Tales from the Quartet - Missing

August 2067. Paddy has disappeared for weeks, but Chai knows where she lives. A little visit from a friend can't surely harm her, especially if the rumors about the demons she's dealing with are true.

Her hand knocked on the door once, twice, three times. Nothing but the dull echo of punched wood as an answer. A couple seconds passed. She knocked again – one, two, three times. Still nothing. She rolled her eyes, behind her blindfold. She really, really didn’t want to get into serious mode.

“Oi, Paddy! Open this goddamn door or I swear I’ll kick it down! Ya know Imma gonna do that, gal!”

She waited for a while, without saying anything, just listening to the background. Nothing. Absolute silence. A primal growl escaped her curled lips. Standing there, in front of an apartment door three city blocks away from her place at ten in the evening wasn’t something her ideal Wednesday night. Yet, there she was, looking(?) directly at the painted wood, while grumbling like a caged beast. She mentally counted up to thirty, before opening her mouth once more, almost screaming.

“You klutz, I know you’re inside, stop faking it like you’re some sort of ninja! I haven’t installed secret cameras inside your flat for nothing, yes?”

Tumbling, light switches pressed, moans. She started fidgeting with her rusted peace medallion, with a wide grin on her face. So that elicited a reaction, at least. Good.

And, as she couldn’t stop herself from laughing maniacally, the lock finally yielded. A minute, tired figure made her appearance through a thin slit of light, green eyes peeking at the unexpected guest, underlined by thick black marks that fought a losing battle against her freckles.

“W… what are you doing here, Chai?”

Chai smirked. Oh, so she still had a voice. That was one thing less to worry about.

“A sapphic-as-heck horny songbird whispered something about our best phagefuckin’ friend going AWOL and not answerin’ calls – not even mine. So, I’ve decided to go for a walk and see for myself – no pun intended.”

That said, she pulled down her blindfold a little, winked with her contact-lens cloaked eye.

Paddy’s reacted to her tease with just a deep groan.

“… I’ve even managed to make Lejl worried, of all people, huh?”

“Girl, worried doesn’t begin to describe it! She was absolutely pa-ni-cking.”

Chai pushed her elbow on the door frame, kept on playing with her medallion.

“Now, may I come in?”

With a resigned nod, Paddy set the door wide open, letting the newcomer step inside, with that blindfold of hers still sticking to her eyes. She looked at her, as she moved with a mixture of grace and utter disrespect around the rooms, wrapped in those anonymous clothes – a pink, comfy sweatshirt that left her lower belly exposed, a pair of ripped jeans and white sneakers. Looking at her, nobody would have thought she was a bounty hunter by day – erotic streamer by night. Yet, that was Chai Constantine, in all her charm and (lack of) finesse. Despite knowing her for a relatively long time, it was still hard for Paddy’s brain to accept that her best friend and only real confident was a contract killer that enjoyed showing her naked body to the masses, while stimulating its most sensitive parts with any brand of exotic sex toys – without even touching on the non-trivial fact that she was also a bioweapon-in-hiding. Yet, her heart had welcomed that new addition to her social life with open arms – no matter what her head thought. That pile of weird circumstances shaped like a woman around her age was surprisingly sincere, empathetic and wise, despite… well, despite being a foul-mouthed, no-nonsense snake. That was worth more than anything to her.

“My house is a mess. Please, don’t be scared.”

“Scared? Oi, don’t make me laugh!”

Chai shrugged, while cracking a mischievous smile.

“Like, have you ever walked into Cy’s room after she went all gung-ho on her babe? Well, I did.

And, believe me, that was bedlam incarnate. A phage would cause less of a ruckus.”

