Victoria entered Dante’s house with sore wrists and a stiff neck. She groaned and shuttered, trying to warm up once she stepped inside the shelter. The damn dresses did jackall against the wind. Guys thought her outfit was hot, but Victoria thought her outfit was stupid.
She strode into the dining room to see Dante pinching the bridge of his nose, and the dining table scattered with more papers than usual. As she entered, she knocked on the wall as she cleared her throat, causing Dante to open his flicker-induced orange-tinted eyes.
He nodded at her. “Hm?”
She slapped a wad of bills on top of the papers. “Today’s cut.”
Dante slowly rifled through the bills. Once the bills were sorted, he nodded and placed the money in varying piles. He pursed his lips together, obviously deep in thought. As Victoria turned to leave, it was Dante’s turn to clear his throat.
“Hey.”
She turned, raising an eyebrow. “Hm? What's up?”
He hesitated, eyes flickering between the scattered papers on the desk. After a few seconds, he took a deep breath. “There’s a small chance you might have to leave the house.”
Victoria blinked. “Huh? What? Why?”
He sighed as he rubbed his face. “I kn-”
The prostitute slammed her hands onto the dining room table, her glare burning holes into Dante’s skull. “I went through hell for Ally. I kept up with your demands. I starved myself. I even kept up with your damn fucking quota. If you do-”
“First off, watch your fuckin’ mouth. Second off, this isn’t because you were slacking in any way particularly. Trust me, I would kick you out in a heartbeat if you missed even a single quota…but this isn’t about that.”
Dante rubbed his chin. “I’m saying you might have to leave because this house might not be safe in the near future.”
Victoria scoffed. “‘Near future’, huh? Hey, fuckface: it isn’t safe now.”
The kingpin grit his teeth. “Stay if you want, I don’t give a shit about you. However, there’s a very realistic possibility that a gangwar could erupt in this area, and anyone caught in the crossfire is liable to die. I’m only telling you because this isn’t your fight, so you at least deserve to know to run.”
She frowned. “Is this about the gunfire a few days ago? I thought that was a mild scuffle that you fixed.”
Dante scratched his head aggressively. “I don’t… look. I thought I fixed it too, but I kept digging, and a source just informed me of some info that could lead to this entire thing being much bigger than I initially thought. Worst case scenario is this house being raided and me being gunned down in this chair.”
“If these ‘guys’ are after you, why not run and hide?”
He scowled. “Who the fuck do you think I am? A man who can’t handle the consequences of his own actions? I made my damn bed, knowing fully well what could happen. I’m not gonna tuck my tail and dip like some damn coward.”
Dante sighed and scribbled something on a notepad. “Plus, if I do die, then that’ll mean there’s a chance that this entire situation gets dissolved and no one else has to get hurt. If I hide, then these guys might end up expanding their search party to hunt me down and more innocent people might get involved. But then again…my death might result in a bigger raiding party to loot this town. Damn it, I don't know what’s the best call here.”
Victoria stared at him, her eyebrows raised. “Huh.”
Dante lifted his face from his hands, looking at her perplexed face. “What.”
She crossed her arms, a skeptical look in her eyes. “Didn’t take someone as selfish as you as someone who cared for others. Plus, this is the Ghetto: who the hell is innocent here?”
Dante stared back. “Your sister lives in this house, does she not?”
Victoria bit her lip, finally looking down. As she did, Dante spoke up.
“You have two days to either stay or move out. After that, you can’t change your mind. If you do choose to move out, you have my word that you can move back in once this entire issue gets settled. Now go make a decision.”
As Victoria silently nodded, Dante returned to shuffling papers on the dining room table, a new weight on both of their shoulders.
...
After a quick phone call, Victoria and Huck agreed to meet up at The Bottlecap to relieve some stress and wind down. She dressed up in her casual clothes, applied a small, but fairly notable, coat of lipstick, touched up her eyes a bit, then practiced her smile in the mirror. Her mind was racing like… like… well, it was racing. But still, Ally would only worry if she saw her older sister stressed about something. So, Victoria did what she could to suppress her worries in her heart and exit the house with her head held high.
After a few minutes of walking, she entered the front door of the familiar bar, greeted with a comfortable setting. Bera was singing on the stage with her guitar, some drunk patrons were cheering her on, and Huck sat at the bar counter with a Cola as he subconsciously twirled the bottle between his fingers. Next to him, Ally was doodling on an old discarded menu that Gustavo had most likely given her to pass the time. As her heart skipped a beat seeing the two most important people in her life, Victoria beamed as she strode over with her head held high.
