Nick woke up with his head throbbing like he hit it on something. He had a weird dream that Molly was the serial killer and that-. He noticed that his surroundings and saw that he was in Molly's home.
"So that did happen," Nick said," If that did happen, then she must be…"
He looked to his chest and saw that Molly was indeed still curled up there. Her hair was wired up, and her shirt was plastered with dry blood from the previous night. Nick shook her gently to wake her up. Her eyes snapped open as soon as he did it.
"What happened?" She slurred.
"Remember last night?"
"Nick? What do you- oh, last night. Now I remember."
Molly got off of Nick, allowing him to get up on his feet. He glanced out the window and estimated it was around 5 o'clock. Around this time, people would wake up and get ready for the day. The town didn't meet until 7 am.
"Uh, listen, we should get ready for today, you go make sure the body is outside of their house and I'll clean up the floorboards," Nick said. Molly nodded and went to deliver the vigilante's corpse to their own home. Meanwhile Nick went to cleaning the floorboards. He went to the kitchen and grabbed some cleaning supplies, then went back to the area of now dry blood and started cleaning, making sure no evidence was left behind.
It was a good thing his previous job had him do such work, cleaning areas where a murder scene was to cover up evidence, so he knew what he was doing. Why he had to do that, he did not say. Around an hour later, Molly had returned and the floor was as clean as it would get.
"You should get back to your house Nick before anything else can happen," Molly said, starting to walk to her room to change clothes. A sudden thought crossed Nick's mind then, it was a awkward one at the moment, but might as well.
"Molly, do you uh, want to go on a date after this?"
She stopped and turned to look at Nick in the eyes. She smiled, not one of psychopathic nature, but the warm smile she had given him the previous day.
"That would be nice. Tonight after the voting is over," She replied. With that, she walked to her room, leaving Nick to go home.
He had gotten home and changed into fresh clothes, taking one look at himself through a mirror he had before leaving the house for the daily gathering. It was just about 7, and the entire town had been assembled with the exception of a few. The mayor waited patiently for everyone to gather. As Nick took his place outside of his house, Markus next to him looked to him.
"Hey, I saw you weren't home last night, where did you go?" He asked.
"Ah, I just was visiting Molly, I forgot to tell you I was going to have tea with her," Nick responded. Just then, the mayor had begun the gathering.
"Recently this morning, we have discovered the corpse of Louis, who was recognized to be the vigilante. It became obvious the serial killer was responsible for his death when we saw the stab wounds," The mayor said. He paused for a moment before then saying," Perhaps his death was not in vain, as he had left a will before dying. I will analyze it tonight with the investigator and sheriff, who I hope will pay me a visit. You may all discuss among yourselves now."
Right as he had said it, the town bursted with chatter, Nick able to distinguish most of what everyone was saying. Some were gossiping over the recent death, while others silently debated who could be innocent and who could be guilty. Before he could get any more information however, Markus started to talk to him again.
"Well, you know what that means Nick, I gotta pay a visit to the mayor tonight. Maybe ol' Louis had some evidence against the serial killer. Do you wanna come along?" Mark asked.
"No, I got a date with Molly tonight."
"Oh, I see, this man's got a date," Markus said with a grin. Nick tried to silence him but the man was too intent on teasing him, yelling to the town," Hey! This guy's got a date over here!"
No one really heard, but it still had the intended effect on Nick, making him go cherry red.
"You know, red looks good on you."
"Shut up."
"Alright, I'll be quiet."
"Good."
Nick returned to gathering information from the town's talk while Markus pulled out a small piece of paper and started scribbling on it. Most likely he was writing down something on his will. A few minutes passed between their silence, neither of them talking. Finally, Nick decided to go do something.
"Hey, I'm gonna go and talk to Molly over by her house," he said.
"If you say so," Markus replied, not looking up from his writing. Nick walked to Molly's home, only taking a couple minutes to cross the town to get to her. Soon enough, he saw her outside of her home, chatting with a neighbor of hers.
"Hey Molly," Nick said to her as soon as he was within her earshot. She turned to him and smiled.
"Oh, hey Nick."
She turned to her neighbor, a middle aged man with short blonde hair and light blue eyes. He had a coat on with dark pants, and had a satchel strapped to his side. Nick scanned him and could tell he must have been a lookout, based on the way the man looked at everyone and how he had a pair of binoculars stashed away in his satchel. It was easy to tell, at least for Nick.
"So you're the one Molly is talking about. Nice to meet you, I'm Todd."
"The lookout," Nick said without thinking about it. Todd went pale as soon as he had said it.
"How do you know that?"
