12

Spades Slick couldn't remember when the blow had come that knocked him out, neither could he remember even going unconscious. When his eyes shot open and he was greeted by the worst pain possible he was to say the least surprised and a little confused. Why was he in so much pain and where was it coming from?

Well that one was easy. Everywhere! Before he could stop himself he let out a loud moan of agony.

"Oh, you're finally awake." Snowman's voice spoke up. "I was afraid I'd gone too far this time and knocked you so hard you became a vegetable."

Her voice made all thoughts of pain leave his mind as the memories came crashing back into his head. Instantly he sat up and glared hatefully at the female who stared him down with a cold, white glare.

"You vile witch!" he snapped at her. "How dare you-"

The tall female slapped him hard across the face with the back of her hand, knocking him onto his back.

Growling infuriated at the slap, he pushed himself up and grabbed her arm, yanking her backward onto the bed with excessive force. "Witch! You're not getting away with beating me like that! Who do you think you are?"

This time Snowman slammed her palm hard against his chin, making his teeth grind painfully together. He made a gurgling sound and fell back again, nearly falling off the bed this time. She moved fast, getting up quickly and yanking him back up and beside him, grasping his wrists and pulling him close to her face.

"Shall we dance to the same tune again, Slick?" she hissed as he squirmed in her vise like grip. "Or would you rather I don't completely lose my temper and beat your pathetic self upside down and sideways?"

He yanked back, snarling. "Get your filthy hands off me."

"Slick..." her voice suddenly grew soft, dangerously soft. "I am not in the mood as well as too tired to kick your sorry rear a second time so kindly just do what I ask and let it alone."

"After what you just did to me?!" he shouted, his voice rising. "do you think I'm stupid?"

"No, I think you want to live a bit longer, though." she pointed out. "and lower your voice, or do you want the rest of the Felt to hear you?"

Slick fell silent. She was right about that. He did want to live, but he didn't want her beating him up again nor did he want the others in the mansion to discover him there. Not unless he was allowed to fight back this time. He hated being powerless against her.

She took his silence as confirmation to her words. "all right then." and she let go of his wrists and shoved him over with a disgusted look.

"You're disgusting." he stated, scooting away from her and rubbing his sore wrists.

Snowman stared him down. "Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment." she picked up her whip from the nightstand and wrapped it around her wrist. "Sometimes I wonder if your brain processes anything aside from wanting to kill people or causing some type of violence. I mean seriously."

"It's your fault." he grumbled.

"Excuse me?" she frowned. "How is it my fault you're a homicidal maniac?"

"Because you were always on may case about everything, and abusing me, and being a real witch," he replied, pointing an accusing finger into her face. "You never gave me a break, you always shoved all your paper work on me; I wasn't allowed to have a day off or be by myself, you blasted tramp!"

"Don't give me that bull, Slick," she said hotly, her own temper beginning to rise to a boil. "You know you didn't care anyway."

"Didn't care?" he exploded, sitting up. "I did too care! Just because you couldn't keep your legs shut doesn't mean I wanted to take a break from it to-"

SLAP!

The blow came from his left and knocked him back onto the mattress. "Shut your lying mouth!" she cut into his tirade. "You hated doing paperwork anyway," she folded her arms. "I always knew you hated your job anyway, you didn't have to tell me that, even though you complained about it enough. Too bad, sometimes we have to do things we don't like."

"Well when I said I wanted a break I didn't mean taking time off to be your little plaything!"

"Like I care what you want," she stated. Her voice suddenly got a bored tone as if the conversation was becoming tedious. "and you can't say it made you miserable seeing as you had a lot of fun beating me up during those times, as you did just before." she leaned over her nightstand to get her cigarettes. "I noticed that while we were busy. You got a little out of hand last night which I'm assuming is from so much pent up frustrations." she lit the cigarette and took a drag. "after all it's been a long time since you were given permission to harm me."

