“How does it look to you?” he said, scissors still in hand.

  She looked at herself in the mirror, “dunno what you want me to tell you, I look just like in highschool,” the look itself was composed of two bangs on the side of her head and a fringe of hair covering half of her forehead. Her wild mane was tamed and then collected in a ponytail.

  “‘Thank you’ would be nice?” He said smugly.

  “Fuck off, pal.” She cleared the cut hairs off her shoulders and stood up.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Like coming down from a crazy high,” she looked at her hands, she was shaking. “You took care of the phone thing?”

  “Yop, got you set up with an account worth five million euros. Got ahead of myself and invested it in some low risk, low return funds. Unless you go on a crazy buying spree, it should be enough for you to live the rest of your life without having to work another day.”

  She sighed deeply until she ran out of breath, and then she sighed some more. The nine to five life she’s been afraid of most of her late teens, and that proved to be even worse than she could have possibly anticipated was over. She had escaped wage slavery, and all it took was a little bit of magic and a whole lot of expediency.

  “What about you? You got your five mills as well?”

  “Eyup, got that as a retirement fund.”

  “Why did you decide to help me anyway? It’s not like you hate your job, and all you’ve built thus far would have gone down the drain if we had got caught.”

  “Guess I’m just as greedy as you.”

  “But nowhere near as lazy, you had that accountant job…”

  “Have, not had. I don’t plan on leaving it.”

  “But why?”

  “Well, as you’ve said, it’s not like I hate it. It gives my life some semblance of order.”

  “You are one boring mother fucker, you know that.”

  “I live that.”

  “Well…” She started and looked candidly at her hands, reminiscing, “it’s not like I dislike that about you.”

  “Why thank you, bitch, don’t go and make me cry now.”

  “AS IF you would cry!”

  He shrugged and then they both laughed. A cold shower later and they were both on the sofa watching american cartoons.

  “Man, that dog sure is wild.” He said slouching towards the screen, “he looks after his buddy like it’s the only thing that matters.”

  “Yeah,” Ella said, spreading her arms on the back of the couch. “Hey… I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t mention it, it’s not like I didn’t profit a bit myself-”

  “I’m not sorry about that!” She said and pushed him on the shoulder softly. “I mean… About disappearing and that.”

  “Hey, you got me worried, I’m not gonna lie, but it’s not like I didn’t stop either. I guess at some point… I just thought it was over, and we were never gonna speak again.”

  “But you were still waiting at our place.”

  “Don’t think much of it, it’s a nice place.”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “Yeah, right…”

  “You called me boring earlier, but what did you have going then in your life that you couldn’t pick up your dear buddy’s calls? Before your line got cut, I mean.”

  “What had I going?” She looked up to the ceiling, “Nothing man. Everyday was just hell, by the time the first week was over I had completely lost the will to do anything, by the time the first month was over, time had just begun passing by me. Thought I would die like that. Just don’t know how everyone else does it.”

  “Well, there’s nothing special to it, you get used to it.”

  “Guess I would have gotten used to it eventually.”

  “Cheer up buddy, it’s not like you need to do it anymore.”

  “Yeah,” she smiled meekly.

  “Where did that crazy magnetism you came up to me with went? It’s like gloomy Ella’s back all of a sudden.”

  “I figure my mood changed because of the, uh, you know what.”

  “Yeah that…”

  Both were skirting around the issue, in part because talking about it was difficult, but also because Selim’s room mate was still around the place. Then, as if speaking of the devil, she appeared dressed up to go out, her hair styled in a bob.

  “You guys are watching some kiddie trash, I see. Glad you finally found someone to share your disgusting fetishes with, Sel.” She said and left like that.

  “Ouch, didn’t make her come, I guess.” Ella said, cringing.

  “Don’t even mention that, I’m gonna move as soon as the months over now that I’m rich, so no point remembering her.”

  “Booooring.”

  Selim scoffed, and after sulking for a bit, he grabbed the controller and turned the tv off.

  “Alright, room mate’s out of the picture. What do you plan to do if the authorities find out about you? You used to be really into those conspiracy theories back when the massacre first happened, so you know they are gonna do some fucked up shit to you if they get you.”

  “Well… I was kinda hoping not to use my powers in public anymore and hopefully that would be it?”

