Jacob Burns and the Order of the Algorithm #Wattys2017

Chapter 19: The Road to Ruin

To make matters worse, I was starting to get the feeling this wasn't just some cheap call girl, either. The more I thought about it, the more I started to think I'd seen this woman before, heard her sultry voice... In fact, I was sure of it. But where?

And that's when it clicked. This was none other than Magnolia Labelle, the biggest celebrity in the Commonwealth and possibly the most talented songstress in all the New World.

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it sooner. Most of the entertainment these days came from the same old records we'd all heard a million times before, maybe a little Bing Crosby here, a splash of The Ink Spots there, and on occasion you'd get lucky and hear some Dean Martin before they played that dang Wynonie Harris song about his grandma with a gambling problem. But few places were lucky enough to have an artist like Magnolia Labelle to give them something truly beautiful and new, something that actually spoke to the world as it was, and not how it used to be.

As if reading my mind, Hancock quickly flashed me a cocky grin that only I could see, daring a sly wink before returning to his usual devil-may-care attitude.

"Sorry, Mags, this here ain't a social visit," Hancock replied with an indifferent shrug, leaving this beautiful woman to pull back, a look of hurt in her eyes that almost left me wanting to pummel the prick into the ground. That was, until I watched that hurt turn into the most seductive pout I'd ever seen. It was then that I realized this was all just part of the game they were playing, just two strange lovers dancing in a deadly dive bar at the edge of civilization.

"Aw, now don't look at me like that, baby! You know me, any other day and I'd be converting you to Goodneighbor like a preacher trying to save your soul... But as it stands, I got business with the big boss, you understand? We had a meeting and I intend to keep it, even if he don't."

"Well, I suppose I might be persuaded to help," the woman tried once more, but with one stern look from the ghoul's dark eyes, she relented with a deep sigh, "Oh, very well, but just so you know, 'e won't be very 'appy about it. Zat fight was not supposed to go zat way. He will be none too pleased to 'ear he 'as to pay out so much to so many of these... raider scum..." she added with a curl of her lip.

"Well, I suppose that's the price of dealing with dogs, eh? Just go ahead and let him know I'm here darlin', thanks," the man said, but Magnolia didn't move, hesitating as a cautious eye landed on the super mutant standing in the back.

"He... iz also not going to be very 'appy about ze mutant... situation. Perhaps if ze beast could only wait outsid-?"

"Nah, I don't think so. I'd rather keep him close, if ya don't mind," Hancock cut her off with a dismissive wave, "Now run along sweetheart, I ain't got all day..." And with that he turned his back to her, ignoring the look of hot indignation on her face.

"Oh John-nee, why must you be so cruel?" the woman cried out with all the drama befitting a true diva like herself.

"Fine," she conceded, "For you, John-nee, I will do zis thing, but after you are done, you are to come and see me. I will not let you slip through my fingers once again, mon amour, I want to see you again. Do you understand me?" She commanded with her hand on her hip, but Hancock gave her nothing more than a noncommittal shrug, leaving the woman to storm off in an angry huff.

Several minutes passed by and we eventually found ourselves easing into an old booze-stained table, with nothing to do but drink and wait. Fahrenheit, on the other hand, kept to herself in a dark corner as the crowd avoided her like the new plague, not that I could blame them or anything. Every now and again, the room would rumble with a guttural growl as the beast would gnaw at his chains, roaring out whenever someone would venture too close, just in case they didn't know how badly he wanted to bash their brains in. Super mutants hated humans. Simply hated them. In their twisted, miserable minds, super mutants were the master race, the one true inheritors of the Wasteland as only they were created to withstand its nature. He growled again, this time as his beady black eyes shot towards Fahrenheit, the controller to his collar and the key to his freedom in her hands.