She jumped on Huck’s back, causing the man to lurch forward in surprise. He turned, and sighed.
“Damn it, Vic’. Stop doing that.”
Ally squealed. “Vicky!!!”
Victoria laughed as she let go of Huck to then squeeze her younger sister, ruffling Ally’s hair. As her sister squealed in delight, Victoria peered over her sister’s head at the doodles. She grinned upon seeing the striped bird.
“Is that a zebra?”
Ally shook her head. “Nuh uh! That’s a penguin!”
Victoria blinked before grinning. “Penguins don’t have stripes, Ally!”
Huck took a swig of his Cola bottle. “Nah, they do. Nice penguin, Ally.”
Victoria frowned at him as Ally giggled. “Thank you, Mr. Hucky!”
“Hey, what if she grows up fully believing that penguin’s have stripes?”
“Then it’d be really funny.”
Joel stumbled out of the kitchen carrying a few boxes. Looking at the bar counter, his eyes slightly widened in surprise at the new addition. “Oh, hiya Vic’.”
Victoria gave a small wave with a grin. “You getting swole lifting those boxes, Joel?”
Joel put the boxes down on the floor behind the counter, rubbing his arms softly with a mild frown. “I mean, they’re heavy? The boxes, I mean. But I don’t think I’m getting buff.”
Huck tipped his bottle to Joel. “I did see a tiny bicep bump. Small progress is still progress.”
Joel nervously hunched his shoulders. “I…guess? Anyways, anything else I can get you guys?”
Ally raised her hand. “I want a juice box!!!”
Victoria nodded. “Get me a bottle of Hermes.”
“Ah… two-dozen lemon pepper wings.”
Joel nodded, ducked under the counter to retrieve a juicebox and a beer bottle. He opened the beer bottle with a swift flick of his wrist, then served the sisters the wrong drinks on purpose.
Ally looked at the bottle of beer. “I..uh… I don’t think I’m allowed to touch this!”
Victoria grinned as she slowly brang the juice box to her mouth. “Ooh, this looks yummy!”
Ally panicked, her wide eyes flickering between her sister taking away her desired prize and the immorality of touching the beer bottle. “Noooo!”
Joel grinned, Victoria laughed, and Huck chuckled as he grabbed the juicebox from Victoria and swapped the drinks. Ally looked up at her hero with wide eyes.
“Thank you, Mr. Hucky!”
“Just remember: penguins absolutely have stripes.”
Ally giggled as Victoria groaned. She would need to show Ally a picture of a penguin later. Joel went to the back with a ticket to prepare the wings. After twenty minutes, Gustavo nearly waltzed out of the back kitchen, causing laughter to erupt from Ally. He winked at his customers before placing the platters of food before them. He then gestured to the back with a head nod.
“Well? Whaddya think? I think he’s doing a pretty good job for only having worked here for a few days.”
Huck frowned. “Kiddo shouldn’t be opening beer bottles, Gus.”
Gustavo rolled his eyes. “Come onnnn. It isn’t like he’s drinking it.”
The sheriff narrowed his eyes. “...is he drinking it?”
The bartender twirled his mustache between his fingers. “I mean, I offered it as a job perk, but he turned it down, so you’re good.”
“Hey…”
Gustavo grinned as he held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, he isn’t drinking it!”
“Offering alcohol to a minor is a crime.”
The mustached man’s grin only grew wider. “I wasn’t offering it.. I was… merely testing him. He passed! Aren’t you glad that you’re housing an upstanding citizen?”
Huck pinched the bridge of his nose, causing Victoria and Gustavo to grin even more madly.
“Just…Just don’t be doing crimes and admitting them to a sheriff, ok?”
The bartender nodded with a false stern expression on his face. “Got it. I will now be hiding all my crimes.”
Ally giggled, causing him to grin as he winked at the golden ball of sunshine. Before Huck could get in a word of protest, a drunken customer began to order another mug of beer in a loud voice. Gustavo sighed, held up a finger to the gang, then went over to address his patron. Victoria sipped her liquid fire as she quietly observed her group. Ally continued with her “penguin” doodle, now giving the striped bird sharp green eyebrows (Victoria needed to show Ally what a penguin looked like) as Huck quietly picked at his wings, peeling off the meat with his fingers as opposed to taking his normal chomps. After a few minutes of this, Victoria sighed and rubbed Huck’s shoulders. Huck glanced over with tired eyes.
