Cloak and Dagger
Chapter One:
Bloodied Mercy
She had to wipe her hands before the blood dried. If they caught her- literally- red handed, she was screwed. Belladonna was crying again and she was scared so very scared. "Shh… sweetie its ok, I'm here." Faye ran into a public toilet. The light flickered dimly as she washed her hands in the murky- probably unused in years- water. She was in the middle of nowhere and there was a corpse two miles back.
Anyone with a car and lights would be able to connect the body to her, but she had to kill him. He was going to take her baby and send her to hell. She hadn't meant to actually kill the poor guy but… well knocking someone unconscious with a broken pipe was hard, especially when you panicked.
Belladonna was hungry, and hell she was hungry but she had no money, no place to stay and only the clothes on her back. It had been a month since the demon came before the hunters did. She had no idea how they found out where she lived, and no idea why they were killing her. If anything someone else had made a deal with a demon and had been told about her dear Belladonna.
Headlights passed her and she froze behind the tree. It was just a car; an average guy probably drove it and was returning home from work out in the city. She breathed out her withheld breath and continued down the track, if she was lucky she would be able to get into the small, north-north east of her house, by morning.
Had it really only being two hours since she had attacked the hunter? It seemed like a lifetime ago, but then again she had been walking for a long time and her body was already aching from exhaustion. Made it would be easier if she hitchhiked. Her shoes were ballet flats and they were defiantly not the best walking material, ever.
Limping to the road she walked beside it, she fretted, worried that somehow the police had discovered the body. Usually Hunters worked alone, it was easier because they never had someone to depend their lives on, or to die for. But sometimes they had families. If that hunter had a family, if he had someone working with him, the cops would know by now because his partner would have called the cops, lying about what happened.
Faye began to debate whether it would be easier to just walk to rest of way; it would certainly be safer on certain levels. But a car had already pulled over and it was too late to turn back. Sometime between behind the tree and now Belladonna had fallen asleep, she was sucking three of her fingers, her lilac eyes closed.
"Miss." She froze and turned around, fear written all over her face, but not for the reason the man thought. "Do you need a life to town?" It would be more then suspicious for her to decline his offer. A young woman age twenty-two with a baby wrapped in a blanket in her arms refusing to spend a five minute drive with a nice looking man no older the forty-eight.
"Please?" He opened the passenger door and she climbed in. Her hair was mattered with dirt, but she knew there was no blood on her clothes, if not just a spec, nothing suspicious. Belladonna remained asleep while the man, who had the kindest green eyes she had ever seen, asked her simple questions.
"So Miss, is that your little sister?" She looked at him and smiled, a small kind smile.
"Yes, I'm taking care of her, my parents died a few years." Well at least half of it was the truth; her parents were dead and had been for a few years. "It's awfully nice of you to have picked me up like this, I'm coming out from a bad life and I-I need to start over." Faye hoped she didn't break down in front of this man, it was embarrassing enough the he had picked her up, a total stranger.
"You looked like you needed help, beside where not far from town, it's just up ahead, you can see the lights from here." She looked at the front and indeed there were the town's lights. It was a small town, probably only had a couple of hundred civilians. Everyone-knew-everyone sort of town it looked from where she as sitting.
"Do you live there?"
"Me, nah, I've got family though." He smiled softly. In her arms, Belladonna rolled slightly causing Faye to smile. "My name's Michael though, you got a place to stay?"
"I'll find one, it shouldn't be too hard."
"Nah, stay the night had Ritchie's, he has kids of his own and they've got a ton of room soon lil' Melanie and John went to college in the city." It would be easier, and she did need help getting off her feet, but she defiantly wouldn't be able to stay in town for too long, other hunters would be coming soon, she could feel it.
"Does he have a job opening for a few days?"
"Who?" She guessed that she had been silent long enough for him to go into his own thoughts. It was a nice thought that someone who barely knew her was willing to help her. If she made a couple of bucks it might be enough to get her a ticket to another city, somewhere big, give the hunters a hard time to find her.
