"Another murder case," America said, tossing the dossier down in front of a girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes from what he could see. A white suit, a small rose embossed on the inner collar, barely visible. She smiled, her eyes shadowed by the top hat she wore. "You know anything of it?"
"Now why," she asked, pulling the hat away from her eyes, "would you think that?"
"Katherine," he said, shortly. His blue eyes met hers, then flicked away.
"Ohhh. You think that because I'm what?"
"I know who you work with and work around," he replied.
"Hm? Like Mr. Henry? What's wrong with him?"
"He's a murderer and drug carter. Now, c'mon, darlin' you're smarter than this."
"I am? I thought I was a lowly flapper girl?" she replied, wiping away a spot of blood from her cheek.
"Are you bleeding?" he asked sharply.
"No... Now, why would you assume that?" she asked, lighting a cigarette and puffing out the smoke.
"C'mon, darlin' those things'll kill ya."
"That doesn't answer my question..."
"I can assume things, darlin'."
"Like?"
"Like I know, darlin', that you're in the...organized crime business."
"What a biased tone, your American voice carries..."
Chicago and America turned to see a woman sitting in the huge crushed velvet chairs, a thin, tall woman with tightly made hair, bound in a bun fashion, her lips were a fiery scarlet, to match the thin body slimming dress, she held the stub of a long cigarette in her mouth, smiling at the two, she stared at the window, her body turned towards it as if she were grasping sunlight.
"The Foreign Beauty herself." Chicago said, with a dead tone, her Midwestern accent beating the Czech's smooth, Eastern European tone.
"You think?" Czech replied, rolling her cigarette around the burning lighter, the yellow flame burning the cigarette fumes igniting them higher, Czech breathed a causal stream of smoke exhaling.
"I wouldn't count on it..." Chicago replied.
"Rude American..." Czech replied. "What makes other civilians believe you are so great?"
"Guess you'll never know..." Chicago replied. "You're not a civilian." she took a half step forward, lifting her gaze. "Eastern Devil..."
"I see my fame has even spread to a sleazy town such as this one." Czech replied. "What grandeur I take, I applaud you in conflict, If not hatless, I would tip it to you so as a gentleman."
"Shut your trap." Chicago said.
"My, my, how undignified..." Czech said. "How... American."
"Better than a whore like you!" Chicago snapped, slamming the bar wood, loud enough to make a few patrons jump.
"Right... me..." Czech replied. "How're Bonnie and Clyde doing?"
"Fuck off!"
"Language... Miss Katherine... Some think you'd have a devils tongue..." Czech said.
"It's not forked like yours!" Chicago said.
Czech smiled, her sliver eyes completely lit up her red costume.
"Why... what a horrid thing to say."
"What the hell are you going on about?" America interjected.
"Miss Chicago here is merely hinting to insinuate my... special power..." Czech replied.
"Yes, your powers of sleeping around with men are frightening." Chicago hissed.
"Oh come now dear, now need for a tassel of senseless fighting..." Czech replied. "It's not well to mess with the devil..."
"Who do you think you are?" America asked.
"How to answer such rude questions..." Czech hissed. "Let's see..."
"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."
Czech's chillingly deep European voice made the poem excerpt all the more frightening, America looked at her perplexed.
"The hell does that mean!" he snapped.
"Just a hint." Czech said. "Don't worry, dimwits need process time."
"Through the Looking Glass... Jabberwocky."
"Good job Miss Chicago." Czech condescended severely.
"Shut up..." Chicago said. "What was that supposed to mean?"
"The Jabberwocky was a hideous creature that everyone wanted to kill, I figure it would inspire you..." Czech said. "Seeing you're in the same position..."
Czech flicked the cigarette ashes in the tray as Chicago growled at her.
Czech only grinned back a responses.
"God you're irritating," she finally said, flicking out a switchblade and picking dirt from the cracks of the bar.
"Katherine! Put that away!" America shouted suddenly.
"Shut it... You're just as bad as she is... Probably worse, actually..."
"Oh lovely," Czech cut in, "I rank above an obnoxious American."
Said obnoxious American shot a glare at Czech, before pushing the chair back and storming out, leaving the speakeasy in silence.
The click of a revolver's hammer broke it, leveled at the unfortunate lead singer of the band on the stage.
"Well, monsieur, I don't recall asking you to cease playing," Chicago said, her voice pleasant, her eyes cold. The band hurriedly began playing again and wary conversation began.
"Ladies," the bartender cut in worriedly, "No shootouts in my bar, please."
"Of course not, monsieur, for then who would make my drinks?"
"I'm gettin' on in age, miss, I ain't always gonna be here to stir your martini."
"How cozy..." Czech said, moving to the stool next to Chicago. "I can see your demon..." she hissed into the other girl's ear.
"Go to hell," Chicago replied, sipping her drink, "A lower ring, of course, since you've probably come from there."
