Chapter 6: Second Meeting

Recap

       "Gimme the pendrive. I wanna see what's in there before handing it over to Eagle." Blade said but was shocked on seeing Blaze's reaction who almost snapped her neck while turning towards Blade.

        "What?" Blade questioned in the tiniest voice she had ever spoken in.

     "Fuck." Blaze whispered.

                                    ***

      "Holy God of fuck! Don't tell me you forgot the bloody pendrive?!" Blade said while hitting a sudden break which almost made Blaze hit her head on the car's windscreen.

       "I know! What am I supposed to do now? Shall I go back?" Blaze asked. It was the first time she messed up this bad. She had never left a job undone and now this. She couldn't make a single delivery. It all happened because of that stupid girl who mistook Blaze for her girlfriend or whatever. Blaze wanted to go back and punch that girl on her face.

       "Okay. Alright. Breathe. Breathe again. Now, check up with your client and ask her where she is right now. We can go to her and take that pen drive without anyone from W.I.P.E.O.U.T knowing." Blade came up with a better idea than just freaking out.

       Blaze complied and looked at her phone and chocked. Blade's eyes grew huge, she got the hint that it wasn't a good news at all. Blade couldn't even bring herself to ask the question 'what.' She just snatched the phone from Blaze who was having an existential crisis at the moment.

        *I gave the package to a girl who claimed to know you. I can't do this anymore.*

       Blade read the text on Blaze's phone and had the exact same reaction as Blaze. Blaze never fucked up before. But this time it was a big fuck up. Blaze and Blade looked at each other, none of them capable of forming words anymore.

                                  ***

       "How can you be so careless Blaze?!" Floyd's voice with his Spanish accent boomed in the common room of W.I.P.E.O.U.T. If he had arrived a minute late then he wouldn't have been able to overhear the conversation among Blade, Blaze and Eagle.

        What boiled his blood was the fact that Eagle simply told those two troublemakers to sleep and they would discuss this matter later. Did they not understand the grave seriousness of the issue Blaze had caused?

       "Give me an answer Blaze?!" Floyd's voice boomed shocking both Blaze and Blade. He was already loud enough but he was getting louder somehow. "I trusted you with this important job and you proved to be useless and untrustworthy."

       Blaze had no answer for this. But atleast she wasn't crying in front of Floyd. It would have made him madder. According to him there was no place for weakness in W.I.P.E.O.U.T.

       "Tell me did I pick you up from the streets and covered all your past doings for this?!" Floyd growled.

       He always had a frown on his face and his stormy grey eyes, sharp jawline and receding brown hair did nothing to make appear less angry. Floyd mostly dealt with the paperwork unlike Eagle who found them boring. But he still took care of the important things.

        The thing Floyd said triggered Blaze's past and everytime someone mentioned her past she could feel Clary trying to float on the surface of her mind. She ran upstairs towards the roof which made Floyd realize that he had touched a part which he shouldn't have. He looked at Eagle with literally no expression on his face except a never dissapearing frown and Eagle in turn rolled his eyes and looked at Blade. Blade never understand this mutual communication but however, she always knew what she was supposed to do. She followed Blaze.

         "I know I messed up... But... " Blaze said as Blade reached the roof.

        "Wait, but how did you know I followed you?" Blade asked. Blaze somehow always got to know when Blade approached her. It half-amused and half-creeped but most things about Blaze made her feel that.

        "I don't know, maybe it's because you're only one who I wait for, the only one who comes back." Blaze said with a calm voice which sounded sadder than her voice when she cried. "Also your boots make a lot of sound."

       "Wow, I was almost on tears." Blade said as she sat beside Blaze on the edge of the roof. Blaze and Blade signed in unison.

       "I am a monster Blade. A monster who can't do mosterous things without messing up." Blaze said taking Blade off guard.

       "Why would you say that?" Blade asked. "Everyone makes mistakes, we will figure something out together."

       Blaze could just look at her. She could never understand how Blade could sound so wise when she wanted to.

        "No, that wasn't the only reason I said that. I kill people for a living Blade and I don't feel regret at all."

