The Bounty

Don't Take The Job

  Cauline was sitting in her mother's living room. She hadn't told her of the strange letter, and she wasn't going to. If the man was true to his every word, she wasn't going to see her family for a while, she was going to simply tell her she was going on a long bounty that would have her leave town. The planet, maybe, Hell! She didn't know. She just had to make sure that her mother wouldn't have the whole city searching for her if she missed Family dinner.

  While swimming in her thoughts, her mother walked out from the kitchen holding two mugs. Cauline's mother was thin with thick white hair, much like her daughters. People would often confuse it for old age and her mother would always say: "Right now my hair porcelaine white, soon it'll be a silver charm gray making me more valuable and beautiful than I already am." You guess you could say that Cauline get's her confidence from her mother. Austina smiled softly as she sat down beside me and spoke calmly, she almost sounded tired. "What was the important news..?"

  Cauline took a deep breath, her mother was understanding, she loved that about her. She also had a knack for always being right, and if she opposed of this, Cauline wasn't sure what she was going to do.

  "Momma . . . there's a bounty assignment that i was specifically asked for . . ." Tell her the truth, show her the letter! One side of her shouted. No! She'll freak! The other countered. At the moment it was a one on one boxing match. In one corner, it was Not Wanting Her Mother's Stress Levels Going up, and in the other corner it was Love And Honesty. Caulie wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but she continued on anyways.". . . and it's going to be really dangerous . . ." Love and Honesty ducked a knock out punch from Her Mother's Stress Levels."It says that I may not even come back alive." Love and Honesty spurred around and upper cutted Her Mother's Stress Levels. Ding, ding, ding, Cauline decided to tell the truth.

  Cauline took a deep breath and produced the letter from her bag and slowly handed it over to her mother. Austina pushed up her lime green glasses and unfolded it slowly, the same as her daughter did when she first received it. Cauline frowned as she remembered how fast of a reader her mother was. Before Cauline could let out a word, Austina turned to her, fear rimmed her eyes.

  "Who sent this to you?" She demanded. Austina stood up, gripping the damned letter in her hand, Cauline stood up, too. "I don't know, Momma. I came to tell you I'm meeting with him today. He's going to pay me enough money so you can spend the rest of your days in comfort,"

  "'I will not lie, there is almost a hundred percent chance of you dying on this conquest'!" She stated from the letter. "Cauline Michelle Gilman, I refused to let you take this bounty! And for what? So that I won't have to work another day in my life?"

  "Yes!" she exclaimed. "Momma, I've seen you take your pain medication, I've seen you look so weak and worn out . . ." Cauline took her mother's hands as she mother shook her head towards the ground.

  "I can't lose you, I've promised myself, I would let nothing happen to you. I . . ." she trailed off as she broke into tears. Cauline hugged her mother, giving her a shoulder to cry own. She heard footsteps and the sound of her siblings poking their messy heads out from the top of the staircase. She saw Suki start to tear up and even heard a small whimper, he was the soft one of the group. She saw Mira who hid behind Suki along with Haden. He looked down, tears threatening to fall from his face. And then Owen, Lana, and Caleb gave me questioning looks, silently asking their sister what happened. She shook her head, saying it wasn't a good time. Jorgia apparently hadn't seen Cauline telling them not to get close because crept downstairs and hugged her mother from behind. Austina slowly looked down and patted her child's head and then up at the others. She sighed deeply. She looked back at her eldest who at one point was the youngest and cupped her face.

  "What will they do without you?" She whispered. Cauline had been taken off guard by the question. She felt her heart throb and she blinked back tears, she wasn't going to crying in front of her brothers and sisters.

  "I'm not gonna leave them, Momma. I'm not going to leave you . . . I'll be safe, I promise." Cauline whispered. She took the letter from her mother's trembling hands and stowed it away in her bag. She walked over to the stairs and opened her eyes. "I'll be gone for a long while guys, take care of Momma for me." Cauline was then swarmed with seven fourteen year olds. She wrapped her arms around them as best as she could and purred. The seven of them purred along with her. She took turns handing out kisses and giving advice. She waved as she walked out the red door and onto her hover bike. Caulien swung her leg over onto the other side and revved up the engine. The engine roared to life. Cauline flashed her family a warm smile and pulled on her helmet and shot upward. Next stop: Julie's Diner.

  Julie's Diner was a restaurant back in the 80's on the Dead Planet. It had a checkerboard flooring, candy red booths with black or white tables. There was a bar with the same candy red stools. Here, waiters would hand the orders to the cooks and where people could lounge if they didn't have friends and didn't want to take up a whole booth to themselves. The waiters wore black red pants and a checkerboard shirt with waist aprons. The waitress wore a checkerboard skirt that went to their knees and a white blouse. The place even had that large colorful music player, a jukebox. It played all types of old songs that was popular on the Dead Planet. Cauline's favorite had to be Miss Jackson, by Panic at the Disco. She didn't know who they were, but man where they good!

  Cauline parked her bike right outside the red doors. She was introduced to wonderful air condition as it was getting hot outside and Cauline didn't feel like wearing less clothing than she was already wearing. She paused and looked around. It was 3:02 and she didn't see anyone that could've sent her the letter, just the usuals that hung out here. Then her favorite waitress, Nat, approached her. She had pale skin and pink hair and pink eyes, despite Cauline's hatred for pink, she couldn't help but to smile at her adorable nature. Nat was shorter than her and more petite, she adorned a small smirk as she spoke.

  "Some hot guy is expecting you, hunting men now, are we?" Nat nudged Cauline's side and wiggled her brows.

  "As if," Cauline scoffed. "It's strictly business, if you must know." Cauline began to follow the smaller female, it was hard to believe she was eighteen.

  "Yeah, yeah," Nat gestured over to a table where a young man sat. Although Nat had said a fancy guy, this man didn't look fancy at all. He wore a black leather jacket and a simple red V-neck shirt. His hair was dark chocolate mess, his man bun suggested he was rushing. He wore black kombat boots and black pants tucked into them. His face was rugged looking. A chiseled chin and freshly shaved face, she could smell the shaving cream. His dark eyes stared down at the table as his thin lips curved downward into a frown. By his posture he seemed uncomfortable here.

  Cauline looked at Nat who was smirking. "What?" she asked the pink haired pest.

 "You're staring." she chuckled.

  "I'm analyzing, go clean a table or something," Cauline huffed as she approached the table, as she did so she realized a few more things. He had on a gun holster and a thigh sheath for holding blades. His fingers glinted through his fingerless gloves like they were metal. The last thing she noticed he was holding a red envelope. The same exact one that was delivered to her, only except, this one was addressed to him.

  As casual as can be, Cauline slid into the booth on the other side of the man. He looked up and their eyes met.

 " ' Afternoon." Cauline mumbled and stuck out her hand. "I'm Cauline Gilmen."

  I'm sorry for just leaving this off like that, but I has planned to write something before we continues on in the story, it's the next chapter and completely relevant to everything. To be completely honest, I just didn't wanna write it in the same chapter, so till next time! Please vote and comment. If you like the story so far go ahead and add it to your library so you know when it gets updated!

 ~Quyn-Chan~