13 To Live and Die in Beacon

For Lisa, the next three weeks felt like they were going in overdrive. Every minute since she left the club that night, her heart had been racing, and every night she would have the same dream.

She would be in a place that looked like a bizarre version of Sunny's office. They were discussing something or another; it was always different but never coherent enough for her to make out. All she could hear was her heartbeat in her head. It was so loud that it drowned out all the sound around her.

She was sitting in a chair opposite Sunny's desk and was watching Sunny intently. She could feel the urge rising within her to strike out across the desk and start beating Sunny with every ounce of strength she had in her. That would have been a good dream for Lisa though, and these were always nightmares.

Before she could attack Sunny, she would always look to her left and somehow, sitting right beside her would be Al, but not the handsome and charming Al that she kept locked away in her memories. This Al had dull grey eyes, and looked like he was starting to rot. His tongue hung out of his mouth, and his body was covered in cuts and bruises. His stupid orange shirt that she'd always hated, and the last thing she had seen him in, was bloodied and tattered.

At this point, things would always take a turn for the even more horrific. Al would turn to her and open his mouth to speak, but nothing would come out. Lisa would notice a large lump moving its way up his throat. She would try to cry out in horror, but her voice never came to her. Then she saw them, the instantly recognizable, beady, red eyes of a rat popping its head out of Al's mouth. The rat stared at her for a second and blinked a couple of times.

Then the rat began to speak to her in Al's voice. It said the same thing every night.

"We'll be together again, my love. I'm waiting for you."

Lisa always snapped awake at this point in her dream, and that time had been no different. She sat straight up on the living room couch, covered in sweat, and looked around the room. Her eyes went to the locked front door (now equipped with a new dead bolt, just in case) and then to the small pistol she kept just in arm's reach on the end table. When she realized that everything was alright, she sat back on the couch and breathed a sigh of relief.

She grabbed the almost empty pack of cigarettes off the table and brought one to her lips. She had never really smoked much before, but since the night at the club she had been going through a pack a day, sometimes more. She stood up and walked over to the fridge and pulled out the remnants of a sandwich that she had made the night before. She took a bite, but she didn't feel hungry and put her cigarette out on it.

She knew that there was nothing that she could do anymore. It was time to face the facts. Living like this was driving her insane, and she couldn't keep up with this double life for much longer. They knew that someone was feeding ESIU information, and it would only be a matter of time before they figured out it was her. She knew what would happen next. Aside from that, she didn't think that she could take another day of dealing with Sunny without wanting to kill her.

She had no other choice. She had to get out, and she had to do it now. She hadn't met with Benson once since she started, and she didn't want to call the number he gave her out of fear that someone might be listening. She would have to bite the bullet and get in contact with him as soon as possible and let him know that, one way or the other, she was out.

She felt deep down inside herself that she had a duty to stop Sunny, but she also knew that one thing that Al wouldn't want her to do was get herself killed. She could go somewhere, maybe Endlane or one of the nomad cities and start things over. She could change her name and open up another shop. She could even use Al's old recipes that he'd dedicated his life to perfecting. She had enough saved up from what she'd gotten from Sunny to keep herself stable for at least long enough to get set up. It could all work out, she just had to make sure she could get out in time.

Across town, Vicky was at the club, counting money and taking inventory of what they needed to stock up for the night ahead. Since the night of the funeral, she had been spending more time with her wife-to-be and a lot less time getting high. She could never have imagined being up at nine in the morning almost every day, let alone doing anything other than drinking coffee and sitting in bed. She had already had breakfast and finished most of the account of the previous night's take.

They were making money hand-over-fist, and, if they kept it up, she would be able to buy anything she had ever wanted for Rose and her to start their new lives together. After losing Moe, something really clicked in her.

She laughed a little bit to herself. She was actually starting to grow up. She pictured what the 18-year-old version of herself would say if she could have seen what she became. She was almost certain that it would have ended in a fist fight. She knew deep down though that it was all for the best. She wanted to be the person Rose thought that she was, which was honestly not an easy feat to accomplish.

She had done bad things, horrible things that most decent members of society couldn't even dream of. And yet, she didn't feel bad about it. She actually had enjoyed most of it. It wasn't like she was some serial killer out prowling the streets. Pretty much everyone who she had put in the ground deserved it, or at the very least knew that it was a possibility in their line of work.

It was like she saw herself from the outside for the first time, cutting up and burning that guy. He had it coming, sure, but that wasn't the first time she'd done something like that. She actually felt…bad was the wrong word. Not bad for him that was for sure, and not guilty in the slightest. She just felt kind of done with it all, at least done with that part of herself. She didn't want to be the monster anymore.

She wanted a better life, or at least a different life. She didn't want out of everything she'd been doing with Sunny. She was all-in. That was the deal when you got your badge. A box is the only way out, no matter the cost. She was a different person when she accepted it, but still knew that she had a duty to her family and her tribe. Someday, hopefully a long time from now, when Sunny was gone, it would all be hers. But what would that be worth if she lost everything along the way? There was a reason why Sunny was alone.

