A tall man in a dark brown trench coat was bending over four dead bodies while the rain beat down on the back of his head. Three of the dead bodies appeared to being civilian looking males and one dead male officer who was most likely blown away at close range with a shotgun. The man was doing his best to keep calm while two other officers were standing next to him trying not to make eye contact. The man finally spoke out in a voice so stern, it crashed through the silence, “How the fuck did you let this happen? Honestly, how did you fuck up something so simple?” The man thrashed one of his arms out violently, knocking one of the officers to the ground before saying, “And to think that you said two little girls did this and messed everything up.” The man knelt down next to the dead officer and asked, “Where is his weapon?”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQyUzkW7UBd
One of the officers was too afraid to speak while one of them spoke up nervously and said, “Sir, one of the girls ran off with his weapon. She was actually…the one who shot him.”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv5CMx2dxDB
The officer getting up off the ground said with a shaky voice, “We will find em, sir, and we will take care of them. There won’t be any mess up this time.”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg8YsVwRavc
The tall man in the trench coat said viciously, “You will find them by tomorrow night, or the beginning of your own personal nightmare begins where I tear your asses out through your mouths.” The man turned away and began to walk down the alleyway while he said, “Clean this disaster up and have a story on my desk by morning.”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqhDu8lgLUJ
The two officers stood there and watched the captain walk down the alley way, get in his car, and drive off, leaving them there alone at the crime scene waiting for the forensics team to arrive. One of the officers asked, “What the fuck were they doing in a dumpster?”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqEdddSgDPq
The other officer replied, “I don’t know. Probably trying to push out a dumpster baby or two. You know how fucked up kids are these days.”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDaJpIIlv1l
Both the officers laughed and then became utterly silent while one of them said, “We’re so fucking dead if we don’t find them before they say anything.”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPBCcH62UtT
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Ethan was sitting on the couch in Piper’s living room. Her apartment was surprisingly big for someone living by herself. It had three bedrooms; one being the room she slept in, a guest bedroom and one that she called her office which was mainly a workout room. While Ethan sat there, he was engulfed in annoyance as Piper, Eve, and Zoe all laughed and talked at the top of their lungs.214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiOjhxK7Oh6
Piper turned to Ethan and said, “You can go home Ethan if you want. I can handle them here tonight. “214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAafOUt09dF
Ethan replied, “It’s alright. I have to stay on watch like I said I would and protect them in case any goons show up looking for trouble.”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwQv6KQs0d2
Piper said in return, “Well if you’re staying, you’re camping out on the couch.”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb87yr3r6sp
Ethan sighed and responded, “I’m surprised you’re giving me such a luxurious option to sleep where people put their asses.”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXsB4UICd4x
It was only ten thirty at night and Ethan could tell this was going to be a long night of staying up on protection detail. Things started to look up a little bit when he heard Piper talk about ordering Chinese take out for dinner.214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB7SYl9YPTS
Eve said, “Well we didn’t eat anything for dinner since all the craziness went down and interrupted our dinner plans.”214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlUnUqM6d1Q
Zoe jumped to her feet from sitting cross legged and shouted, “I’ll take the biggest, spiciest fried rice and orange chicken!” She spun around in a circle before plopping back onto the floor next to Eve and Piper.214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmLQ7iIaB2W
Piper said, “You girls can get anything you want. Dinners on me tonight. So, eat till your hearts are content.” She smiled as Eve told her what she wanted. She was ordering everything on an app through her phone so no one would have to pick it up when it was ready. Everyone but Ethan was wearing PJs provided by Piper. Eve fit surprisingly well in hers, but Zoe had the sleeves and leggings rolled up a bit because she was still too short to fill them out.214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUPxLYEACzm
Across from them on the counter was the red beta fish Hamilton who was cozied up in his small little underwater castle. Laying on the couch next to Ethan was the cat that had escaped from the house at the right moment before the explosion. Around its neck was a collar with a little tag on it that said, Mandark. Ethan was not too fond of cats and usually they knew it. But this cat was trying to become unusually friendly with Ethan. It kept rubbing up against his leg and then would lie next to him while trying to swat at parts of his trench coat. It even started bringing him random things it found around Piper’s apartment, like her car keys and things from the kitchen trashcan.
Ethan kept feeling a soft small cloth like object brush up against his hand and when he went to look down to investigate it turned out to be a pair of Piper’s underwear that was hanging from Mandark’s mouth. After quickly snatching the panties and shoving them down into the crevice the couch cushions formed, he quickly scolded the animal and kept trying to shoo it away.
