Miss Nobody

(Authors Note: Please check trigger warnings and content warnings in my bio.)

Chapter 21

LIVE WIRE

Afternoon Day 8

I made a stop at my room, showered and changed into a cute but conservative dress, detangling my mess of curls and waves, braiding it to the side and putting on some makeup for the camera. The small glass vial was snug between my boobs and warmed. I let the pleasant feeling take over the nervousness. Leggings came next, now that my laundry was finally clean and boots on last. This better be a good idea.

I put on a sweater, and forgot my phone on my bed.

***

I nervously knocked on the door to Room 13. Three strong taps.

"Come in," Jess's muffled voice answered.

The knob creaked as old metal does and the door slowly swung inwards.

Three sleek-looking chairs were set up in the middle of the room, in front of the stately stone fireplace. Two cameras, at different angles, pointed in that direction, and a mic hung down above the chairs. A few big studio lights were spread throughout the room, making it brighter than natural.

Cherry was sitting in one of the chairs, wearing her old-fashioned maid's uniform. The Lodge hadn't had any renovations since being built and neither had the Staff's uniforms. Interesting choice. She smiled lightly in my direction and gestured to the chair across from her, leaving the middle chair, I assumed for Jess.

I sat in the hard chair and whispered, "who is that?" I looked over to the teenager listening to Jess. His bright green mohawk caught my attention.

"That's Nen, he's a lifeguard at the pools."

"He looks so young."

"He's twenty-seven." Cherry shrugged. "He's helping Jess with cameras and sound." She looked at the equipment. "She has a decent set-up."

"Have you seen the script?"

"Briefly." She shrugged. "It's more focused on Jess, so we should be okay." Her smile was more sincere this time.

"Okay, are you ready?" Jess had her filming smile on as she walked to us. She looked over us both and hesitated. "If only we had hair and makeup. Maybe next time." She sat in the seat between us and adjusted herself. "Action," she said to the camera.

Oh, I guess we are doing this. The man behind the cameras rushed around making sure everything was recording and the sound was picking up.

Jess did some sound checks and got a thumbs-up.

"I have a very special show for you today with two very special guests. But first I'd like to talk about how I decided to do this interview in the first place and what is inspiring me to take this channel to the next level." Jess droned on about her channel and why she decided to put her reputation on the line and come face to face with the accused killer of the World Famous Chef.

I cringed inside but tuned her out as she rambled on.

"Nail Polish is 'Like Coral' from Paintbox. Perfect for all your fall outfits." She wiggled her fingers toward the camera.

I tuned out again, my eyelids growing heavy.

Jess turned to me. "Is it true that you're pregnant with Chef's baby?"

That woke me up real quick. I saw the gleam in Jess's eyes, her amusement at shocking both myself and Cherry. Even the green mohawk paused.

"What?!" Cherry screeched.

"That's not true. I'm not pregnant, I haven't had sex in eight months." That amount of time I knew for sure, before my coma, I couldn't say.

"Careful, we are live. Need to watch the language." Jess smiled at the cameras and raised her eyebrow. "I have the toxicology report right here, straight from the Sheriff's office. Jane Doe, that's you right?" She looked at me smugly. "Positive for pregnancy."

Cherry stared at me but was oddly calm. "I knew my Grandfather was sleeping with someone but the person I saw him with had straight, long, blonde hair," Cherry's voice was calm and collected as she turned to glare at Jess.

A loud crash interrupted. The door was knocked off its hinges and fell to the floor with a bang. We jumped up from our chairs, startled.

The Deputy filled the doorway, his gun pointed at Jess. "What. The. Fuck. Jess?" Her boyfriend waved his gun around. "Are you filming one of your pornos!?" He knocked over the camera closest to him. It shattered and the pieces flung across the floor.

The green-haired man slid along the wall and out the door, unnoticed, behind the enraged Deputy.

"Fucking whores, you want a porno? You want to give them a real show? I'm not going to kill you right away. I'm going to stick my dick in every last one of your holes." He swept the gun around to the three of us. "And then I'll fuck each one of you with my good friend here." He licked the barrel of his gun and spit on the ground. "You! Whore!" He shouted at me and pointed the gun at the bed. "Strip and get on the bed."

I hesitated.

Cherry cried quietly somewhere behind me.

"Fucking whores." He hit me with the barrel of his gun across my temple and I fell onto the bed. My temple bruised, a small cut opened, the warmth from the blood crept down the side of my face. I let it run. I didn't inherently gain any kind of power from blood but I somehow knew Demons did and it gave me courage. Excuse me? How do you know this?

The Deputy gripped Jess's hair and swung her around like a doll. She cried, "stop. Please just stop."

I looked around for something to help me.

"You've done it before and you will do it again you stupid cunt. Get on your knees before I make that whore do it for you."