He looked away, not wanting to get into this conversation. The Dersite was beginning to regret ever letting himself fall for her sneaky tricks again. Now he was starting to feel as if he's played right into her hands again, and rightly so. She'd come at him like a shark and he'd let her have her feeding frenzy while she pretending he'd won this time.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid Slick! he thought, mentally beating himself up. You are such a sucker for her.

If only he wasn't so easily manipulated by her, it would make things a whole lot easier.

You could still use this to your advantage, you know.

Yeah, like how?

You're a smart, man, you'll think of something.

But nothing was coming to mind and the knowing smile on the woman's face wasn't making it any better.

0000

The short, fat man refused to start his story until Droog handed him a cigarette. Once the man was happily smoking the poison stick, he began his story. "So, I was outside kind of making my way through the city when I spotted them," he began, after taking a long drag. "A tall, sexy black female in a trench coat followed by a small fellow with a nasty look on his face."

That sounded like Snowman and Spades Slick, all right, but he was going to be cautious about this. The man could be lying about it, though for the life of him he had no idea why he would. "What else did you see besides that?" he questioned, cautiously. "Did you happen to see where they went after that?"

The man thought a moment, trying to jog his memory. "Umm.. let's see. I saw them both sneak into a building, one of the more run down ones," he said slowly.

"Which one?"

"Hmm..." he rubbed his chin. "I can't quite remember."

Which meant he wanted something more from Droog to jog his memory. Of course, that's how it always went with these homeless types. The tall mobster was not in the mood for this but if it helped him find out what happened, he didn't have a choice.

He took out a ten dollar bill ad handed it to him.

"Now I remember," the man continued, swiping it. "It was one that used to be an office. It's only got one floor, what's left of it anyway." he smirked. "It shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Exactly," Droog said, grabbing the man and yanking him to his feet. "and you're going to take me there."

0000

Slick eyed Snowman as she got up off the bed and changed her clothing. Much as he loathed himself for it, he was unable to keep himself from watching her change, taking in ever curve of her body. What made it worse was she knew he was watching her and found it amusing.

Just to drive him crazy, she changed slowly, using this as another way to teach him a lesson for being so dishonorable toward her. He deserved it after all, and she enjoyed making him uncomfortable anyway so this was a bonus.

"Will you stop being so sluggish and get your clothes on!?" he snapped at her after a moment.

Snowman looked at him, with a raised brow. "Why? You got a problem with how fast I get dressed?" she reached down to pick up his discarded suit. "Speaking of which..." she threw it in his face. "Maybe you should take your own advice and make yourself decent instead of sitting on my bed in your birthday suit."

Slick blushed and quickly pulled on his own clothing, fully aware she was watching him the entire time. "Stop staring at me!" he snapped, pulling his shirt over his head.

She turned away and put on her coat, chuckling to herself. Yup, he was still easily riled about everything. Her beat down on him hadn't changed anything, and she couldn't say she was disappointed. Though she felt he'd learned something out of it anyway.

When they were both decent Slick folded his arms, wincing when his hands touched the bruises on his arms and glared at her. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"What are we going to do now?" he demanded. "Obviously you plan on doing something with me so let's get it over with."

She laughed, grabbing her hat and straightening it on her head. "Oh Slick, you're so silly," she said, looking into the mirror. "I don't have any plans for the two of us."

She didn't? What was the point of forcing him to get dressed then? "Then why-"

the woman turned back to him, smirking. "Would you have rather sat around all day in my room, naked?"

No, he would not. He would rather not even be in her room at all and felt the desire to say so, but held himself back because she wouldn't care about that anyway. She only cared about herself and her inflated ego.

"I didn't think so," she said when he made no remarks. She headed for the door, glancing back at him. "I'll be gone for a few hours. I hope you will be a good boy and behave while I'm gone, unless of course you want to go another round with Cans."

Slick gave her the finger which made he laugh as she walked out, locking the door behind her.

Now he was alone. Good. Now he could try to get out of this joint.

