Changes

Changes (Chapter Three)

Romulus let his legs fold as he landed on the roof, and he rolled several times before leaping onto his own two feet. Turning back to look at the roof he just leapt from, he shouted ‘Come on, Remus! Get your ass over here.”

Barely were the words out of his mouth when Remus heaved his own body through the air. Slightly less in shape than Romulus, it was therefore not much of a surprise when he landed on the very edge of the roof, requiring Romulus to reach out and grab Remus’s belt to keep him from falling off.

His balance restored, Remus slapped at Romulus’s hand. “What the fook. Yoo joost cahn’t wahit until we git our arses safe, cahn yoo?” He smiled, showing off his yellowed teeth. “Now. Cahn we please git our arses inside? Mah feet hurt.”

Romulus rolled his eyes. Off in the distance, he could still hear the alarm from the building they had just escaped from. He turned away and began walking along the roof. “You just had to go in there, didn’t you. Couldn’t leave it alone. No, you HAD to open that window. You HAD to steal some cigarettes and alchohol. And you just HAD to open up the bottle before you got out of there.”

Remus hung his head slightly.

“And worst of all, you just HAD to have me come in and get your sorry ass.”

Remus’s head snapped back up. “Ahnd how the fook was ah supposed to know thaht the mootherfooker was gonna get up for a little snahck? Ah thought ‘ee was pahssed oot on the floor!”

Romulus sighed. “You know, you’re lucky we can sense things like that. Otherwise, you’d have been screwed, and not the fun way. Now, gimmie.” He stuck out his hand expectedly.

Remus put on a confused look. “Give yah whaht?”

Stopping to turn and face Remus, Romulus just glared at him. “Gimmie the friggin’ cash, you bastard. I’m not in the mood for antics.”

Remus pulled his mouth into a half-smile. “Oh yeah? Let’s see yoo take it from me, huh? Ah don’t think yoo cahn.” He put up his fists, mocking Romulus.

Romulus just sighed. He never gives up. He put up his own hands, and waited.

He didn’t have to wait long. Remus threw a punch at Romulus’s left cheek. Romulus simply ducked and threw his leg around in a circle, catching Remus in the back of his knees, which gave out on him. Without putting the foot back on solid ground, Romulus spun once more, leaping into the air, and with the other leg, tapped Remus in the direction of the roof edge. Remus tipped dangerously off the side, with Romulus just watching as he fell. At the last second, his hand flew out, and grasped Remus’s ankle.

Remus didn’t say anything for a moment, instead electing to just swing there by his ankle off the side of the building. After that, he finally let up in a disgusted tone “Fine, yoo fooker.”

* * *

The two walked out the front door of the building a few minutes later onto the still busy street below. Picking a direction, the two began strolling in the direction of the closest diner. Passing the stores, many of which were beginning to close up for the night, they wandered until they found their favorite eatery- Aisling.

Aisling is a hidden treasure of Chicago. A superb place to eat, and cheap to boot. However, contrary to the fact that it was nearly always full with patrons, relatively few people knew about it. Like many of the best places in Chicago, it had it’s share of shady dealings, mysterious characters, and spooky stories. And also like many of the best places in Chicago, it wasn’t noticeable.

The pair stopped to look at the door, just like they always did. Everyone did. It was a work of art. Large and intimidating, the door was made of the strongest wood found on the planet. Romulus remembered once hearing a story of how the pub was once under siege ages ago by a raging crime family, and this door was the only barrier between the murderous men and their targets, nestled safely inside the pub. The door was shot at, rammed, and someone even attempted to light fire to it, but not a single attack created even so much as a scratch on it’s beautiful surface. This was very fortunate, as the surface of the door was completely covered in hand carved designs, nearly all of which were celtic knots. But most notable (though not easily noticeable, Romulus thought, smiling to himself) was that the only place the name of the pub appeared was on this door- hidden in the knots, written in Irish. The few pictures carved into the door showed various people eating, drinking, dancing, and what suspiciously appeared to be a couple having sex.

Remus grabbed the doorknob, also impressively carved with further intricate celtic knotwork, and gave it a twist. In contrast to it’s expansive surface and thickness, the door swung open easily and noiselessly. Remus stepped in, with Romulus close on his heels, and as Romulus took one last look at the outside world, he pulled the door shut behind him.

The other side of the door was a simple room, merely six feet in length and the same across. The walls were bare, save for one sign on the opposite wall (again written in Irish), and a spiral staircase headed downward in the far corner. Again, Remus lead the way down the stairs.

Two complete turns of the stairs led you directly into the pub- but only one was needed to hear the full blast of the noise. Bottles crashing, people laughing, singing, and Romulus could swear he heard a set of bagpipes playing, but he never saw them. Leaving the staircase, they stopped and took it all in.

