The Three Amigas: Ch1 Pt1

It was a dark and stormy night. The rain crashed down hard on the pavement. Water was flowing up out of the gutters from the day long rain that had been punishing the city. A stray cat hid under some boxes discarded in an alley that provided it at least some shelter from the elements. From across the street it watched with the indifference as a young lady hurried through the torrent under her small and seeminly ineffective umbrella. A man in a large dark coat rounded the corner swiftly and purposefully behind her, but was careful not to make any loud steps or brush against the building. He was nearly ten paces behind the young woman. Any noise at this point would most certainly spook her. She stopped at a door under a small awning that also provided almost no relief from the rain. Only a handful of the street lights worked on a good day in this part of town but with the power out because of the storm and the moon shrouded by the clouds it was hard to see much of anything. Keys dangled from her hand as she attempted to find the one that would open the lock on the door. The man slowed his pace as she was unlocking the door. He knew his timing had to be perfect. As she pushed the door open and started to move inside he lunged towards her and then a flash.

Nothingness.

The TV screen was dark now. The only thought that was in Jill's mind as she tossed the remote onto the counter was how much she despised watching Law & Order on a regular day, let alone having to watch it while she was working. Jill worked night's at a downtown office building as a maintenance engineer. This meant on any given night she could be found toiling away in any of the hundreds of offices sweeping up the trash and dirt on the floors, mopping when needed, emptying garbage bins and recyclables, as well as sheepishly walking out of the rooms when she barges in on an upper management figure who had decided to have a late night "meeting" with his secretary. It happens more than you would expect, some people just love their cliches.

The reason Law & Order was on in this particular office, is the same reason it's on in every office in the building. The person that works alongside Jill, let's call him "Steve" (His real name is Stephen) is a big fan of Law & Order. Jill and Steve work as a team. Steve's job is to dust all of the offices, which he does before Jill gets to them, and every time he walks into a room he will turn on the television and put it on a channel showing an episode of Law & Order which as everyone knows is on at least one channel at all hours of the day in some way, shape or form. He even goes so far as to refer to the episodes as "his stories", something that aggravates Jillian well beyond all rational reason. She swore the last time he said it that the next time he uttered those words around her she would make him hurt.

She didn't really mind her job, Steve normally kept ahead of her in cleaning the rooms so that made it a pretty quiet most of the time so that she could go about her business pondering things and wondering what she would do with her life, after she turned each television off of course. It's not that Jill hated the show itself, she just had an intense fear that was a borderline phobia of Sam Waterson's eyebrows. Don't even think about mentioning her watching The O.C., Peter Gallagher would have her cowering in the corner in under 5 seconds. The peacefulness of the building at night was something she had come to look forward to, within reason of course. It was still a job and she wasn't exactly excited to go there, it was just a better environment for her than the few months she worked as a stripper a few blocks over at a classy litte joint called Pete's Parlour. Pete had a more alliterative name in mind but it was rejected by the city for being a tad indecent.

Sweeping was a lot easier on the arms than swinging around on a pole every night she told herself as she set the broom aside for a moment and stretched out the tired muscles in her back. Steve walked in the room at this point, he usually did a few times every night to check up on her progress. He told her it was to check up on her progress at least, she knew it was really just an excuse to be creepy and stare at her chest while making awkward conversation.

"The floor's pretty dirty tonight huh?"

He managed to get the words out without having his voice crack. Steve had an oddly prepubescent voice for a 24 year old.

"It's dirty every night." She replied, not really paying attention.

"Yea well, I guess so huh. Good thing for us huh?" He sort of laughed as he spoke, which made him sound like a cross between a small girl and and a wounded animal of some sort, Jill hadn't been able to decide which up to this point. "Otherwise we wouldn't have a job here." he said after a few seconds of silence.

Steve also had a penchant for speaking the painfully obvious when there was no need. Jill nearly cringed, but that would've made him think she was actually paying attention to him and she couldn't have him thinking that. After a minute of silence as she finished up the room and thought he might actually leave her be he managed to think of another reason to unleash his unnatural voice on the universe.

"I found some wrappers in a couple of the offices down the hall."

He apparently was looking for a response to that so he added after another few agonizingly long seconds, "I picked them up for you though, to save you the trouble."

"Thanks Steve." she replied curtly, biting the bullet and responding hoping he would take it as a cue to move along. He didn't. After another minute she picked up her broom and started heading to the door. "Well I'm moving on to the next one now." she told him.

"Alright" he squeaked out.

It was at this point that he noticed the television in the room was off. "Hey," he said in what some might describe as an incredulous tone, "What happened to my stories?"

The television in this room sat in the corner near the window opposite the door Jill had been about to use to exit the room, because Steve was facing the TV he never saw the broom handle coming until it made contact with the back of his head. All those workouts and long nights swinging on the poles had one good advantage for Jillian, she had a swing on her Mighty Casey would be jealous of, except she wasn't about to strike out. Steve wouldn't wake up for another hour and by that time she was long gone from the building after having finished cleaning the remaining rooms in blissful silence.

The air that night was crisp and cool especially for a summer night, there were clouds in the sky obscuring most of the light from the moon but the street lights provided plenty for Jill as she walked home after work. She made a habit of it, the city was a fairly safe place to start with and most trouble makers were out of energy by the time 4am came around. She had stopped in to check on Steve before she left who was still fast asleep, curled up in a little ball around the leg of the desk. For just a single moment the thought flashed though her head that he was usually pretty well covered in various polishes and sprays while he worked and she couldn't help but wonder the effect the lighter in her pocket would have. She stifled a laugh as she walked down the street at the thought of him waking up and realizing his clothes were ablaze, not exactly the least psychotic thing ever but fairly average for her.

The shoes she wore echoed loudly off the large buildings on either side of her with each step she took, since there were few if any cars on the road she would walk in the middle of the road so long as it wasn't a main street. A few blocks from home she noticed a faint glow coming from the middle of an intersection. Curiously she moved towards it, as she got near the lines of the crosswalk she stopped. The echoing footsteps did not stop with her. She turned quickly to her right and saw a figure coming out of the darkness, eyes transfixed on the same glowing object in the middle of the crossroads. Jill raised her hands to her face in order to stifle a scream, the sight of the person before her was beyond all imagination.