I was down in the main room, sitting on a stool, I’d just finished wrapping my old wounds I’d managed to forget about. I was feeling quite much better. Going through my mind at the moment were thoughts about what Vigil’s secret alias was. It wasn’t super high up on the docket necessarily, but I did think about it quite a bit regardless.

“So… Quincy…” Sal said, interrupting me as I rolled through the phone book for a rent-a-car agency. There wasn’t any internet out here unfortunately.

“Yeah?” I perked up, peering at him. He looked like crap, I suppose sleeping on the floor does that to ya.

“Well, I… think that we should talk. You know, you seem to be a little… mad still.” he said maturely. Quite a different take for him.

“Nah, I don’t think I have time for discussion with you right now, Sal. We’re good though, I’m sure we can just let bygones be bygones.” I explained tactfully. Deep down though, I reeeeally didn’t want to be a criminal on the run with him. Not that I didn’t appreciate his help, but I knew he’d get us found out with how much of a crowd he seemed to attract.

“Well, I want to talk about this now! I want you to know that your friends and you have now made me a wanted fugitive!”

“You literally signed up to be a villain, how is that my fault?” I replied, ignoring his notions. As my invisible friend always says, problems are best left ignored until someone threatens you with violence. Or… something like that…

“Alright, then I fucking quit. I’m not gonna sit around with a bunch of criminals and get arrested.” he huffed.

“I’ll sell you out if you leave, you know.” I rolled my eyes, still searching for that elusive Rent-A-Car company.

“God, all you fucking villains are a bunch of assholes!” Sal roared, oh shit. He rushed in and picked me up by my collar and held me against the wall. Okay, I suppose it’s time to fix the problem now. “Your friend deserved to die like that, but not to save you!”

Okay fuck you, Sal. I know I deserve it for that empty threat, but geez. Where was this coming from?

I slapped him across the face multiple times, leaving red flares of pain in my hand’s wake. He dropped me and punched me in the gut extremely hard. So hard I nearly passed out. I fell to the floor choking, hoping I hadn’t ruptured anything.

“You need to fucking learn how to hit someone, you fight like a little bitch.” he smarmed, turning and grabbing the phone book, ripping it in half with immense strain. He tossed the halves of the book behind him, the pages falling everywhere. “I’m leaving. I thought you’d changed for the better. Now I don’t want to fucking see you ever again.”

“Good, get lost, die of hypothermia.” I muttered under my breath, half hoping he’d not hear anything. He luckily didn’t react to that, but honestly he needed anger management.

“What the hell did you do to my brother, Sal?” Selene gasped, coming down the stairs in panic.

“He said he’d sell me out if I left. So, I’m gonna go anyway. He’s going to hell when he dies, which probably will be soon when TUHF tracks him down.” Sal explained begrudgingly. He opened the door and a gust of cold air blew in.

“Just go then, if you don’t want to be part of this. I’ll make sure Quincy doesn’t call the police on you or anything.” Selene told him, not knowing I had not intent on that. I… felt like I’d fucked up.

“Fuck all of you.” Sal said, stealing a pair of snowshoes and a puffy hoodie from the poor man. And he called me a villain… For shame.

He walked out the door, and slammed it behind him in rage.

“He’ll be back. And if not, then you can rest easy Quincy.” Twee commented, walking down the stairs past Selene.

“Eh, yeah. I guess you’re right.” I said, coming to my senses and standing up. I looked at the floor and sighed. The yellow pages were scattered everywhere, and now I started regretting not talking with Sal. Partially because he could have been a valuable teammate, but also because I kinda needed that phone number.

“Anyone else got ideas on our next moves?” I polled, deciding to give up on the phone book. The car would have been traced anyway, it was for the best.

“Well, you’re in luck. The cell service allowed me to ring my bud in Montana. He’s driving up here to pick us up right now.” said Twee.

“How will we cross the border?” Selene asked, citing the first problem that probably would come to anyone.

“We’re not crossing the border. Unless you want to?” Twee queried sarcastically. “Let’s just worry about having a bed under our bodies before we go full-on rushing to save Stocklord.”

“Yeah… about that. You think we should even bother saving him?” I wondered aloud, picking up some pages and tossing them in the bin.

“Excuse me?” Twee retorted, stepping back physically in overdone surprise.

“I’m asking because like, I’m not as invested as you were to him or anything. Not to sound selfish or anything, I just prefer to remain out of prison.” I explained, looking at her.

“Yeah, I can understand. You are the new guy, can’t expect all that from you.”

“I’ve worked there for almost two years, but yeah, whatever…” I shrugged.

“But you will eventually get around to it, right? We don’t have like, forever or anything.” requested Twee, she sounded a little depressed almost. Unlike herself… Then it hit me, she’d kinda lost someone too.

If there was any chance of saving Vigil, I would have done it. We were buds, unlike me and Stocklord, who had… a roller coaster relationship, to say the least. But Twee and Stocklord went way back. So she probably wanted him saved, I assumed. It took me a while to get there, to be sure.

“Yeah, once we get our shit together, we can try to save your boss. But I just don’t feel ready yet.” I consoled, she smiled lightly, hiding her joy.

“Thanks… not like I needed your help, but-”

“Being a tsundere isn’t funny anymore Twee.” Selene said, sighing in disappointment.

I held back my laughter, but still, a light chuckle emerged.

Something… was missing though. Sal probably would have cracked a funny one liner as a follow up.

Right now it just felt empty...