Incidentally, that was the experience that taught her that a bedroom door left ajar in Cyphr’s flat didn’t mean please, come in but instead enter at your own risk. She had reeled in surprise and disgust after seeing how bad that gal and her golden-eyed gremlin had messed up. A chaos so primal and visceral that she thought she had erroneously entered the wrong flat and – instead – ended up on the set of a certain kind of movie – those she would usually be hired for. If her direct intimate experience with those two fools weren’t enough to paint a danger sign on Cyphr, that sight had thoroughly cemented that feeling, to the point where she even considered never getting drunk again when together with them (easier said than done) and never sharing a bed with them in any shape or form (which happened at least a couple times more than she would have liked to admit). That said, in comparison to that absolute nightmare of a room, Paddy’s house was relatively well kept – emphasis on relatively. There were still one too many newspaper articles scattered on the floor (who in the seven heavens still bought printed newspapers in 2067?!) and several open biology books. Most of article scraps were around three weeks old and featured the picture of a flower. Oh, that story, thought Chai. She hadn’t followed it too much, since it gave her the creeps, but she understood why Paddy might have been interested into it. Her concealed gaze moved to the living room’s table, to a small dish filled with something resembling milk resting on it. Chocolat, the diminutive eternal cub phage that acted as Paddy’s pet, was lapping it, savoring that late night meal with gusto. Cute little critter – shame that its species was so annoying to deal with. Chai glanced at Paddy herself. She was wearing nothing but a dark green tank top and white boxers. And her arm…

“Oi, what did you do there? Why all those patches?”

Her answer was an even more tired smile, as her eye bags felt heavier than ever.

“If you really had cameras installed inside my flat… you would know.”

“Girl, I just have a couple of them here, and I don’t watch them all the time – come on, I’m not a lecherous perv!”

“… and where would they be…?”

Chai tapped her finger on her chin, looking up in a sort of thinker impression.

“Duh, not gonna spoil the fun of lookin’ for them. But one’s surely in your bathroom.”

“… excuse me, what?!”

“Gotta say, you’re pretty good with those fingers of yours.”

Paddy’s face turned to the deepest shade of red possible, as blood rushed to her face, contrasting the sorry state of her eyes. Chai puffed her cheeks, let out a powerful laughter.

“Oi, oi! I was joking! No cameras, really! I haven’t installed anything, I’m not such a control freak, come on! I just made it up as an excuse to force you to open the door!”

Though that quip caused her to wonder if Ange had hidden cameras in her room or in Cyphr’s flat, since he was definitely a control freak. She drove away the thought. No, that meathead had a lot of flaws, but spying on his daughter and her close acquaintances in such away would have been completely morally bankrupt, even for someone as anxious as him. On her side, Paddy blinked. Twice. In disbelief. All while the accumulated redness hadn’t left her face yet, still giving it a scarlet hue. That disaster that caused that reaction was her emotional support friend. That idiot, laughing her lungs out, while she was on the verge of collapsing. The idiot who stubbornly wore a stupid blindfold at least once every three days because she felt naked without it, despite having fully-functioning eyes – now even shielded by special contact lenses. That idiot, Chai Constantine. The one person she could confide with.

How. How had that happened?

Lost in her thoughts, Paddy sat down on her sofa, avoiding eye contact. Somehow, she felt grateful that Chai wore her blindfold, that evening. Facing her gaze would have been much more uncomfortable. Chai had apparently realized that too, as she wasn’t even trying to stare at her directly. Yet, her voice had a stern tone that barely fit her usual persona.

“Paddy, listen, I’m not gonna patronize you, ‘kay, but… what the actual heck? Like, gal! You ghosted us for the past three effin’ weeks – not even a message or a call! We thought you were up and down the hills screwing that lizard bimbo you met at that party, but even he told us he couldn’t reach you! Yes, even the frickin’ space lizard that raw-dogged you was dead worried! So, what the hell were you doin’, shut in your flat like this, for all that time?!”

“C… contact tracing.”

“Huh?”

Paddy stared at her, dead serious, her tired eyes focused.

“R… remember what we saw in the news? That schoolgirl who died due to a blood flower blooming from inside her body? I’ve been… I’ve been following that trail. It’s a species jump, Chai! The sand blood flower… the sand blood flower has infected a human host! It was just a question of time! And I…”

“Woah, woah, chill girl! One step back!”

“Lejl told you about the man who speaks with flowers, right? A bunch of mystic nonsense, even if, after the so-called Rekashiza bloomed in Shard, it’s almost easy to believe in the supernatural.