She just knew that it was time to move on. If Rose had ever found out what she had done, there would be no chance for them. Rose was kind and decent, if a little clingy, but Vicky actually enjoyed that aspect of her personality. It was nice to be wanted for something other than smashing, beating or killing for once. She knew that the urge to be violent would never fully leave her, but she was ready to at least put it as far on the back burner as she could, until she absolutely had to let it out.

As she was thinking about that, she heard a knock on the office door and looked up to see a man in a long, blue coat that he always wore. It was the 'Wise and Amazing Sean', as he liked to call himself. Although Vicky, after having to deal with him for the last two weeks would have rather called him the 'Obnoxious and Idiotic Sean'. She had to admit though, as far as freelancers went, he had absolutely gone above and beyond to help them take care of the situation they had found themselves in.

Since she had Sean and his crew come in, they had been working around the clock to track down the rat. Sean had an entire crew watching the ESIU building and had someone assigned to follow around each of the agents as they went about their day. He also had someone watching the club and Sunny's office as well.

Vicky considered having someone watching all of her crew too, but after talking with Sunny, they decided that it would be best if Sean and his boys didn't have anything extra on Sunny or her direct affiliates, just in case someone else wanted to use it against them later. They hadn't turned up anything yet, but it was only a matter of time at this point.

"Sean needs more money," he announced as he entered the room.

Vicky didn't look up from the books at him.

"Why? What we gave you already should have been more than enough."

"Sean has to keep everyone under his employ happy. It's been nearly a month already, and these things don't come cheap. Aside from that, Sean has people working non-stop. They are following government agents, and if they get caught it could be disastrous for all of us. Sean needs to keep them happy and keep them on point, and to do that, Sean needs more money.

Vicky just shook her head. "How much, exactly?" She asked, finally looking up to Sean.

"Another twenty thousand should cover it, at least for now." Sean said as he came up to sit across from Vicky on the desk.

Vicky scoffed, giving an almost disgusted look. "Sweet fuckin' Empress, do you think I'm made of credits?"

"Perhaps, not," Sean said with a sort of arrogant smile, "but Sunny is. Just get her to authorize it and everything will be taken care of."

"This conversation is ridiculous." Vicky said as she lit a cigarette.

"I'll tell you what," she said as she blew some smoke at Sean, "I know that you came highly recommended by our friends out in Endlane, and I'll admit I'm pretty impressed with how much your crew can do and how dedicated they are. However, like you said, it's been almost a month now and we've still got nothing to go on. So, if you can bring me something, anything at all, by the end of the day, even just a hint to lead us in the right direction then I'll give you the extra money and then some."

The smug smirk was back on Sean's face. "Sean's prices are Sean's prices. You will pay him what is required by the end of the day, or Sean's crew will pack up their gear and head back with him to the Badlands, where we have plenty of other jobs waiting for us. The choice is yours, and Sean will be waiting to hear back with your decision."

Without saying another word, Sean stood up and walked out of the office, leaving Vicky fuming behind him. Normally, she wouldn't take this kind of shit from anyone, let alone some random asshole who should have been showing her some respect. She took a deep breath, put her hands on her head, and counted down from ten. It was a new technique that Rose had taught her, and it seemed to actually work, although she really felt like throwing he glass that she was drinking out of against the wall. She held herself together though, and decided that she might as well just let it go and give Sunny a call.

As the sun rose up towards the center of the sky, Lisa was uptown in an alleyway behind a restaurant, approaching a nondescript black sedan. She had called Benson earlier in the morning from a payphone down the street from her house, and told him that they had to meet as soon as possible. She was wearing a coat and a black hat that was pulled down low. She got in the car quickly and he could see just how disheveled she looked.

"Dear Empress, are you okay, kid?"

"No!" She blurted out. "I'm gonna make this quick because I don't have a lot of time. Sunny knows that someone in her crew is a talking to ESIU, and it's only a matter of time until they find out that it's me. They've been watching everyone and everywhere. For all I know they've got someone watching us right now."

Benson just shook his head. "The case isn't ready yet. We need more."

His tone was cold and distant.

She looked shocked. "More?" She asked, her voice raising a pitch. "More! Are you fucking with me right now, dude? Did you not see any of those recordings that I sent you? Like the one where she straight up ordered me to put a bullet in Skag's head? Or maybe you happened to catch the one of her torturing someone before dipping them in a barrel of fucking acid! How could you possibly not have enough?"

By the time she finished, she was almost screaming in his face.

"It's not just Sunny. We need to get all of them together in a meeting. Once we can tie her and all of the rest of them together, we can take them all down."

"What about the funeral? I don't know who most of those people were but I'm sure you do. Wasn't that enough?"

"That's not nearly enough and you know that. We need them talking about specific plans and how they all work together. It's the only way."

She shook her head.

"That's not going to happen. I don't think you get what I was saying to you. I'm not asking you for permission. I'm telling you that I'm out, and I need your help if I'm going to make it out of here alive. There's no time left, and I can't wait any longer. If she finds out about me then I'm going to end up chopped up in a dozen pieces and dipped in acid. That's not going to happen to me!"

