015 | SOMEBODY'S WATCHING ME
( somebody's watching me — rockwell )
❝ i always feel like somebody's watching me,
and i have no privacy
i always feel like somebody's watching me,
who's playing tricks on me? ❞
MANHATTAN,
NEW YORK
_______________________________
ASPEN WAS WALKING HOME from work that night, having not seen Jordan since the morning in their apartment. She'd spent most of the morning in a meeting with the court's judge, and then headed down to the prison in the afternoon to debrief Stiles on the details of the trial that was upcoming in a couple days now.
It was late, the sky was a blanket of pitch black sky as she wrapped her coat around herself to preserve warmth, blending in with all the other chaotic New Yorkers trying to get home.
She saw she had a few missed calls from Jordan when she finally switched her phone on after a long day, but she figured she'd be heading home to him now anyway so whatever it was he could tell her when she got home.
But as she neared her street, she couldn't shake this weird feeling— a feeling she'd had a few nights ago, when she had been walking home like this in the dark.
The feeling that she was being watched.
She didn't know if it was just her paranoia though. Ever since Stiles told her about the fact this mystery killer had been threatening him with her life, she hadn't gotten any closer to figuring out what was really going on, or why.
Aspen finally approached her building, and hesitated before walking through the glass revolving doors. She paused where she stood, and turned her head over her shoulder as her eyes scanned around the busy street of people walking, cars and taxis driving.
For the life of her, she could not shake this feeling.
She let out a stressed sigh, running a hand through her long brunette locks as she walked through the revolving glass door and into the warmth of the apartment complex's lobby.
She gave the receptionist a polite wave and a forced smile, and then headed for the elevator. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket, so she grabbed it and turned it on to see the notification.
JORDAN: Working late tonight, will be home soon though. We need to talk. Love you.
Aspen ran her hand through her hair once again in stress—not having a clue what it could be that Jordan needed to talk to her about. By the tone of the message, it sounded serious, which only added to her paranoia and worry.
She finally heard the ding of the elevator as the steel doors opened up and she stepped inside, pressing the button for her penthouse floor.
She nervously swivelled her engagement ring around her finger, a nervous habit she'd had since she was just a kid— never grew out of it.
The elevator doors finally opened, and she grabbed her key from her other pocket and headed into the apartment, closing the door behind her.
She turned on the big light as she set her handbag down on the counter. She headed to the bathroom first, slipping out of her trench coat and draping it over the couch.
As she opened the door to the bathroom, it was dark and lightless. Her hand reached for the light switch, but she hesitated, suddenly feeling fear again. Ever since she saw that blood-red message on her mirror last week, it had been engraved in her mind ever since. Every time she blinked, she saw it again— MURDERER.
She decided to go to the bathroom in the dark, there was enough light from the moonlight peeking in through the blurred windows, and she was frankly scared to turn the light on and see another message left on the mirror. She avoided even looking at it.
But then as she flushed the toilet, she needed to wash her hands, which meant she had to go to the sink— the mirror.
She had forgotten that their bathroom mirror had an automatic LED light that was motion-detected. So as she turned on the sink and started to wash her hands, she jumped slightly as she was slightly blinded by the bright light. She was so jumpy that it made her look up and into the mirror.
And it seemed it wasn't just paranoia— because there it was, another message written all over the mirror.
Aspen jumped back, the tap still running being the only sound in the room other than the rapid thumping of her heartbeat inside her chest. She blinked rapidly over and over again, thinking maybe she was just hallucinating it, maybe she really was losing her mind and going crazy all over again, imagining things that weren't there.
But no matter how many times she blinked, every time she opened her eyes again, it was still there.
She wasn't imagining this. The feeling of her being watched? That wasn't her paranoia.
Stiles' words from last week kept replaying in her mind—"You. They want you dead, Aspen."
Running away was a powerful instinct. She hadn't been in touch with this part of herself in ten years—the part of her that wasn't like normal people like Jordan, the part of her that was hunted, the part of her that made enemies.
Aspen held back scared tears as she hurriedly opened the cabinet under the sink and grabbed a flannel, running it under the tap so she could scrub that message off the wall before Jordan got home and saw it.
