CHAPTER 004

"NO PLACE LIKE HOME"

It’s been a few days now since I’ve moved into this new space. I suppose home is more apt, and that’s what I should call it since I’ll be here for quite a while yet. I’d like to take advantage of the Bartender’s kindness as it means I won’t be sleeping in an alley for once after all… and there’s even running water- I will say it’s surprisingly nice.

Sachiel had been resting there in the apartment for the most part, trying to be polite and listen to Cy’s request of coming down at least once a day to monitor his wounds. He was not a fan of them trying to play doctor on him, but he was at least very appreciative of the makeshift sling.

That rest was far more needed than he realized as well, given the fact he’d managed to pass out for a full day after his arrival at the bar- waking to find that somehow Cy had obtained a new pair of jeans and shirt for him in roughly his size, modded to even fit his tail.

How Cy had figured out that information was something he didn’t really want to think about. More-so where they had found someone to tailor pants with that specific hole in mind who wouldn’t think them insane for it is another question he chose to leave unanswered.

His jacket had also been cleaned at least a bit on the outside in that time. For the first time since he could remember, the leather had no dirt or grime on it, didn’t reek of trash, decay, and the metallic stench of old blood. Some of the small holes on the inner lining had even been sealed shut.

He was grateful regardless. Between the clothing, the food, and definitely the housing; he really did owe them one.

It was no surprise that the building was empty however… there was no way the average joe could afford this kind of flat. It was very nice and clean given the area around it, albeit mostly empty inside... but it did have a spare room, open concept kitchen/lounge, bedroom, washroom... There was even a small porch. Not enough room for anything fun on the patio mind you, but enough that you could sit outside in a chair maybe with one other person.

Sachiel was seated on a very old looking couch, drab, beige and ratted that had clearly been left behind by a previous tenant. Which was unsurprising given the only way to get it out would be to throw it off the patio. Something he may consider later if he finds a better one. He was mulling things over to himself, and cleaning off his poor dusty gun, wondering what he could do to make it work a bit more efficiently.

He sighed.

He struggled to make the gun work at all. It felt like it only wanted to work when it was feeling up to it, which was mostly in moments of danger. Sachi had no idea how to reload the damn thing since no matter how much he pulled back the hammer it never released the chamber… and the chamber clearly had cartridges sitting inside of it.

It was a strange gun to say the least. Three barrels in a revolver was strange in itself. The only things he’d seen with more than one barrel were shotguns and those were harder to come by due to their efficiency… therefore having a higher price tag he couldn’t hope to afford. His little revolver fit nicely in his larger sized hands, he remembered seeing Cy hand it back to him and it seemed so massive in comparison to a human. On the top where the hammer lied were three protruding heads of dogs, similar in stature to how he himself looked with horns, and from each mouth the barrels exited.

Looking at the chamber still continued to baffle him. Normally… One would simply pull back on the hammer at the top, the chamber would flick out of its resting place, and then you would remove the empty casings, and put in new ones, flick it back in place, and then be set to go… yet pulling the hammer did nothing on this gun. Pulling the trigger did nothing. It would simply stick back, click when the trigger was pulled, resetting its location, but nothing would come out.

Sachiel grumbled in irritation.

He stood up and started pacing, looking at the gun in his hand, and then made his way outside onto the porch to get some air. He was very frustrated and wanted nothing more than to get his own weapon that he’s had since he woke up to work. It had been over a year, surely he should know something about it other than ‘it works when it wants to’. The times it did work were near random. It’s unreliability left him with a regular pistol as a sidearm in the case he couldn’t get it to go off.

Trying to think back to the times that he could make it work he remembered most of the time it was in dire peril, and he was almost certain his only thought was ‘survive’. He reminisced back to that fight with the one brother on the rooftop, watching that wound almost magically seal itself right in front of his face was enough to bring a fear to his mind, something that made the gun in his pocket feel like it was almost on fire… something he didn’t really realize in the moment until now. Thinking back to it made him feel that similar sensation as he was holding it.

