Shark of Spades

Deal With the Scars

I woke up the next morning with a slight headache and got out of bed to find that Joker was back, slumped down in a chair, dead asleep. Going to  him, I took the cell phone out of his pocket and speed-dialed 1 to reach the only number stored on the phone.

"Hey, Ace. It's me." A pause as the person on the other end responded. "Yeah, he's here, just asleep." Before Ace could comment on that, I continued. "Look. I'll go see them, okay? But we're doing it my way. And if you interfere with that, I'm leaving for good. Got it?" Again leaving him no time to  respond, not that I thought he would in the first place, I told him where to meet me and promptly hung up without saying goodbye. Then I  dropped the phone back into Joker's pocket and disappeared into the bathroom to take a quick shower.

I got dressed in there and came out to see that Joker had woken up and was in the process of making breakfast. Without speaking to him, I dropped down in a chair. He just raised his eyebrows and continued on cooking up something.

Yes, I was going to eat breakfast.

And yes, I expected the world to implode.

***

Well, the world is still here and I still feel sick so that was all a waste of my time.

I looked ahead to see Ace already ate the arranged meeting place. When I  approached him, he glared at the person standing behind me. "Why is he here?"

I just stared at Ace. "Because none of us have any friends. Get over it."

He contained himself after a moment and turned to me instead, ignoring Joker, who was grinning as usual. "So this plan of yours...what does it  entail? What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing."

"Huh?"

"You're not coming with."

Ace fixed me with a troubled look. For a moment, I remembered the times when he'd kept me hidden, when I'd relied on him.  He'd never once been angry with me, nor had he ever given me the look he was giving me now. It...hurt, a bit. "You know that I want to help you, so why won't you let me?"

I rolled my eyes. "Hey, Ace? They still think you're dead. Imagine how well that would go over."

He winced. "I forgot about that."

I refrained from shooting him. Idiot.

"But I can't let you go alone," he protested, still looking conflicted.

I patted Joker on the shoulder. "I won't be alone. I'm dragging him with me."

I expected him to be a little angry, but Ace just looked sad. "If that's what you want." He bit his lip. "I trust you, Misa. And...good luck. No matter how they react, I'll be your family, okay? So they don't matter."

Then why do I have to do this in the first place? I wondered.

"I only want you to do this because you've been troubled lately, and I want to help you however I can," he continued, picking up on my thoughts  with scary accuracy. Trying to smile, he added, "And don't forget to take your contacts out so you don't scare them."

I nodded to show that I understood, and I let him hug me before Joker and I left him  standing there, looking sad and alone. I can't deny that I felt slightly awful, but it would be infinitely harder to have him there, both because of his mortality status and because of my plan.

My plan...probably not what he had in mind at all...

***

When Joker and I got to their house, I turned to debrief him. "Listen. You're James and I'm Ian."

Before I could continue, he interrupted me. "Why? Why not just be you?"

"Because they might think I'm dead too. Every time a girl was taken for trafficking, the government would send home a letter with some generic  excuse, usually suicide or a runaway. We're just going to go in there and say we knew her briefly. I'm going to try to get some information.  If I think that they pulled the suicide card, then I'll say that we were  childhood friends and only heard the news now. If they say runaway, then we'll just be some friends she made before she left town abruptly and disappeared out of nowhere. Got it?"

He shrugged and grinned. "Sure. Why not?"

Leaning a little closer with narrowed eyes, I added, "And don't forget. If you screw this up, I'm ditching the two of you. So don't reveal anything about me, got it?"

He nodded and we turned to go, but I had to stop because of the explosion of pain in my gut. Trying not to give anything  away, I followed after him, grimacing and grinding my teeth to hide my struggle. I couldn't let Jack find out.

***

I knocked on the door and waited for my mom to open it. When she did, she looked surprised and a little scared. After all, Jack and I looked more or less like low level thugs. Oops.

"Ma'am?"

"Yes?" she asked, looking wary and ready to slam the door in our faces.

"Hello,"  I continued, trying to sound professional so she wouldn't go and dial 911 and claim assault (which, looking at her face, she was considering  in depth). "You're related to Misa Kusoe, right?"

Looking shocked, she nodded. Is she a bit more pale than a minute ago? I wondered distantly, partially wanting her to feel awful inside.

"We're acquaintances of hers. May we talk for a bit?"