Victoria nodded to his fingers. “So, what’s on your mind?”
He looked down at his hands, frowning. “Hm? Where’d this come from?”
She let go of Huck’s shoulders to take a swig of Hermes, then mimicked his fingers. “You only pick at food like that when you’re concentrating on something else. So… what’s up? This have something to do with Dante?”
He quietly looked at the woman in the eyes (causing her heart to jump a bit), then put his half-picked wing down on the platter with an exhausted sigh. “You spend way too much time analyzing people.”
Victoria shrugged, and took another swig. “Eh, it keeps me alive. Plus, the things I notice are pretty obvious patterns that repeat over and over. Not my fault everyone is so simple like that.”
“You calling me simple?”
“Yep.”
Huck scratched his chin. “Half of my mind is on Dante, the other half is on the sisters. I thought they were separate issues, but I’m worried they’re connected. Now, I have to somehow manage both of these issues without ratting out either party. If the sisters find out, then that might just push them over the edge. If Dante finds out? Well, he might just end up waging a gangwar across all of Blackerd.”
Victoria chuckled as she picked up a drumstick and used it as a baton. “I can already hear it: ‘Those frickin’ white collar guys think they’re better than us? I’ll show them all for frickin’ disreshpectin me!’”
Huck cracked a small grin. “It would be so funny, if this whole situation weren’t so worrisome.”
She nibbled on her wing, hesitating to say her thoughts. Victoria mustered up the courage, then turned her strong eyes to Huck’s dry gaze.
“You could always let the sisters go.”
“Not even an option.”
The blond woman scowled. “Look, it’s great that you have such a heart of gold, but you won’t be able to protect everyone. What happens when you’re forced to choose between the town and an individual or two? Your indecision is gonna ruin both.”
Huck stayed silent, picking at his wing again. Ally, oblivious to the entire tense atmosphere, pulled Huck’s elbow to show off her abomination that was a “penguin”. He glanced over, smiled, then ruffled Ally’s hair with his non-saucy hand.
“Penguins also have belly buttons, you know.”
Ally wrinkled her brow as she looked at the drawing. She then used her green crayon to add a single dot in the middle of the penguin. “Like that?”
“Eh, a little less green normally, but that works.”
Victoria was torn between all her emotions. She wanted to groan at Ally’s misunderstanding of a penguin. She wanted to strangle Huck for his naiveté behind “wanting to save everyone”. She wanted to squeal seeing the two of them interact in such a close manner. She wanted to hit herself for even suggesting an option that she knew would get rejected. She wanted to hug Huck for, well, his entire situation.
So, what was the solution in dealing with all these conflicting emotions? Victoria drained the rest of her beer, then waved at Gustavo for another.
As the trio ate and drank in silence, Victoria’s mind slowly began to drift a bit the more she drank. After three bottles, she knew that any more would turn her from “tipsy” to “drunk”, so she cut herself off. After all, it wouldn’t be a good image to be foolishly drunk in front of her sister. She glanced over at Huck and Ally. Huck was now instructing Ally on how to draw a giraffe, insisting that the animal did indeed have stripes as well.
Victoria’s head was warm, and her breath was moist. She sighed, and then tapped on Huck. He looked over, frowning.
“Heyyy.”
“Hm?”
“Why don’t you ever hire more cops? Wouldn’t it help with work distribution?”
Huck glanced at the empty bottles next to Victoria, then looked back at her. He scratched his chin, then took another swig of Cola.
“It isn’t like I haven’t thought about it, but more cops means more people I need to supervise. Plus I really don’t want to have other people responsible for the mess I’ve created.”
“So you try to balance everything on your plate by yourself? You aren’t getting enough sleep, you know.”
“Small price to pay for peace, right?”
Victoria grumbled then turned away to rest her head on the bar counter.
Not to me, dumbass.
