Categories > Original > Mystery
Vignette One
Sage and Swift
Joanna L. Miller (joannamiller78@yahoo.com)
Rated R for language and violence
I don’t know if this is the beginning or middle, but it’s a series of vignettes about a hired killer, Sage, and her disenchantment with her current boss and subsequent move to another team, and the requirements of joining thereof.
I wrote this. It is all mine. My original idea carried out. Archive with my approval only.
By all mean, read and review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sage and Swift
Vignette One
~~~~~~~
“Bye stupid,” Sage said, as the tarp splashed into the water.
~~~~~
She was lounging, fondling the remote, when the door burst open.
Swift entered, gun drawn down on her.
“Hi,” she said, not looking up from the TV.
He regarded her a moment before replying.
“Hey, Sage. Boss wants some answers.”
“Can it wait until this episode of Doctor Who is over?” she asked.
“9 or 10?” he asked excitedly, before shaking his head. “You get that kind of reception way out here?”
She finally looked up, and blinked at him.
“DVD’s.”
He let out his breath, irritated.
“Then press pause.”
She sighed.
“But… the Daleks…”
“Pause,” he replied.
She picked up the remote and pressed some buttons.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I’m holding a gun on you and you have no idea what I’m here for.”
More sighing on her part.
“Rich.”
“Yeah, Rich,” he replied.
“I’d rather watch Doctor Who.”
“I could give a fuck,” he responded.
“Potty mouth,” she replied.
His arms never weakened, his aim didn’t waver, he kept the gun trained on her.
She continued to not give a damn.
She sat up and pulled on her jacket. He tensed, but didn’t even squeeze the trigger a little.
“Food. Steak, salad, potato, wine and lots of ice water.”
He looked at her as she found her bag and slung it over her shoulder.
“Miss Bad Ass Killer only wants dinner? I’m not going to have to work you over with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch?”
“Pulp fiction much?”
“I didn’t bring any hard, pipe-hitting folks,“ he laughed.
“A plus,” she said as she breezed by him to the door, “You coming?”
“I’m driving,” he said, holstering his weapon.
~~~~~~~~~
He watched her in awe as she ate. True to her word, T-bone steak, Greek salad with extra beets and feta, no chili, baked sweet potato, drinking half a bottle of red wine and a pitcher of ice water.
The meal was near silent. Except for the ordering and a word here and there, they didn’t speak. Just unobtrusively observed each other.
She appeared weaponless, which was deceiving. She could have a dozen weapons on her right that second and he’d only be able to pick out a few. Garrote wire in her hair, hip, leg and ankle sheathes for blades, small caliber in a back holster. Those were just the obvious ones. Sage was devious.
~~~~~~~~
Swift was devious. But obvious. He had the big gun and a smaller back up, maybe a blade. It was one of his many flaws. She felt his eyes roam over her, checking for weapons.
She contemplated gutting him on the way out to the car. She contemplated a few things. Her final decision came at the dessert course. As she enjoyed her German Chocolate cake, she decided to show him how Rich went. Specifically, in detail.
~~~~~~~~
They pulled up to the motel out in the middle of nowhere. He commented on the fact that the office appeared to be closed.
“Day guy says they don’t have enough business to pay a night guy. So after 9pm, you’re SOL for a room. I pointed out that you were more likely to get business as people stop driving for the night. Got me a look.
“But, I got a number in case of emergency… Like if something blows up, I guess.”
“All these units and they don’t keep a guy at night?”
“There are only ten units, and it’s just me tonight.”
“Huh,” he said, thinking.
They entered her room, she pulled off her jacket.
“You know earlier, with the gun? That was just work.”
“I know,” she said, blouse coming off.
“Well, alright,” he said, disrobing
~~~~~~~~~~
They laid in bed, post-coital, panting. Swift from exertion, Sage from trying not to throw up.
“So, you killed him?”
“He was stupid.”
“You going to give me details?”
“Now?” she asked. “I was going to finish watching Doctor Who.”
“It’s a point of interest.”
“Does it really matter? He’s dead.”
“Humor me.”
He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.
“You really need to know that bad?” she asked, pulling the sheet off of him and around herself.
“Boss wants to know.”
“His Richie…”
“Yeah.”
“His Richie was a rapist and a murderer. For no good reason. He didn’t kill for money or on orders, he did it for pleasure. He raped and killed teenage girls for pleasure.”
Swift grinned at the ceiling.
“Like you never enjoyed a kill?”
She considered.
“Yes, I’ve tortured and killed and enjoyed it. Because I do, but it’s part of my JOB, not my personal life. There were the bastards who killed my family, Barrett, Chielm. So, yes.
