Mixed Messages

Chapter 9

Consolation Prize

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Lauren Cole winced and gently laid her forehead against her red metal apartment front door. She slowly exhaled and wiped tears out of her red eyes as she looked down at her watch. She paused, key touching the lock for a full minute, eyes closed, before breathing in through her nose and exhaling slowly out through her mouth. She slowly opened her eyes, stood up straight, wiped her eyes one more time, and finally slid the key it into the lock.

Her son Jess's eyes popped open wide. He jumped up out of Amanda's lap, ran across the apartment, and wrapped his arms tightly around her legs. He looked up with a bright smile, "Mommy!"

She scooped her blue eyed, blonde haired toddler up in a big hug and kissed his fat cheeks. "Have you been a good boy for Mandy?" Jess laughed and chattered at her.

"Everything OK?" Amanda glanced at the clock on the microwave - 8:19 PM.

"Apparently, I'm not the sort of girl a guy brings home to Mom." Lauren kicked off a pair of black high heels and trudged into the bathroom. She stared into the gold trimmed mirror and exhaled heavily, paused, found a package of wipes, and started removing glittery eye shadow and dusky red lipstick.

"Was he Wesen?" Amanda watched Jess stuff a little panda into a yellow toy truck and roll it past her feet.

"Pfichttreue." Lauren wiped blush off her left cheek, looked down at the wipe, sighed, then continued to her right cheek.

"Do you like super hairy guys like that?"

Lauren paused, though for a minute, then laughed.

"What?"

"Lowens aren't hairy?"

"We're not fuzzy like that. I don't know how I would kiss a guy who's that, I mean, doesn't it get in your nose?"

Lauren simply raised one eyebrow and chuckled at the thirteen year old.

Amanda turned Jess back away from running the truck into the bathroom towards his mother's toes while she wiped glittery powder off her face and chest.

Lauren sighed a long, plaintive, sigh and walked out towards the kitchen. "Pearson said there's no way he was going to let me meet his parents. Ever!" She lifted her foot up as Jess zoomed his truck under it. "And I'm pretty sure I killed his brother last year."

"Awkward."

Lauren shrugged and opened the freezer. A single frozen pizza greeted her hopeful gaze. She slowly closed the freezer, exhaled, and silently shook her head. She rummaged around in a bag on the counter, found the fresh package of makeup wipes, and slowly walked back into the bathroom.

"Don't take it personally, my grandparents are still weird around me since they found out I'm a Grimm. I know they try to hide it, but I can tell they're really nervous." Amanda used her foot to roll Jess's yellow truck back out from under the high chair at the table. He laughed and shoved it back under the chair.

So you're getting your dating advice from a thirteen year old? Lauren looked down at her makeup wipe and sighed again. "So what was it like, you know, fanging out and Grimming? Did it all happen at once?"

"No, I Grimmed a couple months after I fanged out. We're Wesen, so everybody was anxious and constantly pestering me about me fanging out. They were worried I would turn out Kehrsite."

"Imagine their surprise when you Grimmed."

"Surprise isn't the right word for it."

Lauren laughed out loud, and said, "Pretty rough, eh? Welcome to life as a Grimm."

Mandy winked, smiled a mischievous smile, and said, "I know what will make you feel better."

Lauren raised her eyebrows.

Mandy held up a sheathed machete, wiggled it side to side, raised an eyebrow, and smiled. Lauren's eyes brightened and her frown evaporated. "Heck yeah! You want to come with?"

"I thought you would never ask!" Mandy scooped up the baby bags while Lauren put on her black leather jacket and wrangled Jess. The door slowly closed and locked behind them.

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A metal door in a dark, wet alley opened up, revealing dim, lime green, neon lights inside. Derek "Big D" Spencer stepped out, walked over to a dumpster, and lit a cigarette. A woman with garish blue hair, a skin tight white halter top, a very short, shiny, pink skirt, and four inch pink high heels came up to him and pointed up at the rain. He yelled at her, stuck a finger in her face, and slapped her. He turned, looked around, and wogued. His face flattened and filled with thick, smooth, striped black hair. Sharp teeth and long whiskers popped out of his flattened feline face. Black hair broken by yellow stripes covered the body of the Balaam puma Wesen monster.

He snarled sharp white fangs and extended black claws, grabbed her face and gingerly brushed the claws on her cheeks. She cowered, begged, and cried, then apologized. He pointed a claw straight at her eye. She sheepishly turned, and walked back out through the spitting rain to the front of the bar.

A lone streetlight at the opposite end of the alley flickered once then turned back on, shining it's orange yellow light onto the wet road. Derek finished his cigarette and flicked it across the alley, showering tiny orange sparks into the darkness. He stepped back towards the door, put his hand on it, and stopped.

The outline of a small figure turned into the alley. He looked up at it, then at the spitting rain. A petite girl, wearing a wet, gray Franklin High School Marching Band hoodie, sweats, and tennis shoes, wandered down the alley. She stopped, looked up at the rain, then started turning to leave the alley. Derek smiled, revealing a single gold tooth. "Hey, sweet thing, you look lost."

"No, just heading home." She looked around as if bewildered.

"FHS - that's in Portland. You new here?"

She grumbled under her breath, looked down, and said, "No, I'm fine, I think I got turned around."

"Where you headed?"

"Northgate."

"You definitely got turned around. That's five miles from here."

"Which way?"

He pointed into the darkness past the dumpster.

She groaned and looked down at the rain spitting on the wet asphalt pavement.

