Double Deal

Chapter 11 (Part 1)

After giving her a bandaid, he continued to make dinner. Kharis went on her laptop, looking for anything interesting. Tom had just finished dinner when Kharis chimed, “Hey, guess what. Apparently there’s a bounty out on a girl named Iris Wallus. A mysterious sponsor wants to find her. First person to turn her in gets a reward.”

“How much?” Tom said, placing two plates down on the table for them.

“$500,000.”

Tom raised an eyebrow. “What’s so special about this girl?”

“She was placed in a witness protection program as a child, so she has a new name. That’s why the bounty is so high. No one knows what her new name is,” Kharis said, reading off of her laptop.

Tom closed her laptop. “Food. Eat.” He said simply, sliding her laptop out of the way and pushing her plate of food in front of her.

“Well think about it. Half a million dollars. For a girl. In this apartment, you’d be set for a decent amount of time without even needing to work,” Kharis said, picking up her fork.

She has a point, Tom thought. But even so, the reason the bounty was so high was because of the impossible odds of finding the girl. And who’s to say that someone else wouldn’t find her first.

“But there’s a deadline. The sponsor is currently serving the last few years of his prison sentence. It says that once he gets out, the reward only stays at $500,000 for 6 months. After those 6 months, the reward drops down to a mere $5,000,” Kharis said.

“Who’s this girl? Iris Wallus?” Tom said.

“I’ll look after dinner,” Kharis smiled.

After dinner, Kharis opened her laptop back up. “Iris Wallus. A little girl, about 7 years old when her father, Tristen Wallus was arrested,” She read.

“Apparently, her father abused her. And he ran an illegal business where these really old men would pay him to see his daughter dressed a certain way. To ‘entertain’ them,” Kharis made a disgusted face, “Obviously, she fought back. She had tried to stab her father one time, but he caught her and forced her into her room, locked in there for 4 days without food. One of his clients died from being stabbed. While her father was accused of the murder, Iris is probably the one who did it,” Kharis told Tom, who was washing the dishes.

“Maybe. Is that it?” Tom asked her as he shut the water off. He sat back down at the table in front of Kharis

“Iris Wallus was the clinching factor in her fathers case in trial. She testified against him. In order to escape the many years he would have gotten without it, he took a plea deal for 15 years if he confessed guilty to child abuse and illegal money laundering. Now, he’s in his last 5 years of his sentence. As for Iris, she was placed in witness protection to protect her from the people her father owed money to. That was the last anyone’s heard of her, and her father will be released in less than 5 years.”

“Man, can you imagine how much negative energy she would produce if you were even around her?” Tom said, a familiar, glossy look in his eyes.

Kharis just raised an eyebrow at him. When he finally looked at her, she simply said, “w***e,” to which Tom rolled his eyes.

“It’s true though. People who were abused as children have a different kind of negative energy to them. They’re easy to distinguish in a crowd,” Tom leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms.

“Well then you would have no problem finding her,” Kharis smiled.

There was a knock at the door. Both of them froze. No one else lived in the building except Tom, so whoever was knocking was looking for him. He got up. The person knocked again. “Maybe you should go into the bathroom,” He whispered to Kharis as he walked over to the door.

He opened it. A girl with brown hair and sharp blue eyes was standing there, smiling. “Are you Tom Collins?” The girl asked.

“Yes. Who are you?” Tom asked.

“My name is Astraya Grace. I know what you are, and I know you have a friend here. Don’t worry, I won’t tell. I also know that you have a debt to Dexter.” The girl said as she walked into his apartment, inviting herself inside.

Tom closed the door. “I’ll give you a free pass to that debt if you work for me, how about that?” Astraya said, walking through the kitchen.

“And how would you be able to do that?” Tom glared at her as she hit one of the fruits on the island out of its bowl.

“Because I killed Dexter, and by proxy, you could say that I am him now. I have all his records, all his dirt,” The girl turned to face him.

“Which means that any debt you owed to him, you now owe to me,” She raised an eyebrow, “However, I’m not interested in what you owed him, so I’ll waive it if you do something for me.”

“And what’s that?” Tom asked.

“I’m sure you’ve seen the bounty on the girl named Iris Wallus,” Astraya said, walking back towards him, “It’s all the rage right now. I mean, half a million dollars is no small pocket change. And as the new Dexter, I have connections, which means I know the new name of the girl. I want to assign you and your friend to getting close to her. At this moment, it isn’t beneficial to turn her in. So, you two will get close to her and keep her close so that when the time comes, we’ll turn her in for the bounty. I’ll give you and your friend half of the cash to split amongst yourselves however you see fit. Do we have a deal?” Astraya held her hand out.

“One third. Each.” Tom said, crossing his arms.

Astraya smiled at him. “No,” She said simply, “Remember? I’m the one with the information and dirt on you. When’s the last time a monster lived with a human, willingly? Instead of just killing them. Just imagine the amount of torture that monster would get if someone were to ever find out-”

“Fine. But after this, I have no more debt to you. No more blackmail, and you forget my friend even exists,” Tom growled.

Astraya held her hand out once more. “Deal.”

Tom hesitantly took her hand. “One more thing, try your best not to let your new friend know that you're a monster. I’m sure it would make things a lot more difficult,” Astraya said as she walked back towards the door.

“You never told me the name,” Tom called as she opened the door.

“Lola Reeds. Good luck.”

The door shut and she was gone.

Kharis turned around the corner from where she was hiding, “Were you supposed to kill me when I found out that you were a monster?” She asked, making Tom jump.

He turned to face her, a sad look on his face, “Yes I was.”