“But, I have a code. I made a decision. And random killing is bad for business. And not part of my code.”
He cut his eyes at her.
“So, we have to live up to your code?”
“I get it,” she said, sitting up, rolling over and laying back down. “We’re sociopaths. We couldn’t do our jobs if we weren’t. But we’re professionals. Professionals! One, raping and killing random girls draws the bad kind of attention and two, it’s just bad form.
“You like the torture and killing part of sociopathy, find more jobs that give you those opportunities. You can’t go outside the format. There have to be rules.”
“Boss disagrees.”
“He would. But he‘s wrong,” she said, reaching under the pillow, looking like she wa making herself more comfortable. She was, in actuality, feeling for the holster taped to the head of the bed.
“Just saying it doesn’t make it so. And it doesn’t change the fact that you killed the boss’ boy.”
“True,” she sighed.
“So, now you need to tell me what happened.”
“Rich came for a visit. We went out to dinner,” she pulled the gun from the holster, silently, still speaking, “We went back to my room. I let him get comfortable.” She pressed the gun to his side, and before he could react, she’d squeezed the trigger. “I shot him in the head.
“Well, hopefully, you’ll be alive long enough to see the rest. You have any questions, you just feel free to ask.”
She tossed the sheet on the bed, next to his slowly wriggling form.
“Struggling just makes it go faster. Relax. And you’ll live long enough to see what happened to Rich.”
“Why?” he croaked, hand on his side, gasping.
She paused while putting on her clothes, mid-hooking her bra.
“Do I have “Too stupid to live” tattooed on my forehead? I’m supposed to believe Boss just wanted to know how Richie died and I’d be free to go? Hell, no! You were going to get the info, by any means necessary, you said as much when you busted in earlier. Which, I’m going to have to pay for. Don’t worry, I’ll go through your wallet to offset the cost.”
She finished putting on her clothes.
“And then I’d be dead.” She pulled her hair into a pony. “Not today.”
She tossed his clothes on the bed with him, along with all other items that could be construed as potentially incriminating and then went through his wallet.
“So, with Rich, what I did was, I picked the remotest no-tell, motel I could find. Then stopped by the local Big Mart and made a few purchases. Water proof sheets, full size sheets, extra linens, towels and the like. I replaced the motel’s linens with the things I bought.”
She pulled the edges of the sheets off the bed and the waterproof sheets crinkled against each other.
“You know, three or four of these, you can’t even feel them? Put a top sheet over it and the average horny male doesn’t notice a thing.
Sage slid the sheets and the man to the floor, wrapping them around him a bit.
“Be right back,” she said.
She pulled her SUV all the way up, butting the open hatch to the open door. She climbed through the SUV and into the room.
“Things went pretty much like this with Rich.”
She tucked Swift into the sheets and manhandled him into the back of the vehicle.
“The bed to the floor to the truck. But he was completely dead, not just mostly dead, like you.”
She loaded him in and proceeded to replace the motel’s linens and various items. When everything was properly out of order, bed mussed, towels on the floor, Sage climbed over the man in the back of the SUV and pulled it away from the door. She loaded her stuff into the passenger seat, locked the room, dropped the key in the night box and hit the highway.
She turned on the radio and the sounds of Amy Winehouse filled the truck.
“Tough shit if you don’t like her. She relaxes me,” she said. “She’s fucked up and not afraid to tell anyone about it. Even with all I’ve done… I’m still a mess when it comes to relationships. I like her honesty about how screwed up she is with men, but blind to her own personal addictions. It’s just so true to life.”
During the drive Sage was silent, except for the occasional singing along with more poignant verses and sighing at the occasional moan from the back. After a while, she pulled out her cell phone.
“Hey, Niagara, it’s me“……“Yeah, I’m good. You?”……..“Yeah, I have that garbage I mentioned“…..“I’m about twenty minutes out”…….”Good”…….”No, I don’t need help, but could you have Jessie leave out the big wheel barrow?”………“Great”…..”Thanks, hon, I’ll see you soon”……. “Bye.”
Not too long after that conversation, Sage pulled onto a long dirt road. She drove by the house and right up to the dock, backing the SUV right up to the pier.
She got out, waved in the direction of the house, where a youngish black woman stood on the porch, and unloaded her cargo. Swift was still grunting as she moved him.
“Still alive?” she asked, “I’d have thought you would have bled out by now.”
She inspected the inner sheet. It was soaked with blood, but not the eight quarts the average male held.
