Impending Doom

Tuesday, 1st September
14:30

Julian spent a very vexing twenty minutes watching three youtube tutorials on how to open a door with a broken handle. To nobody's surprise, there was no video on how to open a door when someone with supernatural strength had literally bent the bastard thing with their bare hands. Not content with that, the woman he was saving would no doubt be furious after being locked in there for so long and then to top it off, having the perp run off. As far as he remembered, the only things in there were storage crates, tarps, and bugs. Even the light didn't work. On the verge of saying fuck it and breaking out the wood axe which was downstairs (don't ask why he had one, it just appeared one day) and breaking the tortuous thing down.

Throwing the tools down on the rough hardwood floor, Julian's hands tangled in his hair. "She's gst oing to kill me."

"I can't believe you're still trying to get me out of there."

The voice from Julian's left caused his head to shoot up. Eyes brimming with tears, the middle-aged man staggered to his feet. "How long have you been out of there?"

"Long enough to see that prick leave."

"Which one?"

"I'm going to tell Alex you said that after I'm done kicking her ass." Flicking dirt from under her nails, Domino jutted her head towards the lower floor. "Come on."

Stuttering as he watched the woman begin to leave, Julian snatched up what he needed and gave chase. Locking the office as he balanced his belongings in his arms, the business owner called after the woman waiting at the bottom of the steps.

"Where are we going? How did you even get out?"

"I climbed out of the window." Taking her hair out of a high ponytail, the redhead grinned at the look of horror covering her friend's face.

"You were on the second floor of a factory, Domino."

"Sure was." Ruffling the fiery mass of locks loose, she rolled her neck in wait. "And I chipped a nail, so that bitch is really going to pay. I only had these done four days ago..."

Julian had met the female on the ground floor but didn't stop. Heading for the loading dock where his own car was parked, the middle-aged man continued to glance back to the crazy woman. "If you would have fallen from there, you could have died."

"I've bailed on worse buildings than this; 'saved me lots of awkward morning-afters." Hand on the top of his back between his shoulders, Domino urged him out into the afternoon drizzle. "I have GPS on Alex's car, and we're going to go and find out where she's going."

Digging his feet into the dusty linoleum, Julian's face was a mix between a grimace and 'nope'. "Are you insane?"

"Partially, but the doctor let me off with a handy letter."

"If she sees us spying on her, she'll have us hung, drawn, and quartered."

"Then let's just not get caught." The taller woman gave him a shove towards the sickly yellow-green coloured VW Bug that had seen better days. "Aren't you curious about what she's doing, rushing about as she did?"

Domino had a point. Alex was a pretty secretive person. She always had been when it came to her life outside of work. However, Domino had known Alex since they both could garble words. If she was curious, then perhaps what the slightly older woman was doing could be of interest.

Seeing that Julian still wasn't fully for the idea, the redhead prodded at his painfully obvious weak spot. "She could be in danger." And just like that, the man had jumped off the concrete loading ledge and opened the driver's door. Grinning to herself, Domino took her own set of keys with one hand as the other prodded in the code to the alarm box. Ragging shut the dented door and padlocking the external bolt, she waited until she heard the beep of the security system saying it was set.

Industrial Estate - 14:25

Blood dripped onto the dusty linoleum like a faulty tap. Two lifeless bodies in tracksuits were discarded to the shadows beneath a boarded-up window. A third man over four hundred pounds was tied up to the rafters by his ankles, still swaying slightly from the last blast to his ribs. The attacker was around the same build but in much better shape. His chest visibly rose and fell from the exercise that he had partaken in for the past hour or so. For a pair of junkies, the tracksuit pair had held out longer than expected. He'd even offered to give them money for dope if they co-operated but they refuused despite their jittering. It had been a while since he saw anyone so scared at the notion of giving someone up - even longer since the main source of fear wasn't him. As for the baldie, he had a cracked gourd and was now bleeding out from biting his tongue off after watching what had been done to his buddies.

The attacker in all-black paused when a jingle came from his pocket. Removing the knuckle-duster, he answered the call. "K here."

"Have you found out where it is yet?"

"A pair of women came to collect it earlier. They mentioned the name Julian Darby, and that the blonde had a dangerous tattoo on the inside of her forearm, but they wouldn't give me her name.

"I don't care what they're called. I want that box before sunrise tomorrow."

"I think we should be a little more cautious. Whoever took that box put the fear of God into these guys."

"I don't pay you to think, K; I pay you to get results. Call N to give you a hand."

