April 2, 2015
Blue eyes blue stared tiredly at the softly glowing screen that nestled in his hand, the dim electronic gleam the only light besides the ebbing orange glow of that cigarette against the gloomy shadows of twilight which hung upon the sparsely decorated room. Outside the gentle thrum of rain played a lullaby upon the walls of stone and glass, lulling to sleep the hustle and bustle that was usually the Rhydin docks district. Mach may have found the whole atmosphere kind of fitting, giggle worthy even in how ironically depressing and lonely it all sort of felt. But then the man's mind was focused on those pictures he swiped through, pictures of friends and family of a different city, a different world. It was kind of hard to believe that he'd been in this city for three months now, hard to believe how much distance he'd put between himself and those who he knew so well.
He paused on a particular picture, two jerks bloodied and grinning like the idiots they were, younger men so angry at everything and yet kicking the pricks of the world as if they were immortal. A smirk escaped him as he flipped through a few more pictures featuring those two assholes, that stupid grin traveling through the years though the fire of rebellion dimmed as the men traveled forward in time. But then there was always that cocky, self assured look that hung on them, a look that just said 'we are here!' Mach almost laughed at himself at how stupid a thought that was but instead a little smile pulled upon his rugged features.
The device in hand buzzed gently, a new message scrolling across the top and then another. He watched the words swim past, barely processing them as his thumb swiped out responses, glib and merry. He liked texts, the words so devoid of emotion and context that he didn't have to try so very hard to come across as a-okay, a tick of gaze noting the two times that displayed in the corner.
It was time.
A few 'o3o' and '^.^' were sent off before he ticked off his messaging app's push, a swipe through his history to that message left earlier by Jezebel. With a tired sort of sigh he tapped through a few programs, the phone pushing through a few screens as it worked to establish that network connection across Rhydin and through the portal to the city of Haverdin. Adjustments for time dilation, adjustments for spatial and dimensional drift, adjustments for realm asynchronization, adjustments for interference from Nexus influence....the minutes ticked by reminding him of a principle reason why he didn't bother trying to make personal calls back to where he'd come from. A drag on that cigarette had ashen trails curling away as his mind wandered to the past, that surreal moment stretching out in silence before the phone gave another buzz. A look and there was the friendly GUI display awaiting him to input a number.
He didn't want to. To pass on that story of his friend, his brother in absurdity and stupidity. To do so meant he had to acknowledge that sickening fact....that there would never be another picture of those two particular assholes grinning so cock sure of themselves. He'd never get to see the rebellion die fully from those features, see peace settle in on those two as they grew old into cocky hell raising seniors. But then again that too was just a pipe dream, worth no more than a giggle fit and a fart. He taped in the number and hit the green 'Send' button before lifting the device to his ear.
"H..hello??" The voice was instantly recognized: Charlotte Himel or better (to varying definitions of better) known as Mrs. Reeves number three. Gin did have a habit of collecting marriages like others collected dinette sets, and like the later both tended to be very costly whenever they broke in a rather impressive display.
A smile was pushed to his features, a simple move that just made someone sound more friendly....chalk it up to telemarketers for figuring out this little deceptive trick. "Hey Char....don't know if you remember but....this is Mach."
""Mach..." A pause as the woman thought on the name before her tone returned dry, and drab. "Eli....Ben's friend...." A tired sigh escaped her. "Look, we're okay, so why don't you and Ben's....other friends....stop calling."
Mach grinned mildly as the woman obviously remembered him. "Yeah, Eli....And sorry, but I didn't call to get dismissed by you Char....I was actually hoping to catch Regina..."
The woman sighed. "What do you want with Gina" Don't you think your little 'group' has done enough to her!" Bitterness laced those words. The implosion of that marriage had been one of Gin's most impressive displays....and yet when a kid is involved" Hate your partner as much as you liked but to completely wash away any and all kindness for them was probably like having to say you felt your own kid was deserving of just the same amount of scorn. Not that it didn't stop some parents mind but to Gin and Cher....Regina was everything.
"Yeah....not going to argue that Char....but there's something Gina needs to hear....needs to know about her old man."