No, the truth is, the truth is that the sand blood flower jumped species and became capable of infecting humans… but it’s a different mutation, something… something scarier. In its first form, it looks like a normal flower – one of the uncountable species that thrive between the cracks of the asphalt – but once someone inhales its pollen, it induces a strong mutagenic reaction in a consistent number of stomach cells, which causes the spontaneous…”

“Okay, Paddy, listen. I’m not ready for another biology class, can you give me, like, a very very short summary?”

“… I spent the past three weeks tracing the expansion of the confirmed cases of human blood flower infection and retrieving information about how it spreads. I’m now confident that the species jump wasn’t completely natural. The human blood flower couldn’t change its life cycle so much in such a short time. I have gathered evidence it has been engineered, pages of evidence! Even retrieved some samples – don’t ask me how! And I… and I…”

Paddy gritted her teeth, bit her lips, her breath heavy. That wasn’t the whole story. There was another explanation, of course. There was one. But she didn’t feel like… she didn’t want to… what if… She shoved her head between her hands. Saying that could have been the end. The end of your second chance. Her friends would have left her in no time, if they knew. Yet… yet…

A chill down her spine, he muscles stiffened.

No. Not now. Not… now…

“Paddy? What’s up? You look horrible, as if you are going to puke your eyes out.”

Paddy closed her eyes, as her breath intensified, as her teeth pushed against each other more and more. Of all moments one such thing could happen… now? Couldn’t it wait ten more minutes? Twenty more minutes? Couldn’t it come ten minutes before? But again, it had. Less than half an hour had passed since her last attack. There was nothing unnatural. It was just how things were. She felt the urge, that primal urge, ravaging through her body. Her skin was craving the touch, the sounds becoming muffled and distant. But no, she couldn’t, she wouldn’t yield.

“… Paddy?”

“R… run away, Chai. It’s… it’s for your… ah… good! D… don’t…”

She curled into a ball, fell on the floor, as her fingers, her nails drew circles on her forehead, as tears started pouring out, streaming on her cheeks like autumn rain. Chocolat stopped sipping her milk, cowered in fear, hid behind the plate. Chai gazed at her friend, without understanding, as a bad feeling made her way through her nerves.

“O… oi, Paddy…? If that’s a joke, it’s not…”

Paddy screamed, lunged forward, grabbed Chai’s sweatshirt, pulled it, sank her head into her chest, her teeth grazing her own lips, as she couldn’t stop, she wouldn’t stop crying.

“I… I need it! Give it to me! Give it to me! NOW! Where is it? Where…”

She shielded her mouth with one of her hands, as well as she could, trying to keep herself under control, to fight the urge. In vain. Before she could realize it, she bit Chai’s sweatshirt, the fabric folded deep into her mouth, as her muffled screams continued. Chai growled, grabbed her blindfold, pulled it down. Then, she quickly reached for her right eye, tapped the contact lens, remove it with a swift gesture.

“Oi, girl…”

She patted on Paddy’s hair with her free hand, causing her to raise her gaze, her tear-filled eyes, as her mouth was still clinging to Chai’s clothes. It was then that she realized what she was looking at.

“It’s time to calm down a bit, yes?”

And Medusa’s eye made short work of her resistance.

**

She couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but it had to be quite a lot. More than she would have liked to. Yet, she felt strangely comfortable, now, lying on her bed, wrapped only by her open bathrobe, her skin still graced by small droplets of water. All of her limbs were aching, not unlike the first time she had met Medusa. Still, she felt somehow relaxed, as her breath had gone down to a quieter, more regular rhythm. She turned her head, slowly, as her wet hair were still sticking to her face, only to meet a familiar silhouette, sitting right next to her, keeping her hand between hers.

Chai, now with her eyes freed, visibly frowning.

“You better, yes?”

“… a little.”

She groaned, as her tongue finally decided to abide by her will. The stone gaze of Chai, her most dangerous weapon, the one thing she hated about herself. A thing that made her what she was, still. Paddy tried to move her legs, her free arm. Slowly but surely, they followed her orders – albeit in a very clumsy way. The time spent on that sofa, clinging to Chai, with all her voluntary muscles locked, had been horrifying. She had no mouth, yet she had to scream. But her body wouldn’t cooperate. She felt like dying, the craving, the urge for something she didn’t have access to, coupled with a total lack of control over her body. Alone with her thoughts, with Chai hugging her, caressing her, telling her that everything was going to be fine. And, gradually, things went better.

