A thick, dark brown door flung open to a spacious, near-vacant living room. A pizza-splattered Marvin stumbled and crawled into his home, the girls following close behind. He quickly stripped off his stained dress coat as he made his way through the living room, then kitchen, and threw it in the washing machine as he strolled into the back of the house, dousing it in heavy duty detergent before starting the wash. "Sorry about your jacket, Mister Wright." Monika lamented, the rest of the girls looking on.
Marvin's head snapped around, almost having forgotten they were there before the color left his face. He sprinted past them, herding them aside as he uttered, "Excuse me."
He ran back through the kitchen and living room, sprinting to the door to slam it shut. He proceeded to turn, key, and slide every lock into place on the door, spinning around and screaming in falsetto fright as Yuri said, "Mister Wright..."
He slowly slid onto his seat, back to the door, and stared at the girls in terror, finally managing to say, "What the hell happened back there?"
"Back where?" Monika replied, a bemused look on her face.
"Back with those guys! The last thing I remember is a gunshot, then I woke up face-down on the pavement with pizza all over me. Are you girls alright?"
"We're great, thanks for asking, Mister Wright!" Sayori beamed, gleeful their mentor cared so much.
"Yeah," Monika interjected, shooting Sayori a dirty look, "but there's nothing to worry about. Those guys must have shot you in the pizza and thought they got you. They left right after you hit the ground and you must have passed out from the scare."
Everyone turned and looked at Monika with absolute disbelief, unable to mask how little her story made sense. "Isn't that right, girls?" Monika said, here eyes barely opening and looking them over.
Terror soon overcame their facades and the other girls were immediately fumbling their words and talking over one another to agree with Monika. "See, nothing to worry about, Mister Wright. Like we said, those guys won't ever bother you again." Monika reassured.
Marvin was still bewildered by Monika's argument. He'd seen better arguments out of grade schoolers, he knew a tissue-thin defense when he saw one. But the way she was so adamant, the way the other girls so quickly agreed with her, all of it left him only to doubt to himself. He slowly gathered himself off the floor and gathered himself, closing his eyes and taking a breath. He was once more startled to find the girls within 6 inches of him, huddled around him and leaning forward in anticipation. "Alright, I'll show you girls my office and we can go from there. I'll need to get changed, of course." Marvin complained, looking down at his pizza-smeared pants and blue undershirt.
He led the girl up the winding, slick wooden stairs to the second floor, an open space with five rooms. One stood atop the stairway, three on the wall opposite it, and a single one at the other side of the room. The walls were a dark orange, exacerbating how vacuous the empty, massive space seemed to be. Marvin continued to the single door and opened it, revealing a maroon-walled room with papers littering the floor and his desk, a few bookshelves on either side of his desk up against the wall. "Well, here it is. I hate to just throw you girls to the wolves..." Marvin began.
"It's not a problem, Mister Wright." Monika reassured.
"Speak for yourself." Natsuki huffed.
"It really isn't, Mister Wright. We've learned so much about legal terminology and criminal law today. I'm even getting ideas for a crime/horror story." Yuri added.
"Really? I'd have to read that...you know, to make sure it's accurate." Marvin chuckled.
Yuri lowered her head slightly and blushed, smiling before her hand shot out to his desk and seized a fountain pen off its platter. Yuri buried the pen halfway into her stomach, blood coursing through her fingers and down her dress coat and skirt. Marvin's eyes shot open wide in shock, Yuri merely looking on as though she was resigned to do this, almost like she was in a zombie-like trance now that her smile had evaporated. The other girls looked concerned, save for Monika, who looked on with anger at Yuri. Yuri slowly released her grip on the pen looking at what she had done and muttering, "Oh."
"Oh my, God, Yuri!" Marvin panicked.
Yuri immediately blushed in embarrassment, putting both hands on her wounded stomach around the pen and blathering, "I am SO sorry, Mister Wright. I-I-I..."
"It's nothing," Monika interjected, ripping the pen from Yuri and putting a handkerchief to the wound, "we'll take care of this and Yuri. Just come get us when you're done, Mister Wright."
"Okay, we should really take her to a hospital, she could die from that!" Marvin protested.
"It's okay, Mister Wright," Yuri said matter of factly, "This wouldn't be the first time I got so clumsy and ended up hurting myself. Just take care of yourself."