I picked up a nearby cell phone and hurled it as hard as I could at the Deputy.

It hit him across his brow bone, the skin splitting open. Blood streamed down his face. He tried to rub the blood away from his eye but he just smeared it and opened his wound further. It gushed and blocked his vision.

Jess was free from his grip and crawled out of my view as I used the distraction to get off the bed.

"You STUPID FUCKING WHORE." He pointed his gun at me and a loud bang echoed in the small room.

"NO!" I screamed and watched as the copper bullet flew through the air and penetrated my chest. I felt it slide through my skin and stop like a weight just under the surface. I gasped. I didn't feel any pain and there was no blood. I was probably in shock. I looked up at the Deputy.

The blood ran down the Deputy's face, covering his mouth. He sprayed his blood everywhere as he yelled, "I've never missed a shot until this fucking whore!"

He didn't know the bullet had hit me. I was pushed into a memory.

***

The young woman from the drugstore is sitting next to me at the brothel bar. She slips me a small note as her client, the Deputy, wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her backward off her stool. "Come on, I don't have much time today."

Destiny grabs their drinks and winks at me as she's being pulled away by the impatient cop. This isn't the first time she's worked with him.

I look at the note when they are out of sight. "Watch me" is all it says. So I did.

I crumple up the small piece of paper and chew on it like a piece of gum.

He became a regular of hers and I noticed Destiny would not be the same person for days after he left. She wasn't a big drinker but he would always order drinks, she would take a few sips but never finish. She would wake up feeling hungover, not remembering the night before, and with a mostly full drink on her nightstand.

We grew suspicious and hoped to catch him in the act but we never did.

***

And here he was, right in front of me. It really was a small world but there weren't that many legal brothels in the country.

He laughed as I recognized him. "You been knocked around so many times you lost your fucking whore marbles haven't you?" He threw his head back like he had said the funniest thing in the world.

I kicked him as hard as I could with my boot in his crotch. The laughter stopped and he doubled over without a word. I grabbed his big ears and rammed his head into my leg, his nose shattering against my thigh.

His ears pulled away from his head and he dropped to the floor.

It didn't register what I was holding. If I thought too hard about what they were I would go mad. I pushed the sick feeling that threatened to spill, back down into...the void, and I tossed the things in my hands on top of their owner.

Jess chanted in Latin. She waved her bloody arms over the floor. The chairs had been pushed into a corner and a circle of candles surrounded Cherry's unconscious body.

"What the fuck are you doing Jess?" This was unexpected.

The Deputy laughed too loud from the floor. "What'd you think this was?" His laughing bleeding face would give me nightmares for the rest of my life. "A whore house?"

Jess' chants grew louder as she raised her arms, the flames rising with them.

An unfamiliar Magic made the tiny hairs on my arms stand up. The Cop has been making Jess do Magic. Why? If Jess and Chef were having sex did the Deputy find out and somehow orchestrate his death? I didn't think Jess knew the Deputy that long but I wasn't paying close attention to her many boyfriends.

She was missing some key ingredients for this ritual to work but she sure was trying. I sighed and shook my head, how the hell do I know this? She can chant all she wanted, at this point, it wouldn't do any harm.

A man, in head-to-toe black, only his mahogany eyes visible, entered the room pointing a gun. He was followed by another man in similar attire. The honey-colored eyes of that man looked familiar. He was also pointing a gun.

Nen's green hair stood out even more behind the two men. A look of surprise on his young face. Nen rushed to the camera by the window and pushed some buttons.

"This was a live feed." He said to no one in particular.

I wanted to cry. I was definitely going to jail this time.

The man with the honey-colored eyes lowered the mask covering his face slightly so I recognized him. I was relieved to see Jonny. He walked over to me. "Get him out of here." Jonny's covered face nodded to the Deputy as he put his gun in the waistband of his pants.

The man ahead of Jonny knocked the cop unconscious with the butt of his pistol. Pushed the loose ears out of his way with the tip of the gun and pulled out some metal zip ties.

Jess chanted.

"What is she saying?" Jonny asked me.

The smell of rain on concrete enveloped me. "I don't know." But you do know. You know exactly what she's saying. How do I explain knowing Latin? I walked over behind her and put my middle finger in her blood then touched it to her forehead. "Malacia." How do I explain knowing Blood Magic?

Jess quieted and froze in place. Her eyes closed like she was sleeping. The candles blew out and the room was thrown into darkness.

Jonny grabbed my hand in the dark. "Thank the Mother you're okay," he whispered.

"I'm glad it seems that way." The lights turned on in the room and I looked over the mess.

The man who came in ahead of Jonny was finishing up with the zip ties.

A couple of other face-covered people entered the room and helped remove the unconscious bodies.

"Let's get you out of here." Jonny put his arm around my shoulders. "Take care of this." He said to the other man and guided me out of the hotel room and back to his cabin.