"I thought you were my friend," Molly whispered, wiping her eyes on her oversized sweater sleeves, "I thought...I thought you actually liked me, and wanted to know me."
"It's not personal," Kristin said, "Molly, it really isn't. I didn't wanna hurt you, especially after getting to know you, but...but you were the closest and easiest source to attach to. I'm sorry. You're such a sweet person, and you really don't deserve this, nor do you deserve what she's putting you through." Molly nodded momentarily, then furrowed her brow and shook her head, squinting angrily as she looked up at Kristin. "Actually no," Molly said, "you don't get to say that, because she might be a mess, but she's stuck by me. She's included me. She came clean of her own accord, I didn't have to stumble into it like I did with you. So yeah, she might be a mess. But we're a mess together, and you don't get to judge her." Kristin smiled weakly. "I certainly commend your loyalty," she said, "now if you'll excuse me, I have someone to get this information to." 7 HOURS EARLIER "Where are we going?" Allie asked, as Claire rolled down her window and flicked her cigarette out. "We're going somewhere we won't be bothered," she replied, "don't worry, nobody here is going to harm anyone. We're all on the same team. We just have some shit to talk through. Obviously something serious has come up if I've been released, you figure. Well, there's two FBI agents who are trying desperately to get close to you. Agent Siskel and Agent Tropper. They're the ones who got Sunny's body, and the tomb, before Rachel here snatched it back for us." "What...what do they want with me?" Allie asked, she and Zoe both looking confused at this. Rachel pulled the car into an empty casino parking lot. This casino, Dante's Inferno, had gone under a number of years ago, and while originally it had been slated to be imploded and replaced with something else, the deal fell through, and now the place sat decrepit and abandoned. The perfect place for someone like Claire to have a meeting. As Rachel parked and turned the car off, the girls all opened their respective doors and exited. Claire lit another cigarette, then offered one to Allie, who waved it away politely. "I only smoke hemp now," she said. "Wow, good for you," Claire said, non mockingly as she took a long drag then continued, "they want you, Allie, because they're certain you killed Sunny. But they also seem to think you might've had a hand in uncovering something for them. Something about your boss. What that is, I don't know. I just know they're curious. They specifically released me to talk to you and get you to meet them. But...you and I are two sides of the same coin-" "Except I don't kill people," Allie said, before nervously adding, "...purposefully." "Neither do I," Claire said, "when I'm on medication, I'm pure as snow. But my illness and the actions thereof do not define me, just as your own do not define you, and I think they recognize that and recognize that there's some merit to your decisions, some sort of contextual justification if you will. That's why they want you." "Yeah, well, good luck getting me to meet with them," Allie said sternly as she leaned against the car. A moment passed and nobody said a thing, as Rachel reached back inside and grabbed her water bottle, unscrewed it and took a long drink. Finally, Zoe cleared her throat, folded her arms and looked at Allie. "It might not hurt," she finally said, making Allie's eyes widen in shock. "Excuse me?" she asked. "It might not hurt. Hell, it might lessen whatever sentence you were going to get if you got caught," Zoe said. "I'm not gonna have gone through all the trouble to cover up a murder, steal back the corpse and dump it in a tiger pit, only to have someone else be harmed by proxy, just to then waltz into their office and say 'hey, sure I'll be your puppet!'. Zoe, do you have any idea how much effort it took just to keep us off the radar?" "And yet we're clearly not off the radar if they're releasing nearly convicted killers to approach us," Zoe said sternly. Allie pulled herself off the car and approached Zoe, the two of them posturing before eachother, each uncertain how the other might react; Zoe continued, "Allie...I think it's time. It's time to own up to it. Obviously something bigger is going on here than just catching Sunny's murderer. They say it has something to do with Tony?" she asked, glancing back at Claire. "That's the notion I got," she said, shrugging, "but I only heard snippets. I don't know what it could be or why. Just that they want you because you're close to him." "...how could you even suggest this?" Allie whispered, "after all I did for you-" "Did for ME? No. You killed Sunny to keep him getting me on drugs, something that is both admirable and unnecessary, and while I appreciate you thinking so fondly of my wellbeing, everything since then has simply been to cover up that act, an act YOU did. None of that was for me. I did nothing wrong. Yet here I am, going along with it, having secret meetings in defunct parking lots with serial killers to try and keep the lie alive! All I wanted was to perform magic with you!" Zoe was, and somewhat rightfully so, steaming mad. Allie, however, couldn't see past her own issues to recognize why, and instead she took it as a personal attack. "How dare you," Allie