"What do you play?"

"Flute."

He smiled, "My girlfriend played flute at TCS. Let me give you a ride home. It's dangerous out here. Come on, It's no problem." He smiled a bright smile, and brushed his short, curly, blonde hair away from his brown eyes.

"Mom says I'm not supposed to." She looked down, away from his face, then turned, walking away.

"It's cold and the rain is picking up. I'll take you straight home. My SUV is right around the corner. I promise."

Her hood and shoulders were already dark from rain. She paused as heavier drops of rain plopped against her sleeves. She looked up at the rain, groaned, then back towards him. "Well, ok, I guess. I just need to call my Mom."

"Absolutely. I bet she's worried sick."

"She'll kill me if I get another phone wet."

The rain picked up faster. She wiped her wet hand on her pants and stuck it in her pocket. Her legs shifted side to side, audibly squishing water in her shoes.

"Come on," he said, and started walking out of the alley towards his car. "You're already soaked."

She turned as he walked past. "Well, ok."

He politely escorted her around the corner to an expensive black SUV, opened the door, and gently put her in. He walked around, smiled, licked his lips, and got in a few seconds before the rain washed over it.

The SUV rocked violently, and a silent, white flash inside lit the deeply tinted windows. A minute later, the petite gray figure opened the door, stepped out, and disappeared into the shadows.

Lauren instantly met her and spoke in a hushed tone. "You ok?"

"Yep." Mandy's eyes glittered, she opened her mouth, pursed her lips, then closed it. She tried to look as normal as possible. Her head pulled back into the darkest recesses of the wet gray hoodie, and her shoulders hunched against the rain. She forced herself not to skip four different times on the way to Lauren's car. She found herself having to stop and wait on Lauren. An eternity later, she climbed up into passenger seat and shut the car door. Finally, the tidal wave poured out. She chattered 100 miles an hour as she slid the wet hood back off her blood splattered face.

Lauren laughed and handed her a pack of baby wipes. Mandy looked at Lauren, heaved a huge breath in and out, and tried to calm her excitement. Mandy's rubber gloved hands pulled out a wallet, a huge folded wad of cash, and two cellphones. She passed them to Lauren. Finally she pulled off the sweat shirt, stuffed it into a bag, and threw on a clean one. Lauren smiled. "Good job, you remembered."

Lauren slid one cellphone into her pocket. She smashed the other and quickly removed the SIM card. She pulled all the cash out of the wallet, put it with the wad of cash, and dumped everything else into an empty paper fast food baggie with the broken phone.

Lauren's white SUV slowly rolled away. They got milk shakes, and returned to Lauren's place. Lauren said, "You did great. How do you feel?"

"Can we go again tomorrow?"

Lauren sighed, "No." She washed the blood off of her machete in the sink and inspected it's edge.

"But!" Mandy looked at her with a sad look as she scrubbed her black automatic knife in hot soapy water. "There are a lot of horrible scum bags out there."

"The cops are probably already on the scene investigating."

"So? Isn't this for the Wesen Council?"

"Seattle isn't Chicago or LA. We only have like 35 murders a year here. The authorities will start asking questions."

"But!"

"But, the Wesen Council won't help when you get caught. I bet your cheerleading coach would be impressed if she saw your picture in the paper. Look at it on the bright side, you just made a huge pile of cash that your parents can never find out about."

"What?"

"Smell." Lauren tossed her Big D's huge roll of cash.

"Ugh!" Mandy's face grimaced as she instinctively shoved it back towards Lauren. "Oh my gosh! Seriously? I just took a shower!"

"Your mom probably won't notice."

Mandy frowned and scrubbed her hands with clean wipes, smelled her hands, wrinkled her nose, then scrubbed them again.

She's an accountant, right? I bet she certainly won't ask where a fifteen thousand dollar Wesen Council bank deposit came from. It's not like we can just go tell her what we did tonight."

Mandy grumped and then sighed a deep sigh as realization set in.

"Don't worry, I already set up a bank account in your name for your 'College fund.'"

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Connie Prentice stared at the door of the empty coffee shop from her round, four-seat table in the back. She looked down at her watch and drummed pink fingernails on the table. She reached into her purse, took out a pink metallic cellphone, stared at it's blank screen, drummed her fingers on the table again, and fidgeted in her seat before looking back at the door. She swirled her coffee cup slowly, took a sip, scowled, then stared down into the empty cup. She started to get up, looked at her watch, and sat back down.

She jerked her head up as the door swung open. A quiet beep sounded behind the counter and the clerk greeted two dark haired men in dark gray suits. She watched them order a cup of coffee and sit at a table halfway across from her. She sighed audibly and slouched her shoulders as one of the men checked his phone, then sent a quick text.

A few minutes later, two more dark haired men in dark gray suits walked in, ordered cups of coffee, and sat down between herself and the door.

Finally, another man in a dark gray suit, this time blonde haired, opened the door for a tall, attractive, brown haired woman who appeared to be around twenty five years old. He escorted the black Armani suit clad woman in. She stood silently, one hand cradling a matching black Gucci handbag, and slowly surveyed the coffee house, starting at the left and ending at the right side.

She looked at Connie through steel blue eyes, smiled, purposefully walked over, and stuck out a hand. "Connie Prentice?"

"Yes." Connie politely stood up and shook her hand.

"Good to finally meet you. I believe we have some business to discuss."

Connie smiled through bright red lips. "Yes, I understand you may be in the market for a Grimm."

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2.2k words 11/20/20 r1