remained on her for a few seconds longer before he erupted with laughter. Chenelle tilted her head slightly, then looked around as if the joke was floating around her head. When he regained his composure, he grinned and shook his head.

“Technically, this isn't my turf. Secondly… I couldn't kill you, Curly, it would hurt me too much.”

“Well, what about the others?”

“I wouldn't kill them either, they're my family,” he scratched his head. “Look, that gang code bullshit is just what I say to keep my people in line, to keep them in my control. If it really came down to it, I'd take a bullet for them before they would ever take a bullet from me. What I said and did back at the hospital… I didn't mean all that… and I'm sorry if I scared you.”

Chenelle hugged herself and shrugged, a flimsy smile coming onto her face. “Gat told me you wouldn't do anything like that, but I didn't believe him too much… It feels better coming out of your mouth,” She glanced at the burning ships, then at the boss. “Had a nice voyage?”

He chuckled. “Of course. Kazuo's dead, and so are the Ronin. We won't be hearing any noise from them anymore.”

“That's good, that's good…” she nodded. “So, why did you really do it? If you didn't want to get rid of me and scare me off, why did you?”

“Curly,” he sighed, rubbing a hand across his face. He smudged the smut down towards his chin, which blended into his stubbly beard. “I wish I could tell you, I really do, but I can't. Not only would you not understand, but it'll fuck you up. You're too good for that.”

Now it was Chenelle's turn to laugh. “Good? At this point in time, I'm fair from being a good girl. This whole time I thought going back to the way my life was before I got involved with you and the Saints would be a piece of cake if I really put my mind to it, but I've seen things I shouldn't have saw, learned things I shouldn't know, and done things I can never forget,” She looked him directly in his eyes, her voice coming out as a faint whisper. “I'm already too far gone to go back...”

The boss's lips formed a thin line, his eyes falling to the wet sand at his feet. “I'm sorry.”

“Don't be. As fucked up as it sounds, I like it,” she laughed. “It’s sadistic as fuck coming out of my mouth, but it's true. When I joined up, I thought I'd be surrounded by people who didn't give a shit about each other or this city as long as they were getting paid, yet look,” she turned around motioning towards the boardwalk. “You saved these people from the Ronin. You saved them from the Brotherhood, too, and I know you'll deliver them from the Samedi. You may not be true saints, as the word goes, but good Samaritans.”

The boss smiled. “Thanks, that means alot coming from you, Curly.” Chenelle returned the smile and after a couple of seconds, went in for a hug. The smell of smoke and fire filled her nose, but she need not let it get to her. The boss went back to an earlier time in which she hugged him in front of the whole gang. He was reminded of how natural it felt, yet how much of this feeling he lacked. It made him feel less human that he had trouble expressing his emotions, but it wasn't his fault.

The boss returned the hug, burying his head in the crook of her neck. “When the times right, I'll tell you everything.” He leaned out of the embrace slightly, taking in the face that's been missing from his whole life.

“I promise.”

✝