"Ariana"
Money.
It's
always about the money.
Ariana
knocked a stack of books off a chair and dragged it to the door,
slamming it under the handle and wedging a small chest underneath the
raised chair legs, it made a solid brace she was satisfied with. She
began to circle the room, checking every window, ensuring the
shutters were closed and locked. All the while keeping her gun
trained on the figure in the centre.
It
was a lower floor room in a half-abandoned inn, decorated with the
few material possessions she has chosen to keep over the years, an
open floor design with two doors in, one leading to the hallway, and
the other to the privy, the room she stood in was a combination of
bedroom, kitchen, and everything else, not that she had the furniture
for entertaining, her bed was barely anything more than pile of rags
in the corner.
With
the heavy shutters on the windows now locked in place, Ariana felt
safe enough to lower her weapon, the man tied to the chair in the
centre of the room relaxed and an edge of cockiness covered his
bruised face with a grin.
"Why
don't you check again love, I reckon you missed a spot."
She
lurched forward and raised her gun at the man, the wide-bore barrel
inches away from his face, so close the smell of stale discharged
steam and oil burned at his nostril hairs. She stared down the sight
into his eyes and gave him a look of pure hate.
“Don't
tempt me Dirk.”
I
could kill him, why don't I kill him?
The
man was no longer smiling, instead he tilted his head and spat a glob
of bloodied saliva onto the floorboards.
“You're
wasting your time girl, they know where we are. They'll break down
that door, free me, and then we'll take what we're owed.”
The
grin came back, but with more malice this time, Dirk's left eye was
almost entirely swollen shut and a large cut on his lower lip slowly
seeped blood in and around his mouth. The portable gas lamp on the
table next to her shone its dull light across his face, a lumped mess
by her hand.
There's
been so many bodies already, what's one more?
"If
you don't have the gold we could always.. work it out."
He
began to chuckle but she hit him across the face with the back of her
gloved hand, the force was enough to rock the chair side to side,
lead scaling inside her glove bit into Dirk's face once again. He
coughed and more blood and spit came out, spraying across the floor
in an arc. Grunting he locked eyes with her, but kept silent
Holstering
the gun in the frame attached to her thigh, Ariana took a step
backwards then turned away from the brute, out of Dirk's sight she
slipped her hand out of its glove, through the leather and lead
plating the sheer dullness of his skull had broken her skin, a split
down her finger stung and was beginning to bleed, Ariana winced as
she put the glove back on then turned around to face him.
“Why
did you come here? You got what you want, our deal was final. I was
paid to shoot him, I shot him"
"You
was paid to kill 'im."
"The
man's dead."
"Aye
that he is, but it wasn't your bullet that done it. You broke the
contract."
She
paced back and forth across the room, trying to get a grasp of the
situation, she didn't have the money, nor any means of acquiring that
amount.
It
was supposed to be one job, just one, quick, simple pull of the
trigger
Shadows
raced across the bench, people, maybe a dozen, the gaslight in the
alley outside giving them away as it cast their figures through the
crack of the shutters. She was running out of time. She needed to get
out of there, but she still had a debt to take care of.
"I
don't have your money Dirk, you knew that already."
She
turned to face him.
"What
do you want from me?"
"Blood."
That
was enough to set her off. She kicked Dirk in the chest, sending both
him and the chair he was tied to crashing to the ground, with the
wind knocked out of his lungs he hunched forward, but a kick with her
leather boot forced him back to the ground. She stood over him, one
foot on his neck, with just enough pressure to make the situation
painful.
I
can do it, I should do it.
"I
could do it, you know I could, they wouldn't find me across the
border."
Struggling
to breathe, the bloodied and bruised man just smiled up at her, he
wheezed out at her.
"They
wouldn't find you, but they'd find her."
Beth
Mixed
sensations of dread, of fear, washed over her body, followed with an
overpowering primal rage, she reached for her holster, but grabbed
Dirk's hand instead, a hand that her her gun firmly in its grip. In a
single motion he ripped the holster from her thigh with one hand and
struck a blow into her stomach with the other, the torn leather
encasing and the gun scattered across the room, Ariana doubled over
in shock and pain, he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her down to
the floor, their heads collided and her vision blurred. His large
hands grabbing at her shoulders pinning their bodies together, his
brutal, wheezing breath was hot against her face as she struggled
against him, the smell of tobacco and rancid meat. Pushing against
his face to get as far away as possible she could feel his smile as
he wrapped a calloused hand around her slender throat. As he
tightened his hold on her she managed to lift a leg high enough to
bring it down with force onto his groin.
He
bellowed in pain and released her enough to get free, she ran to the
corner of the room, vision still shaky, to where her gun was. Dirk
stood himself up with one hand with his other cradling his crotch, he
winced in pain as he rose, and took hold of a shattered chair leg
from the ground.
He
was too slow.
Ariana
aimed the gun at his face, but the room was spinning, she knew she
couldn't miss, and only had one chance to save herself, but the
thoughts kept running through her head.
Beth...
Dirk... Money.. Death..
The
door to the room burst open. Several men wearing the same uniforms as
Dirk began to pile into the room, in their hands were stun sticks,
batons containing immense pressure build up in the shaft generating
enough electricity to incapacitate an individual, standard equipment
for city's police. She was cornered.
“What
have you done with her Dirk!?”
He
took a casual step forward.
“She's
not a part of this, she's barely a child.”
Another
step.
She
steadied her aim.
“Curse
you Dirk, you bastard.” and pulled the trigger.