She was starting to freak out, and he needed to comfort her quickly.

"Listen, kid. I can get you out, but it's going to take some time. I don't know how long, but I'll get to work on it as soon as I can. I need to get you set up with a new identity and a place to go. It's not just something that I can throw together in an afternoon, but I'll try as hard as I can. I just need you to keep your head down and don't make any noise until I can get it dealt with."

"It's not good enough. I'm having panic attacks multiple times a day, and I haven't slept for more than a few hours in weeks. To top that off, when I do it's nothing but the same horrible nightmare. I can't do this for another day. I'm going to give you until tonight to get it sorted. By the time the sun rises tomorrow, I'm going to be out of Beacon, one way or the other."

She didn't give him much time to react before opening the door and stepping out. "Call me when you figure it out, but it has to be tonight."

She pulled her cap down tight again as she stood up and began to walk out of the alley. She noticed something though, just out of the corner of her eye. She thought she might have just been mistaken at first, but she was sure she saw someone sitting across the street behind a group of dumpsters by the corner. It looked like whoever it was had a small camera and was taking pictures of them.

She kept walking for a few seconds and checked behind her as subtly as she could, and she saw him again. He was a younger man, probably a little older than she was and sporting a dark purple coat with a button up shirt under it. He was trying to be inconspicuous, but he wasn't doing a very good job of it. Or maybe she was just so paranoid that he had no chance of not being seen.

She wanted to panic and run, but she knew that it wouldn't be an option. She had to keep a cool head and think things through rationally. If Sunny got those pictures, she would be dead before nightfall. That couldn't happen, and there was only one sure-fire way to make sure that it didn't happen. She would have to get her hands on that camera. She took a deep breath and formulated the best on-the-fly plan that she could come up with.

She started walking away from him, pulling her hat down further and crossing the busy street. He seemed to be done taking pictures and was walking away from her. He didn't seem to notice her looking at him as he made his way along the sidewalk. She crossed over back to his side, and sank into the alleyway behind where he was walking. She would peek her head out each block to make sure that she was still on his trail.

After about four blocks of staying behind him, he finally turned into the alley that she was on. She quickly hid behind a parked car and watched him go up some steps into a second-floor apartment. As soon as she saw him go into the building she snuck as quickly as she could towards the door behind him. He walked down the hallway and up a second set of steps.

When he unlocked the door and went inside, Lisa was already behind him and quickly shut the door. When he turned to face her, she reached for the closest blunt object that she could from the table next to the door. It was a small desk lamp with a heavy brass bottom. She brought it up and swung down as hard as she could, but he jumped backwards out of the way.

"I hope you're ready to die, you stupid bitch!" He shouted at her as produced a blade from his pocket and held it up in front of her face. He lunged towards her, but she managed to dip left around him in the narrow hallway that lead to the apartment's tiny living room. She swung the lamp again, but he backed out of the way just in time.

While she was still reeling from her attempt, he jumped forward at her and swung the knife. She managed to bring the lamp down again on his back, but as he fell under her, he cut her all the way down her left leg. She shouted in pain as she hit the floor. The lamp she was holding fell out of her grasp, and before she could reach for it again, she saw that the man was about to plunge the knife he was holding down on her with full force.

She rolled away just as his arms came down, leaving him to crash on the floor face-first. She quickly jumped on his back and started punching him in the back of the head. She reached for the strap of the camera that was still around his neck and twisted it around while punching him with the other hand. He tried to buck her off, but every time he would move, she would hit him again.

With the camera now facing her, she grabbed it with both hands and started pulling on it hard, tightening the strap against his throat. His eyes went wide, and he started to buck wildly and claw at his neck. Lisa wouldn't let up, and just pulled harder every time he would try and move his body.

Just when she was sure it was over for him the force of her pulling tore the strap and sent the camera up into her chin. She tasted blood in her mouth as she bit down hard on her tongue. The man was now gasping for air and using the rest of the energy he had left in him to try and flail enough to get her off of him.

It wasn't working, and Lisa concocted another on-the-fly plan. She lifted the camera up high with both arms and started smashing on the back of his head. She figured it would be the best way to kill two birds with one stone. She would get rid of her would-be photographer and his evidence at the same time.

After a few hits, the man was moving around less and less, and finally Lisa brought the camera down one last time, twice as hard as she had before. The clear, wet thud of a skull being cracked rang out in her ears and blood splashed her face. It was something that, before the events of the last few months, would have led to her most likely vomiting or running away in disgust, but now only led to her letting out a long and satisfied sigh as she rolled off of the man onto the floor.

She took a few deep breaths as the adrenaline that had kicked in the second she started the fight started to wear off. As the last of it was going, she started to feel the searing pain that cut had left down her leg, and the sharp sensation of her tongue beginning to swell up in her mouth. She moved it around in her mouth and noticed that two of her front teeth were seriously chipped, with one of them being almost completely knocked out.

