Her Scarlet Lips

In a world of good and bad, much like our own, things were normal for the day. Crime didn’t happen very often, but the people of the town had grown accustom to it by now. After you lived here a couple of years, a couple of guys robbing a bank was nothing new. People knew this, and it made them safer with their money and they had other ways of protecting their own valuables. Everyone knew how to use a gun, even the teenagers knew how to defend themselves if it became necessary, that was just how things functioned around here. A gunshot sounded, as an alarm went off. A woman stood in the bank, holding a gun to a mans head who was in the bank, but the civilians weren’t really worried, not even the cashiers were. Only the cashier that was new to town was scared even the slighest, so she was the one they targeted. One of the men, the one who was watching the cashiers and not back filling the bag, leaned against the counter and looked to the cashier through his mask. “First time?” He asked, not getting much of a response, just a nod from the young woman as he nodded back, looking to his female partner. She tilted her head, smiling behind the mask as she only had one that covered her eyes, so he could see the smile. “Welcome to town sweetie. You’ll adjust to it.” The woman greeted sweetly, as if she wasn’t currently holding a gun to a mans head and stealing all of the money. She managed a weak smile back as the noise of police sirens got closer and the partner from the back got out, carrying duffle bags filled with money. The woman let the man go after both of the men were behind her as she smiled at everyone there. “Let’s go.” The man who had been at the counter shouted as the men ran out, the woman trailing behind them. When they got out to the van and the bags were in the car they took off their masks, both men looking at the woman with the scarlet red hair. The first man was tall, he was an older gentleman with auburn hair and beard, someone who looked like the guy to work at the supermarket, not rob banks for a living. The second gentleman, however, was quite young. While he was only four foot in height, he was a force to be reckoned with. While she feared no man, she would not want to get on his bad side. With his blond hair and green eyes, he looked quite innocent as well, maybe psychotic to some people. The woman was Akasha, a six foot woman with auburn hair and abnormally red eyes that made her pale skin seem even paler under its glow in the dark. With her polite manner and incredible disguises, nobody would ever suspect such an innocent girl to be such a good villain in the hero’s eyes. The hero she had her eyes on was a police officer by the name of Zeva Meyer. From her tan skin, to her brown hair and blue eyes, she was gorgeous, sure. But she was a cop, and that was the woman who had been chasing Akasha for months. When you say someone is obsessed, this girl is the very definition from having pictures of her on the walls to spending every free minute in her chaotic schedule to devoting her time to bringing Akasha, or “Night shade”, to justice. The men closed the trunk of the car as they all made eye contact, and all of them pulled their guns on one another, but Akasha was faster, shooting them both to kill. She put her gun back after she knew they weren’t getting back up, as she walked over to the elderly gentleman and crouched over his quivering form, convulsing on the sidewalk from the injury. She smiled at him, touching the wound and got blood on her hand before she stood, licking it off of her fingers as she smiled devilishly to the male on the ground. “Should have been quicker.” She teased in a low voice as she watched his body slowly go limp before she got in the car, quickly driving away from the scene just as the cops arrived. She watched in her rearveiw mirror as the police cars pulled up to the bank, looking back to the road as she smiled to herself. “You are the baddest b***h of all.” She told herself silently but quickly slammed on the breaks when a cop car stopped in front of her. Lo and behold, Zeva was in the car. This fact brought a grin to Akasha’s face as the woman had her gun pointed, all by herself as Akasha stepped out of the car, having her face one again covered by her mask as she gave the cop a smile of seemingly innocence. The cop looked stunned, so Akasha looked down to see the blood splatter on her clothing that she hadn’t realized was there beforehand. She looked back up to make eye contact with the other woman as she smiled once again, simply grabbing her gun out of her pocket and held it up in surrender. “Guess you caught me this time, Miss Meyer.” It was obvious she wasn’t about to go down that easily, and Zeva didn’t lower her gun, knowing that. Akasha smiled and dropped the gun, instead her hands radiating a red glow as she made a cloud of smoke around her, and when it cleared she was gone. Zeva lowered her gun as she cussed, but saw the car and the gun were still there, except some of the cash was gone. “This is officer Zeva, badge number 67032. I have a suspects car and weapon in my possession on East and Goldman behind the bank. Requesting a evidence team and a tow truck.” She said into her talkie before she let go of the bottom, holstering her gun and walked over to the car, hearing the indescribable radio chatter. Her heart was beating out of her chest as she looked around, feeling as if she was being watched in that very