Heavy Deception (You will never run away from Deception)
Disclaimer - Characters created by Craig McCracken.
Chapter One
After one careful glimpse at the now old and rusty, filled with memories, and emptied, one-story house, it was time to say goodbye. For all these years, she was doing fine, but if it wasn't for her son, Red, she could have quite a handful of outbursts with depression. Thankfully, she was a calm woman and very intellectual to be precise. Half of the time she didn't need her son's reminder.
Before heading to her car that was packed with furniture and suitcases, the woman gave her last look at the community. This was finally it. She's leaving this place for good. She has had it and it was time to move on. She had been planning to move out of this house for a while now, but she wanted her son to finish elementary school so he wouldn't have to transfer schools. He's going to a secondary school at the new location.
"Mom, will our new place be far from home?" Red asked sitting at the back of the car, who unexpectedly shared some of his features. If one were to look at him thoroughly, the most appealing thing would be his eyes. They were red, and it wasn't ordinary. He wore a dark, red baseball cap and most of the time it was faced backwards. He had a low, short ponytail, which his mom finds a little bit annoying. If it was anything, she could have tried to cut his hair as many times as possible so that it wouldn't remind her of him. But no, Red liked having a low ponytail, just like his dad. Huh, this is some DNA.
She didn't respond but buckled her seatbelt as quickly. Sure, one might have viewed her trying to run away from the question, but she wasn't in the mood to speak at the moment. Though, that new place, for sure, is a place that she thinks will forget about Red's dad. This old house is just full of memories. That new house and city, it's a new beginning of everything.
The ride was long and lasted for seven hours. Red fell asleep during the ride for some time and got to eat on the way. When they got to the destination, it was late afternoon. Driving in the early morning proved to be a great option. Driving late at night would have slowed her down and there's not a lot of streetlights on interstate roads.
As she drove her car inside the garage, her son scrutinized the neighborhood. It was unlike their original hometown. This place was more geared towards suburban, but it's a truly urban city, just that their house and the neighborhood were farther away from the real city. Back at the original house, the population compared to this city was smaller.
Immediately, Red got out of the car and helped his mom move stuff into the house. It's still a good thing that it was a one-story house, just like the old one.
When they were finished packing, Red went to his own room to study for a bit. While he was in his room, the woman went out to take a look at the neighborhood. There, she saw a woman with pitch black hair sitting on a rocking chair just outside of the front yard.
"Hello, sorry to interrupt you, I just moved into this neighborhood with my son," she greeted the woman on the rocking chair. "My name is Blossom."
The woman on the rocking chair had her eyes closed as if she was taking a nap. She opened her eyes to see a redhead who appeared to be quite around the same age as her. She looked like she didn't want an interruption.
The redhead didn't know what to say at this point seeing that the black-haired woman didn't respond. She felt a little awkward and gave a small uncomfortable laugh.
Then, the black-haired woman just nodded before she closed her eyes again. "Welcome to the neighborhood."
Blossom could see that this woman doesn't want any business with her, so she left without a word. It's alright, she's going to work harder to live a good life from now on whether her new neighbors are nice or not. She came here to make sure Red's got a great start for college, so there's nothing to worry about on the first day! There will be better things later in life.
Just right after dinner time, the neighborhood got all noisy. This triggered the two new people of the neighborhood to walk out to see what was happening.
"Ah, not used to the noisiness?" the woman from earlier asked, who was watering her front yard grass.
"What are they doing?" Blossom asked.
The woman took a quick glance at the party of people down the road and started to smirk, something that caught Blossom's attention for just a bit. She didn't know that this woman had this kind of personality!
"It's always so quiet in the day, but when evening hits, it gets all crowded. This is what the community is like living here." The voice of the woman got all warm as she explained this tradition. It must have felt like she missed something when she talked about this, and Blossom could feel it.
It was interesting, though. Blossom never expected her new home would have such a lively community. It would be a bummer if she didn't come over to live here. The only thing that was limiting was that she's not a fan of noisy people. She and her son were not used to this sort of thing.
Blossom patted onto Red's shoulders and told him to meet with the neighbors. Red was reluctant at first, but he figured that this was going to be his home for the rest of his life until he goes to college, so he should get to know them. He sighed and walked forward to meet the party of people.
As Red walked to the crowd, the black-haired woman shifted her eyes back at Blossom. "He's your kid?"
Blossom smiled and admitted he was.
"What about his father? Why isn't he living with you both?" she asked, a little curious. She noticed some interesting features as she scanned both of the two new persons from head to toe.