There was a sharp hiss of air as the woman scoffed and yet there was uncertainty in that dismissal. Hate the hunters corp for what it did to the people you knew but you couldn't buy your way into a more inclusive, extended, secretive family. "What could she need to know about Ben that you could tell...?"
"About his namesake....Gin." Spoken gently yet frank.
"Namesake...Gin..." Another huff. "His pet nickname....its short for re-Gin-na....what more is th..."
"You don't know squat about it!" That snap surprised even Mach....but then the woman didn't know anything about it. The nickname you were given....the namesake one took for themselves....they had power that few outside of that particular branch of the military understood. But that wasn't her fault and he knew it....a sigh leaking out as he tried to regain his focus. "Look Char....she needs to hear this....to know about this."
Irritation crept into that tired tone. "Eli..."
"Please..." Mach didn't let her irritation build steam, didn't let bitterness fill that raw void. "Please....it's what Ben would have wanted..."
There was another groaning sigh, that fight draining from the woman's voice. "Needs to is it..." Fine."
A touch of a smile returned to the man. "Thanks Char, you..."
"No. You don't get to say that....not now....not after letting this happen." And that smile drained from him once again at the woman's embittered words. She had a point. "Hold on..."
The subtle rustle of movement filled the silence, the rain drumming lazily upon the window, that apprehension building till it was nearly palatable. And finally he heard the exchange of muffled words, the shift of phone from one to another.
"Hello...?" Uncertainty and apprehension filled the young girls voice tinged with the wear of grief. Mach had known Gin since the beginning of his career, the man his senior by four years and yet they had got on famously from the get go. He was there when Gina was born....had watched the girl grow up side by side with her idiot father that was just as much the immature prat that Mach was....but the man had been a loving and doting father despite being a terrible cad.
"Hello love....remember me" It's ol Uncle Mach, the man with the magic hands!" He smiled brightly as he spoke, smiled for all his worth alone in that dark room.
"Oh....hello Mach..." The girl sounded far too drained and lifeless to have only been nine. "Mommy said you had something to tell me about....dad."
Kids where surprisingly resilient creatures....Mach was a prime example. It still stung more than he figured it would to hear that detachment ring in the girls voice though."Y..yeah doll....something I promised your pops I'd tell you if...." Those words withered upon his tongue. "If the time was right."
"When dad-d....dad died..." The simple statement of that as fact felt like an icicle had been driven into his chest, a hand instinctively rising perhaps to check if that had actually happened as he felt his blood run cold.
"Yeah....if he died..." A weak willed smile as he was trying to put on a brave face for the girl. He had to get it together! This wasn't like him. He had buried many friends in his time, would likely bury many more. He had told a number of families, of friends and loved ones about different peoples namesakes, the life they chose to live. He told himself these things and yet he found no comfort, no solace in his own platitudes. "Look doll, you ever hear the name we always called him' Always guffed him about?"
"Yes....Gin....you and my other uncles always called him Gin..."
"That's the one....well, he wanted me to tell you about it....what it means, yeah?"
"Mommy says is part of my name, that dad-d....-sniffle- dad went by it because he loves....loved me so much."
"Yeah....that's part of it..." Mach sucked back the last breath from that dying cigarette, the burn of the smoke enjoyed a moment before he released it. "...but there's more to it than simply that doll....gods, how to explain..." Mach scrubbed his face mildly as he ground out the ghost of that cigarette.
"You see....before you Ben was a real lush....was..." A shake of head as that start died out upon his lips. Would the girl understand what that meant' "....that is that he lead a very carefree life....lived for the moment. Drinking, fun times, raising hell..."
The girl spoke up uncertainly. "But dad still did that..."
"Ah....yeah....kinda....but this was recklessly abandon sorts....of one not..." Another pause as he worked to adjust his word, his meaning to something he thought a child would or should understand. Really, to say that her father lived like there was no tomorrow nor without any hope of such' "....that is, he lived without consideration for others. Grew up alone in an orphanage....had no family, no connections. Yeah?"
There was simply uncomfortable silence marked with the slightest of rustles of one nodding. The fact that he couldn't see the girl, was another dimension and set of stars away was both a curse and a blessing.