"The guy you called Ritchie."
"Oh right, yeah he owns a diner." She had never done any work like being a waitress but it couldn't be too hard right? Of course it could be, whom was she kidding, every job was hard in its own way to an individual, especially like herself. But what must be done must be done to keep her and Belladonna alive if only for a few more days.
"So Faye, why were you out on the road." Faye froze, her senses tingling and she looked at his face. He didn't realise that he slipped up yet; it was probably best that she played along, she couldn't escape just yet and he actually wanted to get her in the house, he probably did live in town.
"Oh not really, I've been hitchhiking for awhile, some guy I was with was a bit too shady so I got him to drop me off and then a few hours later you picked me up." Lies, all of it, but she was getting better at lying these days, ever since she was pregnant and had to start lying she'd been getting better.
"Before we get to his house would we b able to stop at a service station, I really need to use the bathroom really quickly, I don't want to frighten the man much." Crinkles appeared on his forehead and Faye could tell he was debating whether to let her or not. But if he didn't, it would be a little apprehensive and he knew she would catch on quickly.
"Sure, I'll even take care of your sister."
"No it's alright, she needs a change anyway, and I'll just buy some diapers at the counter." She smiled at the hunter, pretending everything was ok; the guy was obviously an amateur but defiantly a hunter. Now that she looked closely at him, with his leather jacket, washed-out jeans, dirt face, there was even some sort of blood on his shirt, but it wasn't human. That much was obvious by both colour and texture.
The town was almost deserted. It was only about three in the morning and there were a few people out but it was mainly empty. It was going to be hell trying to escape, but it shouldn't be impossible, if she was lucky (really lucky)
When he pulled over, she smiled and unbuckled her seat belt, before she climbed out of the car and pretended nothing was wrong until she got inside. Ducking behind a shelf filled with candy bars and chips she looked at Michael and saw him fill up his car. At most she had five minutes before he got suspicious.
So while juggling Belladonna in one hand and grabbing a few essentials, like diapers and food she went into the bathroom. She stuffed her pocked full with the food and drinks and then opened the diapers and put as many as she could in the blanket with Belladonna. She kicked opened a window and pulled out the wire before climbing out. There was a backyard separated from the back of the service station by a wooden fence.
Think Faye, think! Her heart was pounding and Belladonna looked worried enough to cry. Through a moment of panic she grabbed onto the top and looked up to see a basic yard, no guard dog. She put Belladonna in the yard first, using the diapers as a cushioning for the two-foot fall before she jumped the fence and ran to the next fence to her left, hoping it would through the Hunter off.
She was careful enough to not leave any ripped clothing behind and smart enough not to drop anything that might lead to a trail. She was the quietest but nothing that didn't happen with any other town, something always went bump in the night. As she continued jumping fences, running through laws and backyards and even climbing a tree or two, she realised she had to leave this town ASAP. If she was lucky, this place might have a train station she could easily get into.
She eventually found herself jumping from a backyard fence into a park. Across the train she could see, hidden by a wire fence, was a train station. Luck was in her league. She probably wouldn't have to take a ticket until she got off and there was probably a ton of people going home on the night/early morning train. Watchmen changing shifts, businessmen who couldn't afford plane tickets etcetera.
It was an hour, a very long hour where she jumped at the slightest sound, before a train came. She didn't even wait for the passengers to get off the train; she just jumped straight on it. People looked at her strangely. Her clothes were torn and she probably looked a horror with mattered hair, dirt crusting her skin and dried blood and scabs on the legs and arms, but she had a baby, which caused the most looks.
She opened the small milk contained and took a sip out of it. It was warm from her body heat so it wasn't too bad. She fed some to Belladonna before she drank the rest and put it away. She closed her eyes and rested, not caring about where she got off, as long as it was far away from here.