Zagreus was sporting an oversized black hoodie and black jeans today, his hair having grown just enough to be considered a buzzcut “Hey, Zag!” I called out, as I stumbled into the clinic, lifting bruise central by the shoulder while Joseph tried to offer me help, help that I kept shooing off. “Is Auntie Murphy in? I need her to restore Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue over here!”
Zag outright leapt over the counter to reach me. “Nevermind them, M, you’re covered in blood!”
“Mine is only from the waist up, clean hole, just need an organ and implant check and to seal it, have lost half a pint at worst.” I tried to confidently smirk, but my teeth were bloodied by how they felt. “Oh, and I need a tooth check, one got knocked out.” Century jumped on the counter and opened her beak, as a tooth fell out of it. “Yeah, that one right there, thanks for grabbing it Century.”
Auntie Murphy parted the curtain with her topmost robotic arm, shaking her head. “It’s barely been a week and you’re dragging another sorry case into my clinic, Joseph.”
“Don’t put the blame on me, Auntie Murphy, M dragged him in herself!” Joseph contested, coming closer. Auntie Murphy sighed.
“Okay, Joseph, grab the blueberry and bring him in, Zag, you check M over.” Auntie went back behind the curtain, and Joseph took over carrying the victim, bringing him in behind Auntie. Zag wheeled out a stool in front of me, one onto which he forcefully sat me down on, and pulled off my jacket.
“Whoa hey there Zag, you’re handsome but you’re not exactly my type.”
“Cut the bravado, M, you’re allowed to be vulnerable. What even happened?”
“Maybe I’m not letting myself be on purpose. And as for what happened? A gang called The Alphas was beating up the guy Murphy is working on, and I stepped in.” Zagreus had pulled off the stained Alpha shirt I had used as a placeholder wrapping, and lifted my shirt up.
“Hold please.” I held it up while he got out a sealant applicant, spraying both sides of the hole with it. “What’s their deal?”
“Did they implant you with any Alpha theory while they were growing you?” He was pressing around my stomach, seeing if anything felt off
“Nope.”
“Okay, so there was this guy that did a study on wolves in captivity, and observed that in such a situation a social hierarchy arises, of a boss wolf and underling wolves and outcast wolves, and called them Alphas, Betas and Omegas.” I hissed as he touched a specific spot, right above my implant scar.
“You okay?”
“Yeah you just pushed too hard on the tubes there, no need to worry, I’ll go back to explaining now. The dude published the study, years later realised he fucked up because that hierarchy only arises in captivity and when observing wild wolves they have healthy family dynamics, tried to debunk his own study, but shitty dudes took it and based their entire personality around it.” Zagreus hummed at my explanation as he walked off, shortly after which a towel hit my face with a wet slap.
“You can wash yourself, you’re a big girl.” He was smiling, the little shit.
“And you’re the nurse. Oh, fun fact I’ve got the outfit I’m pretty sure you’d have been forced to wear in the trunk of my car. It’s got less fabric than this towel.” There thankfully wasn’t much to wipe off on my stomach or lower back, my face was covered in more blood than both of them combined.
He rolled his eyes. “Of course it does, why do you even have such a thing?”
“Job reasons. Pretty sure I saw the personality they’d have tried to force on you too.” The wound itched as the sealant did its job, disinfecting the area and building a network that my body would replace with its own cells in time. “Hey, any idea where the dude who bought you lives? I have half a mind to get him to his grave now.”
“Take a number.”
“Century’s gonna cut in line if I do.” With a sigh and a groan of exertion, I pulled my shirt off and took off my jeans, sitting down on one of the couches in the waiting room. “I liked those pants too.”
“M, don’t go leaving your laundry on the clinic floor! And don’t go getting undressed for no reason!” Zagreus pulled out a bucket and unceremoniously dumped my bloodied clothes in it.
“It’s not for no reason, bloodied clothes feel horrible to wear. I hope you never experience it.” I waved him off, leaning my head back and breathing in deeply.
“Well, you’re in just your underwear!” He protested, and I snorted.
“The posters in other sectors are so much less modest than me, Zagreus.”
