Neurotic Noir: Part 12 -- "A Truthful Reunion" (425 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 2 on 13 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by RyuFu (View user info) at 2005-11-03 10:56:49 EST
Part 1 - "Hole in the Head": http://www.ubersite.com/m/75075
Part 2 - "Perceptive Goth": http://www.ubersite.com/m/75152
Part 3 - "Sex and Tattoos": http://www.ubersite.com/m/75460
Part 4 - "Shpatë Dragua": http://www.ubersite.com/m/75602
Part 5 - "A Kiss for Each": http://www.ubersite.com/m/75721
Part 6 - "Cracked Safe/Broken Levee": http://www.ubersite.com/m/75913
Part 7 - "Coming Into Focus": http://www.ubersite.com/m/76074
Part 8 - "Finally 20/20": http://www.ubersite.com/m/76136
Part 9 - "Phase I Revisited": http://www.ubersite.com/m/77936
Part 10 - "Phase II": http://www.ubersite.com/m/78093
Part 11 - "A Grudge Resolved": http://www.ubersite.com/m/78170
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"I'm an idiot! A moron! A fool! An ignoramus...jackass...dumbass...bitch...youu um, you can stop me any time you want, Jack..."
"I know. Keep it coming...and keep rubbing my neck..."
Okay, maybe I'm milking it a little. But Ronzell did beat the crap out of me before his brains ended up on my jacket. I'm sore in about a hundred different places. And Lilly did take advantage of me while my brain was mush.
Well, a different kind of mush than it is now. It makes me wonder how long it took her to realize I couldn't remember anything when she caught up with me the other night. How could someone so beautiful do something so rotten? Goddamn, she's gorgeous.
But she has some explaining to do.
"...a dunce, a dimwit, cretin, nitwit, twit, boob--"
"Okay, you can stop with 'boob.'
"Thank God! I was running out of synonyms for 'idiot.'"
I can think of a few more. But I have more pressing concerns.
"Lilly...Lil--can you please explain to me what's going on? With everything?"
"I...I'm not sure...I mean, what can I tell you that you don't already know?"
"We can start simple." She's still playing hardball. "Like why did you lie to me?"
"Jack, you know I'm sorry!"
"I know you are, but I still don't know why you did it...Lil, please--just tell me why." I can hear her internal debate as if she were yelling into a microphone. She's still hiding something. I know it. It's something bad, but something necessary. I'm not gonna force her into spilling the beans, though. I'm gonna go out on a limb and trust her on this one...
"I love you, Jack. I'm insanely, head-over-heels, moronically in love with you!"
"I, uh..." I, umm...
"Jack, you saw in my diary what it did to me when we broke up...your parents...I became one of Vin's high-end call girls, for God's sake! I did it to spite you...I wanted to hate you so much, but I really just fucking missed you!!" I have to admit that I'm flattered--in some twisted way--that she would join my mortal enemy because she missed me. "Every politician I had to do, I closed my eyes and pretended I was with you. Every time they finished, I would gag when I opened my eyes...go back to the drugs, whatever I could get my hands on. It's been years of this shit, Jack!"
"I'm...sorry? I mean, I don't know what to say, exactly. You miss me, so when I finally come back you pretend not to know me? What if I hadn't hit my head?"
"I don't know...all I know is when I heard you were back--"
"How did you find out I was back?"
"When you picked up that coke for Dave, duhh! That wasn't very smooth, by the way. Getting the goods from one of Vin's personal drug guys? What kind of move was that?"
"I knew he'd find out. I want him to fear what's coming to him as I pick off his little helpers. To be honest, I was sure you would have overdosed and died while I was away."
"Overdosed--yes. Twice. Died? Only on the inside. So where were you all this time, anyway?"
"That's a story for another time, babe. You still have some 'splaining to do." Smooth as silk, I get a chuckle out of her with my Ricky Ricardo impression. And I avoided an awkward subject by sticking with the old one.
"<sigh> The truth is, I'm not sure what I was gonna do. I asked around if anyone had seen you and tracked you to that alley. I waited for you to finish with Dave before I approached you. Even though you still were able to shoot him after you hit your head, I noticed you were a little dazed and confused. But when I realized you didn't recognize me...I dunno, I just thought maybe we could rekindle our old fire without all the bullshit. I just had this wild idea that maybe we could run away from here together...Jack, I just...really...missed you."