Before Marvin could argue further, Natsuki put her hands to his stomach and forced him out of the room. She rolled her eyes at him before slamming the door, Marvin merely standing in shock as he pondered his options. Defeated, he turned and headed to his room to collect some clothes, muttering to himself, "What the fuck is going on?"
Marvin stood under the hot shower, steam filling the room and smearing the mirrors. He was trapped in thought, digging as hard as he could to understand what situation he was in. Lewis' men were after him, that much was clear, and they had clearly shot him. But Monika's story didn't add up. Why shoot him in the gut? Hell, even he would have shot himself in the head if he was in their shoes. Even if he entertained that theory, what stopped the bullet from just passing through a few layers of cardboard and one, possibly two doughy, undercooked pizzas? Lewis' men weren't rookies either, even if they were, everyone from the age of three knows what blood looks like. Pizza sauce sure as shit isn't blood. So even if he took the monumental leaps to accept they not only tried to gut shot him but two cardboard containers of pizza stopped him and they mistook pizza sauce for blood, why not finish the job to be sure? They were all armed in some way, there was no stopping them. More likely, they could have taken his unconscious body, realized he was alive, killed him, smashed his teeth out, remove his hands and feet, and toss him in the Hudson and fuck off to the pool hall.
But all of this paled in comparison to what Monika's story implicated them in. Let's say they shot him in the stomach, the bullet was stopped by the pizzas and their boxes, he lost consciousness, they thought the sauce was blood, and assumed he was dead. Lewis' men could have the intelligence equivalent to that of a common refrigerator, but they're not sloppy. They were smart enough to know where he was at exactly that moment. They knew his route. They're smart enough not to leave witnesses. It's why it was impossible to catch anyone until this point. Before this, the entire office was floating the rumor that New York finally had another serial killer knocking off all these people. But the patterns were too unique to be a serial killer. It was people who were either in the underworld or investigating it. The others? Just people in the wrong place at the wrong time, often family. These guys had no problem garotting wives and shooting kids up with Xanax before lighting their houses on fire. Why risk a massive liability of leaving four very intelligent girls alive?
His thoughts were immediately cut short and his body froze even in the heat of the shower. His hands stopped immediately where they were in his hair, lathering in shampoo. He felt something in his hair, almost like the knuckles on a finger. Just his luck, a cancerous tumor he had never noticed until now. Most likely malignant, wrapping around his brain stem, and leaving him with weeks to live. A fitting end, a terminally ill district attorney taking down a crime empire when he has nothing to lose. Then it moved. The fucking tumor moved. Like a spider settling in the sand. He felt around across his skull and felt the outlines. It was a hand. He felt the digits spread out across his scalp, clasping over his skull. He spun around to face whoever was setting up to finish him off in the shower. Behind him was only the navy blue tile walls of his standing shower, he quickly turned to the glass door and wiped a hole through the condensation. He peered through and found no signs of anyone lingering in his bathroom. He slapped his hands to his head and felt around his scalp, finding no signs of anything like he had felt before. He realized at that moment he was panting. He knew he felt something. He felt it move on his skull. The connection was right their for him to make but their was no evidence to connect it. So he had to lie to himself, "Just been a long day, let it go."
With that, Marvin turned the shower off and exited, drying himself off and exiting the bathroom to his adjoining master bedroom as he did. Something reflected in the muddled mirror, its uniform, long, brown hair, and sinister smile all that was visible in the moments it was visible before Marvin flipped off the light switch.
The lawyer exited his room a new man. He wore a pair of jeans and a simple black t-shirt, fitting comfortably yet tightly over his athletic frame. Upon entering his office, he was greeted with claps and cheers. Pressing on, he found the girls clapping as Natsuki placed the last document into a large pile. "Perfect timing, Mister Wright, we just finished the last document!" Sayori cheered.
"That's great, girls." Marvin commended, no longer shocked by this.
"And we think we have something," Yuri added, producing a handful of documents, "These documents show the biggest charge we can level against him: tax evasion. You see, we looked at the correlation between what taxes he has paid and his reported income statements. The problem is he's only pulling in about 50,000 a year with a small business he's running but he claimed purchases on several expensive things. A few luxury cars, exotic trips, a penthouse suite with permanent residence, and garages all over the city. The numbers don't add up to how someone can live like that in New York on that type of income. So, not only will this pull him in for his taxes but he'll have very limited options to explain away where the difference is coming from. Even if he does, he's still going to get audited and thrown in prison."
