Beneath Your Lies

The next day was like any other. The sun would rise lower and lower each cycle, the crowded street would be filled with carts of rotten fruits and job offers that were destined for failure and to Isobel and Corlain, that was the setting of their everyday lives.
She gave the boy the Black Viper’s charm, which definitely caught his attention. Corlain was a gifted engineer that literally destroyed all the rules and should belong in a school in the higher regions. She watched him look at the odd shaped charm in different angles, even putting the thing up to his ear probably hoping it would whisper all the universes’ secrets to him. But instead, he twisted the corners together and pressed some hidden button on the opposite poles of the shape. It cracked open immediately, holding some clear pills that reminded Isobel of the skulls beneath Downtown Sirensfret. But then it hit her.
“Corlain, don’t touch the pills,” Isobel said sternly, slowly taking the charm away from him.
Corlain sputtered his cupid lips as Isobel dumped the entire thing inside a bag and sealed it up tight. “You see here, kid? Yeah, that’s what’s going to kill you one day, whether it’s because you accidently had consumed it or because someone else knows you possess it.”
She didn’t bother lying to the boy about harmless little things that she could later on hide from him. She needed to tell him that the world was changing fast and that anything can cause harm in the smallest ways. Corlain was old enough to know fear anyways.
“Can I keep the shell?” He asked, knowing the answer already.
Isobel tossed the thing at him with intense speed but he managed to catch the chain and then start polishing the cursed shell. She knew how much he liked solving enigmas and in today's society, they were everywhere. Even for his age, he was one of the brightest kids in the nation.
“You be good today and I might consider getting you those blasted charging magnetic shield thing,” Isobel muttered, changing into a pair of leather pants and a light gray tunic.
“Lords above Izzy, they’re called magnetic field chargers! And that would be great thanks,” Corlain replied, his hazel eyes shimmering in the light.
She turned away satisfied and tamed her dark mane until it looked half acceptable to the public before surrendering for a braid instead. She put on a brown jacket that had many hidden pockets and little weapons that would help her in any situation.
Isobel went to the bathroom and retrieved her gun and tucked it away before giving Corlain’s reluctant head a kiss and walked out the room.
She skipped down the stairs, jumping to each third of a step before landing quietly on the ground. She stole a prepared donut from Quince and watched before her eyes the day outside was preparing. It was one of the stupid monthly festivals to celebrate the wars ending and the trading systems up roaring, everyone bringing their prices 0.01% lower than the original and putting up some streamers, knowing that finishing those two components would finish the day.  Today was mostly about the Royals and the government officials and the townspeople were sort of forced to enjoy it with them, but on different sides.
She knew somewhere out there, Gabriel would be out on a dress fitting, getting ready for some ridiculous gala thing that would last forever. Isobel laughed at the thought. Her smile faltered when she felt the bag of pills in her jacket.
“I’m going to do us justice,” she said to Quince, holding out the D.L.S in front of her.
Quince only nodded, before bringing a very suspicious couple into the back room where they would negotiate drugs. When any customer of any kind would ask about Isobel’s presence, Quince would say she was a homeless girl only trying to get some coin by being a runner. That was only half true but served the purpose anyways by the way she kept coming in and out of the building at awkward times, holding a little treat in her pocket as always.
As they walked away, Isobel checked her status on the storage contacts she had installed and sighed with relief that no one was attempting to form a union to track her down. Yet.
It was then that she got a blinking notification through her lenses did she know it was time. As soon as Gabe was done with whatever rich people do in the festivities, he would pick her up and drop her off at one of the after parties tonight.
It was only for the Royals and the richest of the rich to attend but then again, they were all her age. No adult of any region or status would care for a childish party to celebrate what they already accomplished anyways.
The Scarlet Assassin would need to find another disguise for tonight because like any other day, someone was going to die. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be her nor Gabe and not even the useless spoiled people on the upper side. There was a murderer out there that was targeting specific people and was smart enough to beat the technology and security the upper siders had provided. Honestly, Isobel shouldn’t even care about the killings because the murderer was doing the job for all the slums and gangs put together. The person was only killing the government officials and Royals.
It wasn’t until Gabe had practically begged her to solve who was killing his friends did she finally agree to get involved, secretly of course. Since the Officials were too busy trying to find another excuse in the lower areas of the nation, no one had time to solve the little killing spree on campus grounds. So she had to.
She walked out of the building and stuck close to the shadows, ignoring the pleading of the homeless and the barks of the older men that watched her with hungry eyes until she found herself in a narrow alleyway between a bookshop that was actually a safe home for criminals and an abandoned building that held the governments failed experiments.
She saw a group of people just aside from the entrance of the dead end give her a judging dead look. Isobel immediately bit her lip and pretended to move on.
She knew she was being followed as soon as she left her home. Going for the edges of the buildings and avoiding contact with other people had only been a little skit so the three men following her would get more suspicious.
Before she made eye contact with the homeless, offering prayers and the group near the entrance of the alleyway, she could make out the shadows of three scrawny little things. Judging from the ridiculous thing that passed as a hat on one of the men’s shadow, she assumed these would be her old ‘friends’ from last time.
She knew them as the Three Idiots because they weren’t great stalkers but they would pass for possible drug dealers. It all started two cycles ago when she was crazy drunk off of a spiked drink when the three of them wanted to take advantage of her. But even intoxicated, Isobel could make a great fight. But ever since then, they wanted revenge and one of them even tried to shoot her after she broke one of the idiot’s arm.
She let them advance upon her until the situation was like a cat with no claws amongst viscous lions ready to eat. Of course, only one of the four there knew who was who.
