Chapter 13: The Sorrow
A/N: Crazy a fast update? Yeah I had a bug and this chapter was already ready to be written before the last one.
Two months Later…
She was in a bar, on her day off. Having taken Gohan to daycare, she just needed an escape. To drown her sorrows away in cheap beer for a few hours. Forget about how she felt, who she was. Becoming Mallory Raven was the worst thing to happen to her.
And yes this was comparing even this to becoming Kakarot's pawn.
Trying to get in contact with anyone was impossible, the detectives that were assigned to Kakarot were 'unavailable' and Dr. Fairweather was currently in North City and could only be reached upon her return from her duties there and the prosecutor's office had deferred her calls for several weeks.
They don't care… She lamented her finger playing with the empty glass in front of her head which was resting across her arm.
Her boss Travis continually exploited her, though he never did any sexual acts she was roughly used to certain points. Posing for nudes, private lap dances with the worst clientele and other duties that made her sick with disgust.
The snobbish bitches at the daycare did raise her rates, forcing Mallory to take another side job as a hostess for the bar next door. She would go after putting Gohan to bed, with or without him crying, or she had to leave him alone. Cutting into an already draining work schedule and lack of sleep even further. But did they care? She worked two jobs to support herself and child, still they treated her with disdain like a flea ridden mut.
Nothing though compared to the shit that her PO put her through, Knolls was corrupt as they came and with her doctored files and background she was nothing more than a guinea pig to be played around with. Where she lived, worked, ate and moved about was controlled by the sick bastard.
Unlike the others he had a loaded gun to her head, putting her back in prison and stripping away her son. It was her only weakness, her child… Her baby boy was the only thing keeping her from acting out. No doubt he was aware of that fact and considering her situation she would be hard pressed to make any kind of escape. She would take prison, she would take abuse, but she could never let Gohan slip away from her.
Gohan was the only thing that mattered right now, no one would love and care for him like needed. There wasn't another person who knew that her baby was half alien and half human despite appearing normal to everyone else save his tail. It would turn her child into a leper and no doubt ruin whatever future he could have.
He didn't deserve what happened to him, because his mother was young, foolish, and weak. How she wanted to cry right now, instead she just looked at her glass. Ready to drown her sorrows for another couple hours.
…
"Excuse me miss." Someone asked behind her, "But I have certain clients that I am meeting here for work. I need you to move."
Work?
"Your standard collection? Removal? Or Cleaner job?" She replied not even looking back at him still playing with her glass.
The man behind her was taken back clearly as he had obviously not expected that reply from a woman sitting at a bar. Wondering if perhaps she was the client he had asked for or something else? "You seem to be informed in certain things Miss. So who are you?"
Mallory watched him take a seat beside her, a slightly rounder framed man with a head barren of hair. A black suit jacket covered his brown dockers and leather shoes. Taking an order from the bar he looked towards her with some expectation of an answer.
"Call me a former Maid." She admitted having already been able to peg this man for what he was. "From the Kold Galaxy." She added watching his jaw go slack for a moment. The ripple of surprise was evident across his eyes and the way his entire body seemed to freeze.
"I see, so why are you here? Our little backwater world doesn't house anything of merit." Curiosity had him, doubting highly that this woman was some undercover or a rat.
"Early retirement." She sighed her head still on her arm. Reaching down she pulled up and showed off the device on her leg. It was her shackled weight that was nearly impossible to remove.
Her guest looked at it and a smile spread over his lips. "Then perhaps… we could reach some kind of agreement then Miss, I know exactly what that is and what it does."
No doubt a favor for a favor, remove the device and owe him in return.
She shook her head, "I can't sorry."
"Oh? I'd be able to get you in contact with someone who would remove that from you for a modest fee."
He offered turning more towards her as he talked.
"Removing it? That's not the problem… I have a child and a record that wouldn't allow me any freedom."
"A child? Surprising most women wouldn't have children in this profession. I would assume you would do what most would." He added taking his drink from the bartender and bringing it up to his lips for a quick swig.
Mallory looked up at him. "What? Murder their own baby? Take the only life that we make and extinguish it as if it were a cigarette." The very thought disgusted her, that any woman would do that to a child that they cared about.
