Unknown

4- No Two Alike

It had been a month. Whether or not Hayes was alive, I'd have to live every day knowing I'd failed him.

This was my first time in a prison. It sucked.
Especially being in Columbia.
The dust patrolled the floors like an army of tiny men and entered every part of me. It was too humid to even enjoy breathing. But that was the best of it. At morning. In the night, the dust grew so heavy and the air was so warm that you could see it floating around. You could watch the filthy air enter you as you inhaled. I tried to breathe as little as possible, but with the hot sun beating down on me 24/7, I couldn't help it.

I thought back to the fresh, cool sheets I'd thrown myself down on at the hotel some time ago.
I remembered popping out of my suite to have a drink, then ening up partying all night by the poolside. Then I dragged myself back to my room and went to bed. I also remembered leaving the fan on all night. It was proberably still on now.

*flashback*

Hayes knocked on my door early the next morning and walked straight in when I finally managed to roll out of bed and open it.
"Make yourself at home, why don't ya." I said, still stood by the door while my unwanted guest raided my suite.
"Michael Johnse," he put out a hand for me to shake. "I'm Hayes Msarckhy."
I pushed his hand aside and grabbed a bottle from the fridge. "Actually, M-sharky, it's just Mick."

"Nice to meet you too." He grimaced.
"Hey hey hey, now you listen here mate, you don't get to just, barge in on my holiday and start throwing sarcasm at me. Who the hell even are you?" I yelled, tossing myself onto the sofa.

"Like I just said, sunshine, my name is Hayes. I was sent to retrieve some things from Cardeinpoint, to do with the IEA, old files and things, not that that concerns you. Tirrean, your brother, my friend, told me you could help me find them. Seeing as you are," he watched as I chugged a fourth, full glass of Vodka, letting half the contents of the glass splash all over my face.
"A genius in this field.." he said trying to conceal his dissaproval and uncertainty, but failing.

I looked over at him. My eyes tired and red.
"Well, waking me up at two a.m, ain't really the best way to get me to help you now is it?"

"It's eleven." he stared, amused.
"Whatever. Didn't sleep well."
"Mick, you," he watched again as I downed a fifth glass.

"Look, you're here on a buisness trip. Buisness first, holiday second," he snatched the glass from my hand. "You'll have plenty of time to drink yourself back to sleep, after we've sorted everything out. Jarheid's out there, trying to kill us, for a list of reasons. We need to get ontop of things, before he finds us."

I stared at him blankly. "So.. You gonna give me back the glass or not?"
"Oh, for heaven sake, sort your life out!"
"Fine," I nodded. "Never liked sipping straight from the bottle but, if you're gonna make me.."
I took a good long swig of my Vodka. "Aaah. It's so much better fresh from the bottle."

*present time*

I sat up. Sunlight blinded me from through the cell bars.
"Morning, sunshine." Hayes laughed.
I stood up at once.
"Hayes!"
"Seems like even when I'm dying, I have to save your ass first."
"Well, soon as you do, you can rest in peace."
I chuckled.

A guard opened the cell and I walked out. "Been a pleasure." I nodded and smiled sarcastically.
"Alright, enough of that, we've gotta go bail the others."
"Course. Course. Hey, where did you get the money?"
"It came with the deal. My boss gave me a couple grand for emergencies."
"Well how about we pretend it's not and leave Tony here. I heard there's an emergency over at Salforque Bar."
"Haha. Funny. Now come on, we gotta move."

After bailing my brother, cousin, and best friend, the five of us headed back to my hotel suite.

"You drank the whole bottle?" Tirrean questioned in awe, holding up the empty Jack Daniel's bottle and inspecting it.
"Five glasses and a swig, the whole thing was gone." Hayes confirmed, sounding slightly impressed, though his first impressions when I origionally downed the bottle seemed to be something more of disgust.

"I'm impressed. First time you tried alcahol, you choked for like an hour just from smelling it." Billy remarked.
"Did not!" I exclaimed, thinking back to the time when- three years ago in Thailand, on my birthday- I'd had an absoloute coughing fit after sniffing a bottle of gin. Not my favourite drink, personally.

"You did, and you know you did." Tony added, slapping me playfully on his way to the seat beside me.

"Hey, don't disrespect your uncle like that." I chuckled.

"When will you drop that?" He sighed.
"Oh like when dad dropped you on your head as a baby? Or when you dropped the briefcase in the middle of the road, and the whole of Santa Marta practically won the lottery?" Tirrean added.

"Yeah, you prick. We lost at least seven thousand coz'a you." Billy snarled cheekily.
"We didn't need it."
"Hm. Like you didn't need your brain, so you auctioned it."
"Bet he'd only get a good fiver."
"What d'you mean? It's never been used," I knocked a few times on Tony's head. "Brand new."
"Mhm, just like your-"

"Woah!"
We all turned to look at Tirrean. He was stood by the window, shocked or amazed. Or both.
"What is it?"

We all rushed up to the window to see a group of girls. Quel's face among the lot.

I felt a swirl of uneasiness pass through my stomach. Then it faded and was instantly replaced by anger. I tore myself from the window.
What was she doing here? I needed a distraction.

"Tell you what," I drew the others' attention from the window, slipping on my trainers. "I'll prove that I can drink a whole bottle. And even more!"
"Yes Mick!" The boys cheered. "A'tta boy!"

All apart from Tirrean. He saw straight through me, just like he always does.

He stopped and stared at me, and I stared straight back at him.

"You coming, guys?" Billy asked. Watching the tension build between me and my brother and clearly trying to break it.
"Yeah, yeah. You guys go ahead, we'll meet you there. Salforque right?" Tirrean replied, almost too quickly.
"Yeah." Billy slid his shoes on and they all left.

"Hey, you know you don't have to do this," Tirrean said coyly when it was just the two of us. "It's not going to go like last time."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, she's obviously here to see us-"
"There you go again.."
"You! You! She's here to see you!"
"Yeah, course."
"And, you can't just leave her on the streets of Santa Marta looking for you."
"Watch me."

I knew it was the wrong thing to do.
I knew I should probably call her and tell her where we were. But why didn't she organize all this before she came? She can't just turn up in the middle of Colombia and expect me to go leaping into her arms out of nowhere. It's only even by chance that we saw her at all. She could have been anywhere!
She could have been running around Colombia for days looking for us. - Tirrean would have called her straight away and told her that she was right under our noses. But I'm not him.- So, being the person I am. I let her.