"Wow," Marvin uttered, awed, "I don't know what to say. You girls did a fantastic job. And I speak for Chief Rich, everyone at the department, and everyone in New York City when I say this: thank you. I can't thank you enough but I can guarantee we'll do what we can to help you girls get the right grades and into the best school with our recommendations and assistance."
"That's okay, Mister Wright, we're just happy to help. Besides, we're exchange students and we've got bigger things to focus on while we're in New Y-" Sayori began, suddenly interrupting herself throttling herself.
Sayori fell to her knees, her face turning red as pained gags escaped her compressed airway and eyes rolling into the back of her head. Marvin, despite being disturbed by this, grabbed Sayori's wrists and tried with all his might to pry her hands free. She was far stronger than he anticipated, unable to even get her arms to budge, much less loosen her grip. Just as suddenly as she began to choke herself, Sayori released her throat and fell to her hands, gasping and coughing for air as fast as her lungs would allow. "Sayori, what was that all about?!" Marvin worried.
"It's nothing, Mister Wright," Monika reassured, "She was just practicing a part in a play we're doing for school. Which is convenient since we're doing CPR in health class. But try not to scare Mister Wright next time, Sayori."
Sayori gathered herself and faced Marvin with a smile, concurring, "She's right, I just wanted to see how convincing I was."
Marvin felt his flesh go cold. Her smile was insincere, forced and eyes shut, tears sneaking their way out of the corners of them. He glanced towards Yuri and froze. Not only was their no blood on her uniform or anyone he could immediately see but her uniform was spotless. Not even the hole where she stabbed herself was there anymore. "Yuri...are you alright?" Marvin tentatively asked.
Caught off-guard, Yuri gasped and comforted, "Yes...thank you for asking, Mister Wright. Why do you ask?"
Marvin's eyes could not physically open any wider, barely able to contain his hysteria, "Because you stabbed yourself! You all saw that, she stabbed herself in the stomach and you forced me out of the room."
The girls, save for Monika, all averted their gaze, silent as Monika said, "Are you feeling alright, Mister Wright? You might be suffering from hallucinations, I read that can happen after a traumatic event. And you were almost shot..."
"No, I was shot," Marvin snapped, "There's no way that bullet didn't at least hit me in the stomach. I saw Yuri stab herself and bleed all over the floor. Sayori was choking herself harder than I could pry her hands free. And you guys, bless your hearts for your help, are up to something. I know I'm just a stranger you've been working for but, please, no secrets. What's going on with you four?"
Monika, too, grew uncomfortable with his wild gaze, looking at the ground and draping her arm across her chest to grab the opposite one. Finally, Natsuki broke the silence as she mustered, "Well..."
The doorbell rang in that instant, cutting off the conversation and making all heads snap towards the office door. Marvin went to his desk and drew his pistol, Yuri rattling off, "H&K P30L, a good choice, Mister Wright. Is it chambering 9 millimeter or .40 S&W?"
Marvin just looked at her in confusion, the girl blushing and rubbing her arm as she remarked, "I like weapons."
"Stay here, I'm checking it out." Marvin said, ducking out the door and creeping down the steps.
Marvin finally reached the door, unworking all of the locks before flinging the door open and taking aim. An acne-riddled teenager in a work uniform looked at him with terror, boxes of pizza in one hand. Marvin's eyes widened as large as he did, quickly putting his gun on the end table beside the door before profusely apologizing, "I am so sorry. It's a rough neighborhood and you wouldn't believe the day I've had."
The kid merely continued to stare at him, still frozen in terror. "Here," Marvin said, pulling out a hundred and stuffing it into the kid's chest pocket, "That should cover the pizza and you can keep the change. Have a nice day."
Marvin shoved the door closed with his foot and spun on his heel, nearly dropping the pizzas as he yipped with fright, all the girls being piled right behind him. He smiled and laughed with relief as he said, "Just the pizza guy. I doubt we'll get many more deliveries out here. So, who's hungry?"
