Mending Wounds
Time
Day 2~ Night
Location
Cedarvale Apartment Complex 006 apartment -Entertainment District, Ominar
Masha huffed a little bit from her spot under the headless corpse. This was not at all how she liked her night to go. As she looked around and shimmed some, she noticed that the little kitty who’d come to her rescue first was no longer in the room. “Kitty cat?” she asked, blinking some as she managed to shove Simone’s shoulders down enough to at least sit up. “Nikki?” she had kind of forgotten about the girl in the scuffle.
“Here,” Nikki groaned, her hands released her head and gradually pulled up from her crouched down position. She wasn’t one for being shot should the brute of a wolf decided to take another pot shot, “Thankfully I wasn’t shot in the process. As grateful as I am, who the fuck are you two and how the hell did you find my apartment?”
She studied Afua -the woman leaned against the wall of the hallway behind Rex-, the undead lion and the behemoth of a wolf still holding a smoking gun while she made her way to help Masha out from under the corpse. It was disgusting, the blood smeared across her floor and the figure made an unnatural shift in weight when she wrapped up pushing it the rest of the way off.
Rex spun the revolver in his hand and holstered it, squeezing himself through the door and into the tiny hallway. He put his hand to his ear and spoke seemingly to himself. “Phoenix, this is Central. Sitrep?” He paused as he listed to the static response in his ear piece.
“Copy that, good work. Cuff him and rendezvous at extraction…” He let go of his ear and inspected the scene. “We work for Masha, little lady. She's also your new boss.”
Masha let out a little sigh of relief at being helped out. She could have done it herself, but she was not known for her strength and moving 100 plus pounds of literally dead weight was not easy for her. She was even relieved to see that Nikki was fine as well. When Rex spoke though, she shot him a look that said she was about to do to him what he’d just done to Simone. “Gee thanks for that,” she said sarcastically, getting up to her feet a little wobbly and wincing in pain at the movement of her burned shoulder. “Was trying to keep that on the down low and all. But I guess you’re just gonna let the cat out of the bag, idiot.”
Her look glanced out to Afua in the hallway, and then back to Nikki as she offered her a small smile. “I’m sorry about this…” she gestured at the mess of her kitchen and went on “this mess.”
“Cortez already knew. He's a paranoid man.” Rex responded, ignoring the woman’s insult. “A woman asking a lot of questions and checking the place out was pretty obvious for him.”
“Fucking Christ. Part of me wants to scream and shout for you to get out of here, but I'm likely to get fired because of it,” Nikki admitted as her heart gradually stopped trying to kill her with high speeds, her figure rose and surveyed the destruction. The table was broken, blood smeared across the floor and worse turned her once quaint apartment into a crime scene, "I can't get this cleaned up before my boy comes home... He's going to freak. What happens if this gets out, child welfare services will take him away from me."
Finally recovered, Afua focused on her gem and returned the undead lion back to her choker. With a bit of wobbly step, she glided past Rex into the small kitchen with the other women. Her eyes looked at Rex as she spoke, her finger out and pokes the bear wolf's chest, “I am not fond about the experience of being shot. Warn me before you shoot again, that way I can cancel the spell connection. Personally, I prefer you not be shooting them at all."
As Afua twisted about, her eyes caught the shredded remains of the cat's corpse. She leaned down to examine it and tried to raise it up once more. The corpse didn't moved as the second cat darted in, paused briefly to hiss at Rex and skirted over to Afua's leg side to wait.
Rex huffed, ignoring Mr. Cain’s subordinate. “Phoenix, this is Central…” Rex spoke into his ear piece again. “Call in the cleaners, and send two of you up here to keep watch on the apartment incase a child comes by. Tell him to wait in the lobby if his mom is too late to make it downstairs.” The wolf turned to the woman and spoke. “Get dressed fast, and wait for your son in the lobby. We’ll clean up the mess and let you know once the place is spic-n-span.” With that, Rex turned around and left the apartment, his feet stomping down the hall.
“He’s at a friend’s house, I’m not worried about him coming home until around ten am tomorrow,” Nikki shouted at Rex’s retreating back, making sure he heard her. She turned then mumbled, “Asshole…”
Nikki huffed as she turned toward Masha, “Please tell me I don’t have to work with him, he’s a bit of a grump and jerk.”
Afua didn’t expect an answer which is why she had continued to the corpse and didn’t wait for an answer, however she was serious about the forewarning. Her magic had a price. Her lungs coughed a bit as her hand raised toward her mouth, wetness bled across it causing her to pull it back and examine the red fluid popping against her dark chocolate skin. She tsked then wiped it away on her pants to hide the evidence.
Masha continued to look at Rex like he was as stupid as he was acting. She was used to be treated with insensitive, she treated most people with it herself. But she also knew when not to be a bag of dicks as well. “I am so not putting my dress on while covered in someone's brains if you don't mind,” she huffed, pulling a chunk of said brain matter out of her hair and tossing it to the floor.
Rolling her eyes some, she looked back to Nikki and put her hand on her shoulder. “You can come back to my hotel and get cleaned up well there and if you like, you can stay there with the kid too, make a day of it or whatever.” She didn't know kids liked to do anymore and she knew for certain that she'd not even remotely had a normal childhood. “As for working with him...well we can try and avoid it.”
“That’s a relief,” Nikki said then looked at Masha, “I hope you’re not going out naked and I might have an older bathrobe somewhere you can put on.”
