Lights, Camera, Action!

Chapter 31: Thoughts

To say that Beauty owed the Forest assassins a debt of gratitude would be a mistake. Mostly because if you mention the word debt around her now, you'll end up wishing someone owed you their life. However the CEO was very grateful to the pair for obtaining this much needed money for the studios. Beauty soon set to work, as well as getting Sarah and Petal to help her, the latter of whom would be free once Amy was found, organising how much money went where and when.

Still, that left Honey free to wander. She had no obligations to anyone now that the job was done and filming remained postponed until further notice. Probably until all that money had been sorted out. It was a hefty sum of gold and the assassin reasoned that a couple of hundred missing wouldn't make a difference. Honey patted her pockets happily as the money jingled as she walked. With that amount she could probably get quite a bit of beer for herself and food for her friends. Her street friends, not the entitled, well-off people at the studios who she desperately tried to convince herself were her friends. Except Sonic, he would always be her friend. And Branch... And Athena. Okay, so she had a few people she considered friends.

She knew perfectly well that Shadow, Sliver, Starlight, Amy and Blaze also considered her their friend, or acquaintance in Pinkeyes's case, but Honey struggled greatly to feel like one of them. In many ways, she had every right to be. She was just as smart as the Twins, as pretty as Blaze, as traumatised as Amy plus Shadow's girlfriend. Yet that was part of the problem. That she put Shadow last when really he should be reason number one. The truth was, she'd never really felt as though she was his girlfriend. Anything he had thought he felt for her had been fake, misdirected true feelings he had for someone else.

Honey stood by the lake just outside the studios for a moment to take in her reflection. She was astoundingly gorgeous with caramel coloured skin, long golden locks and sapphire blue eyes. She was also in good shape with a toned stomach and strong arms. Honey was deceptively strong. She could easily pick up a good twenty to thirty adults in her arms of any weight. The muscles in her arms were also well defined and visible whenever she needed to strain them slightly. The deceptiveness came from her use to handling objects or people thrice her bodyweight so normal objects or people lighter than her didn't require her muscles to appear. If you were taking her on first appearance, Honey was the most beautiful person alive. Even on the tenth look at her, your opinion wouldn't change. Her legs were long and lean giving her a good height and her skin was smooth. Honey could keep the charade up for as long as she liked, it was of no difficulty for her.

If you looked close enough however, you would see the scars and cuts. The ones that ruined the image and vanished the appeal. No one wants a gorgeous, handcrafted, cheap but cracked vase when you can have a semi-pretty, professionally made, overpriced but whole vase instead. For the cracks destroy the value of the vase despite them making the vase what it is. It also means that the cracked vase is less fragile because it still remains despite sustaining damage. The whole vase could be very fragile and shatter upon the slightest impact. A waste of money.

"Boo!" A pair of amber eyes suddenly popped up beside her in the lake. Honey was grateful for the both of them that they hadn't put her hands on her shoulders to scare her, that would ultimately lead in them losing their hands.

'Think of the Devil.' Honey thought to herself. "Hello Blaze." She spoke aloud, turning her eyes to look at her reflection. "Can I help you?" The actress didn't look like she was in any kind of distress.

Blaze shook her head. "Not really, just wanted to chat." She smiled at the assassin without realising her immediate discomfort. Honey hated the way people felt the need to interact and socialise with the people they have talked to before.

Still, Honey kept the mask on. "About what?" She hoped it would be quick and Blaze would go away.

Instead, she sat down beside the lake and looked up at the clouds. "Not sure, I am curious as to why you are looking deeply into these watery depths though." There was laughter in her voice that annoyed Honey to an extent but she knew it wasn't to be taken as mocking, only mere curiousity.

Honey grinned at her as a thought came forward. "Well you know what they say: Curiousity killed the cat." As if to add menace to her words, the assassin stroked the curve of her scimitar.

Blaze looked totally unfazed by the quiet threat Honey posed. "True, but the full saying goes: 'Curiousity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back.' So I wish to be satisfied with the knowledge of what you are thinking." Honey hadn't expected that from her so decide to indulge the actress for a few moments more.

Sitting down beside her, she wondered if Blaze had any cracks in her vase at all. She may have had a drop earlier in life but that didn't seem to have caused any damage. Blaze appeared perfectly at ease with what happened to her and Amy could deal with her mother in a very effective way. Even Petal and Beauty herself had kind of healthy methods beside violence to deal with what happened with Shift. Shadow also looked fine although Honey struggles to see what he had to complain about. It looked like she was the only one who still awoke from brief sleep in a cold sweat with a rapid pulse and desire to kill.

"You don't want to know my thoughts." Honey stated eventually, realising herself to be quiet for far too long. It was true though even if her companion frowned, no one really cared to know about her.

Blaze opened her mouth to protest but both girls were silenced by a chime from their phones. Surprised, they both checked their messages to see Starlight had sent them both the exact same message. 'Please fill out this survey to help us improve the quality of our lives. Thank you.' Beneath it was a link to a survey the Twins or just Starlight herself had created. "Is this a regular occurrence?" Blaze asked, proving that she was still fairly new here.

Honey shrugged her shoulders. "Depends what it's going to be about." She opened the link and the greeting title made her heart sink to the bottom of her shoes. God, she was going to kill the Twins, or Shadow maybe. Or whichever idiot decided this would be a good topic for a Friday afternoon. Beside her, Blaze was oblivious to her seething as she tapped away at her screen, compliantly filling it in. "You're seriously doing it?!" Honey questioned, near exploding.

Blaze looked up, slightly startled by her tone. "Of course, the Twins took time out of their busy day to create this for us. It would be incredibly rude if we did not." Honey nearly laughed for sometimes she could see Blaze as a friend and then she said something like that and it made her want to strangle her.

"Well, I can live with being rude." She snapped as she got to her feet and took off quickly down the hill, ignoring Blaze's confused calls.

"Honey? HONEY! What's wrong?" Yet the actress remained where she was, causing the assassin to smirk. See? No one really cared enough to come after her. Which was absolutely fine by her.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, on time. Today is the last day of half-term so I'll be back to school tomorrow. Waaah! I'll hopefully update again tomorrow but the change may push it back a day. I always find whenever Honey appears for it to be very interesting. Adiós.