       "You are telling me that while literally torchuring yourself internaly for being who you are." Blade said. She was really stunned by Blaze and how can a person not know how they feel? "Besides, if you think like that then I am a monster too. I kill people for a living too." Blade never felt guilty too and unlike Blaze she was sure of what she felt. What Blade felt at times was empiness. That's why she always had to keep herself occupied.

         "No Blade, you have killed a monster before. You are a hero." Blaze said again taking Blade off guard. "Besides, you have a younger sister to take care of and you don't have other options."

       "Does killing a monster make you a hero? Doesn't it make you a killer? Who decides who's a villian and who's not Blazie? All we do is survive." Blade said. She never considered herself a hero. She never considered herself as a monster either. She took herself as a human and nothing else. "Besides, none of us have a choice. We all get pushed towards what life pushes us towards."

        Blaze looked at Blade as if she was deciphering the meaning of what she had just heard. Blaze signed and took a vodka's bottle for her purse earning a What-the-fuck? look from Blade.

         "Um.. Where did you get that sweetie?" Blade asked. Blaze never failed to surprise Blaze. Surprises, were the best thing to keep her mind occupied. "You have never drank  before."

       "I grabbed it from the bar, without paying obviously. Besides there's a first time to everything." Blaze said, winked at Blaze whose mouth was wide open and opened the bottle with a pop. "Let's drink the pain away!" Blaze shouted to the air making Blade think that she was already high.

       "Are you nuts?" Blade asked with a very serious face. She couldn't believe Blaze managed to grab a bottle of alcohol but not a pendrive. Oh! This girl. "Give it to me too." Blade finished with a creepy old guy's smile on her face. She grabbed the bottle and took a big sip. "Let's drink the pain away!"

                                ***

       "Jenny wake up I know it's a holiday but wake up." Ash called her younger sister while preparing the lunch which was a simple chicken sandwich with last night's leftover pasta. Jenny who was fast asleep in her bedroom till 12 noon.

       Everything was good today. It was a warm, happy, sunny Sunday and Ash didn't have much of college work to do. The cafe she worked at payed well and gave her enough time to rest not to mention the sweet old couple who owned the cafe. When they saw her the first they started addressing her as a hadsome young man which she definitely was not. Ash laughed at this memory.

        "Oh you are awake." Ash told Jenny who sat on the dining table yawning. "I don't understand why do you need to stay awake and talk to yourself till late night."

        The words 'late night' made Ash's insides turn themselves inside out. She almost dropped the bread. A series of last night's extremely uncomfortable events swirled in her mind. Then she remembered about the envelope which she was supposed to hand over to the girl in silver dress. She remembered the kiss and let out an embarrassing 'eek' which earned an Are-you-mad? look from Jenny.

        "So that's where I get my self talking habbit from." Jenny said with a very amused look on her face.

        "Knock it off. I had a weird night alright." Ash said, annoyed.

        "Weird night or wild night?" Jenny said with a smirk on her face which showed she was definitely thinking something inappropriate.

        "I am going to rename you as pervert." Ash said. She kind of expected something like this from her sister.

         "No, you won't."

          "Yes, I will." Ash said while placing Jenny's lunch in front of her and sitting down with her own. Ash could finally think about pushing the incidents from the night before behind and focus on her life.

         Her phone rang. She checked it to find an unknown number. Getting calls from unknown numbers was full of risks in her country so she decided to let it ring. She looked at Jenna only to find her nodding on her phone and then she handed it to Ash mouthing, "Someone, wants to talk to you."

        Ash glared at her and mentally decided on confisticating Jenny's phone.

Ash put the phone to her ears and cleared her throat.

        "Miss Ashley Williams." The other side of the phone spoke. The voice was of a young man. Ash's hearbeat increased, getting a call from creeps was really common for her since she lived without parents. But hearing her name from a stranger was a completely different thing. Ash was just about to hang up when the voice from the other side continued.

        "We know what you have with you. We know about the envelope and what's in there. You need to hide it well and don't give it to girl who comes to collect it."  The voice from the other side finished and hung up the call.

