fourteen

"You look good," I scowled at her, tousling my black hair for the fifth time.                                                    "Your opinion doesn't matter, their's does," We both glanced at the two girls smoking outside of the old brick building. "I'm sure they're too hyped up on crack to care if your hair's too neat,"

"Crack whores don't go for tidy guys, men with lives don't go to them without an ultimatum,"       "What, sex isn't an ultimatum?" She was gazing at them, a sliver of hair wrapped around her index finger. "It is, when you're not likely to contract a disease, they've got to be wary of undercover cops and the like," I pause for a moment, assessing the tanned skin of the skimpily clad women, I preferred pale skin, the blood stood out against it. "Besides, what does it matter? you can't even see what I look like," She turned her head offering me a grin.

"True, but you always look good," My eyebrows drew together, she still can't see me.                         "How'd you find out about this place anyway?" Her shoulders lifted in a shrug her attention going back to the whores. "I used to do readings here,"

"I didn't know priests killed in their spare time," This time it was her turn to scowl at me.                          "Not religious readings, Tarot," She shoved her purple pouch in my direction.                                         "Not so popular I'm guessing," She bit down on her bottom lip, eyes darting away from me.

"My readings weren't," My eyes widened and a wave of heat flashed through me, I wasn't angry, this was a different heat. Not knowing what to say, I simply handed her a few fifty dollar notes and gestured towards the girls. Nodding, she hiked up her plaid skirt and released her hair from the tight ponytail it had been wrangled into. My bag full of tools began to feel heavy as I thought about its contents and what I could do with them.

"Hey, my friend and I are interested in some fun, how much?" The girls were clearly taken aback by Ximena's hair and eyes as they stood in silence for a moment. "What are you? Some kinda freak I bet," a girl with bright pink extensions said, ugly chortles wracking her lanky body.

"Fits right 'round 'ere," Another with face tattoos and a half-shaved head piped in. I couldn't see Ximena's face but she didn't seem to be obviously distressed which was good. An emotionally weak person wouldn't be able to pull this off.

"I'd say so," Her voice is loud and clear, the girls' faces go blank once they realise they haven't shaken her. "'Ow much you 'ave sweety?" The girl was grimacing, while the other bore a smirk, they clearly thought she didn't have enough. "This alright?" Ximena pulled the money I gave her from her waistband, flaunting it in front of their faces before putting it back.

Their attitudes changed immediately, sour expressions turned into giddy grins as they hooked their arms with hers. "Alright, 'ake us to yer friend," Ximena's silver eyes seemed to pierce through the darkness as she turned to look at me, a devilish smirk curling her lips.

I took this as my cue, stepping out of the shadows, the girls began giggling furiously.                              "Ya didn't 'ell us yer friend was so 'andsome," I smiled at the tattooed girl, bowing my head slightly. "One must stay humble," More obnoxious giggling.

"And such a gentleman," Reaching my hand out, both girls scrambled to latch onto it, allowing me to lead them deeper into the alleyway. This was too easy, they might as well be killing themselves. Ximena kept a steady pace behind us and I found myself finding an odd comfort iin the sound of her footsteps. They were much less obnoxious than the clacking of the whores' six-inch heels.

"'Is 'is the place?" Pink hair questioned, leaning onto her hip and sliding her shirt straps off. How stupid are these women? "As much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, I'm afraid that won't be necessary," The girls' guards immediately went up, they each took two steps away from me and tucked their hands into their pockets where I'm assuming they kept their weapons. They must have been in this situation before. "Huh, ya said ya wanted a fun time,"

I couldn't help the predatory grin that took over my face as I began advancing on them, having slipped my favourite cleaver from my bag. "And that's exactly what we're going to have, I am a man of my word after all," Now about a few metres from them I could see tattoo, take something out of her pocket. "Fuck off!" She yelled, baring a pathetic pocket knife at me.

"Now, what are you going to do with that?" Her nostrils flared as she jabbed it in my direction, an obvious threat. "Ximena, make sure they can't escape," Pink hair whimpered as she watched Ximena's quick movements toward the exit. In what I assume was panic, tattoo launched at me, knife held tightly in her hand like a spear. It was a pretty good shot and I was sure I was going to have to take a wound to my shoulder when a flash of white blocked my view. Time seemed to slow down as white tendrils of spider-like silk flew up before splaying out over the concrete. It was clear to me that Ximena had taken the damage for me and the pocket knife that was still in tattoo's hand was a trick. A much larger knife was buried deep in Ximena's stomach surrounded by a pool of crimson slowly extending to the edge of her shirt.

Slow shallow breaths were exiting her mouth and I found mild comfort in the fact that she wasn't dead. I would be extremely angry if someone killed her before me.

"Well now you've gone and pissed me off," With one quick strike of my arm, I had the remainder of tatoo's hair wrapped around my hand. Shrieking, her arms went up, hands curling around my wrist trying to pull them away. I glanced over to make sure pink hair hadn't run off, I was satisfied to see her shaking against the brick wall. Finally, my favourite part, pulling out my knife I pointed it at her right eye, the tip a millimetre from her cornea. "Now, this is a knife," Her lips trembled as she let out a whine, pulling my wrist again. With a swift yank, her chin flew up and her eyes were on mine, water welled in them before spilling over and sliding down her face.

"Before I cut you up, I have one question," More yelling and whining, "Was it worth it, given your job, do you really think you deserve to exist?" A choked sob left her, her body spasming forward.

"Don't go having a panic attack yet, we haven't even started," I brought my knife back up to her eye, "You see my friend there," I pulled her hair so she was looking at a smiling yet very wounded Ximena, "I didn't appreciate you calling her a freak and I don't think she did either, now, I'm going to perform a small surgery...I hope you don't mind," Pulling some cloth from my pocket I quickly stuffed it in her mouth before she could scream, "I suggest you memorise your friend's face because you won't be seeing it again."