She shifted into the bathroom and began to rummage for things, gradually tossing what she didn’t onto the floor and continued speaking, “As for Johnny, he’s happy with a bunch of crayons and paper. My boy likes to draw like you wouldn’t believe.”
After a few moments, she came out with a slightly worn but still in good condition bathrobe. She handed it off to Masha where it covered to about the middle of the woman’s legs giving her enough public modesty for going out into the car.
Afua was currently cleaning up the bits and pieces of the cat. She looked a bit discouraged by the carnage left in the wake, namely that very few pieces were able to be salvage and reformed to another ‘pet’ that needed it. The weapon was certainly effective as she eyed Simone’s corpse like a buyer would parts for a car.
“I don’t mind going naked,” Masha said with a laugh, but she didn’t stop Nikki from going either. Instead just finished pulling what she could out of her hair for the time being, watching Afua with her brief mourning over her cat and the way she looked at Simone like he was nothing more than parts that she could take and use for something else. She hissed slightly every time she lifted her right arm up though as it pulled against the burned flesh there. “Fuck me,” she sighed. “This is not going to leave a nice look to it.”
Taking the robe from Nikki with a thankful little smile, she spoke to Afua. “I’m sorry about your cat,” she said with actual sincerity. “Thank you for sending her to help.”
“She was one of the older ones. One of my first,” Afua said, then nodded her head before she considered asking something, “Would it be hard to ask if I could use the parts of that thing for one of my projects? Considering it be his fault she was murdered, it be only fitting.”
After Masha answered, she then introduced herself, “I be Afua Sane. I work under the baas, Darius, whom you’ve met. He asked me to keep tabs on you as he had a suspicion you would be getting into trouble.”
She held out her hand for Masha to shake.
Masha laughed as she carefully pulled on the robe. “I don’t care what you do with him,” she said. “Least he can be a little helpful.” Once the robe was on she took her outstretched hand and shook it. “Well I’m not pleased that he thought I couldn’t handle myself, but I am thankful you were here.”
“He only told me to involve myself if you looked like you were about to be killed. Considering you be treading water you know little about, or experienced before, trouble be most of what you attract,” Afua leaned down to reach for her cat, the newer corpse purred erratically like a broken toy, as she calmly petted it. Her brown eyes turned toward Masha, “It wasn’t until you were at risk at being… soiled, did that change. I don’t think you would’ve liked his intentions at all.”
She raised up a dark eyebrow at the insinuation that she was in over her head. She didn’t like to think that Darius thought so little of her that he would end someone to follow her around. Arguably, if Nikki hadn’t been one to waggle her tongue so much then they probably wouldn’t have been in trouble like this. So it really wasn’t her fault, and it wasn’t because she didn’t know what she was doing. “Well,” she said, her tone heavily annoyed, but not at Afua. “Thank you, regardless. We should probably get out their way though, and I need to see to this nasty burn before infection starts.”
“Sit on the chair and let me take a look at it,” Afua asked as she let her cat fall from the perch it rested in, a yowl of irritation which melted into affectionate nuzzling across Masha’s calf. A need for attention as echos of its former life rang through it causing some personality traits to linger and mimic true life.
Afua turned her back to Masha and reached into a pouch on her belt before she pulled out a leathery looking patch. It was about a few inches wide and long, seemingly able to fit on her shoulder or large area of skin. On closer inspection, it appeared to be dried, preserved human skin.
Masha raised a dubious eyebrow but did as she was told, picking up a chair and setting it upright before sitting herself down, pulling the robe off her shoulder as Afua pulled out something from her belt pouch. “Interesting,” she said with a soft hum, not at all bothered by the idea that she was going to be patched up with someone else’s flesh. She reached her uninjured hand down to run fingers along the back of the little kitty that was rubbing against her absentmindedly. She couldn’t bring her own kitties with her, so she was certainly missing her own furry pets.
“It seems Udo likes you, but I’m surprised you aren’t turned off by his deadness,” Afua commented as she pressed the skin to Masha’s, then inhaled and focused her Vis into it. Her hands glowed a swirling putrid purple that spreaded along the mage’s skin and seemed to draw in her own Vis into accepting the flesh as her own. Gradually the color shifted from the putrid purple to a maroon color that represented Masha well then faded, Afua’s eyes opened when done to reveal how tired she had become from casting spell after spell.
Impatient, Udo leapt upon Masha’s lap and kneaded a bit while he settled into position. His eyes closed to enjoy the warmth of the flesh before he curled into a ball. Afua, noticing it, smirked at the kitty being what he was best: a lazy bum.
“Seems he’s very fond of you, would you like to keep him?” The woman asked politely.
She shrugged a little and regretted it as she did so. “I am no stranger to dead things,” she said with a little smile up at her, watching the shifting colors and the way things started to feel better, even if only a little bit. She looked down at the little cat, running fingers against his ears softly. Or what was there of them. At the offer to keep him, she lit up. “Oh yes please, I had to leave mine behind.”
“Considering I can’t protect you twenty-four seven, it would be suitable. I doubt that will be the last attempt on your life as Mr. Cortes doesn’t take kindly to being demoted,” Afua hinted to what was coming up. As Rex’s men entered, likely the cleaners, she indicated she wanted the corpse for later causing them to wrap it and store it somewhere for the time until she could pick it up. Likely Afua would need Darius to send a refrigeration truck on its way back to the factory where she would transport it to her graveyard homestead. Until then, it was safe and would keep until she was ready.
Afua gestured for the three of them to leave as the cleaners continued to sterilize and make the evidence vanish before their eyes.
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