Nope. Don't own. Don't ask.
Chapter 2
Kropp arrived at a small, decrepit-looking street. It had once been a nice, homey place, but in the last few years, it had fallen into disrepair. Not my fault, he thought. I wasn't here the last few years.
Finally, he arrived at a run-down building with a small sign labeled "Tara's Taco Shack."
"You see?" he shouted to nobody in particular. "This is the kind of job I would've liked! I mean, sure, it's no Bueno Nacho, but at least she gets to work with food! Instead, I'm a freakin' tailor!" He gave the sign another look. "Tara, eh? Maybe she'll have some answers for me." He pushed the door open and walked inside.
Immediately, he was set upon by an energetic, middle-aged woman. She had blonde hair, lighter than Kropp's, and was literally bouncing on the soles of her feet at the prospect of a customer. "Did you come in for a taco?"
Kropp shrugged. "I guess."
The woman darted behind the counter, and returned with a anemic-looking taco on a plate. "Now be careful," she warned. "These are probably the worst tacos in Middleton."
Kropp, who had the taco halfway to his mouth, stopped suddenly and gave the taco a hesitant look.
"If you doubt it, take a bite."
She seemed pretty eager for him to eat it, so he took a small bite from the corner. My god! He thought. What is in this, cardboard?
"Isn't that just disgusting?" she moaned. "No wonder, with the price of meat what it is."
Kropp reluctantly swallowed his mouthful of taco-shaped stuff. "If all your food is this bad, how do you pay your mortgage?"
"Well," she said, "the people don't have much choice. Ever since Bueno Nacho went out of business, there hasn't been any other place to get Mexican-esque food."
Kropp tried his best to keep his expression from wavering. "Bueno Nacho went out of business!?"
"Yes. You see, their best customer disappeared fifteen years ago, and it pretty much all went downhill from there."
"Their best customer disappeared, eh? Any idea what happened?"
"You know, it's funny you should ask. I'm pretty much the only person who knows everything that happened." She sat down next to Kropp and began to tell him a strange, yet eerily familiar, story. "There was a tailor and his wife. And he was beautiful." She went on to explain how the tailor, Ronald Stoppable, best customer of Bueno Nacho, had married the love of his life and had a daughter. "Donna, that was the daughter's name." But this had a negative effect. "There were two men who wanted the wife for themselves."
"Who?"
"Two of her former boyfriends: Steve Verruckt and Josh Mankey."
Kropp gripped the edges of the chair, but avoided an outburst. "What happened?"
"They framed the tailor for a crime he never committed. Mankey had all of the tailor's tax money redirected to his personal account, instead of the IRS. When the tax collectors showed up at his door, and he showed them the papers showing that he had made the payments, Mankey framed him for falsifying documents and had him sent to live in a penal colony in the Mojave Desert for the rest of his life, leaving his beloved wife and their two year old daughter behind."
"What happened to them?"
The woman stood up and turned away from him. "Mankey said that he was sorry for what had happened, and invited her to a dinner party, to take her mind off her troubles. Only, when she got there, there was nobody there, except for Mankey and Verruckt. She tried to run, but Verruckt held her down, while Mankey…well, they had their way with her."
"No!" Kropp shouted, knocking the chair over. "Kim!"
The woman gave him a sly grin. "Strange. You seem rather concerned for someone you don't know. Also, how did you know her name, when I never told you?"
Kropp stood there, transfixed. She had caught him. "Well, I…uh…"
"I knew it was you, Ron Stoppable."
"Please, Tara. It's Kropp now. James Kropp."
Tara rested a hand on his shoulder. "I understand."
"So, what happened to Kim?"
Tara sighed. "After the 'party,' she could no longer take it, so she…she swallowed a box of rat poison."
Ron/Kropp's jaw dropped. "No. No! Kim!!" He fell to his knees, face in his hands. After a few seconds, he looked up and asked, "What about Donna?"
"Without a mother or a father, Josh decided to adopt her for himself."
Kropp slowly stood up, eyes shut tightly. "I will get you for this, Josh Mankey." He opened his eyes. "And Steve! How could you? You used to be one of us! I thought you were my friend!" He took several deep breaths, before looking around. "Say, didn't this use to be your town house?"
"It used to be, yes." Tara replied. "When my old job had me laid off, I renovated it into a shop. I still live here."
"That means that my old house is right next door!" Kropp said. "What happened to it?"
"Not much," Tara said. "Once it was vacant, I told everyone that it was haunted. I had a feeling you might return one day. But Mankey had it cleaned out and sold almost all of your stuff on e-Bay. But, I did save one thing of yours." She pushed a painting aside and opened a safe in the wall. "I believe this belongs to you." She took out a pair of scissors. However, these weren't ordinary scissors; these scissors had lasers for blades.
"Yes," Kropp said, slowly taking the scissors from Tara's hand. "I remember these. When I decided to become a tailor, Wade made these scissors, based on a Global Justice prototype laser sword. They were guaranteed to cut through any fabric, without resistance." He walked over to the window, where the setting sun was shining brightly. He turned the lasers on to full power and held the scissors over his head. "At last, my right arm is complete again!"
So? How's it going? I know it's short, but…
Don't just say "I liked it," unless you honestly can't find any place it could be improved.