"A succubus...? Lilith? I do believe so."
Chicago shivered faintly; barely perceptibly, but Czech caught it.
"Coming out to play, Lilith?" she purred.
"Maybe, love, maybe..." Chicago replied, her eyes flickering between indigo and their normal blue. "I do believe so..." she added, as her eyes finally settled at indigo.
"Ho boy, here we go," the tender said, moving away. The two were quiet for a moment, Czech smoking and Chicago drinking.
"So Madame..." Chicago finally said, her voice softer and sweeter, more seductive.
"Ah, yes?"
"Whatever could bring you so far from home...?"
"I go where the trouble is... Lilith..." she whispered. "I find it suitably here in America..."
"Don't you have...a love life?" Katherine...Lilith replied.
"No... just a brainwashed husband, tortured in Russia now..."
"So you're free?"
"You prefer your own points to logic don't you?" Czech replied.
"I find it easier that way..." Chicago replied.
"I would guess..." Czech replied.
Chicago turned suddenly, a man leaned on her, tapping her drunkenly, he had at least twelve shots in him, and a sly, stupid grin. He had short blonde hair and blue eyes, much like America.
"Can I help you?" Chicago asked.
The man giggled like the drunken idiot he was. He nodded, touching her face.
"I hope you can help me with something all right..." he replied, his voice husky.
"Why don't we take it outside?" Chicago said, leading the man out.
"Already?" the man replied almost happily.
Czech watch Chicago lead the drunken patron out, she saw the windows silhouette tell the story, the man pushed her, Chicago faltered, leaning on the wall, she gripped his neck, wrapping her arm around him, getting close, as if to place a gently kiss...
The patron started screaming and thrashing, Chicago failed to hold him steady, her hand came out, slashing his face, a pale blue glow emitting from his mouth and into hers, she smiled, raking her switchblade on his throat... she never really got to use it that much anyway.
Czech smiled, puffing smoke as she watched the blood stain the tinted glass.
Chicago wiped off a spot of blood from the man's nose, before letting him slide down the alley wall.
"...hmm..." she sighed softly, wiping away a tiny splat of his blood from her cheek. She smiled, her blonde hair shimmering in the moonlight, her eyes temporarily illuminated as she lit a cigarette. The ruby light merely shone off her indigo eyes, as she began to sing:
"Fly me to the moon,
And let me play among the stars,
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars...
In other words,
Hold my hand.
In other words,
Baby, kiss me...
Fill my heart with song,
And let me sing forevermore,
You are all I long for, all I worship and adore,
In other words,
Hold my hand.
In other words,
I love you..."
She was a sight, certainly, standing next to a nearly dead man, and not a care in the world. She dropped the cigarette on said man.
"Pl-please..." he whimpered, tugging at the hem of her pants as he slowly bled out, his eyes completely black.
"Watch who you come onto..." she said, walking away from him and back into the speakeasy. She smiled at the bartender as she sat, and sipped her drink.
"I always get the crazies," he muttered, refilling her drink and moving away.
"A succubus... I was right," Czech smiled, tapping more ashes off her cigarette.
"Congratulations..." Chicago said, licking the blood away from her finger. "Ugh... He was taking shots..." she flicked her finger, spattering blood.
"What a waste..."
"You can have him... I don't care, love..."
"Course you don't. You don't care for many things," another voice came. Annoyed, female, southern French. They turned to see another girl in the doorway. She wore a short black dress and matching heels, her lips ruby red.
"Mona..." Chicago hissed, her eyes narrow.
"Katherine."
"The French whore finally showed up." A tiny pistol danced in Monaco's hand, apparently having been hidden in her pashmina and leveled it at Czech, smiling.
"A whore? Oh, non. Non."
"Please, Mona..." Czech smiled, her eyes flickering silver, "Don't make a scene... Especially not when you can't handle it..."
"Like you know," she replied, her eyes betraying no emotions, "What I'm capable of..."
"Next to nothing, love, next to nothing," Chicago said, smiling into her drink.
"Again, like you know."
"I know much... Much more than you, love..."
"Shut up, Lilith..." Mona hissed the words.
"Oh, so you do remember my name..." she replied, turning her attention to various men sitting around a table, smiling faintly at one of them. He blushed, and she subtly motioned for him to join her later, when his friends left.
"Leave. Him. Alone," Monaco hissed, "He loves Katherine. Not you."
"But, love, I would merely be obliging him... A night with the woman he loves..." she smiled, almost sadistically, "And then, ta-da... Painless, really..."
"You heartless bitch."
"Say it again. I dare you. Pretty girl." Chicago
"I'll tell you what I told you then. A pretty girl couldn't kill you with her bare hands."
"You had the chance to."
"Still hateful because he left you all alone to come running to moi?"