"So he lived like this....was called Martini back then....a sort of joke against his drinking habits..." Mach smirked mildly but restrained himself remembering his audience. "....b-but yeah, he lived everyday without care. Got his....full fledged job because of what he saw, what he lived through during then. He was on the fast track for....an early end..."
"And then....I was born..."
"Yeah doll.....you were born. An impossible odd....when he thought he'd signed away his chance for a future..." He smiled thinly. It had always been a joke that she was the impossible child....born to a man that was supposed to be broken of such chains, sterile. But then by that point Gin hadn't been on the regimen that overly long....the odds where more just highly improbable....and yet still it felt like he....like all of them in the corp had been struck by lightening. "...but a future came nonetheless....and he named it Regina Willow Reeves..."
The girl shuffled uncomfortably on the other side, a sniffle escaping her. "But how did I give him a future...?"
"You were his connection dear....a connection to a world and life he cared little for. But he hadn't realized this....lived a little longer as the man he was until me and him near got our cards punched....and first thing he did when out of the hospital" The basta.....diot went to a bar! Ordered himself three martini's and when he polished them off you know what he said to me....he said 'this doesn't taste like home anymore...' " Mach grinned, the dark world around him blurry from the rain that fell without care.
"He then turned to the barkeep and asked him what was in the martini....liked them so much and didn't even know what was in them!" He spoke excitedly, the story....the memory his in that moment. "And the barkeep told him it was made of gin and vermouth with an olive to keep an eye on things, make sure it all played nice....and the look on his face at that...he....he turned to me....and told me....he had to go home....where the Gin that mattered now was..."
Mach chuckled, a sniffle escaping him as he rubbed at his face. "And after that....with that he choose his namesake....choose to be called Gin....said it reminded him of the non-life he had been living....and the life he had to live for now. Do you see Gina?"
There was a long moment of silence before a sniffle, a hic."But....but if I was so important....why....why did daddy keep doing dangerous things!?" That soft voice was pleading and demanding in it's sorrow, it's tone stabbing cold icicles into the man's chest once more dragging him back to the cold hard present.
No, she didn't understand....this was supposed to be copacetic not caustic! "B..because he-e....i-it was for you....to build a future for you doll....till retirement....that's all....just to..."
"But he didn't make it!! -Hic, sniffle- Was what he was building more important than me!?" He could hear the girl breaking down, the sobs wracking her as she spoke. It knocked the wind from Mach's sails, his voice trembling.
"N...no. No! It was for you....mo-money for a good home, a..a college fund, a..a life tha, that he didn't have....he, he wanted your future to be..."
"I DON'T WANT A FUTURE....I WANT MY DADDY!!!" The girls pained wail pierced through the man, stole his resolve and shattered what brave face he may have had.
"I....I'm sorry....b..but it was for you..." He spoke weakly against the torrent of the girls emotions,trying to defend his dead friend....himself. "He took a minimal posting....cut his hours....scraped by with what was the bare minimum to keep his benefits...."
The girl howled at Mach through her tears and sobs."And....and kept going after....bad people....dang...dangerous people....and died! Died!! Why!" Why didn't you stop him!"!"
"We.....I.....it was for....was for the best....to build....build..."
"I HATE YOU....ALL OF YOU..." The little girls voice shook with pain and vehemence that no one so young should have been touched with. “Mommy's right....you....all of you....you killed my daddy!"! You didn't stop him....and he....he chose you over me!!!"
"N..no! He.." Mach winced as he heard a loud ping and clatter ring through the speaker, the thud of steps fading into the distance as the girls tortured wails receded. He felt as if he'd just had his insides scooped out, felt hollowed by the young girls grief....the grief of the impossible child of one of their broken lot.
He barely registered the angry thudding approaching the phone, the harsh, angry tone that bit through now."What did you say!" Charlotte hissed like a viper readying to strike.
"I....I told her the story....of how she was his hope.....his future....what he was working to build..."
"All of you assholes are the same! Can't you understand....she didn't need a future built for her....she needed her father in her future!" An angry sigh escaped the woman. "This is why I divorced him....because he just couldn't wrap his stupid brain about this....none of you can!"
