Returns

[Therin]

He slapped the rental case on the desk, looking thoughtfully out the window. Night had returned to the city, and here he was again on a Friday night, renting some action flick to watch alone at home. He paid the cashier, and strode swiftly out the doors, his breath turning to mist in cool, foggy air. He turned to follow the sidewalk, out of the parking lot and down the street. A car pulled up next to the curb and slowed to match his speed, and the rear window rolled down.

"Want a ride?"

He stopped, and turned to regard the car, peering close through the windows. A guy with a driver. After a moment of thought, he nodded, and opened the door and slipped in beside the guy. The driver hit the gas and the car roared off into the night. Going the wrong way, of course. He turned to look at the guy, who was drumming his fingers against his door, tapping out a rhythm to music that wasn't there. He raised his eyebrow at the guy.

"Not even going to ask me where I'm going?"

The drumming stopped. "This should do it, Ivan." The car stopped. The driver turned and pointed a weapon at him. The guy spoke again. "Money or your life, pal, you know the drill."

"Amateur," he said, ignoring the nearly inaudible, high-pitched whine that filled the car. It was the guy's turn to raise his eyebrow, while the driver, in the way of drivers everywhere, remained stoically silent. The guy opened his mouth, but whatever he was going to say was cut off as a quarter, spinning like a miniature sawblade, ripped through his skull and embedded itself in the window behind him.

The driver turned calmly and silently back to the wheel.

"Long time no see, Ling," he said, removing the spinner from beneath his jacket, and checking to see if all the parts still worked, "What brings you back to this neck of the woods?"

The driver grinned. "Give me directions to your place, and I'll give you the details when we get there." He turned to look at his new passenger. "I've found her, Tad!"

His eyes widened, then narrowed again. "Just so we're clear, which 'her' are we talking about?"

Ling's grin vanished. "Who else?"

"After all these years? I thought you had given up when you left town."
"Like I said, details after we get to your place. A man must eat before he can begin to regale old comrades with stories, Tad!"

Tatters McGill rolled his eyes. "Like that's never happened before. Alright, drive."
(To be continued.)

[Zane]

Interesting. This has caught my attention. When can we expect the next installment?

[Therin]

The door opened, and shut again with a click, and Ling stopped to take in Tad's apartment, while Tad went to putter about in the kitchen.

"Tad...Please, please tell me this is not the same roach motel you had two years ago."

"Shut up. Chicken or Beef?" Came the retort from the kitchen.

"Chicken or Beef? That's it? Two years, and all you can give me as a welcome home present is 'chicken or beef?' Man, I pay you too much!"

From the kitchen, along with the sound of pots clanging together, "People who call my home a roach motel get chicken or beef."

Ling rolled his eyes and flopped down on the black vinyl sofa in front of the television, whose screen was covered with dust. "Jeez, Tad, don't you ever use this thing?"

"No," was the terse answer.

Ling leaned sideways to try to see around the corner into the kitchen, to see his old friend's expression, but Tatters' head was studiously bent over the pot of boiling ramen-water. His voice had held plenty of expression, though. Ling quietly asked, "What happened, Tad?"

"Don't worry about it."

For the next few minutes, silence reigned in the small apartment, until Tatters emerged from the kitchen, holding two steaming bowls of ramen. He sat down on the couch and handed one bowl and a pair of chopsticks to Ling. "One of my patients turned up on the news one morning. Suicide."

"You can't help everyone, Tad."

Tad shrugged, and took a mouthful of noodles. Ling did the same. Beef. Figured. The two ate in silence, each thinking his seperate thoughts for a few minutes, until Ling finished, and was about to broach the subject again, but his friend did it for him.

"So you found her?" Tad was giving Ling an impenetrable stare.

Ling put his bowl on the coffee table in front of the couch, and turned to put his full attention on his old friend. Then he nodded.

Tad whistled appreciatively. "Little Katie Beck, missing for...jeez, almost ten years now. I knew you were determined to find her, but I thought you must have given up when you left."

Ling shook his head, his eyes fairly glowing with excitement, "No, no, I left because she left! Or was taken, rather. Difference is, they took her almost as soon as they grabbed her. I didn't figure it out until two years ago."

"Where?"

"You're gonna love this. Wisconsin."

Tad raised his eyebrows. "...The middle of nowhere. What do they want with here there? For that matter, who are they?"

"I don't know yet, but it doesn't matter. I've found her! That's why I came back. Grab your gear, my friend, we're back in business!"