" Go to hell!" Chicago shouted, her eyes flickering between blue and indigo, anger from both her sides fueling her voice.
"Control yourself, Katherine..." Mona said, smiling. Her smile disappeared as a bullet hit her shoulder, staining her white pashmina. She pulled the trigger of her own gun, the bullet grazing Chicago's cheek and knocking her off the stool.
"Consider yourself warned. Oh and tell monsieur Capone he owes me for the other night." and then like the wind she was gone.
"French fucking whore..." Chicago muttered, shoving her gun away.
"Someone's a lil' jealous, huh miz?" the bartender asked.
"Shut it," she muttered as he poured her, unasked, another drink.
"Drown your sorrows, eh?" Czech asked, amused.
"You too. Shut it," she muttered, downing half the tall martini glass in one drink.
"Miz, ya may wanna slow down on the drinks..."
"Presume to tell me what to do, and you'll pattern your own bar," she said, smiling.
"Could care less, miz. I've only got maybe another year or so in me."
She smiled and took the man's chin, lightly. "Then you better make my drinks damn good."
"Katherine Marie Jones!" an annoyed American voice rang out.
"Hm..." she sighed, letting the man go and spinning herself around on the chair. "Alfred... So... nice to see you."
"You leave them alone, you hear me, darlin'!"
"Let me guess... The whore-"
"She's not a whore!"
"Found you," Chicago continued, as though she hadn't heard, "and told you what? That I'd killed someone...?"
"That you, darlin', are messing around with Austin."
A pin could be heard if it was dropped.
In its stead was a gunshot.
Two.
In quick succession.
Czech and Chicago both held smoking guns.
They watched as America staggered out, bloody.
"I think I could get to like you," Czech said softly, almost maliciously.
"Likewise," Chicago replied, the malice in her voice matching the Czech's.
Click.
Their guns were pointed to each other's head, then Chicago's shifted to the band.
"Again with the ceasing... Perhaps, I'll just shoot you?"
The band hastily struck up another swing tune.
Chicago's gun returned to Czech's forehead.
A laugh.
"Ha. Look at that," Monaco said, amused.
"Avartia..." Czech hissed coldly.
"Ira..."
"Both of you... Avartia... Shoo," Chicago hissed.
"Still so jealous of moi?"
"No. You're just getting on my nerves," she said, putting her feet up on the bar and leaning against the air itself, it seemed.
"Oh, non. I've annoyed the stupid, lonely, insane Midwestern girl..."
"Damn, Monaco, you're a bitch..." Czech murmured.
"Care to repeat that?"
"You're. A. Bitch~," Czech repeated happily.
Monaco twitched into a smile, perhaps it was the straw that broke the horses back, but as soon as Monaco began to chuckle, Czech added something that only guaranteed it.
"Nique ta mere." (Fuck your mother) she whispered.
"RAHH!" Monaco screamed in a fit of rage, tackling Czech to the ground, Czech smiled as the deranged girl punched her repeatedly in the gut, she looked up, and spat blood in Monaco's face.
"Vous petit-!" (you little-) Monaco cried, wiping the blood off.
Czech ducked around. Whipping back violently, she curled around the bar, grabbing a bottle of gin, and smiling.
"I'd break this on your face, but I wouldn't defile some good gin like that." she said.
"You'd also pay for that shit." the old bartender grumbled.
"Keep your pants on old man, I won't do it." Czech hissed.
The Czech set the bottle down nicely.
"Why don't I show you... Mona, how I got the name...
Czech's voiced echoed like two fused together, her words hissed out like snakes, her voice melodious as it was deep and terrifying. Snakes shot from her opened mouth, trailing down her side, blood dripping from her scalp, her eyes silver like the waning Crescent moon. She shot forward, hands like claws, fast like a cheetah. She pinned Monaco with one hand. She smiled, spitting her words.
"The Eastern DEVIL!"
Clap, clap.
"Impressive show, love... Take it outside would you?" Chicago asked, tracing her finger along a blonde haired boy's jawline. He shivered under her touch, his head slightly up as though to kiss her. "You're distracting me from my meal..."
"A-Austin! Get the fuck off me, you crazy whore!" Mona shouted.
"K-Katherine..." he moaned softly.
"A-Austin...get away from her! That isn't Katherine!"
He turned to face her. Confused. "Of course it is."
"Shh, love..." Lilith said softly, tracing her fingers along his nose, his lips. "I can be whoever you wish me to be..."
Something alerted him. Her tone, the way she seemed now to care.
But... he didn't care.
He did love her.
And whether it was her personality or not, he still loved her.
"Katherine..." he whispered, his eyes closing.
She only smiled, knowing Mona was watching.
A blue glow from his mouth to hers as she kissed him softly, staying connected to him for far too long. As they disconnected, she murmured something in his ear and he nodded, wishing to feel her lips again.