"Listen, it's my job to know who's who. Don't worry, I'm not against you."
It didn't do much to make Todd fully trust him, but he did stay silent about it.
"So Molly, I was thinking we'd go to my house tonight, chat a bit."
"Sounds good to me Nick, I'll come with you after voting."
Just then, the mayor returned to his position right next to the execution block and announced it would be time to vote. Everyone continued the routine of going up to the voting box and putting in their votes. Nick made no vote, he just put in a blank paper.
Everyone returned to their houses before the mayor readed the votes.
"It looks like… Thomas, you're up," the mayor said, looking to his far right. 3 houses to the left of Nick, there stood a sweating man with a hat on his head and with a suit. He looked like the monopoly man, except that he had no cane, and was not the monopoly man. He walked up to the gallows to stand under them.
"The town puts you on trial, what do you claim?"
"Not guilty."
"How so?"
"I'm the lookout, a-and I uh… I know who killed Louis!"
"Who did? Spit it out."
"It was… Nick, Nick did it!"
All eyes went to Nick, who stayed calm throughout the entire thing even after being accused of murder. Technically, he was nearby during the murder, but he did not end Louis's life himself.
"Ugh, he's lying, I could not have killed Louis, I was at Molly's home the entire night, she can vouch for me."
The mayor turned to look at Molly.
"Is this true?"
"Yes it is."
The mayor turned back to Thomas in light of the new evidence.
"Nick claims to not have been the killer, and another citizen confirms it. So I ask, if you were the lookout, why did you lie to me?"
"I… To conceal my identity?"
"You may vote now," The mayor said to the town. It wouldn't take a genius to know what happened next. Just about everyone in the town had voted guilty, no innocent votes. Soon enough, the gallows claimed another victim, their corpse hanging from the noose. The body was checked and the mayor announced that Thomas was a member of the mafia, a framer by the looks of the documents he had stashed.
The day ended then, and everyone went to their homes. Nick, however, stayed outside of his house and waited for Molly, who came soon enough. She wore a fresh new shirt and had her coat on again.
"Let's go," Nick said, leading her to his home. He opened the door for her, letting her go first then him next.
"Welcome to my humble abode," Nick said. Molly looked around the place, seeing how barren it was.
"So you don't like decorations, huh?"
"I feel like personal items like that slow me down, so I got none."
"Alright, if you say so. Let's get talking, shall we?" Molly said as she walked to the kitchen. Nick followed and sat down from the seat across Molly. They sat in silence for a moment before Nick started up a topic.
"Do you think they'll find out?"
"Find out about what? Us? I don't care if they find out about us together."
"Not that, what if the town finds out about what really happened last night. If they do, they'll lynch you, then me for being a traitor."
"You're concerned about being killed?"
"No, I'm concerned about us, more in specific, you."
"Well they won't find out...hopefully… Let's talk about something else for now."
"Ok… You ever had a pet before?" Nick brought up.
"I had a cat once, but one day I came home to find it thrown to the curb, not moving. I tracked down the killer and… well, they never saw the light of day again," Molly said," What about you?"
"I had a dog when I still worked for the government, but she got sick after a while and had to be put down."
"Looks like we both got dead pets."
"Yeah, I never got anymore pets after she died."
"What did you name her?"
"Lucky. What did you name the cat?"
"Lory."
"Lory? That's an interesting name."
"It just came across my mind then."
A sudden knock on the front door startled them both. They looked to the door and then at each other.
"I'll see what they want-" Nick was saying before Molly stopped him there.
"No, I can deal with them," She said, going to Nick's kitchen and grabbing one of his cooking knives out. She walked to the door, Nick following behind, and opened it, concealing the knife behind her back. A man with a mess of jet black hair, dark brown eyes with faint rings under them and a suit was standing there.
"Hello ma'am, I'm here on the godfather's orders. He wants to see you both," The man said.
"Nice offer, how about I give a counter offer?" Molly replied, tightening her grip on the knife.
"'Fraid you two have no say in the matter," The man said before snapping his fingers. He ran inside and tackled Molly to the floor, knocking her out. Nick jumped on the mafia member, trying to incapacitate him. He was too busy strangling the man to notice another person, a blonde woman in a suit, walk in with a leather sap in hand. The woman swung it at Nick's head and Nick's vision went dark.
"Wake up," A gruff voice commanded. Nick's eyes slowly opened at the words. He had a headache, but as he tried to put a hand up to rub his head, he found that his hands were bound behind his back.
"Where the hell-" Nick murmured, looking around him. He was no longer inside his home, and was instead a much fancier place. There was red carpeting, several chandeliers adorning the ceiling, as well as about 5 thugs standing around him. It didn't take long for him to identity their roles.