“Bleeding internally, then,” she said, “Easier for me. Must hurt like a bitch for you.”
She saw his mouth move.
“You are very lucky I read lips. And no, it’s not really personal. I’m just answering your questions. Well, Boss’. But they won’t get back to him, what with you floating to the bottom of the Atlantic.
“I’m not going to feel bad for killing you horribly. You were going to fuck me, get your answers, kill me and not even do me the courtesy of getting rid of my body. And that’s…” she paused, getting angry, “That’s just rude. Leaving me a stinking corpse in the middle of no where for some inbred day manager to find. And it’s sloppy, but that is your style.” She heaved him out of the back of the SUV. “Not mine. I take care of all the loose ends, I don’t leave evidence. I’m good at my job.” She dumped him in the oversized wheelbarrow. “And to clarify, this is kind of a job. I’m getting a millie to get rid of you. Boss’ competitors want all his hired hands knocked off. And who better for the job?”
She pushed the wheel barrow down the pier.
“This is Niagara’s place, right on the coast. She has a beautiful view of the Atlantic and a long ass pier. She’s a friend and I pay her well, so she lets me do a little dumping when I’m in the area. To clarify, I brought Rich here, too. Just like this.”
She crossed the gang plank onto the already running boat and dumped Swift on the foredeck. She untethered, went to the wheel and set her course.
“Rusty old boat,” she called, “But brand spanking new Nav-Sat.”
She spent the rest of the trip silent, staring out at the water. She found the current she wanted and lowered anchor.
She dropped the side rail on the foredeck and pulled Swift over by the sheets.
“Rich was a sloppy average-ass amateur. He was also unnecessarily cruel to people he wasn’t even getting paid to kill. It bugged me. So, when Klor-Con approached me… How could I say no? Boss stopped hiring professionals after he hired me. After that it was all hatchet men with no finesse. And like I said, that’s bad for business.”
Swift didn’t respond. He didn’t appear to be breathing or moving. Sage positioned him by the dropped rail and sat on the deck next to him. She added some weights and tied up the edges of the sheets.
“So, this was the end for Richie.”
She leaned back and planted both feet on the side of his body and pushed. The cargo hit the water with a satisfying splash and sank quickly out of sight.
“Bye, stupid,” she said, and mentally checked off her list.
Sage turned the boat and headed back to harbor. She had other visits to make.
Sage and Swift
Joanna L. Miller (joannamiller78@yahoo.com)
Rated R for language and violence
I don’t know if this is the beginning or middle, but it’s a series of vignettes about a hired killer, Sage, and her disenchantment with her current boss and subsequent move to another team, and the requirements of joining thereof.
I wrote this. It is all mine. My original idea carried out. Archive with my approval only.
By all mean, read and review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sage and Swift
Vignette One
~~~~~~~
“Bye stupid,” Sage said, as the tarp splashed into the water.
~~~~~
She was lounging, fondling the remote, when the door burst open.
Swift entered, gun drawn down on her.
“Hi,” she said, not looking up from the TV.
He regarded her a moment before replying.
“Hey, Sage. Boss wants some answers.”
“Can it wait until this episode of Doctor Who is over?” she asked.
“9 or 10?” he asked excitedly, before shaking his head. “You get that kind of reception way out here?”
She finally looked up, and blinked at him.
“DVD’s.”
He let out his breath, irritated.
“Then press pause.”
She sighed.
“But… the Daleks…”
“Pause,” he replied.
She picked up the remote and pressed some buttons.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I’m holding a gun on you and you have no idea what I’m here for.”
More sighing on her part.
“Rich.”
“Yeah, Rich,” he replied.
“I’d rather watch Doctor Who.”
“I could give a fuck,” he responded.
“Potty mouth,” she replied.
His arms never weakened, his aim didn’t waver, he kept the gun trained on her.
She continued to not give a damn.
She sat up and pulled on her jacket. He tensed, but didn’t even squeeze the trigger a little.
“Food. Steak, salad, potato, wine and lots of ice water.”
He looked at her as she found her bag and slung it over her shoulder.
“Miss Bad Ass Killer only wants dinner? I’m not going to have to work you over with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch?”
“Pulp fiction much?”
“I didn’t bring any hard, pipe-hitting folks,“ he laughed.
“A plus,” she said as she breezed by him to the door, “You coming?”
“I’m driving,” he said, holstering his weapon.
~~~~~~~~~
He watched her in awe as she ate. True to her word, T-bone steak, Greek salad with extra beets and feta, no chili, baked sweet potato, drinking half a bottle of red wine and a pitcher of ice water.