He walked out and to the park, his eyes blank as he collapsed.
Chicago smiled, running her finger along her lip and catching a small piece of blue caught on her lip.
Czech smiled and let the French girl go, wanting to see what would happen.
Still dizzy from the blood loss caused by Czech's knife, Monaco tried to run at Chicago but missed and slammed into the bar.
Czech watched in still silence.
The French girl scrambled like a withering flower in the wind.
She didn't smile, sadism was usually her thing, but at this point, she didn't care.
Something about Chicago's satisfaction made her upset.
Monaco ran outside shaking the collapsed blonde man, begging for his life, begging to awake...
Damn it...
The fire was diminishing, and she felt a disturbance in her. She walked over to the shut in windows. The fans that spun lazily overhead did not cool her, she felt suffocated, dying, strangled. It was the feeling Czech hated the most. She watched the civilians walk by, and the bands lively music drowned the background.
She felt a strangeness of the blood that dripped on her body drying up, and rotting, she could feel Vit. And the presence of Vit's demon, she felt a large dark heavy metal in her hand, and pulled the sword of Hades from her dress. The dark red metal fused with the magic of the Persephone's dark wind, her large cutting blade.
She smiled. and she remembered.
Now she knew the reasons of her feelings, her understanding now realized.
It was the moonlight time of The Ripping.
"Good morning Vit..." she whispered, the blade's weight not bothering her in the slightest. "Shall we go hunting some French food?"
She paused, as though receiving an answer.
"Ah yes, Midwestern may be nice too... We'll see if we're still hungry."
She set off to the park quickly, the blade of her sword dragging in the dirt. It left deep furrows as Czech walked up behind Monaco.
"D-dammit Austin... C-couldn't ever listen, huh...?"
"Nazda, Monaco..." Czech smiled, placing her head on the French girl's shoulder, her sword still in the dirt.
"B-bonjour..." she hissed, coldly.
"Now now..." the blade was leveled at Monaco's neck, then pushed down, cutting the girl's shoulder.
She hissed out a gasp of pain as Czech set about cutting her up.
Finally, the blade stopped, leaving Mona bloody on the ground as Czech... or Vit... began to devour the blood. Mona moved feebly, every lick of the demon's tongue sending fresh spikes of pain through her body.
Whimpers, hopeless and soft.
Czech smiled, leaving the girl for dead.
Weeping, hollow and empty.
Czech's smile widened as she went back to the speakeasy, her whole being reeking of blood.
The door was pushed open, the music and conversation faltering for a millisecond. It resumed, but died entirely as Czech walked in.
"Please... Don't let me ruin your speaking. Miss Katherine... May I have a word?"
"Hm?" Chicago asked, interested in another man. Two others walked in then, a boy and a girl. Monaco and a boy just a few years younger than her.
"Rainier." Chicago hissed, anger filling her voice.
"n-not...R-Rainier." Monaco whimpered.
"Luc Bonnefoy. Monte Carlo."
"Tsk. You look just like the idiot." Chicago sighed. "Shame. I like blonde men too..."
"Keep.. your filthy hands... off him..."
"Oh go to hell. Fuck... Why not let him decide?"
"P-por quoi...?"
"Let your friend decide who to go to...?"
"O-oui... Luc... Don't.."
Luc looked between the two, a thrill running through him as he saw Chicago, or Lilith, wink lightly at him and light her cigarette, smiling coyly.
"L-Luc!" Mona shouted, coughing up blood as he left her side to go to Lilith.
"Oh... You do look just like him..." she said lightly, pulling his chin up so she could see his eyes. "The man... who turned my lovely home to ash... "
"Who...?" he breathed out, his voice breathy.
She leaned down to him, her lips nearly on his, her breath smelling of peppermints. "Rainer... Mona's...dear departed brother..."
"...you know... I don't care..."
"Come up and sit, dear..." she said softly, nipping his ear ever so lightly.
"L-Leave...him...a-alone...Lilith." Mona said, pulling her gun out. "L-Luc...get away from her."
He barely glanced at the sister he loved.
"She's so protective of you, no? Never letting you leave... Never letting you live..."Chicago breathed out, smiling at Luc lightly.
"It's...annoying..." he said in response. Monaco tensed, so that was how he really felt about her. Still she wouldn't let anything happen to him. She wrapped her hand around her rosary and whispered a quiet prayer. She cocked her gun and fired, hitting Lilith right in the shoulder. Luc snapped out of his daze and hurried back to his sister's side.
"Let's get back to Alfred's Luc. This isn't a place for us."
"R-right..." he stammered, still dazed. He swore he could smell peppermint in his nose, on his lips.
"See you... then..." Lilith hissed, dabbing at her shoulder as the blood dyed her white shirt red.
"Well, well..." came a new voice, Asian in its accentuation. "Look at you..."
TBC IN: Renaissance