Inner Workings

Inner Workings - Part 25

Ram knocked on the door, gentling his fist. "Mister Rowe?"

Trying the handle, he found it locked. He counted to five, reminding himself that cursing in his mother's house still got him a verbal smacking in Hindi from his mother. No matter how much his mother trusted this stranger, he still had a bad feeling about him showing up at the café. Ram knocked again and pressed his ear to the door. He heard the slam of the bathroom door.

What was wrong with that man?

Lightening flashed through the windows, the rain pounding harder.

The Allen wrench in the garage would open the lock.

***

Will knelt on the bathroom rug, curling around the sharpened twist in his chest. He couldn't breathe, couldn't swallow; swallowing would make it worse.

"William?" hissed Massaru, standing on the edge of the bathroom counter, small face scrunched in worry.

Will barely spared him a glance. He had to get Louis out. Tilting his body to the floor and straightening his neck, he pulled on the floss, dragging the twisting further up his throat. A metallic tang coated the back of his tongue like a drop of blood, or a bullet casing. Thankfully, when Will gagged and heaved, Louis' tiny wet body fell into his cupped hands, not bullets and blood.

Louis moved, shuddered, quiet but alive. Will opened his mouth to talk, but his stomach had other issues. He shoved Louis next to Massaru on the counter, pulling the connecting floss off his hand, and then heaved into the toilet. His bruised abdomen burned with every attempt to turn his insides inside out. So much for the tea two hours earlier.

Resting his heated forehead on the clean edge of the porcelain, Will wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

Extraction via floss. Second worst idea in the world, as Louis would say, and something Will never wanted to do again.

Louis had recovered enough to stand with Massaru on the counter.

"Now what, Fanboy?"

"Are you two okay?" rasped Will.

A knock on the door. "Mister Rowe?"

Thunder rolled. Ram. Great.

"Stay quiet," he mouthed.

***

"Mister Rowe? Is everything alright in there?" For all he knew, the guy was riffling through the medicine cabinet or stealing towels. Not that there were many towels or anything stronger than aspirin in the guest bathroom, but you never knew with some people. He was about to knock again when the door cracked open and Will Rowe, pale and shaken, stood before him.

"May I have an ice pack, please?"

Ram blinked. "You look like shit."

"I feel like it." Will leaned against the bathroom door. "Ice?"

Ram blinked. "I'll get mother. Wouldn't want a corpse in the guest room. Lay down, I'll be back."

***

Massaru frowned while looking over Louis's bruised hand, hearing the voices on the other side.

"I do not remember my son being so rude."

"If Will was in my home I'd be a bit pissed off too." Louis brushed at the spit on his shirt and winced. The floss had cut into his hand, leaving a thin bruise banded around his palm and knuckles. "C'mon, let's go."