The meal was near silent. Except for the ordering and a word here and there, they didn’t speak. Just unobtrusively observed each other.
She appeared weaponless, which was deceiving. She could have a dozen weapons on her right that second and he’d only be able to pick out a few. Garrote wire in her hair, hip, leg and ankle sheathes for blades, small caliber in a back holster. Those were just the obvious ones. Sage was devious.
~~~~~~~~
Swift was devious. But obvious. He had the big gun and a smaller back up, maybe a blade. It was one of his many flaws. She felt his eyes roam over her, checking for weapons.
She contemplated gutting him on the way out to the car. She contemplated a few things. Her final decision came at the dessert course. As she enjoyed her German Chocolate cake, she decided to show him how Rich went. Specifically, in detail.
~~~~~~~~
They pulled up to the motel out in the middle of nowhere. He commented on the fact that the office appeared to be closed.
“Day guy says they don’t have enough business to pay a night guy. So after 9pm, you’re SOL for a room. I pointed out that you were more likely to get business as people stop driving for the night. Got me a look.
“But, I got a number in case of emergency… Like if something blows up, I guess.”
“All these units and they don’t keep a guy at night?”
“There are only ten units, and it’s just me tonight.”
“Huh,” he said, thinking.
They entered her room, she pulled off her jacket.
“You know earlier, with the gun? That was just work.”
“I know,” she said, blouse coming off.
“Well, alright,” he said, disrobing
~~~~~~~~~~
They laid in bed, post-coital, panting. Swift from exertion, Sage from trying not to throw up.
“So, you killed him?”
“He was stupid.”
“You going to give me details?”
“Now?” she asked. “I was going to finish watching Doctor Who.”
“It’s a point of interest.”
“Does it really matter? He’s dead.”
“Humor me.”
He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.
“You really need to know that bad?” she asked, pulling the sheet off of him and around herself.
“Boss wants to know.”
“His Richie…”
“Yeah.”
“His Richie was a rapist and a murderer. For no good reason. He didn’t kill for money or on orders, he did it for pleasure. He raped and killed teenage girls for pleasure.”
Swift grinned at the ceiling.
“Like you never enjoyed a kill?”
She considered.
“Yes, I’ve tortured and killed and enjoyed it. Because I do, but it’s part of my JOB, not my personal life. There were the bastards who killed my family, Barrett, Chielm. So, yes.
“But, I have a code. I made a decision. And random killing is bad for business. And not part of my code.”
He cut his eyes at her.
“So, we have to live up to your code?”
“I get it,” she said, sitting up, rolling over and laying back down. “We’re sociopaths. We couldn’t do our jobs if we weren’t. But we’re professionals. Professionals! One, raping and killing random girls draws the bad kind of attention and two, it’s just bad form.
“You like the torture and killing part of sociopathy, find more jobs that give you those opportunities. You can’t go outside the format. There have to be rules.”
“Boss disagrees.”
“He would. But he‘s wrong,” she said, reaching under the pillow, looking like she wa making herself more comfortable. She was, in actuality, feeling for the holster taped to the head of the bed.
“Just saying it doesn’t make it so. And it doesn’t change the fact that you killed the boss’ boy.”
“True,” she sighed.
“So, now you need to tell me what happened.”
“Rich came for a visit. We went out to dinner,” she pulled the gun from the holster, silently, still speaking, “We went back to my room. I let him get comfortable.” She pressed the gun to his side, and before he could react, she’d squeezed the trigger. “I shot him in the head.
“Well, hopefully, you’ll be alive long enough to see the rest. You have any questions, you just feel free to ask.”
She tossed the sheet on the bed, next to his slowly wriggling form.
“Struggling just makes it go faster. Relax. And you’ll live long enough to see what happened to Rich.”
“Why?” he croaked, hand on his side, gasping.
She paused while putting on her clothes, mid-hooking her bra.
“Do I have “Too stupid to live” tattooed on my forehead? I’m supposed to believe Boss just wanted to know how Richie died and I’d be free to go? Hell, no! You were going to get the info, by any means necessary, you said as much when you busted in earlier. Which, I’m going to have to pay for. Don’t worry, I’ll go through your wallet to offset the cost.”
She finished putting on her clothes.
“And then I’d be dead.” She pulled her hair into a pony. “Not today.”
She tossed his clothes on the bed with him, along with all other items that could be construed as potentially incriminating and then went through his wallet.
“So, with Rich, what I did was, I picked the remotest no-tell, motel I could find. Then stopped by the local Big Mart and made a few purchases. Water proof sheets, full size sheets, extra linens, towels and the like. I replaced the motel’s linens with the things I bought.”