Upon hearing this question, Blossom's face instantly went from a smile to a gloomy face. She embarrassedly laughed lightly. "Uh… my husband died."
If anyone was to see what was in the look of the woman who asked, it was a major unexpected event. She was embarrassed too. "Huh… I'm sorry. I… I had the same thing happen to me."
Blossom, who was not even looking at the woman in front of her when she answered, now gazed at the woman. "Oh… then, we're kind of the same…" Who would have guessed she'd meet someone who had gone through the same experience as her?
Though, the woman began to sigh heavily. "And his death has always questioned me… that's why I am still looking for answers." She looked determined more than anyone would have, even Blossom wasn't able to do that. Even all those years, she just wanted to forget about the memories of him. But now, this woman who was in front of her, she was a different person. This tempted Blossom to try to understand this woman, since, after all, she was going to be her neighbor starting today.
"May I ask what happened?" It was not like she wanted to get into her business, but this woman also lost her husband, what could go worse?
"He died in an accident, a very lethal one if I wanted to cap at how impossible that event was," she said as she looked into the purple sky. "As someone who has worked with the police for all these years, I am capable of knowing that accidents like this don't happen very often. To kill someone, you must do it properly that even the victim doesn't have the slightest idea of knowing he'd be dead. I know that someone was behind his death. Nobody believed in me."
Blossom could understand. "But how are you going to prove to them?"
The woman fake smirked, everyone asked her this question way too much, and she's heard of it so many times she knew what to prepare for. "Even after he died years ago, why am I still not giving up, you ask me? Because I found some evidence, but obviously they aren't coherently linked. I quit the police force, so gathering evidence became an obstacle."
"The way you say that it appears to me that someone at your own police force had something to do with the death of your husband?" Blossom deducted. It's not a rare thing that the police would want to get rid of someone who's also working in the police force.
The woman averted her eyes to fix on Blossom. She had to say Blossom was quite a genius. "There are two things that hinder me actually. One is that you don't gather evidence when you're not a police officer alone. You can't go into the files of people without a proper license. And the second thing is because I was once a police officer, people knew about me, so they have to be careful of me. I've already quit being one, so it doesn't make any sense for me to get back inside."
"How about I lend you a hand?" Blossom asked as she smiled. There, she saw the woman's green eyes staring at Blossom. She knew the woman wouldn't believe in her just at first encounter, but Blossom was a good convincer. How did she meet her own husband? She was a master of words. "To answer your question, I am a full-time lawyer and a criminal psychologist. I may help you with a different approach."
She smirked at just how sometimes coincidences happen. "Well, it's not like your career can fully help me, but I will take it. The name's Buttercup by the way."
"Hey mom, I just met a family who said they wanted me to tutor their daughter," Red said as he walked back to the house.
Blossom just couldn't be happier. Her son was adapting to the environment and the neighborhood very well. They will blend in perfectly anytime from now. "Red, that's great, you go help her when she needs help, alright?"
It never occurred to her, but Buttercup suddenly spoke out of the blue. "Red? Is that his name?"
Blossom nodded and introduced her son to Buttercup. The moment Buttercup saw Red's eyes and his features, she stopped dead in the tracks. She didn't know if she was seeing things, but she definitely remembers seeing this feature somewhere. "He… he looks like someone."
If you tell someone her kid looks like someone else, that would be an awkward moment. Well, first, it is weird. Second, people get that a lot and it's not uncommon to say that kind of speech, but that wasn't normal for someone who has red eyes. "And his name… he reminds me of someone who uses his code name Red."
Blossom didn't know where this conversation was going or understand what Buttercup was saying. "I'm sorry?"
Buttercup shook the moment off. She doesn't have contact with that person anymore since she quit the police. The fact that Red shared many of his features, that's on a different level. There is no coincidence that this kid Red was not his child. Besides, Blossom said her husband died, so there's no way he would have been the father unless he was on cover… nevermind.
"Ah, nothing, your boy is handsome," Buttercup slipped the thought as she switched the topic.
Unbelievable. Unbeknownst to the common folks, this was where all the action takes place. Nobody would have guessed that the "night" bar was the location.
"Hmph, time to take some targets down," a woman spoke silently as she put down her glass of wine. Although it would have seemed to look like she did some drinking, all she's managed to drink was a glass of water instead.
She rapidly left the stool at the counter and walked femininely to the center of people dancing crazily. Immediately, she wrapped her arms around a man who was half-drunk and his cheeks were flushed, almost as if he was hallucinating something not so appropriate to children.
