The Trial of Cyri. Chapter Ten. REVISED

CHAPTER TEN

Ronnie placed his coffee cup next to Job’s, but across from Cyri’s. They all sat at the round table in the coffee shop in the middle of the day. They were all bored, nothing to do, and it has been a while sense it was just them three sitting around, talking to one another. Most of the times the past few weeks, when they meet, it had to deal with business or, like when Cyri’s parents got out of prison, needing comfort. So, just to sit around with two good friends and share a few cups of coffee was what Cyri wanted.
“Do you really like working here at all?” Cyri asked Job as she placed down her cup filled with Blueberry Cobbler coffee.
“It’s okay, I guess.” He responded. “I mean, yeah it would have been better to work in a regular coffee house. But, to have this place combined with a book shop makes it better. At least I have ten trillion books I can skim while I am bored.” They all agreed.
“Now, Cyri,” Ronnie asked, looking at her. “There is one thing I am wondering: how are you coming along without Vincent? I mean, you are not going mad or anything, right?” Cyri laughed a little.
“And what? Be like that bimbo in that vampire series? Hell no. I will put it like this: I miss him like everyone else. That I will admit. But, be so obsessed that I want to kill myself if I am not around him? No. Not at all.”
“Really?”
“Really. Oh, wait. You want me to act all depressed? Sorry, but not going to happen anytime soon.” She leaned back, sipping her drink with a smile on her laugh. “Besides, I have more important matters at hand and you two should be aware of that.”
“And I was hoping that we would have a conversation that did not involve business.” Job said with a little whine in his voice.
“I was not going to bring up business Jobby Boy, what I was going to bring up is something else entirely. But sense you brought it up, we might as well talk about it. What I want to know is, quite simply your opinions on the footage recorded by Jadis. Your opinions, thoughts, etc.” Both Job and Ronnie thought for a few seconds until Job had to go to the cash register to fulfill his job.
“Okay Ronnie, sense you are here, what is your opinion?” Cyri looked him dead in the eye.
“Well, I do not really know. I mean, let’s talk about Mychael first. If he is really hearing the voice of Ratliff in his mind, then I doubt it is anything supernatural. No matter what he said. In my opinion, I think it is what everyone is think: he is loosing his fucking mind. I am only now wondering how long it will be before he finally cracks under all of this.” Ronnie chugged down the rest of his coffee. He looked at his cup and laughed.
“You know Cyri,” he said. “With the amount of coffee we all drink, I am surprised that no one decided to go and throw us all into rehab.” Cyri just shook her head.
“Okay, I will admit that we are all coffee addicts, but it is not like we are some college kid that drinks himself to having heart attacks. Now, back on topic.” Cyri’s tone changed. If there was one thing that all the members agreed on: she is an expert on that. “My opinion stands as what I told Vincent in my last update. He might be seeing Ratliff in reality, but not quite. We all know those two were close and Mychael could have seen another side to Ratliff that no one else has seen. I refuse to completely believe it, but there might have been a good side to him. Like the Garret I once knew.”
“You know sis,” Ronnie retorted, shaking his head. “The fact that you even speak of Ratliff like that after all he had done, it just amazes me.”
“Well,” She lowered her voice. “after we killed that fucker, I stopped caring about what he has done. Even though I am trying to deal with some aspects of this, I am trying to put the past behind me. But, like some things: that is beyond easier said then done. You have my parents, Donnie, and who know what else will happen. Ratliff, unless something actually happens with him, is a chapter I am trying to close.” Job came back with more cups of coffee (all classic roast) for them.
“Only thing that sucks about giving you all coffee: it comes out of my pay check.”
“Then why do you keep giving us coffee?” Cyri asked.
“Simple: I like to treat my friends.” He took a sip of his coffee, then cleared his throat. “Now, onto what you asked of me Cyr. My opinion on this entire Mychael dilemma is simple: it is all an excuse. That or his alcohol is getting to him. How I look at it: if it is an excuse, then he might be changing his mind about how he is in terms of us or them. If it is alcohol problems, then that is pretty much self explanatory.” Cyri nodded.
“What do the others think?”
“Well, from what I can get,” Ronnie answered. “The girls have all have different opinions ranging from what we think to him just bluffing. Same with the guys. This, Cyri, is a pretty basic thought about him. But, with Blaze, from what I can get out of him, thinks Mychael is turning schizophrenic and if that is the case, he thinks we should go and just lock him up in an insane asylum.” Cyri laughed under her breath.
“Do that with all the people we despise who are trying to ruin us and then that will make our job BEYOND easier.”
“But, overall, most of us think he is just having mental problems. Unless he does something earth shattering, we should not have to worry about him all that much.” Ronnie leaned back.
“Okay, I see how all of this stands. Hopefully, with Blaze sneaking around, we should be able to get some more info on him.” Cyri looked at them to see if they had any other comments to make. They had known.
“Well, enough of that conversation. Now, on a more important matter: who here has seen any good films as of recent?” When Cyri asked that, they all fell into a mini fit of laughter.