Getting up off the bed he went over to the door and grabbed the knob, but was bitterly disappointed when it didn't turn. Cursing he slammed his fist against it a few times, as if that would help, but only accomplished hurting his own hand.

Biting his lip he turned from the door and started to ransack her room, looking for a key or anything he could use to open the door and sneak out. Sadly for him his search turned up nothing, not even the knife he;d used before. Snowman had apparently taken everything he could use to hurt himself or make an escape with. This room was escape proof, there weren't even any windows!

"Darn it!" he snapped, throwing her jewelry box to the floor. "Blasted woman!"

Jewelry! he lunged at the mess, rooting through the accessories, searching for earrings in the pile. But he found none and it was stupid of him to think he would. Carapaces didn't have normal ears! Why in the world had he thought she would have any?!

Cursing he sat up and tossed the jewelry against the wall in a fit of anger. He hoped he broke some of it too, maybe that would teach her a lesson. what did she need all that garbage for anyway? That wasn't important and he wondered why he was even wondering about it. It was one of the dumbest things to focus any brain power on. He cursed again, disgusting at his own thoughts. "Idiot!"

So now he would have to get his mind off of it. He looked around the room for something he could focus on. Since he had no way of escaping from the mansion he might as well do something to pass the time while he waited for that awful woman to come back and make him even more miserable.

Wincing, he got up off the floor, becoming much more aware of his injuries. His whole body hurt and this pain wasn't welcome either. She'd really gone to town this time. If he did try to escape he'd be too sore to even run.

He caught his reflection in the mirror on her dresser and paused, startled by what he saw. His face was covered in scratched as was the bits of his neck. His left eye was blue from when she'd punched him in the face. Slick moved closer to the mirror and unbuttoned his shirt collar, taking in the rest of the damage.

Snowman had made sure he couldn't hide his wounds this time, purposely leaving a clear reminder that not everything she did to him was simply for fun and games. She really did hate him.

Spades Slick frowned, wondering why this stating of the obvious made him look forward to their next encounter?

000

Snowman appeared on the roof of the Felt's Mansion. A blast of cold air bit into her cheeks as she was suddenly thrust out of the warmth of her bedroom into the late fall weather of the planet. By now she was used to this and didn't even flinch when the air hit her like a wall. She calmly lifted her cigarette holder to her lips and took a long drag.

The tall woman sighed, blowing a long stream of smoke out of her mouth. How frustrating! Thins start getting good for awhile and then he had to go and say something real stupid! Why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut and let things go?

"You'd think he would have learned to control his tongue by now," she muttered, taking another drag of her cigarette. "but I guess I'm expecting too much from someone like him."

She sat down on the roof, sighing in disgust. She let her mind wander, going over old memories she kept fresh in her mind. It was hard to remember everything clearly after being through so much in the last hundred or so years. Being the universe was tiring.

"Being the queen of derse was much easier." he said to herself. "My only problem then was making sure Jack Noir did his work."

Jack Noir had been such a major slacker. He complained about his job and looked for any and all reasons not to do it."heh, and he blames me for him not getting his work done," she sneered. "He didn't want to do the work anyway." and now he was too stubborn and hard headed to admit it it and dumped all the blame into her lap. "Typical..."

Snowman took another drag of her cigarette, mulling that over. It was rather amusing actually, how selective his memory was, especially after he'd sneak off quite often to play that blasted piano. Of course that had stopped once he'd broken it and she never had it replaced. She missed his skills at the instrument but it was a punishment she knew it was torture for him not to have it. If he hadn't gone and betrayed her like he had she probably would have replaced it.

Eventually...

Too late to do anything about it now, she reminded herself. All of that is over and done with. besides; he had his own piano now. She took another drag, allowing herself to smile. He'd gotten much better too much, much better...

"So it didn't ruin anything for him." she got back up, hearing voices coming from the mansion grounds. she walked to the edge and looked over curiously.