speaking in TONGUE [BIG'MAC] // blitz

My eyes remained set on the doors that my handler would soon walk through. Maybe it'll be Wickard. He was a short and plump officer with the silliest of moustaches sitting on his upper lip. Every time he spoke, it bounced up and down and almost appeared to be fake. Even if the case we were working on was rather boring, I would be easily entertained by this little caterpillar of hair that existed on Wickard's visage. Although Patros hasn't been around in a while. He too was rather short, but his size was due to muscle and not fat. Broad and muscular shoulders often hold a backpack that's filled with packs of cigarettes. He has never been able to kick the habit and smokes at least a pack a day. I don't blame him. When you have to deal with the bloodiest of murders every day, you'd need something to relieve your stress. I would do the same in his place. He always brought me to the most entertaining places. When you have a grizzly killer loose, why not get the help of somebody who had done far worse.

Instead, Cassius Clayburn came around the corner. The one and only simply moved his head in a way that suggested I follow him. He had always been a great friend and an even better officer, so it was best to not argue with what he wanted done. And that meant I was working for him for the day, which would surely be the best experience I have had in a long while. So I followed after as quick as I could, placing my hand on his shoulder to alert him of my presence. Saying something is sort of out of the question now, I suppose. Having no tongue certainly prevented me from doing many things and that just made my job more difficult. Luckily, I wouldn't have to speak if Cassius was around. He always does perfectly fine on his own.

No sooner than the moment we entered into elevator, Cassius had pressed the button to bring us to the ninth floor. It was sad that I was unable to tell him how glad I was that I would be spending the day with him today. All I could do was nod and shake my head and grunt, or use the pad of paper if I was truly desperate. This was the depressing life of an avox and I had to unfortunately live it due to making a dumb mistake so long ago. How different would things have been had I never left this building in the first place to go against everything I believed in? I would probably still have my tongue. I wouldn't wake up every day to put a gun to my head and take my chances. The badge that hung from my neck wouldn't say associate on it but rather detective or officer or captain. Would I be at the top had I remained as an officer for all of these years? Surely. Or at least pretty damn high up there.

Cassius had asked a question, one that had no true answer. Some of them certainly had. They would talk to me like I was a real human being and they would treat me like a partner. Others weren't so much. They'd beat me and curse at me and use me for their sick games. I would have to beat a stealing civilian. I would have to run after an escapee. Things like that. I would go to sleep guilty at night because of them. So in response, I raised my hand and wobbled it around, trying to show an answer between yes and no.

Now, it's definitely understandable that I have seen some pretty fucked up things in my life. I've heard, smelt, tasted and done some really fucked up things even. But this idea that Cassius had brought up was easily, without one doubt in my mind at all, the most insane idea that has ever been entertained in my presence. And if anybody was to know about insane ideas, it was me. However, it was medically possible in my opinion. All that would be needed was an extension to the small stub that existed so I could at least articulate some of my words by using my tongue. Rolling some letters would be out of the question but at least speech would be possible. It was potentially the most genius thing that was ever mentioned between the two of us. Actually, it definitely was. And even if it didn't work, I won't have lost anything.

So I pull out the pad of paper from my back pocket and prepare a new blank page before scrawling my response onto it. "Cassius, you are one genius son of a bitch. Let's do it." Even stupid ideas were worth a shot sometimes. So dumb or not, this was going to happen. If it worked, nobody would be expecting to hear words come from the person they had been pushing around for so long. Cassius and I now had a case.

We were getting me a tongue.

It was tough to actually keep up with my former partner as he shot out of the elevator and towards his office. I barely kept pace with him as the door to his office was thrown open as he entered. I was a bit more careful as I handled the door and stepped inside, slowly pushing it closed behind me. He had already found the folder he wanted and was looking directly at the picture of a young girl. Soon enough, I was staring at it too with a look of desire. Not for the girl, of course. She was not my type. In fact, no human was my type any more since I stopped with the food choices. I hadn't expressed a romantic or sexual feeling in months by now which was both worrisome and frightening to me. Nonetheless, I still lusted for this girl. I lusted for that muscle inside her mouth. If all went well, it would be mine and she would be in my position.

The pad of paper was soon placed on the table as I wrote on it. "So what will we do, Cassius? I'm yours to command." It was weird writing that but in reality, that was entirely true. I was what an avox should be for his master. Cassius was my master for the day. That's how I was treated by the others and although Cassius would never put me through that, it was still allowed. I looked to him with an expectant look, hoping that we would set out immediately to find my new tongue.

I nodded my head in response to the objects - and the people - we would need for this new little adventure. The knife was no problem. My personal blade would suit us just fine and it was sitting right on the night stand in my home. Along with the gun, but that wasn't of use in a situation like this. Sure, it would be possible to just shoot the girl and to kill her but then I would have a recently deceased girl's tongue residing in my mouth for the rest of my life. And that just added to how weird this whole situation was. As if it wasn't odd enough already that we had to retrieve this girl's tongue to sew into my mouth so I could be capable of speech. So we wouldn't kill her. We'd just remove that muscle like the Peacekeepers did to me a few years back.

The doctor would be difficult. I knew not of one. So I looked up towards Cassius and shrugged, hoping he had a good doctor in mind. "The doctor is our main goal now then, I guess?" I quickly wrote.