moment. Only one thought was going through her head right now; How the hell did this woman know her name? Zeva entered her house as she sat the keys in a bowl next to the door, sighing as she took her hair down from the bun it had been in. She cut on the light, setting the light and taking her shoes off, then made her way in to the study room, cutting on the light to that room. The room’s walls were completely covered in magazine articles and pictures of this so called “Night Shade.” And now she had another item to add to the collection. She staples a sticky note to the wall where she had room, stating that she had powers and next to it stapled a new picture, which showed the mens faces and the back of her head. “If I find a connection maybe I can find out who she is.” She mumbled to herself, getting distracted as her cat walked into the room meowing. She picked up her cat and looked out of the window, seeing it had started raining. It was dark, or else she would have seen the shadowy figure lurking in the shadows on the rooftop across from the window. Zeva woke up the next morning to her phone’s notification sound going off. She slowly rolled over, making the cat meow and run off as she waved her hand at the cats direction dismissively, haven’t even having opened her eyes yet, and rolled over. She grabbed her phone and cut the screen on before she even opened her eyes, unlocking her phone as soon as she read what it was. The notification opened up a dating app, and into a message center. “You have a match!” The notification had said. Zeva opened the message center and saw that she only had a message from one woman. “Hi there, I’m Violet.” Was all it read, so she clicked on the girls profile. The woman was beautiful, her black hair shining in the light to look blue and her gorgeous pale skin glowing in the light. She looked into those eyes, seeming to recognize them and pushed them off. Maybe she was just tired, there’s no way she recognized them. And this woman’s eyes were blue, not a scarlet red of the woman whose eyes she had been looking in to for months. She rubbed her eyes, pushing off the thoughts with the explanation of she was simply tired from having been chasing this woman for months, that’s all it was. She looked at the picture again, and the eyes were a baby blue; no trace of the scarlet she had believed she had been before. She went back to the messages and thought for a moment before she started replying. “Where do we meet?” She first typed, before erasing it, deciding that was way too forward; The woman had just messaged her, she didn’t want to seem like a creepy person and she definitely wasn’t someone who rushed into things like this. She wouldn’t be on a dating app if she rushed into relationships, after all. She erased the message and finally thought of a response, hitting send before she even had time to think about regretting it. “I’m Zeva. It’s nice to meet you Violet. How old are you?” She slapped herself for having sent that, but the woman was online and had already seen it, so she couldn’t take it back now. It felt as if time slowed down, hours passed in the mere seconds of the response bubble appearing at the bottom of the screen, showing the other girl was typing her response. “I am twenty-five.” Zeva fund it amazing that she had actually spelled it out instead of just putting the numbers like people had been doing a lot recently. “I know this may seem sudden, but do you want to meet sometime?” The messages read as Zeva just read them a second time to process this. Okay, so fast was good when it came to some people, and especially this girl. She sat down her phone as she cut off the screen, just needing a moment to think; She gripped her head as the memories started flooding back to her. “You need to cover up.” A mans voice rang in her head as if he was talking to her currently. She remembered she was wearing a black dress for a party they were going to. She made eye contact with him as her eyes were filling with tears at his aggression towards her. “I covered the bruises, what more do you want me to do?” She felt his hand on her neck, pushng her against the wall and she lost all ability to breath. As shes gripping his wrist shes gasping for air she desperatly needs as he grabbed her chin with his other hand, forcing them to make eye contact. “I said change. Do not question me ever again, got it?” She nodded before she was let go and collapsed, gasping and coughing as she felt the air finally hit her lungs again, not even trying to look or get up, knowing it would do her no good right now. “Go change like a good girl.” The man ordered as she slowly stood and she had tears streaming down her face as she she waited for his back to be turned, grabbing a glass bottle of whiskey that was on the shelf right beside her. When she broke it over his head, he fell and his head was bleeding, the alcohol going all over the floor along with the glass. He looked back at her as she took off her heels, running out of the door. She didn’t stop, even as he was yelling after her to get back in the house and it was pouring down raining, she just kept running as if her life depended on it. When she heard the gunshots, she knew her life really did depend on it, and she didn’t stop until she got to an alley several blocks away as she sat against the wall, just letting the rain pour down as well as the tears flow from her face. Ground breaking sobs escaped her, as she broke, the