“I don’t care about that, I care about you catching a cold and me having more work!” With basically a single swift motion he unzipped his hoodie and threw it my way, exposing the old worn t-shirt underneath with Siren album art on it. The specific art evoked a sense of adventure, with the four band mates in fantasy outfits standing atop a cliff, a dark castle looming in the distance, the album title Final Chase in a bold font on top. The hoodie thankfully fit me well enough.
“Huh, I think I got that album, actually. Last one they made. Wonder what happened to them. Right, thanks for the hoodie by the way.”
“Thank Auntie Murphy, I’ve been raiding the Lost and Found she’s got here for outfit options, figuring out what works and what doesn’t.”
“Who the hell loses a schoolboy outfit?”
“No clue. Auntie Murphy chuckled about the outfit being very appropriate for me though, which made me even more confused.” Century sent me an image of a cartoon boy I did not recognise at all.
“Century gets the joke but I don’t.” I stood up and grabbed the bucket, looking behind the curtain. “Joseph, I’m about to drive back to Maria’s place to catch some shut eye, you coming with?” Auntie Murphy had the victim open on the surgical table, moving around pieces of bone, his ribs were broken and it was a miracle none of them had pierced his lung.
“Ugh, yeah, yeah I’m coming with. See you, Auntie Murphy.” Auntie Murphy waved at Joseph with one of her free arms as he said goodbye to her, and the two of us slumped down in my car. “Fucking hell, M, you scared me back there. Nobody’s dumb enough to take on five Alphas at the same time!”
“Oh, pshhh, lay off, those guys are pathetic jokes with egos so fragile a drop of water would shatter them. Why do you think they use that shitty deodorant all the time?” I waved his concerns off, shaking my head.
“While that’s true, they’re also muscle heads that can break your spine. You’re lucky to be walking away with a gun wound and a knocked out tooth.”
“Oh right, shit, my tooth, I completely forgot I wanted that fixed.” I turned to Joseph. “You alright walking back home? I’m gonna sit around and wait for Murphy to be available.”
“Your bullshit sobered me up right and quick, M, I can make it home.” We both got out.
“See you in the morning!” I waved at him as he left, and stepped right back into the clinic.
“You forgot your tooth.” Zagreus was holding the piece up.
“I sure did, I want to get that fixed tonight.”
“You might as well go deal with your laundry at the laundromat down the street before Auntie Murphy finishes up.” He put the tooth down, nudging his head in the direction of the laundromat.
“I think I will. See you in a bit, Zag!”
I awoke to pain and soreness, the kind of pain and soreness you only get to experience after working for twenty years in a warehouse doing twelve hour shifts seven days a week. The kind of pain and soreness you feel after exercising at the gym for the first time in your life and overestimating yourself. The kind of pain and soreness you feel after being thrown around an alleyway like a ragdoll and shot in the stomach. The groan I let out was long and guttural and lasted until I had finished stretching, my bones cracking with every movement. Century’s response was to send me a picture of me in a full body cast, with only a hole visible for my eyes. “Honestly, I wouldn’t say no to that after last night.” I rubbed off the dry gunk of the sealant, exposing the scar underneath. “Not too bad, let’s keep them to a minimum though, what do you say Cent?” Cent, of course, did not say anything, she rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, urging me to follow, while a smell wafted into the bedroom. “Did Joseph get access to smoked meat?” I got out of the room and rested on the railing. “Joseph, is that smoked meat!?”
“Yeah, one of the neighbors was raising a pig they won and they gave us some bacon!”
“How the hell did they win a pig?” I had half a mind to just jump over the railings, but then I moved my back a bit and it screamed at me and half a mind became none of a mind as I decided against. I walked down, sitting on the couch, enjoying the smell of bacon being fried.
“Entered a livestock lottery as a joke, didn’t expect to even win a chicken, let alone a pig.” The toaster launched two slices of bread as Joseph finished explaining, and he had enough time to catch them both on a plate.
“And where the hell did they get the money for such a thing?”
“Oh they’ve got like, five taps into Rabbithole’s server in different locations, they sell bootlegs and get paid by Hound for leaks and such.” In short order, on the table sat before me a plate, holding two thick slices of bacon, two eggs and a piece of toast. “Enjoy your meal.”
“Thanks. You know, Joseph, I hope yesterday was a good start to a long business partnership.”
“Likewise, M. Dig in.”
Thank you for the chapter.