The craving died, after what felt like an inordinate amount of time. Chai herself noticed it, noticed how Paddy’s panicked eyes had started to mellow, through those small, automatic blinks that not even Medusa could stop. She had hugged her even stronger, having her feel her warmth through her clothes.

Only to carry her to the bathroom, fill the bathtub to the brim with warm water, and tuck her in as she was, as soon as the paralysis effect started to wane.

Sorry, Paddy, she had said before unceremoniously dropping her into the water, this will make it less painful for you.

The end result was that she had almost drowned in her own bathtub, sputtering and shrieking as her muscles went back under her control – and her drenched tank top and boxers stuck to her skin like glue. Yet, now things felt better. For how long, she couldn’t say, though. Chai patted her wet hair again, her voice back to her usual carefree self.

“So, what was that? Rabies? Did you bed the wrong beast and get some alien STD? Jeez, gal, condoms exist for a reason.”

Paddy sighed. She wished the answer were that simple. Somehow, she would have liked it more.

“… it was withdrawal. P… plain and simple… withdrawal.”

That was it. She had blurted it. Managed to pull it out. Withdrawal. She had never managed to say that word out loud, before, not even to herself. Yet, she had to face the truth. Withdrawal. Chai stared at her without saying anything, waiting for her to go on, while massaging her hand, sitting at her side. Paddy took a deep breath, started talking again, her voice feeble.

“Nirvana. You… you know what it is?”

“Yeah, The synthetic drug created from phage viagra juice. You told me about it in excruciating detail, remember?”

Of course she remembered. That night she and Chai streamed together, Paddy had talked to her about the effects of the substance male phages injected into females during the reproductive act. And, much like said female phages, after having been in contact with the real deal, that hormone that caused all sensations to be amplified tenfold, she couldn’t enjoy a normal intercourse anymore. It felt dull. Her body didn’t react. Her pleasure dampened to almost nothing. That night, during the stream, Chai had managed to relieve some of that dullness, to let her finally experience something she thought she had lost forever – but that had been a one-off. Chai wasn’t her lover. Chai wasn’t her partner. Chai was a friend, someone she would trust and would hang around, someone for whom she had no romantic feelings – just camaraderie and a genuine attachment. So, she tried. She tried to feel whole again. She dated men, women, even shoigas, sometimes together, but – aside from some random sparks of excitement – her body failed her. At last, out of despair, she resorted to Nirvana. And that, well, that changed everything. She made he whole again, capable of enjoying life.

But everything has a price.

“I… made use of it. Often. In the past three months, I…”

Started injecting it in my veins and I craved it every time more, she thought, but she didn’t have the courage to say it. Human scum, bottom-of-the-rung. A junkie.

“I… I relied on… a dealer from the Fishface mafia, but… but last month they…”

They disappeared all of a sudden, after the new CEO took it over. Go Ottari, the squid man informally (but never officially) thought to be the head of the mutant mafia, had stepped aside.

And, immediately after, all activities of his syndicate had ceased on British and Irish soil. So, no more Nirvana, in the span of a few days. And, before she knew it, they had begun. The crises.

Initially she could keep them under control, but the craving became stronger, and stronger, and stronger. To stop it, to sate it, she tried mating more frequently, but even that wasn’t enough – just a placebo. Before she knew it, she had hit rock bottom.

“Oh, wow, girl. That…”

Chai couldn’t bring herself to complete the sentence, as Paddy sobbed quietly in her lap. She had become addicted, went for cheap surrogates, injected them into her veins to overcome the withdrawal. But that wasn’t enough. Nothing was enough. Except one thing. Her first true love.

Biology.

“The… investigation… it was… it’s my way to cope, Chai! It’s how I keep… my cravings under control. A replacement, a stupid replacement, but… but it kept me from snapping. Studying…

those flowers… kept me from going insane. Every time I had a crisis… I just started studying. And studying. And studying. But, even that… I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

She sank into Chai’s lap, her muscles still incapable of following her orders properly.