She spit a mouthful of blood on the ground and stood up slowly. She limped her way into the bathroom, where she was hoping to find a first aid kit. What she found instead was a darkroom of sort. There were dozens of pictures hung up and drying. They were of all manner of things from the ESIU headquarters, to various pictures of Benson doing different things. She didn't have time to look too deeply into it. There was a corpse in the living room after all, and their fight must have caused quite a ruckus. She grabbed the lone towel that hung on the rack and wrapped her leg with it before limping her way out of the house and back into the alley with the remains of the camera tucked in her coat.

The sun was on its downward arc in the sky a few hours later as Sunny and Jenny were sitting in Sunny's office, drinking their evening tea and discussing the situation that they were being faced with in finding the rat before they were able to testify against them.

"We're getting nowhere," Sunny said with a frown.

"Don't worry. I've heard a lot of good things about Sean. He knows how to track people down and getting what's needed out of them."

Sunny frowned. "That damned Sean might just be the most ridiculous man that I've ever met. I've met some pretty strange people in my day, but his over-the-top arrogance and always talking in the third person really takes the cake. Did you hear how much more money he's asking for?"

Jenny just nodded. "I know he can be a bit…unorthodox, but he comes highly recommended. They say he worked in The Empress' secret service before getting involved with our way of life. Supposedly he learned all types of different spying and interrogation techniques in there. That's why they pay him as much as they do."

Before Sunny could respond, her phone rang. She put down her teacup slowly before picking up the phone.

"Talk to me."

"It is I, the Wise and Amazing Sean!" The man on the other line almost shouted.

Sunny made a disgusted face and pushed the phone away from her ear while Sean finished shouting his name.

"What's up? If you're calling about the money, I don't have an answer for you yet. I haven't decided whether we'll be retaining your services or not."

Sean laughed heartily, which caused Sunny to frown again. "You may want to hold off on that until you hear what Sean has to say. He has some news for you."

Sunny sat up and quickly motioned for Jenny to close her office door. She did, and when it was closed, Sunny put Sean on speakerphone.

"What news do you have?"

"Sean knows how we can find the rat, and he knows how we can do it tonight. He just needs you to get your contact in the royal guard, as well as someone else who you trust, and pick him up in a limo of some kind as quickly as you can."

Sunny could almost hear the arrogance dripping from Sean's voice as he spoke.

"What? That doesn't make any sense. Why can't you just tell me what you have now and then we can meet up to discuss it afterward?"

Sean scoffed. "Because if there is one thing that The Wise and Amazing Sean has learned in his time in this business is that there is nothing quite as fun as adding some showmanship to things. It makes everything much more exciting. Just do what Sean said and Sean will see you at your club in forty-five minutes. Don't be late."

Before Sunny could say anything else, Sean hung up. She looked to Jenny. "Do you believe this idiot?"

"A sense of showmanship makes things more exciting." Sunny said in a tone mockingly imitating Sean's voice. "Just who does this guy think he is?"

Jenny just shook her head. "He's a unique one, that's for sure. So are we going or not?"

Sunny had no objections, and got on the phone with Richard as quickly as she could, instructing him to meet her at the club in half an hour. When she got off of the phone she reached into her desk and produced a small pistol.

"I don't know what we might be walking into in there, and I don't trust that weird egomaniac as far as I can throw him, so let's just be on the safe side."

Jenny nodded. "Agreed, now let's get a move on."

As the sun was beginning to set, Benson was sitting at his desk, looking over all of the notes in the case that he had been spending almost all of his time building on Sunny Morella and her associates. He couldn't believe that Lisa had wanted out so badly, especially considering the circumstances that brought her into the program in the first place. He had a wife of his own and couldn't imagine what he would do if something like that happened to her. Maybe her instinct to survive was overcoming her desire for revenge. He had poured through all the footage that was sent to him, and he had seen enough to know that Sunny wasn't a woman to be trifled with or taken lightly. He still got shivers remembering some of the things that he'd seen.

It still wasn't enough. He had enough to put her away of course, but someone else would just pop up in her stead. Even with her whole crew gone, there were plenty of other people waiting to come out of the woodwork and take her spot. He needed the whole ball of wax.

He couldn't just let Lisa walk away from all of this. The video evidence wouldn't be enough without her sworn testimony in court, and he needed her around to get closer to the inside of the group. She was a bright, young and ruthless woman, and that was all it took to make it up their ranks. She just needed to hang in there. He had no doubt, based off of her appearance, that she would most likely try to run, but he figured if he could talk to her again then he could calm her down.

If nothing else, he could arrange for her to get out of the city until things calmed down and then bring her back. Give her some story to tell about going off to find her missing husband or something while she laid low. He just didn't know how fast he would be able to put something like that together.

For now, it was time to eat dinner. He put away all the files on his desk and locked them up. He tossed the key in his pocket and put his coat on before heading out the door. As he started walking down the street towards the diner he loved to frequent, he noticed a car following behind him. As soon as he turned the corner away from his office, it pulled up beside him and stopped. It was a long, black limousine. The back window rolled down and he spotted the face of the woman who he had spent countless hours looking at in photos and videos. It was Sunny Morella in the flesh.

"Get in the car," she said coldly.

"Excuse me? Do I know you, miss?"

