“So, this girl doesn’t trust me. At all. I never have to kill lesbians anyways because most of us know to keep our shit together.” Linda spoke candidly in Arianne’s basement while daughter Addyson had her headphones on. She once let Linda try them on, and they could cancel out a gunshot. “First time for everything, right?”

“If you were anyone else, I’d tell you to shove it and contact the feds,” said Arianne. “I’m stuck. I’ve never had to outright hide a person, and I don’t have a guy for that. It’s hard to make a living person disappear completely.”

“They say two thousand people a year do it anyways.”

“They’re trafficked or burned in secret crematoriums. We’re not going there. Why do you want to rescue this woman again, anyways? You never let your lust guide you like this before.”

“Please, her tits are too big and she’s Addy’s age. It’s like fucking my niece if she was white and blonde…you know, Scarlet might know how to edit in Sony Vegas.”

“Keep yourself focused. We don’t know how much Mr. Hsu wants her dead,” Arianne said. “For all we know, we’re too late.”

“It kills me to think I am.” Linda sulked back on the couch. “I wish I knew why. She doesn’t even remind me of anyone…maybe I’m thinking about the past a lot.”

“I clean up your messes, not your moral crises.”

“Can you talk to her? She wants nothing to do with me.”

“No!”

“Hey guys, you doing fine?” Addyson asked, with her headphones down and nestled around her neck. The dreamy pop from some boy’s Soundcrowd gently wafted out of the speakers.

“We are,” said Arianne.

“Good, because you should listen to Linda more, she has a ton of good ideas about the show and flirting with girls!”

Arianne looked cross, and took a few heavy breaths in her direction. Her dainty hands were curled into a tight fist that even Linda would fear if it was near her face. But that was the way she and Arianne did business, so what was the big deal? She couldn’t have broken Arianne that much.

“You’re right, there is something I have to do for her,” said Arianne.

—

“You mingle with thugs, you become a thug. So stay out of this neighborhood.”

Arianne used to like Borough Five a lot, saving up her allowance every week to sneak away from her parents and take the train. It was an interesting place, where the income levels were low and people smoked menthol cigarettes, but they had parties and barbecues all the time. Her dad talked about them fondly, until clearing his throat and complaining about the crime and thugs again. But why listen to him? He was old and brainwashed by the police academy, man, and changed completely.

She wasn’t a fan of her dad. He was wrong about Borough Five, since it was a borough full of good-hearted, working class people of all backgrounds, just like he grew up. But he was right about Arianne becoming a thug, or at least their maid and voice of reason.

It didn’t come from the “wrong people” that Officer Yorke cuffed and pointed his gun at, but from a fellow blossoming divorcee picking up her kids from school. The only hint was a photo Maria gave her of her grinning with her kill, a secret to everyone but someone she was going to trust with her life.

Once she met Linda at a bar, reeking of cigarettes but still smelling like post-divorce fun, Arianne sealed her fate. She sealed it when Linda had a contorted dead body in the back alley to clean up. She sealed it with two Armenian women who hated each other, who existed under her dad’s nose because those Armenians keep their people in check.

As it turned out, Scarlet lived in a nice neighborhood for the borough and in a fucking townhouse. From what Linda said, she was young, blonde, and made hefty tips, so it made some sense. The outside wasn’t even full of graffiti.

“Hello? Scarlet Westbrook?” No answer as she rapped on the door. “I’m Arianne Yorke…part of the campaign to elect Priscilla Mortitz to Congress for the upcoming special election. She has been a board member of NYC Pride for two decades and is endorsed by Emily’s List.”

“I don’t care about your goddamn feminism and I’m calling the cops if you don’t go away!”

“Are you sure? You’re a registered Democrat,” said Arianne.

“Who cares? Someone’s trying to kill me, I’m fucking sure!” Arianne heard a grinding against the door, as if Scarlet was barring it up with furniture (and as if Linda couldn’t just break through it if she was there). “I’m not one of those anti-cop Democrats and your ass is going down in cuffs.”

“No one is right now. I work for Linda Barsamyan, and we all want to protect you.”

“And how am I supposed to know? No one who’s normal will trust people out to kill her, and you won’t even tell me why.”

“Can I prove that I have no weapons?” Arianne asked, digging around her pocket instinctively. “I’ve never hurt anyone…directly. I don’t carry a gun.”

Scarlet opened the door a crack. Arianne held her hands out, wide open, with no weapons showing up under the jeans she wore. She tried her best to put on a kind smile for that absolute stranger. It was always easy to forget that her clients’ targets were sometimes kids, but when she remembered, it was the thought of a bounty of her kids’ heads instead that seized her heart.

Much to her content, some furniture scraped against the floor inside as it was being moved out of the way.

“I have tea,” said Scarlet. “And a gun.” It was hanging loosely in her hand, peeking out of the loose sleeves of her hanfu. It was a strange choice for apartment loungewear, but then again, the loose fit must have been cozy like a microfiber bathrobe.

“Tea sounds lovely, thank you,” said Arianne.

Scarlet poured for her, and insisted on it. She had one of those Chinese tea sets with cups without handles, not like Arianne had never seen them before. It was only then that the apartment looked strange to Arianne.

It was just a few details, like her ink paintings and panda wall hangings and bottles of shaoxing in her kitchen. Arianne knew the area though. She wasn’t in Chinatown where that stuff was simply part of the neighborhood culture, and it looked like Scarlet lived alone. In the end, decor didn’t matter much, but it was a strange choice.