She knew she couldn't keep this from him for much longer—it was the reason she'd been putting off setting a date for their wedding for so long. He didn't know that the woman he wanted to marry had enemies out there in the world, he didn't know about her past or who she was before she met him.
Marrying him might put him in danger—especially now.
Aspen quickly and panickedly began to scrub the writing off the mirror, shaking her head as she felt her throat begin to tighten up, not wanting to really process the words of the message.
Yes, Aspen Bellator had blood on her hands.
A lot of it.
But Aspen Carter was just a girl trying to live a normal life. Aspen Carter was a make-belief version of herself that allowed her to disassociate from her past.
She was snapped out of her panicked spiral, and suddenly froze when she heard a knock on her door.
Aspen slowly backed away from the mirror, and very slowly walked out of the bathroom and into the foyer. Her eyes scanned around the apartment, at the door, and at the kitchen counter.
Jordan's keys. He didn't take them with him this morning, he must've forgot.
It had to be him at the door, which meant she had to get that message scrubbed off the mirror immediately.
"Just a second!" she called out, assuming it was her fiancé at the door as she rushed back into the bathroom and scrubbed the rest of it off.
Once it was all smeared away, she hid the red-stained flannel behind some fresh towels in the cabinet under the sink. She let out some deep breaths as she gathered her composure, stepped out of the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
Aspen walked over to the door to the apartment, turning the doorknob expecting to see Jordan on the other side of it, ready to welcome him in and talk about whatever it was he needed to talk about.
But it wasn't Jordan on the other side of that door.
Before Aspen could even process who it was, she was being attacked.
A blonde woman dressed in all black reached out without hesitation and grabbed Aspen's wrists, trying to throw her to the ground before Aspen had a chance to defend herself.
"What the hell?!" Aspen yelled as the blonde woman kicked the door shut, making it slam loudly as Aspen began to pick herself up from the floor.
The myserteous blonde grabbed Aspen by the collar of her blazer, yanking her off the floor with a harsh grip, as Aspen fought back this time, more prepared as she did the same, grabbing the woman by her shoulders as she dug into them with force.
The blonde threw Aspen into the wall harshly, making Aspen let out a pained, widened gasp as her back slammed into a picture frame, which consequently fell off the wall and crashed to the ground, the glass making a shattering sound.
Aspen moved her hands from the woman's shoulder blades and instead grabbed her wrists which to pry her hands off of her collar. The blonde woman barely blinked as her eyes looked emotionless, as Aspen's were contrastly widened with utter confusion as to what was going on.
Aspen used the force of her body weight to push the blonde, walking away from the wall she'd just collided into as she fought back, pushing the blonde into the counter of the kitchen, then span her around and pushed her back into the fridge door, the blonde's back slamming into it with force as she let out a pained grunt.
"Who the hell are you?!" Aspen yelled in her face angrily, her face still in a frozen look of confusion.
"That doesn't matter," the blonde finally spoke, her voice coming out with a foreign Russian accent, "What matters is who I work for."
Aspen, caught off by her words, wasn't prepared for the next attack as the blonde pushed herself off of the fridge door, and pushed Aspen forward so her waist bumped into the edge of the kitchen counter, making her grunt loudly with pain as a vase of flowers fell off the counter, the glass smashing all over the floor just like the picture frame.
The blonde's hands reached for Aspen's neck and squeezed it with pressure, making Aspen choke for air as her eyes widened.
Her eyes began to flicker—with a cold, icy blue that hadn't made an appearance in a long, long time.
"Nice eyes." the blonde woman spoke with her Russian accent, her tone very sarcastic.
Aspen's hand reached for the woman's chokehold, as she tapped into some supernatural strength to pry the grip off of her neck.
Aspen then looked down and noticed a belt of weapons the woman had strapped around her waist, a black dagger peaking her interest.
"Nice dagger." she replied in a sarcastic tone to match hers, and then swiped the knife from the woman's belt as she pushed her frame off of her, backing away from the counter as she stood up straight.
