The 9 lives of Cats and Gods (Merry Men Book 1)

Life 8

1.
Robin
The next few days are a blur. 
Special Agent Courdelion is arrested before we even make it back to the monastery. He directs harbor patrol to search the water for 'four clever but very annoying and sarcastic teenagers', but he specifically gives them descriptions of and begs them to find Bash, stating 'the other three hellions probably have a fucking home if I know my dumbass queer brother. Nobody was taking care of the other savant homeless looking one and it had a fragile will to live' yeah they quote him as saying exactly that which gives his aforementioned dumbass queer brother no end of amusement.
They find no sign of Bash, not in the water, nor on shore. They can't drag the sound, but it's unlikely his body would have been swept under, more likely it will wash up on one of the islands. I find that suspicious. No one dares contradict my general hope that he is, against the odds, still alive.
I'm of course legally dead until we get me a fresh identity, the paperwork of which will take a while longer. That makes me minorly useless so far as getting Courdelion home, in that I can't actually do many errands or the like since I can't show my face in public. In the end we reach an agreement, Marianna and Rocket finish out the semester here, after Christmas we find a new school for all three of us, me with a new identity, probably color my hair or something for a while, while I pretend to be an entirely different ward of Courdelion's. We find it unlikely anyone will care to put the dots together, so long as I keep a decently low profile.
But for now I'm stuck at the monastery. Courdelion rents a house in Oak Harbor for the rest of the year, so we can at least get some stuff out of storage and he and I have someplace to move about while he gets things going. The investigation of course is still on going, clearing his name isn't quite as simple as all that. But it's delightfully close. He can at least come home while his brother confesses and they sort our legalities.
It's a little place, high among the trees, remote enough off the main road that my legally dead self can wander about uninhibited. It's got enough room that Marianna and Rocket can come and stay if they like, so can Alan. We agree that Marianna and Rocket will stay at the monastery during the school week, and come up and visit on the weekend.
When it finally comes time for Courdelion to fly home, it's two weeks before Christmas, and I succeed in persuading everyone that I can leave the monastery, in a proper disguise. With temporary hair color, a hat, and glasses, I set out for the long drive in to SeaTac. Rocket and Marianna don't even argue, I suppose expecting I need to do it alone.
I go into the airport and linger by the exit doors, head down so as not to get caught on airport cameras. My disguise must not be great, because Courdelion spots me immediately. Once again I didn't plan what to say but this time I'm not surprised when I rush into his arms.
"I missed you," he says, tugging on my hat. He says it in French though I doubt anyone is listening.
"Told you we'd get you home," I say, grinning wickedly as I respond in kind.
He just smiles, slinging an arm around my shoulders as we go to baggage claim to collect the dogs. The poor boys are all wiggles as we cut open the crates, and Courdelion laughs that he'll take the carriers if I just hold onto the dogs, who are too happy to let me properly put leashes on.
We switch back to English once we get to the van, and I have him and his few bags loaded. The dogs lick our ears as I attempt to drive and navigate out of the bustling airport.
On the drive back I appraise him of most everything that's transpired, in detail. He knew the basics of his brother's arrest and Bash's involvement, but now I properly explain from the start how Bash worked his way into our lives. From the meat locker, to baiting me to kill Naples, to the encounter on the yacht.
"So my brother knows—?"
"Almost nothing, he believes Bash was working with him, and as much as I hate that guy, I do think he genuinely wanted t'help Bash. Of course on the yacht he found out most everything I just told you," I explain, "That is, that Bash was double crossing him as well to get access to his files. From what I can guess, Bash always planned on putting him behind bars as well."
"Do you think this was his final trick?" Courdelion asks.
"No," I say.
"You think he survived somehow?"
"Yes, but I don't even think he'd need to. I wouldn't put it past him t'have things set up so that they would go into motion without him needing to be alive," I say, "He said as much on yacht he planned it so he could die from poison."
"He sent a series of evidence on Declan Fox to the FBI, and Interpol. The FBI threw it in the trash considering that you're legally dead, they told me in that they thought someone was slandering your name," Courdelion says.
"What'd Interpol do?" I ask.
"Well Philip was laughing when he called me and he said as you were already dead it's irrelevant. I don't think anyone took the packages seriously," Courdelion says, "Even if they did Declan Fox is long gone. Convenient, that."
"You think he expected me to escape?"
"I don't know if we can completely predict this mad man's actions, but I would agree with you, I wouldn't be surprised if he had one last trick."
"Yeah, we're only at seven," I sigh.
"Seven?"
"Cat's have nine lives, don't they?"

