Got A Secret

Got A Secret

Saturday - 03:41am

After some dodgy directions and hysteric giggles from her company, Niko had pulled up at a motel. The earth it was on was rough and grey while the sparse weeds that sprouted up every now and then were rusty coloured and brittle looking. Over the vast bareness of the backdrop, shades of purple and orange painted the clear sky threatening another humid morning. The place was out of the way, yet the space being used as the car park was almost full. Finding a spot, the female parked the banger and got out.

Opening the door with a creek, Ren slid out of the passenger side. "You ready?"

The blonde nodded and followed her host towards the building lighted with an erratic flashing neon sign.

Inside, the place was surprisingly clean despite there being lots of stuff in there. The decor wasn't much to look at, mind. Most of his belongings were boxes and the bed was made - There was even an assortment of alcohol lining the shelf behind the miniature bar.

Without even asking, Ren poured them both a drink. Pushing one of the motel glasses along the dark wooden counter, the male half for the pair smiled. "So, what's your secret?"

Niko scrambled up onto one of the wobbly metal stools and hunched over the counter. Staring down at the bronze liquid in the cheap glass, the blonde hummed nonchalantly. "I killed three people yesterday."

The brunette didn't even have time to think about the statement before chuckling. "Yeah, right."

"What about you?" She tilted her head as she looked up at him.

"I deal drugs."

The girl quirked her brow. "From a motel?"

Before Ren had time to answer, there was a knock at the front door. Turning to his guest, the brunette just smiled and strut towards the barrier. Opening the door, Ren was faced with two men appearing not much older than him.

Niko watched the interaction secretly as she side-eyed from behind the guise of her drink. Perhaps Ren was telling the truth - She had been, after all. She really did kill three men yesterday afternoon.

Before you begin to panic and think she's some lunatic serial killer, you're wrong. She was a victim of circumstance. That is all. A life's worth of circumstances victimizing her.

All her life she had been taught to take care of her older brother Nikita. He had been brain damaged since birth and as her Mother often worked numerous jobs at once, Niko was the only one suitable to care for him. She had seen and done it all: clean up after him, read to him, tried to teach him as much as she could, bathed him, dressed him, spoke to him on a normal level - Not like those fools in town you used those ridiculous baby voices and patronized him. Niko knew Nikita was slow, but he could still understand when people treat him like a full-blown retard. Which he wasn't.

That day, Friday afternoon, Niko had gone into town to run some errands for friends of her later Mother's. She was know by the older folk as a good girl who put her family first, unlike some of the delinquents around. When she had returned to her humble home, finished up with her work for the day, she had asked her Step-Father where her brother was. Nikita was never supposed to go further than the yard without her, so him being missing was no doubt down to John's lack of responsibility.

The drunkard trying to pass as her carer shrugged and downed his umpteenth bottle of Lite that day. "Went with a few boys from The Works." He had slurred and went back to watching the pre-game on the TV not even six foot from his unwashed, unshaven face. The guy hadn't even moved since she had left some five hours ago.

The Works was a local steel plantation known for employing just about anyone, mostly people that were no good.

Worried about what could happen if Nikita was left to his own devices, she was left with no other option but to search for him. By the time Niko had tracked down the group, it was already too late. A fray of three surrounded her floored brother, heckling and slightly bloodied. When she had confronted them, they had said Nikita had fallen and hurt himself. This was not true, she knew it. A pool of blood spread out from beneath the eldest laying face down moaning. There was no way his state could have been caused by accident.

In her fury, Niko had flown off the handle and tackled the tallest down to the floor punching and screaming as they hit the dirt. Another boy cut in, mocking her 'retard brother' as he kicked the already beaten heap and the girl scrambled up and attacked him in her attempt to stop the torture. Before she could fully get a grip on the situation, the third and final boy and brought up a metal bar and then smashed it down on to Nikita's head in retaliation to his friend's being hurt by the 'pair of tits who lived in the hut'.

Nikita had stopped moving completely and something deep within Niko told her he wasn't ever going to get up. She stood there for a moment, ignoring the shouting coming from the boys around her. Time slowed and soon her own pulse overcame everything.

They'd purposely gone out of their way to bring her brother out there to hurt him; there were animals. There was only one think that should be done about people like that - If they could even be called people - but that didn't cross Niko's mind at that moment. She didn't care about who they could hurt next, or what the police could do if she called them - All that ran through her mind was that they'd killed her brother. They'd killed him for nothing more than sport.

"Niko?"

Snapping to attention, the blonde looked up and blinked to bring her thought process back to the present. Her eyes had started to water and her throat had become hoarse. "What's up?"

Ren sat on one of the small chairs either side of the round table by the door as he rolled another smoke. "A few people are coming 'round."

"It's your place." She told and turned back around to pour herself another drink.

An hour after she'd said those words, the seedy motel room was packed with people. They weren't the type that she usually associated with. Hell, she never really associated with anyone. But this was something else entirely. Around twenty five people had managed to cram into Ren's place, all of them appearing to have just left parties or just be bums. Each of them came in rowdily, cheering and bringing handful's of alcohol, some of them in skimpy swimwear and others in flashy neon pants. Niko thought they looked like part of a circus the way they were acting.

To take her mind of the yelling and obvious bullshit storytelling that was going on amongst the passing of the peace pipe and fast flowing booze, the blonde remained in her corner, taking drinks whenever she was offered one - Which was around every couple of minutes or so. Was this what life was like for everyone but her?

Soon, someone brought in a sound system and a pair of others began setting it up, the blearing tunes from it shaking the foundations of the run down building. Heavy smoke began to fill up the crowded room and the party got more intense. The blonde's head started to spin. She tried to keep her senses about her, but...
 

Updated: 30th August 2013 - 18:00