Two of them were the ones that had put an assault on his house just recently that night, they were armed with Thompson machine guns with drum magazines attached. They were obviously the mafioso. Another man in the room wore a gray suit and looked messy, but at the same time he looked at everyone with a look that said he knew things about them.
He was the consligure, the mafia's investigator.
Then there was a man who must had been at least in his 50s sitting at the desk. He had a aura of power off him, as well as a threatening look in his eyes. He was the godfather. Finally there was a woman standing next to him, she wore a red dress and have a seductive look to her.
She was the consort, the mafia's escort. Oh, and Molly was tied to a chair next to him. She had regained consciousness just around the same time as he had. Seeing the two captives woken up, the godfather spoke.
"Hello Nick, I knew it was only a matter of time until Hank would find you. I could just give a flick of my finger and have you turned to a human sponge, you know that?"
"So why haven't you done it yet?"
"Simple, I know something about you that, should it get to the town's delicate ears, would have you and Molly dead on the gallows. After all, what would they say if they knew their spy was dating the serial killer? A murderer who would have them all done. But I tell you what Nick, I won't tell them, if you do us, the mafia, a favor."
"And what would that be?"
"I want you to work for us, not as a member, but as a affiliate, an asset. It is tremendously valuable to have both a spy AND a killer working for me."
"And if I don't we both get killed."
"But that's the best part, the town will kill HER first, and will save you for last. Who knows, maybe they'll even spare you and have you watch her squirm on that noose, clinging for life."
Nick looked to Molly. She was fine with dying, but not if she would never see Nick again, and vise versa. He made his mind then.
"Fine, we'll do it."
"Good boy. Just to test your abilities, I want you to go to this house and have this man killed, find as much information as possible that is there and burn it."
"Alright, who are we going to?"
"The town's medium, James. Hank here believes he is getting valuable information from our now dead framer. We wouldn't want what information he had to be exposed to the town, now would we? And besides, that vigilante saw you and Molly together anyways, he wouldn't pass us the opportunity to have you both done. We both benefit here, Nick, so do us the favor and get it done."
The godfather motioned for them to be released, having the mafioso unbind them.
"Your knife is out by the door. Log as much information as possible and bring it to us in the morning. I'll have Marco pick it up tomorrow."
Molly and Nick nodded before leaving the house. They got outside and glanced at the house. It was a very fine home, 2 stories tall and showed off it's owner's wealth from it's decor.
"Should have known," Nick mumbled before walking toward James's house.
"We're just gonna let the mafia chain us to them like that?" Molly asked, walking alongside Nick.
"We got no other options, but I think I might have an idea," Nick answered.
"What is it?"
"Maybe Markus can help us, of course we would have to let him in on our little secret."
"What if he tries to snitch on us?"
"I'd have to say goodbye to a good friend. I hope it doesn't come to that."
They stopped at a one-story house made of wood and stone. It was poorly made, and was moaning constantly due to bad construction.
"Ok, I'll knock and you run up and do your business," Nick said.
"Ooh, I hope this kill is good, I haven't got a good victim for sometime now. That vigilante was too harsh, and he wasn't who I wanted to kill," Molly commented.
Nick knocked on the door several times and waited for someone to answer. The door opened to reveal a small man with a white beard and hair, as well as dark brown eyes. The man wore a robe with a cloak over it, giving him a odd appearance.
"Nick? What are you doing out here?"
"Nothing personal."
"What do you-"
Molly ran up from behind Nick and charged into James, tackling him to the floor.
"No no n-" James struggled to say before being silenced by the cold steel of Molly's knife. Nick tried his best not to look at the murder scene and walked inside the house. Inside it was lived in, having a living room, a complete kitchen, and even a basement, though Nick doubted it was stable.
"Nick, I found his will!" Molly said, pulling a tattered piece of paper from James's robe. Nick inspected the paper and saw that James had gotten wind from the vigilante that Molly was the serial killer. It also said some other bits and pieces of information, ones that would do little but identify each other in the town, but would aid the mafia.
"Ok, we got what the godfather wanted, let's just clean up the mess," Nick said.
Nick checked his pockets and found a tinderbox with a spare match. He flicked it against the rough surface of the tinderbox and set it aflame. He threw the tinder box up at the roof where it would have the most potential for starting a fire before running outside the house.
Nick and Molly looked at eachother once they got out.
"I guess this is goodnight?"
"I suppose. Have a good night Molly."
They went separate ways to their homes, rushing inside before anything else could happen that night.