Chapter Five: Dear Devil, Don't Allow Fate to Steal my Soul.

It had not been a sit down with Mario that was certain. Rather the two women were brought along with Beth's corpse to a warehouse at the East docks once night fell. Local news had always portrayed the docks as crime centers but it was always the South docks getting busted for illegal imports, human trafficking, drugs and other things that put men behind bars. It was typically where bodies were dredged from the river first as well. It just meant small-time crime and non-locals were the only ones dumb enough to be caught using the Southern docks. Being at the Eastern docks just made the sense of danger elevate for Holly.

Matthew had Vinny drag the plastic-wrapped cadaver into the center of the room then stand awkwardly to the side near pallets of prewrapped Meteor brand powder cleaner. Holly recognized having the green tube product in her basement, under the kitchen sink, and in every grocery cleaning aisle she'd ever been to. Always on sale. It was a well-advertised product for every suburban household wife to own. As she was looking at it Stacey jabbed her in the ribs, "What are we doing here?" She not so subtly whispered.

Holly pushed Stacey's elbow away from her, "Why do you think I'd know?"

"I mean, you're the actual degenerate," Rude, Holly thought as Stacey continued, "I thought you like knew-knew them or something by now." The woman was shifting and fidgety, just watching her made Holly feel anxious. Yet, when her eyes drifted away and settled upon Plastic-Beth, Holly just breathed away all that building emotion. She was not going to let Stacey's nervousness give her the jitters too. If she coasted through life until now, could she just coast through this too? Fate was never kind to that ideal.

"You know, Stacey," Holly started not bothering to whisper in return. Her hand went into her pocket to run a finger over the unopened pack of cigarettes, "they'll probably wonder how either of us knew Vinny's uncle was part of the family and did this kind of work," if the other woman was listening, she didn't speak up, "when they ask me... I'm going to tell them I only knew because you bragged about it while drunk. That you fucked a mobster, telling all the sorority girls his name for clout. Do you think they'll lay you next to Beth and call your corpse fat too? I would." It felt so good to speak her mind finally to that bitch, the entire time she lived in that house Holly had been holding her tongue and pretending to give a shit about Stacey's pathetic worries over boys just to fit in. Perhaps it was a moment of former teenage defiant stupidity that Holly had given into and she thought: If she was dying tonight she was dying after seeing the look on Stacey's face at being called fat.

The blonde leered and seethed, then Holly felt it, a slap across her face, "You fucking cunt!" Holly flipped on Stacey's hysterics with ease. The woman just needed a little push and she went right over the edge, "I'll fucking kill you too!" Stacey went right for Holly's throat. Clasping her hands around the woman's neck with ferocity.

Even as Holly backed up and tried to get Vinny's help he just watched. Too scared to move from the spot he'd been. At first, Holly returned the slap with a balled fist to Stacey's face, it made little difference, then she tried slamming her foot on the blonde's shin, the grip on her neck only got tighter from the anger that pain causes. Holly's hands came up to try and pry Stacey's from her neck. The other woman's nails were digging some and her face started turning from shades of red to purple.

Just as her vision was waning towards darkness she felt Stacey squeeze a death vice before letting go. It was the sound that reached her second, a gunshot. Followed by the lifeless thud of the party girl against cold concrete. Holly could tell there was warm slick blood splattered on her face and her ears rang. Air trying desperately to rush into her lungs made her light-headed. The smell of a smoking gun too close for comfort.

"Kid, for your sake I hope what you said is true." A click of a hammer cocking back was off to her side.

Coughing, leaning one hand upon her knee and rubbing her neck with the other Holly spoke up the best she could, "Does it matter?" She spoke in a defeated tone. It was not just the shock. While her brain was still trying to decide if she was still in need of adrenaline and survival mode or not Holly had already been accepting of the assumed outcome. She looked down to Stacey's lifeless body, there was an astonishment in Stacey's still glossy blue hues and Holly could not help but stare at the hole hiding somewhat behind now red locks.

A thoughtful pause from the man beside her, "I think it does." And she felt the gun to her temple, "If you feel like keeping your life tonight."

"It's true. Ask Vinny," she gave another short single cough to clear the feeling from her throat, "Fucked him and his uncle in the same night on the same bed, at the same time, so the rumor goes." Holly might not have thought much about her life as a whole, but, she still feared the unknown of death's embrace. She played tough girl when dealing with Stacey be that as it may she was about to vomit on the floor at the thought of a bullet through her own skull.

The gun stayed for a moment too long but was lowered, "For fuck sake Matthew, what am I gonna tell Gina?" The gun clicked and no bullet passed between her temples, then it was tucked into the man's chest side holster.

"I... I'm sorry boss, Gina already knows too." Matthew sheepishly held out his hands like there was nothing else to say.

"Yeah but now I gotta tell her why you're on vacation without her." Holly watched as the speaking man stepped from her side and waved at two other men in the warehouse, they grabbed Matthew then started dragging him off. The man called Boss put his head in his hand and was silent for a couple of moments rubbing his forehead before gesturing out that hand towards Vinny, "Jesus, kid. I already knew Matthew fucked some college bimbo but you too... At the same time?" He expressed his disgust in his voice and the way his face wrinkled. He looked down to Stacey thoughtfully, "...Actually, Vinny you're goin' to break the news to your aunt. And no more fuckin whores, you got that school on my own bloods dime, don't waste it." He gave the boy a serious tone but almost sarcastic pout with several nods of his head, "And you," the playful pouting was replaced by a playful but venomous irritation, "Who the fuck are you again?" His hand came up now gesturing at Holly.

"Holly," she spoke through the lump of dull pain in her neck, shifting back upright when her stomach felt ready for the movement and she jutted her thumb towards Vinny, "I tutor Vinny."