2.
Bash
Marianna turns around from her locker, staring at the paper in her hand. She jumps appropriately when I'm standing directly behind her, dripping wet, staring over her shoulder.
"Let's talk," I say, taking her elbow and towing her into the school's gym.
"How are you alive?" She asks, kicking my leg.
"As I suspected, it seems I cannot actually die," I say, coolly, shoving her in the doors and locking them behind us.
"What does this mean?" She asks, shaking me off and stepping away. I sit down calmly on the last set of bleachers.
She holds up the crisp letter.

Good Day,

I know who you are. And I know what you have done. In twenty-four hours time I will send all of my evidence to the police. If you want to stop me, you're going to have to kill me.

Love,
Bash

"Exactly what it says. It didn't take a whole lot of digging to come up with your birth name. And the associated crimes. The way I'm estimating it, all that goes to police, you're looking at twenty to life. And they wouldn't even put you in the proper prison  more than likely," I say, rubbing my face with my wrist.
"Bash you have to be sick," she says, rubbing her wrist when I held her. "Let me get you to a hospital."
"I am how I'm meant to be. You really need to start being more concerned about you. In exactly one day an entire file, including your current description, and location, will be sent to the police. But I'm a nice person. So I'm here with a proposition for you. You can kill me. Or you can abandon Robin and join me, help me get evidence against him, we turn it in to the police they testify against him, they'll commute your sentence, in the end maybe you'd do a couple of years in a juvenile prison, then community service, rehab, hell they might even let you go into the foster system since your parents abused you. But if you stay as you, if you go with him, I'll make sure you go down with him. You'll be an accessory to what are we at now? Eleven murders?" I ask, tipping my head down to my knee.
"I would never turn him in," she says, "And I'm not going to kill you either, Bash. You can do your worst. Robby may not be smarter than you, but good will win in the end."
"You'll go to prison for life. You won't be with him then. You'll be alone. Raped, abused, scared for the rest of your life maybe you can kill yourself in prison maybe not, or you can turn back now. Get out. Escape with something in tact. The film's almost over. The boss theme's playing. And you're the final girl. The lights are dimming the chase is on. How are you going to end this? Bloody and bruised and ready to fight again? Or in a body bag? You say good wins in the end? Sure, then become the good. You don't have to trust me you don't have to trust Robin you don't have to trust anyone. The only one who is going to save you is yourself. So do it. Take the chance. Get out of the haunted house with your life if not your pride. Heroes die their noble deaths but final girls escape the tale alive," I say, lying down and hanging my head off the bleacher, "So do it. Take your chance, Marianna. If he's in prison he's not coming for you."
"I don't need him to come for me, that isn't the point," she says, shaking her head.
"Because he kissed me. He kissed me first not the other way around. He's always going to be drawn to what's bad for him. And you're good so he can't possibly have that. If he knew what was good for him do you think he'd stalk the night with a bow, robbing from the rich to give to the poor? No, you've always known he's the end to a means you know in your heart what I say is true. I don't think he loves me, he doesn't love anything but himself so he sure as hell doesn't love you. So why are you hanging on? Let go be free and for god's sake save yourself. Come to me now with the police, I'm offering you a chance at redemption, let yourself be washed clean, cleansed of your sin through his blood. He's the sacrificial lamb now, let him do this for you if nothing else. You're worth more than dying along side him."
"You don't understand," she says, shaking her head, tears trickling down her soft cheeks, "It's not about him. He doesn't have to love me. I love him and that counts for something. There are some people, some good in this world and in everyone, and that's worth fighting for. I don't care if we get caught and I don't care if we both go to prison. I will have made it because I did what I thought was right. I don't want to get away if it means sacrificing him, not because he wouldn't do it for me, but because that is not who I'm choosing to be. My life has been some clear version of hell, but I've seen glimpses of heaven and I know we can make it there someday. He doesn't have to love me forever, but he loves me tonight, and the part of me that needed him once will always be there, cured by his selfless kindness. You ask me why I'll stay? Because he never once asked me to. so you can keep your letter. And do your worst, Sebastian, because I've lived without hope for too long for something as horrible as you to take it from me now."
"Perhaps you deserve him," I say, standing up and walking over to take the letter  from her hands. I tear it in half before limping away, leaving a trail of water on the floor as I drip across the gym. "Tell Robin I miss that ass."
"Where are you going?" She asks.
"Game's not done," I say, and then I shuffle out the doors.