“Well, well, well, look who we got here boys,” one of them said, spit flying all over the place.
Isobel turned around slowly and pretended to look scared.
“Pretty Anika. Tsk, tsk, tsk, I’ll let the fires below damn me as well,” gap-tooth man said saying to the rest of them.
Isobel choked in a laugh. She told them that day that her name was Anika Van Weaseler Head Potter Doily. The fools believed her like she was actually worth it.
“Oh dear, looks like I outnumbered myself. Well boys, will this hurt?” Isobel asked, pouting as she walked over to them.
Before any of them could say a work, she unleashed her gun and shot one clear shot towards the gap-tooth man and smiled when it hit bulls eye. In the middle of the forehead because she knew he was really innocent out of the three of them and was pressured to go with the flow. She ended him quickly. The others, not so much.
Since the gun was muffled, it didn’t cause other pedestrians to get curious but the shrieks and the curses from the other two goons sure did cause a ruckus. She let the two men circle her and surrendered to a lot of kicks and punches to the face. It was when she knew they were eventually tiring out because of their figure of no food and more laboring, did she unleash her army.
She kicked one of the guys until he fell beneath him, gasping for the lost air. She punched the other cold in the eye until the blackness that spread instantly gave her satisfaction. Isobel let out another shot but this time to the spitting dude in the leg and made sure he crumbled to the ground in exhaustion for now.
As for the one on the ground, the least hurt of the two struggled to breath, she shot him in the lung. It was one of the worst places to be shot because someone would have to deal with the excruciating pain for at least four to six hours before finally dying. And there was no way he had the money nor the authority to get fixed in time.
His blood ran cold on the ground while his chest contracted until he choked on his blood while the other tried escaping, clutching his crippled leg.
“Yo, remember one thing before you report back to your master, traitor! Remember that you were the one that sold out the Badgers and fucked your friend’s wife!” Isobel shouted towards him, making sure the one beneath her heard.
She did some research about the boys as well and knew they were all apart of the same gang called the Badgers. Stupid name for a stupid group. She followed them around until she heard bombs go around them while the gang tried to steal weapons from another gang group. Of course, she immediately knew that someone from the inside had leaked information about the little trip that went south.
Isobel just guessed about the cheating business, but she did know the dying man on the ground did have a wife, well a mistress that was destined to be cheating by the time she was arriving at the house at.
She gave the man another five seconds to escape for his life before she shot him anyways. He stumbled to the ground like a sack of potatoes to rot.
The guy on the ground huffed and puffed, trying to steal some of the precious air he seemed to always miss. “Have… m-mer...have…”
“Sorry what? Couldn’t hear you,” Isobel said through a smile, taking out the D.L.S from her pocket. She tucked it nicely inside of the jacket lapels the man had and patted it softly.
“Have...m-mercy…” he said through strangled breaths.
Isobel gave him a one glance over and sighed dramatically. “Okay. HELP! PLEASE HELP ME, OH LORD!”
Isobel quickly unmuffled her gun and let out a few shaky shots that landed all over the place and screamed even louder again.
It took seven seconds until the group of undercover cops came rushing towards the group. The only reason why she chose this spot for the attack was because of the cops that stood right before the entrance. Although they were undercover Officers, they didn’t quite hide it well. She saw the sniper man across the street give a mirror check of signal when she arrived, probably thinking she was the wanted assassin from the night before with the drugs.
But with the ugly cuts and bruises she had all over her face, it made her look like the true innocent victim she was. The authorities didn’t know what she looked like, so she used it to her advantage. Hell, they didn’t even know if the illegal drug dealer was a male or female yet.
“What’s wrong?” the Official said, taking in the what had happened
The dead crippled man was far away from the scene so it only looked like she was only attacked by one man. Considering how three men punched her face and now there was only one suspect, made it look like he was actually capable of completing fatal damage to someone.
“Oh Lords above why?” Isobel sobbed, holding a thick accent that help between Irish and Indian.
The Officials looked at each other, bored to be dealing with the slums anyways.
“I need you to tell me what happened,” one of them said, examining the man on the ground who was trying to mutter out something.
“Well, you see I’m a refugee with little money when some man was trying to sell me drugs! I say no, but he started threatening me, saying that I must buy the drugs or he would kill me! Oh Lord!” Isobel bursted out crying and didn’t meet the shocked look on the man’s face.
“She’s right, this is the assassin from the fight. He has the D.L.S,” the Official said, taking a pair of tweezers to pull the bag of clear pills out of his pocket.
“Wow, I imagined the Scarlet Assassin would be capable of discharging the drugs instead of forcing someone else to buy it from them,” one of the guys said, putting the drugs into a plastic box before settling back into position.
Isobel hid a smile before wiping off the tears on her face. “I need to head back, this is not safe for people like me anymore.”
The Officials made a path for her, not caring to walk her back or saying a farewell but it was enough. At least that was what she though.
“Wait!”
Isobel stopped cold in her path, sweat dripping off her face with the blood and tears.
“Is this gun yours?” The official asked, a hand hovering over handcuffs and the other clutching her weapon.
Isobel gulped and put her acting lessons once more. “That cursed thing is not mine and God save the ones who do possess them for bad reasons. That thing belonged to the man that just attacked me and I happened to take it away from him when he started attacking me closely. If you would excuse me, gentlemen, I must cleanse myself. I would also prefer you don’t use my identity when you announce this on the news please,” Isobel explained, leaving her best weapon behind and walking away.
This time, they didn’t follow her but dread did instead.