Intent on Kill
With full intent on killing Beatrix, Nikki rides in a cab with an uncomfortable driver eyeballing her through the rearview mirror. Nikki guesses he's about late twenties early thirties and probably doesn't have a wife or kids but she doesn't think any more about him. She's too busy giving herself a pep talk and scrolling through different scenarios she may face.
After about forty five minutes on the road (and in Nikki's mind, she just sliced Beatrix's head off) she grows more and more impatient. Tapping the cab driver on the shoulder for him to jump in response, she tells him to step on it. His foot hits the gas, pushing the car up to eighty miles an hour. Nikki's mind finds just an ounce of comfort in the action. The rest of her tenses and races to get a hold on the anger, the sweet anger that gives her fuel to keep on her way to the mansion. It isn't that hard. All she has to do is remember the knife protruding from her mother's heart and the rage flies back hugging her mind and soul in a familiar black lacing, a lace woven intricately with rage, memories, blood, and wounds.
She groans softly under her breath and leans her head against the seat. She doesn't have a chance against the revived Mamba. Despite the laced rage holding her close, Nikki knows Beatrix has some tricks up her sleeves that could kill her in milliseconds. Nikki can only hope that Beatrix's venom has lost some of its potency over the last few years.
She looks despairingly out the window. The sidewalks, trees, and buildings pass in nothing but flashes of different colors blurred together. The only steady color is the orange and pink mixed sky. Nikki looks at it not really seeing it. The only thing she sees is pain. The pain that comes filing into her mind through the memories of the days in her life. She's young and yet the only thing she can remember is the dark color of sugary death that appears the most through the pink in the sky. But lately the flavor of death has changed to sour when it claimed the life of her love, the only thing she ever found bright happiness in.
Silently, Nikki rips open the wounds in her heart and lets the pain of it cascade in salty waterfalls out of her eyes. The rage lace starts to rip and fall into sad threads. She hasn't cried in years. Not even when she was ripping throats and ending lives. The only thing that was on her mind was avenging her mother's death. What about Kyle…?
Nikki's heart starts to race at a plan that forms unconsciously in her head. She dries her eyes and sits up. The sky is darkening, blurring the sad images that filled it just seconds ago, and that's the signal.
Following the signal, the cab starts to slow. "You can stop here." she says, trying to control the adrenaline from seeping through her voice and giving her away. The cab breaks hard and the driver looks suspiciously relieved to be getting rid of her. Without thinking about it, she throws a $500 dollar bill at him, which is probably twice the amount the cab ride was, and hops out. She's in California now, on top of a small hill in the middle of nowhere. The black mansion is behind the gate in front of her.
She hears the cab back up and speed away. Chicken, she thinks at the jumpy driver and looks ahead. The mansion looks desolated. At the sight, chills run their cold fingers up her spine making her wish she had a cab of her own that she could use to run away in.
Nikki takes a deep breath. This is what she's been waiting for her whole life. She looks at the top of the spiked gate and at the key pad with a camera next to her. She can be sneaky about this, but then again, Beatrix must already know she's here. Nikki presses the button.
A buzzer sounds and the gate swings open. Hesitation can only make things worse, so she walks confidently through toward the mansion not even caring that her black pants are ripped or that she still has dried blood on her. She doesn't even care that her hair is a snarly mess. The only thing she has time to think about is the reassuring weight of the sword at her waist and the pounding in her chest as she climbs up the dirt hill.
When she finally reaches the front door to the mansion, a voice calls from the back, "Wrong way little girl." She follows the threatening voice; the voice that has haunted her dreams for years, and finds Beatrix sitting casually in a recliner on the porch. A steaming cup of tea in her hands and a long sword at her side, Beatrix looks more like a waiting snake than a casual human being.
Her hair is blonde like Nikki remembers. Same features, same everything. The only difference now compared to the Beatrix then is that this one does not look evil or vengeful. This Beatrix looks sad.
"You knew I was coming." A simple statement that Nikki already suspected was true.
Beatrix looks at the tea in her cup as she swirls it around. "I told you I would be waiting." She looks up and meets Nikki's gaze. "You've grown into quite a young woman. Your mother would be proud."
"Don't you dare talk about her." Nikki grabs her sword and points it in front of her.
Beatrix remains seated. To Nikki's disappointment, she doesn't even seem fazed by the movement. Instead she looks back at her tea and says, "Ah, the master sword. For you, I expected as much." She takes one last sip then sets the cup down onto the glass table beside her.
"Let's get this over with bitch." Nikki smiles slyly.
Beatrix returns the smile ruefully. "You will be happily reunited with your family in hell."
Nikki's smile falters. She grips her sword, pulls it up and bends her knees low. With the sword above her head and her hand in front of her, she tempts the Black Mamba forward, putting all the rage within her into the sword itself.
Beatrix flips off the porch smoothly landing with her sword slamming against Nikki's. The pressure makes Nikki's finger cramp. "Why do you want to avenge such a terrible being like your mother?"
The sword twitches with the anger building in her fingers. Nikki pushes against the opposing sword and slashes at Mamba's neck.
Beatrix smoothly avoids it and slashes Nikki's side. She yelps in pain and when she looks at Mamba's blue eyes, the cocky show doesn't hide the shadow of sadness behind them.
"Tell me, what happened to your daughter?" Nikki asks casually while taking a step back. She is silently thanking the heavens for allowing her to remember that information.
