SOFT MUSIC PLAYED FROM THE ALBUM THAT STUBBORN KINDA FELLOW BY MARVIN GAYE AS DEBBIE LAYED DOWN ON HER BED, STARING AT THE CELING. It was near mid-evening and the sun was almost fully set when the gears in her head were still up and running; constantly turning from the conversation she had with Elliana earlier that impactful day.  

She thought of two things: "What was I thinking?"

"Why didn't I say I loved her back?"

She still didn't know, but she knew in her heart that she made the wrong decision. Something of some sort, she had to make it right.

She was confused—yes, but she didn't want to make Elli feel like it was her fault that she didn't say anything.

Once the redhead got home from the confrontation earlier, she stood against the closed backdoor of her house for a few moments just thinking to herself.

But one thing she wanted to know was did Elliana really mean it?

Did she really . . . love her?

•••••

"Cutie, I'm in a pickle here," spoke Elliana to the rabbit who was moving her head simultaneously with her owner as she walked back and forth on the carpet.

"A big pickle. Well—more like a big, knotted up pickle (if that's even possible), but you get what I'm trying to say, right?" she looked back to the rabbit who was just giving her wide eyes and took that as a good enough of an answer.

She had finished picking up the mess that her and Five made earlier, which had sent her into explaining what happened to Mary and Bonnie. They weren't made, quite happy that she beat the kid black and blue for everything that he did to her, but they were mad that she broke the table that sat in the living room.

Bonnie claiming that it was her "wine setting table which shall not and should never have been tampered with," but Elliana just gave the couple pretty pennies and some of her work pay to be able to pay for the precious table.

"I'm thinking about what Five said after I, ya know, beat him to a pulp," she spoke to the rabbit who tilted her head to the side. The words from the past assassin were still fresh in her mind.

The young boy had fallen to the ground clutching his stomach as the young woman stood above him with a Chef's knife, blood lightly covering it as she let it hang to her side. His blood wasn't coming out of his stomach at an extreme rate as Elli didn't pierce his skin majorly, so the boy would certainly survive.

He began to regain his breath, collecting his words to form, "Elli, I'm sorry," with a whimper as he tried to face her, slowing turning over his left side.

"Maybe I was too brutal," she thought to herself.

It was too late now.

All she could see was red.

Five was scared.

Petrified even.

He never saw this side of her.

Her emotionless face. The stoic stare she gave him.

"I know you are," she breathed out. "They always are when the karma comes back to haunt them." she leaned down to the boys eye line. "You're all just the same. Each and every one of you." she lightly shook her head side to side.

Five scrunched his eyes. "What?" he took deep breaths.

Elli hummed and nodded, placing the knife down beside her ride foot and moving down so she was rested in a kneeling position. Slowly, she lifted her hand to her sweater, taking the bottom into her grasp she lifted it up and showed Five her stomach. The faint three lines were visible and he traded his eyesight from one mark to another.

"Who did that?"

She placed the bottom of her sweater back down. "These girls. They forced into the forest and . . . sliced my stomach." Fives expression fell from sacred to a bit of worried. He was quick to mask it, but Elli saw right through it.

"Do you want to know what I did to them?" asked Elli. "Come on, ask me." Five stayed silent: afraid of the answer she might provide. "Ask me, come on, Five," she begged.

"Elli . . . what did you do?"

She lightly shrugged and tilted her head to the side just a bit. "Well, you know . . . " she ran a finger across her throat slowly and finished on the side now letting her finger drop on top of her thigh.

Five shook his head in disbelief. "No . . . "

She gave a bracing face and nodded. "Yeah . . . " she stayed silent for a moment.

The memory flashed quickly in Elli's mind as she remembered the look on the girls faces as she managed to capture the three of them and force them into the woods.

She remembered the soil and dirt between her fingers as she dragged the girls by the legs and began to place them into separate holes, picking up a shovel that she stole from her neighbors yard and beginning to collect dirt from a different pile, placing it onto the now slowly decaying and lifeless bodies.