The blonde then grabbed Aspen by the shoulder blades, digging her fingers in sharply as she pushed Aspen over to the kitchen sink, bending her over backwards, her head banging into the hard sink, made Aspen's eyes squint shut in pain. The dagger Aspen had managed to swipe slipped out of her grip, falling to the floor.
Just as Aspen's eyes opened again, she suddenly saw her blonde attacker grabbing a plate from one of the cabinets, and she smashed it over her face, as the china smashed and cut her skin all over her face, drawing blood.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Aspen yelled with wide eyes, blood dripping from her cheek, "I don't even know you!"
Aspen reached for a tea towel, and wrapped it around the blonde's neck, strangling her with it tightly in a matter of self defence. The woman stumbled backwards, her hands reaching for the tea towel around her neck to loosen it, as she choked for air.
Aspen managed to pick herself up from the sink, tripping slightly over the smashed vase and plate all over the marble floor. She loosened the strangling grip she had around the blonde's neck—seeing as she didn't actually want to hurt this woman, she was just defending herself from an attack.
But as soon as Aspen began to hold back, the blonde woman kicked her boot-clad foot up to the sink, as Aspen's hands were still tightly holding the tea towel around her neck, and the blonde used her body's force to jump back off the sink, making herself fall on her back on the floor.
But in the process she ended up throwing Aspen completely over her, and the brunette went flying into the floor, landing on her back, winding her as she squinted and yelled in pain.
There was a brief moment of silence and peace, a break from the fight as the two women picked themselves up slowly, glaring at each other. Well, the blonde was glaring with a blood-thirsty look in her eyes, whereas Aspen's glare was mixed with a constant state of confusion—still not knowing who this woman was, wondering if she was supposed to.
Aspen then watched the blonde's eyes dart to the dagger that had fallen to the ground, and suddenly they both rushed to pick it up, but the blonde beat her to it.
Aspen quickly picked herself up, despite the immense ache she felt in her whole body from being thrown around like a rag doll.
The blonde picked herself up too, and suddenly the two were facing off, standing on opposite sides of the counter, slowly walking around it in the direction away from the other.
Aspen then broke the glaring eye contact as her gaze darted towards the set of kitchen knives, and quickly grabbed the sharpest one and held it out in front of her in threatening defence, as the blonde did the same thing with her own dagger.
"Look, bitch—" Aspen retorted, feeling more blood drip from her cheek from where the plate had been smashed around her face, "I don't wanna hurt you!"
"That's too bad," she replied in her Russian accent, "You're gonna make this real easy for me..."
Aspen's phone then began to buzz from where she left it on the counter, the screen lighting up with her contact picture for Jordan.
Both women's eyes darted towards the buzzing cellphone, neither one of them moving a muscle.
"Hey," Aspen said, panting heavily, "Can we just pause this whole show for like thirty seconds? I need to take that call, then after that— I promise we can get back to this whole you trying to kill me thing, K?"
The blonde looked hesitant, her eyes darting between Aspen's glare and the buzzing phone.
Aspen looked up at the woman, awaiting her response, and then finally, the blonde shrugged her shoulders, rolled her eyes, and agreed— "Okay, thirty seconds— on speaker phone. And don't call me bitch, that was mean."
"You broke into my apartment and smashed a frickin' plate around my head!" Aspen gritted through her teeth, and scoffed— "I'm seriously the mean one in this scenario?"
The blonde rolled her eyes, and then Aspen carefully reached for her phone, not taking her eyes off the woman as she slowly pressed accept, pressing the speaker button with a slightly shaky finger, as she held her finger up to her lip, telling the blonde to be quiet.
"Hey, babe!" Aspen feigned an innocent sounding voice to Jordan, "What's up?"
"Uh, not much!" Jordan replied, wherever he was sounded busy, a lot of voices, "Um— the guys sort of bought these tickets to the mets game tonight, I do really need to talk to you—it's serious, but would you mind if I was home later than I thought? We can talk when I get back later? "
"Oh, totally!" Aspen feigned a chipper tone, "You should go! Don't worry about rushing home, have a good time!"
"Okay..." Jordan sounded a little suspicious at how quick her delighted response was, "Um— I promise I'll be home as soon as I can though, what I need to talk to you about— it really is serious..."