Something snapped in the man, a defense mechanism as he straightened some in his chair. "H..hey! Look....for..."
"No! I argued with him for years about this, I'm not going to argue with you or any of you fucked up jerks." The woman's anger chocked as she stifled a sniffled. "Please....don't call again....you said what you had to now please....just leave us to grieve."
Mach was about to say something else when he heard the click of the line going dead, a moment of silence before there was the repeating buzz of the dial tone. That phone was pried from his ear to look at it as he finally released that breath that he didn't even realize he'd been holding. Blue eyes blue just watched as the phone disconnected that call before returning to the base screen of whether he wanted to place a call. He stared at this a long moment, his thumb quivering ever so slightly before finally he tapped on that close connection button which broke down the bridges between his world and this one. What more could be said" How much more hurt could he stomach to inflict at this moment"
It didn't even register in his mind as the phone clattered against the ground, his hand dropping to the arm rest as his form, hollow yet so heavy, sank and deflated upon that chair. His eyes closed, so tired and worn as he just wished for the peace of sleep. The darkened room was quiet, the rain outside having stopped at some point leaving the world oddly serene. It was almost the perfect escape, the clean getaway save for that rattling buzz of his phone that dragged his mind like a trained dog back to the world. Autonomously he reached down, feeling about for the large sliver of technology in the dark. Fingers catching it's familiar shape, hefting its familiar weight he drug it back up to gaze at it's screen, a tired sigh escaping him....the happy go lucky message that scrolled across the top was like a dagger.
"Ffffffffuuuuuh...? The message push had apparently turned itself back on in that collision with the floor. Mach half considered to simply turn off the device, to disconnect from the world at large....but then that smacked far too much giving up at the moment, of vindicating that little girls words of how her father had still chosen the death he knew would come over the future he was so uncertain of. Or maybe he simply wanted a connection....something to fill that void or to make him feel at least tentatively held to this existence. Or maybe he was just over thinking things....either way he forced himself to tap out a response, and another, and another as his form lifted lifelessly from the chair, dragging himself to and through the door of his apartment and out into Rhydin at large.
Blue eyes blue stared tiredly at the softly glowing screen that nestled in his hand, the dim electronic gleam the only light besides the ebbing orange glow of that cigarette against the gloomy shadows of twilight which hung upon the sparsely decorated room. Outside the gentle thrum of rain played a lullaby upon the walls of stone and glass, lulling to sleep the hustle and bustle that was usually the Rhydin docks district. Mach may have found the whole atmosphere kind of fitting, giggle worthy even in how ironically depressing and lonely it all sort of felt. But then the man's mind was focused on those pictures he swiped through, pictures of friends and family of a different city, a different world. It was kind of hard to believe that he'd been in this city for three months now, hard to believe how much distance he'd put between himself and those who he knew so well.
He paused on a particular picture, two jerks bloodied and grinning like the idiots they were, younger men so angry at everything and yet kicking the pricks of the world as if they were immortal. A smirk escaped him as he flipped through a few more pictures featuring those two assholes, that stupid grin traveling through the years though the fire of rebellion dimmed as the men traveled forward in time. But then there was always that cocky, self assured look that hung on them, a look that just said 'we are here!' Mach almost laughed at himself at how stupid a thought that was but instead a little smile pulled upon his rugged features.
The device in hand buzzed gently, a new message scrolling across the top and then another. He watched the words swim past, barely processing them as his thumb swiped out responses, glib and merry. He liked texts, the words so devoid of emotion and context that he didn't have to try so very hard to come across as a-okay, a tick of gaze noting the two times that displayed in the corner.
It was time.
A few 'o3o' and '^.^' were sent off before he ticked off his messaging app's push, a swipe through his history to that message left earlier by Jezebel. With a tired sort of sigh he tapped through a few programs, the phone pushing through a few screens as it worked to establish that network connection across Rhydin and through the portal to the city of Haverdin. Adjustments for time dilation, adjustments for spatial and dimensional drift, adjustments for realm asynchronization, adjustments for interference from Nexus influence....the minutes ticked by reminding him of a principle reason why he didn't bother trying to make personal calls back to where he'd come from. A drag on that cigarette had ashen trails curling away as his mind wandered to the past, that surreal moment stretching out in silence before the phone gave another buzz. A look and there was the friendly GUI display awaiting him to input a number.
