Tainted Rose, Ikkaku's Deception

Tainted Rose
Ikkaku's Deception

Chapter the First

"Could you spare a dollar, sir?"

"Yeah, whatever, here you go."

"Oh; bless you sir, bless you."

"Yeah, that's nice, thank you."

"You're a king amongst men sir, you truly are!"

"Look, I gave you your dollar, so just fuck off already!"

Honestly, some people have no respect. Yes, the man's homeless, but I gave his fucking dollar so he can go buy his quart of rum. He doesn't need to hang around and tell me that. I'm me, so I already know how great I am. I should expect that by now, though. He's definitely the short end of the stick. The lesser of two evils. The only reason I'm in this side of town is to get away from those leeches for an afternoon. I like attention, yes, but sometimes I want to be able to sit down for a cup of coffee and not get harassed to sign some kid s autograph. And my music's not even for kids, anyway. What the hell are little eight and nine year olds doing telling me they love my stuff? Do parental advisory stickers just get ignored?

It's the problem with the government, I guess. They always like to fuck with the little guy. Fuck with the little guy... Fuck with the little guy...

You know, that'd make a great song. I'll make a mental note of that and cross the street just here and see if I can find an alley way. And what would someone like me be doing in an old, decrepit alley, I hear you thinking. Well, there comes a time in every man s life where he wants to, no needs to feel the taste of human flesh as he lets it slide down his throat. He needs to feel its warm, smooth texture as it runs over his lips and slides through his teeth. Such velvety goodness, such liquid perfection.

And also, I'd die if I didn't have any. Damn that little vampire's curse.

So I stroll down the derelict concrete maze, looking for the drunken and homeless. Although I know I could get just about anyone to feed off, I generally try to stick with those people won't miss if I go a little crazy. And not to mention that I'll be killed if I get any attention. I get it bad enough as it is without that kind of shit storm clouding over my head.

So I must make do, I guess. The taste is terrible compared to the healthy, but for the sake of living over dying, I'm left with little choice. It's those damn vampiric politics. They're infinitely worse than any damn national politics. I mean, I never get to go out and have any fun. They don't even like the fact that I'm some kind of celebrity, but for them it's either they learn to accept that the people love me, or they have me killed. I'm sure sooner or later it's going to come out as one of those.

"Fuck," I said aloud, now so far into the alleys that I'm damn near lost. I wish I had scent of that drunk from earlier now, he'd be perfect. No, I sighed, my hand to my forehead. If anyone on the street saw me taking him away, I'd be a dead man. And dead men tell no tales. Tales are all I have!

Oh, finally I thought as I turned a corner and found a man passed out and wearing rags beside a dumpster. He'd be perfect for me, so I slid over to him as quietly as I could and knelt down in front of him. He has a roughly handsome face, I guess, if he shaved once in a while.

Master Ikkaku Reid, for your dining pleasure, tonight we have a derelict, homeless wastrel, served on the hoof and presented with a side order of rags, drugs and/or alcohol. As I was leaning down, I probed the side of his neck with my tongue and took in a whiff of his scent. He smelt terrible. But, it was this or nothing, so I opened my mouth wide and went to dive my teeth into his neck, until...

My phone started ringing. The man's eyes shot open and he saw me and started screaming and fighting me off. "Oh, calm down," I yelled, covering his mouth with my hand. He grabbed my wrist and started fighting me off, but I was far stronger than he was. I knocked him back and dove in with my teeth, but he still kept fighting me. I must have bitten down on him about three times and opened the wounds a lot, because his blood flew everywhere and went all over me.

Great, I thought as I stood and looked around. There were a couple of people at the end of the alley, but I guess they didn't see me. They left after only a minute, but one guy seemed to still be limping along the wall. He was staring right at me; he must have seen what I'd done. Damn it, I'd have to do something about him before he did something about me. I started heading over to him and he just collapsed on his own. I sighed as I got closer to him and stared down at his limp, bruised.... cross-dressed body. Ugh, what a freak, this guy isn't in any right mind to remember anything he saw. And me not being completely heartless, just had to help the poor little fucker.

* * *

I managed to get back to my hotel without being seen by throwing away my shirt and borrowing the one from a dumpster. It smelt terrible, but at least it was easier to blend into a crowd with. So by the time I burst through the doors, I dumped the kid onto the bed and headed straight to the shower.

I wasn't in there long, just long enough to wash all the blood off and get rid of the smell. So I went back out to the main room and the kid was awake now. I shook my head and walked over to the nightstand by the bed. I tossed a bag of potato chips over to him. They were my favourite flavour and I was saving them for after the show tonight, but he looked like he needed a bit of sustenance. He seemed to appreciate it as he broke them open and started eating them.

He positioned himself more comfortably and looked over at me. "Why were you covered blood?" he asked and I turned to him and narrowed my eyes.

"You were imagining things," I said.

"But... I saw you covered in blood!" He said almost in a stammer, "right before passing out!"

I narrowed my eyes even further and turned to face him more. "And how do you know you didn't hallucinate it?" I growled. He got the point and after thinking for a second he closed his mouth. I watched him for a moment the turned and headed out to the balcony. I took my phone from my pocket and thumbed through the interface. I had a missed call from Ereth. That bastard, he just about cost me my meal. I dialed a number and put the phone to my ear.

"James, it's Ikkaku," I said, glancing back in the room, "I've got a kid I want you to take home for me."

"Oh, had a little fun Ikkaku?"

"Yeah, whatever," I muttered, slamming shut my phone and turning back into the room. The kid was staring at me. I just stared right back before turning to look back out over the view. James can tell him what's going on. I really don't care.