Bounty Hunter

"Please. I didn't do anything. Don't hurt me please" I watched the asshole beg for his dear life, fuelling that fucked up need in me to kill. Blood rushed through my veins, adrenaline pumping from his every sob, making me eager to end his suffering. I walked away from him, in a bit to calm myself, because while I enjoyed his suffering like the fucking psycho that I am, I wanted it to last longer.

I picked up a pair of pliers and walked back to him. His left eye had already turned dark from my fist repeatedly smashing against it.

"Please, spare my life" he begged further and I ignored his cry. I held him by the hair and forcefully yanked his head backwards, causing him to yell out in pain and granting me access to his mouth, which has been my target.

"You have a fetish for biting women, how about I fix that for you?" I whispered and carefully positioned the pliers on one of his big front teeth. More muffled pleas spurred out from his mouth and again, I ignored it.

I took my time in pulling out his teeth, making his pain last longer and the sound of his screams making me go high. His teeth fully out, I threw it aside and yanked his head backwards, ready to pull out the other big teeth. But I was fast this time and as soon as I was done and releasing his head, the bastard dropped to the ground.

"You have got to be kidding me" I hissed out in annoyance, coming down from my high. I brought my hand to his neck, checking for a pulse and when I couldn't find any, I rolled my eyes.

"Fucking asshole. Couldn't be a man and take all the pain" I cursed out. I stood next to the lifeless body, wondering if it was worth continuing with what I had in store for him or figuring out another means to get off the adrenaline pumping through my veins.

Soon, my phone begins to vibrate. I pull it out of my pocket and answer without looking at the caller ID. Very few people had my private line, so I knew it was someone close to me calling.

"RD" I murmured my signature greeting once the phone was pressed to my ear.

"Why can't you say hello for once, like every other normal person would?" At the sound of Harnoid's voice, I rolled my eyes.

"What do you want?" I hissed out, still very pisssed off at the fact that I couldn't carry out my plans.

"Wow, calm down. I was just calling to make sure you haven't decapitated him" There was amusement in her voice as she spoke and that irked me. Rolling my eyes further, I cursed at her and then hung up the call, trusting that she'll get the hint and send someone to clean up.

I took out a pack of cigarettes from my pocket and lit it, inhaling the smoke and letting it burn my throat. After three more drags, I relaxed.

Shooting one last look at my victim, I cursed again before walking out of the premises, leaving his lifeless body there.

This side of town was known for gang fights, drug traffickers and whatnot, so I wasn't in the least bit worried about the bastard's death being traced back to me. They'll most likely assume it was a gang fight gone wrong. And if there was anything linking me to him, I trust Harnoid to make it disappear.

The night breeze is cooler this time of the year, and some wear jackets, while others opt to wear jeans or long pants. I was dressed in black from head to toe. It's not because I prefer the colour-it's solely because it's harder to see the blood.

Blood likes to splatter.

Blood likes to stain.

If I wore a white shirt, as I have once before, blood is a bitch to get out. It lingers where it's not wanted. And I would end up throwing that shirt out. Doesn't help I can't wash my clothes to save my life. But black, well, it's easier. It's also better for blending in. And now, my wardrobe consists of black for convenience.

I walked towards my car when I caught sight of something. Or rather, someone. A young girl, mostly in her mid-twenties, had a handbag pressed to her chest as she nervously scurried away, every now and then, looking behind to make sure she wasn't being followed.

And then, three men appeared all of a sudden and she fastened her steps. Soon enough, they were catching up with her and she began sobbing.

"Please don't hurt me" was all I heard before I decided it was time for me to step in. My time with the asshole ended sooner than I'd hoped for, but God in his infinite mercy, sent me three more toys to play with.

"Why don't you three boneheads grow some balls and pick on someone your size?" all three of their gazes turn to me while I put off my cigarette.

I felt her scarred gaze on me and I looked past the assholes to her. Her eyes were blue? Perhaps green? I couldn't be certain for sure and it didn't help that she immediately ran away, leaving me with my newest plaything.

"What did you say, dickhead?" one of them questioned as they approached me.

"Three men against one woman is a dick move, especially when she isn't interested" I replied calmly. Adrenaline began to rise again as I anticipated all the ways I was going to end their suffering.

They were quite built, three, maybe four inches taller than me, but I knew I could take them down. It's not about the size, it's all about the technique, and with how they approached me, I knew they didn't have that.

They were thinking it was probably going to be another street fight. You know, the typical exchange of blows here and there, but there were wrong.

As soon as the first one approached me, my knife was slicing with precision through his throat. With the other two, I exchanged a few blows and it's disgraceful to say, none of them got a punch in. Soon enough, my knife punctured through one's neck, causing blood to spatter and landing on my face. And with the other, I aimed for his kneecap.

He screamed and I smiled in relief. I stood up, lit another cigarette and after taking two drags, I walked away in the same direction as the girl, in hopes to figure out the colour of her eyes.