The night went on, customers getting rowdy at Bera’s enchanting singing, Gustavo yelling profanities at disorderly drunkards, Joel running around serving bottles and mugs to guests, and Ally doodling abominations that seemed to spite all creation with their mere existence. When the clock hit 8:56, Ally began to rub her eyes out of weariness, so the trio decided to excuse themselves home. Huck offered a ride home, and Victoria accepted if only for her sister’s sake. Once dropped off at Dante’s house, the dizziness of the alcohol in her system caused Victoria to stagger over to her bedroom and promptly knock out in her bed.
. . .
The Ghetto of Blackerd was dreary. Massive trees cracked sidewalks with their powerful roots, yet had few leaves due to lack of proper care. One could find dirty tents or mattresses with no occupants littered around benches and ditches. The buildings in this section of the town were all pale and grey, as individuals couldn’t afford to repaint their businesses or homes due to lack of time or money. A brightly colored building painted a massive target on the individual’s property, as that would signify wealth. Even if someone were rich, noone dared to repaint their store or home in fear of being swarmed by the desperate and lazy. People were constantly getting mugged. If one listened closely to certain buildings, you could hear the cries and sorrows of those being assaulted…both female and male.
Victoria didn’t know much about Dante, but his eyes would always glow with some sort of rage as he walked around the town. One day, the two of them stumbled across a dead teenager who had obviously overdosed on a bench. That day, something inside Dante snapped as he immediately sold his car to purchase laboratory equipment. He then began producing…something. After about a month of continuous development, Victoria walked into the house’s basement to witness the dark-skinned man quietly staring at his newest creation.
Dante held up an orange crystal, It seemed freshly made, as it was still smoking. It smelled of salt, spice, and bleach.
Victoria blinked. ‘So, what is it?’
He hesitated. ‘Not too sure, but if my science is correct, then it should speed up the brain’s processing power in exchange for a slower motor function. It should theoretically feel as if you’re strapped into a roller coaster at a hundred miles per hour, but being able to fully memorize and comprehend everything.’
‘What is it even made of? It smells… awful.”
‘I’m not fucking telling you.’
The blond woman focused intently on the crystal being held up. ‘Fine, but why would someone want this? If it turns you into a slug, then what’s the point?’
Dante broke his gaze from the crystal to look at Victoria with a scowl. ‘Good god, you’re a dumbass.’
Victoria scowled. ‘Piss off, it’s an honest question.’
Dante rolled his eyes, then focused on the crystal again, checking on it through the light at different angles. ‘You ever have to just… ‘wait’? Be it in a line, through an awkward moment, or whatnot?’
He gently placed the orange crystal on a plate, then looked back up at Victoria. ‘This would make those moments that feel like an eternity pass by in an instant. Plus, this crystal should trade off motor functions to overwork the brain. Particularly, the hippocampus. To simplify it for a dumbass like you, the part of the brain where memories are stored.’
She blinked, trying to comprehend everything. ‘So…’
Dante groaned and rolled his eyes. ‘Holy… it should let you selectively peer into your own memories as if you were flipping through a book, or rewinding a movie to rewatch different parts. You would be able to completely ignore all the bad parts of your life and repeat the highlights over and over. How do you not understand that? Are you really that stupid?’
Victoria’s mouth slowly opened unconsciously, completely unregistering the insult. ‘Wait… isn’t that revolutionary? That could change the world. You could unironically make billions off of this, no?’
‘If I wanted something as shallow as money, yeah. But even if I did, that’s only if this works. Realistically, it should still have a few problems.’
The blond woman crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. ‘You aren’t interested in the money? Really.’
‘I’m not a gold digging whore like you, ok?’
‘First off, fuck you. Second off, what are you after then?’
Dante tightened his lips, clearly hesitating on giving away his motives. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. ‘You ever wonder why people do drugs?”
Victoria looked at the disheveled man with surprise. ‘Because they’re curious? I don’t know.’
The man rolled his eyes. ‘You’re so damn simple. Sure, curiosity might be a factor, but that isn’t enough to continue an addiction. Not for everyone, anyways.’
The blond woman scowled. ‘I’m almost certain curiosity is the biggest factor. The hell you mean I’m simple?’
Dante looked at her with lazy eyes. ‘Curiosity. Excess of money. Loss of motivation. Societal convention. Boredom. The reasons are endless. Doesn’t matter what the starting ignition is, you can’t solve the addiction issue with a basic universal answer.’
Victoria pursed her lips. ‘So why the hell am I simple for picking a single answer? I’m not wrong. What does this have to do with my qu-’
The man cut her off. ‘Because it tells me you only think of things one dimensionally, you mooncalf.’
