Smoke.

Esme's bony fingers gripped the tip of her cigarette, her thin arms perched on the railing with her hand resting lazily in the suspended air. She knew the harms of smoking, but she was too deep in her habit to care.

She took her final puff, allowing her body to feel a final moment of relief, before exhaling the smoke out of her system. The fall breeze blew the smoke into the rising sun, and Esme felt at peace as she headed back inside her apartment to shower the scent off her hair and skin.

Esme cracked a small window open in her bathroom, leaving a sliver ajar to reveal herself to the world. She wasn't sure how long she stood motionless in her bathtub, but she silently thanked herself for cracking the window. If she didn't, then she most likely would've suffocated in the hot steam.

She wrapped her towel around herself and stepped out of the shower once the water turned cold. Her wet feet smeared across the hardwood floor across her small apartment all the way to her bedroom, where she sat unwrapped on her bed.

Esme contemplated whether or not she should call in sick, and immediately decided against it. She needed to pay for rent, she wasn't going to end up homeless again.

The thought made a shiver run down her spine, through her bones and her chemical makeup. All those cold nights of sleeping on a park bench, under large pieces of other people's trash, desperately fogging her hands together to keep warm.

The humiliation of walking up and down the street pavement with an old tin can, begging strangers for money, food, clothing, anything to survive.

No. Anything but that life.

If she was going to kill people for a living, guilty or innocent, then so be it. The reality of her world was unkind to those who needed it most, replacing the considered bad and the ugly with masked robots to lead.

Later that morning, Esme greeted the bus driver with a simple head nod before finding a seat at the back of the vehicle. A small black backpack was strapped onto her shoulders, carrying only the essentials: Her morning coffee, gum, her cell phone, wallet, a lighter, a stack of paperwork concerning this week's kill list, and a pack of cigarettes.

She sat alone, the only other person on the bus was the driver. Esme closed her eyes in the comfortable silence, the only noise she could hear was the hum of the engine and the faint sound of the bus exhaust releasing into the polluted Detroit air.

Unrealizing she had dozed off, Esme opened her eyes to four more passengers scattered around the bus. She violently jerked her head out the window, checking her surroundings just to make sure she didn't miss her stop. Fortunately, she could still see her apartment building right before the bus turned the corner and the only thing left visible was the shadow of her home as the bus drove further away.

It was a nice day outside, not too hot, not too cold. The sun was masked by a thin blanket of stratus clouds with a few lint balls of cumulus clouds scattered across the sky.

Esme caught a glimpse of her reflection in the window. She never paid attention to her looks, she was always bored with her appearance. Her chestnut colored wavy locks of hair usually tangled past her shoulders and down her back, but she always wore it in a tight ponytail for work. Her gray eyes almost never showed any expression, always shady, jaded, bored. She had a long thin neck that supported her heart-shaped face, with thick messy eyebrows. Her natural skin was a light tan, coming from both a mixed Hispanic and Caucasian descent.

She blankly rolled her eyes at her reflection. She only reminded herself of a younger version of her mother. She couldn't bring herself to think about her, or anybody of her past.

The last thing she wants is to open that hole again.

Esme spent her day in the lab, testing new chemical murder potions on lab rats. Working and creating a new formula for a more efficient death.

The double doors opened, revealing the fluorescent hallway light to brighten up her laboratory. Up to this point, she was alone in the room. The only other voice was her faint conscience to guide her find solutions to her problematic equations.

A man strode in, his long legs gliding smoothly with every movement. Esme quickly glanced at him before flickering back to her work, ignoring the man as he sat on the table intimately close to her. She could smell his cologne radiating off his pores as if they were escaping like water in a strainer.

It was the first time she used her voice today. "I'm busy, Mr. Peters."

Her voice almost seemed foreign to her. She chose not to speak, the more she spoke then the more she has a chance for someone to get close to her. The better chance someone else could break through her barriers that she tried so hard to rebuild for her own protection.

"I haven't said anything yet." His husky voice was light and playful. "And I told you, call me Nolan."

She glared at him, unwilling to make eye contact, yet determined to avoid his antics. He only had one dimple when he smiled, his wavy mousy falling into his chocolate flavored brown eyes. "Everyday I tell you no, when will you get the message? I'm not interested."