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Zinnia

I stood behind the counter of Brookside Club, bored out of my mind. I watched men in three dollars tailored suits and women in one-dollar cougar-styled dressing walk up to the bar, ordering whiskey on the rocks in an attempt to fit into a lifestyle that isn't meant for them. But this is Brookside, a shitty club on Sunday Avenue.

I returned every smile that was shot my way, even though I was ready to call it a day and return to my one-bedroom apartment and lay my broken bones on my tattered four-poster bed.

"Hey Zinnia, table five wants a double shot of cider" Alex, my co-worker and the closest thing I have to a friend, leaned on the counter as she spoke. I nodded and quickly got the order started. Soon enough, I was walking to table five.

"A double shot of cider for two gentle men." I forced a smile on my face as I placed the drinks on the table. They were far from being gentlemen. Not to be stereotypical, but the overgrown beards on their chin and the look in their eyes came off as perverted to me. And that was confirmed when one of them grabbed my arm when I tried to walk away and pulled me back, ending me on his lap.

"Why are you in a haste, sweetheart? Stay with us for a while and I'll tip large." The man whose lap I sat on, caressed my cheek as he spoke. They burst out in laughter, probably at the lame sexual joke he'd just made. cringe in disgust, bile building in my throat and threatening to spill out.

His hand made contact with my bare thigh and he squeezed hard. Tears welled up my eyes but I blinked them away. They might be perverted, but they tipped well, and God knows how much I needed that tip. Zero pun intended.

His hand moved higher and higher, aiming for the zipper of my denim shorts. I grabbed his hand to stop him, but his free hand yanked my hair backwards, stopping me. I looked around, sending pleading eyes to anyone who could help, but it never came. Brookside was, after all, a club that harbours night workers.

"She's clearly not interested, why don't you let her be and deal with someone interested" I heard Alex's angry voice. I quickly got up from his lap and shot Alex a thankful stare.

"And who might that be?" the man whose lap I sat on a few seconds ago questioned.

"Me, of course." She flashed him a forced smile, then turned to me. "The man at the corner of the room asked for a bottle of Gin, be a darling and tend to him, yeah?"

I gave Alex a questioning stare, asking if she was sure and she replied with an assuring smile. I took off for the bar to get a bottle of Gin before heading to the table to deliver.

A man sat in the corner of the room, his head facing downwards. As I approached, I realised he was dressed in all black. I placed the bottle of Gin on the table with a glass, still, he never looked up, and it didn't help that he wore a face cap. It was impossible to take in his features, and why I cared so much about it was beyond my comprehension.

When I realised he wasn't going to acknowledge me, I decided to leave.

"Why do you let them treat you like that?" his voice stopped me in my tracks. I turned on my feet and gasp when I came face to face with a cold and empty violet stare. His face was expressionless.

"What?" I thought I'd heard him wrong. I rested my weight on one foot and folded my arms, waiting on him to elaborate.

"Why do you let them treat you like that?" he spoke again, this time, opening the bottle of Gin and filling his glass.

I scoffed. "And why do you care?"

"Because." He muttered coldly, bringing the glass to his lips. "I suppose I should treat you like that too, if you want a tip?" He added.

I rolled my eyes at his statement. Clearly, he was just trying to get under my skin, and I refused to fall ever so foolishly into it. I turned, ready to leave when he spoke again.

"Money"...

With a frown on my face, I let out an exasperated sigh and turned, ready to speak when he slid a card towards me.

"For the Gin" he added, poured another glass. "And your tip of course"

"What?"

"That's your tip. Deduct the cost of the Gin and you can use the card to your heart's satisfaction" he murmured blankly.

I chuckled and shook my head in disbelief. This has got to be a sick joke of some kind.

"Cash only" I replied, sliding back the card to him.

"For what? The Gin or the Tip" he replies sinisterly, a smirk creeping up his plump lips.

My mouth shot open. "You-"...

He cut me off as he emptied his glass and rose to his feet, grabbed his jacket and was ready to leave.

"Hey, you have to pay for this"...

He ignored me as he rapidly put on his jacket, fished through his wallet and threw a bill of fifty next to the card and walked past me.

"In case you need to hail a cab to spend your tip" he finalised and walked out on me, leaving me perplexed as I tried to make sense of what just happened.

My eyes did a quick swipe of the room before grabbing the card and the bill of fifty and walking to the counter. I swiped the card through the POS machine and first paid for the Gin.

"Would you look at that, it's loaded" I murmured and stuffed the card in my bag.

Alex walked up to me with a frown on her face and grumbling.

"Fucking assholes. All that touching just to tip five dollars" she slammed the tray on the counter. I pouted, feeling pity for her.

An idea popped up in my mind. "Are you free tomorrow? Let's go shopping"

She rolled her eyes. "Why? You won the jackpot?"

I smiled. "More like, I got a massive tip" I replied, and we both burst into a fit of laughter.

