Messed Up

6 - Sad

"You tried to save my life. And I like your hair"

I furrowed my brow at Cassandra's comment.

"Hold on a second" I said. "What do you mean I 'tried' to save your life? I did save your life"

The blonde girl only giggled. "Are you kidding?" she laughed. "I obviously knew he was there. I'm not stupid"

I stared at her. "D'you have a death wish or something, chick?"

She just shrugged.

"Is that all of them?" The Commander shouted from the other end of the room. Not that he needed to shout, his voice was loud enough. I just think he enjoyed being authoritative.

"Yeah" Scout confirmed. "Let's go, before the cops get here"

The five of us picked up the heavy bags of cash that the gang members had left behind and got back into our tiny, ugly car. The Commander drove off at top speed - I had to give it to him, he was a pretty decent driver - and within an hour we were sat back inside The Observatory, counting the cash.

"Amazing job" Solomon said, his eyes wide with shock and greed. "I didn't expect you all to do so well"

"You mean you expected us to get killed?" I scowled.

"No..no, I-" Solomon insisted.

"We're a great team" Zoe grinned. I raised my eyebrow at her comment. I'd never been part of a team before.

I stood up from my seat, my chair making a chilling squeaky noise as it dragged across the metal floor.

"Is that it?" I asked bluntly. "Are we done?"

Solomon smiled as he handed me a briefcase that contained my pay. "I'll be in touch, Shiv"

I just nodded curtly and walked out without looking back.

I trundled down the street, heading home from The Observatory. I was almost disappointed that the job was over so quickly. I hadn't had so much fun in a long time.

I was nearly home when my phone buzzed in the pocket of my jacket. I pulled it out and flipped it open to see it was Antonio calling, probably to see if I was still breathing or not.

I pressed the phone to my ear. "What's up?"

"Shiv! You're alive!"

"Of course I'm fucking alive. And what are you, my dad?"

Antonio chuckled nervously. "I was kinda worried"

"I appreciate the sentiment, but all you were worried about was where your next wad of cash was coming from" I scowled.

"True"

"Is that all you wanted?"

"Yeah. Get in touch if you need anything, Shiv"

I grunted and hung up before shoving the phone back in my pocket.

By the time I'd finished my pointless conversation with Antonio, I'd reached my apartment. I put the rusty key into the rusty lock and pushed the door open, welcoming the smell of cigarette smoke that had been lingering in the air ever since I'd moved in.

I collapsed on to my arm chair and kicked off my boots. I grabbed my TV remote and checked if it had batteries in it, I couldn't remember because it had been months since I'd turned on the damn thing. I clicked the ON button and the news station lit up on the screen.

'GANG OF BANK ROBBERS FOUND DEAD AT THE SCENE OF ROBBERY' was the headline plastered across the channel, this was bound to be the talk of the town for ages. Exciting shit like this never happened around here.

I switched off the TV and put a cigarette between my lips before lighting it and inhaling. Sure, I was a bit bummed out that the job was over and sure I was interested in why Zoe would call us a 'team' - like a bunch of criminals could ever be called that, we're not girl scouts - but what I couldn't get out of my head was that damn girl.

I didn't fancy her or anything like that, sure she was pretty, but she wasn't my type. But just because I wasn't romantically attracted to her, didn't mean she didn't massively peak my interest.

I'd never met anyone so happy-go-lucky in my line of work. Of course, she was agonizingly annoying, but she was an expert at what she did. She took out most of the guys that we were after, and still had time to mess around.

She literally murdered about ten people in cold blood, and giggled like a little girl five seconds afterwards.

Who was she? And why had I never heard of her before?

I just sighed and relaxed back into my chair.

"Chill out, Levi" I mumbled to myself. "It's not like you'll ever see her again anyway"

And just then, I almost felt sad.