𝐛𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐲 // 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬

───── ❝ 𝟒𝟒 ❞ ─────

-

You didn't sleep well that night. Actually, you'd gotten no sleep, maybe besides a couple minutes here and there. What wasn't spent wide awake sitting up looking around the room was spent sitting off the side of the bed, drinking a can of the cheapest beer that you could find hours previous.

Your guilt and frustration mixed with your overall annoyance and anxiety of the situation weighed heavily on your shoulders. You wanted this all to be over with. You wanted to go back to cheap love affairs with married people and quick rendezvous with people you'd met a few hours before.

Love was a blessing and a curse, and as much as it was your current predicament, it most definitely shouldn't have been.

Death loomed over you, shadow completely casting you in darkness. You weren't scared of it, not by any means, but knowing that it could happen at any time is what haunted you. It was the paranoia, not the fear.

It was the fact that the place you learned to call home, that you knew like the back of your hand, that made you feel welcome and appreciated, was no longer safe for you to be in. You were just mere blocks away from Muhammad's shop, your bedroom upstairs, yet you were supposed to sleep here, in a hotel. You understood why, obviously, but that didn't make it any less frustrating.

Normally on nights like these when you were unable to sleep, you'd take a walk. See what venues were still open, see who was out and about, but it was too dangerous to draw unwanted attention to yourself now. You stood up and walked to the window, grabbing Jotaro's cigarettes off the dresser. You blew smoke out the window, the sun was rising over the horizon.

You'd talked on the phone with a Speedwagon Foundation representative a few hours earlier. They updated you on Kakyoin's whereabouts, and told you he'd be arriving in Cairo today. In an attempt to make his travels go as smoothly as possible, no one decided to make a fuss about it, or even talk about it at all.

You had to speak with him, talk about everything. You knew he'd listen, and you knew he'd understand your paranoia. You'd missed him greatly.

-

Muhammad pulled you aside at breakfast.

"I need to ask a favor of you."

"Alright," you nodded. "What is it?"

He sighed, "That beggar friend of yours, the one that hangs out on the steps outside the market, can you take us to him?"

"Imhotep? No, no way. He's a gossip, nothing but trouble. I know you think he may know something, but it'll take a whole hell of a lot to actually get anything useful out of him."

"So you're saying it's a waste of time?"

"Yes! This whole thing has been a waste of time! We're running out of it, we need to go on and kill that DIO son-of-a-bitch!"

"We need to be cautious, we can't act rashly. He is still a mystery to us, we need more information."

You thought for a moment, tapping your foot and sighing. "Fine, gather everyone. I'll take you to him."

Mere minutes after, you left the hotel and were heading through the market towards the stairs. As you and Muhammad passed the familiar faces at the crowded market, you heard whispers follow behind. You had the whole time you'd been in Cairo, but it seemed more prominent in the market.