"Well the alternatives Miss." Setting down his glass he pulled out a phone from his jacket and set it on atop the bar. "Im certain if what you're saying is true, no doubt your current life isn't offering you everything you need?" the way he asked her the question alone told her that he knew the answer to that already.
"I can't be found. Being alive as it is will put a mark over my head." Meaning she would be dead if found by the wrong people without a question asked.
The man stroked his chin for a moment, "I'd be more than willing to offer you a job, if you're as talented as you claim though I might entirely believe you yet. I have a very good feeling that you are what you say you are. I have a transport to West City where some family members need some a new professional."
She still shook her head, "They would know, it wouldn't be hard to put two and two together."
"Of course Miss. But if you have the skills you claim it would be a shame to waste them here, to throw your life away because some politician demanded it." He pushed a little harder, he saw an opportunity in her, his hand resting atop his knee looking at her with more intrigue.
"I won't abandon my child…" She told him looking at him, "I will walk through hell to keep him safe."
Her new friend shook his head. "Safe sure, but you are aware of how this world works, do you really want your infant to be taken advantage of like you?"
Mallory sat upright in her seat. "I've endured worse." Her brown eyes staring into his hazel ones.
"Many women wish that their children wouldn't have to go through such hardships, to suffer like they did and how long do you think it will be until this life you live will take him from you? Maybe not today or tomorrow. One day you might wake up and they are gone because of some vice? Your drink, your job, or whatnot?"
"That won't happen, I love-"
"Then do the right thing, because the ones we love we end up hurting the most. Truly if you are going to want to do what is best then you should do what needs to be done. Isn't that right Miss?"
…
It was later that night, the rain from an oncoming storm was currently pouring downwards. The heavy buckets kept a constant downpour outside not allowing sounds to escape from the storm. Yet here she stood over her son's crib.
Her sweet child, her world was currently sedated. As his mother she didn't want to see him suffer, she didn't want him to feel any pain.
A heavy sharp knife was in her right hand, clenched in her fingers that were trembling. She didn't want to do this.
But I have too. If I don't you'll suffer more, because I failed you and I won't let you live like this anymore.
She leaned over and kissed his forehead, ignoring the tears at the sides of her eyes. "God's forgive me, don't let my son suffer for what his foolish mother is about to do." She drew back enough and laid him on his stomach, not willing to look down into his face as she was going to do something that could never be taken back. "I love you Gohan. Mommy will always love you." She whispered as she drew the knife up.
Tears streamed down her face, but she had to do this.
For him, and for her.
The heavy rain crackled and thundered as the heavy blow came but not a sound escaped the four month old, they never felt a thing.
She made her way inside of her room, blood was on both of her hands as she had left the mess in the other room. There was so much blood. The sight before had never unnerved her before until tonight.
As she tossed a nearly empty container on the bed The clatter of metal and tin as it hit gave her no satisfaction of it breaking. Coming to the side of her bed, she would purge this place of all the pain it had caused her.
Knocking the metal red can off the bed and back to the floor letting the petroleum gas spill over and fill the room up with the odor of gasoline.
Falling backwards, the mother looked up at the ceiling. I will be free...
…
The loud whir of sirens and the flashing of white, red, and blue came at once as tenants in nearby buildings all around flocked outside in the rain to avoid the raging inferno erupting from a small apartment room. The rain having little impact on the flames that continued to snap and burn unabated by something like water.
Several engines rolled up on scene their crews dismounting from the rig with a small splash as their heavy boots jumped into the puddles running towards the sewer drains. The chief shouting and pointing to his men as several lines were connected in a few minutes.
"Is there anyone still inside?" He shouted too some of the witnesses but the clamour and shouting of the crowd did not allow him to hear a real answer.
"Is there anyone still in that damn building!" His voice rising higher as he pointed towards the burning firestorm.
The landlord pushed through and got to the chief. "A woman and her child live there but I have-" He was cut off as an explosion ripped from the section of the blaze sending bricks and debris outwards.
The police arrived just as the explosion came into effect and quickly officers ushered everyone away from the scene. "Get back! You have to get back now!" They shouted waving their flashlights alongside exaggerated hand gestures as those around complied if not outright bolted from the explosion.
