Dark Leather

\"You needn\'t worry, she\'s a good girl, she won\'t say anything to anyone.\"

Celest says, looking over at Ilana who in turn looks down at the ground. Their
really wasn\'t much of an option for Ilana either way, where ever she went any more
Celest was right there. Her words sparked memories in him, his Master used the
phrase \'good girl\' to address his closest servents. Peter had died nearly four years
but instead of dwelling in torment for the rest of all eternity, he had been sent to
watch over Celest, he thought for sure he\'d lost her the day she\'d been kidnapped,
but she\'d known she was truely her father\'s daughter and had risen from the ashes,
so to speak.

What hadn\'t been planned was for him to become an active roll in her life, but
even that accident had been turned to good and he\'d had the chance to train her so
that she might be able to protect herself when it came time to face her destiny. She
is meant for great things, Ilana as well, being her servent, for the servent shares the
master\'s fate after all.

\"Alright, then I guess we should get down to business then.\"

\"I\'m ready.\"

Celest leads Ilana further into the room, over to a table that Peter points to,
on the table is a yellow shipping package, and paper lay skattered across the table
with pictures of a balding man in his mid-fourty\'s, early fifties, well dressed with a
look to his face that only a hard life brings.

\"This is Harry Johns, seems he made his business partners upset by
\'borrowing\' some of their funds. Now, they don\'t care if they get it back, they\'ve got
plenty, but that\'s not the principal of it, they want him dead and they want him to see
it coming, they want to know that when he dies it\'s because he crossed them.\"


Taking a bus they travel across the state, to their destination, Peter usually
never takes a job that\'s out of state, not that he would need to go further then that for
good jobs, the people seem to be coming from every direction that need \'jobs\'
done. The ride lasted over an hour and before they left the bus station he made
sure that the girls would be able to get back, when they decided to leave, from their
they rented a car under a fake I.D., he\'s used so many names since Celest has
known him that she\'s for certain Peter isn\'t his real name.

The car ride was more tiring then long, the buildings that they passed all
looked the same, large white houses owned by people who actually pay hundreds of
dollars to eat fish eggs and seafood. They drove until the perfect white houses with
their perfectly manicured lawns faded into a bad dream and their was only forest to
either side, the sight of which cheered up all concerned. Finally they stop, pull off
into the side of the road, and get out. Peter doesn\'t say anything, just starts walking
down the road though they barely go a foot when they stop and stare in amazement
at a castle.

It wasn\'t necessarily a castle, though it\'s three stories covered in windows
and painted off white/light tan, stone pillars like the Romans once used held up the
roof over the doorway, the lawn wasn\'t just well manicured it was kept by an artist,
stone statues were set about the yard in tasteful positions, a small water fountain
stood next to the concret walkway, bushes ran about the yard as well, cut to form
shapes, anything from a rearing horse to children playing. They approached in from
the side which afforded them with a rear view of the house as well as a frontal view.
The backyard was the same amazing site.

They moved to the back and crouched behide a large bush just outside of
view, Peter turned to Celest and she nodded and made her way towards the house.
He watched carefully as she moved forward, she\'d just gotten to the side of the
house when the door to the porch opened and portly sized man moves towards a
desk and sits down, he matched the picture exactually, this was Mr. Johns.
They watched from the back porch door as Mr. Johns sits at his desk,
working hard, all his concintration was now on his paper\'s, Celest was somewhere
in the house, making her way towards him. The room was simple but elegant with a
large dark wood desk and high back leather chair, a coffee table sits in the center of
the room, three burgandy chairs surround it. The walls are painted off white and the
carpet is deep purple, almost an eggplant color. The large glass doors that they
watch through lead out to a good sized porch that has several wicker chairs in which
to watch the sunset, or sunrise. The whole scene looked like something out of a
serenity calender, not a place for a murder to take place.

When Celest walks into the room Peter pulls Ilana closer, giving her a good
view of what\'s going on, he wanted her to see this, wanted her to be clear just what
Celest was capable of, he knew that that\'s why she\'d brought her here, to give her
something to truely fear, and what more could make you afraid then to watch
someone kill another merely for money.

Ilana watched, her breath caught in her throat, she knew what was going to
happen, her whole body goes cold as she watches Celest walk up to the guy, he
glances up, startled by the sound of a stranger\'s voice. He speaks to Celest but she
silences him and speaks herself, most likely explaining why she\'s there, as she talks
she pulls the gun out into his eye sight, his face goes pale and you can tell he tries to
plead with her.

You could hear her laughter even from where they stood, it was loud and
cold, chilling the bones, both Ilana and Peter shiver, their eyes locked on the scene
unfolding before them. Celest brought the gun up higher, aiming for the man\'s head,
and he just sat their, too afraid to move, too scared to try and run. You couldn\'t hear
the gun being fired, a silencer on it, but you could see the life drain from his face as
he slumped in the chair, blood flowed down his face to drip on the floor. Celest
turns to the door where she know\'s the other\'s are and gives them a smile before
disappearing.

Peter turns to look at Ilana, she\'s nearly pretrified by what she\'d just seen.

\"You two are destined for great things, Celest\'s path is clear, her destiny
calls and it\'s you who will share it with her, but you must do what is expected of you,
Ilana, follow.\"

She blinks, looking at him intently, he sounded almost like a mad man but
she didn\'t disbelieve what he said either, though she wasn\'t sure what was going on.
He motions for her to follow and they make their way back along the path that they\'d
come by, she gives the beautiful house one last look as they turn the corner, where
Celest waits for them.

\"You think they\'ll be happy with the job?\"

Peter smiles, \"Most deffinitely, you did very well. Pretty soon I think I\'ll be
having myself some compitition, you get better and better everytime.\"
Celest laughs and rests an arm around his shoulder and lays her head
against him.

\"In me you don\'t have compition, Peter, your my teacher, my mentor, you\'ve
taught me everything I know and as long as you live I\'ll work for you.\"

\"I\'ve taught you some, most for you is instinct, you can\'t teach something
that\'s already there. Now, lets leave my age out of this conversation.\"
He moves her arm off him and steps to the side chuckling.

\"Age, I didn\'t say anything about your age?\"

\"Teacher\'s are old, Celest, I\'m young!\"

He coughs and they both laugh, when their well away from the house Peter
stops and turns to Celest, taking an envelope out of his pocket and hands it to
Celest.

\"This is your portion, enjoy the rest of your day. Good day, ladies.\"

He waves and walks off in another direction entirely. Celest looks down at
the envelope, she knew what was in it, her portion of the money for the kill. Ever
since she had started working with him she\'d gotten have of the pay, she didn\'t
doubt that he didn\'t, if he was fooling her she didn\'t know, nor did she really care.
Not that he would cheat her, he had more then enough money for himself, but if he
offered her all of the pay she would get suspicious, as all great minds tend to do.
Celest wanders off, Ilana following, not sure what else to do, her mind still in
shocked from what she\'d witnessed moments before. It seemed like they walked
through the woods for over an hour, the entire back area of the dead man\'s house
wooded, untouched, before they finally walked onto a road where it turns out they
weren\'t too far from a city, Ilana wasn\'t even sure where they were, the drive itself
had taken several hours, she had spent most of it sleeping in the back seat, trying to
keep herself from thinking.

Celest brightened when she saw road, saw the town, she\'d had to come in
the area a few times for work, and once for play, and knew their was a mall nearby.
Today she felt like playing around, wasting some time, so she hailed a taxi and told
him to take her to the mall.

\"We\'re going to have some fun today!\"

Ilana looks less then happy but doesn\'t argue, she\'s starting to discover that
their\'s no winning, and the battle isn\'t worth the fight. Ilana watches the buildings as
they go by, new ones, old ones, large buildings, small homes. You knew when you
came into the shopping district of town, the cute little suburbs turned into diner\'s, JC
Penny\'s, mall strips, clothing stores, even the occational side walk sale, but they
didn\'t stop until they came upon a large building. It wasn\'t much over two stories
high, but it somehow seemed imposing as they stepped out of the taxi, their were
four sets of doors, two to exit and two to enter, all twirled.

When they walked in Ilana\'s breath caught in her throat, the inside of it was
even bigger then the outside had been, stores everywhere you looked, concession
stands, one or two restaurants, a picture booth, quarter machine\'s, it was every
shopper\'s dream come true.

They wandered around for awhile, Celest was started to enjoy herself after
the first few minutes, their was no one she knew for miles around, they were far
away from home, but not so far away that they couldn\'t get home in decent time. It
took Ilana a little more time to warm up, but when she found herself standing infront
of a toy shop her eyes lit up, Celest noticed and went into the shop.

Ilana became almost giddy when she saw the isle with the stuffed animals,
she\'d never had many toys growing up so they\'d always held a facination for her, not
even as a small child had she owned or pocessed a plushie. Without even noticing
she walked away from Celest towards the stuffed animals, her eyes wide, her
expression of pure joy. When Celest noticed she was gone she had a moment of
anger, but when she saw where she was and the look on her face she couldn\'t stay
angry for long. She walks up to Ilana and places a hand on her should causing her
to jump and turn around, some of the sparkle in her eyes dull, but at the moment
nothing could dull the joy in her.

\"I\'m going to keep looking but you can stay here for awhile, I\'ll come back
here when I\'m finished. You can pick something out for yourself if you wish.\"

The sparkle that had dimmed came back with force and on instinct Ilana
hugged Celest, when she pulled back her face was red with embaressment, looking
down at the ground, Celest just smiled.

\"Th-thank you.\"

Celest raises her head up and kisses her lips softly, not staying long, Ilana\'s
eyes go wide but she does nothing more, Celest chuckles and walks away, turning
to wave when she\'s almost gone but just shakes her head when she see\'s that Ilana
has once again become lost in the wonder of the toys that only she can see.
Celest wanders around some more, not really interested in anything, and
somehow she finds herself looking at summer dresses, as if she had a use for one,
pants are more feasable, it\'s hard to kill someone in a dress, especially if they tried
to run.

\"That one looks nice, especially if your the one wearing it.\"

Her back stiffened and she frowned, she\'d know that silky deep voice
anywhere, Willis, the one person she hated most in her life. She turns around to find
him standing a few feet behind her, dressed up from head to toe, a dark navy suit,
had to be silk, with a lighter shade of blue for a shirt and a black tie, his hair, as
always, was slicked back. One couldn\'t say that he was hansome, he\'d been in one
too many fights for that, his nose would never quite be the same, but he was\'t ugly
either.

\"Mr. Willis, I don\'t see how your opinion really matters.\"

\"Please, I do wish you would call me Randy, I so do hate to be formal.\"

Her eyes narrow and she shifts her weight, she wasn\'t carrying a weapon, the
metal detector at the mall entrance had made her keep her weapons outside, but
she knew she could take him with sheer strength, he\'d allowed his senses to
become too slow.

\"I don\'t like to be informal, if you don\'t mind Mr. Willis she put imphasis on it
since he mentioned it, she hated him as it was, she didn\'t want to start using his first
name like they were friends.

\"Now, if you don\'t mind I\'d like to finish my shopping in peace, a strong
stench has filled the area.\"

Now it was his turn to show a little anger.

\"When are you going to give in and join me, I\'m sure I have alot more to offer
then Peter does, I can give you far more money this his kind of work would give.\"

\"I don\'t care about the money, it\'s a matter of principal, I don\'t like you nor
what you stand for, their fore, I\'ll never work for you, Peter or no Peter, it really
doesn\'t matter.\"

She turns around and starts to walk away, she knew he was fuming, he hates
to be turned down, because from what she knew of him, what other\'s had told her,
he could have any woman that he wanted and he liked them all.