"Do you tutor him or do you 'tutor him'?" He spoke the second one with a faux sexual tone and air quotes.

Dryly she spoke before she thought, "I wouldn't fuck him even if he paid me. No offense Vinny, you're not my type." Her hand rubbed at the base of her throat more trying to push the feeling of Stacey's hands out of her mind.

"Woah, that was harsh. He's a good kid you know. But I don't blame you after hearin' a rumor like that," This man was an average-looking fellow. Older than middle-aged, long since grey with a small bald spot forming on top, and wore a fairly nice suit. The plaid pattern looked like one might find on a rug though. He had certain stress lines on his face from age and likely the work that came with being called Boss by other lowlifes, "So listen. Holly. It's not that I don't like you, you seem like a real nice gal. But. It's already been a really long day," he put emphasis on it being a long day, "I just shot the woman I was paying someone else to tactfully scare into silence and now I've got two bodies. It's not really a big deal if I make a third at this point. So. You gonna pay for this..." he waved his hand down at the plastic wrapped Beth then gesturing at the body near her feet, "unscheduled cleanup, or am I cutting more loses tonight?"

Holly thought about Jonathan, what would she say if it was him asking? She'd just give him the bird or punch him in the nose honestly. No, instead she could not coast through this. Holly had to say something, blunt truth came out, "I'm a broke college student, there's no money to extort. Stacey," she nudged the party girl with her foot, "was the checkbook... Will you take favors or debt I can make payments to instead?" Obvious pained sounds while she spoke from her bruising esophagus.

"... Are ya stupid or something?" His voice held the same irritation and added disbelief.

Without missing a beat, "Maybe. I'm not sure how gangs work, to be honest, but I figure three bodies would mean three times the risk. Since I'd like to keep breathing it's the best I can offer to repay you with. Eternal servitude if need be; manual labor, your taxes, I stop at being pimped out." She was selling her soul to the Dear Devil on autopilot.

The audacity to make negotiations. He just stared for a long time then laughed once, "Vinny, what's this gal teach ya?" With Holly none the wiser, he watched as she was pulling back tears not just from the purple blooming on her neck but likely the raw fear of death he'd just instilled into her. Too many kids did not understand what desperation felt like these days, a lot of them broke after put under the pressure when faced with their demise. Most cried, others yelled in anger, it was few that bargained and less that actually tried to bargain within their able means. It was her gusto that made him laugh, and as it came down to it he really did not enjoy shooting kids.

"Math... sir." The young man refused to look up.

"Math, that right." It was a mused comment. One that Vinny just nodded to confirm, "What is it exactly you're learning girl?"

She gave another clear of her throat, nothing actually there besides the swelling, "Accounting."

With the way the silence hung in the air she was mentally preparing to have her head cleared of racing thoughts the same way Stacey had. Quickly. Her hands were trembling by her sides, just the fear of hearing that gun click again was making her physically sweat.

"Come here." She did not think twice about following him further into the warehouse if it meant living another second to a few minutes.

They went up to the second floor and entered a dingy little office full of file cabinets, folders literally on every surface, and paperwork that looked like it was overflowing. One older gentleman sat at the desk looking like he had not slept in years and could have played the part of the grim reaper in a film. He had been working in a large book with yellow pages and only had a single desk lamp on for light, "I'd appreciate you not spilling blood in this particular warehouse, Vincent, I'm already swamped due to the last inci...dent." His languid voice trailed out the last word as he spied Holly enter in behind the man with the plaid suit.

Vincent sucked through his teeth in a sarcastic way, "Ooo, sorry. You know my temper sometimes, just slips away from me in my growin' years, too many punks raising that blood pressure you know," his voice then changed to more of a businessman and he spoke far more respectfully than she'd yet to hear, "I've got something for you." He sidestepped out of the way, "She's pretty smart soundin' and has a debt to pay." The way he said 'smart' felt like an insult. His head nodded a few times and it was like he was presenting her before a lion.

Holly stood there as a deer in headlights. Eventually, she raised her arm with a small wave.

The man at the desk seemed unimpressed. A long audible sigh came from him, "What's your name?" He could care less, Holly thought. His evident apathy in that aspect eased the awkward feeling for her.

"Holly."
"Holly what?"
"Kingsley."

"Miss Kingsley," He sat back from his work, adjusted the light, and beckoned her around to his side of the desk with a gesture of his hand, "What's wrong with this ledger?"

She treaded as carefully as her wobbly legs would let her barely missing a box of folders by an inch she stepped around to the other side of the desk. The ledger was written in clean penmanship, with values lining up with dates and times. A single word at the top: Meteor. It was an audit trail likely for the warehouse's main product. Her trembling hand reached down and touched the page silently asking to flip it over, no one spoke up to stop her so she did and she read through it then flipped back to the first page. Her hands were still for a moment until she willed them to move again. Nothing jerky nor outrageously obvious but the two men likely saw.

Her heart was still pounding and it made thinking clearly a challenge. It was not instantly that she noticed, a few minutes passed for this test, but when she saw it, she coughed to clear her hurting throat, "Unless you actually charge a dollar and some change for one bottle of Meteor, taking a nearly ten to twelve percent loss on purpose, you're under-declaring the value, which is tax evasion."

The man at the desk shifted the ledger from her hands and closed it, "She'll do."

"Great all settled then," Vincent waved a hand as he moved to leave, "Holly, was it?" She nodded but he hardly waited for her to, "you now work for Mister Haas. He says jump, you do it. Sorry for the quick departure August, kids are expecting Grandpa to be there for dinner. Oh," he paused turning his head over his shoulder, "one more thing. It might be wise to figure out how 'gangs' work. Cause we ain't one," he gave a wink, "Later kid."

Well. Fuck.