"Of course, don't worry!" Aspen said in a rushed tone, "Have a good time with your friends, see ya later, bye! Love you!"
"Okay, bye, I love you t—"
Aspen hung up the phone quickly, slowly sliding it back on the counter, feeling the blonde rolling her eyes at the dialogue of that phone call.
And then the second Aspen put the phone down, the blonde quickly ran around the counter with her dagger firmly in her grip, and lurched towards Aspen with it.
Aspen ducked down, dodging the swing of the dagger.
Aspen slid down the fridge door, her eyeline ending up right in front of the blonde's thigh.
"Now I don't want to stab you in the leg..." said Aspen, shrugging her shoulders as she stared at the woman's thigh.
But then Aspen felt the woman's hand wrap around her throat again tightly.
And in a matter of self defence, Aspen then stabbed the kitchen knife into the blonde's lower thigh. The Russian woman screamed out in pain, her hand releasing Aspen's neck as she stumbled backwards, dropping the dagger as her hands reached for the wound.
"Why did you do that?!" the Russian blonde said as if the attack was ludicrous, her eyes widening in confusion.
"Why are you trying to kill me?!" Aspen exclaimed in response, picking herself up to her feet.
"Look, lady, I don't have any beef with you!" the blonde exclaimed in a tone that almost made Aspen find the situation humorous.
Aspen scoffed in laughter, "Bitch, you'd have me fooled!"
"Stop calling me a bitch!" the blonde cried out as if the term was actually recalling offending her in an upset tone.
"I will— once you get out of my apartment and stop trying to kill me!" Aspen shot back, and then tilted her head in a taunting manner, and added—"Bitch!"
The blonde woman grunted, unimpressed with her response and then went right back into her attack mode. She slowly walked forward for Aspen in a threatening manner, both of them now stripped of their weapons.
Aspen stumbled backwards away from her, the two of them now walking through the foyer of the penthouse as Aspen ended up guiding her into the living room, the brunette stumbling slightly as she was walking backwards blindly.
Aspen's eyes darted down to the blonde's hand which was now bundled into a fist, and before she knew it, the woman was throwing a punch into Aspen's face. Aspen's super quick reflexes kicked in as she managed to catch her fist mid air, crushing it with her own hand.
The blonde then used her other hand to throw another punch, but Aspen caught that too.
"What do you want from me, huh?" Aspen spat in her face, forcefully crushing the woman's fists in the process.
"A big fat pay check." the blonde replied in a humorous tone, and that Russian accent.
Aspen's brows furrowed at her response.
"Someone's paying you?" she questioned, her eyes narrowing.
She was getting an uncanny amount of deja vu from that reply—she felt like she was back in Junior Year, when the dead pool was surfacing and she had a bounty over her head.
But as Aspen was taken aback by her response, the blonde took her opportunity to hike her leg up to Aspen's waist and kick her backwards, making her stumble back.
The blonde continued to attack, swiping her arm under Aspen's into a strong hold, the two women glaring into each other's eyes as they stood like that for a moment in the middle of the grand living room, wondering if the other was going to make the next move.
The blonde then threw Aspen's whole body to the floor, the brunette landed on her back, letting out another wince of pain, feeling winded from the force of the blow.
As the blonde tried to move so she was stood over Aspen's body, Aspen managed to kick out her leg and trip her up, so she fell to the ground too.
Aspen managed to pick herself up first, crawling over to the blonde who was grunting in pain on her back. Aspen knelt over the woman's waist, throwing her head back to brush her hair off her face, as she looked down at the blonde and wrapped her hand around her neck and applied force.
"Look around, sweetheart," Aspen cocked her head teasingly, "You're not winning here. You're bleeding out from your thigh— you should probably get that checked out by the way— and if you don't stop trying to kill me I will go all Othello-Desdemona on you and strangle you to death. Your choice."
"Look at that," Avery managed to whince through the strangling hold, "the lawyer knows her Shakespeare..."
The blonde threw her hand up to Aspen's wrist, trying desperately to pry it off of her neck, but Aspen was now using a lot more of her strength, and her strangling hold didn't waver.