Jameson and Emerson both clearly could heal their wounds… and Cy said that they had guns like his. It was a lot for Sachi to think about. He looked at the gun, remembering that fiery feeling of it burning in his hand as he was in the heat of battle. He closed his eyes, aiming the gun up, thinking to himself.

How can I make it get that feeling again… that burn?

He thought back to those moments, it really did just feel like desire made real in a way, not a frustrated kind like he had now. A raw emotion of rage- tunneling its way through his arm, the burn of his own fiery heart shooting itself from out of his arm to his gun. He replayed those past scenarios in his mind, trying to remember that burn pouring into himself.

He pulled the trigger, blindly.

The gun fired loudly- his eyes shooting open to look up as some kind of bird dropped dead from the sky above, right past his face and directly below into the alleyway.

He looked at it from the balcony, then quietly shuffled back into the apartment, pretending he saw nothing.

… It fired.

He hummed to himself in thought. The gun seemed to fire from a raw and heated desire for it to function, which made sense since he never got it to work when he was half-hazardly pulling the trigger and not thinking about it. The only times it worked was when his focus was zeroed in on what he wanted of it.

He looked to his mangled arm.

Perhaps… that works the same?

Sachi rested a hand above his limp wrist. His fingers hadn’t been able to move the entire time he’d been resting, waiting for his arm to fix itself. While he knew there was a latent regeneration, he did fully believe that there had to be a way to speed up the process…. And if the brothers could do so with a single swipe of the hand, then maybe he just needed to figure out the method they had going for them.

He focused on the broken arm, the limp wrist, then looked to his fingers again.

Start small… not the whole arm, just make the fingers work again.

He stared his own hand down, filling his mind with only thoughts of getting his fingers able to move. Just like one would when their foot goes numb. It took a minute, but after not backing down, he could see a faint glow from his one hand’s fingertips, and on the broken arm he found he could now at least somewhat move his fingers again.

...Incredible.

Ugh. Great. I guess I have to report this to Cy… I wasn’t really feeling a conversation today but I guess that’s just inevitable now, isn’t it?

He sighed loudly through his nose as he made his way to the door, opening it and grumbling as he descended the stairwell.

-

The hovel was quiet. It was mid-week, and very late in the evening… or perhaps early in the morning by this point? Time was hard to tell when the sun barely shone through the city. Cy was just coming back to the bar’s counter after having locked the door, and was working on counting the money they’d pulled in for the evening. The neon lights were all turned off, and the room was lit with a warm glow instead from the secondary lighting that made the bricks along the walls hold a soft orange hue. The woods and metals in the room felt a bit darker, but it was cozy nevertheless.

One of the waitresses was across the room from Cy, helping tidy, and it seemed the rest of the staff had gone home an hour earlier by this point.

The two were interrupted from their thoughts when they heard a knock on the door.

“Oh Maria, I don’t know why they always seem to try and come in after close, I swear everyone knows our hours by now… and I only put the sign up with them when we’re not open anyway.” Cy let out a defeated sigh, shuffling back and ready to tell someone to get off their front porch as was customary.

They opened the door and looked up a bit shocked to see Sachi standing there gruffly, a bit unkempt and in his black t-shirt and jeans.

“Oh! Fangs, you’re awake- I’m so glad to see the pants fit-”

“Thank you.” He shoved his way in, Cy promptly shutting the door and re-locking it before following after him.

“Oh, of course, of course, any time! I have a dear friend who is very good at seam mending and such and I knew she’d be the perfect job for-” Cy was about to go off on a tangent again, Sachi could tell.

“Again. Thank you.” He cut Cy off, holding up his arm to wiggle his fingers at them. “I made progress.”

“Your fingers!” Cy was immediately not interested in counting their earnings and rushed back over, to inspect Sachiel’s arm.

They were going off again, mumbling something to themselves and asking far too many questions at once to be answered. Sachi just sat there, waiting for them to run out of things to say and watched in the back as the waitress, Maria, rolled her eyes and walked to the register to finish Cy’s job. The clack of her tall black heels was infinitely less grating to listen to in comparison to Cy’s rambling for Sachi.

“Cy, let him talk.” She hollered, giving them what could only be described as ‘a look’.

