A Rift in Relations

Chapter Three

Like any job Aries did, it was always done meticulously. He allowed for no snags in his plans to be caught. Arriving at the location of his current contract was just the first step. The first actual issue he'd have to deal with was getting into the contract's room. Aries liked to consider himself a smart man, smart enough to get past a receptionist at a hotel anyway. When he found out that she had holed herself up in a hotel, any ideas of physical torture were out the window.

The ambiance of the hotel was nicer than most, incredibly bright with white marble floors. Aries stepped up to the front desk and put on his best act. "Excuse me, miss? I'm afraid I lost the room key for my girlfriend's room. Do you happen to have a spare?"

The woman at the desk looked up uninterestedly from her computer over her glasses. "Mhm, and what might the room number be?"

"Five oh five."

She typed on the computer for a minute. "Name?"

"Hm?"

"Who's name is the room registered under?" Aries took a few seconds to think, recalling the name on the contract.

"Maria Smith." She nodded and dug around in the front desk a bit. Aries thought fast before she could do anything that would cause any problems, he cleared his throat and spoke once more, his voice laced with a demonic seduction, "If you would actually just hand me the key, she's not supposed to know I'm visiting her. It's a surprise."

When she turned to grab the spare key off the hook, her eyes glazed over and acting through his words alone. He felt slightly better about using his influence over her when he wasn't entirely lying to her. It was a bit of a surprise but not one many people would expect. Certainly not one Maria would expect. If there was one part of this job that Aries enjoyed it was interactions such as this. It reminded him and any others who would care to pay attention that he had more power than them, that he was better than them.

As he waited for the elevator to reach the fifth floor, he put on some medical grade latex gloves. If he didn't want himself getting caught, as if he had in the past, and potentially ruining everything he had going for himself. When the chime rang signaling that he was on his floor, he stepped out. His eyes immediately went to the room numbers, if he had accidentally eliminated the wrong person it could be disastrous. Upon approaching it, he thought for a moment, if doing this was really worth it. He shook the thought from his head, why was he having second thoughts now of all times? He'd been doing this for years and hadn't had a problem, so why now?

He unlocked the door with the key and stepped inside, initially finding no one around. On further inspection he found that the bathroom door was closed. So she must be in there, unsuspecting, such a shame. Aries moved to sit on the edge of the bed in the room, crossing one of his legs over the other. He took a moment to check the time on his watch once more. It had only been an hour since he had left. Something about waiting for his victim to come out of the bathroom made him feel somewhat close to her. Almost as if he was a doting boyfriend waiting for her to come out and let him take her for a night on the town.

That wasn't on the agenda for tonight, though. Perhaps if he had gotten to know her, he might like her in some sense of the word. The sound of the door opening grabbed his attention and his head snapped towards that direction, his hair moving gently from the quick movement. He watched with baited breath as Maria stepped out. She seemingly hadn't noticed him, moving to go directly to the dresser in front of him instead. Grabbing a pair of shorts out of the top drawer. He stood up to stand directly behind her, making almost no noise save for the ruffling of the sheets as he adjusted his weight.

When Maria turned around she inhaled sharply, shocked at the sight of the man in front of her. "Who- who are you?" She stuttered out, "D-don't make me mace you."

"Oh sweetheart, mace won't do a thing." Aries chuckled condescendingly, placing his hands on either side of her waist on the dresser, effectively caging her between himself and the furniture. He could see the fear in her eyes, it was pleasing, a sight he rather enjoyed. "And just to make sure you don't go thinking you can escape..." A snap of his fingers locked the door, she turned to the door and back to him, a look of confusion clear as day on her face. "I can assure you, you won't be able to unlock it. I know, I know, it's a manual lock that in theory you should be able to undo from the inside, right?"

Maria nodded hesitantly, not sure if she should play along with the man in front of her or really try to make a break for it. He removed his left hand from the dresser and motioned for her to attempt. Being the panic stricken woman she was, she decided to bolt for it, calling his bluff on the door. She grasped the lock with her entire palm and felt a searing pain, letting out an ear piercing scream before collapsing to her knees and clutching her hand, looking to him in fear for her life as if he would take some kind of pity on her.

"Tsk tsk tsk, should've just listened to me." Aries said, walking over to her and squatting to get eye level with her, watching as her eyes began to water up from the terror and pain she was feeling. He ran his right forefingers across her jaw, the action almost intimate. He stopped under her chin and tilted her head up towards his. Leaning in for what she guessed to be a kiss until he grabbed her by the wrist with his left hand and threw her to the other side of the room, hearing a crack of what he assumed to be one bone or another from the impact. "Now look what you've gone and made me do. You brought this on yourself you know."

"What do you want from me?" Maria managed to scream through the sobs of pain. Aries chuckled, taking long strides to her and kicking her roughly in the ribs, hearing another crack. If he did too much she would pass out from the pain, or she would have a punctured lung from her ribs. The goal wasn't to kill her, per se. The goal was to reap her. Maria looked in his eyes to try and find any sign of remorse or sympathy, instead she was met with the inhuman orange glow of something else. "What-"

"You have a contract over your head, and I'm simply here to fulfill that contract." Aries explained, it wasn't too much of a loss for him, not like she could tell anyone. She'd be dead in minutes anyway. He sat her up by her shoulders and placed a tender kiss on her forehead, an action he did for almost all of his contracts, unsure of when exactly he started. The action itself served as something of a kiss of death before he truly went for the kill. He looked over her tearstained features, finding that she was actually rather beautiful. "As much as it doesn't pain me to do this, I have to."

Aries then grabbed her throat and squeezed with immense pressure, something no human would be able to do with little ease. Shortly after he saw her begin to turn red from lack of oxygen, he reached a hand to her chest and reached through, as if there wasn't a barrier of muscle and bone separating her organs from him. When he pulled his hand back out there was a bright ball in it. She watched in horror as she slowly began to lose any and all control of her body, falling limp in front of her killer. Aries took out a small vial and stuffed the ball in there and pocketed it to send to Fane later. The job of being a debt collector was never clean or kind, but it was enough to keep him out of his own debt.