"Clocks ticking, bitch." Aspen said in a teasing whisper, leaning over her frame, her head lowering closer to the woman's ear, "What's it gonna be?"
The blonde then turned her neck to the side to look around, Aspen's grip still firmly around her neck as her face began to flush red as she choked for air.
But the blonde woman then eyed a lamp sitting on a coffee table only a meter away, and quick thinking, she reached out to grab the lamp and swung it around Aspen's head in self-defence, making Aspen fall onto the floor beside her, yelling in pain as she felt more cuts form on her face from the hit.
"Dang," Aspen sighed, "I was trynna be nice..."
The two of them then picked themselves up, standing off against each other once again, with an intense eye contact.
Aspen then watched as the blonde bend down and reached into her black boot, and Aspen's eyes widened in shocked horror as she pulled out a handgun.
The woman slowly walked up to Aspen, the gun slowly raising and pointing it at her head.
Aspen, not thinking of much else to do, just panicked and before she knew it she was simply throwing a very heavy, forceful punch into the blonde's face.
It knocked her out, and her gun fell to the floor.
Aspen watched as she fell to the ground, her eyes shut as she was knocked out from the simple punch.
"Huh..." Aspen said with amusement, titling her head as she looked down at the unconscious blonde, "well that was easier than I thought..."
___________________________
It was about ten minutes later when the blonde finally regained consciousness.
When her eyes finally fluttered open, she was strapped down to a chair in the middle of the foyer. Her wrists and ankles were tied down with very strong rope hold, and her head was pounding and she felt dizzy.
She looked around, turning to the kitchen and she saw Aspen sighing, very unimpressed, as she was sweeping up the smashed plate and vase on the marble floor. She had taken off her blazer and undone a few buttons of her shirt, and thrown her hair up into a messy ponytail.
Aspen picked up the broken picture frame, brushing the smashed glass away carefully and smiling very weakly at the picture of her and Jordan beneath it.
"Did you just have this rope lying around?!" the Russian woman called out, making Aspen turn around at the sound of her voice, putting the picture down and walking over to the blonde.
"Jordan used to work in a hardware store back in the day," Aspen shrugged, no longer on edge or scared, even inspecting her nails as she walked calmly over to her. "Found 'em in the back of the closet."
Aspen then walked around so she was in front of the blonde, staring down at her with an amused, but still confused look.
She bent down so she was crouched in front of the chair she was restrained on, tilting her head with curiosity as she looked into the blonde's eyes.
"Now, I have a question for you, Avery." Aspen said, proving she now knew this woman's name. "Who sent you?"
Avery chuckled, throwing her head back in amusement with the question.
"How'd you find out my name?" she asked, cocking a brow, "You hire a PI in the past ten minutes?"
"No," Aspen shook her head with an amused look, reaching over to the coffee table and grabbing Avery's phone and waving it in front of her face, shrugging her shoulders, "You just got an instagram notification. Face ID wasn't too difficult when you were out cold."
Avery smirked, still amused by this whole 'hostage' seeming situation.
"I'm gonna ask you again," Aspen said, putting the phone back on the table, "Who sent you?"
"God," Avery retorted sarcastically, "I'm a messiah, you're the devil."
Aspen chuckled, standing up straight as she looked down at Avery, who was glaring up at her.
"You're funny, Avery." she sighed, "I'm sure in another life, we would've been great friends. But considering in this one, you've been hired to break into my home and attack me— I guess we're missing out."
"I guess so." Avery smirked, spitting out some blood from her mouth on the floor.
"Ew," Aspen retorted, "Now I'm gonna have to clean that up..."
"How'd you even learn how to tie ropes this tight! You're a lawyer, not a drug-lord!" Avery whined, tugging at her wrists as she was usually able to break out of situations like this easily.
"You think I've never been involved in a hostage situation before?" Aspen scoffed, "I learnt the ropes—literally."
Aspen then tauntingly, slowly walked around the chair, standing behind the blonde as she placed her hands on the back of the chair, leaning down to whisper in Avery's ear.
"Now tell me," said Aspen, "Why does Agent Avery Drake— want little old me dead?"
