My husband-imposed bed arrest was proving to be more difficult than I expected. It had been almost three days since I was confined and all I ever did was fidget, wishing myself out of here. I swear to vodka, I would rather be in he-who-must-not-be-named professor's class getting shouted at than here. I glanced at the clock--the long hand had moved another five minutes. Great! Just another thirteen hours, twenty-five minutes, and fourteen seconds until the day was over. After that, I would have to endure another day of boredom, and another, and another, until hopefully, Gio would get satisfied that I was miles away from mortal danger. I stared longingly at the window and gauged whether it would kill me if I jumped out of it. It probably would. I sighed.

If only Granny Cerce was alive, things would have been simpler. I couldn't help but smile as I thought of Granny Cerce. She was the kindest, warmest person I could remember growing up. How the hard and cold Master Shao ended up marrying her was a mystery. What I remembered most about her were her hot chocolates. She gave them to me every time I needed comforting. Master Shao was against it, saying sugary drinks were not good for me, but Granny Cerce would prepare one in secret, give me a wink, and point at the direction where she hid my favorite drink. That wink had been our secret signal. Whenever I needed saving from one of Master Shao's rigorous training, she would call Master Shao inside the house, gave me the wink, and I knew that he would not be coming out for hours and I could relax a bit. It was only now that I realized that the wink was probably for Master Shao's benefit as it was for me. Heh. 

I reached for the mirror on top of the side table. My hair was unkempt, as usual. I got fading bruises on my left chin. Below that, a thin scar sliced through the scythe that was etched on my skin. Scars were not new to me. My body was riddled with them. Still, it was another grim reminder of the kind of life I led.

My thoughts were abruptly halted by the sheer ringing of my phone. I rummaged through my things and absentmindedly answered it.

"Reianne!" The lovely Inspector's voice assaulted my eardrums.  

"Yes, Inspector? Did you miss me or something?" I croaked. My mind totally forgot about the search of Hugo's mansion last night. 

"Reianne!" Oh boy. He said my name twice in a row. This did not sound good. 

"Yes, I'm Reianne, Inspector. That's my name. Absolutely positive you're correct on that one," 

"Drop the attitude! There were no armaments in Hugo's mansion! Are you sure your sketch is correct?" 

No armaments? 

"I'm positive Inspector. There were exactly fifty-four crates in that secret room and thirty-seven firearms scattered about. The bottom crates were marked "fragile," but there are graffiti too. The crate in the middle has an interesting drawing of an oversized p--" 

"I'm not interested in those details, Reianne! They were not there. We found the secret room, but there were no crates there. Just about ten unlicensed .45 caliber guns."

"Oh."  There was a pregnant pause, as neither of us knew how to respond to the other. 

"Maybe they moved it." It was I who broke the silence.  The Inspector only grunted. 

"I'll call again regarding this. You better answer your phone immediately!" 

I looked at my cellphone after the Inspector hung up. There were ten missed calls from him. Yikes. 

"Onee, how are you feeling?"

I almost dropped my phone at Quin's sudden appearance. 

"Sorry, did I startle you?" 

"Uhm, you should probably knock next time." Geezus.

Quin gave me one of her charming smiles that made it easy for anyone to overlook offenses.

"Sorry. I didn't know you were so jumpy. Anyway, Gio said you can leave the hospital now. You were given a clean bill of health today." 

I blinked at least twenty times. In which deity did I make the wish to be discharged again? I had to take notes for future reference. 

 "You healed quickly, Onee. Twice as fast as a normal person would. Probably due to your powers getting unsealed."

Indeed, I was feeling a lot better than I did yesterday, although some parts of me still felt tender. I flashed Quin a smile. I was just really happy to be out of this hospital. I missed Korn. I badly needed fuzz therapy. 

"Gio is waiting downstairs, Onee. He'll drive you home. Here, get dressed."  Quin helped me get up from the bed and handed me clothes. I took them and went to the restroom to change.

 As hard as it was for me to admit, my stomach did a somersault when Quin mentioned Gio. We had not talked since the last time, although he occasionally visited to check the medical charts and give instructions to the nurses. He would then be promptly called away to attend to some business. I shook my head. Thinking about him was causing my emotions to go haywire. My need for fuzz therapy doubled. 