She scoffed. "Cut the shit and get in. If I wanted to kill you, you wouldn't see me coming. Trust me, you'll regret it if you don't listen to what I have to say to you.

He nodded slowly and checked his pocket with a brush of his hand to make sure his sidearm was still there before opening the door and getting in. As he sat down, he noticed Sunny moving across to sit facing him. With her was the woman who she had recognized from the videos as Jenny Saldana, and a man that he had seen before but couldn't place, along with another man in a long, blue coat that also looked familiar.

"What's all this about? Are you hear to offer me a bribe or something because that's not…"

Sunny held up a hand and stared him dead in the eyes. "This isn't the part where you talk. This is the part where you listen. Don't say a word until I'm finished."

The intensity in her eyes would be enough to burn right through the Crystal Mountains themselves. He felt fear rising in his heart and sat back in silence.

She cleared her throat. "You may have heard that earlier today there was a murder just down the road from here. A man was found brutally beaten to death in his apartment some time this afternoon. Did you know about this?"

He shook his head. He hadn't heard anything about it and wasn't sure where she was going with this.

She continued. "That person was an associate of my friend in blue here. The details of his death aren't really all that relevant. What is relevant is why he died. He died because he had taken some pictures of someone that he shouldn't have, and whoever that was, made him and took him out. I know that you know who that was, and what I'm talking about, so I'm going to make this really simple for you. Give me a name and we can end this conversation without any unpleasantness."

He processed everything that he was taking in. He must have been watched when he met up with Lisa in the afternoon, and she must have found out and killed whoever was watching them. How they had any idea about his role in it, he still didn't know, and thought that maybe they could just have been bluffing.

He straightened up in his seat. "I don't know what you're talking about. I would have heard of a murder so close to here, and I've been in my office all day since sun-up."

Sunny chuckled. "Okay, so you want to do this the hard way then? That's fine by me." She motioned to the man in the blue coat, who handed her a closed manila folder with Benson's name written on it.

"The reason you didn't hear about the murder is because my associate here paid good money to cover it up. Not only that, but he paid good money to recover what else was in that apartment. There's no use being coy with you at this point, so I'm going to just lay it all out on the table. I've been following you and all of your ESIU buddies nonstop for the almost three weeks now, every hour of every day. I hadn't received a report from my agent in the field on you yet, and had he not been beaten to death this afternoon, I'm sure he would have had some great information for me."

She passed the folder to him. "Go ahead, open it up."

He already knew what was coming but prayed with everything that he had in him to The Empress that it wouldn't be what he thought it was. As soon as he started sliding the pictures out of the packet though, his worst fears were realized.

They were all of him, going in and out of a seedy looking building and some of the inside as well. He knew what this was leading up to, but couldn't bring himself to look through all of the pictures.

Sunny caught onto this and smiled. "I know the owner of that place, you know. She pays one of my affiliates for the pleasure of operating a brothel in this part of town. I'm sure you already had an idea about that though, since you seemed to be such a frequent visitor there."

He pulled more of the photos out until he saw the damning one that he knew was coming.

Sunny's smile grew wider. "Of course then, you must also have known that the specialty of that specific brothel is something that even some of the most deviant of the deviants won't touch, but it looks like it's exactly what pulled you in."

He looked at the photo in horror. He couldn't believe that he was looking at himself doing it and he could feel the shame and disgust rising in his chest.

"How old is that girl?" The woman with sunny asked. "Twelve? Thirteen maybe? Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. You would think that someone with a job like yours would know how to cover their tracks a little better."

A tear fell from his eye onto his face. If this were to ever get out his life would be over. He would go to prison. He would lose his wife and his kids. He would lose everything and then some.

His face fell and shoulders slumped. "What exactly do you want from me?"

Sunny looked at him dead in the eyes. "Two things. First of all, you are going to tell me who the rat is. Secondly, you're going to take all of that footage that you have stored of whatever we've been up to over the last couple of months, and you are going to erase it.

"I can't do that. Please, you don't understand. I'll lose my career and Empress only knows what you'll do to the person who has been working with us."

She shook her head. "Maybe this isn't fully settling in yet. If you don't do it, these pictures go out everywhere. We'll have copies sent to your wife and kids, to your office and to the royal guard. We'll send it to every local paper and news source and everywhere between. This is your only chance to stop that from happening. So, what's it going to be?"

He thought long and hard about it. Either way his life would be ruined. If he gave the information it would be to a lesser degree, but everything that he had been working towards would be gone and Lisa would most likely suffer a horrible fate once Sunny got her hands on her. Then again, if the pictures got out, he would be wanted by everyone in the city, and he knew what they would do to someone like him in prison. He took a deep breath and slowly moved his head up from the pictures to look Sunny in the eye. He had a choice to make

A few minutes later he was dropped off in front of his office. He had a dejected look on his face and tears streaming down as he went inside. He ducked away from all of his coworkers, and quickly went back to his office, closing the blinds and locking the door. He reached for his phone.