The subways of the city inhaled and spewed people with every stop. The people ranged from those rushing to get home, heading to a late shift, or just trying to bide time. But one platform was completely dead, save for three girls. All wore the same, brown uniforms and skirts, black-and-yellow striped ties, and pink sneakers. In the middle stood the tallest, her head completely bald and eyes a dark red. To her right was a particularly short girl, her hair a cyan blue, one eye a matching color, and the other glazed over with a milky white film. Lastly, opposite her, a girl of a more average height had her black hair tied in a pony tail, her eyes a light, piercing brown. The screech of a nearing train did nothing to draw their attention from their intent gaze. The train skidded to a stop and the doors sprung open, no one on-board choosing to exit. The girls entered and chose their seats at different parts of the car. The bald girl sat in the middle next to an elderly woman and the other two sat at opposite ends of the car by themselves. The woman looked at the bald girl with pity, comforting, "You're a very strong woman."
The girl merely spared her a side-eyed look for a moment before returning her gaze to the opposite window. "Don't worry," the woman reassured, holding her hand, "I beat breast cancer 15 years ago. It's not the death sentence today it was even when I was diagnosed. You can do this!"
The girl turned and faced the woman, being met with a warm smile. She gently freed her hand woman's grasp before her hands launched out and seized the woman by the throat. Her face remained calm and blank as she strangled her, the woman gagging and rasping for air as people around began to approach to break it up. With just a bit more pressure, an audible snap deafened the car, the woman's body crumpling to the ground. Murmurs of shock and disbelief grew throughout the car, a scream sounding from one end of the car turning all heads to face the source. The half-blind girl was holding a brunette man's severed head, blood spilling down from his neck and piling onto the floor from his corpse. Panic ensued as the group of people recoiled in fear, the crash of phone onto the floor silenced them once again. A woman attempting to phone the authorities was met with the pony-tailed girl seizing her by the temples from behind and twisting her head around 180 degrees. Before the group could react, they soon realized the three girls had them all cornered, advancing in on them with blank, emotionless looks. Screams echoed from within the car, blood splattering the windows before a man was tossed out one, disintegrating on impact with the wall. Soon, the car fell silent and the lights in it flickered violently before dying.
The next station stop was once more empty of life, the train stopping and releasing only those three girls, all completely spotless from the carnage, and left as the train remained parked. As they reached the surface, the immediately began viewing the skyline for something. The girl in the pony tail tapped the tall girl on the shoulder, drawing the attention of the half-blind girl as well as she pointed. Their looks fell upon the high-rise office of Marvin's.
"So, Mister Wright," Sayori asked, interrupting his attempts to get a bite of his slice, "what's your favorite kind of books and authors to read? Like what kind of genres?"
Marvin sat at the head of the table, his back to the living room with the tv on. Yuri and Sayori sat just to his right and left, respectively, with Natsuki seated next to Yuri. Monika sat at the opposite end of the table, ignoring the pizza on her plate as she rested her chin on her knuckles, staring at Marvin. "Oh, Sayori," Monika interjected, giggling, "We don't have to talk about literature outside of the club. We have other interests, you know?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right..."
"No, it's fine, Sayori," Marvin reassured, wiping Monika's smile from her face for a scowl that furrowed her brow, "It's weird for my line of work but I'm honestly into horror. I can't get enough, I love just not feeling safe in my own house. Well, guess I won't need to read for that reason."
"Really?" Yuri gushed, blushing before regaining her composure.
"Yeah, if I'm gonna be honest, it's usually not books that I'll sit down and read. I love manga, the artwork itself is fantastic. Combined with good stories that revolves around body horror and fatalism..."
"Really," Natsuki beamed, pouting out her lower lip before crossing her arms and looking away, returning to her normal facade, "I mean, whatever."
Yuri leaned in and blocked one side of her mouth to keep Natsuki from hearing, whispering, "She's really into anime and manga. She's just very secretive and embarrassed about it."
"W-WHAT!? I AM NOT! Mister Wright, don't listen to her! She's...she's...she's..." Natsuki blabbered and blushed.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Natsuki. That stuff is really popular nowadays, I'd be surprised if your school didn't have an anime club." Marvin reassured.
The room fell silent, only Marvin enjoying his pizza as the three girls before him just stared at their pizza, Monika continuing to smile and watch him. Marvin took notice of their expressions, the girls looking sullen and prodded, "Hey, Sayori?"