"Is that really necessary?"

"I don't want the fear of God putting into you. This is important."

Sneering and rolling his eyes, K clenched his jaw. "The kid's a wacko. He's likely to cause even more problems."

"If I have to look for the package and the girl myself, there's going to be Hell to pay for it."

"Sure thing, boss," there was a brief hum before a continuation. "I'll get it done."

"Yes, you will."

15:17

Julian had been driving around the town centre with Domino giving him directions via the GPS app on her phone for the past half an hour. They had watched Alex nip to her apartment and come back out in a change of clothes which was nothing like what she would wear even if she was held at gunpoint in record time, only to speed to the other end of town and rush into a swanky hotel. As soon as they had seen what Alex was wearing, the pair couldn't help but bicker back and forth over what she was doing. However, once parked across the street from the hotel, the swarms of people heading inside in formal wear, Domino squinted and cocked her head. Double-checking her epiphany, she tapped at her phone screen, searching the establishment's website. A beat barely passed when the passenger's obnoxious laugh filled the cramped vehicle and startled the driver.

"She's 'choosing her fate', 'It's important to her future'." Head back as she cackled, Domino pieced the situation together. "She's bloody speed-dating."

Julian pulled his chin in with a frown, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. "Unlikely."

"Well, I wasn't wrong; she is in danger." Trying to pull herself together, the redhead took in a long breath while her lips were clamped in between her teeth. Breaking with laughter again, she choked on her own breath. "I went to one once just to see what it was like."

"And?"

"It was horrible. Everyone is either extremely bland or pretentious as fuck; people show off how rich they are, or how self-deprecating they can get before they can be judged by somebody else. She's going to hate it." Sniffing sharply, she turned in her seat to face the driver. "Let's get a little action on it; £20 says she ends up in a fight and is thrown out."

"She's supposed to be your best friend." Julian found a loophole in the passenger's words. "And besides, who the Hell in a hotel would be able to drag someone like her out?"

"Y'know, I thought I'd win, but with reasoning like that..."

"She seemed pretty confident about it earlier." Julian rooted through his pocket, his hips raised and almost banging into the bottom of the steering wheel as he tried to fight the item out of the back pocket of his grey slacks. Huffing when his rear returned to the seat of the vintage Bug, the driver counted through the notes in his wallet. "I only have a tenner on me."

Sending a half-smile, Domino, wobbled her head as she checked her own on-hand cash. "I have fifteen." Looking up, she tossed her cash on the little indent below the handbrake. "We're both good for it, and there are a million cash machines around here."

Following suit of handing the cash to the car, the driver shifted into a better position to watch the swanky hotel they were parked across from. "Tailing her is bad enough, but what do you think she will do if she finds out we bet on her love-life?"

"You mean lack of?" Domino chuckled to herself, a small set of binoculars in her hand as her left elbow rested on the window ledge. "Oh, she'll definitely quit." The way she said it was as if she was wafting away a fly.

"What? I don't want her to quit." The driver's brows furrowed over pale irises surrounded by dark circles. "She was the only thing to stop me from closing up my busi-" Julian paused when the younger woman looked back at him.

A quirked brow and a cheeky 'oh, yeah?' was clear on her pretty face. Julian snapped his head away as if he was looking for plastic cops and their annoying little parking ticket machines.

"We met by chance, but she helped me when she didn't have to," he spoke to the glass, staring off as if the raindrops racing down the windscreen were of the utmost importance. "It's been years, but she never speaks about her past, not really. It's always veiled truths and sarcastic anecdotes."

Turning to look back at where they were casing, the passenger hummed, her voice softer than usual. "She's always been a private person, ever since Saint Em's. She's pretty much the ideal test subject of nature versus nurture; we all went through the same daily life...initially."

To Julian, Domino keeping her eyes locked on the building and its visitors via binoculars seemed like some kind of shield from what she was letting on to for the first time in the three years they'd known each other.

"She grew up closed off from letting people know simple things about her. She didn't complain about food, or weather, or sitting next to stinky boys with germs. She would try to answer questions she didn't know in class, and always ran hard in P.E even though I now know she won't run for anything less than a grand. I was supposed to be her friend, Julian, but even I didn't know her as much as I thought I did." Her shoulders dropped only a fraction, but he noticed. She shifted a little until her left leg was under her rear and both elbows were on the window sill. "Not until we both left that place and we'd had to deal with the problems of the outside world."

