The last thing Ashley wanted to do tonight, or any fucking night for that matter, was talk about her least favorite person.

  What was with Lynn? Ever since she moved out, every time they met each other she had to bring up that guy.

  Even when the conversations were about Mom. Her sister always found a way to make it about that piece of shit Harv.

  Ashley parked her motorcycle at her next stop, before signing and shaking her head. “One day you’ll learn, sis.” She got off her ride and headed into the store she had arrived at.

  One of the employees, who seemed to be the only one there, was looking at a clipboard she had in her hands.

  “Alright,” The woman said with a smile. “That takes care of just about everything. Time to close up.”

  “Not everything,” Ashley spoke up with her signature grin. “You’ve still got one more customer.”

  The woman turned to Ashley, a frown on her face. Her brown hair was long and her eyes were blue. She wore a blue leather jacket that matched her eyes, underneath was a black low v-neck shirt with an emerald J necklace, and blue jeans. “…What are you doing here?”

  “You work at a store and don’t know what a customer is?” Ashley gave a playful sigh as she shook her head. She wrapped an arm around the woman. “You’re lucky I like helping people,” she said in a teasing voice. “You see, sweet Journi, a customer is a person who buys things that they want or need.”

  Journi slapped Ashley’s arm off, her look now an annoyed glare. “Ha ha,” she replied dryly. “Well, I don’t know if you heard me, but I was just about to close up. You’ll have to come back some other time.”

  “Come on, Journ,” Ashley said. “You know what I came to get. I won’t be long.”

  Journi crossed her arms, her look not changing. “I’m sure you won’t be.”

  “See? Even you agree with me,” Ashley chuckled.

  “Maybe you’re the one who doesn’t understand how certain things work,” Journi sighed, “Ever heard of sarcasm?”

  “Sure have!” Ashley laughed, walking past Journi. “I wouldn’t do it again if I were you. You’re kinda bad at it.”

  “Hey!” Journi replied, offended. “I’m not-hey wait a minute!” She went after Ashley. “What are you doing?! I just told you we’re closing!”

  “And I just told you I won’t be long,” Ashley said, putting her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “See? I can tell people things too, Journ.”

  “Stop calling me Journ! It’s Journi!” Journi said. “And that’s not how that works!”

  Ashley walks around and grabs the few items that she came from, ignoring the protests of the woman behind her. Once she got the last hint, she turned to Journi. “So we doing this or what?”

  “Oh my god, you’re unbelievable!” Journi exclaimed at the woman in front of her.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “Yeah you’re right,” Ashley walked past her again, heading for the counter. “It really is unbelievable how I can be so effortless good at being your best customer and being the best in general.”

  Journi groaned, once again following after her. She got to the other side of the counter and started scanning the stuff Ashley for.

  Ashley’s hands were in her pockets again as she just looked at Journi. “….Journi? Can we stop this? You know, whatever the hell this is?”

  The question made Journi freeze for a moment. Then, slowly, her eyes looked at Ashley. “….Stop this? Stop what, Ashley?!”

  “Don’t give me that bullshit, Sweet!” Ashley snapped. “You know exactly what I’m talking about!”

  “You mean how my friend, my best friend, who I loved, turned out to be a complete psycho?!” Journi said. “And the fact that I’d like to distance myself from all that?!”

  “For fucks sake, Journi!” Ashley pounded her fist on the counter. She realized what she did and took a couple of deep breaths. “Look… I just miss you, okay?”

  “You see me a lot,” Journi remarked dryly.

  “I mean miss having you as a friend!” Ashley said. “This whole not friends thing we got going on is crazy!”

  Journi’s eye twitched a bit. “No Ashley… you’re crazy.”

  Ashley just looked at her in disbelief. She didn’t get it. Journi was always so caring and understanding. She was the one who was always there for her friends when she needed her. But for some reason, when it came to Ashley herself, that all changed.

  The reaper woman scoffed. “I may be crazy… but at least I’m not a fucking idiot who will end up breaking her back trying to defend the wrong people.”