When the man noticed those warm and small arms wrapped around his neck, he was going to give a shot to kiss her, but she wouldn't give him the chance. She didn't blink an eye and cracked the man's neck on second thought before he came close to her face. It was nearly an inch left, but it could have been much fun if they were in the middle of kissing while knocking him down. But no, she wasn't going to risk herself. She just had to play her character role and still remember who she really was.
"Huh, another one," she murmured to herself and in an instant pulled onto a man's tie. She didn't know it was a loosen but it didn't hinder her from pulling it closer to her. She turned the man around with his tie about three times, and the result came out to be perfect in her standards. He was now completely aware that a seducer just tried to kill him in the neck.
Seeing that he wasn't able to breathe as much, she moved onto her next target. It wasn't an easy target, this one was clearly awake and having fun with all those women. They were dressed like what people would see in a typical nightclub. In fact, their skins were showing way too much.
When she approached the new man, she stomped on the table and immediately the glass of wines on the table rolled down onto the ground, causing them to break. All the women sitting there didn't like how she interrupted their lovely chat. The man, however, caught her attention and stared at her as if he wanted her to become his woman.
Of course, all of this was just to play out what she planned. "Hello, is it too late to join?" she asked, in a seductive tone.
"No," the man responded. He motioned all the other women to leave his side so this new woman could join him. That made all of the women disappointed. They didn't want to leave, they were just having so much fun until this woman had to show up. And she wasn't even beautifully dressed as they were. Talk about attractiveness.
The woman smiled and sat next to the man. She wrapped her arms around his neck and did a regrettable thing, she gave him a kiss on the cheeks. Of course, not in the lips, that's not going to happen. She wouldn't risk it, not for just trying to seduce someone!
On the other hand, the man was clearly prepared to take on the next move. He wanted on that spot that she was his. He came to know that both of his hands were now on her waist. He could feel she has a skinny body and was perfect for him to have pleasure with. He just couldn't wait to taste more of her. His right arm began to touch her hair so he could kiss her, but that came to a short end abruptly. He noticed her hair, no, her wig, underneath her wig was her ears, and inside her ear was an earpiece attached.
If he noticed she had an earpiece, she would have noticed he figured too. At that point, the woman grabbed onto his neck and pulled him as far as possible. She immediately got up and before she knew it, he went straight to her and snatched onto her left leg. She couldn't let her leg go and saw that there was no way for her to use her other leg to kick him.
The only option was to grab onto his arms. She caught onto his arms and hit his vital points that she knew too well of every human hand. The man was loose and saw himself standing back on his own two feet with both bare hands.
The atmosphere was getting a little hot. Her wig was a nuisance and it looks like it was about to fall off in the next second. She didn't want to just expose herself right there so before leaving the building, she kicked the man to where the bartenders were serving a pile of drinks. The last thing she heard was the cracking of glasses on the floor.
When she thought she made it out of the exit, she was caught by another man. She turned around to see who this next man was in order to calculate if she was capable of knocking him down. But she didn't have a plan, this man was stronger than the one she just kicked.
"You're not leaving anywhere, Meri," the man said, who had nice blonde hair and was wearing a black vest and tie that was stunning in her sense.
The woman identified as Meri raised her eyebrows. She didn't know how this man knew of "her" name. However, she didn't have much time, and she needed this man to get out of her sight as soon as possible without exposing her cover. "Where do you think I am supposed to go, run away?" she asked.
The man didn't have time for her seduction. "Meri Young, 22 years old, has a record for injuring men at nightclubs and bars."
Meri laughed. "Really? Well, that's unheard of. You got the wrong person. I just happened to go to the bar today."
"Try running from the question," the man said. "Blonde hair, 5 foot 3, 38 kg, blue eyes, has a beauty mark under her left eye…" once he started to continue on with more information, he could see that she was starting to worry. "Want me to go on?"
"No," she said with a smile, and this made the man confused. That's exactly how she wanted him to see it. "But thanks for the info anyway." Before he could do anything, she was gone in a split second.
She was now at the back of the building. She could still see that he was there trying to process what just happened. How did she attempt to run away that fast in a blink of an eye that even he couldn't even see?
"Hmph, the police, huh?" she said as she took off her wig and undressed. She had her white coat underneath her dress. Sometimes it's just better to quick-change, isn't it? "Meri? Huh, I'm done with that role." In the end, Meri Young was just someone she had to play as a role in disguise.
It wasn't hard for her to figure out that the blonde man was a police officer going undercover. Just by examining the way he dressed, a vest, and a tie—typical bartender, he was trying to catch Meri in the bar. "If you police officers can disguise, why, I can too," she stated before she walked away to the parking lot to find her car.