An Assassin's Death Wish

Thank the Inventor of Skates

I worriedly stumbled back into The Slip. The doors slammed closed behind me. I hobbled past the benches and over to the ice. Once I was at the gate I took off the skates guards and set them down on the side boards. I opened the gate and went onto the ice. 

Mrs. Abascal was my skate coach but since she wasn't there today I decided not to practice my new routine. I just skated around and around and around the rink, not focused enough to try a trick. I watched the clocks tick; time passing by, but not fast enough. My mind raced as I thought about Aspen's overdose, her odd fight with Varian, and the note. It wasn't even close to the meet up time, but I wondered if I should even go. It doesn't seem like a good idea, yet I just want to see who left me the note. What could they possibly want with me? How'd they make a metal capsule do that? And why'd they send me a foxglove necklace?  I pulled out the necklace and twirled it between my fingers as I skated. 

The more I went around the rink, the calmer I felt. I was still a pot boiling over with emotions, but just spilling over a little less. Three hours. Three freaking hours without a call. It's never been this long before. I sighed and just stopped moving my feet. Next thing I knew I was lying in the center of the ice with my shirt and leggings slowly growing colder and damper. I tapped the metal of the skates blades against the ice. I rolled onto my side and pillowed my head with my arms. Stress and tiredness slowly grabbed hold of me and pulled me into the darkness.

~~~~~~

I woke to a brown faux leather boot poking my arm and a familiar voice. "Var, I found her!" 

When I looked up I saw a very ill and sober looking Aspen.  "Jeez, you look like a bus hit you."

She kicked me once more and I sat up. "And you look like you drowned in a fountain. Why didn't you pick up when Varian called you?"

"Oh crap! I'm so sorry! I forgot I left it at the diner." 

She gave me her dirtiest look, but I had to restrain a laugh. "You're an asshole sometimes." She may be only five feet tall, but she liked to think she was twice that. It showed as she stared down at me before helping me up. "I'm going to open up the rink in ten minutes. You staying or going?"

"I'll stay," I skated as she drudged of the ice, "what's my job tonight?"

"Varian volunteered to DJ, so you can either do sales and hand out rental skates or patrol the ice."

"Is your mom coming back anytime soon?"I asked as I put my skate guards back on. 

"No, so you can do your tricks without getting in trouble. She said Rigsy feeling too well after being spayed." She crossed her arms and hugged herself. Rigsy was the kitten the Abascals had adopted about a month ago. "Mom is gonna stay home with her. She doesn't know about earlier..."

I looked down at Aspen and realized she disappointed in herself for taking too many pills again. Her parents already knew she did this frequently and often became helicopter parents when she did. "They won't find out unless Varian says something. Or at least until the hospital tells them."

"Dad probably knows, but he won't be home till later. He won't be concerned since it's all been reversed."

We ambled towards the counter to meet Varian. He glanced up at me and his eyes widened. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He asked furiously, but I just stared, not knowing what was wrong. "Why didn't you pick up? Why are you soaked?" 

After I explained myself he seemed to calm down. All the worrying he was doing just proved the fact that he was so the dad friend, but this didn't seem like a good time for Aspen or me to tease him about it. Aspen and I just looked at each other knowingly while he glared at us. "You two are the worst." He growled, but continued, this time to himself. "Just once, I'd like a day without problems."

"Suck it up, buttercup!" Aspen ordered him. "Now off to the Box with you! Mora, I'll be right back. I'm just gonna clean up the ice." The Box was a small room behind the rows of rental skates that controlled the speakers and music. Varian preferred to DJ then putting on a playlist, so Mrs. Abascal let him do just that as frequently as he wanted. Aspen's mom paid us per hour that we worked there. Without us, she and Aspen would just run the place by themselves, unless it was a particularly busy day then they'd call Chief Abascal to come help.

Varian walked over to his favorite room in the building as I walked to the door and flipped the sign from 'closed' to 'open' as a little chime rang through the building signaling to open shop, but before he disappeared he turned around to call out to me. "Watch her, will you?" I nodded and he closed the door. 

Aspen returned to behind the counter as the first customers started to come through the doors. She pointed to the closet door next to the Box's door. "Put on some clean clothes otherwise you'll freeze."

I made a sound of annoyance before going to the closet and locking it shut behind me. I turned on the light and  pulled down one of the extra uniform shirts that was my size and a pair of black shorts I left here for the nights I work here. After swiftly changing, I yanked the string to turn the lightbulb back off and exited the dark closet with my skates in hand and my necklace tucked back into my shirt. I nodded to Aspen and she handed me a bag that I put the sopping clothes into. I grabbed my skate bag that was near one of the benches and put the new bag into it before bringing it behind the counter and dropped at the end of a row of shelves. I sat down by the bag and yanked on my skates before not so gracefully walking back over to the ice. 

Before going on the ice, I put the skate guards in my back pocket. I went onto the ice and went back to the same routine as earlier, but this time I wasn't the only one on the ice and there was now music blasting instead of my worried thoughts playing on a loop. I broke the pattern every now and then to preform a few Salchows, flips, and Axels in the center of the rink. Every now and then I'd have to pick a sad little kid up, but they were easy to cheer up. All you had to do was skate with them a little or dance with them on the ice. I spent most of the night whizzing past the customers who were all wearing green paper bracelets while debating whether or not to listen to the tiny metal note.