“All because… all because I’m a stupid girl! Stupid! Stupid! What did I even think, when I had that idiotic idea? Look… look at me, Chai… what… what have I become?”

“Oi, gal…”

Chai hugged her even stronger, wiped her tears with her finger.

“You’re still our adorable little klutz.”

She glanced at the room, at the scattered news fragments, the extensive notebooks full of formulas, of schematics, of handwritten notes.

“… a disturbed adorable little klutz, yes, but… huh, I know someone at Yard who will be ecstatic to read all of your notes. Someone who owes me a huge one already, and will owe me a bigger one, if you gal are as brilliant as I’m sure you are!”

“I’m just… an idiot.”

Chai kissed Paddy on her cheek, while caressing her nape.

“Yes, you’re a big, dumb idiot! You made one huge mistake too, gal – not keeping us – your friends – in the loop. Like, wow, you committed substance abuse ‘cause you couldn’t get off.

And? Who cares! Do you have any ideas of how many exotic drugs Red tried and survived? That moron was stoned half the time I spent with him! He was the nearest thing I had to a dad! And you hear how fond I am of him, right? And what about that tattooed horny disaster? And that absolute blockhead who’s the daughter of an assassin and the nephew of a mafia boss that carved her organs out? And me? Hell, I murder people in cold blood as a part of my job, the last one not even three days ago, and then go on streaming with a vibrator up my ass immediately after with absolutely no regrets! How, I say, how did you come to the idea that a bunch of amoral mofos like us could turn their backs on you?! If anything, this makes you of a honorary member of our little, deranged club even more, gal! From biology-genius phagefucker to biology-genius phagefucker on crack! Not a nice step forward, I agree, but we can still solve it!”

Paddy let out a short sigh, still incapable of sustaining her stare.

“B… but I… how can I… once the body has become accustomed to the effects of Nirvana, the neural response triggered by pleasure receptors is…”

“Bitch, we live in a first world country! We have frickin’ nanomachines for everything, we create mutants from scratch and can even build semi-sentient robots – are you telling me with a straight face that we ain’t finding a cure to your addiction? Come on!”

Suddenly, Paddy felt something wet on her navel, a little pressure too. She looked down. It was Chocolat, lapping her skin with her little tongue, her massive ribbon flopping around as she moved her head. Chai pointed at the small creature, a triumphant smile on her face.

“See? Even Chocolat agrees with me!”

Paddy watched in silence, as her diminutive companion climbed up her chest, step by step, up to her neck, to her shoulder. Chocolat sat there, licked her skin, rubbed her eyeless snout against it. Paddy fought against her stiffness to raise her hand, found the strength to caress the little reptile’s scales. Chocolat rubbed herself against her soft touch, lapped the tip of her finger for a good measure. Paddy found the strength to smile, albeit weakly. Her predicament was less than optimal, but at least… at least she didn’t have to keep it for herself.

“… thanks, Chai. I… owe you one.”

“No, you don’t! I still owe you MORE for these lenses!”

As Chai hugged her, her voice cracked a little, far from her usual boastful confidence. Paddy didn’t have the strength to stop her, she didn’t even consider it as an option. She allowed Chai to wrap her arms around her bathrobe, her still wet hair.

“O… oi, girl, don’t pull a stunt like this ever again, yes? Can you imagine my hell, if I lost you – my favorite science nut, the only voice of reason in our group? D… don’t even think about making me worry so much again!”

“… so it wasn’t only Lejl…”

“Of course not, you klutz! Say, how hard do you think it is to trust people when you are a frackin’

bioweapon that lived her own life behind a blindfold? You think it easy? You and those other two disasters are the only people I can run to when I’m broken inside!”

