Angel's Authority

Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Seven: On the High-Road

Based on the Volition Inc.™ game: Saints Row 2™

THE BOSS

When I woke up, I could only hear the sound of tires on the highway and other cars rushing past us. I was gently rocked from side to side by the movement as my sight adjusted to the environment. My vision was blurry and my insides felt rearranged, making me want to throw up.

The only thing I remember from last night was Shaundi at my side, afraid and me commanding her to run to the cathedral from the beach. Why though, I didn't know.

In addition to my blurry vision and my queasiness, everything was moving in waves. Back and forth, up, and down. Like the ripple of the sea or an optical illusion. What had they given me?

"Hello, woman. I hope that I didn't catch you by surprise..."

There were two men sitting in front of me, a good distance away though. I was sitting in a limousine! Oh my, I felt like I could throw up...

The man who spoke, did so in a thick Jamaican – or rather Haitian – accent. He was bald, wore silver chains and a white tuxedo and lime green shirt underneath that suited his black skin. The other one looked a bit scarier, having dreadlocks looking out of his small Marley hat and a piercing between his eyes. He wore an open black suit and a shirt of a darker green color underneath.

"Why is your face so funny?"

I burst out laughing against my own will. Whatever they had given me, my sense of behaving was gone because of it. I felt like a teenage girl, gotten drunk for the first time in her life. But instead of feeling offended, the man who had spoken just joined my laughter.

"That are the effects of an overdose of Loa Dust, my friend. But we had to get you out of your home somehow. No hard feelings, right?"

He replied. Loa Dust? What the hell; why the hell?! Not a single time in my life had I done drugs or even smoked. Now my organism has been compromised just for the sake of kidnapping me? Glinda will have to cleanse me when I come home.

"Listen here, fuckface: It is one thing to kidnap me but another to drug me, so-"

"You don't talk to the General like that, woman!"

The man – General – placed a hand on the other one's knee who had become quite tense in his seat. But the General remained calm.

"Don't worry, Mr. Sunshine, we don't want to distress our guest and future business partner. Please share with her what we discussed, now that we arrived at the topic, we were supposed to discuss..."

Oh? Another set of deals? I tried to move forward, get into the other two's face but was stopped by two hands on each of my arms. Ruffians had been seated on each of my sides and I had not even noticed them despite their size. I leaned back and they released me again but I still pointed out my wobbly finger.

"Listen here, Sunshine: I have enough of deals and such. If you wanna talk with someone, you might as well give them a phone call. At least Maero had some manners. If you would excuse me now."

I made for the door but the arms kept holding me back. The General was giggling again and now Mr. Sunshine had joined him as well. They had ugly laughs, sounding like parakeets.

"If that is so, Mr. Sunshine will show us our other plan..."

The General leaned forward and Sunshine kneeled onto the floor, unsheathing a large knife from his belt which he moved along his tongue with the dull side. Once again, the drugs kicked in and talked in my stead.

"Uhm... If I want to die then, please, in a sterile way. I have no idea where that tongue has been before or that knife. So, no thank you."

I darted my head forward, smacking Sunshine right in the nose, making him drop his blade. I kicked it up into my hand and let it sink into the skin of each ruffian once. I didn't care whether we were moving or even how fast so I just opened the limousine door and let myself fall out of it. I had to escape as fast as possible.

I crashed onto the concrete hard, making my entire right side throb with immense pain. The limousine kept driving and I continued rolling onto the street for a while until I came to a stop, my entire body aching. Everything was aching and I could feel the nausea well up into my stomach.

I turned to my side as quickly as I could, leaning on the street with one arm, on all four and holding my hair back with the other as I barfed onto the plaster. I hated it, the burning feeling of the stomach juice and the feeling of weakness afterwards.

I wiped my mouth on my pajama sleeve and slowly propped myself up, standing. I felt a bit better on the fresh air and having repelled the drugs out of my body. The world was spinning a little less as well. I made a 360° turn to take in where I was and realized that the cathedral was only several blocks away so I began walking down the street in zig-zags.

Not long after, I had reached our headquarters which was full as usual. I walked down the stairs, almost falling over twice before I made for one of the many purple sofas and let myself fall against it, making me topple over the back of it.

I was laying there with my back on the floor and my legs on the actual seat slowly drifting away and only noticing Shaundi's face moments later. She was holding a beer in her hand and a joint in her other.

"Fucking lightweight..."

Shaundi sighed and I almost didn't hear it. Or actually process it. I couldn't even really process my own thoughts, let alone the words of someone else.

"What have we talked about smoking in here?!"

I lulled and tried to reach for the illegal item but was only able to strafe her leg before my arm slumped back down.

"Sorry..."

She replied and extinguished it by tossing it into a glass with only a sip of liquor left that was resting on the coffee table behind my head.

"...Are you good?"

She added and kneeled beside me. I nodded and my eyes began falling shut. This had been tiring and it must have been very late at night given that it was already dark when we had fallen asleep and it was still dark as I had walked here.

"I'm fine, just a little tired."

"You wanna tell me what they did to you?"

Shaundi asked but I only shook my head, making streaks of my hair – which had gotten quite long actually – fall into my face.

"Tomorrow, yeah? Right now, I needa sleep. And tomorrow we'll go after the fucking Samedis. These bitches are in my way."

I was cursing more than in my entire life. But before I could apologize, I had already succumbed to the weakness and was now looking at the blackness of my eyelids.