RWBY A Day in the Life of Crime
Chapter 21: An Unexpected Visitor
"Cinder, there's someone here to see you," Emerald announced as she peered into the room that Cinder was in currently. The older woman was sitting in her armchair, reading over some reports filed to her by her subordinates and enjoying a glass of wine held in her right hand.
"Are they on the schedule for today?" Cinder asked without picking her head up, her eyes tracing the words on the paper in front of her.
"No, their not," Emerald admitted.
"Then send them off. If they want to meet with me they must have a scheduled appointment," Cinder waved a hand to shoo Emerald away.
Emerald bowed her head in compliance of Cinder's wishes before going off. Cinder was able to return to her reading, thinking the matter over when Emerald came back in, a more distraught expression on her face. Distraught, for she did not want to keep bothering Cinder. The woman hadn't yelled at her for disturbing her yet but she was sure she would in a few more minutes. It was just that the person who wanted to see Cinder was so insistent!
"Uh, Cinder," she started, eyeing the other nervously for any sharp spikes in anger. So far there were none.
"What is it Emerald?" Cinder asked calmly, sipping on her ten thousand dollar wine.
"The person says this is very important and that you definitely don't want to miss meeting with them."
Cinder snorted. "Tell them I decide what is important and what is not. Tell them I will not accept this sense of insolence from them. Clearly they must not know who they are speaking to!"
"Right away," Emerald backed out of the room and left to go tell the visitor this. Unfortunately they did not take the advice Cinder had given them and thus the green haired girl was back to tell Cinder for a third time. "They still don't want to leave," Emerald informed, cringing as she saw Cinder's nostrils flare, a sign that she was beginning to get annoyed. I hope it's not at me! Emerald hoped internally. Last time Cinder had lost her temper at Emerald she had made the green haired girl run downtown naked and back.
"Who is this person that they don't understand that no means no? If they don't want to leave then get them to leave physically," this time Cinder picked up her head to look at Emerald, a commanding look on her face.
"Of course!" Emerald went on her way.
Cinder then settled back down into her armchair, trying to push the brief flare of annoyance out of her system. Another gulp of her wine helped secure that. The wine was simply the most delightful thing she had ever tasted. She only wished she could drink some with Ruby but she would have to wait three more years until the girl was eighteen. Maybe then the girl would be able to handle her liquor. Cinder had tried to give her some for her recent fifteenth birthday and let's say the result wasn't very pretty. The girl had gone through so many mood swings that Cinder had never thought a human could be capable of all these different emotions.
Although it had been a bit funny. Cinder had made sure to record all those funny faces Ruby had pulled. She'd use it as blackmail too if the girl ever thought of not listening to her again when she told her to lay off the cookies or else she'd get another cavity, and Cinder was certainly not dealing with her and going to the dentist a second time. Last time that had happened she had to burn the establishment down in order to hide the evidence of what Ruby did.
Cinder was deep in her thoughts and didn't notice that someone else had entered her room until they spoke. It was a voice she knew all too well. It had haunted her dreams sometimes, dreams full of fire and angry hands and pale skin and children screaming. She knew she had heard correctly, but she didn't want to believe it was true. It shouldn't be true! She'd killed her herself!
The glass in her hand cracked as her grip tightened on it, spraying red liquid and shards of glass all over Cinder's shirt front and over the floor, and the paper in her other hand crumpled up. She clenched her hand into a fist to hold back the wine that spilled freely like blood.
"Hello, Cinder."
The voice was civil, warm yet cold, like one talking to a friend they were slightly upset at but didn't want that friend to know they were upset at them. It made disgust crawl up and down Cinder's back. Slowly she turned her head to face her guest. Standing in the doorway, wearing black flowing robes fit for an evil sorceress and skin as pale as snow, was Salem, hands folded in front of her.
"Salem," Cinder stood up at this, the sight of the woman sending shivers down her spine. So it was true. The woman was here in the flesh and bone and Cinder hadn't merely misheard things like she wished she had.
"Yes, that is my name. I was a tad worried you wouldn't remember me," the older woman admitted, her inhumane red eyes boring into Cinder's face. "After all, you were quite in a rush to leave the house after you burned everything down. How horrid of you, killing all those poor children. Who do you think you are, deciding their fates, and cutting their lives short? You think yourself a god?"
"Where's Emerald?" Cinder couldn't imagine her secretary would let this monstrosity just walk casually in. "What did you do to her?"
"Oh, you mean the sweet little green haired girl? She's only sleeping off a bit of pain right now. But she'll be fine when she wakes up. I'm not here to hurt her." Salem's eyes twinkled malignantly.
"What are you doing here?" Cinder spat out, not willing to let the villain take the high moral ground. Salem had no right to accuse her of being evil when she had been the one who made Cinder like this through countless hours of torment, mental and physical. Cinder didn't want to remember but she did, all the long hours she'd spend locked up in the dank dark basement after being beaten severely, hanging from chains by her wrists as Salem tried to break her body and soul. But she'd never been able to. And never would.
"I'm here to talk to you about a proposition-"
"Not that. Why are you alive?" Cinder snarled, a inch of fear appearing in her voice. She tried to hide it.