  “Oh, so I’m an idiot now?” Journi glared as she crossed her arms. “Why? Because I care about the people that you chose to hurt?”

  “How could you even defend them?” Ashley asked. “Do you even know what they’re capable of? Someone had to do something before they got to power to put more people like me down! And you know what? You being so defensive of them makes you one of the biggest fucking sickos I’ve ever laid eyes on!”

  Journi’s mouth went agape. The last part of that the woman in front of her said hit and it hit her hard. She just gave Ashley a sharp look and finished scanning her stuff.

  Ashley looked at this. “Journi…”

  The only response she got was Journi telling her the cost of her stuff. Ashley sighed before taking out her wallet, pulling the money, and handing it to Journi.

  “Here,” Journi said, giving Ashley her change back. “Now please, for the love of god, get the fuck out of this store. And could you do me a favor? Don’t come back.”

  Ashley gave a small growl. “You know? Maybe I won’t.” She stormed out of the store after picking up her stuff. She practically slapped the stuff down when she got outside and let out a loud, “Fuck!”

  “I’m not sure you’d be allowed to do that here,” A voice said with a chuckle.

  Once she heard the voice, Ashley’s eyes looked over the area. It was dark so she couldn’t see anything.

  “If you’re looking for a fight, you picked the wrong one,” Ashley said, taking out her scythe. “Looking to prove yourself against the best? You caught me on at a very bad time.”

  “Ooh, I was wrong!” The voice giggled. “The scythe is even cooler in person!”

  “Get the fuck out here,” Ashley said. “Don’t make me find you in the dark. That’s the last thing you want.”

  Hysterical laughter would come from the voice in the shadows. “Relax, I’m not here to fight. Though that would be fun.”

  “Fun, huh?” Ashley smirked. “Then why don’t you try it?”

  Silence followed for the next few moments. Ashley narrowed her eyes, but before she could say something, something came out of the darkness at her.

  It was some kind of big tongue. Ashley quickly teleported before it could hit her.

  “The hell’s going on here?!” Ashley demanded.

  “Oh nothing,” The owner of the voice finally came out of the shadows. “Just showed you my tongue. No big deal.”

  Ashely couldn’t believe what she was looking at. Standing before her was a pale clown woman. She had long green hair. Her eyes were pink. She wore a red hooded jacket over what looked to be a combination of another jacket and a clown costume. The clown costume jacket was white with some pink on it. There was also pink on her black pants. Her most notable feature was her pointy ears.

  Ashley held her scythe over her shoulder as she looked unamused. “I didn’t know the circus was in town. Not every day Grise Park gets one of those.”

  “Oh wow, sure haven’t heard that one before,” The clown woman giggled, despite her response dripping with sarcasm.

  “What do you want?” Ashley asked dryly.

  “Hey!” The clown pouted. “Don’t be rude to me just because your friend was rude to you.” She giggled again. “Not not fault you’re a psycho.”

  “….What’s with the pointy ears,” Ashley said.

  “Can’t you tell?” The clown grinned. “I’m an elf!”

  “Ah, I’ve only seen like two of those before,” Ashley replied. “Though they were bigger and uglier.”

  “Lucky for you, I’m not either of those things,” The elf responded with a wink. “Name’s Reese. Reese Fraves.”

  “Not a bad name I’ll give you that,” Ashley said, “So what the hell do you want from me, Reese?”

  “Well, Ashley Rills,” Reese started, putting her hands in her pockets and beginning to walk in circles around Ashley. “There’s this fun event coming up tomorrow night. Nothing a norm would know anything about. It’s for us… unusual folk I guess you would say.”

  Ashley raised an eyebrow. “What kind are event are we talking?”

  Reese reached into her jacket and pulled out an invite and handed it to Ashley.

  “You like to fight all kinds of creatures, right?” Reese asked. “And I’m guessing you think fight clubs are pretty cool, right?”

  Ashley looked at the invite. It was a fight club where the participants would fight with a partner and take on all kinds of other creatures.

  Reese smirked. “How would you like to be my partner?”