And just as she had hoped, the sadness shifts to rage and the mamba lunges toward Nikki's left. The exact thing she was hoping for.
As mamba's sword inches toward her neck, Nikki twists her bodies sideways and slides her sword smoothly into Mamba's skin just beneath her ribs. Mamba falls to the ground and holds her side. Blood swells beneath her hand. And Nikki's heart is doing somersaults. She didn't think she could last this long let alone, injure the sly assassinator.
"Oh. I get it. Did you kill her for wanting a cookie? Or was she just too much like Bill for you to give a damn about her?"
Mamba visibly grinds her teeth and spits the words out like poison. "I would never hurt her."
"Then where is your precious gem? Were you that much of a demon that you would get rid of your own daughter?" Nikki presses on trying to find the weakness in mamba's shield.
"It wasn't like that. I told her. I told her." Mamba shakes her head back and forth whispering more to herself than to Nikki.
When she lifts her head up, Nikki's hands start to sweat with anticipation. Mamba's eyes are blue fire glaring through Nikki's mind. Mamba gets up slowly, visibly ignoring the blood rushing out onto her shirt and pants. Nikki's thankful her own wound is just a scratch.
Mamba's sword comes down near her head. Nikki blocks just in time. "You don't deserve a daughter you heartless monster." Nikki spits in her face and turns to the ground, sweeping her feet under Mamba's. Once on the ground, Nikki tries to slice under her neck but is blocked by a sword. "You're right. I don't deserve her." Mamba's saddened voice answers.
Nikki is pushed backwards onto the ground. Her head slams into the concrete leaving her shocked and breathless. Her vision blurs out and when she tries to move, she can't. A pressure on her chest keeps her pinned.
When she can finally see, she notices a foot pressing heavily on her breastbone. Beatrix keeps her sword at her side and an expressionless mask on her face. Nikki knows that if she can't find a way to get her off, she's done for. She tries to sit up but cries in pain as her bone starts to crack under the weight. This is it, she thinks helplessly. I've failed.
And as Mamba pulls up her sword to end the fight once and for all, the sound of a gun being cocked stops her. Nikki looks up, trying to focus to see what has saved her life for at least a few seconds, but the only thing she sees is a blur.
"Hello mother," a girl's voice speaks viciously.
Mamba's is perfectly smooth when she answers, "B.B"
"What the hell is all this?" B.B sounds exasperated and shocked.
Mamba doesn't respond. Instead, she slowly presses harder on Nikki's chest causing her to gasp and choke in pain. She isn't daring to breathe let alone answer or ask for help, if that's what Mamba is trying to get across. She wouldn't ruin this obviously heartwarming family reunion. A moment that was allowing her to keep her life just a little bit longer than she had thought.
"Well?" B.B sounds like she's throwing knives at mamba.
The pressure on her now for sure broken bones in her chest, slowly starts to ease up then hesitantly leaves all together. Nikki takes in a painful lungful of air and listens on the becoming of whether or not she gets out of here alive and fulfills her other plans.
"C'mon mom what's your excuse for killing an innocent person this time?" The word innocent almost makes Nikki laugh. Almost.
"B.B, I will never expect you to understand this life-"
"You're damn right," B.B interrupts, "Because I would never murder anyone. You are heartless. You took care of me yes and I regret every second of it. The taint in your mind, the bloodspilled by your hands will never make you worthy of living. You never even listened to me! You're so stubborn and full of yourself. Don't you see? You, of all people, are full of shit to think you are above the laws of the universe. Don't you get that?"
Nikki's vision slowly starts to clear. She sees Beatrix with her head down and a blond that looks very much like her, holding a gun to her head. Nikki meets the girl's eyes then looks at her sword lying next to her then looks expectantly back at Beatrix. When she looks back at the girl, she sees B.B nod her head once. Nikki silently and painfully gets to her feet and picks up her sword.
And as soon as her hand reaches around the snake's neck on the hilt, Mamba twists around and slashes her arm with the sword Nikki had forgotten she was still holding. Nikki collapses back to the ground, hugging her bleeding arm in her shirt when the deafening sound rings in Nikki's ears as she watches Beatrix fall to the ground with a bullet wound in her head.
"Goodbye Mother." And with that B.B pulls the trigger for a second time. Nikki looks at her, massively impressed. B.B reaches out her hand and Nikki pauses for a few minutes before taking it and getting up.
"Do you have to kill me too?" B.B asks sarcastically and walks to the porch, not waiting for an answer. She sits down where her mother had sat just an hour earlier.
Nikki stands in front of her. She thinks about it and contemplates the idea. She looks at the master sword behind her and winces. "No. In fact, today is the last time I ever kill anyone ever again." She sits down on the edge of the porch and rests her head against one of the side pillars. Facing B.B she asks, "How long have you wanted to do that?"
"Ever since she killed my father," B.B responds while putting her blond hair into a pony tail.
Nikki extends her hand, "By the way, I'm Nikki."
B.B takes it, "I'm B.B." Nikki is more than a little aware of the pain in her injured arm.
"I think we're going to be friends for a long time," She states sincerely, trying to keep her voice from being thick with the overbearing burning sting in her arm.
B.B smiles, "Friends with a murderer."
"You should be used to murderers by now."
Nikki laughs at the sound of it and B.B joins in. But in the back of Nikki's mind, she secretly hopes B.B will forgive her for lying. One more person needs to be taken care of before she can hang up the sword for good…