Liz stayed in her seat as everyone else stood, diligently going over her notes and putting the final touches on them. She had missed multiple days of classes, so she had some catching up to do. She felt the presence of someone leaning over her as she wrote, accompanied by the soft jingle of a metal tag.
"Are you ready to go see Master?" Sarah whispered into her sister's ear, running a pair of fingers along Liz's choker.
The younger twin sat up straighter and took a sharp breath in through her nose. "Why do you keep doing that?" she asked as she put her pencil down.
"It's fun," Sarah answered. "Plus, I love using it to remind you who you belong to."
"You belong to him too, so what's your point?" Liz questioned.
Sarah shrugged. "I dunno. It's just fun."
"Whatever," Liz said as she closed up her notebook and slid it into her backpack. "Let's just get to our last class, Master's probably already waiting." She slung the backpack over her shoulder and stood from her desk.
"Sure thing," Sarah began before an alert went off on her phone. "Hold on," she said, pulling the device out of her pocket and checking it. She spent a scant few seconds reading whatever was on the screen before putting it away.
"What was it?" Liz asked.
"Just a text from Mom," Sarah answered.
"What did she want?" Liz followed up.
"Nothing much," Sarah replied. "Now let's get going before someone takes our seats next to Master." She stepped out past Liz, who stayed back and watched her sister go. She couldn't shake the feeling that her twin wasn't telling everything.
***
Victor stood in the parking lot outside the airport at Billings, Montana, waiting. In his younger years he would have been working his way through a pack of cigarettes until his contact arrived. Not because he had been that interested in smoking, in fact he had never liked it. In truth, he had only done it because that was how he thought a hitman should act, and that it would send the right message to his contacts.
It wasn't until he was a few years into the job that he realized that not only was smoking unhealthy and expensive, it did nothing to enhance his criminal reputation that a few jobs well done couldn't do better. So now he just leaned against his motorcycle, waiting for his contact to come out of the airport.
Most of the people coming out of the baggage claim went by unnoticed by Victor. They were just mundane people going about their business, they weren't a part of his world. Even as his hand slipped into his jacket pocket and brushed against his crystal, none of the women jumped out to him. Except one.
She had just come out of baggage claim. A black suit with a pencil skirt and matching stockings and heels, all on top of a busty, curvy blonde. He took a moment to admire her as she walked forward with an obvious sense of purpose, sunglasses on her face and a black duffel pack slung over her shoulder. It took him a second to realize that she was walking directly towards him.
"Victor," she addressed him as she took the final steps. It wasn't a question. This woman knew full well who he was.
"You're my contact?" he asked.
"Yes," the woman answered. "The boss sent me personally, because there's nobody he trusts more."
Victor stared at the blonde, wondering why she was here. All he had to do was whip out his crystal and show it to her, then she would be his. There was no way that any client of his would ever leave themselves so blatantly exposed to betrayal.
"Before you ask anything," the woman spoke up. "Yes, I am fully aware of your crystal and what it is capable of, more so than you are, I assure you. I am fully protected against your little stone."
Victor took another look at the woman's sunglasses. They were one of those pairs that wrapped all the way around the eyes, leaving no place that light could slip through unfiltered. He guessed that this was something that his client had developed to protect their people from being controlled. He didn't know much about science or physics, but he guessed that it somehow filtered the light from the crystal and prevented the wearer from being entranced.
A clever piece of engineering if that was that was the case. Still, Victor supposed that he could just take off the sunglasses by force if he had too. Though with this client he wouldn't be surprised if they some other defense mechanism at play as well. Regardless, this was all academic.
"An unnecessary precaution," Victor replied. "I make it a policy to never betray a client for short term gain."
"I hope that's the case," the woman said, fixing Victor with he was sure was a harsh, piercing stare through those obscuring sunglasses.
"May I ask your name?" Victor asked.
"Elise," she answered.
"Then shall we get going?" Victor followed up, gesturing to his motorcycle. "I've got a motel room."
Elise glanced at the two wheeled vehicle, her stoic face and hidden eyes offering no emotional response. "I'm going to rent a car and then go to the hotel I've booked," she finally said. "You'll follow me."
"O...K,' Victor replied. He wasn't used to clients being this involved in his jobs, they were for the most part content to sit back and wait for results. There was something festering just under the surface, and Victor got the distinct impression that he'd want to get out of Montana and off radar as soon as his business was done.
***
Mavis was walking into the kitchen carrying a bag with a chicken salad to-go order when an alert went off on her phone.
"Oh, damnable thing," Mavis swore, annoyed that the technology was disrupting the start of her dinner. Putting the to go bag on the table, she fished her phone out of her purse and woke it up. There was a single text from Sarah.
'Hey, just finished having dinner at the dinning hall with Master,' she wrote. 'He ran into some girl from one of his other classes and they mentioned something about going to your place. Just letting you know."
'Thanks for letting me know,' Mavis typed out slowly, her unpracticed fingers making constant mistakes that had to be corrected. Once the message was sent she shoved her phone back in her purse, silently cursing the technology.