"I don't want you dead," the Drake woman shot back, her voice thick in her accent, "Why would you even think that?"
"Oh, I don't know..." Aspen sighed, shrugging her shoulders, "Maybe because you held a gun up to my head? If you don't want me dead, you sure do send mixed signals..."
Aspen then walked back around the chair and stood in front of Avery, crossing her arms over her chest as she cocked a brow at her.
"So, what is your deal, Agent Drake?"
"I was not trying to kill you!" she exclaimed in defence, "I was supposed to kidnap you, and deliver you unconscious— and alive."
Aspen made a sarcastic smile, "Oh, then I guess I should be saying thank you—that is so much better!"
Aspen then grabbed Avery's dagger she had been storing in a garter beneath her pencil skirt, and tauntingly played with it, swiping the blade as Avery watched in silence.
"You might not want me dead, but somebody does." Aspen sighed, turning the blade around tauntingly as she continued to slowly swipe her fingers along the sharp, black blade. "Are you the one who left those messages on my bathroom mirror too?"
"What messages?" Avery chuckled in amusement, but Aspen sensed in her tone she really was clueless about those.
"Okay, so it wasn't you..." Aspen spoke her thoughts aloud, lowering the dagger to her side. "What do you know about me, Avery?"
"I know that your business cards read 'Aspen Carter', but that is not your real name." Avery spoke bluntly, her Russian accent thick in her voice. She glared into Aspen's eyes and added— "And I know that those aren't the real colour of your eyes."
Aspen sighed again, nodding as she followed.
"Do you know what happened to the last person that held a gun up to my head?" Aspen cocked a brow, "He ended up behind bars." Aspen explained anyway, "Just like his psycho little daughter."
"Hey, hey— " Avery said defensively, "No need to go all Po-Po on me! I was never going to fire a bullet— at least not anywhere lethal..."
"Well, you are just Little Miss Sunshine, aren't ya?" Aspen said as a sarcastic tease.
"Thank you, I do try." Avery spat back in the same sarcastic tone, cocking her head as she forced a delightful smile.
"Look, all you gotta do is give me a name, Avery." Aspen said in a calming tone, shrugging her shoulders, "Just tell me who's putting the cash in your pocket, and I will send you on your merry way back to the whole you crawled out of."
"You think that's gonna work? I'm paid good money." the blonde shot back with a chuckle.
"Hush money, more like..." Aspen murmured under her breath. "What are you, anyway? A freelance assassin?"
"I prefer flexible executioner." She hummed back.
"What, you're a gymnast now?"
Avery let out a real amused laugh, "Look at that— you've got jokes too."
Aspen smirked, reaching back over to the table to pick up Avery's phone. She held the screen up to her face, despite Avery shutting her eyes and turning away, but the face ID unlocked anyway.
Aspen pulled up another seat, placing it directly opposite the hostage blonde, leaning back with a calm sigh as she scrolled through the woman's phone.
"You know, other than an instagram and a few naughty texts, you don't give away much about yourself in here." Aspen sighed, crossing one leg over the other. "You know— like your boss."
"You think I'd keep confidential information like that in my notes app?" Avery chuckled, tilting her head and raising her eyebrows, "Come on, now..."
Aspen's eyes widened, glancing up at Avery, almost looking a bit embarrassed. Then she said— "Note to self, delete notes app diary..."
Avery let out a snort of laughter.
"Dear diary..." Avery mocked with a sigh, "A really hot bitch broke into my apartment today. She held a gun up to my head, is it weird that turned me on a little?"
Aspen faked a mimicking gasp, "How did you know?"
Aspen opened up her phone app, seeing who her most recent calls went to. None of them were saved as contacts, they were all just random numbers which she didn't recognise.
Aspen scrolled through many, many phone numbers—trying to find any she'd recognise. Someone wanted Aspen dead— and they sent Avery to kidnap her, she figured she had to recognise at least one number in her calls.
Aspen then froze as her thumb landed on one particular number. She recognised it, that was for sure—but she couldn't quite remember who's it was. She could always recognise a few numbers of her contacts, but she could never really decipher exactly who's was who's, she never memorised the whole thing.
