Lucy, the Sky and the bloody Diamonds

Lucy

"Lucy has poisoned my rum again, Romy! I told you she is trying to kill me!" Madame yelled for my boss at the top of her smoke ravaged lungs ending up in a coughing fit. 

Boss was probably down in some private room negotiating with the alcohol smuggler to hear this walking tobacco sponge shriek.

And Madame soon realised that. But she decided to scream again.

"Romy!"

However, this time it was not for him, but for me to realise that she was the only person who called Boss by that name. And that had ought to mean something.

Precisely the reason why she always smirked at me after pulling the stunt that she did every single night. It was a drill. So much so that none of the customers in The Mist even turned their heads to look at what the matter was anymore.

"Madame, I have no clue why you think I would try to poison you but like I tell you every night that there is absolutely nothing in it for me!" I said. Frustrated to the roots of my hair.

For heaven's sake! She was an out-of-business brothel Madame. She wore the same moth-eaten velvet coat every single night and her fake jewellery had started to rust! She had nothing worth selling that I would drug her drink and rob her in the alley behind The Mist. 

Not even her organs. They were all dying. There was a reason black market smugglers left her alone. 

But Madame was not having any of it. She narrowed her eyes at me. "I have known bitches like you all my life. You lot are so desperate; you can lick out cash even if it's from down the gutter." She spat out.

"Well, you need real cash for that, don't you?" I smiled. "What I can pawn off you wouldn't even pay half my rent. You give yourself too much credit if you think you have any real money."

Someday I would actually down an entire bottle of rat poison in her rum. Or better yet directly chug it down her throat. No matter how expensive rat poison was these days. 

She gave out a throaty laugh mocking me for undermining her. She moved closer looking at me the same way every brothel madame looked at any young innocent girl. A threat to lower my gaze.

She even whispered for effect, "If this was a few years back you wouldn't have dared to open that little mouth of yours. But just because I am not who I used to be anymore does not mean I won't break your teeth if you talk to me like that again."

"If this was a few years back, you would be begging at my feet for charity." I said.

I could go on and on about the kind of person I was before the world collapsed but we both knew all I was right now was a bartender at The Mist, serving drinks and cleaning their dirty glasses. A pathetic girl who could not afford to lose her job because she showed this snarky little bitch her place.

And Madame knew that very well. Her lips curved in a malicious grin. Like always, she had won this time too. We both knew that.

"Make me a drink with a new sealed bottle. In front of me." She demanded slapping her hand on the bar counter.

I simply nodded placing a sealed bottle in front of her. It took everything in me to not slam it on her wrinkled hand instead. Come to think of it the sound of her frail old bones getting crushed would be worth every misery in the world.

Preparing another neat glass of rum, I handed it to her.

"Taste it." She sneered.

I unwillingly took a sip of the disgusting dark rum she liked. It tasted as bad as her gaudy red lipstick looked. Madame waited for a good five minutes to see if my mouth started frothing.