Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 28

This building was built more like a warehouse than a garage. There were five cars in different states of restoration, each in their own large area blocked off by what Vivian could only describe as speed bumps. Each area was kept tidy with a wall of shelves full of parts, bins and other assortments of storage containers stacked in a corner, and even when she looked down into the pits below the vehicles there was more storage lining those walls. “Lots of storage…”

“You never know what you’ll need or when you’ll need it,” her brother explained with a shrug as he steered her to the area furthest from the entrance where what looked like a heap of rust sat. “And this is Sandra.”

Vivian stared at the car Gabriel was looking at with fondness and tried to see whatever he saw in it.

No such luck. To her it still looked like a bucket of rust destined for the scrap yard.

“What do you think?” He prodded, moving to the rusty heap and giving it an affectionate pat.

What did she think? That he was wasting his time with it. Was she going to say so out loud? Not a chance.

“It doesn’t look like a Sandra,” she finally managed to say, figuring the lesser evil was to comment on the name instead of the thing itself.

“Huh? How so?”

Vivian clasped her hands behind her back and thought about it for a moment. “Sandra is a pink or red name, and you don’t want to use either of those colours.”

Gabriel stared at her in surprise, mouth slightly agape. “Okay then. What name would fit her?

What name *would* fit a rusted piece of junk that would, eventually, be painted sky blue? “How about Betty?”

“That’s a horrible name,” Gabriel told her with a snort.

“So is Sandra.”

Clearly at an impasse, the siblings stared at each other for a few seconds before a grin cracked her brother’s face. “I’ll work on the name some more, but only if you let go of this pink thing you seem to be stuck on for the paint job.”

“I promise nothing,” Vivian replied with a smile.

Groaning, her brother seemed to give up on the matter as he moved away from his beloved rusty heap and pulled over a chair, motioning for Vivian to take a seat.

“Here,” he grumbled, tossing a magazine at her as he spoke. She caught it, though barely, while the second one he tossed her way landed on the floor. “I need ideas on interiors. There’s a couple different looks we can go with, and colour, and I’m not great at that sort of decision.”

Picking up the second magazine, Vivian looked both over and nodded slowly. “Sure, I guess I can do that but… why bring me here for it? They’re magazines. You could have dropped them off at the house.”

“But then we wouldn’t get to hang out,” he countered as he forced open the hood of what was supposed to be a car, an ear splitting noise coming from it as he did so. Both siblings visibly winced and shared a look. “I think I’ll fix that first.”

“I think you should.”

There was a lot Vivian didn’t know about cars in general, and though her interests lay in other areas it didn’t stop her from asking questions as Gabriel worked. He kept up a running commentary on what he was doing as she leafed through the magazines full of different types of seat coverings, finishes, dashboards with dials and needles and other things she wasn’t sure how to describe; whenever he began grumbling about something she always asked what was wrong, and he would then explain the issue, breaking it down for her so she could understand.

Though he offered her to join at his side while he worked, Vivian politely declined. She’d curled up in the chair and was quite comfortable for the time being; getting her hands covered in grease was not on her list of things to do that evening — or ever — and Gabriel accepted this without question.

It was dark outside by the time they left the restoration warehouse, and Vivian was surprised at how fast the evening had passed by. Upon her arrival there she’d dreaded an evening spent watching the clock in boredom but it had turned out to be a fun time hanging out with her brother; he was good at keeping a conversation going no matter the topic, and was laid back enough that whenever they’d fallen silent he’d just kept working until something else came to mind a few minutes later.

The evening had been low stress and almost relaxing for Vivian as they strolled through the backlot. A few street lights illuminated the area, though shadows still hid many things from sight.

A scuffling noise behind them had Gabriel spinning around, a hand reaching towards his side while his other hand gripped Vivian’s arm and pulled her behind him.

“It’s just me,” a voice rang out, laughter in the words as a man stepped into the nearest circle of light.

He looked rough though Vivian couldn’t figure out what gave her this impression. His hoodie was well worn but still in good shape, a dark colour that she couldn’t quite make out from where they stood, and the jeans he wore had a tear over one knee but otherwise looked relatively new. That was the current style anyway, wasn’t it? Holes and tears were purposefully made in clothes before they even made it to the store.

Sneakers covered his feet and looked pristine, the white very obvious even in the low light of the street lamp. He was bald but Vivian wasn’t sure if it was due to hair loss or if it was purposefully kept clean shaven.

Gabriel relaxed but not fully, making Vivian wonder who this man was and why her brother was on edge. This was his business, wasn’t it? Why was there someone back here after hours anyway?

“I wasn’t expecting anyone else to be around,” her brother told the man, who’d shoved his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie, a toothy smirk on his face showed he was missing a couple teeth.

“I can tell.”

“Why are you here? The shop is closed.”

“I came to deliver a shipment.”

Again Gabriel’s posture changed as he glanced back at Vivian. “A bit late for that isn’t it?”

The man shrugged, his eyes flicking to Vivian, causing his smirk to grow. “Who’s the chick?”