Now, in Chantal's big heart, she knew she needed and wanted to help Bianca and Elise even more than originally planned. Chantal had ideas already forming in her highly intelligent brain and easily knew where to start. The truly brilliant woman wanted to share her idea but as she started she stopped herself because the couple in front of her were having a quiet moment to themselves. Holding each other quietly. Chantal missed that feeling, being held. Oh well, she thought to herself, I don't need it

Bianca and Elise sat in the Jeep, that Chantal had retrieved for them, talking to Mike on the phone. They were on their way to visit with him. Everything began to turn around as soon as Chantal came to meet with them. Elise and Bianca both agreed that Chantal Hjalmar was a blessing. Motives? Unclear yet it felt somewhat genuine. They liked her.

Mike was let out of his concrete confinement and sent out on his own but he was sent out with an escort who had to be with him whenever he was out. The escort was nice. The escort was technically a certified nurse but hey, Even better! His name was Imri and he was seven years Mike's senior. Imri Kadar Of Dubai, Mike had called him. Imri lived in Dubai as a boy but he and his family moved to Philadelphia when he was seven.

Anyway, Bianca and Elise were to meet up with Mike, check on him, play catch up, that sort of thing. They met up at a cafe and sat near the back. It was oddly quite from where they were sitting, all four of them. They spoke for awhile and would pause here and there because Bianca would put her hand up and they all knew to shut up when she did that. Bianca was listening to everything but had a hard time figuring out what it was exactly. She'd scan the room with her vigilant eyes. Something but nothing.

A scream ripped throughout the cafe. Bianca and Elise stood up immediately and quickly made their way to where the scream had come from. The screaming stopped and turned into frightened yelling. It came from the opposite corner of where the group sat.

"What the hell?!" Bianca shouted then pulled the boney man up roughly by his collar. "Now who the fuck do you think you are?!" She yelled.

Bianca was expecting a scared stutter that struggled to answer her question but she did not get that. Instead she got an angry deep shriek from a face that looked almost dead. She reacted by pulling out her pocket knife, flicking it open and hurriedly inserted it into the thin gray neck.

Nope. Try again.

Bianca removed the knife and stabbed his shoulder, specifically the space between the clavicle and the scapula. On a regular person that would cause intense pain or render them unconscious or cause them to fucking die even. To this guy...

Nope. Try again.

"Elise, I need some help here!" Bianca called out.

Elise pulled out her own knife and lodged it into the ear of the man and that seemed to work. Bianca let go and the freshly dead guy dropped to the floor. The now bloody floor. The floor covered in blood. The sticky red floor. It was gross.

Why the fuck am I talking about the fucking floor? Because that blood was red and not like the kind the freak-a-zoids had. So? That man was hurting the other man in the corner. Inflicting enough pain on the man to scream and shout out for help. If it looks like a dead guy and acts like a dead guy, it must be a dead guy.

Let's think about this...

Alright, now let's regroup.

Quickly, Elise came to the conclusion of, "That bitch is dead."

"Was this what you guys were trying to explain to me?" Imri asked.

Mike sighed, "Yeah, pretty much." He looked to the man cowering on the floor under a table behind them all. Mike tapped Imri on the shoulder and pointed to the man.

"Oh shit, right." Imri said to himself. He knelt down next to the man and began to ask him response questions (what's your name, can you tell me where you're hurt etc).

"So, uh what'll we do now? Police or Chantal?" Elise asked Bianca.

"Let's go with Chantal first, maybe she can give us a hand." Bianca answered and then whipped out her phone.

T W O - M O N T H S - B E F O R E - A L L - T H I S - S H I T - S T A R T E D

Asleep in Bianca's Bianca-less bed was Elise whom was holding onto the pillow Bianca would normally use. It was morning and she was doing what she did best. Her phone on the nightstand rang and caused Elise's eyes to squint open. Unenthusiastically she reached for the phone.

"Hello?" She said as nicely as she could.

"Hello, is the brewmaster awake?" A familiar voice queried.

"Oh shit," Elise said quietly, "I am now, Bianca, thank you."

"No problem hon, but you're the boss so get your booty up and get going."

"Ugh, fine. I'll you a call later, baby. I love you, bye."

Elise whipped the covers off herself and looked around the room. With a confused look, she raised her fingers and put two in her mouth and gave a loud whistle. Not a second went by and Elise could already hear the sound of the dog running into the room.

"There's my girl!" Elise happily said and patted the bed.

Trooper jumped up next to Elise and wagged her tail wildly.

"You're coming with me today." She said as she gave the dogs back a good scratch.

Elise got ready for work and got Trooper ready as well. They left Bianca's apartment and drove to the Moore Brewery. Elise Moore's brewery given to her by her papa right before he died. She had worked there after she was released from the military. So she knew how things ran there. All the employees liked her and she liked them.

