When his eyes blearily opened, he saw before him large wooden beams. His hands rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and came down again to rest by his sides, his left brushing what felt like a leg. "Ya almost looked peaceful."
"Yup." His groggy, gravelly voice replied.
"Except you're lying on the dirty floor of the bar."
"Yup."
"With an open wound on the back of your head."
"Yup."
"Come on, lets get ya cleaned up." Raven chuckled as she pulled him up. In his semi-conscious stupor, he stumbled and fell into her arms. She giggled and kissed his cheek as she lead him over to a bar stool. Blaise sat on the faded leather of the stool and groaned. "What's going on? What the hell happened?" Raven poured him a stiff drink of whiskey and ducked behind the bar.
"Well, you seemed to go groggy and you kinda fell over. Buuut you fell over into a heavy-set biker guy. He smashed you on the head with a glass and his gang started beating you up, but you were already out for the count. When they got no response, they decided to leave."
"Ugh. Explains the ribs."
Raven chuckled, popping her head up from behind the counter. She dropped a bundle of bandages on the table and grabbed some wipes and a bottle of water. Blaise made a disgruntled face at her, looking down at the array of items before him. She moved a finger to his lips and wet the wipes, dabbing at the blood on his head. The russet hair was tinged a sanguine shade of red and trails of dried blood had trickled their way down the back of his neck. The stark white of the tissues came away soaked with scarlet. "Dang this is one hell of a cut." Blaise simply grunted in return. Once Raven had dealt with the cut, she bandaged it up and turned him around. A wry smile spread across her lips as her eyes found his. "What the hell do you want with me now?" He groaned, running a hand over his face.
"Strip." She chuckled. A look of confusion and uncertainty crossed his face as Raven doubled over with laughter. "I just need you to get that jacket off, so I can deal with your ribs, silly. But the look on your face." She was barely able to get the words out between fits of laughter. He rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless as he took off the sleeveless leather jacket. The inside of it was also encrusted with blood.
Raven gave out a long whistle at the sight of the damage. There was a large gash on his left side, it had been there for hours, but was still oozing the rich, red liquid. The crimson hue glinted in the dim lighting of the bar as it trickled slowly down the soft skin. Blaise closed his eyes and looked away, cringing at the sight. "What? Not one for blood?"
"Nope. Never have been." She rolled her eyes and set to work. She treated the cut the same as the wound on his head.
"So those songs up there? What's the inspiration?" She asked him to keep his mind off the dripping blood.
"Which one? They both have different muses." He answered, glad for the reprieve.
"How about both. I wanna know the stories." She looked up for a moment, smiling crookedly at him. He set his jaw, but when he saw her smile, it melted his resolve. "Well the first comes from a girl I met way back when. She was amazing, beautiful, perfect. At first. Then I found out her darker side. Turns out she was only with me so I could cover for her with a few messy murders she had on her hands. Her father was mixed up in it, too. They were both insane, mad, delusional. For a while, she made me feel like we were the only two people on Earth. It was a whirlwind romance, I should've known it would never work out. But I never thought it would go like that. Anyway… it was a long time ago, I was young and stupid." He sighed. "It was a long time ago." At that story, Raven's hands stopped working, hovering above the wound. Her face was a mix of shock and sympathy. "Oh. Wow. I er- I'm sorry. So um what about the other one? More of a happy story I hope?" She tried to give him a reassuring smile, but after his last story, it was a little strained. But he smiled back, a genuine smile. "Yes. That is more of a happy story. A few years ago, I started going to a bar to sing. And there was this pretty barmaid that caught my eye. We flirted back and forth. And we had a spark. And…" He turned his head back to her, smirking and clearly leaving some things unsaid. Some things they both knew. Some things they both remembered. She smiled back, looking into his eyes and reliving those memories. For a moment, they were the only two people in the world.
At the same time, they both realized that they were staring and looked away in embarrassment. Raven focused on the work on his ribs and Blaise looked down to the dark, wooden floor and rubbed the back of his neck. Soon enough, his side was all bandaged up. As Raven was tying the last bandage, her fingertips brushed his skin. Their eyes met once again for only a moment or two. "It uh it should be patched up now."
"Thanks." He grunted in reply.
"So what happened back there? You were out pretty quickly."
His brow furrowed. "You don't wanna know." She pushed his arm gently.
"Come on. Just tell me. Oooh. Were you drugged or something? It looked like you were drugged." He looked at her incredulously and shook his head in disbelief. "Or is it some sort of sickness. No, wait. Oh my God! Were you cursed?" Blaise ran a hand over his face, but couldn't stop himself from smiling. He heaved a sigh and took her hand, subconsciously rubbing circles with his thumb. "Fine I'll tell you, but you can't say anything to anyone and just don't think I'm crazy." Her eyes widened and she nodded emphatically. Blaise then proceeded to tell Raven about the voice, the nightmare and the vision when he passed out. The more he talked about it, the further off her seat she edged and the wider her eyes grew. By the end of it, she could barely contain her excitement.
"OH MY GOD! You're totally cursed. How could you not tell me about this?!" She exclaimed, slapping his arm lightly. The injured man chuckled, clearly relieved. "You're taking this a lot better than I thought you would." She ruffled his hair and ducked behind the bar again. As he looked over at her, puzzled, she popped back up with two glasses and a bottle of whiskey. "Ah my favorite." Red strands parted from the rest of her midnight black hair and fell in her face as she smiled sweetly and poured them each a glass. "Well yeah, why do you think I got it, silly? Anyway, you said the vision showed you a map to Easter Island, right?" She questioned, handing him the glass and holding her own in her other hand. "Well yeah but- Oh no. No, no, no, no. Ray, no. We're not going there." She pouted, looking up at him with puppy-dog-eyes and tracing patterns on his skin. "God dammit. You know what that look does to me. Now you're just not playing fair." After a few moments of trying in vain to avoid Raven's gaze, Blaise sighed. "I've got no choice do I."
"Well obviously not. We're talking about a freaking curse, Ace!" She pulled him into a warm embrace, careful to avoid this wounded side.
After a few minutes, she pulled away and raised her glass to his. "To adventure!" She sang with joy, before downing the whole drink in one gulp. Raven then pulled herself up and took out her phone. "We're in for a lot of work tonight, getting this trip squared away. You wanna call for a pizza, hun." In reply, Blaise took out his phone and dialed the number. The two of them settled in for a long night of phone calls and bookings.