Chapter 3: Watch The Blood
9th of Gavos 9:00 a.m.
Rick ascended out of the water and was met with the sight of the Nexus Memorial. A great brass ship erected on the tiny island just below the Crick District, memorializing the discovery of the Nexus by William L. Tielen a priest of the Holy Wanderers and bankrolled by the Malavon Empire.
Currently he could see no one was on the island so Rick felt safe to pull himself up and change in one of the public bathrooms leaving his wetsuit gear in a stall. As he went to leave, he heard voices.
“-Water on the ground?”
“Yeah,”
“By the ocean?”
“Yeah,”
“Which is full of water?”
“Well now that you put it that way it sounds absurd. But the water led to the bathroom.”
“Fine.”
The door was swung open, Rick squeezed his body behind it. as the two guards entered.
“hey,” one called to the other while looking in a stall, “Wet scuba gear-”
Rick took that moment to make a break for it outside the door while the two guards were looking in the stall. He rushed to the small footbridge that allowed access to the island and hopped the simple chain barrier and quickly moved to blend in with the crowds on the street.
Slowly he moved up the island to Mid Street where he heard the familiar sound of Fuzz and Drum and as he neared, he saw an old man playing:
I killed my love.
Watch the blood.
In blind rage
Watch the blood.
She spoke wisdom.
Watch the blood.
I raged in my chains.
Watch the blood.
I was taken captive.
Watch the blood.
For my crimes
Watch the blood.
They blinded me.
So Now I can
no Longer watch the blood.
When the old man stopped playing, he looked at Rick and Rick said, “I haven’t got any money for you, I’m sorry.”
“I am old, what do I have need of money for?” The old man asked, “I play my music for the deaf masses to hear my message.”
“How can the deaf hear?”
The old man smiled “That is the kicker isn’t it.” He then put his foot to the bass and began a new beat which slowly faded away as Rick walked putting the words of a kooky old man out of his mind.
He stopped by his old apartment building, boards covered in graffiti blocked the doors and windows. He stopped an older lady, “How long has this been abandoned?”
“Oh, ever since the mess about a traitor to the nation having lived there everyone slowly abandoned the building not wishing to be associated with such scum.”
“Hmm,” Rick nodded, “Reasonable.”
“It is it is,” she said walking away.
With a tightening of his lips, he turned and made his way up the street to the police station. He found a bench with flaking paint across from the station and waited.