She grit her teeth in annoyance. ‘The hell even is a mooncalf?’
Dante sighed as he rolled his neck. ‘Doesn’t matter. Mooncalf, dipshit, retard, it all means the same. The issue isn’t that people are getting addicted…it’s that people are dying. So, if people are going to get addicted, I’d rather them be addicted to something that’s nonlethal or chemically addictive.’
The image of the teenager with glazed eyes flashed in Victoria’s mind, causing her to flinch. Dante had never mentioned him, but there was no doubt that the dead boy was the spark that fueled this entire project. Strangely enough? It…humanized the demon, if not slightly.
As Victoria quietly gazed at the orange crystal, a thought suddenly fluttered through the mind. She took a nervous step back. ‘So, uh…how do you know the crystal works?’
He looked up at Victoria. ‘I need to test it, dumbass.’
‘H…how?’
The dark-skinned man groaned and rubbed his face. ‘I’m not testing it on you, fuckface. Relax.’
Relieved, Victoria cleared her throat and quickly stepped back up. ‘I knew that. But, how were you gonna test it? On a mouse or something?’
Dante squinted at her, obviously caught off guard at Victoria’s idiocy. ‘H...how would I even confirm that the drug works then? ‘Hur durr the mouse is moving slower, it’s working!’? Are you getting more retarded by the minute?’
Victoria scowled. ‘Hey.’
He picked up the fingernail sized crystal with a pair of tweezers that lay on the table. ‘This crystal only worked if injected, eating it would probably just give mild diarrhea.’
Dante grabbed a lighter and nail, heating up the nail for a minute. After ensuring the nail was hot, he then grabbed medical tape and bandages from the shelves behind his chair. He muttered to himself as he prepared for something that Victoria couldn’t quite comprehend. After a few minutes passed, Dante had strapped himself into something that looked close to an amateurly built restraining chair, leaving only one arm free. Dante then burned a hole through the crystal with the heated nail, then firmly attached the crystal to the nail with some suture.
Dante honestly looked like he was about to shoot up heroin.
He looked up at Victoria, causing her to nervously rub her arms. “You have one job.”
“Uh…”
“After I inject this into my bloodstream, simply watch. No matter what jitters or seizures I might go through, do not release me or call for any help. You are only to untie me after I give very clear instructions while sober…or if I’m dead. Got it?”
“Wait…you’re testing it on yourself?”
“Why would I force anyone to undergo something I myself wouldn’t do? You fucking stupid or something?”
Dante’s hand mildly trembled, but he grit his teeth. He nodded to the camcorder set up directly in front of him. “Turn that on.”
Victoria fumbled with the camcorder, her head beading with cold sweat. What should she do? What could she do?
Once she gave a nervous thumbs up indicating that the recording had begun, Dante took a shaky breath.
“Dante Macmillain, June 17th, 20XX. 16:10 ‘Flicker’ prototype one.”
He then stabbed his arm with the crystal tied to the nail, leaving a small cut that quickly began to ooze blood. As the heat of the crystal began to sizzle against his skin, he grit his teeth. After twenty seconds, he quickly removed the nail, revealing that the majority of the crystal had dissolved into his arm. Dante then quickly grabbed a preheated spoon, burning his skin to cauterize his wound, causing him to sweat in pain as his jaw clenched even more tightly. He then grabbed the bandage, taping it to his arm. This entire process took roughly three minutes.
His head was beaded in sweat. As Victoria stood, trembling in worry and fear, he muttered dialogue to the camera.
“N…now. If my calculations are correct, a flicker crystal of this size should start impacting me in roughly fourteen minutes, give or take two…three…no, two minutes. I’ll be going through jitters and heart palapa…palpitations until then. I predict these symptoms to get worse and worse as the time progresses.”
He coughed, then grit his teeth as more sweat beads continued to form on his brow. His squirms were too much to bear witness to: Victoria subconsciously moved to undo his restraints to tend to Dante. However, as she move no more than three steps, Dante spat out an order: “You stay the fuck there.”
Victoria flinched. Dante’s breath shortened. “Until I tell you to, do notmove from that spot. All symptoms should be recorded in its fullness. If you even think of doing anything to change the outcomes of this experiment, I’ll kill you.”
