Perfect School

It was different doing it like this. We were playing our roles but there wasn't the need to put attention onto a mission. We just had to blend in, and not look like anything but two people in love. Jonah's attention was entirely on me, a reaction and change that I didn't know how to feel about. I couldn't deny that I wasn't enjoying myself a bit. But I buried a feeling of nausea and revulsion at myself.

Drinks after dinner were their own comfort. I knew what drinking too much could do to you. But if it would help me relax inside then that was what I needed. I chalked it up to nerves as the drinks seemed to work harder than anything I've experienced before.

Jonah:

I had half of my glass of scotch while Kira had just been brought her third glass. “Let’s dance,” I said, scooting her glass away from her and taking her hand. My eyes were slow scanning the room. I pulled her up from the bar stool and took her out to the dancefloor where a few over people were dancing. The last time we had danced together it was at the competition when we were younger. It was the first time I had made my interest in her quite clear.

Kira:

I was feeling loose. A bit unfocused. I frowned when my glass was taken then as I looked up at him while my hand was in his I giggled softly. "We've only danced once before. Are you going to show me something new this time?" I let him lead me along, unaware that I'd broken character just a bit. It was easiest to leave out little details like that. They made for a better cover but also forced you to remember more. But none of that seemed to matter to me right now.

Jonah:

I held her close to my body. She was warm and soft just like this morning. “No,” I said quietly. “I don’t think so.” The music was slow for now so it didn’t require much movement. “In fact, I think we should head up soon,” I murmured in her ear. My head was foggy, but I thought I understood what was happening. No alcohol would have affected me this strongly with the amount I had.

I leaned into him, letting him take the lead. Everything was starting to blend together. And my thoughts came slower, but moved about far easier through my head. I couldn't help but shiver as he whispered in my ear. Moving onto my toes a bit to reach his own I whispered back. "Such a shame to ruin a perfectly good dance."

Jonah:

I let out a breath but didn’t say anything else until the song was over. “Now we should go.” There wasn’t much of an act going on for either of us now. This was simply us. We weren’t the lovebirds we were supposed to be, neither were we the disinterested partners Marie wanted us to be. I took her hand and lead her off the dance floor. In the elevator I said, “I don’t think we should do anything else tonight.” It wasn’t that late but we couldn’t go out like this.

This felt different. Dangerous even as we continued till the song ended. I knew this wasn't the way we were supposed to be. We weren't our cover, and we weren't what we were told to be. And strangely I was finding it hard to care. I was having fun. I was enjoying this. And for once none of it felt wrong.

But the moment wasn't to last. He led me away from the dance floor and into the elevator. "We only danced. What's wrong with that?" My tone was defensive, confused. Focusing was a challenge in an of itself. But I ended up smiling up at him. "Today has been fun anyway I suppose."

Jonah:

“Yes,” I agreed not wanting to further conversation until we were in the hotel room. My brain was fuzzy enough not to be trusted. And she who had more than I was definitely not to be trusted. When we got to our room I scanned it for any signs of disorder, but my slow eyes found nothing.

I went right for the view once we were back in the room. Gazing out for a moment before turning to look at him. "Really Darling, you look so paranoid." I moved right on back to him and threw my arms around his neck, leaning into him. I gazed into his eyes, letting myself become lost for a moment before shaking myself. "This is bad..." I murmured softly at him.

Slowly my eyes drifted down to his lips and unbidden I began to try and rise onto my tippie-toes even though my heels offered me nearly all the height I'd need already. Parting my lips as if anticipating the kiss I even cupped the back of his head with one hand but before my lips reached his the other hand moved between and my pointer finger rested against his lips. Moving further and pulling him down so that my lips were right beside his ear I murmured softly in a tone that if we were still among people like I thought us to be, would have been impossible to hear. "You are dangerous for me Jonah. You push in all the right ways and I shouldn't feel how I do sometimes. It's wrong. Such a shame." As I began to lower back down I brushed my lips over his cheek.

Out of all the kissing we'd done for our cover that was the first time that it wasn't part of the cover. And even though it was chaste by any standards a satisfied look settled in my eyes as I let him go and returned to the view. Unbidden I began to sway, softly humming to myself the same song we'd been dancing too.