Teams of firefighters set up around the building and began to douse it with water. But this fiery menace refused to be contained as the water was rebuked with another pulse and jet of flame.
"Shit-! Pull the boys back!"
"We got it. It's just-" As the firefighters tried to push closer to began putting water from another floor down another explosion burst outwards sending an entire hose crew flying into the street nearly six feet from where they were once standing. The heavy hose they were operating began to whip about uncontrollably as its holders were no where to stop it.
"Damit turn number two off now!" His voice cutting through his shield down to his radio.
A man holding the hydrant with a heavy wrench strained as he pulled back on the shutoff. The rush of water stopped instantly.
Other crews working their lines pulled back as fire control shifted to rescue and medical as they came to pick up their injured brethren and drag them to safety.
As the fire chief watched the flames from behind his shield already he knew that something was wrong. This wasn't a normal fire, they didn't explode like that… This had to have been planned. Turning to his next acting incident commander, "Get the buildings nearby prepped for fire control. This one is going to have to burn itself out for awhile. Property damage and control is our priority.
Without a word the orders began to be divided up. Police pushing back the crowds, redirecting a bus that had come for its midnight passengers towards West City as the rest of the street was locked down tight.
It wasn't until the next morning that the fire burned itself out. The apartment had been all but engulfed in flames, as the rest of the building had been charred but nothing like the source of the blaze had been. Several arson detectives were already sifting through the ash and dust.
Still in their heavy suits as a layer of precaution one waved towards the others. "I think I found our victims." He said with a shake of his head. The bedroom had been a major hot spot, but primarily around the windows and doorway. No one was supposed to get in or out of this place and clearly the two blackened bodies were evidence of that.
"What do you have Trevino?"
"Two, one female, the other a child." Noting the hip shape and body structure to be more feminine and the way the bones were set around a smaller body as if to protect it told him this was a mother and child.
"The occupants, Mallory Raven and her son Gohan." The other detective said having the occupants names written down from the landlords ledger. "Mother was on work release from prison, she had some felonies dropped in exchange for some cooperation for testimony."
Trevino shook his head, "Find out who her PO was." Moving around to get a better look through his mask as with his oxygen tank still atop him as he came closer towards the remains of the two bodies. Noting a single injury squarely in the skull of the female along with her teeth being smashed out. "Guess it was just a smash and burn. Clearly whoever was supposed to be keeping her low key failed."
"What's that?" Another detective noted his poker moving a dull charred object by the woman's left thigh.
"One of those restrictor things for those energy users or what you call it?"
The other two looked at it and shrugged. "Could be… but we have to do our job first." Drawing out a large black body bag to transport the two remains together. The three detectives moved the wireframe into the bag in its current state keeping the bones intact as they zipped close the black body bag and carried it down to be analyzed by a corner.
The trace amounts of DNA was there from the child, as brown hair samples collected were matched to an old DNA swab from the birth of the young child a few months. A nameless boy, only after his release from the hospital got his official name, but that one was never officially recorded.
"Oh man… How did they find her?" Yamcha's distress in his voice as to what had transpired was evident as he looked over the report in his hands.
"Whose job was supposed to be watching over her? Because this is garbage. I mean there's no reference contacts and we don't get any phone calls?" Tien grumbled as he sat at his desk seeing the log reports. "There's fifteen drug request samples, and her PO has her listed as working as a waitress at a business that closed down a year ago and no one has any memory of her being at the locations she was supposed to be?"
"I contacted a local detective and it was said she was working as a stripper. Some run down shanty and there weren't any good reports about how they were treating her there." Chaotzu added. "I don't even see her having contact with any psychologist. So either there's a missing file here Tien, or her PO has some major explanations beca-"
The door to their office was kicked open as Krillin stormed inside, "I can't believe this! The black maid is fucking murdered and the brass in charge of a whole division can't give me a single straight fucking answer."
He was furious, his biggest break and perhaps the most significant achievement in his career had been wasted. "We had Mrs. Black, she would have provided more intel and knowledge with time but now we have nothing. I swear that i'm going to see heads roll for this."
"I'm amazed how they found her, I mean really she had so few contacts to just be killed off so quickly and violently." Yamcha said looking through the pictures of the crime scene. "Think it was Kakarot?"