He didn't want to. To pass on that story of his friend, his brother in absurdity and stupidity. To do so meant he had to acknowledge that sickening fact....that there would never be another picture of those two particular assholes grinning so cock sure of themselves. He'd never get to see the rebellion die fully from those features, see peace settle in on those two as they grew old into cocky hell raising seniors. But then again that too was just a pipe dream, worth no more than a giggle fit and a fart. He taped in the number and hit the green 'Send' button before lifting the device to his ear.
"H..hello??" The voice was instantly recognized: Charlotte Himel or better (to varying definitions of better) known as Mrs. Reeves number three. Gin did have a habit of collecting marriages like others collected dinette sets, and like the later both tended to be very costly whenever they broke in a rather impressive display.
A smile was pushed to his features, a simple move that just made someone sound more friendly....chalk it up to telemarketers for figuring out this little deceptive trick. "Hey Char....don't know if you remember but....this is Mach."
""Mach..." A pause as the woman thought on the name before her tone returned dry, and drab. "Eli....Ben's friend...." A tired sigh escaped her. "Look, we're okay, so why don't you and Ben's....other friends....stop calling."
Mach grinned mildly as the woman obviously remembered him. "Yeah, Eli....And sorry, but I didn't call to get dismissed by you Char....I was actually hoping to catch Regina..."
The woman sighed. "What do you want with Gina" Don't you think your little 'group' has done enough to her!" Bitterness laced those words. The implosion of that marriage had been one of Gin's most impressive displays....and yet when a kid is involved" Hate your partner as much as you liked but to completely wash away any and all kindness for them was probably like having to say you felt your own kid was deserving of just the same amount of scorn. Not that it didn't stop some parents mind but to Gin and Cher....Regina was everything.
"Yeah....not going to argue that Char....but there's something Gina needs to hear....needs to know about her old man."
There was a sharp hiss of air as the woman scoffed and yet there was uncertainty in that dismissal. Hate the hunters corp for what it did to the people you knew but you couldn't buy your way into a more inclusive, extended, secretive family. "What could she need to know about Ben that you could tell...?"
"About his namesake....Gin." Spoken gently yet frank.
"Namesake...Gin..." Another huff. "His pet nickname....its short for re-Gin-na....what more is th..."
"You don't know squat about it!" That snap surprised even Mach....but then the woman didn't know anything about it. The nickname you were given....the namesake one took for themselves....they had power that few outside of that particular branch of the military understood. But that wasn't her fault and he knew it....a sigh leaking out as he tried to regain his focus. "Look Char....she needs to hear this....to know about this."
Irritation crept into that tired tone. "Eli..."
"Please..." Mach didn't let her irritation build steam, didn't let bitterness fill that raw void. "Please....it's what Ben would have wanted..."
There was another groaning sigh, that fight draining from the woman's voice. "Needs to is it..." Fine."
A touch of a smile returned to the man. "Thanks Char, you..."
"No. You don't get to say that....not now....not after letting this happen." And that smile drained from him once again at the woman's embittered words. She had a point. "Hold on..."
The subtle rustle of movement filled the silence, the rain drumming lazily upon the window, that apprehension building till it was nearly palatable. And finally he heard the exchange of muffled words, the shift of phone from one to another.
"Hello...?" Uncertainty and apprehension filled the young girls voice tinged with the wear of grief. Mach had known Gin since the beginning of his career, the man his senior by four years and yet they had got on famously from the get go. He was there when Gina was born....had watched the girl grow up side by side with her idiot father that was just as much the immature prat that Mach was....but the man had been a loving and doting father despite being a terrible cad.
"Hello love....remember me" It's ol Uncle Mach, the man with the magic hands!" He smiled brightly as he spoke, smiled for all his worth alone in that dark room.
"Oh....hello Mach..." The girl sounded far too drained and lifeless to have only been nine. "Mommy said you had something to tell me about....dad."