"She doesn't talk about St Emiliani's. I've tried to speak to her about it a few times, but she always changes the subject." Watching the redhead's back, rain dappling his windows, Julian softened his voice. "I've known her for coming upon a decade this December and she still won't talk to me about it."

"Imagine the worst prison you can, and then make it worse. Factor in starvation for the simple fact those in charge wanted to save money and punish those falling behind in classes, beds made of straw in rooms which emphasized the weather to drastic degrees, manual labour on the farm and factory work, beatings for looking the Sisters in the eye, and all of that was for kids between the ages of three and twelve." A sharp sniffle punctuated her words, but she wasn't crying. She wasn't close to anything resembling sadness; her knuckles around the binoculars were white. "They tried to palm us off on whoever would take us, be them druggies, abusers, or those wanting to make quick cash by selling us abroad. They made sure to do so with the older kids first, as they were more likely to figure out that what was going on out there wasn't right. None of it was right."

Julian listened to the words coming from the woman who had always tried to make the best of a bad situation, tried to absorb them into himself inside that humid tin hub the blonde in question had gifted him not long after they met. He had started working with Alex just over eight years ago and had consistently grown frustrated with her never giving anything up about herself. On the other hand, she always got the jobs he gave her done, no matter what it was. People said that a lot: 'no matter what', but he had never seen a person take that to the extent Alex did.

Whether it was spending twenty-four hours scouring the internet and talking to strangers in order to find discrepancies in stories concerning fake collections, or retrieving a priceless work of art, or finding a supernatural artefact, she would be there, in front of his desk, at the designated time. Sometimes her hair was ruffled, sometimes her clothing torn; sometimes there were sirens whizzing past in search for her, sometimes she came back with a broken bone or a stab wound. Regardless of her state, she would be there all the same: on time, and with what had been asked of her. She was like a good dog bringing in the newspaper just in time for breakfast. Apart from sometimes, she would search the postman out and bite him before he could get to the door.

"Wait, Jules," Domino wafted her hand behind her, smacking the man when he turned to attention. "I think I've seen him before." Handing over the tool she was peeking with, she grabbed the fabric over the top of his shoulder and dragged him to her side. "Look." Making his hands take the binoculars, she yanked him half onto her lap. "Him," hardly waiting until he held the device to his eyes, Domino pointed at the congregation loitering by the grand hotel steps. "The short one missing his left ring finger and cheekbones sharp enough to cut a bitch.

Before Domino could elaborate on the finding, Julian slumped. Forgetting he was plastered over the filled out frame of his passenger, the middle-aged man grit his teeth and bit at the close air. "That's Finley McCaughley."

"You know him?"

"I hired him once before I had Alex. I paid him to retrieve a Somalian Vase and he found another artefact on the job." Gnawing on his words, the short man almost spat as he recalled. "He took both, along with my cash, and then sold them both off before he left the country. Last I heard, he was working as a merc for the highest bidder."

"This isn't good. I counted six suits heading inside, none of them designer." Licking her lower lip, Domino squirmed with furrowed brows. "No matter how shit the date is, if Alex is interrupted by an escape plan she didn't set up..."

Julian dropped the binoculars and they rolled off bare thighs, into the passenger footwell. "We need to-"

"-Warn her? Julian, we've been casing her. She'll sodomize us with the Japanese spiked clubs you got in last month."

"I don't care. I don't want her meeting that man."

"Wait, I think I have an idea."

"I always hate your ideas." The redhead gave an offended look accompanied by a scorned huff. Julian held his hands up in weak defence. "Your ideas which involve me dressing up." He did a double-take with a glum expression. "You're going to make me dress up, aren't you?"

Keeping his eyes far from the rear-view mirror as his accomplice changed in the back seat, Julian groaned at the fast-growing predicament. "Domino this is ridiculous."

"I think you look dashing."

"I'm pretty sure security guards have to pass a certain height." Running his hands down the threads, the driver grimaced. "And where the hell did you find this uniform?"

"I borrowed it."

"You stole it, didn't you? And why the hell was it in my boot?"

"That's your fault for never cleaning this tin-can out - Alex and I have all sorts of shit stashed in here. And besides, is it really considered stealing if it's left in my flat?"

Julian opened his mouth to contest her on fine line of the law but thought better about it. There was no point in trying to put a collar on a tiger and pretending it was a house-cat when as soon as you turned your back it went and ate your neighbours. "So, what's the plan?"

