Silver Flash #22: Yes He's My Ex: The Return of Carlo

Happy Wednesday and welcome to another edition of Silver Flash! This week, Ryssa gave us two prompts to work with. Those were: "So what exactly is going on here?" and "Are you ever satisfied?" I worked them both into my continuing saga of Sonny and Tim, called Yes He's My Ex. As you'll recall, last week Sonny and Tim made their way from the basement of the spooky old house behind the Bates Motel, only to be confronted by Carlo the kidnapper and his sidekick. See where that leads today, in the newest chapter of the saga, then stay tuned for the links to my fellow Silver Flashers. Without further ado, I bring you

The Return of Carlo

“Angelo, grab the stiff and let’s go,” Carlo snarls, but when his stooge approaches Sonny, I growl at him.

“Over my dead body!”

“Well, that’s one way of doing it,” Carlo smirks.  For a moment, I’m afraid that Angelo is going to rip Sonny from my arms, but at the last moment, Carlo signs to him to stand aside. “Then you carry him,” he instructs me. “I don’t give a fuck, just as long as we get out of here.”

This is all utterly confusing, and I’m getting damn tired of it. Out of the frying pan, back into the fire. Now we have three doors to choose from—behind one door is the gun-wielding pseudo protection of the FBI and Dale Camel; behind the second door is the unknown person or persons who maneuvered us into the basement of this creepy house; and now door number three has been revealed to contain Carlo the kidnapper and his idiotic sidekick.

Not that I care for any of the choices, but Carlo has a gun and it’s aimed at us, so guess which door we’re forced to choose?

"So what exactly is going on here?"

At the moment, Sonny is just so much dead weight. I heft him over my shoulder. Yeah, he’s heavy, but he’s my burden and no one else’s.

“Simple enough,” Carlo explains, and I refrain from commenting that if he thought of it, it must be, but I show a bit of common sense and hold my tongue. He indicates that we’re to go ahead of him, down a long hallway. Ahead of us, I can see the door, but before we reach it, he directs me to turn into what appears to be the front parlor. An old fashioned room, it is full of furniture that looks like it might have been new when Queen Victoria was a little girl. Old, and dark, with lots of doilies and antimicassars.

And a dead body.

There’s something you don’t see every day.

At least that is what I assume it is. All I can see are the feet, sticking out from behind a chair. But judging by the awkward angle of those feet, I’m going to assume that they’re attached to a dead body. Perhaps that of the owner of the house.

And Carlo telling me it’s simple is still not an explanation. “You and Sonny, on the couch,” he orders me. Sonny’s just coming around, so that helps. I carry him to the couch, and take a seat with him on my lap.

“Tim, where are we?” He looks around him uneasily.  A small spinet sits along one wall. I half expect to see Lurch sitting at the bench, his ham hands pounding out a dirge. Or a dance tune. One never knew with him.

“We’re still in the house,” I inform him.

His eyes grow round when he sees Carlo standing just inside the doorway, gun in hand, then he begins to grin. “Hey, Carlo! What’s up?”

“Hey, Sonny.” He waves Angelo toward the corpse.  “Use the rug.” Next thing we know, the feet have disappeared from view in the middleof a musty floor rug, rolled up tighter than a Cuban cigar.

“What should I do with it?” he asks.

“Toss it in the cellar.” Angelo drags the body out of the room and moments later we hear a thunk thunk thunk as it tumbles down the stairs we just came up.

“Hey, Carlo, we were with Dale, but not anymore,” Sonny confides, “he’s with the FBI now.”

Great, Sonny, got any more information you’d care to divulge? Let’s try and remember that this isn’t the cavalry and we haven’t just been rescued. Not a John Wayne in sight. More likely a John Wayne Gacy.

“I know all that,” Carlo replies. “I haven’t been sitting on my hands since you guys lammed with my meal ticket.”

“He means Dale,” Sonny whispers to me in a confidential aside. I just give him an are-you-kidding look, and he contents himself with nuzzling my neck. I guess it’s better that he not speak right now.

“You guys aren’t all that hard to tail, I hate to tell you. We’ve been wise to your every stupid movement, just waiting our time. Trouble is the Feds got to you first. I was afraid maybe they was gonna throw you in witness protection or something.”

You know what, right about now, that idea is sounding pretty good. I think.

“Lucky for us, those particular Feds you hooked up with ain’t the brightest bulbs in the box.”

Like you are?

“We knew where you was, just been waitin’ for a chance to pick you up. When we noticed you making your escape, I decided to sit back and watch. First I sent your little friends on a wild goose chase. That should keep them out of the way temporarily, but not forever. Then we followed you up to this house and seen you get dumped downstairs. That’s when we, shall we say, performed an intervention on your behalf. The kind that people don’t come back from.”

No resurrection. Good to know.

“So, what’s going to happen with us now?” Yeah, I have to ask, it seems almost like we’re back to square one. Just a different location, and minus one player. Dare I hope this insanity is almost done?

I know, foolish thought.

He grins at me.  "Are you ever satisfied with what you’re told? Always asking for more, you are.”

“I’ll keep on asking til the minute you tell me you’re done with us, and then we’re out of here,” I confess.

“Can we go home, Tim?” Sonny murmurs in my ear. Under other circumstances, I’d be content to just sit here and hold him, and not move for a long time. Under very different circumstances.

“Maybe,” Carlo replies enigmatically. “First you’re gonna help me with something.”

“What?” I have a bad feeling.

“You’re gonna help me get Dale Camel back.”

Peachy.


to be continued - ?


Don't forget to check out the other fantastic Silver Flashers and see what they did with these prompts! Which would be, this week:


Ryssa Edwards   m/m
Lily Sawyer      m/m
Lindsay Klug    m/f
Pender Mackie    m/m
Pia Valeno     m/m


As far as Sonny and Tim are concerned, I've always known that at some point the saga would cease here, and I would continue it offscreen, and publish the results. Yes, I plan to make Yes He's My Ex into a book. And fill if chock full of Sonny and Tim goodness. Show of hands, who likes that idea? Anyone have any ideas for what they might like to see in such a book? I'd love to hear from you!  This doesn't mean, however, that I'll stop participating in the Silver Flash! It simply means that perhaps with the next set of prompts a new saga will be born, and you'll meet more people from my head, people that don't even exist yet! Won't that be fun?


Til next time, take care!


♥  Julie