Back at the bakery, the place was in shambles. There was blood staining the hardwood floors all over the place, especially in the kitchen where Lisa had managed to clean and close her wound. There were also clothes and other items thrown around in disarray, stuffed haphazardly into a large suitcase. Lisa was currently trying to stuff as much cash and credit chips into the bag as possible, but was having trouble. She wanted to take a few things of Al's that were special to her, but she had limited space, and was starting to lose her mind about all the things that she would have to leave behind.

She was interrupted by the phone ringing. She stopped dead in her tracks and rushed over to it. She picked it up but didn't say anything, she only listened.

"Lisa? Hello?" The familiar voice of Benson came through the phone. "I need you to listen to me and listen carefully."

She stayed silent.

"Sunny knows about you, and she's coming for you."

Her heart fell into her stomach and she wanted to throw up.

"H..h…how?" She asked, barely able to speak.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that we need to get you out of the city and we need to do it tonight. If you can find a way to meet me on the west side of the castle grounds, then I can get you out. I've made an arrangement with some members of the Royal Guard to take you to the outskirts of the city where you'll meet up with some agents who can take you to Farbrook. If you want to go, you need to leave right now and get here as quickly as you can."

Her heart was racing a thousand miles a minute. "Why should I go with you? Why can't I just go by myself?"

"Because I can get you set up with a new identity. Do whatever you want, but they know about you and they'll be coming for you soon. I'm going to get things prepped for this transfer. It's going to take a lot of pull, but I know I can get it done. The only stipulation is that, when the time comes, I need you to come back to town and testify against her."

Lisa thought it over. It seemed like a good enough plan, but what if they couldn't protect her? She probably had enough money to buy a new identity if she needed to, and she could run as far away as the edge of the Badlands if she wanted to. She did think testifying against Sunny would be the right thing to do. She needed to be stopped and that might be the only way to do it.

"Look kid," Benson chimed in, breaking her chain of thought. "I can understand if you don't want to do it this way, but you need to do it one way or the other, and you need to do it now. I'm going to the castle now to get things ready. If you aren't there in two hours, I'll assume that you chose to go it alone. Either way, you need to make sure no one sees you get over here. If you are going to go my way, just take the essentials and some cash, and I can have the rest brought to you later. Either way though, it's time to go. Hopefully I'll be seeing you soon."

She paused, still unsure what to do but chimed up the only thing she could think to say. "Thanks for the heads up. I'll probably see you soon. If not, I'm sorry that you won't get my testimony, but I know that there will be some way, someday, to put her where she belongs."

She didn't wait for a response before hanging up the phone and running to the table where her pistol sat. She quickly started taking clothes out of the suitcase and began stuffing them into her backpack, along with all of the money that would fit. She pulled out the small necklace that Al had given them for their last anniversary and put it around her neck, kissing it for good luck, before pulling a black hoodie over her head and tightening the strings. She was ready, and it was now or never.

She snuck out the back door and down into the alley. She walked between the alleyways as quickly as she could without breaking into a full-on sprint. When she was safely away from the apartment, she gave it one last look before hailing a cab. She sat down and closed the door. The driver had asked her where she wanted to go. She didn't realize how long it was taking her to answer before she finally piped up.

"I need to go the castle. Near the west gate entrance."

A little less than an hour later, they were there. Lisa offered the driver a heavy tip and got out of the cab. She walked down towards the end of the parking lot where she saw Benson's car and a van waiting. She saw him smoking a cigarette and sporting a nervous look. A thought passed through her mind at that moment. Maybe meeting up with him was a bad idea. He never told her how they knew she was the rat. Maybe he was working with them. If ever there was a chance to cut and run this would be it.

She thought about it, but eventually decided that she needed to finish at least something of what she started with Sunny if Al was ever going to get any kind of justice. She steeled her resolve by placing a soft grip around the pistol in her hoodie's pocket before approaching the cars.

Benson noticed her and put out his cigarette before walking up to her. "I honestly didn't think you were going to show, but I'm glad you did," he said with a genuine, if exhausted looking, smile.

"I wasn't sure either. I just know that I have to do something right by Al or all of that necessary evil shit would have been for nothing."

He nodded. "I'm glad you feel that way and I'm sorry that you were put in this position in the first place."

She gave him an acknowledging nod before asking, "What's the plan here?"

"Oh, the plan is pretty much like I told you on the phone. There's a guard in that van waiting to take you to the edge of the town. I have a contact waiting for you there to take you to a hotel for the night before heading out for Farbrook tomorrow. From there, I'm not really sure what will happen, but I'll find a way to keep in touch with you to let you know when it's safe to come back for the trial."

She looked over to the van.

"Is he ready now?"

He nodded and she walked up to him, giving him a hug. "Thank you for trying to give my husband at least some justice. I won't forget this, and I promise, when the time comes, I'll be back."

As the hug finished and she walked over to the van to get inside, she could see what looked like tears on Benson's face, but she couldn't make it out all the way. She hopped into the back and tried to get comfortable on the seat.

"Ready to go, Miss?" A man's voice called out to her. The driver was looked familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen him before. She just figured that he was someone who she had seen at the ESIU offices at some point or another. She didn't give an answer, only nodding her head as he started up the van and backed up out of the parking lot.

