The gun stayed pressed against Kylie's head, but the shot never went off. She sat there for what felt like hours, the feeling of not knowing when she would be dead was driving her mad. The tears never really stopped, but she had managed to keep herself from sobbing. She never cried, so this was a strange feeling to her. She began chewing the inside of her cheek, trying to calm herself, but found that it wasn't helping out in this situation. She had seen him lightly press on the trigger a few times, but would let it go after a few seconds.
After sitting there for a while, she looked up at him with her eyes to see what was taking him so long. He was staring hard down at her, he clearly was observing her, and from the looks of it, pondering about something. Slowly, he moved the gun down the side of her face, dragging it a long. Kylie held back a whimper as he placed the gun at an angle of her jaw. He pushed her head to the side like he had before, and continued observing her. This was starting to annoy her, but she was too afraid to say anything. She almost felt relieved when she finally heard him make a"Hmmmm" sound.
"What the hell is he thinking about?", she wondered.
His eyes stopped wandering and he met his eyes with hers, "Your name is Kylie, correct?", he asked.
She was surprised at how smooth his voice was, yet it still had a darkness to it.
She shook her head yes, still not being able to get any words out.
He squinted his eyes at her, and continued looking down at her, his pondering face still on.
After about 20 seconds, he spoke up again, "I'm going to move the gun from you now, if you scream or run I will not hesitate to kill you. I'm not someone to fuck with, so don't give me a reason to hurt you. Got it?".
She shook her head in understandment, and he moved the gun off her jaw and back at his side.
He began to put the gun back inside the inner part of his jacket, and Kylie raised her hands up to her face to wipe away her teary mess.
She did her best to keep from shaking, but it was proving to be useless, she felt her body shake uncontrollably.
He took notice of this and said, "Relax, kid. Your good for now".
Hearing him say that gave her a slight comfort, but she was still freaking the hell out over the gruesome scene she had just witnessed.
"Stand up", he instructed.
She stood up, wobbling a little bit as she did. As she stood fully up, she crossed her arms and kept them tight to her chest.
The man walked past her and into the lit up living room and began looking over at the damage. He seemed to be trying to piece things together. This made no sense to her, clearly he was the reason everything was torn up, why would he be investigating it?
After looking around a while, he looked back at her, "How many enemies does your father have?", he asked.
This question caught her off guard, "Umm..well, a lot", she replied.
He began walking towards her, "I'm going to need something a little better than that, Kylie", he informed her, annoyance starting to show in his voice.
She gulped and backed up, "S...sorry, I don't know".
The look of annoyance was now on his face, and he continued walking towards her until she was pinned up against a wall. He got right in front of her and placed his right hand out on the wall by her head. "You seem nervous", he commented in a mocking tone.
This sparked a little bit of anger in her, "Fuck off", she said quietly.
He raised an eyebrow at her and leaned in to her face, "What was that?", he asked.
She was shocked at how minty his breath was, "I said to fuck off", she said again, a little louder than before.
She watched as his mouth went into a sinister smirk, this made her feel uneasy. She knew she had fucked up.
"Now, is that anyway to talk to someone who didn't just blow out your fucking brains?", he asked in a fake happy tone.
This made her feel sick, which wasn't good considering she already was feeling sick from how drunk she had gotten.
She quickly shook her head no and started apologizing, "Sorry, I don't know why I said that".
She saw a look of satisfaction in his eyes, like he loved knowing that he could scare her into doing and saying what he wanted. This made her feel a bit of hatred towards him.
He then proceeded to sit back up straight and walk over to the kitchen area, where her dead mother was laying in a bloody mess. She quickly turned her head to avoid seeing the awful scene.
He leaned down by Sloane's body and began looking over her, while his hand was on his chin.
This began to bother Kylie, and a million different questions were going through her mind.
"Why are you doing that?", she blurted out.
His head snapped into her direction, and he raised his eyebrow at her again, "Pardon?".