snarled, "how dare you even suggest I had some ulterior motive! Everything I've done has been to protect you!" "Oh grow up and stop trying to disguise your misdeeds as a defense of the wellfare of others!" Zoe shouted, "you killed a man! She killed many men!" "I did," Claire nodded, "I won't deny it." "You two have far more in common than we ever did," Zoe said quietly, and this set Allie off. She screamed and ran at her, tackling her. Claire and Rachel stood away a bit, just letting the girls have it out. Allie bit Zoe on the arm, and Zoe grabbed the back of Allie's head and yanked her head back before spitting in her face, then rolled out from underneath her. Allie wiped the spit from her face with her jacket sleeve, then grabbed Zoe's ankles and brought her back down to the ground. Allie then climbed on top of her and pinned her wrists down by her head and looked in her eyes. "....I never needed you," Allie whispered, "He assigned you to me, remember that, I could've gotten sober and been successful again without you." "Fuck that, you needed a catalyst, someone to care about because you couldn't care about yourself," Zoe replied harshly, "in fact that's why you do anything for anyone else, so you can avoid ever doing it for yourself. You wanna be a fucking martyr, go ahead, but I'm done being taken down to hell with you." Allie laid there atop Zoe for a moment, their eyes locked, and then she finally released Zoe's wrists and rolled off of her. Rachel approached and helped Zoe up, as Zoe wiped herself off from the grit and the dirt of the parking lot. Allie sat on the ground, her legs pulled up to her chest and her arms hugging them. Claire walked slowly up before her and sat down, cross legged, holding out the remainder of her cigarette, and this time Allie happily took it. "Okay," Claire said, "clearly you two had some issues to resolve. I'm happy to have mediated during that frank exchange of beliefs. But Allie, you know I wouldn't steer you wrong. You came to me, one of the only people to come visit me in prison, and you asked for my advice. At a time when I was avoided, treated like a plague, you sought me out and asked me to help you. I'm not asking you to meet with these agents, I'm just telling you that they asked me to. You've done a rather spectacular job avoiding them on your own thus far. I'm here to protect you." "And how do you intend to do that?" Allie sniffled. "We'll just have to wait and see, I guess," Claire said, smiling, reaching out and placing her hand on Allie's scraped cheek before quietly adding, "but don't worry, when the time comes, I'm gonna be here for you." 4 HOURS EARLIER Molly had been gone all day. She'd been down at the casino, once again doing measurements, doing note taking, all the pre-building requirements that she had to get done before actually setting to work. Truth be told, however, that a lot of it was absolute nonsense. Nothing more than padding out time waiting for Allie and Benny to crack the idea of how to easily acces said vault. As Molly opened the door to her house and stepped inside, she sighed and let her hair down, then ran her fingers through it. She desperately needed a shower. Molly headed down the hall towards the bathroom, and that's when she heard the sound of someone rummaging through her home office. She slowly, cautiously, approached and opened the door, only to find, of all people, Kristin. "...are...are you robbing me?" Molly asked, stunned. "...this is awkward," Kristin said, standing up from the floor, papers scattered everywhere, as she smoothed out her skirt and sighed, "um, Molly, we need to have a discussion. This vault you're building, I need to know everything about it. You tell me what you know, what the plan is, and everything, and nothing will have to happen." Molly stepped back into the hall a bit, scared. "...who do you work for?" she asked. "Doesn't matter," she said, "I was asked by someone to do this, because I know you're friends with Allie Meers, and I know she killed a man that my employer wants justice for. They set me up to meet you. Told me what time you'd be leaving that day, what area of the parking lot you were in, everything. Molly, we can still be friends. Hell, I could get you out of all of this. But I need you to help me first." Molly chewed her lip, contemplating her options. Allie had created a world of trouble for her, and here this girl - a girl she apparently didn't actually know and therefore couldn't rightfully trust - was offering her a way out, if she just cooperated with her. Molly breathed heavily and shook her head. "God dammit," she whispered, before turning on her heel and running down the hall, only to feel Kristin's hands grabbing her hair and pulling her back towards her home office scant seconds later. Molly screamed and kicked, but Kristin was stronger, bigger, and had the advantage. There was nothing Molly could do now but see it through, and hope that, in the end, she'd be forgiven for whatever happened. 