| Fan Fiction |
by Hibiscus
This boy, who was currently jumping around making victory punches in the air, he was nineteen. He had shoulder length, soft black hair and large dancing eyes. But there was something watchful about him, something alert as though he was waiting for something…someone.
He was perpetually in a readied state to flee, this boy.
The door opened and Ariel stepped into the room. The boy stiffened even though his back was to the door. He turned slowly, almost fearfully.
“Get your stuff. It’s time to go.” Ariel said tersely. Chun stood at open door, hip propped against the frame.
“Why?” The boy asked, tension radiating off him.
“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to, Fig.”
“Dude, is that Ariel Lin?” The first boy asked in awed tones.
“Ariel Lin? That snooty bitch? Hell naw. This is my aunt from my mom’s side. Can't you tell she’s about thirty?”
“Yeah…” The first boy trailed off uncertainly.
Ariel’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Chun smirked.
“And that isn’t Wu Chun?”
“No way. Ariel Lin hates that bastard! Didn’t you see that TV show?”
Chun stopped smirking.
“Get moving, Figaro.” Ariel interjected.
“Yeah, yeah.” Figaro went and dragged his suitcase from under the bed.
“We’ll wait outside.” Chun and Ariel left, allowing him privacy to make his farewells.
“Where are you going?” Kevin, the room mate asked.
“Didn’t wanna tell you. My grandma’s pretty sick. I have to go back to Canada for a bit.” Figaro lied easily. Enough practice and you could lie about anything.
“Aww man.” Kevin looked awkward, not knowing what to say.
“Yeah, it sucks.”
“But you’re coming back, right?”
“Hell yeah! I still need to beat your ass this game!"
“Yeah right. Bring me back a Canadian chick!”
“Dream on. Hey, I'd better go. They’re waiting.”
“See you soon, man. Hope your granny makes it.”
“Yeah…see ya.”
Figaro hoisted a bag on his shoulder, closed the door softly behind him and walked outside. Perhaps the hundredth farewell he had made. A bitterness flickered in chest and then almost immediately subsided. He looked towards the parking lot and there she was, leaning against the bonnet, perfectly composed. Her eyes revealed none of the tension he knew she was feeling. The guy on the other hand looked…well, he just looked at her. As though she was everything. To him. For him. Figaro grinned to himself. There was a whole lot of mischief he could stir up.
Ariel noticed him first and straightened up.
“Ready to go?”
“No.”
“Get in the car.” Without waiting to see if he obeyed, she got into the driver’s seat and the guy got into the passengers. Figaro didn’t move.
“If you are waiting for Easter, you’ll be waiting a while.” Ariel drawled.
“The Easter Bunny is scared of you. He’d give us a miss anyway.” Figaro grumbled and then finally clambered into the car. “So what’s Wu Chun doing here?”
Ariel didn’t reply. Neither did Chun.
“Maybe no one heard me. Let me try this again. What’s WU CHUN, let me repeat, WU CHUN, doing here in this car at this very moment?”
“Is he always like this?” Chun asked Ariel.
“No. Sometimes he is even worse.” Ariel replied without taking her eyes off the road.
“Hey! Are you ignoring me? Is that what you are doing? Ignoring ME? Well, HMPF!” Figaro scowled.
“Do you think he’ll be quiet now?” Chun arched an eyebrow hopefully.
“No.” Ariel shook her head in negation.
“Omg, dude!” Figaro leaned forward and grabbed Chun’s shoulder. “Tell me you didn’t!”
“Didn’t what?” Chun looked bemused.
“Marry her!”
Chun turned the radio on.
“You did! Oh lord. Okay brother, it was nice knowing you!” Figaro smirked gleefully.
Ariel shot him a dirty look. “You speak too much.”
“Who? Me? Speak too much? I don’t think so. That’s such an atrocious claim! If anything, I think I don’t speak enough. My intelligence is being stifled. Yep, in fact, I will talk even more.”
“Shut up, Figaro.” Ariel scowled.
“Or else what? You’ll kill me? Need I remind you? You’ve already tried twice without much success.” Figaro said smugly.