She knew she couldn't get caught since she was invisible, but she did have a feeling that someone or something was watching her. 

"You best get going now, huh?" she offered as she regained back into the conversation with Five. 

"You need to come with me. I found a way for us to get home. We have to be in the alleyway in half an hour—"

"I decide if I want to go or not. You don't get to make choices for me, Five, okay?" she said with a small smile to which Five just looked at her.

He pushed himself off the ground, groaning in pain and having to take short breaths. As he made a sluggish walk towards the door, he paused.

"I really am sorry, Elli. I really am." She heard his voice break a bit. "I hope you can forgive me."

She stayed silent.

Not bothering to even to spare him a glance.

She didn't even look towards the door until she heard the car drive off.

"I mean; I'm not going to forgive him, obviously." Cutie looked at the girl. "Okay, not now. Well—I don't know—you know what? This isn't even the point of what I'm trying to say, all right? Point is, he said that he had a way home."

She looked at the clock. It was clearly way past thirty minutes.

"Looks like they left without us then."

•••••

The morning sun shined brightly through the windows of the house where Elli, Mary and Bonnie lived as the smell of turkey bacon filled the house. As Mary placed another slice of the meat onto the skillet, Bonnie stood behind her and wrapped her arms around her waist placing a small kiss on the base of her neck connecting to her shoulder.

Mary hummed, "Hmm, careful, hon. I don't want you to get burned by the oil."

"I'll be fine," assured the wife. "A little oil isn't gonna hurt me."

Mary placed the top of the skillet onto the pan and turned to her wife. "Is that so?" she lifted an eyebrow.

Bonnie chuckled and moved a hand to place a strand of hair behind Mary's ear. "Yeah. I'm invincible." she leaned forward and placed her forehead against Mary's and Mary leaned in and met hers.

"Sure you are." she kissed her lips and smiled. "Elli, breakfast!" she shouted throughout the house. After a few moments, she didn't hear anything. "Elliana, come eat! Remember, we're going to see JFK today when he passes through Dealey Plaza in a few hours, you've gotta fuel up on some food."

"Really? "Fuel up"? Baby, you could do better then that." pouted Bonnie.

"Oh, please, hon. Shush." she snickered. They still didn't hear a response. "Elliana, you up yet?" Silence filled the house again. "She should be up by now, right?" Mary leaned to the right to looked at the clock that read 8:30.

Bonnie turned around and looked at the clock, nodding along with her. "Yeah, she should. I'll go check on her." she turned back around and gave her wife a goodbye kiss. Turning the other way, Mary made a quick movement, slapping her left hand on Bonnie's ass causing her to yelp. Bonnie was quick to turn around and give her a glare, but with a smile.

As Mary turned back to the stove, hearing her wife's footsteps ascend up the stairs, she took the top off the skillet and picked up the spatula. Gripping it softly, she began to put the bacon on a plate that she kept off to the side and continued to turn off the stove, moving her right hand to pick up a piece of bacon and place it into her mouth.

Humming with satisfaction, she finished the piece and took off her apron and hung it up on the desired hook. Hearing footsteps coming back down the stairs, she turned towards the opening to see her wife coming in at a fast pace.

"Hey, hey, hey," she held her arms out towards the blonde. "what's wrong? Why hasn't Elli come down yet?"

Bonnie took a breath. "I didn't find her." Mary's eyes went wide and she started to panic. "Her photos of us are gone, Cutie and her treats are gone—"

"We need to call someone—"

"Wait, Mary," she stopped her wife. Moving her other hand from behind her back she showed three envelopes. "I found these."

The three had different names on them.

One for Mary and Bonnie.

One for Shirley.

And one for Debbie.

*****

Elliana walked the streets of Dallas with a brown knitted tote bag on her shoulder and with Cutie on a leash in front of her. She was wearing a dark colored vintage striped knitted sweater and light washed jeans to which she rolled up a bit to show her brown colored high-top Converse that she wore most of the time if it weren't her black ones.

She knew what she was doing . . . okay—she didn't, but she acted like she did.

