~ FMK ~
... the casket lowers at the funeral, Alley watching ...
marry
and the parentals approach
His mom - "Oh dear ... sweet Alley Way ... "
Like a superficially
sweet
thing she calls her which really meant, 'I hate you' but with extra
special near accusation strangely tinged with not even caring at all.
His mom - "This
has been so hard on all of us but I can't imagine how it must feel for
you ... "
Fat dad - "Like she's a curse ! My God that's two down, can't imagine how she must feel indeed ... "
Alley - Looks back to his mom, "Yeah it's been horrible. ... I mean like ... wow. ... Yeah. ... So how are you ?"
A look from fat dad.Alley - "Did you know him ?"
Mary - Reading the grave, "Mr ... Herbert T. Haselgritt ? Nope ! Just trying to be inconspicuous and I love coming for hilarious dead people names so what's up ? Am I regretting saving you from your cage ?"
Alley - "Why did you kill my ... him ? Why are you following me ?"
Mary - "I'm not. I'm following his father. Your mother. And the whole slew of evil you like not to think about."
Alley - "I do like to not think about it thank you. Are you a bitch right now because the sun's burning your skin away or are you always just a bitch."
Mary - "Always. It's a thing you do. Kill a man to see who comes to the funeral, very basic principle, always works, if you can be inconspicuous. So are you in or what."
Alley - "In ... what ?"
Mary - "Do you love your family ?"
Alley - "Well."
Her - Burst out laughing. "I know exactly what you mean. Do you hate them ? Don't lie to me, I can smell it."
...
Alley - "Yes."
Mary - "What about the world ? Do you ever ... hate the world ?"
Alley - "Ever since ... the world makes me fucking sick."
Mary - "Hmmm."
...
Alley - "So how do you plan on doing it ?"Mary - "Psychotically."
Alley - "There are cameras literally everywhere."
Mary - "Not on the roof."
Alley - "There are cameras on the roof."
Mary - "Not in the sewer outflow."
Alley - "Yes, there are. And that's really gross by the way."
Mary - "You have no idea."
Alley - "Well I do have one idea."
Mary - "Which is ?"
Alley - "I could just shut down the security system."
Mary - "That's way suspicious you're terrible at this. The security company would know. You have the money, I have the ideas, tomorrow you're rich and I bite you."
Alley - "Technically I'm already rich."
Mary - "No you're not you're technically a leech. They have the money, you access their accounts to go running around on dumbass islands all the time."
Alley - "You mean having fun. 'Enjoying life'. 'Such as it is'."
Mary - "This is fun ! Speaking of which I already know how to bypass your 'security system' ... ya fecking stray."
____
____
Alley - "Well I guess that'd work. So what do you need me for ?"
Mary - "Your money ! I let you live. I get money. And also his car, cause serious. And you, get teeth !"
Alley - "Which car."
Mary - "The one with the doors."
Alley - "Ah."
Alley - "And it's happening tonight. Any second thoughts yet ? Getting that 'dark feeling' in the pit because you're just now starting to grasp how very real it's all about to get ? I eat that shit."
...
Alley - "Can we go somewhere ? The sun really is making you a bitch."
Mary - "No it's not. I'm always a ... "
~ In an ice cream shop ~
Mary - "This is really good ice cream. So I really do want to know though. Are you okay with this ? Inside ? You'll be right there in the other room when the house starts burning."
Alley - "No. Not really. I mean I feel terrible. Like the worst feeling I've ever felt ... but ... you're right. I'm honestly just grateful to be alive, that I'll be alive ... but I don't want to be what I was."
Mary - "What was that ?"
...
Alley - "You know it's like they pick us from a catalogue. These men. The last one ... I barely knew him. The one you ... 'took care of' ... I guess he wasn't bad. Saw me in a magazine."
Mary - "Magazine ?"
Alley - "Yeah modelling it's ... like an easy way to make money, 'be independent' if you can navigate the hell of it and they like rich people's daughters, it gives them access. It's a little bit safer for us. When it is.
"And then the rich guys pretty much just ... pick us from the catalogue. Half the time just as cover for what they're actually into ... "
Mary - "I know all that but I like to hear you talk about it. Where you stand."
Alley - A laugh. "Where I stand ? My God I'm nothing to anyone now. Two fiances down, about to hear my parents' screams in the night, and everyone considers me so weak, no one will think for a second. They'd rather think me cursed !"
"But so many people hate them. For what you've got, they may blame terrorists over a pipeline. Mafia over their evidence files. Some random nut-job from the internet with a theory ... that's ... really smart."
Mary - "Not really. It's just fun. You'd be surprised how often that turns out to be the best plan."
Alley - " 'Fun' ... yeah I'm okay with this. Thank you for letting me live."
Mary - "Thank you for the shit ton of money. What about the teeth."
Alley - "Can I hold it optional ?"
Mary - "Like a booty call ?"
Alley - "Yeah. A lot like a booty call."
Mary - "Well you'll have to talk to the wife. I'm in love you know."
...
Alley - "I am ... wholly unconvinced."
Mary - "Her too. But I'm working on that. Pretty sure she'll be gone when she meets somebody sane."
Alley - "You really are just all over your sleeve, aren't you."
She leans back and opens her shirt a bit, cuts a line down her chest drawing blood and up with the finger to catch it. Then holds her wet finger across the table.
Mary - "My pheromones are addictive. That's why you feel the way you do."
...
Alley stares at the finger before taking it.
Mary - "It's not our blood that takes you, it's the venom in the fangs and they take time to grow. It's painful. Like wisdom teeth. Watching her drink from her finger, "While in your gums little poison sacks grow, filling with bacteria.
"Then when the virus takes over, the bacterium create the venom that carries it like enzymes in the stomach. Then it takes over your mind, your body, with only one wish, just like all viruses. To spread."
Alley - The last of it, "Is that what you want to do ?"
Mary - Drawling the drop of blood on Alley's lip across like a lipstick, working the edges. "Sometimes. Sometimes I think I can do good that way, and sometimes I think that's a thing I like to tell myself to excuse becoming just like your parents and mine."
Alley - "And what about his parents ?"
...