Tad stared at his screen for sometime. He knew what they told him. He understood what they meant. But for him to do so was completely out of the question on too many levels. How he looked at it, he deserved her. He wanted her. And to hell what anyone else thought, he was going to get her sooner or later.
But at the same time, he understood what would happen if he continued on this path, he knew of the outcome. He just wished that Coraline, who was sitting on his bed going over his poems, would have something to say about this. She did, but not at all what he was expecting.
“Depressing, depressing, DEPRESSING!!!!!!” She screamed as she threw his poetry book across the rooms. “Reading that, I think I just killed ten brain cells. And I am blond, so I need any and all that I can get.” She laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling.
“You know, there is one thing I noticed about you boys. You all constantly obsesses over one girl until it get’s sickening.” She looked at him. “I know that I hate bitching, but it is annoying and I am not the only one who thinks so. Even all of our friends agree. Tad, you need to knock this out. Remember when we use to date? You never had any of these problems. What happened to that time?” Tad looked at her.
“Time changes. I do not remember. All I think now, in terms of love, is Cyri.”
“And as I say: you are pitiful.” She sighed. “Love, love, love, love, love. That is all I hear now a days! I turn on the TV. and I hear about how people try to kill themselves over this, kill others over that. And yet, I am still wondering if Cyri even knows about what you and Vincent done the day she went to torture Donnie.”
“She better not, at all, be aware of that.” Tad raised his voice.
“Calm your skinny ass down.” Coraline responded, not at all approving of his tone. “To the best of my knowledge she has no idea of your’s and his’ brawl. I still can not believe that you went, got him out of his house, with the intention to beat him up!”
“Well, believe it.” Tad said. “I did it, and I have to live with it. Do I regret it? In some aspects yes. But do I wish I could have busted his lip? Yes. The only thing I can not believe is that he was able to defeat me that quickly.”
“Well, what do you expect? During that time, he was busy making his ‘jacket’ and you just happen to be the one to be the test subject on it.”
“Yeah, one thing I did not aspect.”
“What where you trying to accomplish by fighting him?” She looked into his eyes.
“Simple: I was hoping to frighten him into stop this entire sets of charades of violence.”
“With more violence?”
“Violence shall with Violence be expelled.”
“It does not work like that! You do not get it, do you? The more you keep fighting Vincent, the more you continue to hate him, the more pain you will be causing not only you, but your friends. But, you know, only you can realize that and when you actually learn to grow the fuck up and deal with this, the better off we will all be.” She stood up and walked over to him. When he looked up at her, she went and quickly pressed her lips against his. “Tad, I will be honest with you: I actually like you and all, but I can not stand this if you constantly act like some tragic hero all the time by saving a girl that does not need saving. Remember: You are cute and all, but you are too much on an asshole right now. Stop it.” And with that, she grabbed her handbag and left.
Tad sat at his desk and started thinking about all that Coraline said. He knew that she had a point. Hell, he even knew that he himself was annoying himself. But, something inside of him did not want to stop fighting for her, being Cyri. Part of him wanted to let her go. It was nerve wracking.
He turned on his computer and started looking at some of his diary entries he kept. He wondered if Blaze had read any of them. If he did, what would have been his reaction other then laughing his ass off at how stupid and pathetic this kid was.
As he read each one, he started to notice how repeating it was getting. Each one, over and over again, was the same. It was like this for about two months sense Vincent left. He knew that, at that moment, if he knew Vincent’s e-mail address, he would have sent a message to him trying to apologize for how he acted.
Regardless, due to him not knowing that, he decided that one thing he will have to try would be making this all up for his friends. Coraline was right: everyone was getting pissed off at him. He wished he lived near Cyri again like he used to. But, due to him not, there was only one way: tomorrow at school.
He would e-mail her, but due to her never answering any of his emails, or even for that matter phone calls, there would only be one thing to try. And, hopefully it will work tomorrow. He took out a piece of paper and started writing.