She found herself at a loss for words, not sure if she wanted to get an answer from him.
"Uh...why are you..why are you looking at her like that?", she asked, timidly.
He squinted his eyes at her, he gave her the same look that she would give Terry when he would say something stupid at work.
She held back another whimper, terrified of this guy, and tried explaining herself.
"You did this to them, so why are you looking over them like some detective?"
This question seemed to catch him off guard, and he gave her a strange look. His face then went from confused to looking absolutely offended.
"Listen here, sweetheart", he said, sounding irritated and now standing up, "My work is clean. I would never leave such a mess behind. You even insisting that this is my doing is an absolute atrocity".
She backed up, "Sorry, my bad. I just assumed..".
"You assumed wrong!", he barked, cutting her off.
She stepped back again and decided it would probably be best to keep her mouth shut for now, until she was spoken to that is.
He continued looking around, as if he was looking for something. She noticed that he had on black leather gloves as he picked up and looked through things. She was tempted to ask him what he was looking for, but knew that asking would only piss him off even further. So she kept to herself, trying to calm herself. She then realized that this man hadn't been the one that had killed Eric and Sloane. So who did? And why was he even in the apartment, with a gun pointed at her head? Was he a cop? Most likely not.
At one point, she even debated on making a run for it. The door was only a few feet to her right, and if she was quick and quiet about it, maybe, just maybe she could make it.
She was brought out of her thoughtful plan by the man asking her another question, "How much did your father owe Eddie Acossi?".
She gave him a confused look, she had no idea who Eddie Acossi was. "Who?", she asked.
She saw his fist clench together and his breathing got a little heavier. His patience was running thin with her and she knew it.
Kylie put her hands out in front of her defensively, "My dad was involved in a lot of shit. I'm never home anymore and he usually left the house alone. I know nothing about this man. My guess is that it must be a large amount of money since they wanted us all dead".
He said nothing, but kept looking at her. She wasn't sure if he believed her or not, but she hoped he did. She was telling the truth, she doubted if even Sloane knew anything.
His eyes focused on hers, not blinking even once, "Do you know who else might have done this?", he asked, keeping a calm tone.
She shook her head, afraid to say the actual words, fearing it would set him off.
His eyes got angry again, "You do realize that these men who came by want to rape you, right?".
Her eyes shot wide open, she had not expected him to say that.
He continued, "These men came by, the guy in charge told them to kill everyone in the apartment, he gave specific directions to not kill you and bring you to him. From how he talked about you, I'd say that he has pretty ill intentions for you".
This scared the shit out of her and a million thoughts popped into her head at once. She tried thinking of who the hell this could be and if it was someone that she had met before. Her father had brought a fuck ton of sketchy people into the apartment before, so it was hard to tell. The more she thought about it, the more confused she felt. Fuck, this was a horrible day.
The man stood there, staring at her for a moment, when a beeping noise went off. He quickly reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a black phone and looked at it for a second. He then looked back up at her, "Go put some clothes in a bag and meet me back in here in 5 minutes".
It was her turn to raise an eyebrow at him, was this guy going to make her go with him?
"Just do it!", he demanded, raising his voice.
She jumped a little, and turned around, practically running towards her room.
She grabbed out her suitcase bag from the closet and began throwing clothes inside. She wasn't even paying attention to what she was grabbing, she just wanted to get everything she could.
After stuffing it full of clothes and shoes, she grabbed her other necessities, including her jewelry and perfume. She felt like such a girl, being in a situation like this and still remembering things like that. She zipped it up, and then ran over to the bathroom to grab her makeup, shampoo's and hair tools. She had never packed so fast, in a matter of 3 minutes, she had packed almost her whole life up. In a strange way, it felt good to be getting the hell out of there. She wasn't even sure if she was upset that her parents were dead, though she did hate that they went out that way. Despite them making every moment of her life complete misery.