Her lips and my forehead--that combination is doing more for my headache than the Tylenol I took. Or maybe it's her tears landing on my face. I know she's telling the truth now, but if I don't get my head off her lap, I'm pretty sure I'll drown.
"Lil, I was expecting to be really pissed about all this, but I'm not. It's weird, I mean I was expecting to literally sweep through town, kill a few assholes and vanish. More or less. On the one hand, you didn't really figure into my plans, but on the other, I think I purposefully blocked you out of my mind all this time. It's just easier pretending not to care for you instead of worrying what would happen if Vin used you as leverage."
"He's been killing me slowly all this time, Jack. It would be nice of him to put a bullet in my brain since I've never had the guts to do it myself. Although I haven't really felt so morbid since you came back."
"That's what I'm afraid of! Now that we both have hope in each other again, Vin can use it against us. I was gonna ask you to lay low while I finished off the rest of what I planned to do, but--"
"I came in and rescued you before Ronzell squished you like a bug?"
"--you saved my life, yeah. Thanks for that, by the way."
"You're welcome. So you think your personal mission has to be a team effort now?"
"Yeah. But I don't want to think of a new plan just yet. It's been a long night." I haven't slept in a while. But she's taking off her clothes...
I can always sleep afterwards.
User Reviews
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-03-23 11:40:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Brilliant.
So many, many people on this website bitch about lack of good posts. They are, without fail, the ones who ignore the good stuff.
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-02-06 18:04:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
first rate shit.
Submitted by Ditka (user info) at 2005-12-27 23:29:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
i didn't wanna write the responses on all of them, but i thought they all deserved +2's, even the one where he kills all the people in the diner. I really hope you finish this series off within a few episodes. I don't think it would be good to carry it on too much longer.
Submitted by Ditka (user info) at 2005-12-27 23:14:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2005-11-21 01:51:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This is a really good series that hasn't received the attention it deserves. I'm sorry I haven't been able to read these later ones until now.
Submitted by MyTeeOne (user info) at 2005-11-10 16:34:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Are you getting back to these any time soon? It's a good series.
Submitted by Fabit (user info) at 2005-11-09 04:23:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
These are awesome, Can't wait for the next one!
Submitted by RyuFu (user info) at 2005-11-03 17:05:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
MyTee: Thank you for reading, and feel free to make those nitpicky suggestions. I'm a bit of a grammar nazi myself (%50 of my job is pretty much checking grammar for procedures in a tech environment), so any mistakes of that nature is the result of my unwillingness to spell check.
I'm compiling all these parts as chapters for a novel(la). Subjecting it to the criticism of knowledgable Uberers is my way of QA'ing it.
That being said, is Jack getting soft? I'd say he's always been softer than he appeared in Part 1. Remember, the weight of his parents' death, his break-up with the love of his life, etc. was temporarily lifted until around Part 8. And then that weight got slammed right back on his shoulders. He's definitely more pensive from Part 9 on.
But I'll see about making sure he doesn't become too much of a pansy. He is a gang leader, after all.
Submitted by MyTeeOne (user info) at 2005-11-03 16:23:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I just stumbled upon this series today so I got to read it all at once. I really like it. I like the story telling, I like the locations, I like the characters. I have a few nit-picky comments but it's all editor shit and in the big scheme of things I don't care about editor shit beasue I'm not an editor. I'll forgive punctuation and grammar if the story is good, and this is good.
Is Jack softening up a bit? He seemed more bad ass in the beginning then he does now? Not that it is good or bad, just my observation. Maybe he is just overwhelmed, I don't know.
Anyway, more please. Love the series.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-11-03 14:27:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
good stuff.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-11-03 12:36:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by RyuFu (user info) at 2005-11-03 12:28:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Until Part 8, I was really just writing freestyle at work. But then the storyline got a little too complicated to write without some structure--mainly continuity issues.
I have an outline of the major events that are still to come, which would take all this to about Part 16, but I might deviate from the outline slightly. For instance, I could have gone into the next major event with part 12, but then I realized I needed some transition, so voila.
And yeah, it's all building up to a pretty substantial shellshocker. There are two endings I'm thinking of...I might post one and then the other as an alternate ending. I'll worry about that when I get to it, though.
Submitted by highlander (user info) at 2005-11-03 12:06:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I really like this; it feels like it's building up to a big finish - I'm guessing there's only a few more chapters left?