Lucky and the Killer ✔

Sides

King stood outside of the palace yards and just out of sight. There was nothing anyone could do to get to Lucky while she was there, so he turned his back and looked away. Besides, it wouldn't be long until he'd confront Gray. He didn't take double agents lightly, and King wasn't stupid enough to be left in the dark on what Gray'd done.

He rubbed his hands through his loose hair and slapped his hand against the purple tree bark beside him. His hand came back with bits of dirt and pieces of wood embedded in it here and there, but he started walking without so much as bothering to wipe it off.

"I've got to find him," he muttered, "that son of a bitch."

"You won't have to look far," Gray called from across the woods. "They couldn't pay me to stay on Earth. I hate that place. Anyway, hello, King. Miss me?"

King reached into his pocket for his gun. He pulled it out and pointed it in the right direction. Their people weren't any more exempt from blades and guns than the humans, and he'd done messed up by showing where he was. He pulled the trigger on the gun and fired without delay.

The shot echoed through the trees. Birds, if you could call them that, fluttered from their homes among the purple leaves. He dodged. There was a reason he worked with Gray. He wasn't too bad of a shot himself.

"You went against orders," King snarled.

"No," Gray said as he hopped around him with a gun of his own, "I believe you have me mixed up with someone else. Oh, you?"

"Just because I don't kill irrationally doesn't mean I'm going against what needs to be done," King said and hurled another shot off in the other direction.

"No, it's because you're sparing murderers irrationally," Gray said and fired a shot of his own. "She should have died last night, and you know it."

King jumped to the right and rolled against the trunk of a tree. He didn't want to hurt Gray, either. Sometimes he wondered just what type of assassin he really was. Perhaps Gray had a point. Maybe he should have already killed them both.

"How do you know she's a murderer?"

"Look at her!" Gray screamed and let off a flurry of three more bullets, all of which weren't easily dodged by King. "How can you ask that? She's dead King! Letting her go...it'll be like you killed her yourself. You had the chance, and you wussed out. You're no better than they are, and I'm going to kill you, too."

"Now, now, boys settle down," a woman's voice called out from the tree beside King, "Gray? Hold your fire."

Gray bit his mouth until he drew blood. He slammed his head against the back of his current hiding-tree and re-holstered his gun. He shut his eyes and took in deeper breaths.

King knew the voice, too, and so, he didn't move. It was the only woman in the entire district equal to them in both skill and mental prowess. He knew better than to start a fight with her there. Besides, gentility was not dead in him.

"He's answering to you now?" King asked.

"Well," she said with folded arms across that buxom chest of hers, "how could he very well answer to you after all of that? You let him down, King."

King shook his head, "Gray doesn't have a right to go behind my back."

"He has a right to go behind yours and anyone else's that will stand in the way. Looks like you need to go back to the cemetery and remember a few things."

"Bringing Lucky back alive was the smartest move we could have made," King snapped. "If Gray had followed through as ordered, both Lucky and Zee would be dead now."

"You're weak for her, King," the woman sighed. "Admit it. Who did you love more...Lucky or Liz?"

King gritted his teeth. He could see their tombstones in his mind—row by row in a field on the western edge of town. They'd had to bury them alone. For a long time, it wasn't even tombstones. It was just patches of dirt after patches of dirt. They'd dumped their bodies in a pile that day. One after another, limp arms and legs flailed over the open eyes and mouths of the dead. He remembered. He never forgot. Liz was among them.

"I have absolutely no trouble killing the ones who deserve it," he said, "but I don't believe she was involved. And, until I know, I'm not going to kill her, and you're not either, Valerie."

Valerie smiled. The sun danced through the leaves on the trees and cast crescent shadows over her plum lips. She blended into the forest like she'd been born there. She always wore plum and never red. She preferred shadowy places—and cooler colors.

"I have the proof you need," Valerie said. "You need only follow me. After all, King, you and I are on the same side of this. You know what they did to Luxor, and I know what they did to Liz."

King watched the smile on her face vanish and her arms uncross. Were they really? It wasn't like he could forget Luxor, though. He and Valerie were inseparable—even before they armed themselves and spilled anyone's blood. She loved him, but he loved revenge more than she did. It got him killed on center stage that day. He'd begged. He'd screamed out her name before he died like he did. Lucky couldn't. She wouldn't do that. She couldn't have had a say like the others. He doubted there would be any real proof, but he couldn't turn down the opportunity to see what she had.

"Proof?" he asked.

"Come with me," Valerie said with her icy eyes. "Or do you just not want to know the truth?"

King stared at her hard before reluctantly putting the gun back into his coat. The wind chilled around them, and Gray hopped down from his tree and began walking up to his new boss.

"It's for the best, King," he said and cast his eyes down to their dancing shadows on the dirty, forest floor. "Trust me on this one."

King looked at his friend. Gray'd never been one to fight. Before they all died that day, before things got bad, he used to be a farmer kid. He sat on mounds of dirt, chewing on grass, and sweating like a pig. The green grass used to make him smile, but all it ever did anymore was remind them all of what was underneath it.

"Where is this proof?" King asked.

"This way," Valerie sighed and started to walk. "Really, King, whose side are you on?"

"Nobody's."