She backed up nervously, and looked at the camera. Two minutes had passed, and Dante was already writhing in pain and discomfort. If his was correct, this would only continue to grow over the course of twelve minutes. Of course, those could just be incorrect calculations. Victoria desperately wanted to believe that he had messed up somewhere in his formula, and that his suffering would end shortly. However… while she had only known him for a short time, one thing was very evident:
Dante was never wrong.
...
She woke up with a deep inhale. Her head was fuzzy and her bladder was packed. Ally was curled up in the pocket of Victoria’s stomach, similar to how a kitten might curl up right next to its mother. As Ally’s calm breathing filled the air, Victoria smiled and stroked her younger sister’s hair. While she would love nothing more than to sit there and dote on her sister for all eternity, nature called.
So, she swiveled out of bed and rapidly staggered to the bathroom as quietly as possible to avoid soiling her pants.
After cleaning herself up, Victoria noticed the kitchen lights still on. Slowly creeping up to the kitchen doorway, she heard muttering and the rustle of papers. Peering in, she was greeted with the expected sight: Dante surrounded by piles of papers, stacks of bills, and orange tinted eyes flickering between all the information given to him.
Oh, she hated the man. Loathed and despised his being. However, she couldn’t help but respect his work ethic and sense of duty. Despite all the manpower and authority he carried in Blackerd’s Ghetto, Dante never allowed anyone to do his paperwork. Some would suspect his reasoning to be due to distrust, but Victoria knew it was his way of showing consideration to his workers. Dante knew he worked harder than the average population, so he would never force anyone to keep up with his pace. For every ten hours someone worked, Dante would work fifteen.
Victoria knocked on the doorway, causing Dante’s eyes to twitch as they glanced at the doorway. His eyes, while orange tinted, also carried heavy bags.
“Why the fuck are you awake at 4 am?
She nodded to the desk. “Flicker isn’t a substitute for sleep. It doesn’t grant rest or energy. You know that.”
He rubbed his eyes, and grumbled. “I invented the damn thing, you think I don’t know how it works? Who the hell are you to preach to me?”
The woman glanced at the calendar on the wall, which displayed many scratched days. “You’re so caught up on your work that you haven’t even been marking the calendar. You know how many days that's behind?”
Dante pinched the bridge of his nose, putting all his energy into thinking. “So I missed a day. Big whoop.”
“That calendar is four days off.”
“...shit.”
Victoria opened the fridge, grabbed a plastic water bottle, then tossed it to Dante with an underhand throw. He stared at the bottle until it was a foot away from his face before flinching and slowly raising his arms. His slower reaction time failed him, and he ended up getting smacked in the face instead. He rubbed his nose and growled.
“You have three seconds to apologize.”
“Sorry.”
The kingpin scowled, rubbing his nose, and eyes slowly drooping. He grit his teeth, pinching his neck with his fingernails to jolt his eyes open.
She raised an eyebrow. “You notice it too, right? Your whole body is slowing down. It isn’t just a side effect from flicker: your body is actively putting all its energy into thinking. At this rate, you legitimately won’t have enough energy to have your eyes open, or to even chew food. Hell, you might not even have energy to digest.”
Dante’s head swayed. “I’m fine. Go back to sleep and mind your fucking business.”
Victoria snorted. “Tough guy act doesn’t really work when you fail to catch a water bottle due to being sleepy.”
She leaned on the dining room table, and stared at him in his sleep-deprived eyes. “I don’t really give a damn if you die, but your survival is tied to my sister’s survival. So, it’s my responsibility to make sure that you don’t bite the dust, got it? Go to bed. I don’t give a damn if it’s for ten minutes or for fourteen hours, but you need to rest. Even from a logical stance, it makes sense to rest: better to work hard at full power than to slowly fizzle out at twenty percent, right?”
Dante muttered, slowly picking the water bottle off the floor. After a small sip, he muttered a command in a whisper.
“Get me a cushion from the living room.”
Victoria dipped into the living room, stole a cushion from Olivia (who was sleeping on the couch yet again), then returned to the kitchen to place it next to Dante. He grumbled, then collapsed on the spot, headfirst into the cushion. Only thirty seconds had passed before soft breathing echoed throughout the tiled kitchen. Satisfied, she returned to her room, where her sister had taken over the entire bed by laying down with all her limbs extended. Chuckling, Victoria slowly scooted her sister over, curled up, and tried to get back to sleep.
...