“Aww, well I knew you had grown fond of me,” Kharis smiled, “And while half of the bounty to split isn’t as good as the whole reward, we at least have a start.”

“Yeah. Lola Reeds. You should look her up, try to find any information about her that you can,” Tom said, walking over to his bed. He put his face into his hands and sighed.

“To-om,” Kharis said in a sing-songy voice.

He looked up at her. She was walking up to him. “Hey don’t worry about it, it's alright, I promise,” Kharis smiled.

She stood right in front of him, still as smiling as ever. “I’m just tired. I’m gonna go to sleep, so just shut the lights off when you come to lay down,” Tom said.

Tom had fallen asleep. Kharis didn’t stay up too much longer, but when she went to lay down, he was out cold. She just looked at him. He was honestly beautiful, in her eyes. If she was being honest with herself, she was in love with him, but knew that there was no way they could ever be together. Monsters weren’t interested in love. They craved pain and fear. Who knows what his reaction would be if he found out. It was a sad love. But even if she couldn’t ever be with him, all she wanted to do was to make sure he was alright, even if it meant cutting herself for him. No matter what he needed, she would do it for him. She smiled as he laid there, sleeping.

Then, suddenly he opened his eyes groggily. “You’re so loud,” He said.

He was talking about her emotions. “Sorry,” Kharis said, fidgeting with her hair.

“What’s up with you?” He said quietly.

Kharis was quiet. “Nothing, everything is fine.”

Kharis would do anything for him.

After many days, weeks, and months of trying to find out anything she could about Lola, Kharis finally found a lead. “Tom, I found her.”

Tom was laying on his bed. He had just gotten home from work. “Where?”

“You’ll never believe this. She lives on the other side of town and she’s going to the college I was planning to go to,” Kharis said.

Tom sat up and put his hands in his face before looking up at Kharis. “So, you should go to the school and go meet her,” He said simply.

“Sounds like a plan,” Kharis grinned.

Eventually, Kharis moved out and became roommates with Lola, which left Tom all alone in his apartment again. Eventually, he soon became deprived of the fear that he needed to survive. Tom laid on his bed, spread across it with his hands hanging off the bed. He felt sluggish. Then he heard Kharis’ voice in his head. “Hey, how are you doing?” Her voice said.

Tom let out a loopy chuckle, “Not great.”

“Do you want me to come over to-”

“No, I’ll be fine. I’m high-strung right now too.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I just-” Tom stopped. He sat up. There was someone walking down the street. He could feel their uneasiness. They were alone. “There’s someone walking down the street.”

“Tom? What are you planning?”

Tom smiled. He was hungry. He let out a maniacal laugh, then licked his lips. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Tom? Tom, wait!”

Tom took his bracelet off, grabbed a knife, putting it into his pocket, and left his apartment, practically running to the lobby. The person walking was getting closer to the entrance of the building. Tom hid around the corner until the person walked past. It was a girl. Even better, Tom thought. She had gotten far enough past for Tom to walk up behind her and grab her. One of his arms wrapped around her waist, the other on her mouth. She let out a little scream, but it was muffled because of Tom’s hand.

He dragged her back into the closest random apartment he could find. She was screaming the whole way there. Tom threw her into the apartment, sending her flying across the room. Tom locked the door and pulled out the knife. “Help!” The girl screamed.

“No one can hear you here,” Tom smiled, an evil look in his eyes.

“What’re you going to do to me?” Her voice quivered.

Tom doubled-over, laughing. Her fear felt amazing. “How about we play a little game.”

“You hide and try to avoid me, but if I catch you,” Tom looked at her again, “I’ll kill you.”

Tom eventually caught her. It was unavoidable. Her fear was so strong. Tom was covered in her blood, kneeling over her body. He had slit her throat after she gave up fighting, which upset him. He had adrenaline running through his body when he heard a girl’s voice say, “Wow, you’re quite uncontrollable.”

Tom turned around and stood up, ready to attack, but relaxed when he saw who it was. “What do you want?” He growled

“Well, I knew it was only a matter of time before your friend wasn’t a viable source anymore and you would turn to murder. It’s a very typical option for monsters. However, once you start, it’s hard to stop. The adrenaline rush is just too good,” Astraya said, walking closer to Tom.

“What’s your point?” Tom glared at her.

“Seeing as you’re not going to stop, you don’t want to arouse too much attention,” Astraya said, “You can continue doing this as you please, but I want you to use a pseudonym.

Deiros Momus.”

“What’s that mean?” Tom asked.

“It has nothing to do with you. It’s just a hint for someone else,” Astraya smiled.

“A hint? Then why would I use it?” Tom asked, “The whole point is to not get caught.”

“The name will only be recognized by one person. Don’t worry about it too much,” Astraya said.

“And who’s to say I’ll use it?”

“Because if you do, I’ll help you dispose of your issue,” Astraya said, “I know you didn’t think this far. What are you going to do with her body?”

Tom hesitated. She was right. He hadn’t thought this far. He was just so focused on killing her, he didn’t think about anything else. He scowled. “Fine.”

Astraya let out a giddy laugh. “Yay! Well then, you best be on your way back to your apartment.”

Tom walked past Astraya, opening the door to the apartment. “Oh, and Tom?” Astraya called.

He turned around to her, “What?”

“Next time you do this,” She turned her head towards him, straight-faced. Her eyes reflected bright blue because of the hallway light coming into the room. It gave her a scary look, “Don’t expect me to clean up your mess.”

Then she smiled. Tom stumbled out of the room, shutting the door behind him and running back to his apartment.