“Sorry I guess I got carried away again. Now Sachi, what happened? That’s a lot of movement for only a day later.” Cy noted, still inspecting his hand.

“I’m not sure how, or why, but I do in fact seem to be built like the other two. It’s hard to describe…” Sachi paused for a moment. “I guess I just thought about it really well or something. Look I don’t know, I felt something burning inside when I did it and it only happened when I focused on it. I don’t know where it came from.”

“How peculiar…” Cy tapped a finger to their face. “I wonder if you have a specific organ made for generating this kind of energy-”

“If you get anywhere near me with a knife I will rip your face off.” Sachi snarled. “I’m not a lab experiment and you are not a doctor.”

“I would never!” Cy paused. “Well, not on you anyway. Maybe the other two…”

“Ha! Cy, please, we both know that you of all people would be too concerned with keeping the blood off the counter.” Maria grinned, her black lipstick shining a bit against the off-white of her teeth. “Though, with how you fillet the salmon we get in I do have my concerns.”

Can we not talk about this I don’t want my guts spilled. This was a mistake, it has to be, this bartender is so… unpredictable.

“You good there, fangs?” Maria closed the register. “I didn’t know big dog guys like you could get that sickly looking, it’s a joke, man.”

“Oh, ignore all that, Sachi this is good news! You keep doing that slowly and work on fixing yourself up. I have a couple jobs that look like they might be worth taking if you can get yourself all patched this week!” Cy shuffled and grabbed a little pile of papers from one of the tables.

“...Sure.” Sachi wasn’t convinced.

Maria rolled her eyes again and disappeared into the back.

“So the one I was thinking was this one since it’s relevant.” Cy hopped up on a chair next to Sachi, laying out the file. “So it turns out those flying creatures that swarmed you where I found you before are spreading and coming closer this way, and it sounds like one of the places they’ve been roosting is scaring away business from a vendor that I deal with, so I think relations-wise it would be smart for us to help, don’t you think?”

Sachi looked at the file. It was in fact, around the same place he’d landed before. He wasn’t aware that anyone still resided in the area, but it did also make sense since there was a gate nearby that lead outside the city grounds and into a very lush area… would make a lot of sense to make sure it’s held down to get more resources. Good food was hard to find at times.

“I know you’re still recovering though, so maybe take a couple days, see how you feel and then let me know? I think sooner would be better but to be fair most hunters do hate those flying pests.” Cy grinned from behind their obtusely large collar. “I won’t keep you long this time, I trapped you down here for three hours last time and it’s late, I need to sleep too you know?”

Maria emerged again from the back, holding a little plate with sandwiches on it. Cy was shuffling off now, doing some final closing tasks while Maria set the plate down in front of him. She was pale, but he couldn’t tell if that was from the goth-style makeup or it was just her tone.

“Look, I know the previous conversation didn’t really lead into food well, but take these up with you. Cy’s been keeping me up to date on what’s happening…” She brushed her long black hair that dropped down the sides of her face to behind her ear, her bangs just covering her forehead and eyebrows as she furrowed them.

“...Thanks.” Sachi didn’t say much more than that. He didn’t usually talk to the servers directly, just Cy themself.

“If you have been sleeping for the past day, then that means you haven’t eaten.” She frowned. “I don’t know how your species works, but I’m certain you’re like the rest of us and while you might not think it so, eating is important. Fuels the body, you know? Especially when you’re injured.”

Sachi paused. She did have a point. He didn’t know his own body worked and food did usually make him feel better so it probably did have an effect on him. Plus… he couldn’t say no to a huge plate of sandwiches either.

“Yeah. Got a point.”

“Honestly, I don’t get why people go into such a tizzy over a big dog man with horns.” She laughed placing her hands on her hips. “You’re a nice guy, Fangs. Heaven forbid a dog have horns, you aren’t a devil or anything.”

Sachi got up, then headed out, wondering to himself as he entered the other door, then ascended the narrow stairwell.

I could be a devil, how would anyone know anyway?

Whatever. At least that’s done and over with for now… I hate socializing so much, it’s so much easier to not talk.

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