It was difficult to say goodbye to Renauld.
Sebastian tried to keep himself from crying as he was given the money and information he needed to leave town.
“This is between us, now. When you reach the next few towns, make sure you keep an eye out for your sister,” Renauld told him just before Sebastian was out the door.
“This is an outrage!” Catarina howled as she was pushed into a holding cell. “Do you imbeciles have any idea who I am?!”
The policemen held tight as she tried to break free from their iron grip. She was then thrown into the cell, and locked up.
Right after she was pushed to the ground, Catarina stood back up and grabbed hold of the bars. Furiously, she tried shaking them.
By the time Horse-Face crawled back out of his hiding place, The Builder had ceased their rampage. Now they stood in the carnage, shaking and holding their hunting knife.
He kept his guard up in case they were still in a destructive state of mind. Instead The Builder opened a portal back to the base. When they glanced at him, they growled an order to him.
“Go get the other three assistants,” they demanded. “And make sure you get my China Lake and Molotovs.”
“So…” Sinbad looked even more confused as the group left the darkened house with Sebastian. “We’re going where now?”
“I guess we’re going to Sebastian’s house,” Shark answered as he took a hold of Sagebear now. “That’s probably what Liam was implying, anyway.”
Nobody commented on the absurdity of taking the advice of a ghost. All of them simply continued on to the palatial estate where Catarina lived.
The figure before all of them turned to look at them. Sagebear immediately stepped forward and tried to sniff his feet.
He smiled down at her. “You came back! And you brought friends! And…” Here he bent down to Sebastian and looked him in the eyes. “And Sebastian came back too!”
Sebastian’s face was already streaked with dried tears. His lower lip trembled as he tried to fathom the reality of seeing Liam now.
The corpse in the bathtub had to have been there for days, if not weeks. The telltale signs of suicide could be seen on the edge.
Shark and Sinbad had stopped with the screaming now, and just gawked at the tub filled with blood. Sagebear just sniffed at the lacerated arm that dangled over the side of the tub.
“No, Sagebear!” Shark told her in order to keep her from getting too close. “I can’t believe nobody knew this body was here…”
(Warning! Implications of suicide!)
“Remember back when I lived at the mansion, and you came over that one time?” Shark asked Sinbad as they were traversing the rainy town. “When Bill ran a golf cart through the front door?”
“Uhh…Kind of?” Sinbad switched the hand he was holding Sagebear’s leash with as he tried to think. “I remember you telling me not to watch him afterwards, because it’d encourage him.”
Shark nodded. “It feels so long ago now…What was it, two? Three years ago?”
The clouds in the sky were threatening rain later that morning.
Shark and Sinbad made certain to prepare for it by bringing an umbrella. Sinbad carried it over his shoulders as the two of them walked Sagebear in the overcast weather.
As another precaution, Sagebear had on her doggy raincoat. She happily trotted in front of them, panting the entire way. It seemed she was walking her humans, instead of the other way around.
(Note: Freaky/weird shared dream bullshit)
A few hours later, dawn was beginning to break in Hidden Springs.
Sinbad didn’t remember falling asleep again, but he had to have if he were waking back up. Looking over, he saw that Sagebear was still laying on Shark’s chest.
Carefully, he reached over and pet her on the head. He then got out of bed once more and wandered over to the kitchenette.
It was still dark out when Sinbad awoke. He reluctantly pulled away from his still sleeping fiance, and got out of bed.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Sinbad grabbed his pajama pants and pulled them on. He wanted to watch some TV, but he didn’t want to wake Shark up.
Shark looked so peaceful as he kept slumbering. Every once in a while, however, he shivered. Cringing at this, Sinbad pulled the blanket up on him. This looked to stop the shivering.