Jonah:

I was passive through the encounter. I should have moved her away from me, we weren’t supposed to be close when we weren’t working, but instead I did nothing. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to grab her and pin her to the glass with my body.

I felt my pulse in my throat. If I was dangerous to her, she was certainly dangerous to me in that moment. If Marie found out, we would be in trouble, I more so than she.

“Kira,” I said softly. “I think something happened to us. We aren’t in our right minds. I think it’s best if you go to bed,” I told her, reaching out to touch her arm. Her skin was soft. I could only imagine what the rest of her body felt like.

I cocked my head up at him. Frowning after a moment I asked, "What do you mean? I feel fine. Just fuzzy. Probably from the alcohol." Shrugging I smiled up at him. "Though I am feeling tired..."

Jonah:

I stepped over to her and put my hand on her back to lead her to her room. “Come on, I’ll help you,” I murmured. It was best for her to not stress about it. I needed to get her to bed so I could be alone to think. It was hard enough to do it with my mind foggy as it was. I didn’t need the added distraction of her loopy state.

I nodded and let him lead me along. It was almost with surprise that I looked around my bedroom. I had thought we were still at the dance floor. Not in our room. But as I saw the bed I placed a hand on his chest to balance myself while I took off my heels. "Bedtime?" I asked him, turning to look up at him.

"Yes, for you it is."

With another nod I pushed against his chest to propel me towards the bed. Still swaying slightly I shimmied out of the dress as I walked, tossing it aside. My mind was much too fogged up to care that he was seeing me in nothing more than a lacy bra and panties. The second I'd pushed off from him, he too had faded away from what I was aware of. And after crawling across the bed I slipped my way between the covers with a contented yawn.

Jonah:

I stood for a moment stunned by what she did and what I saw. I had never seen her in such a way before. The image was burned into my mind as I padded out of her room. Instead of going to my own room, I laid on the couch. I shed coat and button up, leaving only the white undershirt. I tried to stay awake to run through everything that had happened before I felt under the influence of something but my mind preferred sleep instead.

I slept deeply, something unusual for me. It wasn’t until I felt something over my face that I woke up. It was a hand with a cloth pressed to my mouth. I didn’t breath as I grabbed the wrists and twisted in such a way that it pulled the person down. It could have been Kira, but then if she was trying to do something to me in my sleep, she deserved to be treated like this.

It really didn't take long for me to sleep. And blessedly I didn't even dream as the drugs sank me deeper and deeper. I didn't notice the presence of others in my room. And while I felt the hand over my mouth, I was slow to respond. I jerked and fumbled at the hand, and it was more by chance that I snapped a kick out from the covers and into his groin. His grunt was followed by a growl and I as my eyes snapped open I scrambled back. Falling from the bed I struggled to scramble towards where a weapon was stashed. But a boot filled my vision and my head jerked back from the vicious kick.

The taste of iron filled my mouth and I froze. Though a haze still had been covering my thoughts it cleared as I touched my lip and drew it away to gaze at the blood. How quickly the fog cleared at the sight of that rid liquid. But so too would a haze settle over everything while my pulse began to pound in my ears.

Jonah:

I pulled the person down onto me and immediately had them in a choke hold. From there, it was a simple matter to break the neck. I pushed the body off and was on my feet a second later. Then I felt someone grab me from behind and press a knife to my throat.

“Don’t move,” they hissed at me. I moved.

I turned my head and in the same movement stomped their foot, grabbed the knife, and twisted it around to stab them in the kidney.

"Stupid bitch."  The one who'd kicked me growled as he stepped closer with a fist raised.  My eyes snapped up to him and as his fist descended towards me I grabbed it and pulled it past while throwing my body towards his.  The move yanked him off balance and as he fell I rolled on top of him.  Immedietly I brought my knee down into his groin again while my elbow jabbed at his jaw.

Noise behind me had me springing up to deal with the other one in the room.

