Psychic

30. Brothers

Ken woke Kiyo as the sun was beginning to light the clouds before it came over the horizon for the day. Kiyo sat up on the grass with a groan as he straightened out his back and it cracked several times.

"Ugh, don't do that," Marlene said with a shudder. She was already standing and attempting to dust off all the grass and dirt clinging to her dress. "It sounds gross. Like bones breaking or something."

"When would you have ever heard bones break?"

"Never but I imagine that's what it sounds like."

Rai was standing as well, yawning and rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand while keeping an eye on Max. He was a little way off from the group, doing stretches as though he were preparing for a workout. Kiyo watched Reno leaning against a tree, watching Rai as usual.

"Hey," Kiyo called him while standing himself up. "Marlene is in your charge. Stand by her." Reno walked to Marlene's side and Rai walked away from them, going to where Max was.

Marlene glared at Reno over her shoulder. "Say something. I dare you," he growled at her.

"Well, we're almost there," Ken said casually, ignoring all the tension around him. "We've only got an hour or so to go."

* * *

After traveling for a while, when they started to smell the ocean, they all began moving a bit faster. Everyone was hungry and eager to be somewhere familiar and comfortable.

"There it is!" Marlene shouted, pointing to where she could see it in the horizon. She started running ahead then stopped suddenly when she realized no one else was doing the same. "Let's go!"

"I'm too lazy to run. I'll get there eventually," Rai shrugged.

"Oh, come on." Marlene returned to Rai and took her hand, trying to pull her forward.

As they came closer, Ken noticed the shapes of two people standing on the dock ahead. "What is that?"

"Lestat and Debra?" Kiyo guessed.

"Too tall," he said stopping where he was. "Wait, stop."

Marlene groaned, "but we're so close."

"Just wait." Ken took a spyglass from a pocket on his coat. "I don't know them."

"Here, let me see," suggested Kiyo, taking the spyglass from him.

"Mercenaries or bounty hunters, I bet," answered Reno as he squinted to try to see.

"Reno..." Kiyo spoke to him quietly lowered the spyglass slowly. "You remember the fools?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit more specific because I'm looking at one right now."

Kiyo turned to him slowly with a blank expression while everyone else tried to stifle a laugh. "The brothers, Rezzy and Atticus."

"The brothers that wear clown face?"

"Yeah. It's them."

Kiyo and Reno had previously had dealings with the famous mercenary siblings. Yasashi had hired them to assist in hunting down a serial killer who frequently eluded the Generals.

"Bullshit," Reno sounded angry as he snatched the spyglass from Kiyo to see for himself. "They would not waste their time-" Reno snapped the spyglass closed suddenly and tossed it back to Ken who fumbled to catch it. "Well, that's just fucking perfect! We can't beat them."

"So it's bad?" Ken asked Kiyo and Reno.

Both of them stared at him silently for a moment. "I guess you could say imminent demise at the hands of fucking degenerates was bad," Reno scoffed sarcastically.