“I won’t fail a third time.” Ariel warned.
“That’s you said the last five times.”
“Why did you always say that you came to Taiwan for the food?” Chun interrupted their bickering with a frown. He had always thought her reason was odd. Who moves countries for food?
“That’s her attempt at humour, dude. She calls me Fig, you know, as in the fruit? Yeah. That. Fig – food. Get it? It’s not funny. You don’t have to laugh. Your wife doesn’t have a sense of humour.” Figaro smiled cherubically. Ariel rolled her eyes.
A little silence was birthed and Figaro became quiet for a while. Chun breathed a sigh of relief but Ariel took a deep breath anticipating the next wave.
“And do you know why her psycho grandpa is trying to kill me?”
“Yes.” Ariel had filled Chun in on the details.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll tell you again.”
Chun gave in. At that moment, it was the only thing he could do.
“No, let me tell him again.” Ariel suddenly said. “Yes, Fig, I won’t skip any of the great details.”
--------------
Two Years Earlier, Vancouver, Canada
“I want this job to be done first.” Edward Lin stalked into Ariel’s room and threw down a manila envelope on the bed.
Ariel opened her eyes and Edward unwittingly took a step back. It wasn’t Ariel on the bed, it was Fire Light. The darkness of the last kill had not yet faded from her eyes. Edward knew better than to interrupt Fire Light when she slumbered. He had noticed that lately there seemed to be more of Fire Light and less of Ariel. When had she started losing her humanity?
“I’ll come back later. Just make sure this job is done before the next week is out.” There was a strange note of emotion in Edward’s voice. Anxiety, fear, anticipation? Ariel didn’t ponder upon that. She rolled over and fell asleep again.
Three hours later when she awoke refreshed, Ariel reached for the envelope that had fallen to the floor.
“Figaro Zheng. Age: 17.”
Seventeen? That struck her as odd. How could this kid be involved with Edward? What could he have done to get on his bad side?
“He exists, that’s all.” Rafael replied when she asked.
“Huh?” Ariel frowned.
“His father, Samuel Zheng, betrayed Edward. Almost got him caught by the law. Have you ever seen Edward mad? He killed the man, his wife, the elderly parents, heck even the little girl. Somehow, this kid survived. And no, Edward’s not going to rest until this kid is dead and that man’s name has been fully eradicated from this world.
“Oh.” Ariel drank up the last bit of tea in her cup and then got up. “Well, I guess I’ll go make Edward’s greatest wish come true.”
Staking out the house was easy. The foster parents were away on a weekend trip to Whistler and the kid was alone. It really was too easy.
From her vantage point in the maple tree across the street, Ariel saw the kid moving through the rooms of the house, turning on the lights. Phobia of darkness? Well, well, well.
It was a minute’s work to shimmy up the pipes to the balcony and inside through the open door. Once inside, she glided softly, soundlessly through the house. Ariel was nowhere in sight. Fire Light had taken over. A gun shot would be the easiest way, knives tended to create a mess and were, in all honesty, too much work. Ariel wanted to go home and sleep some more so she’d just kill him fast. Yeah, there something good on TV later too. Hmm, maybe she’d order in some Chinese. Or a pizza. Yeah.
Ariel would always remember the music wafting out from the kid’s room. She had been expecting something like punk rock or metal instead she got Enigma’s Voyageur. Her lips twisted wryly. She sometimes killed to that music. Fitting, she thought, he’s got the background music all ready.
Ariel reached for her gun, her favoured browning, and then crept forward. It would be done in an instant. No pain, really. What she didn’t count on was that the kid would come of out of the room right then. They both paused. The hunter and the prey. Ariel got ready to melt in the shadows when the kid said, “I was wondering when you’d get here.”
Ariel gaped at him. A scrawny kid she could take down easily. She wouldn’t even lose her breath. He didn’t seem like he would notice a herd of elephants stampeding his way and he had noticed her. No one noticed her. No one had until then.
“You’re here to kill me, aren’t you?” The kid had stare at her fearlessly. Ariel had frowned. What was she supposed to say? Yes? No offense, it’s just a job?
