"Shit," Maxis hissed, looking for a place to hide. His gaze landed on the bathroom behind him. "In there. Come on."
Ren didn't seem to like the idea. He pursed his lips and shook his head as he quietly followed Maxis into the bathroom. "There, there," he whispered, pointing behind the door. "It hits the tub, so it gives us a little pocket to hide. Maybe they won't look."
"Oh man, this is not good," Maxis said as he readjusted the door so that they were boxed in between the tub and the door.
"Shut it," Ren suggested.
"No. That's going to make it look suspicious. If it's closed, then they'll want to check it out. Keep it open."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Ren asked. "That's going to leave us wide open."
"No, it won't, just listen to me."
"What about the mirror?"
"It's broken, don't—"
Crash!
Maxis and Ren clammed up as soon as the shattering of wood echoed against the walls of the apartment. Footsteps followed, and from the sounds of it, there were two of them. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" It was the voice behind the door.
"We have been waiting for far too long, you little snake in the grass!" came another man's voice.
The men had high lilts to their voices, descending and ascending with dramatic tone. There almost seemed to be a laugh hidden behind their words, and their cocky demeanor disturbed Maxis to his bone.
"Fuck, is he gone again?"
"Maybe he finally bit the dust. We're not the only ones after him. You search over there, Swor."
"No, Gato. You search over here. I'll search over there."
One of them clicked their tongue. "Heads or tails, love?"
What the hell? Why are they acting like this is some sorta game?
The ring of silver followed. "Call it."
"Tails, of course."
The other man giggled. "You always did prefer tail over head. Oh my, would you look at that! Tails, love!"
"Slay, king!" Footsteps rapidly approached. "Then, as I said, I will take your spot, Gato!"
Maxis and Ren reeled back, hands clapped to one another's mouths, muscles tensed.
The man came in and hummed in a half-giggle. "Now, what do we have here? Oh my. Bit off more than he could chew? What ever is in this little pond he created?"
Maxis opened his mouth to whisper, when he suddenly realized Ren was no longer there. Ah, shit.
"Where's our fucking coke, Vinny?" came the other man's voice. A crash followed shortly after, followed by another, and another. "Piece of shit!"
"Calm yourself, babe," the man in the bathroom said. Maxis swallowed hard and carefully leaned to one side in hopes of getting a better look at him. Although the cracked mirror made it difficult to make out some of the man's finer details, he did note the flamboyant choice of attire. He wore a pink tank top and pants. Piercingly violet—or pink, Maxis struggled to tell—eyes were set in a face with plump lips and hair so blonde it looked white. The man fingered his hair in the mirror, catching errant strands and pursing his lips.
The most notable feature, however, was the tattoo on his shoulder. Resembling an angel's wing, it was blue and stretched across his shoulder blade. He couldn't see well enough from where he was, but from how it continued off into his tank top, he imagined that there was another similar extension to the tattoo on his other shoulder.
"Can't believe this moron thought he could supe this place up with clinical trials," the other man's voice came from the living room.
"You do what you can to survive," the man—whom Maxis assumed was Swor—said as he batted his eyelashes.
"You think that maybe we should delve into that NEON stuff, too?"
"Hell nah," Swor said, smiling. "I heard it from Rena-Chan on BlikBok that it's not vegan or even gluten free."
"Oh, well fuck that, then."
Swor giggled and turned to leave when something on the floor caught his attention. "Eck," he retched, "the least he could do is clean up after himself."
"Find a rat?" Gato asked from the room on the opposite side of the apartment. Something in the distance fell over, and the sound of snapping wood and shattering glass filled the air.
"No, thank goodness." He sighed. "Think I can bill his family for… whatever the hell it is I just stepped in?"
"Let's send it up to Bruno!"
Swor left the room, and from the sound of Gato's footsteps, Maxis assumed Gato had given up the search as well. They noted the message machine, and after playing it back, they sighed. "Forget this. We're going to miss the event. I do not want to be late," the man Maxis assumed was Gato said.
"We still have plenty of time," Swor giggled. "Don't you fret, we'll arrive just in the nick of time like we always do. Boballin' knows how we operate."
