Prego and the Phoenix 🐇↩️✔

Humphrey - Twenty-One

You may not need us now and you may not ask for our help, but we are always there to protect you. Regal, statuesque; standing guard almost like watchdogs, lookouts, henchmen. We make sure that it happens to us before it gets to you and we never shirk from our duty. The lions at the gate, the gargoyles that stoically stay by your side.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lochner and I walk into the house and Alexis looks at us.
"Did Bourne go to school with you guys?" she asks, looking frightened.
I look at Lochner as he looks at me.
"We thought he might have skipped out again. You know how sometimes he goes into his room and just crashes." I say.
Alexis bites her lip a little in worry.
"What's wrong, Alexis?" Lochner ask.
"He's not here and if he didn't go to school with you then where can he be? I don't know what to do!" she says, finally letting her tears fall from her eyes.
Lochner walks over to her and embraces her, holding her close as she sniffles against his chest.
Assessing the situation , I see what is needed to be done and walk out of the door without a word.

************************************

I walk toward the motorcycle and get on, not telling Alexis or Lochner where I am going. I am going to make sure that this is the right decision for him. If that stupid pregnant girl screws up Red's life, I will not hesitate to kill her. I will not stand for him to be as broken as he was with that Gabrielle girl... he thought that she was the one for him too and look where it got us? In New York where it snows in the wintertime and exposes him to chilling temperatures. No one listened to me when I asked if we can move to Florida.
As I ride, I have the strangest feeling that I am being followed. I look behind me often but the bulk of the helmet makes things a little hard to see but I can feel the hairs on my neck stand up with expectancy. I zip in and out of the traffic and then pull off to head toward Arabella's house. There it is! I know I'm being followed now. A distinct rev of surprise when I turned onto the side street made me have to figure out what to do. Go to Arabella's house and risk something bad happening to Red and Arabella (as long as she is faithful, I'll protect her)? Or skip out and not find him at all, leaving Alexis to wonder?
I decide to skip out and I call him instead, pulling the helmet screen up and pressing the Blu-Tooth on my ear. I tell my phone to call him and wait, wondering what I will do.
"Hello?"
"Where are you?"
"Arabella's house..."
"Is everything alright? Are you and her on good terms?"
"I was kissing her when you called." He says and I can hear the disappointment in his voice.
"Whatever. Listen, remember when I told you that I think we were being watched at school and stuff?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, I have a guy tailing me right now. I'm on your bike and was headed over there but this guy started following. What do you want me to do?"
"Hold on one second." I sigh, frowning at Arabella if it was her doing something stupid and then Red comes back. "Arabella wants to know the color of the bike that's following you."
I look in the side mirrors and see that it's white and the rider is wearing a red looking coat with a black helmet.
"It's a white cycle."
Red says something in the back and I hear a little bit of Arabella mumbling.
"Humphrey? That's you right?" Arabella says on the phone.
"Yeah. What is it? Got this rat on my tail here and I'm running out of ways to not let him know I know he's following me."
"I know who it is and it's one of Trevor's guys. Listen carefully and you can get him all twisted up."
She explains exactly how to get this guy all confused and then tells me to trample him when he stops because she says that if he loses me, she knows he'll stop and call Trevor because he doesn't have a Blu-Tooth like me. I thank her and go with the plan.

****************************

Arabella's plan works and I trample the guy to the ground, wrestling off his helmet.
"What the hell do you want with me?" I growl, holding him by the throat.
He gags a little and I grab the phone, turning it off so that whoever is on the other side of it can't hear me.
"Who are you?! What do you want?"
He says nothing and I growl, lifting him to his feet and throwing him up on the wall.
"Tell me who you are! What are you wanting with us!"
"Please put him down. He's not worth killing over." A voice says behind me.
I turn and see Trevor standing there with his hands in his pants pockets, looking at me calmly. I growl and throw his crony at him. Trevor only glances at him and steps over him to walk toward me.
"You're a smart little devil, you know that? I thought your loyalty for your master was only blind and jealous."
"Master? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Don't be naïve, Humphrey; what other use are you and your brother than to serve your master, Bourne? I think it's a wonderful ruse, thought I haven't quite mastered that ability as quickly as him..."
I stare at him in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Trevor seems to get out of his thoughts and looks at me with a smile.
"Do you really think twins off the street would be automatically adjusted to watching a man turn into a baby before their eyes?"
I stare at Trevor for a moment and he grins, a strange fire in his eyes.
"Ah, yes, I know about your master. Bourne Marquez, the vessel of the mythical and powerful phoenix passed down through the generations. One must do their research to learn thy enemy." He says with a gesture.
"I don't understand...?"
"You will. You have such loyalty toward your master, such unconditional rage for those who try and hurt him. But could you kill yourself? Or your brother? What if it were one of you that had hurt him? Would you keep your promise to him?"
My head is reeling with confusion and question marks from all the rhetorical questions. Apparently he's one of those blabby people.
"Dude, listen, if you have something you want to do just do it."
"Gladly."
He comes toward me and it feels like I am stabbed with a thousand ice picks in the stomach and I yell out in pain. It's like ice is traveling into my body and freezing my veins for a moment.
"Trevor! What are you doing?!"
"Humphrey!"
I fall to my knees as Trevor turns and Bourne stops short.
Arabella looks torn between helping me and seeing the Bourne doesn't get hurt by her crazy ass ex. What the hell did he do to me? Finally Arabella feels it best to help me and comes over.
"Are you alright?"
"He did something to me... I don't know what all this is about but..."
"I'm confused as well. Are you hurt anywhere?"
I unzip my coat to look and see if my wound is there but all I see are lines where his hand had plunged into my stomach and nothing more.
"I guess not..."
We turn back to the two of them, listening to their banter for a moment.
Trevor walks over to Red, looking like he's scrutinizing him.
"The famous phoenix... trapped inside the idiotic shell of a man for almost six thousand and thirty years... Then again, I can't complain about it."
"Trevor, what do you want? Will you please leave Arabella alone? If it's a fight you want, I will take you on but just leave Arabella, my friends, out of it."
"But you've been making your little guardians not afraid of what you really are and that's not good." He says in mockery towards Red.
Red turns his head. "I don't understand."
"But of course not... it takes those who are looking to find it and understand. It is as rare as you are."
"How do you know what I am?"
Trevor grins and makes a gesture. "As I said, one has to but look. Enough chitchat, I need to test my theory here so..."
He puts his hand under his chin, looking Red over for a moment and suddenly pulls his jacket sleeves completely off. He smirks and grabs his arms hard and just rakes his fingernails down his arm Red yells out in pain, blood oozing from his arms. Arabella screams but I grab her before she can get going, in case Trevor goes any more crazy. He pulls back and Red put his hands on either arm and looks at Trevor in disbelief.
"What the hell was that for?!"
"You will find out soon enough. I promise..." He whispers something to Red and then crosses his arms. "You will have to tell me what happens when this one sees what's become of his master. How loyal will your dog be to you now?"
He walks away from all the drama and Arabella and I run to Red's aid.
"Are you alright?" I ask.
"Yeah... Arabella, you should put a restraining order on that guy." He says to her.
"Me? You just got cut like you're a scratching post for a lion or something."
Red looks at me and for some reason, he looks away from me and clears his throat.
"Eventful day... Let's just go to my house and I'll explain to Ma about everything."
I nod and go toward the motorcycle, an uneasy feeling creeping up my spine.