Once everything was packed up, she threw the strap of the bag around her shoulders and headed back to the living room, where the man was typing something up on his phone. He looked up at her as she walked in and then back at his phone temporarily.
After he finished, he placed it in back in his pocket and looked over at her, "Are you ready?".
"Yeah", she said quietly, "I just have one question though..what's your name?".
"That's not important", he quickly replied.
She furrowed her brows at him, "You know mine, it's only fair that I know yours. If I'm going with you, I deserve to know. I don't have to know your full name, just want to know what to call you".
He glared at her and then leaned down and picked up a black bag, and putting the strap on his shoulder, "Let's go", was his only response.
She sighed, feeling defeated and followed him as he walked towards the door way.
"It's Michael", he said, as they walked out of the apartment.
"Huh?", she asked, not sure if she heard him correctly.
He shook his head at her, "My name is Michael", he repeated.
She felt a smile tug at her lips, "Oh! Well...nice to meet you".
His face was out of her view, but if she had seen it, she would have saw a hysterical look cross over his face. She just found her dead parents in their apartment and he had been so close to killing her, yet she was saying it was nice to meet him? She was so full of shit.
He laughed silently, "Oh yes, I'm sure it is".
:SouthSide:
Mateo pulled the old Buick to a halt in front of the gangs meeting house. Grabbing his guns, along with the other three members, they proceeded to get out of the car. He ran a hand through his thick black hair, enjoying the wind blowing on his sweaty, golden skin. He started walking over to the porch, his group following close behind.
"You think Antonio is going to be pissed we don't have his money?", Angel asked.
Mateo kept his eyes straight forward as they walked up the porch steps, "He'll just have to understand that the old gin head didn't have any".
Angel stood next to his partner and shook his, "You know that doesn't mean shit to him, and he's going to be pissed that we don't have the girl either".
"Don't fucking worry about it", Mateo said, with a high whisper, "We'll find the girl, I know where she works. She can't hide out forever".
He grabbed the door knob and shoved it open, finding all the members sitting at the long fold up table. As per usual, they were drinking, playing cards, listening to loud Latin music, surrounded by tons of girls. Disgusting girls at that, nothing like the girl he was pursued. He wanted her for himself. He had already told Antonio that he called dibs, and that he didn't want her dead. Antonio was hard to convince, but eventually agreed due to the fact that Mateo was one of his best men.
Eric Hein owed a lot of money for all the drugs he got. Eric had been buddies with a fellow member named Carlos, who hooked him up with drugs, as long as Eric paid it back later. At first, this worked out, though Mateo suspected he had to pawn a lot of his shit to get it. After about 7 months, the payments stopped coming, and the broken promises to pay it back was a regular thing. They had been lenient towards this for a while, all because Carlos swore up and down that he'd "pay it back". It never happened, and Carlos went behind the gangs back and gave the shit head junky more. They had to be taken care of. Xander had the pleasure of blowing a hole through Carlos that morning, and they had fixed the problem with Eric. Things would hopefully get back to normal, as long as they didn't have any issues with the police. He just needed to find that girl.
Antonio was sitting at the head of the table, drinking a red beer, with his girl of the week on his lap. A deck of cards was in his hand, and he was laughing along with the conversation, as well as whatever shit the girl was whispering in his ear. Mateo approached his leader, and Antonio now took notice of him.
Antonio greeted Mateo with a wide grin and stood up, "Ah, brother! Glad you've made it back in time to enjoy the fun! I hope you have brought me good news".
Mateo smiled back and shook his head yes, "The job has been done, but as we figured, no money".
Antonio put an arm around Mateo's shoulders, "No worries, my man. Just glad that piece of shit is off the streets and out of our lives, eh?"
Mateo looked at Antonio, his smile fading, "Kylie Hein wasn't there. We didn't get her".
Antonio, surprisingly, didn't seem bothered by this. "You'll get your girl. We've got connections all over this city, she won't get far. For now, enjoy our family".
