Make A Killing

A Fitful Night's Sleep

Isla's dream.

Fifteen minutes before the explosion.

    I crept into the bedroom of the sleeping lady. Her name was....

    She....

    The sleeping lady wasn't there. I exhaled through my nose as a smile twitched at my lips. Had she guessed that I would be coming? Perhaps this would be more fun than I thought. After all, the sleeping lady was....

    I suppose it didn't really matter who she was or what she did anyway. None of that mattered because even if she had been innocent, I would be here in her room. I considered waiting for her. Unfortunately, Luna and her gang of goody-two-shoes had taken a lot of the fun out of....

    I checked the closet for the sleeping lady. You'd be surprised (or perhaps you wouldn't be--are you one of us?) how many people opt to hide in the closet when they hear me coming. Do they not expect me to look in the closet? 

    Well, it didn't have to be fun. My job wasn't to have fun. Besides, wasn't fun rather unattainable nowadays? I'm sixteen years old and a....

    Perhaps I should have made more of an effort to convince [...] to let me have fun.

    [...] probably wouldn't punish me for wanting to have a good time, would they...?

    Enough procrastinating. Of course they would punish me for that. I needed to just get the job over with so I could go home. I especially needed to get out of here before Luna showed up to give me another one of her pretentious speeches. 

    ...

    I padded into the kitchen. That was another place people liked to hide, especially if they don't have time to get out of the house. I suppose they think they could use their kitchen knives to defend themselves. I took a quick glance around. The sleeping lady was gone still. However, she had been in here already. A knife was missing from the holder that sat on the granite countertop, and the wooden chairs around the small breakfast table were in strange positions; probably she had had to shove them out of the way to get to her knife faster. None of the cabinets looked big enough to store a full person in. 

My mouth twitched. Had the Sleeping Lady escaped already? I hadn’t heard any doors open, but if she had been expecting me to come, perhaps she had left before….

Regardless, I would….

I turned around. She was behind me, knife raised. Unfazed, I rammed into her and grabbed her knife arm. I twisted it, and she cried out. Her knife clattered to the ground, and her eyes filled with fear. 

The front door opened, and a feminine voice called out, “Isla, stop!”

“Luna, stop!” I mimicked in the most annoying tone I could manage. Luna should learn where her business is, because it sure as hell wasn’t here. She was always snooping around where she shouldn’t be. Maybe she should get some drama in her own life; maybe then she wouldn’t have to live vicariously through my life. Besides, she never actually succeeds....

[...] Sleeping Lady’s knife and held it to her chin. Her mouth opened and closed, but she couldn’t manage any words. [...] really expected to win this fight?

Luna rammed into me, and we tumbled to the ground together. Sleeping Lady let out a relieved sob and scrambled out the door. I groaned. [...] in the mood for a chase today. All I wanted was to get this all over with, […], go to bed, and maybe give Luna [...] for the inconvenience of having to see her face at this hour.

I tried to pull out of Luna’s grasp, but she latched herself onto me and refused to let go. I groaned and gave her a dirty look; I was getting really tired of [...] How would she feel if I stalked her and interrupted all her side’s missions? Just because [...] the bad side doesn’t mean [...] impolite. I mean, really. It was getting ridiculous.

“What even is the point of this?” I asked her, irritated.

“...,” she said. Her hair was in two braids today; it was too thick to contain in just one. I narrowed my eyes and wondered if pulling one would loosen her iron grip. At the very least, it’d be funny, right?

“...,” I said before yanking on one of her braids. She cried out, but her determination remained strong, and she didn’t let go. How unfortunate. It really wasn’t even as funny as I’d hoped it would have been.

“Usually you’re so much more mature than this,” she muttered disapprovingly.

Just as the words escaped her mouth, something rolled out of her jacket pocket. [...] It was metallic, shiny, and round. I tilted my head. “What’d you bring with you, Luna?”

Her eyes widened. “...!”

I didn’t understand. She let go of me finally and shoved me off of her. Then, she was sprinting out the door. She didn’t bother the close the front door. 

I tilted my head at the foreign little device in front of me. If it was something that sent Luna running, … would probably want to see it. Anyway, it was rebel property, and therefore something immensely interesting to me. I’d bring it back to….

I reached down to scoop it up, but my fingers hesitated before touching the metal. If Luna had run from it, it was probably dangerous.

Without any more warning, the device exploded. I went flying from the blast, hit my head on the hard granite countertops, and the world darkened.