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Zinnia

I walked hand in hand with Alex, skipping like seven-year-old best friends walking to their favourite candy shop. Alex and I met at the park at ten a.m., and at once, we began wisely spending my tip.

After going through Alex's question and answer session, to which most of her questions remained unanswered, we first walked into my favourite coffee shop. We grabbed some Krispy Kreme and chocolate-covered doughnuts, accompanied with coffee, there after, we sat in Alex's car.

I listened as she told me more about herself and her background. When she'd finished, she gave me an it's-your-turn-to-talk-look, to which I shrugged it off.

The truth is, nothing was interesting about my life. Not like Alex's though. She'd willingly run from home at the age of Seventeen when her religious parents forced her to marry the son of another religious family in a bid to hide her sexuality. She didn't want to live a life of misery like her parents, so she chose to run.

Me? I left from foster home to foster home, every home being worse than the last. Until I decided I couldn't take it anymore and ran from my last home at sixteen and changed cities.

I couldn't tell Alex about that. Even though we both worked in a club, her life was different from mine. She had parents she could run to. I had no one.

"Oh, this is the one. Look at those shades, I need it." Alex hurled me into a fashion boutique, a place I'd only ever admired from afar.

The woman at the counter gave us condescending stares and for a split second, I wanted to walk out, but Alex snatched the card out of my hand and waved it in her face. At once, she flashed us the fake welcoming smile she'd spent years practising.

"This way." She led us towards an aisle that had the latest trends in dresses. Whilst she tended to Alex, I walked toward the mannequins on display at the window frame, gawking at a two-piece lingerie.

I trail my hands through the fabric, imagining its silkiness on my skin after a nice hot bath. My phone vibrated, tearing me off my mental daydream.

I looked at the notification bar and frowned at the name 'unknown' written in bold. I tapped on it and read the message.

'Red looks good on you. I can't wait to peel it off that smooth olive skin of yours'

Terror spread through my veins, my heart pounding in my chest as I took in my surroundings, trying to catch anyone in sight who might be stalking me. But I was met with passers-by carrying on with their day-to-day life. I looked around again, and when nothing suspicious came up, I dished out the message to be nothing but a prank or a wrong number.

I met Alex at the counter, a broad smile on her face as she happily went through everything she'd chosen. Everything paid for, I helped Alex carry what she'd bought and we headed for her car.

"Are you sure nothing seemed appealing to you at the shop? I saw you staring at the lingerie set on display." Alex broke the silence in the after she'd turned her car on and put on her seatbelt.

"Yeah. I don't want to abuse it considering I've already used his card to stock my fridge and I still have to pay for my rent with it." I replied and Alex nodded.

"Seems fair."

I looked at Alex and smiled. She was a beautiful woman with thick strands of honey-blonde hair cascading in beach waves over her shoulders. The freckles scattered over her face made her look angelic, but her generic brown eyes and petite, yet sexy figurine told me that she was anything but angelic.

As we rode, the message I'd received kept replaying in my head. What if someone had been stalking me? What if it was that creep from the club yesterday? It would make total sense. But there was no way he could have gotten my number, and I realised I was being paranoid over nothing. Surely, whoever sent that message missed numbers.

The sun was slowly setting behind the clouds and darkness began to journey in. I insisted that Alex drop me off at the park where we'd met. I didn't want her knowing where I lived. Sure, I'd spent the entire day with her, and while I enjoyed her company, I wasn't ready to fully let her into my life.

Thursdays were my day off at the club, so I bid Alex farewell and began to walk down the path to my apartment. It was over three blocks away, however, by the time I reached the building, the sun was nowhere in sight.

With a sigh, I walked into the building, readying myself for the steep stairs that awaited me. After what seemed like an eternity, I made it to my floor and soon, my keys pierced into the doorknob.

I stepped into my apartment and relinquished the smell of honey and vanilla. I dropped my bag on the kitchen counter before plunging my tired and achy body into the couch.

After I'd rested enough from the stairs, I got up and headed for my fridge. I took out the leftover pizza and allowed it to cool off, in hopes to slot it in the microwave after I'd showered up.

Then I grabbed my phone and headed for my bedroom. I walked in and a scream left my lips at the sight of what lay on my bed. It was the red lingerie I admired on the display mannequin from the shop earlier. Next to it, was a bouquet and a bag. I stood still, afraid to approach my bed.

After taking in several breaths, I tiptoed towards my bed. I grabbed the bag and took out everything it contained. More lingerie, only in different colours.

My phone vibrated on me, making me gasp out in fear. I took out my phone and saw I had another message from an unknown number. With shaky hands and strained breath, I tapped on it.

'I noticed you didn't get anything from the shop. So, I got you the lingerie you were staring at and I made sure to get one in every color. I hope you were them for me soon, my little flower'

I threw my phone aside as though it suddenly had some deadly disease implanted in it. It finally sank in.

I was being stalked.

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