With that, Antonio sat down and pulled the girl back in his lap. She giggled obnoxiously and wrapped her arms around him as he continued to play. Mateo went back over to his group and informed Angel of Antonio's behavior to the news. He seemed relieved that Antonio was ok with it, as he normally was known for his awful temper. Mateo patted him on the back and turned to walk out.
Angel turned quickly and looked at him, "You leaving already?".
Mateo nodded, "Yeah, long day. I'll see you all tomorrow".
:Expressway:
The ride in the SUV was very silent. Kylie hadn't muttered a word since they got into the car. Michael had no idea what he was doing. He should've killed her, but he couldn't. In the seven years of being a hitman, he had never once had an issue with killing people. He'd killed girls and boys her age before, and never once had he hesitated. He found his patience with her was almost non-existent, due to him being pissed that he couldn't find it in him to eliminate her. He found himself squeezing the wheel tightly as he thought about it, making it squeak a little as he moved his hand on it.
He had been at the apartment, trying to find out who the hell had just taken his job. Not only that, but who would do such a messy job. Those men were definitely apart of a gang, but which one? He had looked for clues, as in his experience, most gangs left a symbol or something behind letting everyone know who did it. Nothing. Not a damn thing. This wasn't such a big deal, but he found himself feeling curious. He had hoped that the girl would maybe know, but he could see it in her eyes that she didn't.
When he heard her come in through the front door, he was surprised. He wasn't expecting to see her, he had figured she was staying with a friend, partying, seeing a movie. Something most girls her age do on a Friday night. So when he saw her small frame come into view in the hallway, he wasn't sure what to do. When he had approached her, he fully intended on ending her misery right there. He tried pulling the trigger, but his body wouldn't let him. Now, here they were, sitting in a vehicle, going God knows where.
"What the fuck is wrong with me?", he asked himself silently.
He looked over at her every few moments he had the chance. She was sat up, knees pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them, resting her head on her knees as she looked forward. She seemed a bit out of it, he wondered how she was taking all of this.
After another couple of minutes of silence, Michael decided to speak up again.
"My boss is going to fuck my ass dry when she finds out you're still alive", he commented.
She looked over at him, almost no emotion showing on her face, "I take it you have a strict code".
Michael nodded, "Once a payment is placed in, there is no going back. It doesn't matter if you offered me double what he paid, I was still supposed to take care of you".
She said nothing for a while, almost like she had no idea how to take that or what to say.
After a good minute though, she looked back at him and asked "So why didn't you?".
Keeping his eyes on the road, he gave a quiet "I don't know".
The SUV got quiet again, neither of them speaking up again for a while. Kylie wanted so badly to ask where they were going, but she couldn't find the voice to say it.
"Would you have any idea of someone who drives a maroon 1990 Buick Lesabre?", Michael asked.
Kylie sat there for a moment and snapped her head over at him, "Why do you ask?".
"The men who killed your parents were in one", he replied.
Kylie sat there for a while thinking, when it hit her, she did know of someone who drove that car. It was a gang that Eric used to buy his drugs from, The COB's. A cracked out member named Carlos was always driven there by a few other men in that car. It had to have been them.
She looked over at Michael, "The Cobalt Kings...my dad used to buy drugs from a guy in their group. He stopped paying him though I think...would explain why they came after us".
Michael nodded his head, now understanding the situation better.
Kylie kept looking over at him subtly, as the continued driving through the city. It was now almost 3:30 in the morning, and all she wanted to do is go to sleep.
"Where are we going?", she asked him.
As per usual, he didn't look at her and kept his eyes on the road, "Get in the very back".
Her eyes widened, "Why?!", she asked, confused.
"Because", he started, "I don't want you to know where we're going, can't have you leading police back to me".
She looked at him bewildered, "Seriously?".
"Don't make me say it again", he told her sternly.