Krillin shook his head as he dug for a cigarette and went to find his coffee. "Kakarot wouldn't have made it so obvious, this was a message and a very clear one."
"There were a lot of injuries to her, the kid must've died quickly as he only has a single heavy injury along their spine."
"Damnit, how could this have been such a screw up." He found his chair as he had his holo screen showing him all of the photographs. "There's nothing but a few cans as the accelerate and traces of white phosphorus to prevent entry."
"Do we have any logs about ki users in the area?" Chaotzu asked looking to Tien who shrugged.
"Not likely, that ki restrictor had a log on it and there weren't any significant spikes around it. So they probably found her, overpowered her and killed her."
"I just want to know why, even if she had ratted them out, why didn't they just take her and find out what she had done. No doubt Kakarot would've paid a bounty on their return to do the job himself for his reputation."
Krillin didn't know the answer to that million dollar question, though as unfortunate as this information was there were only more questions to be answered. Yet some answers were simply too easy to be overlooked.
…
That night as the bus loaded up its passengers, others simply didn't notice or were too drawn in by the sight of the flames. A figure walked on board the bus to West City, the small droplets of blood unseen as they went to the back of the bus. A heavy limp was evident but who could tell with the roaring inferno just a block away.
Sitting at the back of the bus holding blood covered rags was Chi-Chi Mao, not the pathetic Mallory Raven. Gohan was still heavily sedated, after his mother had chopped off his tail and leaving it behind at the scene.
Chi-Chi had found a young woman coming home from work, she hadn't thought twice about her actions and stabbed her squarely in the forehead. Sneaking the body behind the fire, escape and then carrying it up during the storm.
The babe she had used to replace Gohan was nothing more than a paycheck to its mother, half dead from maltreatment Chi-Chi had used its life for something greater and ended its quickly and quietly. The stage had been set for her escape after mutilating the woman's teeth and any chance of dental records linked back to her. The fire would leave irreparable damage to make any match. Gohan's tail though would be the only thing to survive having left just enough of a trace to survive and leave no doubt that it was the two of them in that blaze.
Though the only thing that held her back from escaping easily was the ki restraint anklet but there had been a way...
Remembering how she had grabbed a large wooden spatula from the other room she placed it between her teeth.
Looking down at her anklet, it couldn't be removed by breaking the seal, or disabling it. It couldn't be slipped down and over her foot as the material couldn't extend beyond a certain point like a heel. The genius in its design was also why she had been caged so thoroughly.
Yet there were ways, very painful ways… to escape it.
Taking a full breath she asked herself for strength as she sat her foot over her knee before biting down hard on the spatula in her mouth.
The price of her escape would be heavy but she would endure it.
Almost twenty minutes later Chi-Chi stumbled awkwardly trying to balance herself on one foot. She didn't have time to waste, even with the ki restraint gone she now had minutes until someone came knocking to find out why the signal that leeched and generated its signal was now off. She had broken her own foot and then reset the bones allowing the anklet to slide down and onto the dead woman's leg. No one would question its location after the fire.
She had set small incendiary bombs throughout the apartment as she grabbed Gohan and set the blaze on her way down the fire escape. Stumbling to make it across the block and to where the nighttime bus would come to pick up passengers on work programs to west city was the only thing out of her control but it was a small gamble as she had gotten on without a look edgewise.
The contact she had met at the bar would set her up in west city and in exchange she would perform a job for them in a week once she recovered. She had become CC, a foreign born entrepreneur with ties to travels and world studies.
A simple fake I.D. Records, along with Gohan's new records. As she had never given him a name in the hospital and had never registered him with any agency save his footprints upon his birth, but the doctored ones that had been made would be a suitable substitute.
Chi-Chi would tend to her baby when he woke up. No doubt he would be in pain, but that pain would be nothing compared to what would've happened had she continued down the path she had before her.
I am the Black Maid and that will never change. I might've been human at one point in my life but I am not that anymore. I am a killer and I will use my talents to get what I want. I will not allow anything to interfere with that goal and once I am content I will return to seek my revenge.
Afterall Mrs. Black does not forgive or forget.
A cruel smile spread over her lips though none could see it with her hood covering her head.
"I'm back."
R&R
Kerghan