      Ash was baffled. She had no idea a kiss could lead to so much trouble. She just hoped that the call was a prank call and not one of the assassination calling her.

     "What happened? You look freaked out." Jenny asked with concern.

      "I think our life is going to go down." Ash replied with very noticeable stress on her face.

      "What do you mean?" Jenny asked with widened eyes.

                                  ***

        "You go to your stupid bookstore, I will stay here and watch this instead." Ash Said, completely annoyed at Jenny who was talking about books just after that eerie phone call. Jenny somehow convinced Ash to leave that parcel untouched and get her more books.

       So here they were, standing in front of a stage show going on by 'Lovers' Land.' Ash had no idea how people did not figure out they were secretly promoting love for all. But it was a good thing so Ash never put in much thought into it. Ash was still thinking about the parcel and the phone call which was what a normal person would do. Jenny never fell under the "normal" category.

       "Don't call my bookstore stupid." Jenny said and glared at Ash.

       Ash snickered. "Yeah and you can call my bar stupid huh?" Ash said leaving a pouting Jenny.

        "Whatever, I will go, buy books and finish your salary." Jenny said before stomping towards the bookstore.

       "Don't drain my treasure!" Ash shouted after Jenny, earning weird looks from people.

       "Hey Ash!" Ash heard a woman call her and turned around.

       "Hey Steph! What are you doing here?" Ash said looking at Stephnie's all black outfit as usual.

      "I don't know what's wrong with your memory but you called me an hour ago and asked me to meet here." Stephnie said with a tired voice which recieved a look of realization from Ash. "Anyways, what are we doing here today?" Stephnie continued.

        "Jenny wanted to buy books besides I needed a break from whatever shit is going in my life." Ash said, looking stressed.

       "Yeah, exactly what happened yesterday? Why did you make that pretty girl cry?" Stephnie asked with a mix of anger and curiousity in her voice.

      'Pretty girl.' Ash thought. She couldn't deny that the girl she kissed was pretty even though she saw her for a minute or two but she was pretty. Then she realized what had Stephie asked her and her eyes became wider.

       Stephnie raised an eyebrow at Ash. "Let it be. You seem to go into panic mode." Stephnie said, letting go of the matter about which Ash couldn't be more grateful.

       "Anyways, is that 'Lovers' Land'?" Stephnie asked pointing at the group talking on the stage.

      "Yeah, they are. They talk about love and pick people from the crowd to perform some activities. It's really fun. They have a vtube channel." Ash talked about the group enthusiastically.

      "I know. But if you are so enthusiastic about them why don't you raise your hand?" Stephnie questioned. Ash gave her a confused look and did as she was told.

        "Yes! Thank you so much! Now please come on stage the person with floral design on black shirt and blue pants." A man with pink hair on the stage said. Ash's eyes widened. She had no idea why she couldn't hear what these people were saying but Stephnie did. Maybe she had some sort of undiscovered superpower with which she could close of her ears. Ash glared at Stephnie and advanced towards the stage.

      "Hello! How are you doing?" The man with pink hair asked Ash as she hoped on stage.

       "I am alright." Ash replied with a awkward and nervous grjn on her face. But atleast this situation was diverting her mind from the parcel.

       "May we all know your name?"

        "Ash"

       "Oh! That's a wonderful name. So now let's choose your partner before we tell you what's the next activity is about."  A person with blue hair took over whose name as Ash remembered was B. Yes, the  letter B.

        "Alright let's choose your partner now. I will close my eyes and move my finger like this and coult till 5.B said while moving her index finger from from left to right of the crowd. "The one on whom this finger points at will be your partner." B finished. The whole crowd cheers.

       B started pointing at others while Ash just looked at the purple carpetet floor of the stage. She only stoped glaring at the floor when she realized that B had already finished counting and was asking someone to come on stage. Ash looked up and regretted it instantly. Her eyes almost blew out of its sockets and her heart was almost pushed out of her mouth.

        There stood the girl she had kissed last night and the girl because of whom she was getting threats. Ash couldn't understand why was fate trying to bond them together.

                                   ***