2 HOURS EARLIER Allie was sitting on the hood of the car with Rachel, while Claire attended to Zoe. Rachel had opened a can of seltzer water and she and Allie were passing that and a bag of chips back and forth between them. On occasion, Allie would glance back over her shoulder and peek at Claire and Zoe, wondering what they were talking about. "Why do you do whatever she asks?" Allie asked, looking at Rachel as she shoved her arm back in the chip bag. "Why does Zoe do whatever you ask?" Rachel questioned back, shrugging, "because we care about one another. Regardless of the toxicity of the relationship, we're all the other has, and...and the world is too scary to navigate on your own. I'm not saying it's healthy like this, but...fuck...it's not ideal the other way either." Allie sighed and nodded, understanding all too well her point. "Besides," Rachel said quietly, "I love her. I can't...I can't just shut that off. No matter what she's done, or has asked me to do, I can't just stop loving her. I know it's sick, I know it's...it's dangerous, but...fuck. She's all I ever wanted." Allie smiled. "That's actually sweet," Allie said. "And I think, deep down, you love Zoe. Not in the same way, but I know about you. Your relationship with your cousin. You see Zoe as a replacement in a sense, and you don't want her to leave like she did. You don't want to lose someone else. So you're doing everything in your power, even if it hurts her inadvertantly, to keep her here." Allie shrugged. "Maybe," she whispered, "or maybe she's right. Maybe I'm just bad." "Hey, you're the Astounding Allie, not the Awful Allie," Rachel said, making Allie giggle and blush. If there was one thing Rachel St. Sebastian was good at, it was making other girls feel better about themselves. 45 MINUTES EARLIER Kristin continued searching through papers and files, gathering everything she could that she thought was connected into one cohesive pile, as Molly sat tied to a chair with belts. "I thought you were my friend," Molly whispered, wiping her eyes on her oversized sweater sleeves, "I thought...I thought you actually liked me, and wanted to know me." "It's not personal," Kristin said, "Molly, it really isn't. I didn't wanna hurt you, especially after getting to know you, but...but you were the closest and easiest source to attach to. I'm sorry. You're such a sweet person, and you really don't deserve this, nor do you deserve what she's putting you through." Molly nodded momentarily, then furrowed her brow and shook her head, squinting angrily as she looked up at Kristin. "Actually no," Molly said, "you don't get to say that, because she might be a mess, but she's stuck by me. She's included me. She came clean of her own accord, I didn't have to stumble into it like I did with you. So yeah, she might be a mess. But we're a mess together, and you don't get to judge her." Kristin smiled weakly. "I certainly commend your loyalty," she said, "now if you'll excuse me, I have someone to get this information to." Kristin gathered everything she felt she needed and then exited. As soon as Molly heard the front door shut and the car start, she began wriggling to get free from the chair. She needed to get to Allie, and fast. She needed to tell her that the cops had someone who was hot on her tail. Molly scooted so much the chair collapsed to its side, taking her with it. As she lied there, sobbing, she continued to do her best to get free of the belts keeping her tied to the chair. If Allie could escape something, so could she. CURRENT TIME Claire approached the car, wiping her hands on her pants as Rachel and Allie looked up at her. The sun was starting to finally set, and the cool Vegas night chill was coming in. Allie zipped up her jacket, and Rachel finished drinking the seltzer then crushed the can as Claire stood in front of them. "I think I managed to smooth everything over," Claire said, "but...don't be surprised if she doesn't want to talk for a while." "I wouldn't blame her, no," Allie mumbled. "So we done now?" Rachel asked, "Can we get going? Cause I'm hungry and the sushi place is gonna close in-" Just then, they heard a car speeding towards the lot, and everyone glanced in its direction. Zoe even stood up and, stuffing her hands in her coat pockets, approached the car, though still keeping somewhat of a distance. The car swerved and veered into the lot, heading right towards them, and then came to a sudden jolting stop and just as everyones curiosity peaked, the drivers side door opened and out stepped a bruised and rough looking Molly. "Molly?" Allie asked, sliding off the hood of the car and approaching her quickly, putting her hands on her shoulders, "what the...how did you even know where-" "I drove around to every casino until I saw you here," she said, out of breath. "What happened to you?" Allie asked, reaching up and touching the bruise on her head above her right eyebrow, making her wince as she did. "It doesn't matter," Molly said, "Allie...they're coming for you. They've hired some...some private detective or something, and she...she took all my blueprints and papers for the vault and...and they're coming for you. For us. For everyone." Molly then glanced towards the others, her lip quivering, as she said softly "...we need to hide."
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ABOUT
Allie Meers is what she dreamed of being since she was a little girl...a successful Vegas magician. The only problem now is she can't make all her problems disappear; Allie grapples with her strained relationship, crippling addictions and FBI agents on her tail, all while trying to stay at the top of her career. Archives
December 2023
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