She had a plan: she was gonna march in there, hope they didn't leave without her—and if they did, she was just gonna hide for the rest of her life.

No biggie, right?

She made a quick downwards movement and picked up Cutie, now holding her in her arms, knowing that she was getting quite tired from hopping for so long and gave her a treat for good measures and for a good job on going the long distance.

Elliana made a few move steps until she was face to face with the alleyway she arrived out of those few years ago. Taking a deep breath, she made her way towards the door that lead to the inside. Twisting the knob, it appeared to be locked.

She huffed. "Well, I don't know why I expected it to be unlocked." she rolled her eyes and headed towards the front of the shop, unaware of the weird things that were happening inside.

As Five finished explaining the stages of Paradox Psychosis, Luther thought to himself that his brother was ideally mad and bonkers in the head.

"Jeez, I don't know," Luther braced himself. "This maybe isn't such a good idea." He watched as Five moved around the room.

"It's a Hail Mary." Five threw his arms out towards the side, slightly wincing from the wound on his stomach from stretching a bit too much a few moments ago. "But what choice do we got, Luther?"

He stayed silent for a moment. "I don't know, you already seem a bit squirrelly if I'm being honest."

"Look, Luther," Five stood in front of the large man. "I'm gonna need you to help me get through this one, all right? I . . . I need a spotter."

"A spotter?"

"Yeah."

Luther gave a confused look. "What is that? Like, a wing-man?"

"In case the paradox psychosis gets too severe, I need you to help me stay on task, all right? So, whatever happens, whatever I say, we need to get that briefcase," asserted Five. "Okay?"

"Okay." nodded Luther.

"Okay." Five clapped his brothers shoulders and began to make his way towards the stairs. Not hearing any reaction of footsteps, the boy turned back around to see his brother still standing still. He gave a shout, "Luther, come on!" to which Luther  regained consciousness.

"Right."

They began to make their way down the stairs when the front glass door opened and in walked Elliana. With the door closing behind her, she looked to the stairs to see Five and Luther and slowly put down Cutie who was getting a bit fidgety. Five took small movements backwards, afraid that what happened the day before, might happen again.

"I thought you guys left already," her voice was soft. She looked to Five and spoke, "Calm down, Five, I'm not here to hurt you." Five stopped his movement and stood still.

"Then what are you here for?" he spoke out: steadily, but with curiosity.

She shrugged. "Thought about what you said. About you having a way for us to get out of here. Took it into consideration."

He nodded and began to make his way down the steps, easing Luther with him. "I have a plan. I could use you in it if you'd like," he offered.

She thought about it for a second before nodding. "Okay. Yeah, sure."

Five slowly made his way towards Elliana. "Can I talk you in private?" his voice was soft and quiet enough for Luther to not hear. She bit the inside of her cheek and took a breath in and out before nodding slowly. "Luther, wait outside for a second. We'll be out in a minute."

Luther nodded and quickly made his way to the door. As he passed by Five, he learned towards his pale ear and whispered, "I hope you know that if she kills you, I'l cover for her." he pressed his lips together and moved to the glass door. "Don't kill each other." And with that the door closed.

The two stood before each other for a silent twenty seconds before Elli moved over towards the stairs and took a seat on the cold stair as Cutie hopped towards her. "You wanted to talk so . . . talk." she broke the silence.

"I'm sorry . . . for everything I did to you and your family," he was quick to say.

She looked up at him with a growing smile. "That's more like it. That's all I wanted. Good thing you listened to me." she began to pet her animals fur. "You know I'm not going to forgive you . . . " Five looked to the ground. "Well, I guess not that fast. Or even at all but . . . for the moment—I can put it behind us . . . just for a minute."

Five nodded as he looked up from the ground and looked into Elli's eyes.

"I do just have one question . . . " she put her rabbit to the side and placed down her bag. She got up and walked up to Five. She voice was calm, but breaking. She asked: "Do you remember them?"

To which he answered with a sorrowful manner,

"I remember all of them."