Fall had officially surrendered to winter in the City. The winds carried in the freezing rain, scouring and sanitizing the streets. The trees stood like skeletons framed against eerily bright night skies. Every so often, the snows would fall, and temporarily bury everything in its calming blanket of white. If you had been the first one to walk out in the morning after a fresh snowfall, you might think that everything had ground to a halt, that human struggles and fighting had finally come to an end, that the world was proceeding as it should, the mistakes of human civilization being buried under the past.
And then you might watch as the humans dug themselves out once more, firing up their machines, blasting their noises, making artificial light erupt from every corner. Yelling at each other, running to wherever, fighting, fucking, repeating, a cycle with no end. You might shake your head. You might go back in and sleep some more, if you could.
Richard Wayne was looking at the pistol pointed at him and wishing he was in his bed.
"Easy now, easy now," he was saying as the snow fell gently all around him.
"Give me your fucking money," the man with the gun was saying to him.
"OK. OK. I'm going to reach into my pocket and get my wallet out- there's not a lot of cash in there, but you can have it all. OK? You can take the whole wallet. Credit cards."
"And your phone!"
"Sure, sure."
Richard wasn't all that sure what this person with the gun thought he would do with Richard's phone, exactly. Richard would just disable it when he got home, it would be little more useful than a brick would be. But Richard didn't bother to explain that to this guy. The way the hand that held the gun was shaking, this guy had been up on an all night bender on something.
The missing teeth spoke to methamphetamine, but who knew anymore.
All Richard knew was that he didn't want to get shot by some meth head.
He held up his wallet.
"Here you go. OK? OK?"
The man with the gun reached his hand out, his face a rictus of anger, shattered teeth and need.
All of a sudden a black shape fell out of the sky, appearing like nothing more than a black blur against the white of the snow. Faster than Richard could see, he heard a crack, and then a thump, and the man with the gun was laying bleeding in the snow. A petite woman dressed all in black was standing over him, kicking his pistol far away into the gutter.
She turned to face Richard.
Richard was still standing there holding his wallet out.
The woman in black laughed behind her mask.
"You can put your wallet away now," she told him.
Richard put his wallet back in his pants. The man with the gun moaned and stirred in the snow.
She spun around and slammed her boot against his head once again. This time, he didn't make another sound.
"Sorry about that," she said.
"That's OK," Richard said, although he had no fucking idea what he was talking about.
"You hurt?"
"No. I'm just on my way to the club. Get a drink."
"Sounds good."
The two of them just stood there looking at each other for a couple of moments.
"So, uh," he said. "Should I go on my way, or... I mean, do you need some money or something?"
"No! No, I don't do this for money."
"OK."
"I'm the Spider."
"OK. Thanks, Spider lady."
"Not 'Spider lady'. Just 'the Spider'. Fuck."
"OK! OK. Thanks, the Spider."
Fuck, she thought to herself. I'm really off my game here.
"You have a nice night, citizen."
Citizen?
"You too, the Spider."
Fuck.
As fast as she had come, the Spider lifted herself straight up into the calm and snowing sky.
Richard stood there peering up into the sky for a moment, gentle snowflakes falling and melting on his face.
This fucking City, I tell you what, he was thinking.
Shrugging, he pulled his collar up and went on his way to the club. He had only taken a couple of steps, though, before he heard another thump in the snow behind him.
What now, he thought, turning around. Is it the Spider lady again?
But it was not. This woman was considerably taller, and dressed not at all for the winter. She had boots on, sure, but otherwise was clad only in metallic looking panties and a thin band across her large breasts.
She was standing there, over the man with the gun, her hands balled into fists on her hips.
After a moment or two, she looked up at Richard.
"Hello," she said.
"Hello."