She then pressed the number that she somewhat recognised, wondering who it was as for the life of her she couldn't rack her brain for the name.
Avery simply watched with a calm demeanour as Aspen dialled one of her numbers, and held the phone up to her ear.
It rang about six or seven times, and no one ever picked up.
But then.... Aspen was met with a voicemail message.
"Hey, this is Stiles and you missed me! Leave a message."
Aspen froze.
The message was short—like it always had been. It seemed she wasn't the only one who hadn't changed their voicemail message since high school.
Avery smirked with amusement as she watched Aspen's calm, bossy exterior wash away as it was replaced with some look of confused and somewhat betrayal.
Stiles knew the person who was hired to kill her...?
Stiles was in prison— he couldn't have picked up the phone.
But Avery had still tried to call him a while back...
"Aww..." Avery mocked, tilting her head tauntingly, "You look upset..."
Aspen's eyes darted back up to meet Avery's, her calm exterior now completely washed from her face as her eyes were wide, as she started to shake her head.
"How..." she said hesitantly, "How do you—"
"Know your ex-fiance?" Avery cocked a brow, interrupting her, her accent still very thick in her tone. "He and I used to work together. Don't worry— he's not the one that sent me, if he knew I was here doing what I was doing—he'd kill me himself."
Aspen let out a brief, shaky sigh—immediately erasing that horrifying, earth-shattering feeling of betrayal she felt a moment ago.
She suddenly felt incredibly stupid that the thought even crossed her mind.
Stiles was only in prison right now because he'd been hunting down the person who wanted her dead, and had gotten framed in the process.
He'd always protected her, even when she didn't know it.
Aspen then stood up from her chair, putting the phone down as she stood in front of Avery, tied up in the chair like a hostage, and had a look of contemplation on her face.
Avery wasn't going to tell her shit—and Aspen didn't want to torture information out of her, it wasn't who she was. It wasn't who she wanted to be.
So reluctantly, Aspen sighed as she walked over to Avery's chair, and started untying her wrists.
"Uh..." Avery said, confused, furrowing her brows, "What are you doing?"
"I'm letting you go." Aspen said in a 'duh' tone, "You're not gonna tell me shit, and quite frankly, I don't feel like storing a hostage in the closet and having you stink up the place."
The blonde scoffed, "that would be a long story to explain to the fiancé, wouldn't it?"
But Avery still looked confused as Aspen untied one of her wrists fully.
"How do you know I'm not just going to attack you again?" Avery asked.
"Because," Aspen sighed, smirking, "You're about to bleed out if you don't get to the nearest hospital. Now, I'm no time-scientist, but I don't think you have enough time to do that and deliver me to your God."
Avery then looked back down at her leg that Aspen had stabbed, now being reminded of the wound and suddenly remembering and feeling it's gushing pain. Aspen was right—she had been loosing a lot of blood, blood that had been dripping onto Aspen's floor for the past twenty minutes.
"Huh," Avery shrugged, "Fair point."
"Plus..." Aspen sighed again, untying her ankles, "You're no real threat to me—no offence to your profession, of course."
Avery rolled her eyes and scoffed.
"You're not actually allowed to kill me." Aspen added, "Which means I can't really be afraid of you, can I?"
Avery was now completely free from the rope restraints, but she struggled to even stand to her feet due to the gashing wound in her thigh. Aspen sat back down in the other chair, teasingly waving goodbye as Avery weakly stumbled to her feet with an annoyed glare on her face.
Just as Avery reluctantly walked to the door, annoyed with herself she didn't successfully complete her mission, she turned back around to see Aspen still sat in the same chair, crossing her legs as she had picked up Avery's dagger again, inspecting it with amusement.
Aspen looked up as Avery neared the door, and was staring at her, and tauntingly waved her fingers, and said—
"I'm keeping the dagger!"
______________________________
got a glimpse of badass aspen again this chapter 🤭
this chapter was heavily inspired by the black widow yelena x natasha fight scene if that wasn't obvious tehe
also avery drake is basically yelena in a different font too
anyway... this is one of my fav chapters I've written so far, thoughts?
ps: chapter 16 is another flashback...
of halloween 2019...