She had started to feel relaxed for the first time in what felt like forever on the long ride to the outskirts of town. She just stared out of the window and watched the city that she had spent most of her life in, the city that she and her husband had come to conquer, go by for what would most likely be the last time in a long time. She wasn't sad. All she could think about was the beatings and the murders that she had witnessed or taken part in right on those streets, and longed for the time when she would be able to put them all behind her.

She had begun to doze off when the van finally came to a stop, which shuffled her out of her daze.

"This is it," the driver said, "let me get out first and make sure it's safe, then I'll have you follow behind me."

She nodded and watched him walk out. The car waiting for them was black and looked like it had seen better days. He motioned for her to come out as he started heading back to open the doors for her. When the door opened and she looked to the car, her heart dropped again. She saw Vicky and Luke getting out of the car with machine guns drawn on her.

She started to panic and reach for her gun, but before she could grab it the driver hit her in the back of the head with a baton. Her vision went fuzzy and she saw a trickle of blood fall from her face to the dirt before she fell over and things went black.

The next thing she knew, she was sitting on a bus and watching Beacon go by. She had realized that leaving Benson behind was the best choice, and that doing things on her own was the only safe way to get out of the city. She sat back and relaxed in the bus seat. Her troubles would be over soon, and she would be starting a new life. She looked to her right to see that a familiar hand was on top of her own. She followed the hand up and there, sitting right beside her, was Al, looking just as wonderful as she remembered him.

Before she could say anything to him, her eyes shot open. She was awake and was tied to a chair. Her vision was still fuzzy, and her head was on fire. She tried to move but was tied down tight. As her eyes adjusted, she could see a large pool of water that went off to the massive waterfall that went down the side of the Crystal Mountain. This was the end, and she knew it.

"Look who's up," she heard Vicky say. Her eyes were able to focus on the woman in front of her, and if she turned her head, she could see Luke standing off in the distance. The guard from before was nowhere to be found and neither was the van. They had moved to the falls after she had been knocked out.

"So it was you all this time, huh?" Vicky asked.

Lisa didn't say anything, so Vicky punched her hard in the stomach. Lisa started coughing and almost threw up on herself from the pain. She tried to stay calm. If she was going to die, then it would be on her terms.

"We were supposed to be friends you little traitor bitch!" Vicky screamed in her ear before punching her in the ribs.

"I carried you out of that drug den and busted your ass to a doctor all for this? Moe fucking died for you, you worthless piece of shit!" Vicky continued, landing blows on Lisa with every few words that she spit out into her face.

Lisa coughed and finally had mustered up the will to talk.

"Did you know?" She asked, weakly.

"What?" Vicky asked, her rage momentarily broken.

"Did you know?" She asked again. "Did you know that monster aunt of yours had my husband killed? My sweet and wonderful Al. That awful cunt Sunny had him killed, and then tried to use me to pay back his debts."

She was crying now.

"Did you know what she did to Al? My only real friend in the world? Did you know?!" She screamed out at the end.

Vicky didn't answer, she only stared at the ground.

It all clicked in her mind then. They both knew. They had both known the entire time. From the moment that first morning when Al hadn't come home, her supposed two best friends had known that the light of her life was already dead. The tears flowed freely as everything fell into place.

"Who did it?" She asked through her tears.

Vicky still didn't answer.

Lisa shook her head through her sobs. "It was you, wasn't it? You're a monster! How could you be so heartless? We were your friends for Empress' sake!" At the end, her sobs were so loud that some of her words were almost unintelligible.

"I'm sorry for what happened," Vicky said, the rage now gone from her, "It was just business and I regret it every day."

Luke looked at her, stunned. He couldn't believe what Vicky was saying.

Lisa continued to cry like she hadn't since the first few days after hearing Sunny in her office confirming her greatest fear.

"I know it was wrong," Vicky continued, "but you should have known once you got mixed up in all of this that it couldn't have ended any other way."

Lisa sniffled. "What if it was Rose? Wouldn't you have done the same thing?"

Vicky stopped dead in her tracks. Luke stared at her, trying to read the emotions that were passing over her face at a rapid pace.

"Answer me!" Lisa piped up through her tears. Her voice had steadied.

"Yes," Vicky whispered.

"What? I can't hear you. You broke most of my fucking face, in case you forgot."

"I said yes!" Vicky shouted as she looked up again. "If it was Rose, I would have killed anyone in my path, no matter who it was."

Lisa began to cough up blood. "Then just let me go, please. You see now why I did what I did. Just let me go and live my life. I just want to live on in his memory and make his name and recipes worth something. Can't you just give me that?"

Vicky didn't say anything at first, and Luke gave her a cold stare.

"Maybe you're right," she finally said.

Luke looked shocked and walked over to them. "You can't be serious right now, can you?"

He stepped closer to Vicky. "I know it's unfortunate that things had to end this way, and yes maybe you would have done the same in her spot, but that doesn't change the facts. She's a rat and if we let her go Sunny will probably kill us both."