“Do you like China?” Arianne asked.

“Oh yes, I went there over the summer,” said Scarlet. “We hit up Chengdu and Kumming over three weeks.”

“On a stripper’s income? And who’s we?”

“Don’t be jealous…and don’t ask! It’s someone I’ve been seeing. She’s Chinese and richer than me, so what? You’re probably fucking cigarette-breath Linda.”

“She made it sound like you liked her that night.”

“I’ve also had a dry spell, okay?” Scarlet rubbed the back of her neck. “You don’t need to know anything about my life. That’s just what you’ll use to kill me.”

“And to save you. I do a lot of dirty investigative work, but given the right tools, I can make you hide under the radar until you’re no longer a target,” she said. “Did you ever meet a Hong-Tak Hsu?”

“Who?”

“He also goes by the name Frederick.”

“I don’t know him. There are lots of Chinese people here, and I still don’t think my apartment would be up to standards,” Scarlet said. “I’m just doing my best and living my life, even if my job sucks. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing at all, I wish the best for you,” said Arianne. “Even if it will have to change. Hsu has a lot of money and power, and we don’t need to know why you were targeted, but only that you were. Linda and I can protect you, we can employ you, we can wait for the dust to settle. You might even get a name that doesn’t sound like a stripper’s.”

“What kind of work do you do anyways?” she asked.

“I dispose of dead bodies. Make people disappear in a different way, but not to brag, I’m a woman of many talents.”

“And I’d be scrubbing crusty blood off the floor with you?”

“Yes…that’s how I’d describe it.”

—

“Look at you, it’s like you were never an unhappy gay stripper at all.” Linda shouldn’t have been shocked that Scarlet was glamorous enough to own several wigs. She was a natural blonde and insisted she was, despite anyone’s expectations, but sold a look with mahogany-colored hair down to her waist. And she cried when she saw the new ID as Alyssa Pelt, and not out pure relief.

“You’ll get your life back. You find a sugar mama with bodyguards and the Scarlet we love is back on the map,” said Linda. “But not really because it’s a low profile life as long as you still want your life.”

“What did I even do? You fuckers aren’t giving me any answers.” Scarlet’s eyeliner started to run down her cheeks.

“Forgive me for having the least specific client north of DC. I’m working with what I have.” It was a little strange, but the pay was so good from Mr. Hsu! Most of Linda’s clients gave her a reason, even if it was only infidelity or defaulting on loans, but for less money. “No matter what you did, we can’t judge you for it, now can we? We’re a murderer and accomplices.”

“You better not,” said Scarlet in a low, almost snarling voice.

“Good. Arianne’s work is less actively traumatizing, so you guys will get along just fine.”

—

“Gross…did Linda kill this one?”

“No, I currently work for three people,” said Arianne, as she watched over her new apprentice and circled her rag over a splattered window. She usually worked with a team, but one-on-one cleaning seemed like the best way to introduce Scarlet to her new job. The young woman did balk about the throwaway clothes that Arianne had her wear though. They didn’t match, but there was no glamour in the job even if they were in their Sunday best.

“We’re cleaning up after Orlov,” she continued, “but you won’t hear much about him outside of my work. He and Linda actually don’t know each other, but he’s a nice man…for a cold-hearted killer.” Arianne bit her lip thinking about him. It was a nice thrill to her, fucking the ruthless murderers she kept too close.

And it kept happening! But true to her words, Arianne preferred not to talk about either experience.

“So does she just like saving her own?” asked Scarlet.

“I don’t think entirely, but being a lesbian is important to her. It’s her biggest source of pride and her biggest insecurity…or so my silly opinion says.” She was impressed with how forward Linda could be about it in public. Sure, it was legal now but she was born into a pre-Stonewall world. She came of age in a world succumbing to AIDS and brave lesbians thanklessly caring for the sick, while Arianne was a kid who didn’t even know she was bi. But then again, it had to be where her pride came from. She survived a worse place for her kind, and back then, it still wasn’t her biggest sin.

Arianne heard all the stories, from both sides. And with two killers who were taking years off her life as well, Arianne still knew which side she liked the best. Which of them she would want to retire with the most.

“Scarlet, don’t pry about it,” Arianne added. “No matter how much we annoy each other, I have a lot of love for Linda, and I’d rather have her tell her story herself than give you the biased report.”

“You still sound like you’re stuck here and don’t wanna be.”

“But I’m sure Linda feels as bad.” Arianne wanted to cover her mouth in shame after that, if only for shame at breaking her promise from a moment prior. While she could at least report the facts about Linda’s past, she could never truly know how Linda felt about her job. But she had been pulling the trigger for almost forty years. Every break she took was never permanent and just an excuse to drive cross-country or drink lots of Mexican beer.

There had to be a limit.

Would it be morals?

Her tar-black lungs?

Or would age catch up to her like it did for everyone else?

“All I’m saying is that Linda is human, and humans age and soften. And when it happens to her, I’m going to be by her side for it.”

A/N: Word count: 2,142

Though SimNaNoWriMo is over for now and I’ll probably stop this…and take a short break while I figure out what to do with the rest of my hobby. I’ve been putting my other story, No Stars over Uptown on the back burner for the month (but it was a break I sorely needed)

Unfortunately this chapter was a little rushed and if it shows, well, last time I swear! 😛

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