Ethan quietly but firmly said, “Are you trying to get me killed, furball?”
The cat playfully rolled onto its back and let out a happy meow while Ethan sat there in discomfort.
Ethan leaned down to the cat and said quietly, “If you get me in trouble, I’m taking you down with me.”
At that same moment, Piper’s head whipped instantly toward him, and she shouted, “Did I just hear you threaten Mandark?!”
Ethan protested, “Who the hell is Mandark?”
Piper said, “Eve and Zoe’s cat, you dumbass! If you’re over there threatening him, you’re sleeping in the garbage tonight!”
Ethan frowned and pointed to the cat’s face while saying, “Does this look like the face of a threatened cat?”
Mandark made the most beautiful and cute face a cat could make as its eyes shimmered gloriously while outstretching his paws to piper from on the couch.
Piper rolled over from the coffee table and snatched Mandark off the couch and rolled back over to Eve and Zoe before saying, “That’s the face of a kitty angel now isn’t it? But I still heard you muttering something to him so stay away from him!” She had a demonic look on her face, but it instantly vanished when she looked back at Mandark sitting in her lap. Her smile rapidly grew bigger as she furiously began to pet him.
Ethan laid back on the couch and thought to himself how the cat was stupid and barely made it out alive when Eve and Zoe’s house exploded. Ethan wasn’t much for animals since most animals harassed him in the various ways animals could.
Zoe shouted at Ethan and said, “If you’re trying to hurt or eat my cat, I’ll bite you so hard you’ll see only the blackness behind your eyelids!”
Ethan had never heard a threat so wild and haunting before. He looked at Zoe and said with a forced smile, “Don’t worry, Cat’s don’t taste that good anyway.”
Zoe turned her nose away from him as Ethan’s phone vibrated in his pocket. After removing his phone from his pocket and unlocking it, he noticed there was a text from Cy. Ethan saw that Cy had said he checked out the crime scene in the alley way after the cops left and didn’t find anything of interest. Besides a piss smelling dumpster, all that was left was the blood on the ground washing away in the rain. Ethan texted him back telling him good work and to head back to the office.
As he pocketed his phone, he noticed Mandark was sitting next to him again, but this time had what looked like a pair of black silky laced panties that he was fiddling around with between his paws. Ethan’s face lit up bright red as he snatched them away from the cat and shoved them down into the couch at lightning speed next to the first pair of underwear Mandark had brought him. Though he was fast, his actions didn’t go without making a loud noise and causing the couch to slide backwards a bit, legs screeching across the wood floor. He looked back at everyone and saw that they were already silently staring at him.
Ethan nervously asked, “What?”
Piper cleared her throat and said, “Do you want to tell me what all the ruckus is about and what you’re shoving down into my couch?”
Ethan laughed unexpectedly while answering back, “I um… was looking for my phone?”
Piper suddenly rocketed to her feet and sprang from where she was standing all the way to Ethan on the couch, crashing into his body while he fought her off from reaching down between the cushions. Mandark leapt out of the way in time and ran down the hallway.
Ethan shouted, “There’s nothing down there! I was only looking for my phone!”
Piper shouted back while trying to put him in a head lock, “Oh yeah? You were just on your phone how would it already have ended up down in the couch?”
Eve and Zoe where giggling while watching Piper maneuver around Ethan’s body and put him into a headlock and wrapped her legs around his hips and fully restrained him. There entanglement was interrupted by a series of knocks on the door.
Piper let Ethan go and got to her feet while saying, “This isn’t over.” She walked over to the door and opened it. She saw a short chubby man holding a giant bag of Chinese take out and chewing an obscene amount of chewing gum.
“Hello ma’am,” the delivery guy said while still chewing his gum. “Your total is Eighty-four fourteen.”
Piper reached into her pocket and pulled out a hundred and twenty dollars in twenty’s and gave them to the short lumpy chewing gum delivery guy. He traded her with the food and began to count out her change.
Piper said, “You can keep the change my good sir.”
The delivery guy stopped chewing his gum and asked, “Are you sure? That’s a big tip!”
Before slamming the door in his face, she responded, “I’m sure.”
Ethan felt a sense of relief as Piper headed back to the coffee table and began to dig through the giant bag of food. With one hand he swiftly felt down between the cushions, grabbed the evidence, and quickly moved them to his pocket. He knew it could be a dangerous move on his end, but he couldn’t risk a surprise attack from Piper trying to investigate the couch. If he could manage to sneak away and get to the restroom, maybe there would be a hamper or something he could dispose of the evidence in.