Gato clicked his tongue. "Okay, fine. Good riddance to this pigsty."
The door shut, and Maxis breathed a sigh of relief. With them gone, that just meant he had to find out where Ren was. He walked back into the living room, taking great care to be quiet and slow, just on the off chance that they barged back in with some epiphany.
"Ren, are you still here?" Maxis whispered just loud enough for him to hear. "If you are, give me a sign."
Thunk thunk thunk.
Maxis turned to his right, gasping when he saw Ren hanging upside down outside the window. Ren offered a weak wave, and Maxis threw open the window, sneaking out onto the scaffolding. Looking up, he saw Ren's foot had wedged itself between two of the bars. It looked painful.
"Mind helping a guy out?" Ren sighed as a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.
"Yeah, I got you, hang on." Maxis straightened his back and reached up, sliding his fingers between the bars. It was a tight fit, but the metal was old and rickety. Without the proper leverage, it proved to be a bit harder than he had anticipated, but the metal bent, allowing Ren to fall free. Maxis stumbled to try and catch him, and Ren fell over the side with a yelp. "Ren!"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Maxis gasped as he watched Ren hit two of the railings on his way down.
Crash!
"I'm okay!" Ren cried.
That didn't… sound okay.
Maxis was relieved to see that he'd landed in a pile of trash bags. He started down the ladder, then stopped when he saw Swor and Gato at a distance across the street. Ren started to say something, and Maxis put a finger to his lips to silence him. Ren caught the hint, and Maxis watched as the two men got into a pink Lamborghini. He ducked beneath the railing, hiding behind the web of black iron, then watched as they drove away. The license plate was too far away to read, but a vehicle like that would stick out.
"We should chase it!" Ren said.
Maxis flinched. "Shit, dude," he breathed.
"Oh, sorry. Hey, I'll meet you at the car."
"Are you going to be all right?"
Ren hopped on his one foot, offered a quick salute, then his flash went off.
"Here we go again," Maxis muttered, shaking his head. Seeing that he was already outside, he figured he may as well take the ladder down. The rickety nature of the ladder made him a bit nervous, but if Ren could fall from this height, then so could he. He landed at the bottom, patted away the dirt and muck from his hands, then plucked his car keys out of his pocket as he made his way back to the parking lot. He was halfway across the street when a woman's shriek filled the air.
"The hell was—"
A gunshot followed shortly after, and Maxis instinctively ducked for cover. When a second shot came, he realized it was from the apartment building. He wanted desperately to believe that what just happened, did not in fact happen, but if his time around Ren had taught him anything, it was that you needed to be prepared for anything to go wrong.
Maxis raced across the street into the parking lot. Like clockwork, Ren came running out of the apartment complex, a woman in a towel and a large man close behind. The man had a shotgun aimed at Ren, cocking it for effect. "I can't control where I end up, I'm sorry!" Ren cried. Maxis thought to intervene, but Ren teleported once to his right, twice to his left, then was suddenly gone.
"Where did—"
"Drive!" Ren cried from inside the vehicle. He was wet with water and… was that the smell of coconut?
Maxis hopped into the front seat, shoved his keys into the ignition and threw the card into drive. To his relief, the car that had been parked in front of him earlier was gone, and so he soared out of the parking lot just as the angry man was firing his weapon at them.
"Yeah, eat our dust, you—!" Ren's words were caught short when Maxis spun the steering wheel to his left. The tires screeched against the street and a cloud of smoke billowed into the air. Shifting the vehicle into its next gear, he slammed on the gas and made a clean exit away from the apartment complex. "Dude, smooth driving," Ren laughed.
Maxis sighed. "What the hell happened back there?"
Ren visibly swallowed. "I flashed into a woman's shower."
Maxis sighed. "This is why I can't bring you anywhere."
"So, uh, where we going?"
"Boballin'."
"Oh. Okay, cool, cool."
Some minutes later, Maxis looked at him in the rear-view mirror, then scratched the back of his neck. "Did you get a good look at her, at least?"
"Ten out of ten, bro."