He leaned in so close that Esme could smell the mixture of his cologne and minty fresh breath, she grimaced at the scent. "Persistence lets you know that I'm not willing to give up asking you out."

Esme continued back to her work, her eyebrows furrowed together as she furiously erased the entire equation. "Persistence also tells women that you're a creepier version of a gorilla that has nothing better to do with their spare time than trying to Google pick-up lines and testing them on people who don't actually give a shit. Take piano lessons for a change."

Nolan grinned, "Babe. If you were words on a page, you would be fine print."

"Out of 100,000 sperm, how were you the fastest? Go ahead and fuck yourself, but that would be an extremely cruel punishment."

Esme's pencil raced across her paper as she spoke. She didn't dare look at him, she wouldn't give him that satisfaction. She desperately wanted to smoke, to let her building anger vaporize through the tips of her fingers. "The door is that way, it's in your best interest that you leave now."

Nolan jumped up and smoothed out his suit. He leaned over Esme with a muscular arm draping over her shoulders, casting a shadow on her small figure. She looked down to the shiny glint of metal on his ring finger and instantly felt disgusted with the two of them. "What would you do if I didn't?"

Esme had enough of his games. She jerked up from her seat to meet his gaze, his face was so close that the slightest movement would result in a kiss. She pointed her pencil to barely touch his neck, gripping the wood so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"If you don't leave me alone, I will lose my shit. I told you, I'm working."

He raised his hands in submission, and slowly backed away from Esme. She let her hand drop and awkwardly hang before finding its way into her pocket. She played with the eraser, rubbing the shavings off with each foot of distance he created between them. "I'll see you later."

And she was alone.

天使

It was nearly midnight when she left the laboratory. Esme silently cursed herself for overworking once again. She clutched her backpack straps tightly as she stepped into the night.

It was a cool night, the clouds from that morning were replaced with the moon. It shone right above Esme, casting a glow above Detroit. Esme sped her pace to a slow trot, she needed to get back to her apartment fast for an early day tomorrow.

She turned the corner and trotted into a small forest. She tightened her grip on her backpack as she faded deeper into the night. The ground was slightly damp, which made it harder to run, she was more prone to slip and fall if she tricked her footing. The trees cast shadows and made it darker, and with each inch she advanced, the less she was able to see.

Esme stopped dead in her tracks when she heard a faint sound nearby behind her. She was either paranoid or extremely alert to her surroundings. The darkness of the forest made her blind, but a blind person has a superior sense of sound and is keen to all her other senses.

Slowly, she began to walk. The darkness of the night made her uneasy, and she was regretting her decision in taking a shortcut home. If she tried hard enough, she could hear the sound of other footsteps. She felt her heart beating rapidly in her chest, and her breathing rate quickly increased until she was panting.

She felt something hit the back of her neck, it was a quick and sharp pain. Almost like a pointy rock was thrown at her, but she brushed it off and passed it as a raindrop falling from a tree branch. Even though she was walking, her legs felt as though they were about to give out under her.

She leaned back on a tree to catch her breath, attempting to regain her composure. She covered her chest with her bare hands like she was closing off the gateway to her heart, when in reality she was waiting for her heartbeat to turn to normal. There was no way to call anybody to pick her up, there was no reception this deep in the forest and her phone died right before she left the lab. Her knees shook, at the same time she heard another sound closer this time.

The sound of an unmistakable tree twig breaking rang through her ears right behind her. Esme looked around her surroundings, she knew she was being followed, and her throat tightened as her heartbeat started racing even faster than before. She sucked in her breath and held it in her smoky lungs as long as she could, but she was afraid her heart was beating too loud to give her away.

Esme felt as though time was slowing down, but she felt the hand cover her mouth in a second and dropped her backpack. She struggled for something, anything to hold against the person. The hand was ice cold, no traces of warm human blood and slightly hairy knuckles tickled her nose. She bit down on his finger, hoping to hurt him enough for him to let go, but her teeth almost cracked as she gnawed on something hard and metallic.

She felt him open her mouth and force something down her throat, it tasted bitter and the faintest scent of cologne filled her senses. The effects of the drug acted immediately, and she could feel herself limping away from light. She was woozy, and her head wavered back and forth, and then nothing.

天使