While Ethan was thinking about his plan, Piper called out to him, “Hey, behave yourself and come join us.”
Ethan kept thinking to himself and couldn’t hear her while she called out to him again but this time much angrier. After snapping out of his thought trance, he moved to the floor by the coffee table and began eating what Piper had laid out for him. His food tasted surprisingly, good. Extraordinarily good. He didn’t know if it was really cooked to perfection or if almost blowing up in a house explosion earlier that day caused him to experience the best meal of his life. After a good minute of shoveling food into his face, he noticed everyone else had their hands together and were waiting for him.214Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxjiAtZJ94e
Ethan set his box of food back on the table and with a mouthful of food he put his hands together as everyone else but him said in unison, “Thanks for the meal!”
Food came raining down Ethan’s shirt as it exploded out of his mouth as he said, “Thanks for the meal!” moments after everyone else already had. Laughter erupted across the room as Piper grabbed a remote off the coffee table and switched on a large flat screen television. Before deciding on what to watch while they ate, she asked Eve and Zoe, “What kind of movies are you two into? I’m not getting the teenage vampire werewolf vibe from either of you.”
Eve swallowed the food she was chewing before answering, “I more into anime and sci-fi shows.”
Zoe, with a mouthful of food blurted out, “I pretty much only watch the history and military channels.”
Taken back by Zoe’s response Piper asked, “The military channel? What got you interested in the military channel?”
Ethan stopped eating as ferociously as he had been so he could listen to Zoe’s answer since it seemed uncommon to him that a girl as young as her was interested in such a subject. Zoe answered, “I always watched it with our dad since he used to be in the army. He like to watch things about history and about the military. All my friends think its lame and boring and never wanna come over and watch it with me, but I don’t care.”
Before anyone else could say anything, Ethan asked, “What did your dad do in the army?”
For the first time of the evening, Zoe responded to Ethan without any malice in her voice as she said, “He was a tank operator and mechanic. He worked on all sorts of things and was really smart.”
Knowing that Zoe could turn on him at any moment he took the opportunity to ask, “What about your mother? What did she used to do for work?”
Still showing no hostile emotion, Zoe answered, “Our mom was a martial arts instructor.” Then with a sudden sly smirk she continued to say, “She always wanted us to be able to defend ourselves incase creeps like you tried anything funny.”
Piper jumped in and asked, “You know I was in the marines? I didn’t operate tanks or anything, but I was a sniper and got to shoot some super cool high-powered rifles.”
Stars lit up in Zoe’s eyes as she asked, “Did you ever shoot a Barrett M82?”
“Oh yeah,” Piper responded. “I was so excited when I got to use one that all my training temporarily went out the window and I hurt my shoulder after shooting it.” Piper turned towards Eve and told her, “Also, just so you know, I live and breathe anime.” She pointed over to a large bookshelf across the room that had multiple shelves with rows of manga and box set collections of entire anime series. Other shelves contained hundreds of anime figurines and various anime plushies.
Taken by surprise since she hadn’t even noticed the bookshelf since she had been there, Eve said, “I can’t believe I didn’t notice your collection.”
With a giant smile Piper declared, “I’ve been collecting all that stuff my entire life. I’ve even dumped some of my ex’s because they didn’t respect it and said I should throw all my VHS tapes away since they’re outdated.”
“Oh, boy,” Ethan said. “I can only imagine the hell storm you brought down on him.”
Piper’s laugh became maniacal as she pointed one of her fingers at Ethan like a gun and said, “Let’s just say he wasn’t faster than a .50 BMG round.” Ethan’s cell phone interrupted the conversation as it rang loudly from within one of his trench coat pockets. Piper quickly said, “Looks like your phone wasn’t down in the couch after all.”
After reaching in one of his trench coat pockets, he pulled out his phone and answered it. “What’s up?” he asked.”
With a bit of concern in his voice, Cy responded, “You didn’t order a bunch of food to the office, did you? There’s a driver here saying he has a delivery and needs to be paid for this order.”
“Nope,” Ethan answered. “Piper ordered us food and we’re eating it as we speak. Guy must have the wrong address and is probably looking for the building behind ours. You can show him the back alleyway that leads to—”
Cy cut Ethan off and said, “The address on his ticket matches the office and your name is on it as the one who ordered it. The call back number is the office number, so you really didn’t order anything before you guys left?”
