DRIVE WEST

NINE - The Death of Zen Bellamy

"Are you happy, Monday?" He murmured.

DAY TWO - 10:43AM

Ezra came into the shop unlike his usual self.

Yes, he still looked like the man she had seen that first day, buying her poppies and arranging dates, but this man came in looking down, carrying weight on his shoulders.

He didn't even look at her when he came in, he simply walk over and hugged her so desperately that she had to take a step back to find her balance. He towered over her in height, so his back was arched down as his head leaned upon her shoulder.

In hushed tones he admitted, "I missed you more than you know."

She ran her fingers on the back of his neck, "Was your mom too hard on you?"

He allowed himself to pause, enjoying the embrace for a last lingering second before taking a step back from her and shaking his head. She raised his chin with her palm, so softly it felt like he was made of porcelin. "How long has it been since you've slept?"

He wanted to cry, but all he allowed to show was hesitation. Under his breath, he murmured, "Four days."

She shrank and shoved his hair back away from his face, their noses inches away, "Why didn't you call me?" Zen softly asked.

He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, not replying. He had to gather every strength in him not to break down at this moment.

She closed her eyes too and rested her forehead on his and they breathed in silence for a while, and it was the most vulnerable moment either one of them had ever shared. Monday March stood there, looking into the eyes of a man who was probably a kidnapper and a murderer, and caressed the back of his head very softly. The line between Zen and March had been blurred before, but she had seen enough now to bury Zen Bellamy in a rusty grave six feet underground, and leave her there to rot.

"When I was little, my dream was to be a spy." She mumbled.

Ezra's face brightened, "You? A spy?"

She smiled, "Yeah, like a secret agent." A soft chuckle left him as he tried to imagine the flower-shop girl holding a weapon, "Silly, I know." She whispered, without smiling, "The point is, I was such a shy kid that I found out a way to say what I wanted to say without having to say it." He opened his eyes slowly and looked at her. "Every time there were people around and my mom asked me something, I'd go up to her ear and whisper something like 'Number One' instead of saying no. She was the only one who knew my codes."

His brows drew together, "I don't get it. Number One?"

She gave a half-smile, "The initials of the sentences would spell out what I was trying to say. Number One, N-O."

He grinned, and then as if he remembered something, the smile faded and he leaned against the wall.

She looked at him with grace, "What I'm trying to say is, you can tell me the truth. We can find a way to understand each other, Ezra. I don't care if we have to make up stupid little codes," She smiled and their eyes met, "You can always tell me the truth." There was a pause here. Monday looked at him with intensity. She was close to the truth and it felt delicate but dangerous. "Tell me what happened on your trip."

At this moment, Ezra's thumb softly toyed with her lower lip, looking at it in detail, like she was already a memory. He breathed in and then out, and then stood up straight, "I have to go."

"Wait!" She said, following him as he walked to the exit, "What just happened?"

He looked at her, "I can't do this anymore. I'm sorry."

"What? Wait, what is happening??" She touched him trying to manage the mess.

He buried both hands in her hair, framing her face, "If anything happened to you I would die." Then he pulled away, and left.

Neither one of the two things got fixed.

-

EZRA BRIGHTLY'S APARTMENT, LATER THAT NIGHT

He slammed the apartment door strongly and then kicked the living room side table and watched it fly across the room.

"Whoa, big guy!" Otis shouted, extending both palms towards his furious friend, "What'd the side table ever do to you?"

Ezra sat on the couch, covering his face with his hands. Otis sat beside him, "What happened?"

"I'm not seeing her again." Ezra cried, then he took his hands away from his face and looked at his friend with urgency, "Don't let me see her again. No matter what I tell you. Promise me you won't let me see her ever again."

One of Otis' eyebrows darted up, "Is this about that girl with the weird name?" He looked around the room with the side of his eyes, distrustfully, then stood up and grabbed his computer.

He typed something on it and his face crunched even more as his questions grew. He stopped for a second and looked up at Ezra, "Hey, remember when I did a background check on her and she was squicky clean?"

Ezra didn't care, "Yeah."

"I followed her to the gym that first week and took a couple pictures of her, right." Otis looked back at his screen, "Well, she was wearing one of those gym-- yoga tops girls wear or something, with the bare shoulders, you know--"

Ezra stood up quickly, "What's this, you stalked her?"

Otis stood up quickly in reaction, raising both hands, "Okay, calm down, buddy. I'm doing us both a favor, remember? My only job is to keep up safe."

"And you've been doing a hell of a job with that, huh?" He pushed the boy and then pointed at him, "You stay away from her, do you understand?"

Otis reached for his computer and showed Ezra the screen, "Look at her back. Look at her back!" Ezra gave him a dirty look and then viewed the picture. "That's a deep wound scar. I'm guessing a knife, by the looks of it. It's sloppy too; messy." They stood in silence for a couple of seconds. Looking at the screen from behind Ezra's shoulder, he asked, "What did you say she worked with, again?"

"She works at a flower shop. Family business."

Otis snorted in a chuckle. Ezra darted a look at him brushing the grin off his face.

"Sounds like someone owes me an apology." Said the cocky boy. His friend continued to stare at the picture, hypnotized by the scar.

Otis walked away from him and grabbed a cigarette, "Oh, Grey, I've got a good one, check it out: What did one flower say to the other flower after their friend betrayed someone's trust?" Ezra turned his head and waited as his friend lit the smoke. "She was leafed for dead. Get it?"