Reaper's Lullaby

Gus: Betrayal

"The saddest thing about betrayal is it never comes from your enemies."
-unknown

Gus was just days away from having enough money to get back to Chicago. He had never felt happier in his life. Nearly every night Mahaylia would sneak over to his tent, and they would make out and make love, get high and talk for hours. Gus was sure he was in love for the second time in his life. Adam was first. Then, he'd liked Hex and thought she was beautiful, but this... this was real love again.

He knew it was love because he ached for Mahaylia when she wasn't there, like he used to ache for Adam. His very bones hurt when he woke up without her beside him. All day long, he thought about her. All night long, he worried about her. She had become his everything.

He was telling Ida about it as she was cutting his hair outside her tent one day. His hair had grown ridiculously long and unruly during his time on Skid Row.

Ida laughed. "She's all you think about huh?"

Gus nodded.

"Hey! Keep still unless you want your hair to look like a birds nest," Ida said, holding his head in place.

"Yep. She is. Get ready to leave in a couple days 'cause I almost got enough," Gus said.

"That's good," Ida said.

"Am I done? I really need to go make money," Gus said. He was feeling antsy.

Ida laughed as she finished and brushed the loose hairs off the back of his t-shirt.

"Damn, cutting your hair is like cutting a puppy's. You're done," she said.

Gus bolted up. "Thanks!" he said, giving Ida a kiss on the cheek.

Ida looked surprised but then smiled and ruffled his freshly cut hair.

"Go on, get dat bread," she said.

Gus worked three times harder than usual that day. He even managed to swipe a flatscreen TV from a Best Buy and pawn it for three hundred bucks. He spent the rest of the afternoon panhandling. Since he'd fallen in love with Mahaylia, he couldn't sell himself anymore. For the first time ever, he felt like his body mattered, like he mattered.

By the end of the day, he'd made a thousand bucks, much more than his daily goal and well over the amount he'd needed this morning to complete his Chicago stash. They could leave as soon as tomorrow. He decided it was time to celebrate and used the extra funds to buy Ketamine, crystal, crack and even some dope for Ida. 

He wanted to go down the k-hole with Mahaylia, sure that they would travel to beautiful places together, like the time he had flown through the stars, before his nightmare took over. When Mahaylia was with him, he didn't have nightmares.

Ida thanked him for the dope and told him to be careful with the ketamine.

"I done it before. Don't worry," Gus assured her.

Back at his tent, he invited Mahaylia over. She was already getting dressed for work tonight, but when she crawled into his tent a few minutes later, she had changed back into jeans and a t-shirt.

"Don't you have to work?" Gus asked.

Mahaylia grinned. "Daddy got a new girl and he be keepin' a close eye on her, so he won't be 'round tonight."

"I got us somethin'," Gus said, holding up the bag of ketamine powder.

"What is it?" Mahaylia asked curiously.

"It's ket. You trip balls on it. Wanna come with me?" Gus asked.

She grinned. "Hell yeah."

As Gus divided up two lines on the broken shard of mirror he sometimes used to cut himself, he told Mahaylia about the money.