Gio was waiting for me at the hospital lobby. I didn't say anything to him, and he didn't talk to me. He just took my shoulder and guided me where to go. 

His car was parked in front of the hospital.  We were walking halfway through when he suddenly drew me closer and wrapped his arms around my waist, his lips suspiciously close to my cheeks.

"What are you doing," I hissed at him.

"Walk faster, Musa's men are here." 

"That fast, huh? Geez, someone's got to get a grip on his employees' gossiping mouths." 

Gio narrowed his eyes at me. "It is a hospital, not a fort. Get going." 

We managed to reach his car, a black BMW, unscathed. I reached for the handle of the passenger-side door.

"No, you drive." Gio not-so-gently shoved me towards the driver's side and got a gun--a Desert Eagle .50 caliber handgun to be exact, from his waistband. Oh boy. 

"Uhm... I don't know how to drive." He blinked exactly three times before handing me his gun.

"Uh, you shoot then." 

"Uhm, I don't know how to shoot a gun either." He blinked about ten times this time, in rapid succession. 

"Woman, how did you survive this long?" 

I shrugged. 

Master Shao was not a fan of guns, and by extension, I didn't like it either. I only knew about the various types and models because Michael wouldn't shut up about anything related to guns. 

Musa's men might have run out of patience at our deliberation and decided it was high time to shoot at us. I heard loud cracking sounds and several bullet holes appeared at the side of Gio's car. 

"Goddammit!" he hissed. 

Ms. Yin wailed at the sacrilege.

Gio shoved me at the passenger side as he positioned himself at the driver's seat in no time. We were speeding out of the hospital parking lot seconds after. Musa's men were not far behind and were preparing for another volley of bullets. 

Gio threw the gun at me, his eyes fixated on the road. He made a mad dash towards a deserted by-pass highway. "Just aim and pull the trigger." 

That easy, huh? 

I rolled down the window panes, aimed, took a shot, and hit the pole at the side of the road.  I felt, rather than saw, Gio rolled his eyes at me.

"It's difficult, okay?"  I defended myself. 

A hail of bullets assaulted our car, and we ducked as low as we could.

"Shoot again, but try hitting the actual targets this time." 

I narrowed my eyes at him, but I aimed and took a shot again. It hit a garbage can. 

"Try aiming for the garbage cans this time. Let see what happens," he said. 

My eyes narrowed at him some more. 

"Know what, fuck it," I muttered. I opened the passenger door of our speeding car and threw the gun at our pursuers like a boomerang with all my might. The gun collided against the windshield of the car, causing it to crack in spiderweb formation. The car swerved and slowed down but continued in pursuit. 

"Did you just..." Gio stared at me, incredulous. 

"Uh-huh." 

"That's limited edition! It was lined with gold!" 

It was my turn to gape at him.

"Who the hell line their guns with gold?" 

"I do," he hissed. 

"Uhm, well, they slowed down a bit. Hard to drive with a cracked windshield." I gave him a weak smile. He was about to say something when we heard several gunshots and we instinctively lowered our heads. 

"Uh, do you have other weapons in this car?" I asked Gio gingerly. 

"Yes, I have a spear and a sword lying somewhere." 

My eyes perked up. "Really?" 

"Of course, not!" he roared. 

"Oh." That was all I manage to say as another wave of bullets assaulted us. 

"Goddamit!" we said simultaneously. I would have said "jinx" with a matching hand sign if our situation wasn't deadly. 

I noticed an abandoned construction site not far ahead. "Uh, Gio, how good are you at hand-to-hand combat?"  

He looked at me, a bit wary at what was going on inside my head. "Bad idea. They have guns, it will be a gun-to-hand combat, love."

"Just answer the goddamn question!" I insisted. 

He sighed, but answered, "Quite good."

Another set of bullets rained down on us. I felt one grazed my arm but I paid it no mind. 

"Then, steer and stop at that construction site, will you?" 

"What exactly are you planning?" 

"Please, just do it. We won't last long like this." 

Gio looked at the blood soaking my clothes with concern and sped up towards the abandoned construction site. I alighted as soon as the car stopped, and looked for my weapon of choice--a discarded metal pipe. I found one in no time, stacked among other pipes of varying sizes. I smiled. 

It about time we have some action again, right? Enough resting, I'm bored. And what can you say about that title? *wink* *wink*

Yours Forever, 

RF

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