Take It All Away

Stars Above

The night was dark, just like the expressions that passed across her face, fear not being the least of them. She also felt doubt, hesitance, rebellion, but mostly resignation.

And defeat.

For this was her last chance at doing something worthwhile. Something good, so others would look at her and no longer see a worthless, useless, waste of time. Maybe I can die in peace, she allowed herself a small smile as she stepped into the shadows of the even darker alley.

Her foot tapping on the dirty pavement was the only sound for miles, as city traffic had faded long ago, and the rush of bat wings no longer bothered with this lonely soul. Even they knew better than to waste their time on the no-good runt of society.

When a figure stepped up behind her, his nose nuzzling the side of her neck, she froze and swallowed hard. "You're late," she managed to say beyond the pounding of her heart.

"You're early. Did you bring what I asked?" the man in a long black trench coat came around the front of her, his face still masked by swirling shadows, a lock of his jade fringe peeking out from under a hood, and his accent thick with its usual foreignness. It always caused a shiver to run down her spine.

"Yes," she slid the bag from her shoulder, letting the weight fall to the ground and she knelt to unzip it. Reaching inside, she pulled out the object, staring at the cold and lifeless piece of metal before handing it to him. But before letting go, she hesitated. "Your end of the deal?"

"Oh, of course," he chuckled, a humorless sound that bounced eerily off the blind buildings and dumpsters. "You will be richly rewarded, my dear," and with that, he reached into his coat and pulled out a disc that glinted strangely in the absence of light. "Thank you for saving my world, and destroying yours in the process." He snatched the metal from her grasp at the same time as releasing the disc in a dizzying blur of cyclic motion.

It spun silently, embedding itself in its target, and her last thought as she watched blood seeping through her favourite white shirt, was that maybe peace was a treasure eluding everyone but the saints in the stars above.
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Ok, so I know that was a little random, but it's a part of my other story Too Many Words, chapter 62. It will make sense in that chapter, but I thought it was pretty neat on its own too ☺️☺️