FanFiction.Net - unleash your imagination|
Author of 5 Stories |
The Right Back Alley
Leanne Ashley
“You said that you could hear bells in the traffic below,
I could hear sirens and car engines fighting the snow”
Transister
This is how it starts. This is how it ends. I’m driving as fast as I can, regardless of the shitty weather conditions. Maybe I should’ve slowed down…maybe I should’ve stopped to breathe. Maybe I should’ve realized that no one was chasing us anymore. We were free. I could take her away… anywhere she wanted to go. That’s what I promised her. We’re leaving this life behind.
Yeah, I know… I suck at keeping promises.
But I’d do it for her. I knew that’ s what kept her going. Kept her breathing alongside me in this cheap bucket of a car. The worn leather seats were stained with her blood… Normally, I’d be complaining about the tasteless shade of blue that was wrapped around each seat… but at that moment I would’ve given anything to see that instead of her blood.
She says she’s okay, but I keep driving fast.
Gotta keep moving. Gotta get to the next town. Gotta get her to a hospital where no one knows who we are. No way would they give a rat’s ass about us here.
Things are getting pretty icy. Again, it’s the dead month of December and I almost lose control at the bend.
Pay attention, jerk. Don’t watch her; watch the road. You wanna kill the both of you after you’ve gotten this far?
She’s not talking as much, but I know she’s just tired. It’s late… it’s cold…
And then there it is. The first snowflake of the night touches my windshield and it sticks. I smile slightly to myself and gaze down at her to see if she noticed. One look in her eyes and I could tell she was thinking the same thing.
A dark night re-lit by snow.
This is how it starts.
This is how it ends.
Two Years Earlier
“Fix my goddamn heater.”
I slam the old man’s head back in the toilet. Damn, I hated this guy. Don’t get me wrong; sometimes I’m grateful for having a rusted, paint peeling, sloth-shed of an apartment in the dead of the city, but when I have to deal with this jerk to make the place a fraction of the word ‘livable’…sometimes I get cranky.
“Get off my back, Leonheart! I came through for you when you needed air-conditioning, but now you’re gonna bitch at me for heat?”
Did I mention I hated this guy?
“We’ll make a deal. Fix it, and I’ll think about paying rent this month.”
“Son of a bitch—”
I grip the back of his neck harder. He knows what’s coming.
“Alright, FINE! You win! I’ll take a look at your heater!”
Releasing his neck, I throw him a towel and politely show myself out. I hear him cursing as I leave his apartment and smirk to myself. Don’t need collateral for this guy; I know he’s scared of me. Who wouldn’t be?I was a cop. A pretty damn crooked one at that.
I wasn’t ashamed…How far could you get being one of the honest ones anyway?
At this dump I didn’t even have to pay rent. Now how’s that for a 19-year-old rookie? The old man running this place was as crooked as I was; drug-dealer, drug-user, wife-beater… He knew I could lock him up. And I would, too… The drug stuff is his own piece of work, and I don’t care about shit like that. But I’ll slam his face down that stained-up throne if he keeps beating on his wife. Pisses me off when guys rough up girls.
I slam the door behind me as I enter my apartment. Noise regulation my ass. I could do whatever I want and no one would try talking me out of it. In this building, the kids think I’m nuts, the women think I’m angry, and the men, well… they KNOW I’m a jerk.
So, they stay away from me. Clever folks here.
I don’t like turning the lights on. Lights give me headaches and headaches give me drinks. Not tonight, though. I don’t touch the bottle once I see the familiar red light blinking on my answering machine.
A new case; I could already guess who it involved.
I light a cigarette and suck on it quickly before pressing the button:
“Squall, I need you at the station. There’s been another suspected assassination by SeeD.”
SeeD… SeeD, SeeD, SeeD… Every case was about them. They were the notorious underground killers for hire. Out there in the criminal world, if you had money and you had enemies, you hired SeeD. I didn’t know a lot about these guys. They were a bunch of slick predators in the night; hunting prey, and killing effortlessly. These guys were good. Real good. Believe me, they had to be if I couldn’t track them.
I heard once… well, no, I actually choked it out of the guy… but somewhere buried deep in the city, there’s a training facility for them. Something called ‘The Garden’… it’s where they learned to kill. It’s where they learned to kill the ‘right way’ actually. No clues, no witnesses, no problems. Like I said, they were good.
One thing that bothers me though… If you can’t track them, how do you hire them?
It’s not like these mugs leave a business card.
But I’d find it all out in due time… No one knew, but I was obsessed with this case.
I throw on my black trench coat; the snow’s looking heavy. As I make my way down the narrow staircase, I collide with some of the locals and push them aside. I lack conversational skills so they don’t expect an acknowledgment, let alone an apology.
They weren’t idiots after all.
I’m not the kind of guy who talks for fun. Unless I need information—but that’s not talking. That’s beating the hell out of someone with audio.
I throw my smoke to the ground before getting into my car, letting the snow squelch what’s left of it. I start the car; the engine struggles against the frozen air but she’s ready to go. Hopefully I can make it to the station without sliding into a ditch.
A car switches lanes and drives infront of me.
“Yeah, you wish.”
I place my siren light on the top of my car and let it flash. The car immediately pulls over to the right, but I pass right by. I wasn’t going to give them a ticket; I just wanted them out of my way. Too bad I wasn’t paying better attention to the road.
Damnit… it was a momentary distraction, too. I would’ve smashed right into her if she hadn’t been wearing white. I skid my car to a stop just as she walks out in front of me.
Some girl. A goddamn crazy one if you ask me. Who steps out into the middle of the road like that?
My car couldn’t have stopped less than an inch from her heel.
I half expected her to run off screaming or cower in front of my car from shock… but she just stood there. Not in shock, though… was it amusement...?
You might say I was a little more shocked than she was. Not at the fact that I almost sent her flying, but at her in particular.
She stood calmly in the beam of my headlights with her hands in her white trench coat pockets. This girl was… couldn’t describe it. Not a girl like that. Midnight black hair blew softly behind her with the added sparkle of snow that stuck to it. Even with a fair complexion, hints of crimson touched her cheek and lips despite the freezing temperatures… she was beautiful… she was…
She was just staring at me.
Staring with the oddest hint of a smile with no other relevant emotion present. No matter how beautiful, she was still nuts. The beautiful ones usually are.
I’m about to roll down my window to tell her to move when she reads my mind. She turns to continue on her way across the street but doesn’t take her piercing brown eyes off me. That look…It felt like she was mocking me. Like she knew I would stop.
Like she knew …me.
I narrow my eyes and swerve around her; she was walking too slowly. In the rear-view mirror I see her watching me leave.
She was nuts.
With an empty road ahead, I hit the gas. The station’s coming up. I shake off the incident and try to think clearly. I’m anxious to find out if there’s any new information on SeeD. A hair, a fingerprint… a way to contact them. Anything.
The chief was happy. He thinks I’m just keen on solving the case, ending the murders, and arresting the members of SeeD.
Arrest them? Right, whatever.
They were an elite group of assassins. The corrupt killing the even more corrupt. They were skilled professionals in the biggest city of organized crime.
It wasn’t my plan to ‘arrest’ them.
If I could just get close enough…If I could just learn more…
I could join them.
:
:
:
:
