Love's a Killer

The river rushed to her right, lapping against the ship just ahead. Light had disappeared. Ida May could only find her way by sound. Bare feet padded over the concrete soundlessly against the river. She had counted her paces. One-thousand sixty-seven, and fumbled to find the bench she knew would be there. The sun just barely crested over the horizon turning the sky a light gray. Ida lit a cigarette. The orange tip glowed like a beacon in the dim morning light. She could hear the boats knocking against the docks and emergency sirens blaring somewhere across the city.

It wasn’t an unusual morning. Yet Ida still strained her ears to hear. Alaric would be there any moment. She let the cigarette hang from her mouth as she pulled on her sneakers. Her stomach was tight with knots, all her senses on high alert. A soft click caused her breath to come short. It was a noise that, on a normal day in a normal time, would have been ignored. But for Ida, it caused her fingers to go numb and her cigarette to fall to the concrete.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” She said softly.

“You have quite the price on your head Ida May.” His voice was deep and emotionless.

She did, in fact, have quite the price on her head and it just kept going up. Alaric had ways of hiding her, but she never listened. Just like this morning. Ida turned around to stare down the barrel of a nine millimeter. A big enough caliber to kill her quickly and not leave a big mess behind. Her heart hammered. The back of her eyes stung. She trembled.

“You don’t have to do this.”

The man’s face was strong and blank. Blonde waves fell across his forehead he had a large mouth but it fit his face. He couldn’t be more than a year older than her. “I disagree. You’re going to make me rich kitten.”

He grabbed her arm; the gun still aimed at her head, and dragged her to the boat ahead. She didn’t bother fighting back when a gun was pointed at her head with the safety off. There was no chance of getting out of this one. Ida trembled, her unbound hand fumbling for her pack of cigarettes out of habit.

“Stop that.” He said, shaking her.

The boat was small. He took her below deck and shoved her down onto a couch. Zip ties went around her wrists and ankles. They bit her skin. It was well lit inside and she could see that the man was lanky. His clothes hung off his figure in a way that she thought was supposed to be cool. It was obvious that he had money. So what did he need her for?

“Who are you working for? Monroe?”

“Alistair.”

Ida nodded. That made five. Two of which Alaric had offed when trying to hide her. All that would be in vain now. She closed her eyes and pulled her legs onto the couch clumsily. Breathing out slowly, Ida lifted her head to meet the man’s eyes. “Okay. Finish the job then.”

What were blank blue eyes turned grey-blue. Like fog covering the water beneath them. For a moment, uncertainty flickered there and then determination. She suspected he was new at the whole ‘assassin’ business. He raised the pistol, a Ruger, she recognized. Her trembling increased. It seemed to happen in slow motion, the tip of his finger pulling the trigger back. She waited for the bang of the hammer hitting the primer and setting off the powder inside the shell. She could see it all happening in her minds eye. The powder igniting, pushing the bullet through the barrel. The bullet breaking through the skin and bone of her forehead, her life draining away in a split second.

Click.

The man made a noise and pulled the slide back. He pulled he trigger again.

Click.

This was almost worse than the knowing she was going to die. Now, she didn’t know when the bullet would hit her. Click after click, bullet after useless bullet. He finally emptied the magazine, all of the bullets having been duds. A stream of curses left his mouth and he threw the gun across the room. He dropped to the couch beside her, his head in his hands.

“One job.” He muttered. “One easy job. Kill the girl and get paid.” He ground his teeth.

The unknown was what was killing Ida May right then. Would he stab her? Poison her? He couldn’t poison her. It would ruin her soul, the very thing Alistair wanted. The one thing everyone wanted. Not her soul in particular, any soul. A government experiment gone wrong had caused the depletion of the human race. People would pay God forsaken amounts of money for a soul. Murder became natural, a job like every other. Ida’s soul was important only because she had escaped death so many times. Not only did they want to experiment on her soul, but her body. As if there was something special about it.

Ida cowered away, thinking of her cold dead body on a table, cut open to be examined by a doctor or scientist. Whoever Alistair felt the need to hire. It wasn’t so much for the soul anymore as the bragging rights. Getting a soul out of the deal was just a bonus.. “He’s going to kill you too now. Isn’t he?”

“What do you think?” He glared.

“I know of a place. It’s far but we could make it. Alistair wouldn’t find us. Nobody would find us.”

His blue eyes were contemplative. His hands shook just as bad as hers. Her heart reached out to him blindly. She was awful. Alaric always said she was too compassionate in such a dangerous world. Ida would have hugged him, she really would have, had she not been bound. He was just as scared as she was. Nobody wanted to give in to death. She yearned for a cigarette.

“Why?” He asked. “Why help me?”

Her eyes narrowed in thought. “Everyone deserves a second chance.” It was lame, but the only reason she could come up with other than the fact that it just felt like the right thing to do. Which would sound almost worse..

The man pulled a knife. Her heart sped faster, to the point she could barely breathe. He cut the zip ties and almost instantly she pulled the pack of cigarettes from her pocket and a lighter. Her tense muscles relaxed when she puffed out the deadly smoke. He picked up one of the discarded bullets and weighed it in his hand.

“No gun powder.” He said, almost to himself. “My reloader must’ve clogged. You’re lucky kitten. Very, very lucky.”

“You could still do it.” She said tentatively, testing him.

“He wanted a bullet in your head, not a knife in your chest.”

“What’s the difference? I’d be dead either way.”

“The difference is what Alistair is willing to pay for.” He stood. “Now where’re we going?”

Ida bit down on the side of her tongue. She didn’t know if she could trust him. She was alive, which was surely a good reason. But for the right price he could easily turn around and give her up. Kill her to save his own tail. Trust in this world was harder than anything to gain.

“I can’t trust somebody whose name I don’t even know.” She said to buy time and decide.

He rolled his eyes. “Zane.” Zane looked at his watch impatiently. “Alistair is coming in half an hour. So hurry this up.”

Her decision was made. Ida spouted off the coordinates that had been drilled into her from birth.

If you’re ever in trouble…

She could hear her father say, and then he would babble off a bunch of digits, like he knew that someday she would find herself in need of them. Zane rushed to the deck and started the boat. Ida stayed below deck trying to keep the contents of her stomach in check as he boat rocked on the water. If it were up to her, she would never have to travel by boat. If it were up to her she would never even be in this position.

When she could move without the contents of her stomach churning, she ascended the stairs. The city was far behind them. He boat moved speedily across the rolling river. In an hour they would be in the ocean. She hoped that would be enough time. Ida found Zane doing whatever it was that one did when they controlled a boat. She had never taken the time to find out much about anything sea bound. His hands still shook. She sat criss-crossed beside him on the floor.

“Have you ever run away from someone before?” She asked.

“Nope.”

“Neither have I.”

“If we get caught…” he trailed off, thinking of the horrifying things Alistair could do, no doubt.

Ida grabbed his hand, needing the human contact. Even if this man was just about to kill her a few minutes ago “Let’s not then.”

Zane nodded in agreement.