Jonah:

The guy let out a cry when I stabbed him in the kidney then fell to the floor. Something was off and it wasn’t the fact that there were people in our hotel room. The knife was blunt. It took more effort to use it than it should have, and it didn’t even leave a scratch on my neck.

The sounds coming from Kira’s room made me move across the living room to her door all while searching the shadows for another figure. I held the knife ready, even as dull as it was.

“Kira,” I called out softly when the sounds of a scuffle stopped so that she wouldn’t mistake me for another enemy.

"Please, no. I-I-I didn't know. Oh god please let me go." The man whimpered under me I had him face down on the floor, one arm under me, the other cranked up behind him until it was nearly popping out of the socket. It was that arm that I slowly dug into with the knife. Taking care to follow the lines of his arteries without nicking them.

I was lost in the haze, covered in blood. But so little of it was mine. Somewhere in my head Jonah's voice registered in my head, but too deep for me to think of responding or even being aware of it. However that didn't stop the man below me who called louder, begging to be saved.

Jonah:

“Kira,” I hissed this time. “Finish it. He’s making too much noise.” A second later the begging ended. I moved into her room and took stock of the situation. It was dark, but there was enough light to see what she had done. There were two bodies and a scantily clad Kira drenched in blood. It was unlikely that any of it was hers.

“Get cleaned up. I’ll keep watch,” I told her while I retrieved better weapons from her bag. The blood on her body contrasted glaringly with her pale skin tone. We needed to get out of here and call Marie. It was entirely possible that there would be more attempts, so staying in one spot was not a good idea.

I very nearly moved to attack him. But his voice was enough to make me pause, enough to bring just enough of the haze away that I could follow simple commands. I started to reach for my suitcase but paused as I gazed at my hand. The blood covering it made my heart beat faster but there was no haze this time. Instead I closed the hand into a fist and turned to march right towards the bathroom. I took only a few seconds to check it for any more surprises before I stripped and went right into the shower.

As I stood under the spray the haze cleared more and more. I was more myself again, but with it came a surprising amount of apathy. I knew I hadn't bothered closing the door or grabbing clothes. I knew that Jonah was just outside in my room. But that didn't matter to me. Instead what mattered to me was trying to figure out why I was like this? Was I more broken than I thought? What was it about blood that made me so much different?

Jonah:

I got a glimpse of her bare back in the mirror before she got in the shower. Kneeling, I inspected the bodies. The two I had killed were done cleanly, only one even bled. Hers were covered in blood and mutilated. I knew she was this way, but I rarely had need to think of it. It wasn’t often that she got carried away. It had happened with Kyra, but not to this extent.

I left the room and checked the rest of the suite. There was a closed door left open that I knew had been closed when we got back. They had already been in the room and we didn’t know it. It was embarrassing.

I changed my shirt, there was one spec of blood on the white cotton, and got ready for the two of us to leave. We would have to take a car from the garage since we had arrived in a limo and would call Marie from there.

I lingered for too long in the shower before I even thought of scrubbing myself clean of blood. I covered every inch, careful to leave no traces and even went so far as to clean what I could of the shower. After everything looked fine I turned off the water and wrapped up in a towel. Looking out into my bedroom I frowned.

I had made a mess, both men had been tortured and blood had sprayed around and was now slowly leaking out across the floor. My suitcase was on a table near the blood and I had to step carefully on the balls of my feet to try and avoid the blood.

Jonah:

I moved back to Kira’s door. I saw her in the towel but I averted my eyes. “Hurry, we need to get out of here. The longer we linger the more difficult it could be to leave,” I told her. The lights were still off.

"Fine."  I glanced at him for a moment then turned my back and let the towel fall.  I scrambled into simple clothing, forgoing anything fancy just for the time it would take to get dressed.  Finally I removed flats from the bottom of the suitcase and with those in one hand I hopped around the blood until I joined him.  "Let's go."

With him in the lead I slipped my feet into the flats, ignoring that I didn't have socks. Appearances weren't the main goal now. And while we linked arms, we weren't acting more than passingly affectionate. Forgoing the elevator we took the stairs down to the lobby and from there out in the city until we entered another Casino. Finding a quiet restaurant we got a secluded booth where we could make our call in private.