HA! And you thought it was almost over…

In the complete darkness of night, Nikki walks the deserted streets. She just took a cab and paid with the money the last gang gave her when she killed the one they wanted dead. She looks at her cash she has left and notices she's a little low. She has only a thousand dollars. She decides to skip breakfast and lunch and just cab hop till she gets to her destination. It's far from Nevada to California.

Other than the occasional hobo, Nikki notices she's all alone. No passing cars, no late workers, no anything. Any other teenager would be on high alert and shaking with fear. Walking after midnight, in pitch black except for the moon and a few street lights, and passing deep alleyways, she knows she should be a little on edge, too. But Nikki takes comfort in being alone. That was how she always was since her parents died. And it used to be like that all the time till she ran into Kyle.

What to say about Kyle… Nikki could say a lot of things about Kyle. He's black like her. Not velvet black, but a light brown. He has the perfect sense of humor and isn't like any other sex crazed teenage boy. Nikki could honestly say she loved him. Not like she would ever admit that out loud, or to Kyle's face, but she absolutely adores the kid.

That day that she had killed one of the Rogers, she didn't know she was being followed. She knows better now and she always peaks her hearing so she's never caught of guard, but in the beginning she didn't know.

She remembers that she had snuck from tree to tree; flinging herself gracefully from one branch to the next till she was near the second story. She had scoped out the whole place and tracked down the Rogers where-a-bouts, she couldn't believe how easy it was. All of the Rogers but the youngest, an 11 year old, and the eldest, the 20 year old, were not home. She was given 3 days to get rid of the eldest son and she took that time wisely.

She remembers watching through his window at night. He had had his headphones in and was drumming along on his make shift drum set (upside down buckets and a metal pan) the night she decided to make her move. The other Rogers still weren't home so thankfully the people, who had paid her, knew what they were talking about.

Nikki had jumped from her branch that she had rested on and landed smoothly through the open window. Her victim had been shocked at her entrance. Nikki remembers the way he ripped out his headphones and picked up the pan. Her first choice of weapon would have been the pan too but then again, nothing like that would ever happen to her. You needed a home and windows for it to happen…

Though she had had her sword and the gun on her, she kept out nothing but her bare hands. She had wanted to make it clean and as quiet as possible. She had lunged on to his bed and stood over him. He backed up into the wall and tried to hit her with the pan. Nikki felt so stupid but it was oddly amusing.

She had danced around the room while he backed up into everything he could find. He didn't want his back showing, knowing that Nikki would kill him instantly that way. He was blond and chubby. Nikki didn't feel bad about killing him, and as far as she was concerned, she was keeping him away from living a single, loveless life.

When she got bored of bouncing from the bed, to the chair, to jumping on the buckets and ripping the posters off the walls, she danced into the hallway and sat in front of the stairs. When the kid came bounding after her, she sat there and smiled. He lifted the pan readying to hit her, when she leaned in and bit his leg. She could feel her teeth cutting through his skin like butter. She didn't want his blood in her mouth though so when he fell over in pain, she reached across his body and snapped his neck.

Nikki had dragged him into the bedroom and placed him in the bed to look as if he was sleeping; she turned off the lights and was about to head downstairs when a head popped up over the edge of the top stair. She backed into the wall and immediately got hit with adrenaline.

"Wow. That was amazing!" Kyle exclaimed to her. He had said it so loudly; she held her finger to her lips to shush him.

"Psh. No worries. I already took care of the youngest one. He's downstairs, probably drowning in blood. But that," he gestured to the blond, "was impressive. Are you a vampire?"

Nikki had just stared at him like he was crazy. She snorted, "Yeah look out! I might drink your blood!"

Nikki didn't find the kid as a threat anymore. After all, she never had a fan before. She skipped past him down the stairs and found the dead kid in the kitchen. She immediately groaned, "Why did you do this?" Her 'fan' stood next to her.

"How else was I supposed to get in? I don't have a freakish ability to jump from a tree to a window like you do." His response had made her laugh. She had never laughed a lot before that so she knew there was something special about the kid. "By the way, the names Kyle Dragon the fifth." He had held out his hand.

Nikki had taken it reluctantly and said simply, "Nikki."

Kyle had beamed the most attractive smile she had ever seen. She almost passed out when the butterflies clouded her stomach. "Nice to meet you Nikki." She was only 13 at the time.

Nikki still can't believe that Kyle has ever killed someone when she had seen the body for herself. She knows Kyle better now, and she knows killing just isn't his thing.

At the thought of Kyle, she turns around to make sure he isn't following her. And of course nobody is. She turns back around and smacks right in a parked taxi cab. The driver rolls down the window. It's an elderly white man with three teeth and a shiny head.

"Can I get you anywhere Miss?"

"Yes please." Nikki hops in the back and gives him the directions. He mutters under his breath about the far distance and drives off.

Sleeplessness finally makes its presence known. Nikki tries to fight it as her eyelids get heavy, but she figures, it's a long ways anyways so might as well. And she falls asleep seconds later.

She dreams of Beatrix and of the friend she is headed to see right now. It wasn't Beatrix's doorstep that death was greeting her at. No. At Beatrix's doorstep pain and revenge were waiting. At her old weapon master's was where death was waiting.