Oil and Water | Arcane | Silco | Sevika

Enemy

Warning: this chapter briefly mentions child sex trafficking.

    "Where have you been all night?"

     Mayve jumps up from her bed, scrambling for one of her knives on the nightstand. She holds it up towards the voice. She can feel the roughness of the handle in her palm. It grounds her. The room is a blur of colors. After vigorously blinking her eyes, her vision clears. Honestly, who else could it be?

     "How the fuck did you get in here?!" Mayve huffs out a large breath, all of her anxiety releasing with this exhale. The anxiety turns into mild frustration. If it was someone else, she would have had to pull the mop out.

     Sevika twirls a metal object on a string around her finger. "I have a key."

     Mayve crawls back in bed, pulling the covers over her head. "You could at least take me out on a date before deciding to move in." Her statement is slightly muffled by the sheets.

     A quick giggle escapes Sevika's throat.

     "I do require an answer as to where the you got that key from." Mayve backtracks briefly. "Or who, I should ask."

     Sevika places the key into one of her pockets. "I've always had one."

     That is not entirely true. "You sure about that?" Mayve squints at the woman standing in her doorway, waiting impatiently for an answer that actually has answers.

     Without a smile she says, "After you... left, I got a key."

     Sevika means after Mayve was pronounced dead alongside her brother and Violet is when she acquired a key. From Silco sure enough. Of this Mayve has no doubt.

     "Well," Mayve clasps her hands together, "I'm going to go to bed," She points to her crumpled bedsheets, "but you're welcome to lurk around while I sleep."

     Sevika glares at Mayve incredulously. "Why did you have to say it like that." It is more of a statement than a question.

     Mayve shrugs, falls back into her sheets, and shuts her tired eyes. "I'm just calling it how I see it." A small headache comes on. She rubs her temples.

     For a while the room is quiet. There are no creaks coming from the floorboards, no heavy breathing. Only silence. Mayve opens her eyes, finding Sevika in a chair against her wall. All the exhausted bar owner knows is the chair wasn't there before. It doesn't even look familiar. Leave it to Sevika to pull a chair from seemingly nowhere. She sits, eyes closed, with her head leaning back against the wall. If appearances don't deceive, Sevika didn't get sleep either. Mayve knows why she didn't get sleep, and happily pushes that fact far away from her mind.

     "There's a whole bed calling your name." Mayve watches Sevika open her dark eyes. Bags rest underneath them.

     "Half of a bed," she slowly rises from the chair, "but I'll take it."

"I've never taken you for one to complain."

     Mayve's body practically flys from the bed with the amount of force Sevika's body falls into the mattress. This surprises her despite the fact they are nearly the same weight. She holds onto the sheets for dear life. Her first thought is to work out more. Maybe that will protect her from being thrown nearly off her own bed.

     "Was that really necessary?" Mayve swears she can still feel the bed shake. Almost like it's filled with water.

     Sevika slams a pillow into Mayve's chest, careful to avoid her head. "You're just being dramatic." She steals the pillow back, placing it and her arm underneath her head.