She huffed loudly as she undid her seat belt and crawled over the first row of seats to get the very back. Once she got back there, she laid on the floor, looking up at the ceiling. Only scenery was the lights from the street lamp posts reflecting in the car.
After about 15 minutes, she heard his blinker go off and she could tell now he was taking an exit, getting off of the Expressway. Not long after that, she saw several lights fill the car, they were obviously in a pretty lit up part of the city. She could see out the windows slightly, but she wasn't entirely sure where they were. After a while of stopping and going and making several turns, they finally pulled into what seemed to be a parking garage. He pulled the car to a stop, turned off the ignition and got out, closing his door behind him. Just a few moments later, the trunk door opened and he grabbed her arm and pulled her out. She had to steady herself, as he did not pull her out softly.
Once she was standing up, he grabbed her bag and practically threw it at her. Her bag was heavier than she remembered and it almost knocked her down when it made contact with her torso. She held it up, and grabbed the strap, placing it on her shoulders, as he did the same with his bag. He shut the trunk door and then motioned his head at her to follow him. She did so, close behind and looking around the parking garage. It was big, but not as big as some, and there weren't as many cars in here either. She wondered if it was a private garage.
They came to the elevator that was in the middle of the parking garage and stepped inside. He pressed a button that was labeled "Main Floor" and the doors closed. She felt anxious as the elevator started moving up and not knowing where they were was even worse.
The doors opened, and revealed a big, fancy lobby. It was red and white themed and seemed to have a very modern feel to it. As he walked out of the elevator, he crossed the floor that lead to another elevator close to the front desk. A pretty, mid 20's woman stood behind the counter, and greeted Michael as he walked by. He simply nodded at her and they kept on walking.
After getting on this elevator, before pressing the button, he told her to turn around, not wanting her to know what floor level he was on. She did as he said, but not without rolling her eyes.
After about two and a half minutes, the doors opened and he grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled her out of the elevator. She stepped inside and found herself in a huge flat. It was gorgeous and extremely modern, just like downstairs. There was a huge wall window that gave a view of the city. She found herself in awe, she had only seen places like this in pictures. She never dreamed of stepping in a place like this, unless she became a house maid for some rich people.
All reality around her had vanished, and she walked past Michael to see more of the place. A huge lounge room was the first room you saw, a long with an insanely huge big screen t.v and black/gray, blocky couches. His decor was perfection, and her guess was that he had a professional do it. Looking over, she saw another room with a huge kitchen, with a long dining table close to the living room. Stairs were in the center of the room, which lead to a hallway. And on another side of the room, was what appeared to be another long hallway. This place outdid her shitty apartment any day. It also smelled fresh and crisp in the room, and somewhat reminded her of the fall season. She continued walking around the room slowly, taking everything in.
Michael chuckled, "I take it you've never been in a place like this before?".
Kylie nodded her head no, " I see killing people pays well though".
He gave her a smirk, "I'm good at what I do, so I think I should get paid well for it. Don't you?".
She didn't respond and made her way over to the dining room. She saw a glass door that almost blended in with the huge window, it lead out to a balcony on the side. This place was insane.
"I'll be back in just a minute", Michael said, starting to walk down the hallway.
He started to enter the corridor, but stopped and turned to look at her, "Don't get any cute ideas. The lady downstairs works for us, so if you try to flee, it will just end badly for you".
With that, he turned around and disappeared down the hallway.
Kylie rolled her eyes again, and went through the apartment. The kitchen was huge, and everything was so clean and up to date. At her apartment, the old fridge looked like it was from the early 80's and the freezer didn't even work properly. He had the huge chrome, triple door refrigerator with a touchpad on the freezer side. Everything was so fancy, she was afraid to touch anything, fearing she'd break it.
She felt tempted to see how this contract killer ate, and opened up the fridge. As she had expected, super healthy. Vegetables, lean meats, fruit, and shit tons of water bottles. A good three rows were almost completely bottles of water. All this water made her want a sprite pretty badly.
