Her hair was a mess when she knocked on Diana's door. It was tangled and knotted everywhere, a rat's nest building in the back. This was the first thing Diana noticed about Kayla, and was the source of her attention the whole time she was gushing out to some story. Diana caught a few words, but she was too bothered by Kayla's hair to pay too much attention. She really had lovely hair- a calm shade of brown like the bark on a young tree. Diana just really wished she'd just listen to her though, and take better care of it.
Kayla stopped her gushing for a sec, and just stared at Diana for a minute. Her eyes were wide and she was just staring- at what Diana have no idea. She kept blinking too, almost like in code. Rapid blinks, blink, blink pause blinking again, blink long pause blink. It was really sort of odd.
Kayla stood at Diana's door for a little while longer, before sort of sauntering off randomly with a look her eyes like a deer in the headlights. Diana closed the door and went back to her dinner. It may seem sort of rude for her to not listen to her friends when they come to her door, but Kayla had been doing it for years and Diana had learned to tune out her frenzied chatter. She couldn't even remember what it was about anymore. Some sort of elaborate long tale that always crossed itself until it was just a big knot of information. And afterwards she'd saunter back to her house in a tired way, like an old man walks. Slow and heavy.
She was, in her own way, sort of mad.
Kayla Thompson was definitely not mad. If anything, she was sort mildly dazed all the time, and had a habit of being sort of dreamy. But she always knew what she had to do, and she was always prepared. So if fate decided to tell her talk to Diana, she was going to. Even if Kayla didn't know exactly what she had to tell her, she would.
She always listened to fate.
It was seven in the evening when Kayla got into town, meaning that it was also conveniently the start of her work shift at The Rosy Dawn, a small nightclub near the edge of town. It was known throughout town to be a pretty shady place, but Kayla didn't care. She arrived perfectly on time, which Kayla supposed was fate's work as well. And Draco was on shift tonight too, which was probably fate's work too. Fate tended to plan a lot of things in Kayla's life.
Draco gave a curt nod to acknowledge Kayla's on time arrival. "Scorpio wants to see you out back. I'd hurry it up if I were you- he gets impatient remarkably fast." Said Draco in a tone that suggested he was mildly upset about something.
Kayla, however, did not notice. This was one of those things that she didn't need fate to tell her how to respond. It was just a well known fact that you didn't want to cross Scorpio, and making him upset certainly wouldn't help. She stepped into the back alley behind the club, which, besides smelling horrible, was Scorpios personal office. He probably could have a fancy indoors office that wasn't an alley, but he seemed to prefer a dank and dirty office to a clean and rich one.
Scorpio himself was a grouchy man. He and Draco were brothers, but while Draco kept his dark hair slick and clean, Scorpio just let it stick up all over the place. He wore a black suit in a feeble attempt to look presentable, but it was dirty and worn and wasn't helped by Scorpio's inability to look professional. He would always look more like a scofflaw then the rich man that he was.
Presently, he was seated at desk that matched the alley. One of the desk legs had been cut off, and a cinder block was making it almost even. The light wood it was made of was worn and seemed to be covered in a layer of grime. A few papers were scattered on the desk, and a purple twisty kid's desk light was giving a little bit of light. Scorpio didn't look up at Kayla.
"'Bout time," was all Scorpio said. He continued to scribble on the paper in front of him. Kayla shifted awkwardly, not sure what she was supposed to do. "Sir...?" She said timidly.
"Wha-? Oh, right. Yeah. I need you to pick up something for me by the corner of Oak and Flat around eight PM tonight. And then bring it here. Tonight." Said Scorpio, like he had forgotten what he was planning to say.
Kayla had arrived at work at seven, been here fifteen minutes and it would take her more then a hour to walk to Oak street, Kayla figured she should probably get walking.
Scorpio gave her a look like he knew what she was thinking. "In all truth," he said, "you should have started walking an hour ago."