Ethan sat for a moment and pondered a few idea’s back and forth before saying, “Go ahead and use some of the money in my desk to pay for it and help yourself to it.”
“Are you sure?” Cy asked. “It’s like four pizza’s and two large orders of wings.”
“Actually,” Ethan quickly responded. “Go ahead and bring it on over to Piper’s when you’re done locking up the office.”
Cy said, “Alrighty, you’re the boss.” Then hung up.
“If Cy is staying you two will have to share the couch,” Piper said playfully as she settled on a movie for everyone to watch.
“I doubt he’s going to stay over. I don’t think he’s into your cruel and unusual punishments.” The remote came flying at Ethan’s head and he was barely quick enough to move out of the way as it went sailing past his face. With a smug tone in his voice he stated, “I can tell by your aim that you’re out of—” Before he could finish speaking, a second remote that controlled the surround sound system came crashing into Ethan’s face.
“My aim is out of what now?” Piper asked sarcastically while one of her hands slowly moved to another item on the coffee table. Eve and Zoe laughed at Ethan as they continued to eat their food. The movie Piper had picked began to play and everyone except Ethan turned their focus to it. Ethan seized the moment to search for a bathroom to dispose of the evidence Mandark brought him from before. He rose from the couch and headed down the hallway the cat had arrived from earlier.
Pictures on the wall caught his attention and he stopped momentarily to glance at them. There were pictures of Piper from when she was a child and ranged all the way up to her basic training in the marines. What caught his eye the most was the fact he never saw any pictures that were family portraits. All the pictures of her in her youth were just pictures taken of her alone. Whether it was a school photograph or her playing in the back yard as a child, there was never anyone else in the photos. Despite the enormous smile she happened to be wearing in every photograph, Ethan thought to himself how lonely it must have been if there was really no one else but the photographer around in these pictures. Was the photographer one of her parents? He thought to himself as he continued down the hallway.
At the end of the hallway on the right, was a door that was slightly ajar. Enough of the room could be seen into it for Ethan to know it was the restroom. With a quickness, he pushed the door open and dove into the room while the door shut behind him. With one knee still on the floor, he reached behind himself and locked the door while he glanced around the room looking for a hamper or some kind of receptacle to dispose of the evidence. The bathroom was very well kept and neatly decorated with manga and anime themed trinkets that were strategically placed about it.
To his surprise, there was no hamper, laundry basket, or receptacle that wouldn’t raise suspicion if he were to try and hide two pairs of panties inside. His years of being a police officer, detective, and private eye prevented him from being able to pick a place to stash the evidence because he was always able to come up with a reason why he shouldn’t stash them there. The bathroom was organized in such a way that two random pairs of panties being in there would raise unwanted suspicion if they were to be found.
“Damn cat is smarter than it looks,” Ethan muttered to himself. Something unusual he noticed was that in the trashcan there was what looked like strips of black cloth that were soaked in blood. The strips had jagged and frayed edges as if they were torn off from the original article of clothing they had come from. The blood had dried a while ago, but he knew by the way it was discolored in spots that it was blood. As unusual as it was, it didn’t raise any kind of immediate concern since Piper didn’t seem to have any visible drastic wounds. It was just odd that it wasn’t the typical kind of trash you’d expect to find in a single woman’s bathroom trashcan. He noticed that the lacy black panties in his pocket seemed to be made of the same material as the torn bloodied fabric.
Quickly deciding he didn’t want to spend too much time fondling panties and bloody fabrics he found in Piper’s trash, he turned to the cabinet under the sink and opened it. Underneath was typical bathroom supplies like toilet paper, cleaners, and a small medical pouch. What caught his attention was the large caliber pistol strapped to the inner cabinet’s wall in a way so that it could be accessed while sitting on the toilet. Next to the gun was an extended magazine for it that was loaded with twenty .50 caliber rounds.
The toilet flushed after Ethan pressed the handle even though he never needed to use it. He shut the cabinet doors with his foot while he washed his hands and decided that he would just keep the evidence in a pocket for now. One of the inside chest pockets of his trench coat became the new home that would temporarily house the panties.
When he opened the door, he was bombarded by the sound of Piper’s voice as she was standing now on the other side and curiously asking, “What were you doing in there for so long, huh?”
Before Ethan could respond there was a knock at the front door of the apartment and Piper turned and ran down the hallway to answer it. Piper opened the door and Cy was standing on the other side holding four large pizza boxes. On top of the pizza boxes was a large bag that he had been previously trying to balance while he knocked.
