A/N: I can't apologize enough for how insanely long it has taken me to get this chapter up. After what seemed like an endless amount of writers block and reluctance to post, here it finally is. I think it's a pretty good post-hiatus (again, sorry!) chapter. You'll see why. Thank you so much to everyone for your continued support. It most definitely has NOT gone unnoticed. It means the world! - Allie

Bodhi

Chapter 12: Ice It

I was lying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. We'd been here for three or four days – actually, scratch that, I knew exactly how long we'd been here: four days. Like hell would I allow us to stay trapped in this freaky, desolate night-world for any longer than necessary. Riley and I had been getting comfortable here, living in this small room we had made our own. Despite the comfort of our oasis, not a moment had gone by wherein I felt truly at ease. Both of us could feel that there was something much bigger than we could fathom happening here, right under our noses, and about to arise with a hushed fury and any given moment.

Tonight is the first night I allowed Riley to venture downstairs by herself. To be completely honest I really didn't have much choice in the matter – she put up quite the fight. After who knows how long was spent arguing the matter, she had finally won: she agreed to go downstairs and get closer to finding our guy while I got some much-needed sleep. I thought I was doing fairly well in hiding my exhaustion, but she had a way of seeing past my facade. I hadn't felt rested since we landed in this town. I could feel the thumping music vibrating every corner of the building, keeping me from rest even more so than my own anxiety.

After what felt like days to me, I eventually drifted off to sleep. It was one of those states where it's such a light slumber that I was no longer able to tell the difference between when I was awake or dreaming. I eventually realized that I must have been drifting towards wakefulness when the colours dancing before my eyes faded to black, and all I could hear was the laughter of a girl. The continuous tinkling giggle was gradually accompanied by a soft, lulling form of jazz music. I could almost make out murmurs of what she was saying. When a foreign, more masculine voice responded to her with an indecipherable murmur of its own, I felt myself instantly pulled from my dreamlike state and became aware of my surroundings.

My eyes snapped open when I realized the sounds were coming from somewhere nearby, and weren't just a figment of my imagination.

"You're sure ya aren't from around here, then?" The male voice asked.

"What makes you say that?" The snarky, yet tentative voice that I instantly recognized as Riley's asked in response.

He chuckled. The sound released a horrible chill that shot straight through me.

"Well, for starters, the fact that you're apparently living here… And all by yourself, might I add," He added. His tone was completely curious and conversational – complimented by the goofy accent – and held no harshness or danger in it, yet it still gave me a horrible feeling.

Riley didn't respond.

"Also," The boy continued, "I've never seen you here before. Surely I would'a noticed a fine doll like yourself moseying around this place before just recently."

She chuckled in response. The sound of her laugh being directed at the foreign voice made me almost see red. I quietly freed myself from underneath the blankets and approached the curtain that would reveal whatever sight awaited me on the other side.

When Riley squealed, seemingly in delight – not like I cared – I tore open the curtain and charged into the room.

Some guy was holding her in a dancing embrace, dipping her towards the floor, and the record player – my record player – sent a soft lull of jazz throughout the room. I cleared my throat and my gaze met the boy's harshly. Upon noticing my presence his eyes widened and he quickly muttered something under his breath, hastily returning Riley to a standing position. Good, be scared. Little creep…

"Hi," Riley breathed. Her hair was mussed and fell sporadically across her face. If her easy smile hadn't made me so angry I would have stopped to admire the way she looked.

"What the hell is-?"

"This is Jonny," She cut me off, motioning to the kid. My eyes quickly fell to his hand that still rested on her hip. Josh, or whatever his name was, followed my gaze downward and released his hand as if it were on fire. I couldn't retain the probably-psychotic smile that graced my lips.

"Jeez Bodhi would you relax? I think he can help us."

"And in return, I figured yous could, erm, help myself. If ya know what I mean," The boy smirked.

"Excuse me? We're not here to do favours for shady little… hood rats, alright?" I borderline growled.

"Bodhi!" Riley shouted at me, clearly offended by my choice in wording. I wasn't so proud of it myself, but I was doing my best to not start screaming. I couldn't even decide which one to start with. So naturally, I got rid of the problem.

"You," I pointed at him, my voice booming. The kid looked as if he were about to jump out of his skin, if it were possible. "Get out before I chuck you out of here myself."

Riley stood motionless, finally speechless.

The kid put up his hands as a sign of truce and looked towards Riley.

"I can take a hint, doll. See ya around."

I glared in response.

"… Or not," He muttered nervously before exiting and fleeing down the stairs.

There was a beat of silence before Riley whipped her head away from the doorway he had just fled from.

Her voice was dangerously soft and calm. She seemed almost… amused.

"You do realize he was the first lead I've gotten since we arrived here, right? He's the only one who wants out, it seems. And he knows we can make that happen."

"You told him what we're doing here?" I practically shouted. "Riley how can you be so, so…" I trailed off, my anger disabling any form of tangible thought.

"Oh bite me, Bodhi." She spat. The harshness in her tone and the daggers in her gaze rendered me speechless. For the first time in our relationship, it seemed Riley was disappointed in me. Any victory or rage I had felt earlier vanished as she turned to exit the room.

"Of course I didn't tell him. Gosh, I can't do anything right, can I?" She mused aloud, rather passive aggressively. She then exited the room and headed downstairs.