Blaze looked at his computer monitor with Edvard Grieg’s In The Hall Of The Mountain King being blared in the back ground. In his mind, there was nothing better in the world then having classical music playing while he worked. Due to the late hour that he was working, everyone else was asleep so that gave him complete rein to do whatever he wanted.
The first thing he started doing was checking everyone’s computers. For the most part, it was all basically what it normally was: all of them looking up videos, games, things to buy, and their diary pages. It seemed a little odd that everyone would be keeping updates on what they have been doing, but to the knowledge of Blaze, it was all their way of sucking up to him to make sure that he did not expect or sense anything abnormal.
There was one person who’s computer he found not too much to his liking. And that was Tad’s. For the most part, he wanted to go and just right him a letter telling him to get a life and stop obsessing over Cyri. But, he figured that it would be more fun for him to sit back and just watch him make a fool of himself.
Enough of that, he decided. He went to his main hacking program and went into the computer of Mychael’s. The only thing that caught his attention was a few documents that Mychael had written. They were mostly of him and Ratliff (or what was Ratliff) talking to one another.
From what Blaze could tell, it was Mychael just having regrets about the entire situation. But, there was one part of all of this that got his attention. One certain little paragraph that made him curious:

“I can not believe that this is still happening to be. I am still having images and hearing Ratliff’s voice, but I do not know what is wrong anymore. The more I think about it, the more I feel like I am loosing my mind. It could be due to the job that we have to carry out. It could be the future of everyone. I just do not know. One thing I know he keeps bugging me about is joining Cyri’s group and help to clear his name (he won’t shut up about that). I have been thinking about it, and I just do not know. Should I, or should I not? I know what my friends say. I know what Ratliff says. I do not know what I think. But, there is one thing I am aware of: before I do anything else, I need to make up my mind before I launch with this plan that Laser has asked us to carry  out. If I turn back afterwards, I am dead. I just fucking know it.”

After reading that, Donnie started wondering what could have been meant by Laser? The first thing to pop into his mind was Dieter Laser and wondered if that could have been him. But, he doubted it. From what he could tell, it might have been. But someone like him working with them? He just did not know. But, he was going to end up doing some more research into the night until he can find out what it up with all of this. Plus, what is this plan that they are conducting. He turned on Mussordsky’s Night On Bald Mountain as he hacked into the computers of Lee and Snoop. Once you have access to one computer, finding related ones via emails and messages are kid’s level.
While going into one of the computers (Lee’s), he noticed a word file that was written. Opening it, it had parts of his and the other’s plan. There was only one part that was written, and said it was something new. Reading it, he knew that hell was about to break loose between Lee, Snoop, and Mychael.