Kids where surprisingly resilient creatures....Mach was a prime example. It still stung more than he figured it would to hear that detachment ring in the girls voice though."Y..yeah doll....something I promised your pops I'd tell you if...." Those words withered upon his tongue. "If the time was right."
"When dad-d....dad died..." The simple statement of that as fact felt like an icicle had been driven into his chest, a hand instinctively rising perhaps to check if that had actually happened as he felt his blood run cold.
"Yeah....if he died..." A weak willed smile as he was trying to put on a brave face for the girl. He had to get it together! This wasn't like him. He had buried many friends in his time, would likely bury many more. He had told a number of families, of friends and loved ones about different peoples namesakes, the life they chose to live. He told himself these things and yet he found no comfort, no solace in his own platitudes. "Look doll, you ever hear the name we always called him' Always guffed him about?"
"Yes....Gin....you and my other uncles always called him Gin..."
"That's the one....well, he wanted me to tell you about it....what it means, yeah?"
"Mommy says is part of my name, that dad-d....-sniffle- dad went by it because he loves....loved me so much."
"Yeah....that's part of it..." Mach sucked back the last breath from that dying cigarette, the burn of the smoke enjoyed a moment before he released it. "...but there's more to it than simply that doll....gods, how to explain..." Mach scrubbed his face mildly as he ground out the ghost of that cigarette.
"You see....before you Ben was a real lush....was..." A shake of head as that start died out upon his lips. Would the girl understand what that meant' "....that is that he lead a very carefree life....lived for the moment. Drinking, fun times, raising hell..."
The girl spoke up uncertainly. "But dad still did that..."
"Ah....yeah....kinda....but this was recklessly abandon sorts....of one not..." Another pause as he worked to adjust his word, his meaning to something he thought a child would or should understand. Really, to say that her father lived like there was no tomorrow nor without any hope of such' "....that is, he lived without consideration for others. Grew up alone in an orphanage....had no family, no connections. Yeah?"
There was simply uncomfortable silence marked with the slightest of rustles of one nodding. The fact that he couldn't see the girl, was another dimension and set of stars away was both a curse and a blessing.
"So he lived like this....was called Martini back then....a sort of joke against his drinking habits..." Mach smirked mildly but restrained himself remembering his audience. "....b-but yeah, he lived everyday without care. Got his....full fledged job because of what he saw, what he lived through during then. He was on the fast track for....an early end..."
"And then....I was born..."
"Yeah doll.....you were born. An impossible odd....when he thought he'd signed away his chance for a future..." He smiled thinly. It had always been a joke that she was the impossible child....born to a man that was supposed to be broken of such chains, sterile. But then by that point Gin hadn't been on the regimen that overly long....the odds where more just highly improbable....and yet still it felt like he....like all of them in the corp had been struck by lightening. "...but a future came nonetheless....and he named it Regina Willow Reeves..."
The girl shuffled uncomfortably on the other side, a sniffle escaping her. "But how did I give him a future...?"
"You were his connection dear....a connection to a world and life he cared little for. But he hadn't realized this....lived a little longer as the man he was until me and him near got our cards punched....and first thing he did when out of the hospital" The basta.....diot went to a bar! Ordered himself three martini's and when he polished them off you know what he said to me....he said 'this doesn't taste like home anymore...' " Mach grinned, the dark world around him blurry from the rain that fell without care.
"He then turned to the barkeep and asked him what was in the martini....liked them so much and didn't even know what was in them!" He spoke excitedly, the story....the memory his in that moment. "And the barkeep told him it was made of gin and vermouth with an olive to keep an eye on things, make sure it all played nice....and the look on his face at that...he....he turned to me....and told me....he had to go home....where the Gin that mattered now was..."
Mach chuckled, a sniffle escaping him as he rubbed at his face. "And after that....with that he choose his namesake....choose to be called Gin....said it reminded him of the non-life he had been living....and the life he had to live for now. Do you see Gina?"
There was a long moment of silence before a sniffle, a hic."But....but if I was so important....why....why did daddy keep doing dangerous things!?" That soft voice was pleading and demanding in it's sorrow, it's tone stabbing cold icicles into the man's chest once more dragging him back to the cold hard present.
