Volume VI: And Introducing Harley Morrow As - Herself

18. Quarantine

        I went to the bar. Serkis would have work to do, so I assumed I might as well start at the most obvious locations. I was off of work for a while. I think. I’ve lost track of time. I couldn’t bring myself to care.

        Layne was sitting in the furthest corner, the darkest. Vagrant’s corner. Nobody had dared to sit there, even if the place was packed. He was drinking idly, plucking at the guitar across his knee when the mood struck him. He seemed absorbed in thought, his mind elsewhere. I crept over uneasily and sat down with him. He looked up, smiling. I hadn’t seen him smile in awhile. Or maybe it just seemed like awhile. It had only been a few days. Everything had gone insane in no time. I coughed to try and draw attention. He was in his own world, even though he was looking at me, not the guitar.

        “Hey kid, what’s up?”

        I looked away from him. “How’s Grey?”

        “Just fine. Pride’s a little beat up. Gothik’s command is questionable. He’s back on the streets working, just like before.”

        “Where’s Serkis?”

        He coughed for a minute. “She went to have a talk with Cassidy.”

        “Oh. Um, Layne?”

        He looked up completely from the guitar, resting one hand on the top. “Yeah, kid?”

        “Um, what’s the deal, with Serkis and Requiem?”

        “What do you mean?”

        “The two of them could be each other sometimes. I don’t understand. Why don’t they get along as well as they should?”

        And he laughed. He laughed long and hard for a bit. He swung the guitar into its case and slung it over his shoulder as he stood up. He reached out an arm, gesturing for me to go with him. And we went for a walk. A walk to nowhere, the same place we all go to.

        “What’s the deal with the girls, right?” he questioned. His voice had its old life back to it. He laughed like it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. I couldn’t understand.

        “This is going to be a story in itself. But you’re big and bad enough to know it I suppose. If you can take the bumps, you might as well know why.” He looked up at the sky, shook his head and looked at me. “As you found out, the girls came into this because their family couldn’t gamble. They’re sisters.”

        “What?” I almost fell over; I felt Layne’s hand on my back to catch me. He laughed harder, that wicked smile on his face.

        “You alright there, kid? Should I carry you home?” He laughed in that tone typical of Layne Solace. It made more sense. Layne and his brother. Serkis and her sister. But Serkis wasn’t a family type of gal.

        “I don’t understand.”

        “Obviously, Serkis is the elder. She taught Requiem all she knew. When Daddy couldn’t pay up, Doyle decided he’d bend favors to suit what was available. He took the girls on. And at a very young age too. Doyle’s a jerk sometimes, but he’s got morals in there somewhere. The girls were real small at the time. I’d like to say neither one of them was over 10 yet. And they grew up with this. They were raised with this. Serkis always had this independent, self-sufficient kind of thing. And she taught it to Requiem. Doyle kept them as sheltered as he could by letting them run simple jobs. For the most part, they didn’t know what they were doing. Someone raised the kids, and Doyle, being the busy man he was leading the gang...I don’t know. They were everybody’s kids. And a gang’s no place for small kids.”