She pulled the edges of the sheets off the bed and the waterproof sheets crinkled against each other.
“You know, three or four of these, you can’t even feel them? Put a top sheet over it and the average horny male doesn’t notice a thing.
Sage slid the sheets and the man to the floor, wrapping them around him a bit.
“Be right back,” she said.
She pulled her SUV all the way up, butting the open hatch to the open door. She climbed through the SUV and into the room.
“Things went pretty much like this with Rich.”
She tucked Swift into the sheets and manhandled him into the back of the vehicle.
“The bed to the floor to the truck. But he was completely dead, not just mostly dead, like you.”
She loaded him in and proceeded to replace the motel’s linens and various items. When everything was properly out of order, bed mussed, towels on the floor, Sage climbed over the man in the back of the SUV and pulled it away from the door. She loaded her stuff into the passenger seat, locked the room, dropped the key in the night box and hit the highway.
She turned on the radio and the sounds of Amy Winehouse filled the truck.
“Tough shit if you don’t like her. She relaxes me,” she said. “She’s fucked up and not afraid to tell anyone about it. Even with all I’ve done… I’m still a mess when it comes to relationships. I like her honesty about how screwed up she is with men, but blind to her own personal addictions. It’s just so true to life.”
During the drive Sage was silent, except for the occasional singing along with more poignant verses and sighing at the occasional moan from the back. After a while, she pulled out her cell phone.
“Hey, Niagara, it’s me“……“Yeah, I’m good. You?”……..“Yeah, I have that garbage I mentioned“…..“I’m about twenty minutes out”…….”Good”…….”No, I don’t need help, but could you have Jessie leave out the big wheel barrow?”………“Great”…..”Thanks, hon, I’ll see you soon”……. “Bye.”
Not too long after that conversation, Sage pulled onto a long dirt road. She drove by the house and right up to the dock, backing the SUV right up to the pier.
She got out, waved in the direction of the house, where a youngish black woman stood on the porch, and unloaded her cargo. Swift was still grunting as she moved him.
“Still alive?” she asked, “I’d have thought you would have bled out by now.”
She inspected the inner sheet. It was soaked with blood, but not the eight quarts the average male held.
“Bleeding internally, then,” she said, “Easier for me. Must hurt like a bitch for you.”
She saw his mouth move.
“You are very lucky I read lips. And no, it’s not really personal. I’m just answering your questions. Well, Boss’. But they won’t get back to him, what with you floating to the bottom of the Atlantic.
“I’m not going to feel bad for killing you horribly. You were going to fuck me, get your answers, kill me and not even do me the courtesy of getting rid of my body. And that’s…” she paused, getting angry, “That’s just rude. Leaving me a stinking corpse in the middle of no where for some inbred day manager to find. And it’s sloppy, but that is your style.” She heaved him out of the back of the SUV. “Not mine. I take care of all the loose ends, I don’t leave evidence. I’m good at my job.” She dumped him in the oversized wheelbarrow. “And to clarify, this is kind of a job. I’m getting a millie to get rid of you. Boss’ competitors want all his hired hands knocked off. And who better for the job?”
She pushed the wheel barrow down the pier.
“This is Niagara’s place, right on the coast. She has a beautiful view of the Atlantic and a long ass pier. She’s a friend and I pay her well, so she lets me do a little dumping when I’m in the area. To clarify, I brought Rich here, too. Just like this.”
She crossed the gang plank onto the already running boat and dumped Swift on the foredeck. She untethered, went to the wheel and set her course.
“Rusty old boat,” she called, “But brand spanking new Nav-Sat.”
She spent the rest of the trip silent, staring out at the water. She found the current she wanted and lowered anchor.
She dropped the side rail on the foredeck and pulled Swift over by the sheets.
“Rich was a sloppy average-ass amateur. He was also unnecessarily cruel to people he wasn’t even getting paid to kill. It bugged me. So, when Klor-Con approached me… How could I say no? Boss stopped hiring professionals after he hired me. After that it was all hatchet men with no finesse. And like I said, that’s bad for business.”
Swift didn’t respond. He didn’t appear to be breathing or moving. Sage positioned him by the dropped rail and sat on the deck next to him. She added some weights and tied up the edges of the sheets.
“So, this was the end for Richie.”
She leaned back and planted both feet on the side of his body and pushed. The cargo hit the water with a satisfying splash and sank quickly out of sight.
“Bye, stupid,” she said, and mentally checked off her list.
Sage turned the boat and headed back to harbor. She had other visits to make.
Sign up to rate and review this story