No, she didn't understand....this was supposed to be copacetic not caustic! "B..because he-e....i-it was for you....to build a future for you doll....till retirement....that's all....just to..."
"But he didn't make it!! -Hic, sniffle- Was what he was building more important than me!?" He could hear the girl breaking down, the sobs wracking her as she spoke. It knocked the wind from Mach's sails, his voice trembling.
"N...no. No! It was for you....mo-money for a good home, a..a college fund, a..a life tha, that he didn't have....he, he wanted your future to be..."
"I DON'T WANT A FUTURE....I WANT MY DADDY!!!" The girls pained wail pierced through the man, stole his resolve and shattered what brave face he may have had.
"I....I'm sorry....b..but it was for you..." He spoke weakly against the torrent of the girls emotions,trying to defend his dead friend....himself. "He took a minimal posting....cut his hours....scraped by with what was the bare minimum to keep his benefits...."
The girl howled at Mach through her tears and sobs."And....and kept going after....bad people....dang...dangerous people....and died! Died!! Why!" Why didn't you stop him!"!"
"We.....I.....it was for....was for the best....to build....build..."
"I HATE YOU....ALL OF YOU..." The little girls voice shook with pain and vehemence that no one so young should have been touched with. “Mommy's right....you....all of you....you killed my daddy!"! You didn't stop him....and he....he chose you over me!!!"
"N..no! He.." Mach winced as he heard a loud ping and clatter ring through the speaker, the thud of steps fading into the distance as the girls tortured wails receded. He felt as if he'd just had his insides scooped out, felt hollowed by the young girls grief....the grief of the impossible child of one of their broken lot.
He barely registered the angry thudding approaching the phone, the harsh, angry tone that bit through now."What did you say!" Charlotte hissed like a viper readying to strike.
"I....I told her the story....of how she was his hope.....his future....what he was working to build..."
"All of you assholes are the same! Can't you understand....she didn't need a future built for her....she needed her father in her future!" An angry sigh escaped the woman. "This is why I divorced him....because he just couldn't wrap his stupid brain about this....none of you can!"
Something snapped in the man, a defense mechanism as he straightened some in his chair. "H..hey! Look....for..."
"No! I argued with him for years about this, I'm not going to argue with you or any of you fucked up jerks." The woman's anger chocked as she stifled a sniffled. "Please....don't call again....you said what you had to now please....just leave us to grieve."
Mach was about to say something else when he heard the click of the line going dead, a moment of silence before there was the repeating buzz of the dial tone. That phone was pried from his ear to look at it as he finally released that breath that he didn't even realize he'd been holding. Blue eyes blue just watched as the phone disconnected that call before returning to the base screen of whether he wanted to place a call. He stared at this a long moment, his thumb quivering ever so slightly before finally he tapped on that close connection button which broke down the bridges between his world and this one. What more could be said" How much more hurt could he stomach to inflict at this moment"
It didn't even register in his mind as the phone clattered against the ground, his hand dropping to the arm rest as his form, hollow yet so heavy, sank and deflated upon that chair. His eyes closed, so tired and worn as he just wished for the peace of sleep. The darkened room was quiet, the rain outside having stopped at some point leaving the world oddly serene. It was almost the perfect escape, the clean getaway save for that rattling buzz of his phone that dragged his mind like a trained dog back to the world. Autonomously he reached down, feeling about for the large sliver of technology in the dark. Fingers catching it's familiar shape, hefting its familiar weight he drug it back up to gaze at it's screen, a tired sigh escaping him....the happy go lucky message that scrolled across the top was like a dagger.
"Ffffffffuuuuuh...? The message push had apparently turned itself back on in that collision with the floor. Mach half considered to simply turn off the device, to disconnect from the world at large....but then that smacked far too much giving up at the moment, of vindicating that little girls words of how her father had still chosen the death he knew would come over the future he was so uncertain of. Or maybe he simply wanted a connection....something to fill that void or to make him feel at least tentatively held to this existence. Or maybe he was just over thinking things....either way he forced himself to tap out a response, and another, and another as his form lifted lifelessly from the chair, dragging himself to and through the door of his apartment and out into Rhydin at large.