Dark Secrets

Deals

     It was a slow day and Mercury was privileged to head home early. Though it was actually the fact that her boss had died suddenly and the business needed to grieve that she was sent home, not the slow day. Mercury never said that her boss' death wasn't sudden to her. She had seen it coming weeks ago. Those who knew of the affair thought her silence was sadness. Again, she did not state otherwise.

     She walked home hours earlier than usual and found the sky much lighter than she was used to. The stars were just barely visible, not that she cared. She continued on home, her skin and stomach rumbling with need. She hadn't eaten since that pig's head in Dahlia's dressing room three weeks earlier. But she couldn't get anything now, it was much too early for creatures to be roaming about. So she headed on home to wait for nightfall when she could hunt in peace.

     What she found on her doorstep when she arrived at her apartment made her feel absolutely nothing. She simply stopped halfway up the stairs politely and blinked until she was noticed.

     Dahlia looked up from her phone and squinted at Mercury before a smile split her lips. "I thought I'd have to wait a lot longer."

     With the niceties out of the way, Mercury sidestepped Dahlia and the box beside her. "What do you want?"

     "You haven't been to the lounge."

     "No. I haven't." Mercury stepped into her apartment, leaving Dahlia outside. "Goodbye."

     Dahlia stopped the door with her foot. "Aren't you going to invite me inside?"

     "No."

     "If you invite me inside and let me stay awhile, I'll give you what's in this box." Dahlia held the box out in hopes that it would entice.

     Mercury made no move to open the door any wider. "What's in it?"

     Dahlia lifted the lid to reveal an assortment of small, live animals, sickly and on the verge of death. Rats, ferrets, rabbits, gerbils. Mercury thought a second then allowed Dahlia entrance.

     "Your place is... minimalist," said Dahlia when she stepped into the small living room. There was a two person couch there facing a dizzying blank wall and nothing more. There was a table off to the side nearer to the kitchen with two chairs. She angled her body to see into the kitchen, which wasn't hard since the apartment wasn't all that big, and failed to see a toaster, coffee maker, blender, or even pots or pans. Those things could have been hidden in a cabinet, but Dahlia guessed not. The microwave, she guessed again, must have come with the apartment.

     Mercury was in the kitchen, box of goodies on the counter, and she plucked a not nearly fat enough gerbil. "Yes," she responded before tearing the animal in half with her teeth.

     Dahlia turned to not have to watch the display. She glanced back only once to point to the hall, where she assumed the bathroom was. Mercury only blinked, blood running down her chin.

     The bathroom was almost as blank as the rest of the apartment, the little room saved by a green bathmat and shower curtain with a pattern Dahlia thought hilarious. The flowers didn't suit Mercury at all. The bathroom seemed a bad joke.

     Dahlia flushed, washed her hands, and, not finding a towel to dry them, went in search for one. Mercury was still eating in the kitchen so Dahlia continued on elsewhere. She elbowed open a hall closet only to find it bare and smelling of dried paint, the place obviously not been in use. She poked her head into the only other room and found a towel hanging on the door. As she dried her hands, she looked around curiously. It was a bedroom, clearly, but not a well put together one. There was a single bedside drawer that sat next to a bare mattress lying on the floor. Dahlia made a face. The mattress appeared brand new, at least, a pillow top. She stepped into the room to try to figure things out, but there were no pictures, posters, memorabilia, books, or anything of the sort. Not even hidden in the closet, which Dahlia found to be vastly underused.