"You wait here for now. I don't think he'll recognize me because we only met in passing once so I'll go in and take a look at the situation. When I find Alex, I'll let you know and you can come and get her while I make a distraction." Making sure no cars were coming, Domino opened the back door and stepped out into drizzle. "Stay on the line." Closing the door behind her, she dashed across the street and up the stone steps of the historical building.

Sauntering into the hotel in a hurry, Domino's hand trying to keep her bandage dress down, the tall redhead tizzed past another of the 'party' members. "My bad, ah, I'm so sorry honey," Domino drawled her best Southern American accent as she gave a reassuring double tap to the smaller female's face. Turning away, she clipped the stolen pass to the strap of her sprayed-on dress and sashayed into the main room. Chiffon sash fluttering as she swayed her hips, the redhead made for the bar at the far end of the room and took a seat as she scoured the space. Phone to her ear, Domino spoke to the man who had been listening. "I see her. She's five men in."

"Please don't phrase it like that."

"You've clearly never played her wingman on a Saturday."

"Dom, this is serious. If Finley gets to her, he'll recognize her and all unholy Hell will rain down."

"I get it- wait-" The redhead looked around only to come up blank. "She's gone."

"Is Finley still there?"

"He is, but I'm not going anywhere near him."

"If he sees her, he will follow her-"

"Hold on. The guys who were with Finley seem to be on the move." Slipping off the leather-topped stool, Domino emptied the contents of her glass down her throat and handed it off to a server's tray as she left the main room. As if she was itching the underside of her hair, the redhead spoke lowly as she passed the rousing security guards. "No, baby, I'm heading back now. I just worked a little overtime..." Pale eyes slid across the group of men in suits and earpieces. One of them caught her line of sight and she gave a wink and flashed a grin as she put on the act of lying to her non-existant husband. She halted by the main door which had been closed off and locked up tighter than the Virgin Mary's pussy.

There was interference with the phone. And then what sounded like taps. Knocks. Looking around, Julian was faced with something he never wanted to see in that situation: Alex staring through his window while he was in the middle of meddling in her life. Unflicking the latch, the blonde slid into the front seat. "Give me the phone."

"Is that Alex?" Domino asked from the other end of the line.

"Yeah, it is-"

"-I'm gonna go ahead and say sorry right now-"

"-Forget it. Hotel security is tight as fuck, and it's gonna get worse; something has been stolen and Private security has been notified over a minute ago so you're on the grill, girl."

"I swear, it wasn't me."

"No, it was me."

"What the fu-I saw you like, thirty seconds ago-"

"-You have around twenty seconds to find the nearest laundry or garbage shoot, get in it, and get to the ground floor at the back of the building. Ground floor at the back, Dom, not basement."

"I got it."

Placing the phone on loud-speaker on the slanted dashboard, the blonde nudged the driver. "Swap with me."

"The last time I let you drive my car, you crashed it."

"Move into the back before I kick you out onto the curb and drive away regardless." Glaring at car-owner something wicked, Alex jut her jaw out in threat. Content with the man's flailing as he faffed and flopped into the backseat through the tiny space between the two front seats, she turned her attention back to the phone call. "Dom, you still there?"

The redhead was on the first floor a corridor away from the reception room, staring at the metal surround of the space in the wall. "Yep."

"You have fifteen seconds to get down here. The opening is a lot smaller than the chute. Hurry the fuck up."

"I'm so sorry, but my sequins are getting stuck."

"Then take it off." Turning the steering wheel to a dangerous degree, the blonde glanced to the rear-view mirror. "I got through, so you can. The fire alarm is going to go off in seven so they will move anything flammable. There will be no quilting at the bottom if you don't move your arse." Hitting the pedal, the Bug reversed madly into traffic. "I'm coming for ya. When you get to the laundry room, turn left and walk out of the alleyway to your left. It looks locked, but you can get through the chain-link fence if you squeeze past the dumpsters."

In no time at all, the redhead came into view, huffing and puffing as the fire alarm bleared throughout the upper levels of the hotel. Bust threatening to bounce out of her bra and round ass causing the men making deliveries to halt in order to ogle, Domino nodded upwards as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Work hard, guys." The redhead winked as she skipped across the narrow side-street, her legs almost skimmed by a puke-coloured VW bubble on wheels. Wiggling her fingers softly, her nails seducing the workers with some kind of social spell, the driver leaned over and thrust open the passenger door, thwunking the redhead in the side. "Get in. Now."

9th October 2020 - 19:49