The girl gasped in surprise, facing Marvin as he continued, "Penny for your thoughts?"
Sayori only became more frustrated, staring back into her lap for a while before turning her gaze to the smiling Monika. Monika finally broke her gaze and sighed, offering, "So, Mister Wright, you said you had questions about us?"
"Well, I do. But I think it can wait until after dinner, we've got all day."
"It's for the best we tell you now. Out of respect for you and as your guests, we can't lie to you or hide anything."
The other girls smiled and nodded at Marvin, the lawyer patting his hands of any flour residue as he beckoned, "Alright, lay it on me."
A hollow, quick crack hit the air, as if someone hit a plank of wood off the road. Monika's eyes shot wide open, the girls turning to their leader as Yuri asked, "Is everything alright, Monika?"
"We interrupt this broadcast to bring you breaking news..." the anchor boomed.
Marvin rushed shoved back from the table and hurried to the living room, the girls following right behind him. He plucked the remote off the coffee table and turned up the volume, the banner beneath the bald, white man in a suit reading, "Police Precinct Under Attack." Marvin's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, looking on with crippling anxiety as the anchor said, "The New York City Police Department is under attack. We now go live to Nathaniel Zivon on the scene."
The feed switched to Marvin's work building, smoke pouring out of one of the shattered office windows, a man out of view of the camera speaking, "Thanks, Zach. We're here just at the street of the NYPD and it appears an attack is actively being carried out on the department. This report is within the last five minutes, when a window shattered up on the top floor and smoke began to billow out. We can't yet speculate who is up there or what is going on. All we can say is a SWAT team is prepped and ready to infiltrate the building and..."
Another window shattered several panes down from the former, a man in a gray business suit plummeting to the concrete below, the camera following most of his descented. Nathaniel uttered, "Oh my..." before the feed died, sparing anyone the view of a man splattering against the street.
Marvin was already heading for the door, fumbling through his keys before Yuri pleaded, "Wait, Mister Wright, can you rewind that? I think I saw something."
"Yuri, now is not the time. I have to go, you girls stay here and lock those doors. If I don't come back, I have the address of the courthouse and the judge's name, get her what you've found. That's all that matters."
"Oh my, God," Monika uttered, "Mister Wright, look."
Marvin turned and stared at the tv, the screen paused as the man was part of the way down the building, the full length of the broken window barely in view. "What am I looking for?"
Monika pointed to the broken window pane, Marvin being to far back to make out what she was showing. Marvin walked back to the girls' side, squinting and looking just beyond Monika's index finger. His eyes shot open once more and his blood froze. Just where Monika indicated stood a thin figure. The main feature he could distinguish was its bald head. But what caught Marvin's eye with closer examination was what it was wearing. The figure was wearing a schoolgirl uniform hardly different from the girls' own uniforms. Marvin slowly turned to face the girls, his fear doing nothing to dissuade their determination. "Who is that?"
"She and her friends are the reason we're here in the first place." Sayori answered.
"What do you mean?"
"Time is of the essence, Mister Wright," Yuri hastened, "We'll have to explain another time but, right now, we have to save your coworkers and stop them."
Marvin opened his mouth to protest, clamping his lips shut before groaning, "Alright, let's go."
The girls all looked at each other with worry, Natsuki clarifying, "Are you sure you want to go with us? This will be very dangerous and we don't want to risk you getting hurt."
"Don't worry about me, girls," Marvin calmed, heading to the door and grabbing his pistol off the table, "I can't have my star pupils getting hurt themselves."
He earned their trust and smiles, Monika stating, "Alright. Girls, let's show Mister Wright just what we're capable of."
"Good," Marvin smirked, putting the gun between his lower back and pants with the grip poking out against his shirt, "Let's move."
"Already on it." Monika responded, raising her palm overhead.
In one moment, Marvin blinked. His fading vision was greeted by the familiarity of his home. The instant he opened his eyes, he was in the street just outside his office. His head turned in all directions, muttering, "How the hell..."
In all the sights he took in, the news agencies soaking in the chaos, the people gathered around to watch, and all of the service agencies, from firefighters to SWAT to paramedics, he couldn't find any sign of the girls. A thought ran through his head, one not his own and in a familiar voice. Sorry, Mister Wright, but we can't risk having you get hurt again. We'll take care of everything, we hope you understand.
"Monika..."