makeup washing away to reveal all of the bruises on her body as she hugged her knees, burying her head in her arms. When the rain stopped, she looked up confused, and saw this girl standing there, crouching in front of her and holding an umbrella over her. The woman gave her a soft smile, and right now that was the only thing that could stop the tears flowing from her eyes. The woman held a hand out to Zeva, not rushing her and let her slowly take it and helped her stood, keeping her under the umbrella. “I promise you, you’re safe now, okay?” The woman had a jacket on, but Zeva knew she would never forget those brilliant scarlet red eyes, and that warm smile. She felt herself nodding, not even thinking about the consequences of going with a stranger; This woman made her feel safe, and that’s what she needed right now. The woman gave her a soft smile and pulled her into a hug, and at first Zeva flinched, but slowly relaxed into the warm, comforting embrace of the other woman’s hold. “I’m Nightshade. You can call me Akasha. No one will lay a hand on you again.” The woman said as Zeva smiled a little to herself but looked into the other woman’s eyes, feeling even safer now. “I’m Zeva.” Zeva opened her eyes, feeling the tears streaming down her face as she looked around, sniffing and wiping her eyes when she realized she was in her own apartment, safe. She picked her phone back up and thought for a moment before even attempting to manage a reply to Violet. “How about the diner at seven?” She decided to spell it out, since the other woman found it was necessary to spell out her age. Zeva stood up and cleaned up the bedroom, making the bed. It was several minutes before she heard her notification tone go off, telling her she had gotten a response. She unlocked her phone and felt herself smiling at the response. All it read was, “Its a date :)” She looked at herself in the mirror, examining herself. Her backless, strapped dress was hugging her body in all the right ways, and paired with her black strappy heels it looks beautiful. She got her phone and scrolled through hairstyles, unsure what to do with her hair until she found one. It was a simple ponytail with a strand left out and waved, lucky for her her hair was naturally wavy. She took care to look beautiful and make it obvious she put in effort for this outfit, that she put in effort to impress and that she wasn’t just some slob. She examined herself once again while pulling her hair back into the ponytail and bound it with a hair tie, making sure it looked perfect and smiled at herself. She was going to be herself, and nobody was going to stop her. She was comfortable, she was happy, and no one could stop her from being herself. Not ever again would she let that happen, she promised herself. She hesitated, looking down at her phone as she was starting to second guess herself. Maybe this woman wouldn’t want her, maybe she wouldn’t like her, maybe it was a trick. All of those thoughts faded away as she closed her eyes and sighed to calm herself down. “You are beautiful,” She told herself, looking back in the mirror to make eye contact with herself. “You are perfect, you have nothing to worry about. If she doesn’t accept you she doesn’t deserve you.” She saw a figure behind her as her smile faded, but she didn’t even turn around. It was the man from her nightmares, the man who hurt her worst of all. “She will never love you. No one can ever love you like I did.” Zeva stood up straight, looking into the mirror and making eye contact with his reflection. “I am worthy of it. You were the one unworthy of my time, my affection. You took advantage of it, so you lost it.” She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened he was gone as she smiled to herself once again. She checked her phone and saw it was nearly six thirty, as she quickly ran out of the door, grabbing her keys and locked the door, running down the stairs to her car, buckling up as fast as she possibly could, not wanting to be late. As she sped off, she couldn’t help getting her mind off of what her imagination was telling her, telling her it was a trap whether she knew it or not. She sat at the restaurant, stirring her drink with the spoon as she had been for the past ten minutes. She looked down at her phone, seeing it was almost twenty past the arranged time as she sighed. “I knew it was a trick.” She signaled a waiter to ask for her check, but just as she did the girl from the picture walked in and she immediately froze, slowly putting her hand down as she eyed her, and she wouldn’t be ashamed to admit she was checking her out. The girl had curly brunette hair down to her shoulders, the top layer pulled back into a ponytail. Her diamond studded earrings and her locket necklace, both being silver, stood out on her red dress and heels. The dress was beautifully designed, a thigh slit and a layer of frill going over her left while a strap was under it to hold it up, and it made her pale skin seem a tint darker under these lights. The woman made eye contact with her and smiled as she pushed hair behind her ear, and Zeva saw her blush just the slightest, and she found it adorable. The woman walked over and sat across from her. “I’m so sorry I’m late. I got caught in traffic and I was getting dressed.” She softly explained, shooting Zeva an apologetic look as Zeva shook her head. “No, it’s quite alright. I hope you don’t mind, while I was waiting I ordered myself a drink.”