\"You will join me, willingly or otherwise, don\'t fool yourself into thinking your
beyond it, because you aren\'t.\"

He shouts behind her, anger evident in his voice as well as irritation. He may
think that some day she\'ll give in, but she know\'s she\'d rather die then ever become
one of his lacky\'s.

Not wanting to risk him seeing Ilana she wander\'s around, back tracking a
little, before returning to the toy shop where Ilana is still looking around, clutching a
white fuzz ball close, when she see\'s Celest walking towards her she quickly closes
the distance and shows her what she found. A fuzzy white bear the size of a small
cat(making it above normal in size), with bright blue eyes and an equally bright blue
neck tie, the black shiny nose trailed out into a loopy smile, the insides of the bear\'s
ears were light pink. All together it was strangely cute, Celest herself had never
been drawn by frilly things, or toys for that matter.

\"Isn\'t it cute!\"

Ilana hugs it close like a small child would and Celest shakes her head.

\"If it\'s what you want I\'ll get it for you.\"

She nods her head rapidly, smiling broadly. They go to the clerk to checks
them out, the price of the toy was high but Celest, watching how Ilana reacted to it,
felt that it was worth the price and she did have plenty to spare at the moment,
grocery shopping would come later, and she didn\'t eat much, her mother wasn\'t
home enough to eat, so that would only take out a small portion, as well as the other
necessities, school and work took care of alot of them without her needing to put
out much money, though with Ilana around she\'d need a little more then normal.
While they were making their way out Celest kept an eye out, so far she\'d
managed to keep her personal life well and away from her work, with the exception
of earlier with Ilana and Peter, but she somehow felt that she was safe in doing that.
Somehow Peter had a way of making her feel safe.

For a moment Celest thought about renting a hotel room for the night, but
with Willis around she didn\'t want to take a chance, so they didn\'t arrive back home
til after dark, and when they did they found the front door open, she locked it as they
went in, knowing who had done it. Cloths were thrown about the living room as if
someone had stripped as they walked through, Ilana automatically picked them up,
not even thinking, Celest wasn\'t getting worried so she felt she shouldn\'t either.
Celest left her to clean up and went upstairs, to her mother\'s room, and sure
enough, collapsed on the bed looking like death warmed over, was her mother.

She had pictures of what her mother used to look like, before the drugs an alcohol
had consumed her life, she\'d been vibrant, full of life, her blond hair had fallen to her
waist and her eyes held the sparkle that Ilana\'s had at the toy shop, but now she was
only the shell of what she once was. Celest moved closer, letting the moonlight
illuminate her mother\'s face. The once glorious hair was now cut as short as any
mans and now almost an ashen color, not that she washed it much, Celest could tell
just by the smell that her mother hadn\'t bathed in a while. Her eyes were sunken,
darklines surround her eyes looking almost like someone had punched her, her skin
was pale, beyond pale, and cold to the touch, yet at times hot as fever to the touch.
The eyes of death open and lips that were once full, not barely penciled in,
smile.

\"Hello, do I know you?\"

Celest sighs and she finds herself, not for the first time, wandering how her
mother ever finds her way home, when she does get home she can\'t remember
anything, it\'d been more then a year since she\'d actually reconized her own
daughter and Celest had stopped crying over it a long time ago.

\"Shh, go to sleep, you need your rest.\"

\"Yes, sleep.\"

Her voice was barely a whisper, she couldn\'t remember her mother\'s voice
being anything but a whisper. It was moments like this that she hated Willis and
those like him, the parasites out there they pass produce, and sell, drugs. Drugs
ruin lives, they don\'t give you a quick and honorable death, they kill you slowly, year
after year, until your soul just can\'t live in the body any longer and leaves, leaves so
unexpectantly that the body never has time to adjust.