A smirk spread on Salem's face, her thin white lips stretching gruesomely. The woman's flesh didn't look to have a single burn or scar on it from fire, so how was she fine? Had she escaped before the fire's got her? But no, Cinder had made sure to burn her room first. She had seen the woman's pale face contort in pain as her skin boiled on the funeral pyre had bed had now become.
"I would wager you would be interested to know. Especially given all the effort you put into burning the place down. But that is not what I wished to speak to you about today and thus I shall not."
"You do not tell me what we will be discussing unless you want to lose your tongue. I'm the one in charge here. This is my gang, my territory. You should be worried of committing a single misstep because if I catch the slightest hint of you wanting to hurt me then I will order my people to rip you limb from limb and then feed those limbs to the dogs."
"You're not the one in charge here. Ruby is," Salem clicked her tongue reproachingly.
Cinder felt shivers go down her spine. Had this woman been stalking them? Getting information on them? But how? Very few knew the true leader of the Grimm gang was Ruby now.
"And speaking of Ruby, you may want to listen to what I have to say next if you wish to see no harm come to her."
"You bitch! You dare threaten to harm her?!" Cinder could feel her anger swirling around inside her and flames danced on her hands. Salem noted the activated semblance with lack of interest. As if she was looking at some common pebble on the street.
"It wasn't a threat but a fact. And I wasn't the one who harmed her." Salem spoke this calmly, as if it made a difference that she wasn't the one to harm Ruby, and Cinder could feel a sense of dread rising in her. Ruby...what had happened?
Her girlfriend had gone out on patrol of the bake shops to make sure no one was threatening them and also to pick up some cookies for later because she was bored and didn't want to read reports with Cinder no matter how much the woman tried to instill in Ruby this practice as she had to know what went on in the gang. Had Salem somehow ambushed her? Ruby was strong and fast but Salem could take away someone's semblance and no doubt this would have tripped the girl up as Ruby didn't know about this particular ability. Still, Cinder couldn't imagine her girlfriend was so easily captured. Cinder glared at Salem, waiting for the woman to speak. Salem, noting she had Cinder's attention, now took her time to speak. "Ruby is quite a young lady. Exquisite. She holds much talent in her. I'm glad you were able to find someone for yourself, although I didn't think you would go for someone so young."
"Get to the point," Cinder gritted out through closed teeth.
Salem paused at this, cocking her head. "Surely you do not treat all your guests this rudely?"
"I treat them however I want."
"You should treat me differently, for someone's life hangs in the balance depending on how succinctly we can get this deal going."
"What deal?"
"Do you happen to have anymore of that wine? I'm feeling a bit parched," Salem ignored Cinder's comment, and the black haired woman fuming, went to her cabinet to pull out the wine and a glass. The last thing she wanted to do was give this monster some of her most expensive wine, but she knew something about Ruby that Cinder did not. And in worst case scenario the woman had captured her. If this was the case then Cinder best go along with the woman's wishes. If she tried to call for help now then there was no telling what could occur. The woman could get angry and order Ruby to be killed. But whose working for her then, if that's the case? Cinder mussed angrily to herself as she poured Salem a cup. She couldn't recall Salem having any friends besides her gambling buddies. Surely they wouldn't become involved with this. Could the woman be bluffing that she had Ruby? No, Cinder knew this woman. The one thing she never did was put on a false front. If she had someone, she had someone. If she did something, she really did do it and in the way she described it, down to the last gruesome detail.
The woman approached and picked the cup up, letting the aroma waft up to her nose. "Ah, Chateau Lafite." Salem sighed as she swirled the wine in her cup. "Are you not going to drink?" she looked over at Cinder who had been glaring at her. "It does not taste as well if someone does not have anyone to drink it with."
Cinder bit back the retort she wanted to yell out but fetched herself another glass, careful to be aware of her surroundings as she turned her back on the other woman. She didn't trust this woman; there was no telling what was up her sleeve. Then Cinder poured herself a glass.
Salem stretched the hand holding her glass towards Cinder's. "A toast to our wonderful reunion."
Wonderful my ass, Cinder thought but clacked her glass against Salem's and then downed the liquid in her cup in one go. The wine, where it had been sweet before, was now bitter to her.
"Now, can we get onto business?" Cinder asked impatiently.
"Patience my dear. We have much to catch up on. Should you not be asking me how the years have treated me?"
"Horribly I hope," Cinder retorted.
Salem chuckled at this. "I see you carry no interest in seeing how I have fared."
"Much too alive for my tastes," Cinder grumbled out as she watched Salem walkover to the unlit fireplace in the room. The woman gazed down into it. "I suppose I might as well get to the point then, if you are to be so rude to me. I want to make a deal with you." At this she looked away from the fireplace.
"What sort of deal?"
"I want to give you Ruby and in exchange you will give me something."
"You don't own Ruby!"
"No, I don't. But death might own her soon, so if I was you, I would stop interrupting me and let me speak."
This made Cinder hold her tongue. Her next words came out more shakily than she would have liked them to. "What would you want in exchange?"
Salem's lips cracked into a smile at this as Cinder's semblance began to spark out of control due to her worry, the flames rising from her hands up to her elbows.
"I want control over the Grimm gang."
A/N: Dun, dun, dunnnn!