When she woke up, Ally was directly on top of her.
She had somehow found a way to squiggle her body onto Victoria’s head, with half of the younger sister’s body hanging off the bed. Victoria slowly rolled out of bed to ensure her sister didn’t face plant onto the floor. Once out of bed, Victoria then washed up in the bathroom, brushing her teeth and dabbing light makeup onto her face.
She then unplugged her phone from the wall, checking the time. The pixel screen read 6:22 am, meaning she had plenty of time. She pumped in a few digits into the keypad, then waited with her phone against the receiver. After two rings, the other side picked up. The husky voice grumbled.
“Vic’, why the hell are you awake so early?”
Victoria’s heart lightly raced, but she cleared her throat. “Hey, Huck. So, uh, you got a minute to talk after I drop Ally off at school?”
...
Huck was waiting in Carlos at the school parking lot. It was fairly easy to see the brown car in a horde of silver and black. Huck noticed Victoria looking at him, and he nodded towards her. She lightly jogged over to the sheriff, combing her hair with her fingers and straightening her slightly crinkled shirt as she did so.
He nodded to her once she climbed into the passenger seat. “So, what’s up?”
Victoria cleared her throat, thinking of the best way to phrase her request. After a few seconds, she gave up and decided to be blunt.
“Could you watch over Ally?”
Huck raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He then waited for Victoria to continue her reasoning.
The blond woman slowly inhaled. “So, uh, Dante’s house is going under some renovations involving pesticides and paint. I thought it might not be the best for Ally to be breathing all that in, so…”
“...you want me to watch over her as these renovations take place?”
“Yeeeeah.”
The sheriff tapped the steering wheel, deep in thought. After a few seconds, he looked over with a nod. “For how long?”
Victoria rubbed her arms. “Erm, no idea, to be honest. Apparently it’s a cockroach infestation and Dante is gonna try using the paint as a form of toxin to kill them. You know, two birds with one stone?”
Huck stared at Victoria. “Your plan…”
“Dante’s.”
“Right. Dante’s plan is to kill a cockroach infestation with some paint.”
“Mhm.”
“...the same Dante that’s responsible for leading multiple factions in the Ghetto.”
“Y…yeah.”
“...the very same Dante that manufactured a drug from scratch that could revolutionize the world if released in mass.”
“Look, the dude is weird, alright? Don’t look at me like that.”
Huck sighed as he rubbed his neck. Victoria quietly continued to rub her arms. After a minute of excruciating silence, he spoke:
“You know something? You rub your arms every time you’re nervous.”
She flinched. She felt a warmness in her chest, knowing that Huck was paying such close attention to her, but also felt creeped out that he could read her accurately. She quickly stopped rubbing her arms and looked at the sheriff with an accusatory glare.
“You have the A.C. blasting at 8 am in the morning. Why wouldn’t I be shivering?”
“...because you’re also mildly sweaty.”
“...no I’m not.”
Huck drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, chewing the inside of his cheek while slowly nodding.
“You have your reasons for not telling me, fine. I’ll watch your sister on one condition.”
Victoria’s heart jumped with relief, but she clenched her hands. “Sex?”
He blinked, taken aback by her answer. “What? No. No! What?”
She laughed. “Kidding. I mean, not really, but what’s your condition?”
Huck grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose, causing Victoria to mildly cackle. She really wouldn’t mind a night of passion with him, but she knew he wasn’t the type to sleep around. Partially because of his faith, and partially because of…well…Lorraine.
He cleared his throat, looking her in the eyes. “Next time, just be honest, alright? You don’t need to make up an excuse.”
Victoria bit the inside of her cheek, then looked down at her lap. “Yeah, got it. Sorry.”
Huck checked the clock on the dashboard. He frowned as he closed his eyes, seemingly concentrating on something. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and nodded to her.
“Wanna grab a bite? I have some time to spare before the next meeting.”
“Oh hell yeah. Just not pizza, I’m so tired of pizza. If we are given breakfast, it’s always pizza.”
“Why would you eat pizza for breakfast?”
“I dunno, ask Dante.”
As the two of them drove around town, deciding where to eat, Victoria simply felt free. After breakfast, her problems would return and continue to hinder her very existence, she knew this.
So, she cherished these few minutes she had with Huck, and tried to forget about all the problems that awaited her at home.
51Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWg5cztPZeR