“Chai! S.. stop! My levels of serotonin are increasing, which is indeed a good thing, but this is causing my adrenaline to…”

Chai pinched Paddy’s lips, closed them, shutting her monologue before it could take shape. Still, that was her Paddy, the Paddy that would start spouting random facts about phages while nervous, the Paddy that rattle off the functions of a random hormone or evidence for a new complementary theory to the current evolution paradigm as a way to steer the conversation away from something she found embarrassing. Chai hugged her again, closing her eyes, smiling while reveling in their shared memories. Witnessing Paddy scream the precise geographic distribution of phage swarms live on stream at the peak of her climax was still one of the most entertaining events that ever happened during her show. The fact that the gal had kept on listing true facts about those critters during their broadcast joint mating session, until the very end, never ceased to amuse her. The afternoon Chai spent reviewing the footage to validate her claims with a thorough internet research just because she couldn’t believe someone could say stuff like that, while having the wildest sex ever – and be correct – was the moment she started realizing how cool Paddy was. As the figures and cited articles piled up as verified in her fact-checking spree, she grew fonder and fonder of the gal, to the point of wanting to learn more about her, understand her as a person – more so, now that she had learned of her secret, due to a stage accident. So, when Lejl asked for her number for an emergency with her pet noctiphage, that had been the best chance she got to hang around her more. Paralyzing her with her Medusa gaze right after their first bout together had been an unexpected incident, true… but that would have needed to happen at some point, if she wanted to keep her around. Incidentally, the second time they shared a bed together was also the one who made her aware of how much she wanted to see her as a friend and not just as a warm slab of meat. It had been amazing, yes, and they both enjoyed it (and Paddy rattled off yet more random facts about phages)… but it was also extremely awkward. Both of them had realized something. None of them could spell it out properly.

True, Chai liked the texture of her freckles, loved her emerald eyes and – were it for her instincts alone – she would have craved to taste her skin, her sweat, while softly caressing her hair right then, on that comfy bed. Yet, it felt wrong. Even now, with Paddy in a state of undress, her body almost completely exposed, Chai felt something more akin to empathy than lust… and wanted to keep it that way. She wiped her tears, being careful to not remove her contact lenses in the process. Paddy was still immune to her gaze for a while longer, but she didn’t want to risk anything. One her side, Paddy was slowly managing to take control of her body again, her muscle aches waning, her nerves calmly guiding all of her gestures.

“Do you really think… I can be fixed?”

“If we managed to get Lejl to remember to put on her underwear every day, we can sure have your body forget Nirvana.”

Paddy found the strength to smile a little. Only for her stomach to grumble, out of the blue, much to her dismay. She blushed uncontrollably, as her hands reached for her belly, covered it in shame.

“Oi, someone’s hungry, huh?”

“I… didn’t have a proper dinner… yet.”

“Fret not, your big sis Chai’s gonna fix it all!”

She pulled out her phone from her pocket, slid her finger on the display, put it to her ear.

“Oi, Santuzzo! Yes, it’s me!”

A loud, annoyed voice emerged from the speaker, mumbling something unintelligible.

“Hey, I have a name! Call me brat one more time and I raze your little excuse of a restaurant! Can ya, like, bring me two Margheritas? Yes, I know it’s almost eleven, and yes I know you’re closing shop, but you can’t tell me you have switched off your oven yet, ‘cause I don’t believe it. Oh, see?

Good. Here’s the address…”

She stopped the call, patted on Paddy’s hair once again.

“Hope you like pizza. Cor d’Etna makes it hella good, even if it’s a front for the Santuzzelli mafia.

Like, I wouldn’t have expected those mofos to actually bake good pizza, but – girl – they do be the best in town!”

Paddy stared at her, her eyes wide open. That couldn’t have possibly happened, not with that nonchalance.

“Did you… did you really order two pizzas from a restaurant run by the mob?”

“Yup! Delivery’s included in the price too, since they still use those illegal, tuned-up mopeds! You ain’t getting a better service, Paddy!”

Paddy finally managed to sit, wrapped her bathrobe around her own body, as Chocolat was triumphantly lying on her head. She rubbed her eyes a couple more times, not sure if that was a fever dream caused by her withdrawal or reality. Still, if that was a dream, she didn’t want it to end.

“… cool, I… guess?”

“Oi, only the best for a phagefuckin’ horny biologist!”

Paddy puffed her cheeks, crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“A? I’m the phagefuckin’ horny biologist! Not just a random one!”

And, like that, she broke into uncontrollable laughter, for the first time in weeks, under the teary eyes of a girl who was still wrapping her arms around her still wet body.

While failing spectacularly at keeping her serious façade… and bursting into laughter as much, if not more than her.