“You might as well go ahead. You’ve already killed my entire family.” He puffed out his thin chest in a show of bravery and a grudging respect had been born in Ariel.
Ariel stilled at his words. Family. Fire Light. Revenge. The sweet scent of death. And for the first time since Fire Light had breathed her first breath, Ariel felt the prickling of a conscience. Family. That word alone reverberated. She had been walking the edge of danger so much, she had been steeped in so much death, killing to find emotion, killing to feel, that she had forgotten what loss was. Family.
“Are you waiting till I finish saying my prayers or something? Don’t worry. I stopped believing in God a long time ago.”
It was another thing when she killed hardened men, marked by time and their sins but this was a mere kid. He probably still had his milk teeth. Ariel sighed. In one instant she made up her mind. She swung the gun back up and the kid let out a shaky breath but stood his ground. Ariel swore. It was no good. She couldn’t kill him.
“Get packed, kid.” She told him furiously.
------------------
Present
“I thought she was going to kidnap me and have her wicked way with me. Older women, you know?” Figaro grinned at Chun.
“He’s still a virgin.” Ariel told Chun dryly.
Figaro gasped. “I’m never telling you anything again!” He looked wounded.
“I don’t recall asking for this particular type of information,” Ariel shot back.
“Where are we going?” Figaro knew to change the subject when he was losing.
“Home.” Ariel replied, taking the bottle of water Chun was offering her with a thank you nod.
“Are you two going to get mushy on me cuz I just had lunch.” Figaro who was observing them with a great deal of curiousity said.
Chun leaned in and gave Ariel’s cheek a kiss.
“Oy! You are corrupting an innocent mind!” Figaro noticed in rapt fascination that Ariel didn’t pull away from Chun.
“That innocent mind watches porn.” Arie told Chun, smirking when Figaro’s face flushed.
“That’s it! I’m not talking to you ever again!”
“I should be so lucky.”
Five minutes later. “What do you mean home? In case you haven’t realized, EDWARD lives in Canada!”
“Not your home. Mine.”
“Are you becoming batty in your old age?”
“No, you brat. I mean Fiji.”
Chun turned to Ariel. “You really were born in Fiji?”
“Yep.”
“No way!” Figaro bounced in excitement. “Hot babes in bikinis!"
“Whom you probably won’t see.” Ariel burst his bubble.
“What about him?” Figaro looked in askance at Chun.
Ariel raised an eyebrow.
“What about me?” Chun questioned back.
“Are you coming with us?” Figaro replied.
“As if that’s even a choice.” Chun sighed and leaned back in his seat.
“Mushy. Yuck. You should know, it can get really dangerous. Sometimes,” Figaro lowered his voice dramatically, “Ariel tries to cook. I can’t tell you how many times I almost died eating her cooking.”
“I recall you eating every single bite and then asking for seconds.” Ariel told Figaro crossly. Chun watched their interaction grinning.
“Well, I would have starved otherwise. How’d Ge get the plane tickets this time? Guy’s a genius. You should have married him instead.” Figaro was fully aware of Chun’s lethal glares.
“He registered a credit card under three different individuals. One from Japan, one from Malaysia and one from Australia. A hot dog seller, a surfer and a fifth grade teacher. Bought it with three cards. Paid off with cash.”
“Clever.” Chun said and then a thought occurred to him. “How did you come to Taiwan.”
“This kid went to Canada for school; we just ‘borrowed’ his identity. He got paid. He was happy, we were happy. A little bit of disguise and no one noticed.” Ariel explained.
“I’m hungry.” Figaro said plaintively.
“So?” Ariel glanced back.
“So get me food.”
“Do I look like your maid?”
“I’m not going to answer that.”
“Why not?”
“Cuz I would say yes and then you would -.”
“You are not funny.”
“Au contraire, I think I am very funny.”
“Try not to think. You do it wrong anyway.”
“Children,” Chun tried to be pacifying. Two very irate gazes swung towards him. He held up his hands. “I’m just saying, we’re at the airport.”