The Blue Mustache Squad (a fanfiction)

Chapter 7

Chapter Siete

For the Damaged Coda flowed through the speakers of Rian's car, filling the empty space around her with haunting vocals and steady dominating bass clef piano notes. To Rian, this song was everlasting. You could bawl to it, feel philosophical to it, and even on a foggy night, sort of understand the triumph of someone who had just escaped from a serial killer.

"Truly timeless," Rian uttered. She drove along the back roads, passing quiet vegetable fields and a couple of pumpkin patches. Although the area was very creepy to drive through, especially near midnight, she still preferred it over taking the busier streets.

The halfway mark was close. And as the song came to a cryptic end, Rian turned a corner full of tall trees and nearly died of a heart attack. A man had appeared on the left side of the road, thumb out and face bloody. Concerned more than terrified, Rian brought her car to an almost screeching stop several feet from him. She contemplated her decision for a second. Was she doing the right thing by stopping for a hurt stranger? Was this mysterious man a serial killer? Would he murder her quick or very, very graphically and excruciatingly slow? She only had a minute to think before he was tapping gently on her window.

She slid it down enough to hear, but as soon as she got a good look at this man, his intense dark hazel eyes giving her major nostalgia, her jaw dropped instantly and her brown eyes widened. She knew him. It'd been a super long time since she had actually come in physical contact with him, but she knew who he was.

"Cain?"

He didn't recognize Rian at first, and she saw this. After a few minutes, however, it seemed to all gradually return to him. Once that happened he just stared at her like he couldn't believe it. Was it because she had actually straightened her hair this day, instead of letting it puff out and hang in strange wavy weirdness out of her beanie? Was it because she was actually wearing something semi-decent? Whatever it was, it left him there in the wind for a good moment, scrutinizing all that she didn't see about herself.

Rian knew immediately that she wasn't going to leave him out in the middle of nowhere. She wasn't that heartless. So without asking for any explanation (not yet at least) about anything, she told him to hop into the passenger seat. He showed no hesitation in doing just that.

The song Car Radio hummed lightly in the background as Rian reached around her chair to grab some things. "Here wipe your face," she said softly, handing him her spare beach towel. She set the first aid kit in her lap, opened it up and pulled out a pair of latex gloves. What am I doing? It was best to ignore the question and focus on the task at hand. She slapped the gloves on, and turned back to Cain who still hadn't said a word. He held a look of shame so strong on his face, that it puzzled Rian more than she thought it would.

"Is it alright if I..." her words trailed off, and he nodded at her unfinished request to dab peroxide on the wounds scattered all over his face. "How did this happen?"

He dropped his eyes in shame again and spoke in a low, hollow voice, "I said some really messed up things tonight and... he left me here."

"Who did?" Rian inquired, carefully cleaning up the crimson smudges he'd missed under his nose, and smeared some Neosporin on the large slash on his eyebrow and bottom lip. She'd always cared about Cain. She didn't want to see him like this.

"My brother. I wouldn't get out of the car."

"I wouldn't want to either. It's a landscape for nightmares out there." Rian grinned a tad, trying to lighten the mood to no avail. Cain looked right into her perplexed orbs. What could he see that she didn't?

"You're different."

"Is it 'cause I'm actually speaking?" Rian was never a big talker when it came to Cain. He'd made her nervous most of her life. Nevertheless, it was different this time. There were no desks to separate them, or teachers, or students to intimidate her. She-they-were adults now. She wasn't seated across from him playing footsies in a dark classroom anymore. He was here right in front of her, broken and bleeding... but in her reach.