She should have been there by now. It was maybe half past eight and she was nowhere near the corner of Oak and Flat. She was still trekking up Maple, a street that was possibly the worst hill to walk up. Besides being steep, it lacked sidewalks and curved in a way that made it hard for both drivers and pedestrians to see what was ahead of them.
So naturally it took a while for Kayla to walk up. The only problem was that she really should have been there by now. She was supposed to be there at eight, and she doubted that the package would still be there by the time she had arrived. She still had at least fifteen minutes before she arrived, which pretty much confirmed that she would be much too late. And then she'd have to go tell Scorpio, who would get angry and fire her and then she'd be out of a job, and pretty much everything else in her life as well.
She stopped and sat down to rest for a moment.
There was a nagging feeling stuck in the back of Diana's head. It bothered her, especially since she wasn't worried about anything. But somewhere in the back of her head she felt something was terribly wrong. It wasn't clear to her what, but something was definitely about to go wrong, sometime very soon.
At the present moment, however, nothing was really likely to go wrong. It wasn't that she was in denial about the possibility of disaster, but rather that nothing could honestly mess up in a way that could come back to haunt her. Currently she was just reading a book, and there was no real way for that to turn dangerous, unless she spontaneously combusted.
Still, it was unlikely for anything to go wrong.
Then she got a phone call.
Diana bookmarked her book and slipped into her slippers before heading to pick up the phone. The caller ID informed her it was Kayla calling.
"Hey," Said Diana in a tired voice, "Shouldn't you be at work?"
"Yeah, actually. But I sort of need a lift." She said, still full of energy.
"It's like, nine. You should of called earlier. And why would you need a lift? You could have walked from my house."
"I don't need a lift to work! I need to get to Oak street, boss's orders. I'm on Maple by the way."
"All right, I'll pick you up." Diana hung up and yawned. She wasn't in the mood for driving anywhere, but sometimes you just have to go.
She found Kayla near the top of the hill, fiddling with her bracelet absentmindedly. They didn't even talk as they drove, but rather listened to the radio, which was playing Christmas songs out of season. It was still a drive, though quicker than walking, to Oak street. Diana didn't want to know what Scorpio wanted done here. She never did trust him, even if Kayla did. His brother, Scorpio, was even worse. Every time Diana visited The Rosy Dawn, she could feel Draco staring at her. He never seemed to express much emotion beyond a sort of calm content, never flinching in pain or anguish. He reminded her of a statue, stiff and unmoving.
It was now eight forty-five. The corner of Oak and Flat was deserted besides a package. It seems that the deliverer had simply left it there, and no one had picked it up since. The package was in a bright green box, made out of the same sort of plastic-y materials they use in gift shops. Whatever was inside was pretty light, quite different from what Diana was expecting.
"What is this thing anyways? It's way too light to be anything important." Said Diana, examining the parcel suspiciously.
"Could be clothes. Clothes are pretty important." Replied Kayla.
"If this was just a shirt or something, he wouldn't need us to pick it up," said Diana conclusively.
They climbed back into the car in silence.
The club was, of course, still open when they returned. Kayla left to deliver the package, leaving Diana alone with Draco, who was looking remarkably sombar. His face was gaunt, his hair sort of carelessly slick and his clothes wrinkled. One definite part of Draco's personality was that he was always presentable. He took pride in always wearing the most expensive clothes and always looking his absolute best. This was the first time she had noticed him looking so messy. She wondered if Kayla had noticed. She and Draco were always remarkably close.
When Kayla returned, she immediately started to talk. "Scor seemed pretty ticked off that I was late, but I reminded him that at least the package was there. He seemed sort of more annoyed at that, maybe because I was correcting him? But maybe because he's always annoyed. I don't know. But anyways, the whole thing was a success, so thanks Diana!"
Kayla skipped off, saying something about having to work her shift. Only a few feet away, Draco hadn't moved. He turned his head towards Diana, and gave her a strange look, like how a cat will often stare at you. He then walked away, his thick soled shoes clacking on the wooden floor.
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