Shutting the fridge, she walked back into the main entrance where they first came in. She found herself staring up at the extremely high ceilings, and wondering how hard it was to change out the light bulbs.
"That must be one hella tall ladder", she thought.
Soon, she saw Michael heading back down the hallway towards her, his hands empty now. She figured he went and put back whatever was in the bag from earlier. He was rolling up the sleeves of his long sleeved button up as he walked back into the entrance hall with her.
"Hungry?", he asked, still looking down, rolling up the other sleeve.
She was hungry, but more tired. She'd probably fall asleep waiting on it, or face dunk it as she ate.
"I'd like to take a shower, actually", she said, just realizing how dirty she felt.
He nodded and said, "Follow me".
He lead her up the stairs and down the hallway. The hallway had different options to turn down, and she wondered exactly how many rooms this place had. He took her all the way down the main hallway and to the last room. He opened up the door and she saw it was a guest bedroom. It was pretty big for a guest room, and had another giant window overlooking the city. The bed was queen sized, with gray and white bed sheets. He pointed over to the bathroom that was to the right of them when walking in.
"Thank you so much, dude", she said, extremely grateful at this point and headed to the room.
"This is where you'll be staying for now", he informed her, "I don't know for how long, but this will have to work for now".
She nodded at him, and walked over to the bed to place her bag on the bed.
"When you get out, come downstairs and I'll have some tea for you. I need to discuss some ground rules with you", he finished.
He stepped out of the room and left her to do her business.
:Blair:
Michael proceeded down the stairs, dreading his next move. He knew he had to call Blair, which was the last thing he wanted to do.
Blair was one of the superiors of the "company" Michael worked for. She was in charge of getting Michael certain jobs and making sure his money is transacted correctly. She would be furious when she found out that he didn't only let Kylie live, but he allowed someone who was a witness to a murder scene to live. He was going to have a hell of a time explaining this.
He walked into dining area and pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialing her up. Each ring that went by was almost agonizing.
"Is it done?", he heard her monotone say the moment she answered.
He sighed, "We have a bit of a situation".
"Are you fucking serious, Michael?", she responded, a very pissy tone coming up in her voice.
"Someone got to them before me", he explained.
"What do you mean someone got to them before you?", she question.
"When I arrived at the destination, another gang had already taken care of them. Apparently, Mr. Acossi isn't the only one who had issues with Eric Hein", he continued.
"Mmmmm", she replied, "Well, as far as I'm concerned, you did your job and the transaction is still final".
He groaned silently, knowing this was not the end of the discussion.
"I didn't kill the girl", he muttered.
He heard her breath stop for a moment, before responding with, "Why the hell not?".
"I...I couldn't do it", he admitted.
He heard her scoff, and by the noises he was hearing, it sounded like she was pacing back and forth. Her left hand was most likely on her forehead, as she always did when she was stressed about something.
"So let me get this straight", she started, "You kill for a living, you've never had an issue with this before. And now, after being paid 30 grand to eliminate this family, you don't kill the daughter because you "couldn't do it"?!".
He stayed silent for a moment, and then answered with a "Yes".
Blair started cursing under her breath, saying things like "I can't handle this shit right now", and "Well fuck me".
After complaining to herself, she once again spoke up, "So what, is she hot? Do you want to fuck her? Is that why she's not dead?".
Michael's eyebrows both raised up in shock, "She's 17, Blair".
"And you wouldn't be the 26 year old to fuck a 17 year old either!", she yelled.
He sighed again, not sure of how to fix the situation without having to kill the girl upstairs.
"We'll figure it out", he said.
"You better fucking hope we do! I'll call you tomorrow, I hope you have a good fucking plan by then!", she continued, yelling as she always did.
"Yes ma'am", he responded.
With that, she hung up the phone. Now it was his turned to feel stressed. He rubbed the sides of his head, and tried to come up with a quick idea. He had nothing.
