Dirty Work: Volume 2

Story Five - Nostalgia - 3

Mansi Har Van Sai was a monster in human form. I'd gone ten years without seeing his face. In that time I just about forgot being stuck at the back of the classroom while he sent crude little drawings of himself ripping my head off over Halo-Skreen, for ten years. I'd managed to block out the memories of him scaring off the only girl I liked in school, for his own amusement. I'd managed to forget the way he always had long sleeves for easy access to a knife strapped to his wrist, just as a warning, of course. I had blanked out every fall over a stuck-out leg, every hit from something thrown at the back of my head; every instance of 'I weren't doing nothing, sir,' and the teacher letting him off the hook. I'd escaped it all.

It returned to me in a rush of vile, stomach-churning nausea. I stood there, unable to move, telling myself that I had to still be asleep, I must still be asleep. There's no way the prick would have been able to make anything of his life. Even Celestria wasn't that fundamentally cruel. Rigged, maybe, but by all that must be holy, please, never be that cruel.

So when he looked at me with that smug grin on his flat, goofy face of his, the same one that had held me in perpetual torment for years, I had to physically swallow the soap back down my throat.

'How've you been, Xayne? Been a while since Advanced Geometry, hasn't it?'

'Yes,' I managed to mumble. I forced myself to hold his stare. I wouldn't look away. I mustn't look away.

He pointed to his badge, just in case I hadn't seen it and had instantly wanted to take a gun muzzle to the back of my throat. 'Didn't come here just to catch up on old times, I'm afraid. I come here to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind.'

I do mind, I thought. I mind very much. I mind more than I could ever express. I stood aside and allowed the malevolent sociopath into my home.

He took a look round. 'Like what you've done with the place,' he said. 'I have to admit, when I heard the address, I was expecting it to be a bit more, you know.'

'Like the inside of a rubbish bin?' I asked.

'Exactly,' he said. Chuckled to himself. 'You always knew how to coin a phrase.'

I'd had my head thrust into an overflowing bin so many times I could still smell it. No prizes for guessing who was doing the thrusting.

I stood by the small kitchenette worktop within easy reach of a large knife. I watched him sit down and wondered if I could go through with burning it once he'd gone. 'You had questions.'

'Yes. I happen to have been assigned to work on a disappearance, you see. In Region 76. I don't suppose you've been there recently, by any chance?'

There was no way I was going to give him the satisfaction of being right, so I held my tongue.

'Look, Xayne. I was told by your boss that you might be able to assist us. Not that I think you can do anything better than our guys; we're top police enforcement units, you see, but...'

'Stop,' I said. Much to my surprise, he did. Nothing in the past years of my life, and I mean nothing, gave me as much satisfaction as this asshole obeying my commands. 'I'm under no obligation to say anything.'

Mansi sighed. 'Well, that's a shame. I was hoping you'd cooperate with us, for old times' sake. You know?'

That was it. I pointed to the door. 'I'll cooperate when you show me an official warrant. Or when it's someone else sitting in my home like it's theirs.'

'Come on. This is official police business, and there are procedures and...'

'You may leave now.'