Let's just say, it took me all of five seconds to start my chase after her.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs I came to a stop. I began whipping my head around frantically in search for her. My eyes intensely searched the bustling party, eventually heading toward what looked to be her, near the makeshift dance floor, which was basically just the center of the room filled with dozens of people. I made a mental note to remind myself to figure out how many people were involved in whatever kind of freaky cult this was.

I finally approached her and placed my hand on her shoulder to get her attention.

The eyes that met mine were unfamiliar and I felt an unmistakeable – yet also unexplainable – disappointment. The dainty blonde looked me up and down and gave a shy smile.

"Well hiya," She announced proudly. "Boss look you got going there. I'm Annie. Your handle?"

I had no freaking idea what she was saying. I sighed and slid my hand down my face.

"Uh yeah," I responded, too distracted to really take in what she was saying. "Sorry I don't really have time for this."

One of her friends must have started listening because another girl piped up.

"Easy slick, no need to be such a jerk," She scowled.

"Yeah," Another chimed in. "Why don't you get bent!"

"D.D.T., creep!"

"Ladies!" The first girl, Annie I think, shouted. "Ice it, alright? Let's just go." And with that they all sent me death glares and fled towards the bar. I seriously have no idea what just happened…

My panic intensified with each second I couldn't find Riley. Finally, after circling around myself a good ten times, I spotted her leaning on the sill of a window (debateable, more just like a hole in the wall) beside the bar. I hastily approached her.

I stood behind her, extending my arm to touch her back, but due to previous events I chose against it and instead leaned beside her. She flinched in alarm due to my sudden presence, but quickly relaxed and sighed, looking straight ahead of her towards the crumbling streets which were dimly lit by the glittering stars and pale grey moon. It was haunting, yet beautiful nonetheless. I turned to face her.

"I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, and I'm sorry."

"You should be," She muttered, her lower lip jutting out slightly.

"Forgive me?" I asked tentatively, giving her a genuine smile. I noticed her face soften ever so slightly as she finally turned to look at me.

"Just listen to me, okay? You really suck at that." She stated firmly.

"You're right. It's just…" I sighed. "It's just I hate that you're always so independent and sure of yourself and, when I saw you with that guy it made me so angry because I thought you were just going to leave and get lost again like last time and-" Thankfully, she cut me off before my rambling could continue.

"Oh my god Bodhi, you're jealous!" She squealed, standing straight up, her face illuminating into a dazzling yet evil smile, complete with those wild, widened eyes.

"Of you? No I'm not, I'm just… you know!"

"Literally everything you just described was jealousy," She added smugly. I couldn't help but smile. No matter how crazy she made me I always ended up happy somehow.

"Fine, you win. Truce?" I held out my hand to shake hers. But of course, being Riley, she leaped into my arms and held me captive in an enthusiastic embrace.

"Gonna get a room or what?" A familiar voice pulled us out of our giggling state. We turned around to find the boy from earlier, Jack or something like that, leaning against the bar.

"Oh perfect timing, Jonny. Bodhi here has something to say to you." Riley nudged me firmly in the side and I knew instantly that I didn't have a choice in the matter.

Fine, but I'm setting the boundaries right off the bat… I thought to myself as I draped my arm around Riley's shoulders. I could feel her tense up before ultimately settling into my side. The way she relaxed beside me felt so comfortable and natural that it was starting to make me almost want it more often. That thought alone scared me half to death. Riley jammed her elbow into my side once more, pulling me from my reverie.

"I'm sorry, kid." I grumbled half-heartedly.

Riley cleared her throat.

"Jonny, I mean." I looked down to her for approval and she nodded. "We need you more than I care to admit, and I support my partner's decision to trust you."

To that, he nodded in response. "Accepted. You two's a thing or what?" He gestured between us. Before Riley could respond I made a show of tightening my grip around her. I noted the way she rolled her eyes.

"That's none of your business. Now that that is out of the way, let's talk. What makes you think we can help you?" I asked.

"He is willing to tell us what's happening around here," Riley interjected, making a point to release herself from under my arm and move so we all made a tight circle near the ledge of the bar. "And he wants to cross the bridge."

"You don't know how?" I asked Jonny questioningly.

"Well, erm, that's a tough one, ya see because-"

He stopped his speech suddenly when the blaring music cut off and people began to shush one another. The room fell silent in merely a handful of seconds. Riley and I exchanged alarmed looks. Even Jonny looked frightened. She began to search around the room, probably for the source of the silence, meanwhile I glanced around our perimeter to find an escape route if necessary. The window behind us would do just fine. I clutched Riley's hand and began to back towards it. Luckily, she caught on quickly and followed suit.

Jonny grabbed me by the arm and pulled us back towards the building. I shot him what I hoped to be a stern expression but probably looked like I was about to wet myself.

Stay, his voice rang through my head. Riley's hand clutched mine harder and I knew she'd heard him too.

This isn't a trick, nothing bad will happen to you. I swear. But you're about to find out why you're here. He explained, rather cryptically.

Suddenly, from across the room, a burly looking guy stood on what looked to be a large, recently manifested, wooden platform that allowed him to tower over the rest of the partygoers.

"Bring 'em out here!" The man boomed. His deep, powerful voice echoed across the room. At his command, two other large men dragged out a young boy, dropping him at the speech-giver's feet.

I felt like my stomach was in my throat as I glanced towards Riley. She looked as if she was about to pass out as she muttered something under her breath.

Each word the man on the makeshift stage announced sent me plummeting into an even greater state of complete shock.

A/N: Confused about anything? (Jonny in particular?) Don't fret, Riley will explain next chapter!