The Moore Brewery was 45 minutes away from the cabin and Bianca's apartment. The drive that led the way, to the front of the brewery, was an unpaved dirt road that was lined with wood post fences, the ones that have parallel horizontal planks, that contained various crops that were added into whatever they were making.

Parking her Jeep, Trooper and herself got out and walked towards the depot. The five men unloading bails of barley from a truck bed stopped a second and gave her a wave then went back to unloading. Elise and the dog climbed up the steps and walked deeper into the facility.

Meanwhile, Bianca sat at her desk trying to think if she forgot anything she failed to write down. She went off track by thinking about how she even got herself into technical writing. "Oh yeah, because I've done everything." She said quietly and sarcastically. "I could work at the brewery with Elise but then I'd have to write about how every little thing works there in extremely thorough detail!" Bianca tossed her pen down on the desk and let out a long sigh. She felt defeated and thought, Okay, so I'm exaggerating. I'm just frustrated and it's making me angry. I like what I do. I like what I do.

Bianca actually did like her job and she actually was just frustrated at the moment and she did want to work at the brewery with Elise but she always reminded herself that if that ever happened, nothing would get done. I don't mean having sex all the time more like, "So what does that do? How does this thing work? What the hell is this? I can't remember how to use this. Why is this like that?" And many more questions and such.

Bianca stood up and ran her fingers through her hair. She was about to reach for the thick office like phone on her desk but stopped herself. "Maybe she's busy?" Bianca pulled her hand away and placed it on her hip. Trying to think of what to do, she visually scanned her small office. Nothing.

"Guess I'll go walk around."

Trooper laid down on her bed that sat in the corner of the office right inside of the depot. She knew her way around, knew where she was allowed to go and where she wasn't. Today Trooper didn't feel like doing any "supervising" so she laid down quietly and waited for her nice owner to come back and entertain her. Just like the dog had wished for Elise came in began to look around for something in quite the hurry.

Elise kept searching through the file cabinets and desk drawers. Still hadn't found whatever it was. Trooper gave a little grunt because she wanted Elise's attention. Elise heard it, stopped and turned around.

"May I help you ma'am?"

Trooper began to wag her tail happily.

"Oh I see, okay now come here." She gave the chair at the desk a hard pat, "Alright, I need to find the paper that says how much we previously filled up the silo." She said to Trooper as if the dog could understand every single word Elise had just said. Elise, determined, began to continue her searching. "We didn't fill it all the way because we were storing spent grain there for a short amount of time but still. I need to know."

The dog jumped out of the chair, walked to the doorway and barked at Elise.

"What is it my little princess?" Elise said without looking up.

"No one has ever called me their little princess before but I don't think I mind," said the tall man at the door.

Elise's head shot up and her face was all red, she forced out a laugh to cover up being embarrassed. "Sorry Leon, that position has been filled. And you can't take position of queen either and I rather adore who's on that throne."

Leon laughed, "So what're you looking for today?"

Elise breathed in deeply. "A paper that says how much spent grain we stored in silo A4. We didn't fill it up all the way and I need to know how much was in there," she said calmly.

Leon took a second to think. He tried his best to remember if he had seen it around or just remember how full it was in the first place. "Spent grain... Hmm. Umm. That's a good question." Nothing. Couldn't remember.

Elise raised her right hand to her forehead. "Well, if you suddenly remember or find that paper, let me know please."

"Sure thing." Leon still stood in the door way, like there was something else to add.

Elise looked down at her desk that she just disorganized during her frantic search then knelt down to continue her search on the floor. A few seconds later she looked up and bumped her head on the underside of the desk. Elise grunted and moved out from under the desk. She rubbed the back of her head and said, "Sorry, kiddo, did you need something?"

"Yeah. I've gotta leave," Leon put his hands in his coat pockets, "Gotta go pick up my brother."

"Go for it, go home afterwards if you'd like to."

Asking me how old I am. Ugh! None of your god damn business, I tell you what. Bianca stood as still as possible. I'm worrying about telling people how old I am? Oh my god! I am getting old. That's what old people worry about, right? You know what? Bianca raised her mighty, thick eyebrows. I don't want to know. Once and for all, I think I'd like to be ignorant towards the subject. She took a big breath and relaxed her shoulders she had tensed up before hand. I wish Elise were here with me. She'd know how to handle that. Bianca entered her office and shut the door behind her. No, no, no. I can get over it. Thirty-four isn't that bad. A thirty-four year old with a twenty-nine year old? Cool. Does that make me a... NO! Stop right there! Don't even finish that sentence. She sat down at her desk and sat back in her chair. God dammit, I really want that phone to ring. I don't even care who's calling. Am I lonely? "Yes."