“Nice of you to finally join us Cy,” Piper exclaimed while she motioned for him to come into the apartment.
Cy stepped through the doorway and vented, “Ethan had me running late night recon since I’m the only one not intoxicated so, excuse me.”
Ethan stepped into the room and queried, “Anything worth mentioning?”
Without turning their head’s Even and Zoe listened in as Cy commented, “As far as the alleyway goes, it wasn’t taped off like you’d expect it to be if a homicide was committed. In fact, if I hadn’t seen the blood on the ground before it washed away and knew where to look for where the shotgun scuffed up the walls, you’d never have realized anything happened.” He then set the pizza boxes on Piper’s kitchen counter and began eating a slice he pulled out of the top box before saying, “Besides that, there isn’t much to mention but when I drove past the girls’ house on my way here, the investigators were still there and there was a van from the gas company parked outside that wasn’t there earlier.”
Before taking a piece of pizza himself, Ethan thought to himself out loud, “That’s odd. That was a rather large explosion originating from the upper level for it to be gas related.”
With a mouthful of food Cy added, “That’s what I thought but honestly, I don’t know much about gas leaks and explosions caused by them, but it still doesn’t explain the cars in the driveway the girls didn’t recognize. I’ll try to get my hands on a copy of the police report tomorrow morning if I can.” Before moving on to his third slice he mentioned, “Why did you order pizza and have it delivered to the office before you left?”
Even though Ethan knew he didn’t, he smiled and said, “Yeah, I must have forgot after we got back from Eve and Zoe’s house. The explosion rocked me good, I guess. But we now have all the ingredients for the classic sleep over now. Chinese takeout, pizza, and wings.”
Piper blurted out, “A bit overkill if you ask me but it’s too late now to send it all back.”
Ethan took one of the boxes of pizza and walked over toward Eve and Zoe and placed it on the coffee table then stated, “Help yourselves if you’re still hungry.”
Zoe looked at the pizza and then asked, “Could I have some of those wings? I’d rather have that then pizza right now.”
With a quickness Ethan grabbed a box containing some of the wings off the counter and handed it to Zoe. “They’re spicy so be careful.”
“Spicy is my middle name,” Zoe erupted as she set the box next to her fried rice and began devouring one of the wings. Only a few seconds past before she placed a completely bare chicken bone back into the box it came from.
“Did you even eat the cartilage?” Ethan gasped surprisingly.
“I don’t know,” Zoe replied. “I ate everything that I thought tasted good.”
Ethan was more of a bone out kind of guy than a bone in one. Purely for the fact that most orders of wings are weighed beforehand, and the weight of the bone isn’t excluded. There was nothing wrong with bone in wings he just held a stern belief that most of the weight you’re buying is from bones that you can’t eat and not from the actual meat.
Eve reached over from where she was sitting and grabbed a slice of pizza out of its box. She then went on to say, “Zoe is obsessed with spicy food. Also, her middle name isn’t spicy. It’s Elise.”
Zoe said in protest, “Eve don’t tell some strange man my actual middle name!”
Bellowing out with a stern voice Ethan declared, “I’m not some strange man! You two are in my protection after all. If anything, I’m your knight in shining armor. Don’t forget you came running into my office.”
With chicken hanging out of her mouth Zoe exclaimed, “You’re more like the smelly trench coat guy you’d find sleeping in the trash somewhere in a back alley.”
Taken back by her quick insult, Ethan said, “There’s worse places to be sleeping than in an alleyway.”
With no hesitation Zoe fired back, “I’m sure you know all the hot spots.” She then reached over and turned the volume up on the television before Ethan could say anything.
Ethan took the hint and walked back into the kitchen where Cy and Piper were discussing the events that followed the explosion and their police interactions. He could hear Piper telling Cy, “I think they earned a day off school and should stay here tomorrow. I can watch over them while you and Ethan investigate things.”
After removing a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, Ethan interrupted, “I’m going to go smoke out on the balcony if you don’t mind.” Ethan moved across the living room to the sliding doors that led outside. The apartment was on the third story of the building and overlooked the parking lot. Inside of an ashtray atop a table next to a chair, were a bunch of half smoked joints. Within one night, Ethan felt he was learning more about Piper than he had in the last six months of knowing her. Instead of smoking a cigarette he took one of the joints and started smoking it instead.
