2 Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

It was her father's fault that Cherry had resorted to a life of crime. She had to clean up his messes for him and take care of his mother when she was only a child.

She still missed her granny. Before she got sick, she had been one of the best-known makeup and wardrobe artists on Broadway. When her granddaughter came to live with her the first time he ended up in jail, she expressed an interest in what she was doing after being brought along to work.

Cherry learned everything she knew from her granny. How to transform herself into anyone else.

She had loved everything about Broadway. Before quitting school, she had been in drama and choir and took dance lessons too. Musicals were still her favorite. She often used her ill-gotten gains to get herself tickets and feel close to her granny again.

It was all she could do. She didn't have anything else left aside from this apartment. She was all alone in the world but she didn't let that get her down. She was making her way in the world without anybody's help and that was more than a lot of people managed to do, especially when they didn't even have a high school diploma.

All of this started when Cherry was working was a waitress when she was seventeen to help pay for her granny's ever-growing stack of medical bills since she couldn't work anymore. She was used to rude customers but just because she was used to them didn't mean she liked them.

A man in his fifties was on a date with a woman in her thirties and was being incredibly demeaning. She overheard them talking and realized that the woman was NOT his wife.

She told herself it wasn't her business…but it became her business when he didn't leave a tip and sneeringly told her to get a real job. She held her anger in and her top-notch customer service smile was in full effect despite how she was seething on the inside.

Cherry thought that would be the end of it until she saw the man again on her way to the pharmacy to get her granny's medicine a few weeks later. Her dad had taught her to pickpocket when she was only six years old. It was so tempting!

Too tempting. She did it and took all of the cash from his wallet, which was a hefty $243. She knew from her dad that credit cards were traceable—it was one of the ways he got busted, after all—so she had to be smarter than that. She used some of her granny's makeup, wigs, and costumes to make herself look both older and like a different person before going out and buying everything she would need to take care of the two of them for the next month and then some.

She completely maxed out the cards and felt a vindictive sort of pleasure from doing so. She hoped that creep's wife left him. She had his name since it had been on his ID. Finding his wife shouldn't be too hard. She should tell her that he had been on a date.

Which was exactly what she did. She checked that woman's social media a few months later and was pleased to see she had gone back to using her maiden name.

Cherry felt powerful. She had made more inconveniencing someone who deserved it than she had in months of breaking her back at the restaurant. It lit a fire in her that wouldn't go out.

It was more difficult to target creeps who deserved it before she was old enough to get into clubs. She had to keep working at various restaurants until then but that was okay. It gave her time to perfect her craft. She had been jumping from club to club nearly every night for more than three and a half years and she had been able to pay off all of her granny's medical and funeral debt and provide a solid lifestyle for herself.

Changing herself into so many other people didn't come cheap. She had to spend a lot on quality makeup, various fashions, and wigs that looked like real hair. That was what she planned to do first thing in the morning as Alicia.

If the police came looking, they would find someone who matched the description of the woman who had been with Randy at the club but that didn't matter. There were so many people who went in and out of those places in a single night and they didn't keep track aside from being sure people were twenty-one or older.

Cherry had nothing to worry about. She could relax for the rest of the night. Doing a facial and listening to one of her favorite musicals while burning some nice-smelling candles sounded perfect just about now.

She had a peaceful night and felt refreshed in the morning. It took her quite some time to transform into Alicia but that was alright. She didn't have anywhere else to be until tonight when she hit her next club. She didn't find prey every night. Going clubbing every night resulted in maybe two or three times a week where she got lucky.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of creeps out there. She was able to enjoy herself the rest of the time though. Clubs usually had great dance music.

Cherry headed out the door in the sort of daytime outfit she thought Alicia would wear and managed to hit everywhere she wanted to go before maxing the cards. He never suspected a thing. He would be getting that bill sooner or later but she didn't feel sorry for him. He had spiked her drink, after all.

If she had been less savvy, she could have been in real trouble! One of the few useful things her dad ever did was instill a sense of caution in her.

"There are a lot of wolves in sheep's clothing out there, Little Red. You have to be ready for anything," he would tell her.

He always called her Little Red. He had the same hair so her mother had called him Red, which led to her being Little Red. The name stuck even after she left them but she didn't mind too much. Little Red wasn't any better or worse than Cherry.