Twisted Mercy

Peekaboo

October 21st, 2021

12:17pm

Location: Doniphan, NE

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Gia didn't look up from her computer, but her typing became more rhythmic. I recognized the pattern instantly. It was our own version of Morse Code. Instead of dots and dashes representing individual letters, they represented individual words. A series of dots for one word and a series of dashes for another. Easy to learn, harder to understand when you're on the outside.

Five dots. Four dashes. Six dashes.

What to do?

I leaned back in my chair. My fingers tapped restlessly on the table. Unbeknownst to the surrounding patrons, my seemingly impatient taps were actually a response.

Seventeen dots. Six dots. Three dashes.

Running causes panic.

Eighteen dashes. Eight dashes. Nine dashes.

Staying means death.

I pulled out my wallet and slapped a twenty on the table. Sammi came by not two moments later and picked it up. I stood and headed towards the restroom, the color orange moving in the corner of my eye.

I walked in and made sure that no one else was in the restroom before leaning against the wall. Seventeen seconds later, the door opened once more and peekaboo walked in, shutting the door with as much care as nursery workers shut the nap room door.

Turning, she squealed and I raised my eyebrow.

"Are you serious," I asked. She fixated a glare on me, but I just sighed. "You should've been in High School Musical. I bet you wouldn't have seen Gabriella in the restroom either."

Her eyes hardened. "You're the infamous Lillian Davis?"

"Oh, stop. You're making me blush."

"There's not much to you."

"What can I say? Living on the streets with barely a penny to feed ourselves does that to a person."

"You didn't think of hacking into a bank and depositing money into your cards?"

I rolled my eyes. She's new, she's new, she's...an imbecile.

"Tell me. If you were on the run and the people who gave you a debit card tracked your purchases, would you reload them?"

She kept glaring and didn't seem to understand what I was saying. Idiot. I kicked off of the wall and moved closer to her. Up close, I could see her eyes were hazel and she had freckles dotting her face. She was an inch shorter than me, but I could still look in her eyes. She couldn't have been more than seventeen or eighteen.

Why so old?

"Look, I understand that you're trying to be 'intimidating' or whatever, but stop while you're ahead. It's all downhill from here."

I tried to move past her, but she blocked my path. Why do people think this is the best way for me to become compliant? I hate it. So much.

"I think it's best if you stay here. That is, if you know what's good for you," she stated. Good gosh. Where did she get her lines, a TV show?

Suppressing the eye roll that was fighting to come out, I ignored her and made a move for the door again. She sidestepped, which I was anticipating, so I moved around her and put my hand on the door. She grabbed my left arm and spun me around.

"What the heck?! Don't ever touch me. I don't know where you've been," I snapped. She flinched and pulled her arm back like I had a disease. "If you're going to get scared when I snap at you, you're never going to make it in this business."