"You can tell Sunny that I'm dead," Lisa piped in, "it's not like she could verify it one way or the other anyway, right? Just let me go and you'll never see or hear from me again, I swear it!"

Luke smacked Lisa. "Shut your mouth, rat," he said with an ice-cold tone before turning back to Vicky.

"You aren't actually going to take a risk like that are you? Are you high right now?"

Vicky scoffed. "You're one to talk about that. Besides, Sunny would never kill me, or you for that matter. I've got my badge now, remember? And she's my aunt."

Luke laughed bitterly. "What exactly do you think that badge means? It's dealing with exactly these types of situations. If someone, anyone, were to find out about this, they would kill both of us for sure and maybe even Sunny if they thought she knew about it. Lisa is a rat, Vicky. You know the rules and you took the oath. She has to go. If you can't do it, then I will."

Luke pulled out his pistol and pressed it to the back of Lisa's head. She shut her eyes tight as her heart started beating faster and faster, trying to picture Al's face one last time.

Vicky pushed Luke's gun away. "Stop! She may be a rat, but she's still right, and I know that I would have done the same in her place. What we did was horrible, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself, but I know that I can at least make it a little bit better by letting her go."

Lisa opened her eyes. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Don't be a fool, Vicky," Luke said, his anger rising. "If you let her go, you'll kill us both. Is your conscience feeling a little better worth your life? Think about something for once before you do it!"

Vicky's eyes pierced into Luke. "I'm the made one here, so I call the shots, and I'm telling you that I'm letting her go and we are going to tell Sunny that we put her in the water. That's final."

Luke scoffed. "You are absolutely unbelievable, do you know that? I hope she's worth it."

"Let me worry about who's worth what."

Vicky started untying the ropes around Lisa as Luke walked back towards the car in disgust.

Lisa felt her arms become free, and she knew that this would be her one chance. As much as she wanted to sprint away from there as fast as she could, she knew in that moment that destiny had other plans. Her husband's killer was right there within her grasp, and she couldn't let her go. She had to get revenge for Al, even if it meant never leaving the mountain alive. She knew that she had no other choice.

As soon as her arms were free, she wrapped them around Vicky and reached for the gun that was tucked under Vicky's pants. Vicky yelped and tried to back up, but before she knew it there was a loud bang and her ears were ringing.

She looked up to see Lisa staring at her, but she wasn't moving. She had stopped her attack, and was now perfectly still. She then saw a trail of blood coming out of her ears and then a small one down her eye as she collapsed into Vicky in a heap. Vicky rolled her off of her and stood up, looking down at the fresh hole in the back of Lisa's skull. She rolled Lisa over onto her back so she could take one last look at her.

Lisa's vision was fading fast, and she couldn't feel anything anymore. She looked up to see Vicky staring down at her with an almost perplexed look on her face. Her thoughts were disjointed and becoming less coherent by the second. She just remembered thinking that she failed and how sorry she was.

Then, though, something amazing happened. As the edges of her vision turned to white around her, she could see Vicky fade away and the beautiful visage of her husband staring back at her. He was as pristine and heavenly as the day that they met, and was giving Lisa her warmest smile. It was the smile that always picked her up on even her darkest days.

"It's time to come home, my love." Al said to her. The last thing that she ever felt was a tear roll down her eye and the faint and fleeting feeling of a smile coming to her face before the fading edges took hold and the white turned black. Her troubles were finally over.

Vicky looked down at her former friend. Staring as her chest rose and fell one last time before reaching up a hand to her face and wiping the blood that had splattered from the wound off of it. She looked back to Luke who still had the pistol in hand.

Luke just shook his head. "I'm sorry it had to end like this, but it's better this way and you know it."

Vicky took one last look down at Lisa before walking back to the car. She looked at Luke as she passed him.

"Shut the fuck up and deal with that." She motioned towards Lisa's body as she reached for the passenger door of the car.

Luke sighed and put the pistol back into his coat pocket. He walked over and wrapped one hand each around one of Lisa's legs and drug her over to the edge of the shore before taking a final look at her and rolling her body into the river.

"Bon Voyage, Liz," he said dryly before going back to grab the chair that was left behind to throw in too.

He lit a cigarette and watched Lisa's corpse bob in the water until it eventually went over the falls. It was unfortunate how all of this played out. She deserved better. Al probably deserved better too, but it wasn't his place to make that call. He was an outsider living by tribe rules, and if he wanted to make money and survive, he would have to make sure she played by them to the letter, no matter the cost.

He was starting to shiver. The winter had yet wrap up all the way, and it was still almost frigid outside. He thought that maybe he was going through withdrawals from being off of the pills for the last two days. He just pulled her coat tighter to his chest and tossed the cigarette butt into the river. He took one last look down the falls and into the endless expanse. He could see Endlane out in the distance, miles away, and then nothing but a wasteland for miles more until he saw the little nomad cities and camps dotting the edge of the horizon. Did any of them have to deal with shit like this? It didn't matter. He made his choice, just like Lisa, Vicky and the rest of them. There was nothing more to be said.

It was just another cold night in Beacon. As cold as it gets.