  “After what we did yesterday? Darling, that was hardly the crime of the century, police will come to snoop around.”

  “Yeah, but I have some dirty money on me now, so maybe I could, you know, get away from this place?”

  “If you need any help, you know where to get me.”

  “Thanks pal, appreciate it, for real.” She stood up and went for a coat and a furry hat.

  “Where are you gonna go now?”

  “I’m gonna stay at a love hotel or something, my apartment is some rundown piece of trash with no service, besides, I don’t want to be around if the cops come asking questions.”

  After accompanying her to the door, and hitting her with their old, secret salute, Selim told her ‘see ya’, and started going up to his flat. Ella looked at him go up the stairs, and eventually she went on her way as well.

  When suddenly, Selim was hit with a wave of emotions he couldn’t quite understand and went down the stairs to look for Ella. But she had already disappeared.

  A grim looking woman, with brown wavy hair cut at neck length and dressed up with a smart grey suit came up to the local police station and asked the reception, “I’m looking for information regarding the recent hostage situation you had at this town.”

  “Now, how do you know about that?” Said an uninterested police officer that was sitting behind the reception counter eating a croissant.

  “Small town, not a lot of crime going on. At least that gets on the registry, that is.” She said with a fake smile.

  “I see. Well, that’s police business. Unless you got something to report?”

  “Nothing to report, but you might want me to take a look at your evidence and interrogate the officers.” She insisted.

  “I don’t see why would-”

  Before he could finish, she flashed a silver badge that displayed a coyote eating a house cat.

  “Oh fuck-” he managed to say before starting to choke on his croissant. “I’m sorry,” he coughed, ”right this way please. The evidence is down this aisle, I’ll put on a call for the officers that brought it in, do you need to see the main suspect as well?”

  “No, that last bit won’t be necessary,” she thought to herself for a bit, “but if you don’t mind, I would like to wait for the officers before looking at the evidence.” She thought she might find something worthwhile from talking to them.

  “Of course, I’ll put on the call right now.”

  It was a while before the officers reached the station, all that time the grey lady impressed her host with an encyclopedic knowledge of American baseball players. And when they finally arrived…

  “Ah, there they are-”

  She moved up to greet them before he could finish presenting them.

  “I heard you managed the situation yesterday afternoon?”

  “Yes ma’am,” started a male officer, “it sure was though but I was trained for these kinds of situations-” The man continued for a bit while the grey lady ignored him and examined the female officer that had come with but hadn’t uttered a word.

  “What about you, officer?” The gray lady said, interrupting the male officer.

  “There’s nothing much about me, ma’am.”

  “That’s great, you are a proper soldier, aren’t you? Accompany me to the evidence room,” she looked at the male officer and said, “thank you for your time, I won’t be needing you any further.”

  “I-is that so-” He managed to say before both women were out of hearing range. “Fuck, there goes my promotion out of this hellhole.” He kicked himself.

  Later, in the evidence room, the women were looking at the evidence.

  “So what’s your hypothesis about the strange footage the cameras captured?” The grey lady asked, showing some interest.

  “There’s nothing weird captured on those cameras, ma’am, only birds.” The black haired officer said with a monotonous voice.

  “I’m talking about the fact that the cameras were pointing at birds in the first place.”

  The officer sighed, “I guess what it means is something was up.”

  “Yes, very good, my steadfast soldier.” She said as she placed a hand on the officer’s shoulder, “and what can you tell me about the suspect, the one you took down?”

  “Subduing the suspect was a joint effort-”

  “Don’t even bother trying to hide the facts from me. You know where I’m from, right?”

  “All I know is everyone that gets picked up by people from your department aren’t ever seen again.”

  “And always for good reason, miss Sigfrid. Because all those that go away are either too much of a danger to the world, or too useful to remain confined to a dead end position such as yours.”

  “I guess it’s time to go, then?”

  “Quite.”

  “If you people deem me one of the good ones, is there a chance I get to pick what badge I get to wear?”

  “No. Why do you ask?”

  For the first time in their whole conversation, Sigfrid turned around and looked at the great lady straight in the eye, her grey eyes cutting straight at her soul, and said:

  “Because I fucking hate coyotes.”