For over an hour Ethan sat outside on his phone and scrolled through local news websites looking for any relevant information regarding the back-alley murders and the house explosion. There wasn’t anything that mentioned any homicides that day that he could find but the explosion seemed to make it on the front page of a couple sites. Nothing explained what had caused the explosion but what was interesting is some of the articles had information about Eve and Zoe’s parents. One of the articles stated that not only did their parents die when a train derailed almost a year ago, but also their grandparents died as well. It mentioned how Eve and Zoe inherited the house and how they weren’t home at the time of the explosion, but it didn’t mention anything of interest like if any bodies had been discovered or if it was a confirmed gas leak that caused it.
Ethan headed back inside and found that the living room was empty, and everyone must have moved either to the guest bedroom or Pipers room. Everyone except Cy who was sleeping and snoring loudly on the couch. All the food had been cleaned up and moved to the fridge and the apartment had no evidence that anyone had been there besides a sleeping Cy. Ethan laid on the floor next to the couch, folded his hands across his chest, and closed his eyes.
Minutes turned into a few hours as something began to quietly disturb the handle of the front door. A few silent clicks popped within the handle and the door silently opened. A slender assailant in all black stepped in and carefully tipped toed over to the couch where Cy was still snoring loudly. They raised a large knife from behind the couch and began to drive it down towards Cy’s head.
Before it could make contact, Ethan sat up off the floor and grabbed the assailant by the wrist. The assailant tried to pull their hand away, but Ethan’s grip was too strong. He stood up and stepped up onto the couch while still holding onto the intruder’s wrist and kicked them in the face. The intruder struggled to hold onto their knife as they fell backwards as Ethan stepped off the couch. The knife fell to the floor and Ethan kicked it away out of reach while the Assailant got back to their feet. They pulled out a second knife that was larger than the first and charged at Ethan. Somehow, Cy continued to sleep undisturbed even though Ethan and the assailant continued to wrestle around the living room and into the kitchen. The assailant was thrusting their knife as hard as they could trying to stab Ethan, but he was too quick and evaded every attack.
Without being able to predict it, the assailant grabbed a large bowl of fruit off the counter and hurled it at Ethan. Ethan caught the bowl in such a manner that none of the fruit fell out of it but when he looked up the assailant was charging down the hallway towards Piper’s room. He quickly set the bowl on the counter and grabbed a heavy glass anime themed ashtray that was purely decoration off the coffee table and threw it down the hallway striking the intruder in the back of the head. They stumbled forward and crashed into the wall at the end of the hallway. Ethan quickly ran down the hallway and tried to subdue the assailant.
Even with all the commotion, not a single sound was loud enough to disturb anyone that had been sleeping in the apartment. Ethan put the assailant in a sleeper hold and attempted to choke them out. Determined to prevail, the assailant reached into Ethan’s trench coat’s inner pockets looking for something to stab him with but only found the two pairs of panties he had stashed away earlier. They mashed the panties into Ethan’s face and pushed off the wall with their feet causing them to roll backwards out of the headlock and back into the living room.
As they got to their feet, they were wielding a small, suppressed pistol and started opening fire at Ethan who was still on his hands and knees in the hallway. Bullets tore through the wall at the end of the hallway as Ethan dove into the bathroom and pulled out his revolver. He feared if he wasted any time, they would shoot Cy on the couch, so he took off one of his shoes and tossed it high into the hallway. The shoe became riddled with bullet holes as Ethan rolled out into the hallway underneath it and shot the intruder twice. Ethan’s revolver wasn’t suppressed, and the gunshots rang throughout the apartment waking everyone in the building.
To Ethan’s surprise, even while shot, the assailant bolted out of the apartment leaving a large trail of blood behind them. Piper’s bedroom door came flying open and she was wielding an assault rifle while screaming, “What the fuck is going on in here?!”
Ethan scrambled to his feet with the panties hanging from the collar of his trench coat and said, “Someone broke in and tried to kill Cy, so I wrestled with them for a bit until they pulled out a suppressed pistol. I didn’t want them to kill Cy, you, or the girls so I had no choice but to shoot them.” He put his gun back in his trench coat and said, “They seemed to have gotten away but they left a nice little blood trail for us.”
Piper looked down the hallway at the trail of blood leading out the front door and then questioned, “And my underwear that’s hanging from your neck?”
Reaching up to feel his neck, Ethan felt the panties hanging from it and said with a nervous smile as he grasped them, “These? I thought these were good luck panties because they worked like a charm.”
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