For the Hopeless

Chapter 14: Ode to the Ogre

Tawny gazed out the window of the car for a long moment, taking in the sight of the fluffy snowflakes falling gently from the gray sky. It was so peaceful, so calm and so beautiful, and yet...

A smile only graced her pinkish lips when she turned her eyes to Bailey, sitting in the driver's seat beside her. The woman tore her eyes from the road when Tawny's small hand moved to rest atop her own upon the steering wheel, and she couldn't help a small, sweet smile of her own. The way Tawny looked at her...

As her gaze drifted back to the road ahead, Bailey asked so very tactfully, "So, are we, like, girlfriends now or what?"

Tawny's face reddened in embarrassment. "Er...well...I..."

Bailey's smile broadened into a full grin. "I'll take that as a yes."

Neither of them spoke again as they parked in front of the massive Walmart Supercenter; neither of them had much else to say. They continued to smile like idiots, however, even as they made their way into the densely populated store. In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to come during the wee hours of the morning, but really, with the store open 24/7, there would be people around no matter what. They were bound to attract a nasty mess of attention this early in the day, but Bailey wasn't about to stand by and wait as another slew of Novie were tortured, tested, and ultimately killed. God only knew how many of the poor people died every hour, every minute, every second of the day.

With this sad truth in her mind, Bailey walked right up to the front counter of the pretzel shop with a fake yet oddly charming smile plastered on her face. "Excuse me, miss," she said to the young girl behind the counter, a teenager of about 17 or 18 with a nose ring and just a bit too much make-up. She eased into conversation with the stranger, innocently asking about her job and the store, sweetly complimenting her hair and her beauty. Her tone grew more persuasive, more soothing, even as she spoke, Tawny noticed as she watched from the woman's side; so much so, in fact, that Tawny herself was nearly sucked into Bailey's thrall – and she could only hear the words in Bailey's mind. She couldn't imagine the effect her tone was having on the employee, who was getting the full brunt of it.

"So, I was wondering," Bailey began just as Tawny snapped out of the stupor the devil's tone had put her in, "would you mind letting us take a peek at the back room? We'll only be a minute, and your boss will never know." A gentle tilt of her head and a bit of extra wattage to that beautiful smile seemed to drive the point home, and the bit of hesitation that had entered the girl's expression left in a rush.

The teenager smiled back at Bailey, clearly awestruck, and replied simply, "Sure." She lifted up the foot or so of counter space that blocked the entryway to the shop, not looking away from Bailey once. Tawny noticed that the girl's mind was eerily empty of anything but Bailey, and even her own words were a bit of a muffled mumble in the background. "Just make it quick, okay? Tara's supposed to be coming in for her shift soon."

"Will do," Bailey said in an annoyingly perky voice, slipping through the small opening in the counter and heading hurriedly toward the door at the back of the tiny shop. Tawny followed her, and as she passed the teenager, she saw an empty look to her dark brown eyes, eyes that wouldn't leave Bailey's slowly fading back, that left her deeply disturbed. She pushed it aside, however; it wasn't important, not now.

Once Tawny had passed through the door and closed it behind them, Bailey sagged against the wall, as if her body were too heavy for her to hold up on her own. A closer look revealed signs of serious strain on the woman's face and an intense pallor to her skin that hadn't been there for a few days now. Her radiant smile was gone. Her red-brown eyes were no longer inviting and hypnotic. She was just a girl, panting and overworked.