Page 21 of Stained Protector

All was well until it wasn’t. Now, I’m here with an impromptu plan. I hate spontaneity and unpredictable elements, especially with Davis.

I groan quietly as my fingers tug at the loose strands, smoothing my hair up for a better view of the lump on the dirt ground deep in the woods. I resist checking Anya’s location on my phone, mutely cursing the distance back home.

Time will help collect her thoughts. Whatever she chooses to do next, I’ll be there to guarantee she walks my pace.

“I need a massage.”

The culprit, who dragged me out of bed at two in the morning, plucks the long wig off his scalp. He wipes the coral lipstick on his sleeve, grimacing at the taste, and kicks away the wedge heels.

Davis pauses mid-hurl and changes trajectory to toss them into his backseat.

I lean on the hood of my car and cross my arms. Every cell wants to go home and sleep, but I have to stay awake to enjoy this buffoonery.

Davis rips off the clumpy fake lashes and rolls his dry eyes before pocketing the spider legs.

This is where he’s inconsistent; he’s lazy with police procedures and does paperwork last minute, but he’d go out of his way to apprehend criminals by any means necessary.

“It was so dark I could’ve been a yeti, and he wouldn’t have noticed,” he explains.

Why he thinks I care is beyond me.

I launch the camera app and zoom into Anya lying on the couch. She went back to her apartment for two days after requesting time off, which I granted her over text messages because she wouldn’t answer my calls.

She finds comfort under two large blankets, a cup of some hot drink between dainty fingers, and a movie to combat the silence. It’s either a boring movie or a tiring hour, her head bobbing as a sleepy pout rests on her lips.

“You’re pissed,” Davis notes as he lights a cigarette that he found from rummaging through the unconscious man’s pockets.

“She’s being…difficult.” I struggle to choose the phrasing since I’m new to these things. “It’s understandable.”

“That’s nice of you,” he jeers, his haughty grin taunting me.

After a pregnant silence, he adds, “Want me to let him go and scare her more?”

I close the app and place my weight more on the car. I contemplate, assessing the options, and the man’s foot twitches when the last idea forms. He still has value, only if he can stop foaming at the mouth from a blow to his head.

“Appreciate it,” I mumble.

Though, one could barely call it that. Davis was going to let him go anyway. He wants to be the chaser, the one dallying in the dark, and then pounce on the frightened prey. That man might last a day if he’s clever, and if he’s caught, begging for mercy will fall on deaf ears.

He’s pathetic, going after people who can’t pose a challenge. I remember him rambling after he attacked Anya, likely mistaking her for whoever hurt his brittle ego.

“Wait until my wife hears this animal is back at it again…” Davis taps the cigarette ash and whistles up at the cloudy sky with dejection.

He nods flippantly and extinguishes the cigarette on the car’s hood. "It is my honor to defend her as her devoted husband."

“She’s so invested in his crimes,” he grumbles, yapping away the minutes. “I’m getting jealous of him.”

Where is the forward button for his mouth? I don’t appreciate losing sleep because he wants an ear to his melodramatic performance. The dying blaze on the cigarette has me wanting to rope this talkative man to a tree and light the woods on fire.

“Side job?” Air expels languidly from my chest as I humor him in hopes he’ll spill his guts.

At this point, I’m open to actually taking a knife to his stomach. But I’d have to clean up the scene. I do it enough for the anonymous buyers with add-ons of severed limbs. Preserved appendages and decaying tissue stink for days, so I rarely take those commissions unless they pay double the price.

I’m grateful for candles; they are amazing at covering the putrid smell.

“Blood stains, gut smells, bones hard as hell,” Davis gripes, childishly stomping his feet. “I’ll lose my job from bad attendance.”

“Time management is a life skill.”

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