Title: Catch a Tiger by the Tail
Author: Vesica
Fandom: Sin City
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 343
Prompt: Guest Fandom: Sin City
Disclaimer: Just me dabbling in other people's sandboxes. Not mine – yadda, yadda.
Summary: Only dead men pull the tail of caged tigers.
Somewhere, wind moves through the bamboo, the rustle a lullaby. Somewhere, a predator awakes and a crane takes to panicked flight, wingtips caressing the air with a soft hiss. Somewhere, deep within her, she is truly herself – utterly still in a forest of her own creating.
The line between there and here is a thin one, a line she often crosses.
Golden eyes open, the darkness no obstacle to sighting the prey.
They latch onto movement – there.
The delicious release of coiled, waiting muscles being pushed to their max. The feather light kiss of the ground as feet barely touch the dead skin stretched over wounded earth. Wind rushing past ears, flattened as the world narrows to just two – the hunter and the dead.
And he is dead – he just doesn't know it yet.
Claws cut through air and flesh and he crumples like a puppet whose strings have been cut.
The smell of fresh blood fills her nostrils, settling in the back of her throat. It's a good smell – wipes out the unnatural smells all around.
Another flicker of life – a muffled gasp, a pounding heart.
One, two, three steps- snicker-snack – and the thud of corpse.
The world is an easy place like this – kill or be killed, predator and prey.
Much easier than men like to make it – with their deals and alliances and agreements. She has no use for such playthings. Leave that to Gail – she likes seeing them squirm.
Too soon it ends and slowly she can hear again, see again – the flash of neon, the wail of sirens, the din that constantly rises from the city – from its residents, perhaps from the city itself.
It's like a fog moving in around her - the reality of the city.
He looks down at her, approval hiding behind those hard eyes.
"Deadly little Miho."
She nods.
Dwight's okay, as asshole men go. He sees her as she is, sees and keeps his distance.
After all, only dead men pull the tail of caged tigers.
Night after night, she proves that.
END.