"I need to get some damn sleep", he said aloud to himself.
:4:55 A.M:
Kylie stepped out of the steaming shower, feeling amazing now that she was clean. Wrapping a towel around her body and using another to wrap up her hair, she walked out of the bathroom. She had laid out her underwear and VS satin sleep shirt so she wouldn't have to deal with digging through her bag when she got out. Grabbing her bottle of lotion, she started lathering herself up. She absolutely hated the feeling of dry skin.
After applying her lotion, she headed to the bathroom to brush out her damp hair. As she brushed out the tangles, she did her best to ignore the horrible feeling that was starting to eat away at her. She had a lot of shit happen to her yesterday and early this morning. She didn't want to have to think about it, and hoped it wouldn't give her nightmares when she passed out later.
When she finished her hair situation, she put on her night clothes and looked in the giant, tall floor mirror, to make sure it wasn't too revealing to go downstairs in. It was a little short, but she figured it would be ok for the short talk they hopefully had. She grumbled as she saw her hair starting to wave up, wishing she had naturally straight hair.
Deciding it was time to get downstairs so she could get this over with and get some sleep, she left the room. As she got closer to the stairs and saw all the corridors, she was wondering how she wouldn't get lost in here. This place was ridiculously huge. For one guy too, what does he keep in all these rooms?
She approached the staircase and descended down them. She found Michael almost immediately as she walked into the dining area. He was sitting down, drinking something out of a black mug. As she walked fully into the room, she saw another black mug sitting in front of the seat beside him.
"I hope you like vanilla caramel tea", he said, " I wasn't sure what you liked, and tried to think of what all the other teenage girls get. Sorry, it's not Starbucks".
She had to hold back a laugh, "I love vanilla and I love caramel, so it should be good".
As she stepped beside him, he took this time to look at her. As he eyed her up, he felt horrible. She looked good...really good. He hated that he felt that way about a 17 year old girl, but knowing she'd be 18 soon made him feel less shitty.
Kylie had sat down and started sipping the tea. It was good, and it was helping her relax more as well.
"I should have given you the celestial herbal tea, it helps you sleep", he said, looking at her.
She shrugged, "I won't need the help, I'll pass out easily".
He nodded and took another sip from his cup.
They sat in silence, something they were becoming too comfortable with around each other.
"Are they mad at you?", Kylie asked.
He looked over at her and just stared for a moment before answering, "Yeah".
"Ah", was her only response.
He watched her for a moment out of the corner of his eyes. He didn't her to notice him looking over her.
He cleared his throat, "So, about the rules".
She stopped sipping her tea and gave him a look that said he had her full attention.
"Uh huh", she responded.
"First of all, no leaving. You only leave when I say you can. Don't even attempt it. There are lots of other cleaners like me that live here. We work for the same people, including the people who work the front. You won't even make it to the elevator before someone notices you. Just don't do it, you won't like the end result", he told her.
She nodded, though she hated not being able to leave. She got cabin fever easily.
"Second, do not use any social media that someone can contact you on. No Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or whatever the fuck else you kids use these days", he continued.
She nodded again.
"Third of all, I brought you here because I have a strange need of watching over you. I don't know why, but I do. I hope for your safety that I don't find a way to rid of it either. So in the mean time, this place will be your home, if you will. You're allowed to do what you want, however, there are certain rooms you need to stay out of. I'll show you which ones you're allowed to enter, and the rest are off limits. Don't test me on this", he threatened.
"What about my job though?!", she asked, feeling upset now.
"Worry about that later, I'll take care of it", he answered.
She nodded again, and sipped the last of her tea.
"Can we do the rest of the rules later? I'm about to fall asleep here", she asked, feeling groggy.
He shook his head yes, and she turned around to go upstairs.
"Goodnight, Michael", she said as she walked up the stairs.
He gave her a half ass wave, not answering.
He had too much on his mind, and he had to figure out a way to make this all right.