Mychael was sitting in his room, listening to some music while trying to calm his mind. He was asleep earlier, but was awoken by another dream related to Ratliff. In his mind, he could not take it anymore. Even more when he tried to tell Lee and Snoop about all of this.
It frustrated him that even his own friends refused to believe anything that he tried to tell them, but what can he do? He done everything from doing research to trying to ignore it. The only response was that of Ratliff coming back, talking to him more. The conversation that he had with him earlier was still stuck in his head:
He was sitting in a pure white room on one of two black chairs. He sat in one while Ratliff sat in another. They were quiet, just staring at one another. In this world, it felt like an hour went by sense they began sitting. It was not until Ratliff cleared his voice did Mychael noticed anything at all.
“My friend,” Ratliff said in a clear tone. “as I have been in your head, I have been trying to get you to listen to me, but apparently you refuse to. I have asked you numerous times why is that, but always the answer of no. You do no even put any thought into your reasoning. Now that you are here and so am I, please tell me your logic.” Mychael thought for a few moments before he answered.
“Because… in truth I am afraid.” Mychael looked at Ratliff before bursting into a fit of rage. “I am afraid of all of this! I am afraid of the life I have put myself in! I am afraid of the outcome! Afraid of  the people’s lives I have destroyed! The innocence that I have wrecked! When you were alive, no one saw what it would lead to. I never did. I only joined in because you were my friend and I had to be some dumb ass nigger that listened to all that you said. But, once you were killed, I never turned back. I kept going forward. I blamed everything on Vincent, Cyri, and all of them. Then when Donnie was tortured, I still had my hatred.”
“Then why, Mychael, did you continue doing all of this?” Ratliff looked at Mychael who was starting to form tears around his eyes.
“I was afraid. After all the brutality, I started thinking about my life. I started wondering if this was really the life I wanted to lead. I looked at television, heard music that said that this was a great life style. That said if I was to continue on this path that everything would be great. Everything would be wonderful.
“but then, I started looking at the hell it has caused. Looked at where I was at in my life. I want out. There, I said it. I want out. I hate this, I despise this, I want out Ratliff.” once Mychael said that, Ratliff put his hand up.
“Before we continue, there is one thing I want to make clear. That is that Ratliff Hodge burns in hell for all eternity, my birth name is Garrett Favreau Hodges and as such, I want - no, I Demand - my name be Garrett if you must speak to me at all.” Mychael nodded his head.
“Now, as to wanting out, there is one thing and way of what you can do: I know what Laser, Fulaytar, and Donnie have asked you to do. My thing is: do not do it. At all. Turn it down. Tonight, what you should do is leave. No questions asked.”
“But, what about my family? I can not leave them here, can I not?”
“You have a point Mychael. This is what you do, sense you have done this before, write a letter to them both saying that you have to go. Tell them that you will call them once you reach your destination. Find a trustworthy friend you can stay at for a while.” Garrett took a breath.
“I do not know. Just, after all that has happened and that I know that I want to escape this life, I just do not know -” Mychael looked overhead as Garrett kissed the top of his head.
“Two things. First, I am not gay. I am just kissing you as a friend/ guardian spirit (I am guessing you can call me that). Second is that I have complete faith that you will be able to do this well. Just have faith in yourself and this will work.” 
Once the dream ended, Mychael was awoken with a few tears in his eyes. He put on his headphones and started listening to whatever song he first found on his MP4.
He started thinking and decided that it would be best to go with what Garrett had said.
He jumped off of his bed and started to get ready, the first thing he found was a piece of paper and started jotting down a quick message explaining where he would be at. He left it on his desk as he started wondering what to get to prepare his departure. Then he jumped in shock at seeing Lee by his front door.
“Yo,” Lee said. Mychael placed his hand over his heart, trying to breath.
“Fuck, you nearly scared the shit out of me!” Mychael said, leaning against a wall. “Now, why are you here?”
“Simple: Me and Snoop have orders to perform the job tonight. Apparently, it was moved from tomorrow till tonight.” Lee said with something of a smile on his face.
“Wait, did you get an email or what?” Mychael looked quizzically at Lee. Something did not feel right about this. At all.
“Email. Check if you do not believe me.” Mychael turned on his email and started looking for it. Once he saw that he did not get any email, he saw something off of the reflection of the screen. What he saw was Lee pulling out his gun and started to point it at Mychael.
Once it was in perfect alignment with him, right when Lee’s forefinger was one the trigger, Mychael took his leg and kicked the gun out of Lee’s hand. With a heavy thud, it landed on the ground, but a bullet smashed into a window, breaking it down.
Taking his fist, he punched Lee right in the nose then kicked him in the stomach so that he fell on his back. While the sound of a television and some pictures smashed into the ground, it became Mychael’s shock that he did not hear anything from outside of his room.
Kicking Lee in the head and taking both his and Lee’s guns, he stormed outside and down to where his parents were. When he was able to see into his room, what he saw was too late. Snoop had already fired a second bullet into the mattress that had Mychael’s parents in it.
Thinking beyond fast, he went and stormed out side into the backyard. Jumping over some few sets of fences, he made a run towards down the road not looking back once.