Some Time Ago pt.8: Good Day Gone Bad
01 Nov 2019Maul Montresor
A few weeks have passed since the Cunning Blade heist. "Heist" really isn't the correct word, it turned out to be more of a rescue if anything. The crew had decided to dump all the information they had gathered on the shipment and cut communications. It was best to remain in the dark for a while until all of this passed. If things were different, TerraBites, Al Capwned and Maul may have been considered heroes but none of them needed or even wanted that kind of attention. There was still no word from Xero.Maul was sitting in his apartment watching classic horror films to pass the time. The apartment appeared to have finally been organized and somewhat clean, a perfect indication of how bored he truly was. There was a light knock at the door. "This is it." He thought, "Those assholes that were behind that slave transport have finally found me." He quietly moves towards the door, making sure to grab a knife out of the knife block on the kitchen counter. Just as he is about to open the door, a female voice comes from the other side.
"I know you're in there! I can hear those cheesy movies you like so much from out here." It was Cate.
He places the knife back in the block and presses the button to open the door. He was slightly stunned by her appearance. This was the first time he had ever seen her out of her work uniform and cleaned up.
"Um..Hello?" She says with a little wave.
He remains silent but returns the wave.
"Are you okay? You look like you haven't slept in a while."
She wasn't wrong. He hadn't had a good nights rest since before the Cunning Blade job.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just been...you know...busy with work and stuff."
She raised her eyebrows and nodded to express her disbelief as he poured that terrible excuse of a sentence out of his mouth.
"Well, I was going to ask if you wanted to come grab a bite to eat with me but if you're too tired, I'll understand."
He nodded and began to agree that he was indeed too tired but Cate had already stepped inside the apartment. She seemed to have noticed that he had cleaned his apartment.
"Wow, so you aren't a complete slob then, are you?" She says smiling at him after scanning the apartment.
He takes a moment to look over the apartment and is surprised by his own handy work.
"Yeah, I've been pretty bored lately." He then points at a radiator that was previously hidden by boxes. "You know, I didn't even know that thing was there."
Cate's face lights up and she grabs his hand as she walks backwards out the door, lightly tugging on his arm.
"So let's go! Let me save you from your boredom and then you can owe me one."
Maul looked at her smiling face and wondered why she was even interested in him. It's true that he was the only friend she had made since moving here but why? Then it occurred to him, she too was the only real friend that he himself had at the moment. The thought caused a warm smile to slowly creep across his face as she pulled him through the doorway into the hall.
They make their way to a cheap diner, much like the one that Cate worked at. She expressed how she liked to come to places like this and tip the waitresses well, in hopes that one day someone would do the same for her. They were sitting opposite of each other at a booth. Maul was staring out the window to his right, lost in thought.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Cate said expressing her concern.
Maul snapped his vision back on her and smiled.
"Yep." He looked down at her meal and tried to change the subject. "So, you're pretty big on breakfast foods, huh?"
Cate grinned and sarcastically commented on his order. "Well, do you eat anything other than pizza and cheeseburgers?"
He looked down at his half eaten cheeseburger and back up to her. "Touché"
They both let out a light chuckle.
"So what do you do? I mean, I know you work on computers and stuff but..." Cate asked.
He knew he couldn't tell her the truth so, he settled for a half truth.
"I work in cyber security. It's pretty boring stuff."
"Mmm." Was all that could escape Cate's mouth as it was full of pancake.
After about an hour of normal chit chat and getting to know one another they decide to head back home. They walk up the stairs and arrive on their floor. Cate decides to walk Maul to his door, considering he was so socially awkward that he could barely comprehend the definition of manners, much less what he was supposed to do at the end of a so called "date".
Standing outside of Maul's door, they awkwardly stare at each other for a moment before he decides to break the silence.
"Thanks for getting me out of for a bit. It felt good to just...talk, ya know? You're kind of one of the only people I actually talk to."
Cate smiled.
"See? I told you I'd save you from your boredom. Now you owe me one, remember? That was the deal."
Maul smiled back. "Sure, anything."
Cate lightly kissed Maul on the cheek.
"I'm going to hold you to that. Now go get some sleep, you look like shit." She said as she smiled and turned to walk back towards her apartment down the hall.
Maul continued to smile at her as he watched her walk away. His eyes were locked onto her as he typed his passcode in the the keypad to open his door. As soon as the door opened he was bashed in the face by the butt of a pistol being held by a large man in a suit. He stumbled backwards back into the hall. Cate began to scream. He looked down the hall to see that she was being grabbed by a similarly dressed man.
"You pissed off the wrong people you little fucking twerp. Do you realize how much money we lost because of you?" The man yelled as he grabbed Maul by his shirt collar. Something told him that these were the guys behind the illegal slave transports.
"Hey, she didn't do anything, man! Let her go!" Maul shouted at the man down the hall that was holding Cate as the man holding him smashed him in the face again with his pistol. A gash had formed over his eyebrow from the first hit and this second hit caused his nose to bleed.
The man holding Maul began to lose his temper with all the screaming going on. Lucky for them, the neighbors in this building knew better than to see what the racket was. This was a bad part of the station to live in after all. It comes with the territory.
He began beating Maul in between each syllable that he shouted. "Shut"..."the"..."fuck"..."up!" The last hit causing Maul to black out entirely.
Cate screamed in protest as the other man wrestled to put a gag over her mouth and dragged her down the stairs. The man that knocked out Maul, picked up his unconscious body, slinging him over his shoulder and followed the other man down to street level. A vehicle was waiting for them. One man wrestled Cate into the back seat and the other threw Maul in with her and slammed the door shut.
The two men took a moment.
"Damn, that bitch can scream. My fucking ears are ringing." Cate's kidnapper says as he digs in his ear with his pinky.
The other man grunts as he holsters his pistol. "Come on let's go, Boss said we don't have much time."
Both men get in and drive the vehicle into the busy streets of the station.