Clear Skies

Chapter 12: Overthrowing Eden

            The apartment door squealed open. Rahlin flicked the lights on. A sparkle on the table caught her eye. The cane Dartz had gifted and stolen away rested on top of a note. In lovely handwriting, Mai had written that Dartz had apologized, left the cane, and asked for Rahlin to visit him the next evening at eight p.m.

As she limped about the apartment, Rahlin chose to use her gift from Tristan instead despite the pain in her back. She clambered onto a seat at the bar in the kitchen after digging in drawers.

A pen rolled over the pad of papers. She nibbled on the cap. Rahlin pressed the inky tip onto the first, fresh sheet.

"Dear Ranue,"

Rahlin shook her head, crumpled the sheet, and tossed it aside. If he was here, he'd ask why it was so stuffy and formal. His note had been different. Rahlin nodded and set to the next blank page.

"Hey Ranue,"

Better, she thought. The words flowed freely. She made the mistake of reading the last sentence she had written. The vocabulary came off as though Rahlin had addressed the letter to a queen.

The paper crushed under her grip. She set the ball aside. What had her nervous? It wasn't as though anyone would read the words. The itch, then, must have been her disingenuousness. Her true feelings weren't oozing from the paragraphs.

She licked her dry lips and tapped the pen against her temple. Perhaps she hadn't been true enough. Perhaps, when push came to shove, the truth was...

A shiver rattled her. She wondered if Ryo had this hard of a time. She hoped not and wouldn't wish the hell upon anyone.

Thirteen crumpled sheets later, Rahlin reached satisfaction in a draft. Elegant, Mai's cat, batted the balls of paper around the kitchen floor. Rahlin folded her letter longways twice and wrote her brother's name on top.

Gathering the failed versions that had fallen to the floor spiked pain in her skull and spine. She handled them with shaking hands. Elegant was not any help. She briefly considered giving up and conjured excuses related to her disability.

No; it was the right thing to do, so she had to do it.

She tossed the trash and collapsed on the couch. Sleep came easy. The twitching of her nose awoke her. Rahlin rubbed at her aching head as she arose. A hot cup of tea steamed on the table.

The apartment door shut. Rahlin leapt off the couch. She crawled to the door and used the handle to lift herself. When she swung the door open, however, the hallway was empty. Mai had already left.

Rahlin leaned her back against the door and sank to the floor. The muted television flicked through today's matchups: Mai versus Joey and Kaiba versus Alister. Alister had knocked Rafael into the loser's bracket on purpose. He would have his second chance to take the prince of Egypt's soul after the meeting tomorrow.

Rahlin dragged herself back to the couch and picked up the tea. Her cane and the gifted lead pipe lay as parallels on the table. Apprehension defined her movements as she reached for one.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Ryo Bakura sprinted through the streets. He hoped his muttered apologies were enough for whomever he happened to bump into and also hoped he would not linger in anyone's mind.

A bell rang over the café door upon his arrival. All eyes in the establishment turned to him. He watched the loose knots of his shoelaces and prayed for them to ignore him as he walked on.