Fire and Smoke

Prologue

Fall Storm stepped into the small out-of-the-way coffee shop ringing the small bell as ey did.

"I'll be right with ya!" The waitress called. She was a petite woman who looked about twenty-seven with shoulder length, curly, auburn hair, hazel eyes and a too perfect tan. She appeared to be the only one working right now, but there could have been others. Fall nodded and slipped into a chair at one of the square, two person tables by the door. Fall of course had immediately spotted two very shady figures huddled in the corner of the coffee shop by the tea. Pretending to argue about which tea was the best tea with cream. Fall rolled eir eyes inwardly. These two were supposed to be hiding. And yet here they were in a small but popular coffee shop and one of them was showing her face practically begging to get caught. Fall sat up straight pretending ey hadn't noticed the infamous killers. The waitress came bustling over with a notepad.

"What wouldja like to drink dear?" She asked with a smile too big to be real. Fall looked over the menu pretending ey were trying to remember what ey wanted to order.

"Cappuccino please." Ey said, handing the menu to the waitress. The waitress somehow managed to smile wider at Fall after writing the order down on her notepad and walked away. Fall studied the figures in the corner. The one showing her face had long, golden hair that was running down her back like sun rays. Her eyes were as blue as the sky on a clear summer day. She was wearing a long golden summery type of dress that looked airy and cool flowing around her ankles. It had small yellow diamonds that Fall thought were fake but ey couldn't tell, running along the hem of her dress and in swirling patterns all along the front and back of it. Her skin was a slightly tanned color completing the look of a model from an ad about an exotic beach on an island somewhere. The other one, though Fall couldn't see his face very well, ey knew was male. Ey saw his chocolate brown skin as he turned and pulled one glove from his hand and plucked a caramel from the dish on his right and put the glove back on. His midnight black hair fell into his dark brown eyes making him look almost handsome. His hood and cloak were very much like Fall's own but ey couldn't tell if they were black or very dark grey. It was, after all, 5:00 in the morning. In the middle of winter. Which made the girl stick out like a sore thumb. Fall didn't know their names, nor did ey care, but ey did know why they were here. It was the same reason ey were here. The waitress came bustling over setting Fall's drink down in front of em. She followed Fall's gaze.

"Those two have been here all mornin'. They say someone's comin' to meet em but I think they just want the caramels." She paused.

"We shouldn't gossip though. Is that all?" She asked. Fall nodded. Finally, after about 20 minutes, the killers noticed em. The man came over. He handed Fall a small white piece of paper then continued to hold his hand out. Ey put eir drink in it. He glared at em.

"Well, I thought spitting in your hand would be rude." Ey said in a mocking tone, looking up at him. He put the drink down.

"I want my money." He said in a thick accent. Fall cocked eir head.

"Money?" Ey asked. "I don't have that sorry. Try coming back later." His glare upon em hardened.

"You dare mock me." It wasn't a question but Fall answered anyway

"Sure, I mean why not? You fell for it didn't you? You seriously thought I'd cough up a half a million dollars for two addresses? You must be joking" Ey said, standing up. It was infuriating. Fall was shorter than most. At 4'10 ey failed to be menacing back to him. He laughed. Despite emself, ey shivered. His voice turned cold and hard,

"You will pay for that." He said. On instinct, Fall ducked. A golden bat swung where eir head had been not seconds ago. With uncanny speed, ey spun, yanked the bat out of the girl's hands and threw it across the building and out the window. It made a satisfying crash as it collided with the window shattering glass everywhere. Fall's gun was in eir hands. Ey didn't remember grabbing it but ey knew ey had to act fast before one of them shot em. Fall heard a gunshot. Then screaming as the waitress became aware of what was going on and two teen cooks came out and saw what was happening. Fall felt something warm trickling down eir leg. Ey doubted ey had wet emself. Sure enough, ey were the one who had been shot. Through eir knee. Three more gunshots. No impact. Ey spun to see that the man had shot the waitress and the cooks. Fall laughed, half delirious from blood loss even though ey couldn't feel the pain.

"Ha-ha. You have a round number of kills now. Wh-why kill me?" Ey asked. Another gunshot. Fall felt the bullet hit eir arm.

"Well you suck at aiming." Ey said. This time the man ran his bullet straight through eir stomach.

"That wasn't nice." Ey said

"Just DIE ALREADY!" He yelled; all traces of his previous accent gone.

"But I don't want to." Fall replied. Gunshot after gunshot. Fall stumbled back towards the door. Ey felt the doorknob under eir hand and ey fell against the door. Ey laughed.

"See ya." Ey turned the knob and was in eir car driving away before either killer could do anything about it. Fall set the car to auto drive and tapped in eir destination.

"Shit." Ey said, looking down at emself. It looked bad. Ey reached for the glove compartment and pulled out a cell phone. Ey dialed a number and held it to eir ear.

"Hey, I'm headed to base."

"No, I didn't kill anyone."

"Well actually we had a slight disagreement over money."

"Yes actually."

"Five times in the stomach, two in my right arm, a few times in the left leg and once in the right leg."

"Yes, I accomplished the mission."

"Ye-es. Love the car by the way."

"Yes yes, just get the doctors ready."

"Bye"

Fall ended the call and put the phone back into the glove compartment. At the same time ey reached below the seat and opened another compartment containing a First Aid kit. Ey bandaged emself up. Ey'd be in deep shit when ey got back, having drugged and stuffed eir partner in a janitor's closet to avoid his annoying yapping in eir ear. Again. But that didn't matter now, all that mattered was the mission. Now that part one of the mission was done, ey could get on to the less boring part of the mission; Reading the addresses on the paper ey had gotten from the killers and then go do some killing emself. Ey were going to enjoy this.