Chapter I:
-Part One: Meet the Family
-Part Two: It Comes in Waves
-Part Three: Box of Memories
-Part Four: Do I Know You?
-Part Five: Recovery
-Part Six: The Docks
-Part Seven: Going Up
-Part Eight: Ins and Outbreaks
Chapter II:
-Part Nine: X Lives!
-Part Ten: Blind Eddie
-Part Eleven: Roll with It
-Part Twelve: Pain and Pleasure
A cold, October rain poured down upon the tiny bungalow near the ocean. It was an odd storm that sent snow into pockets beyond the sea, but here it was only rain. Thunder rolled across the sky and Paulie K. looked up to the ceiling from where he sat in the kitchen. He listened to the muted bell sound of dripping into the bucket sitting on the table next to him. He sighed as his eyes followed the drips, his mind not terribly set on the roof patching that needed to be done.
His wife, Emilia, stepped into the dimly lit kitchen. The last remnants of a fat, white candle sat next to the bucket, wax fusing itself into the wood. She sighed, "It's getting late, Paulie. I don't think Eddie's coming home. Maybe you shouldn't have taken him out there. I saw that big guy. He could have--"
"No, Em." Paulie stared blankly at nothing. "We know who he is. If he's figured that out, then he'll be able to handle himself. Even if he hasn't, he should be fine."
"I shouldn't have taken him to the market."
He shook his head. "You've taken him there plenty of times. You couldn't have known one time was going to be any different than the last."
Lightening flashed and thunder rolled again before Emilia turned her attention toward the front door. "Did you hear that?"
Paulie raised an eyebrow.
scratch. scratch. scratch.
He sat straight up, "A scratching?"
"Yeah."
scratch. scratch. scratch.
"It's at the door." Paulie stood up and started to walk toward the front door. Emilia was close behind.
scratch. scratch. scratch.
With an out of place creak, Paulie opened the door. A rather tall, dark figure stood in the doorway, staring back at the man with beedy,glowing red eyes. Leathery wings spread out behind the figure. It seemed there was a demon at the door. He stook a step back, terror on his face. A flash of lightening light up the figure revealing it to be an exhausted X/Eddie with a grunny on his head and an oddly flapping scarf doing its best impression of a pair of wings.
"I don't know how I managed to get back here," X said,"but... here I am." He fell forward into Paulie, who didn't fair too well in holding the younger man up and they both fell to the floor. The grunny sitting atop X's head jumped off to join the wet grunnies who were now streaming in from the inclimate weather.
Emilia backed up, away from the mutated lagomorphs, feeling rather uneasy. "Paulie?"
Paulie sat in his odd position, watching as these green creatures came in. "Ed? You wanna wake up, maybe? I don't think your friends like us very much." He did his best to push X up and off of him.
X groggily came to, pushing himself up. He sat on the floor and a grunny quickly hopped ontop of his dripping, messy hair. "Stop." He said, and the grunnies backed off, some grunting complaints.
Paulie got to his feet, helping X to his. He kept one eye on the grunnies, knowing full well their intentions should he make one wrong move. "Ed...," he began and X pushed away a little off balance causing the grunny on his head to slip off and onto the floor, rolling as it did so. It gave a disapproving grunt and joined the others that seemed to be waiting for a command.
"X," said the blind and scarred man. "I know that now." He turned his head, facing his adoptive parents. "And you probably already knew that." The grunnies bristled.
Emilia stood there, frightened. She had never shown fear in his presence untill now. "I..." She held back the tears, "we were only trying to--"
"I know," X interrupted, "You were only trying to protect me. I'm greatful. I truley am, but I can't stay here anymore." His scarf flipped as if trying to keep him from lingering.
"No, Ed... er X," Paulie grinned nervously, "you don't have to leave. This little bungalow's all alone out here. In the middle of nowhere. Nobody's going to find you here. You'll just have to keep your little buddies outside."
"Heh. Thanks, Mister K., but this is G-Corp we're talking about here. They'd kill you to get to me... if I don't end up doing it first." X gritted his oddly sharp teeth.
Paulie bit his lip. With X's memory back, he was dangerous to be around. He was more than a threat to Gambino's semi-secretive corporation. X was a threat to anyone; even to a man who was practically his father. He sighed, "You're right. I suppose they should know you're alive soon enough... with whatever you and your little friends have caused in these past hours." He paused. "Where will you go?"
"Do you have to ask?"
Paulie smirked, "I guess not."
Emilia smiled a bit. The grunnies seemed a bit less threatening, allowing her to step forward. "You can't maybe stay one more night? It's really bad out there."
"I don't know how much time I've given myself, but... I have one thing to ask."
"Anything, Eddie," said Paulie, almost regretting the words.
"Am... am I your son?" The last word of the question spoken in a hushed tone. He seemed uneasy with the question, delving into a memory that was probably entirely lost.
Emilia stood in silence for a moment. She looked down for a moment before gathering herself, "No, X, you're not." She put a hand on his arm. "I'm sorry."
"It's just that..." X seemed near about ready to shed some tears himself, "I have heard you two talk at night... when you thought I was asleep. Are you sure there's not the slight bit of pos-"
"No, Ed," said Paulie, trying to be a bit stern. "our Eddie would have been younger than you."
"Oh. Then that's it, then. I don't need anything else." X turned to leave.
"Wait," Said, Emilia, grabbing him by the wrist. "Take this." She put a small jar of green stuff in his hand. "It's the ointment. This'll help the scars."
X held it tightly, pausing in his step. "Thank you." And with that, he drifted back out the door, grunnies following closely behind.
Emilia sat down hard on the couch, saddened and relieved. Paulie joined her, wrapping an arm around his wife. "We're not going to seem him again, are we Paulie?"
"I don't know, Em," he said with a sigh, "I just don't know."
The End...?
Note: OMFG! Why did that part take over a year to finally finish?! And it probably would have taken even longer had I not discovered a little item called the Sinister Scarf that you can get in zOMG!. I'm just barely scraping around in Bass'kin, at CL 4.3. Thought I'd better get through this before seeing the Sinister Scarf related plot in the game(though that's at least many many hours away for me).
Thanks to anyone who read this story. heart
My next entry will be an actual journal entry. I passed up doing that for so long because of this story. Yeesh.