The two gave a nod to a tall, dark haired woman who stood in the center of the large island bar. Sorcha Meallán gave a nod back. Regulars at the pub, Remus and Romulus were well acquainted with the pub’s owner, who went by Sasha with her close friends. Sasha gave the boys a sideways nod, pointing them to an open booth while at the same time winking, telling them she’d have a couple of drinks ready for them in just a few minutes. The two sauntered over to the booth, and slid in on opposite sides, Remus facing the back of the pub, Romulus the front, keeping the staircase in full view.

True to her word, Sasha appeared only two minutes later, and set down their drinks. Remus immediately took a swig of his Jack Daniels, while Romulus took a small sip of his soda while he looked around the pub, taking in the day’s denizens. He spotted pub friend of his, Dennis, on the nearest corner of the bar. From the look of it, he was trying to chat up the tall fellow next to him with dirty blond hair and striking blue eyes.

Turning back to Remus, he gave him a disapproving look when he saw that Remus had already downed two-thirds of his drink. Remus just smiled sheepishly, his only excuse, “Ah was fookin’ thirsty.” Romulus rolled his eyes, and Remus dug into his pockets for one of his cigarettes. Finally finding one, he put the slim black cigarette to his lips, and pushed his finger to the tip it. When he removed it, the tip glowed orange as the cigarette began to burn. Remus gave a good puff on it, and letting it out in a cloud. “Ahh…now, thaht’s better.”

Romulus waved his hand in front of him as the cloud came at his face. “God dammit, Remus! How many fucking times have I told you not to blow that shit into my face! You know how much I hate smoke. You know I only tolerate your fucking addiction as long as you don’t blow it near me!”

Remus held up his hands. “Sorry, bro. It was an ahccident.”

Romulus glared at him. “Better be.” He turned his attention to the cute waitress who came to take their order. “Hey, hun. Mind if I get a nice medium rare steak, a good slosh of mashed potatoes, and some corn?” The waitress, whose name tag said ‘Cáit’, nodded and turned to Remus.

“Ah’ll have meh the sahme meat, buht give meh sohme of them fries.” Remus said, giving Cáit a little grin. “Ahnd perhaps ah’ll hahve something else lahter, something…sweet.”

Cáit smiled just a little, showing her perfectly nice teeth. Then, she spun around, causing her brunette hair to flick behind her, and headed off toward the kitchen. Both men watched her depart- Romulus saw her take a second glance back at Remus before she popped behind the kitchen door. He shook his head- he never understood what it was women saw in Remus.

Romulus let his eyes wander the pub again as Remus polished off his drink, and took another long drag on his cigarette. Romulus saw that Dennis had apparently succeeded in chatting up his neighbor, and was proceeding to buy his new interest- Richard, by the sound of it- a drink. Meanwhile, the rest of the bar’s patrons seemed perfectly content to wallow in their drinks, one of which was very empty, but the man hadn’t seemed to notice yet- kept trying to take swigs out of it anyway.

For the next ten minutes, Romulus relaxed and just watched life happen. His soda, as he was drinking it very slowly, became warm quickly, but Romulus fixed that by dipping his finger into it for a moment. That moment was all that was needed, as the center of the glass chilled and nearly froze. Taking his finger back out, Romulus smiled as he licked the residual soda off. His eyes back onto the pub, they landed on a pair of women in a booth across the room from them, who were very blatantly making out.

Romulus smiled, recognizing one of the girls as former acquaintance of his, but removed his eyes to give her privacy. He did so just in time to see a woman step off the front staircase.

Shoulder length hair, mostly dark with a few colored streaks…nice height…well proportioned…all in all, a very nice package, Romulus noted. He watched as another man followed her off the staircase, a slightly shorter fellow with dark blond hair, and a dusting of facial hair. Romulus watched him walk behind the girl. Hmm. Gay.

However, a minute after the two had left the staircase in search of a booth, Romulus spotted a third person, a man, arrive. Romulus immediately was suspicious- the man never took his eyes off the girl. Very little of him was showing, as he was wearing a large, dark colored trenchcoat with black boots, and a dark hat.

“Remus.” Romulus said curtly. He waited, but Remus didn’t respond. Looking at his companion, he finally noticed that Remus was busy entertaining Cáit, who had brought their food and joined Remus on his side of the booth momentarily.

<<Remus!>> Romulus formed the words in his head and shouted them with his mind.

Remus’s head snapped toward him, finally paying attention. <<What?>>

<<Dark trenchcoat. Just came in. He’s following that girl.>> Romulus nodded toward the girl with his head.

Remus looked, and turned back to nod at Romulus. <<Yep. Ah don’t like it either. Cahn’t read->>

<<Either of them.>> Romulus finished the thought. <<We’d better watch them.>>

“Yeah.” Remus said out loud. “We’d better. Hey sweets..” He turned to Cáit. “Why don’t yoo give meh yoor number, ahnd ah can get in touch with yoo lahter, how’s thaht sound?”

Cáit grinned, as if that was exactly what she was hoping he’d say. She ripped part of a napkin off and wrote her number down, and Remus took it, smiling, as she left, and he turned to his food.

Romulus silently ate his meal, never letting his eyes off the man and the girl he was watching.