Stacy Baker was doing something she usually didn't do. Cleaning. But since firing their nanny, she had to pick up some of the slack around the house, and since she didn't have work today, this seemed like as good a time as any. She walked into her daughters bedroom to put away her clothes when she was hit with a rank smell that made her gag and recoil. She set the clothes down on the bed, then started walking around, opening the closet door and some dresser drawers, trying to find out what this smell was and where it was emanating from. She turned back around, facing the bed, and kicked a toy boat on the floor. Her daughter, Kelly, loved the model toy boats that she was given, the kind that were remote controlled and you could drive in water. Stacy bent down, picking it up and then pulled open the lid to the toybox so she could place it inside.

That's when she screamed.

                                                                            ***

Kelly looked up at her mother, seated beside her in the waiting room, and raised an eyebrow.

"Why are we here?" she asked.

"Because you need to talk to someone," Stacy replied, "and I don't want to get your father involved, so we're doing this now. He'll question the bill, but I'll just say it was a normal doctors visit."

"But why are we here? What did I do wrong?" Kelly asked.

"Because what was in your toybox," Stacy said quietly, almost as if she herself were afraid to acknowledge it. The door finally opened, and another mother and her teenage son came strolling out. As they headed past and exited the front door, the doctor looked at Stacy and Kelly and smiled politely.

"Mrs. Baker?" she asked, "I'm Anette Benning. I'll be meeting with you and your daughter today. Please, come inside, won't you?"

"Actually, I'd prefer it if we did this in parts. Perhaps you start with her and then meet with me?" Stacy asked, and Anette nodded.

"That can be done, certainly," she said, walking over to Kelly and kneeling in front of her, smiling as she said, "Hi Kelly, I'm Anette. I'm gonna be talking to you today, okay? Why don't you come inside my office and we'll talk and play a game, yeah?"

Kelly glanced at Anette, then at her mother, then climbed down from the seat and followed Anette into her office, the door shutting behind her. There was a small sandbox in the office, and Kelly immediately went to sit in it, while Anette gathered her tools - a pen, a pad of paper, her reading glasses - and then walked across the office to sit in her chair. As she looked down at Kelly, who was now busy burying something in the sand, she leaned forward and crossed her legs.

"So Kelly, your mother told me she wanted me to speak with you because she's concerned. She found something inside your toybox, something that shouldn't have been in there," Anette said, "Do you wanna talk about what that was? Maybe why it was there?"

Kelly shrugged and said, "It wasn't anything."

"It wasn't 'wasn't anything', Kelly. It really upset your mother. You don't want your mother to be upset, right?"

Kelly shook her head, her braids swinging.

"Right," Anette said, "So why would you keep that in your toybox?"

"Where else would I keep it?" Kelly asked, stopping her playing and looking up at Anette now, adding, "...that's where I keep things I like to play with."

She didn't admit it to anyone, but that made Anette's blood run cold, which was made all the more chilling by the fact that this statement came when Kelly was just a little girl.

                                                                            ***

Anette Benning was the premiere child psychologist of the area.

At this point in time, she was in her mid thirties, and she was still single, but mostly because she chose to be. She preferred to keep her focus on the children she wanted to help, instead of on herself. She was who all the upper class parents sent their trouble kids to, and she usually was capable of working wonders with them, but this wasn't the case for Kelly Baker. The thing is, she never stopped seeing Kelly, even after this incident, because she preferred to keep close tabs on her. Even now, as Kelly reached her upper teens, she was still meeting with Anette.

In fact, she was sitting in her office at this very moment, while Anette gathered her equipment for note taking. Kelly was sitting in a chair, chewing gum and looking at her makeup in her compact as Anette secretly turned on the recorder she'd used to tape every one of their sessions, and then turned and, smile on her face, walked to her own chair and sat down.

"So, how are you this week?" Anette asked.

"I'm...okay," Kelly said, "I don't know, it's been weird lately."

"How so?"

"Just...I keep feeling like people are trying to use me, use my family," Kelly said, "and frankly, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of having to protect everyone in my life. I'm sick of people taking advantage of us. Using us. I'm not even an adult yet, legally, and I still feel like I have to act like one all the time because society sucks so bad."

"I'm sorry," Anette said.

"I went a party recently," Kelly said, "and this girl, who I thought was kind of my friend, just wanted to use me to get closer to my dad, maybe get a modeling career out of him. I know it's selfish, considering his line of work in that he has to interact with these women - often times extremely young and attractive women - but...he's MY dad, you know? He's MY person. I don't know, I feel very very protective."

"As you have every right to," Anette said, "...have you had any incidents?"

Kelly cleared her throat and looked around the room, like she was avoiding the subject. Anette smiled warmly, cocking her head.

"Come on, doctor/client privilege, you know I can't tell anyone anything unless you're admitting to actively planning to hurt someone or yourself," she said, "think of me as a paid confessional."

Kelly chuckled a bit, then ran her hand through her hair and sighed.

"...I still stop and watch him," she said, "I mean, I stop by his house and watch him sometimes. He acts like he didn't do anything wrong, like he didn't...like he didn't take something from me. And I wanna scream and I wanna hurt him, but...but I was told 'oh, the justice system will take care of him, you let the justice system worry about that', and then what does the justice system do? Not deliver justice, that's for damn sure. He gets away with everything, like what happened to me doesn't matter, like my experience means less than his freedom."

Anette nodded, writing in her notebook.

"This is, unfortunately, the way it is with many women," Anette said, "Men are rarely held accountable for their actions."

"And then I see some news story about some woman who offed a man who was abusing her relentlessly, and I think to myself 'good for you, you had the guts to do what the justice system wouldn't', and I'm told that's wrong, I'm told it's wrong to congratulate a woman taking control of her life, her body, while he gets to walk away with no repercussions, as if what he did wasn't wrong."

"You have every right to be angry, I would never tell you otherwise," Anette said.

"And yet I...I don't know that I'd do anything to him, even if I was able to, or given the opportunity. If someone put us in a room together and said there'd be no legal repercussions for my actions towards him, I still don't know that I'd be able to do anything because he conditioned me to care about him. I almost feel like...like him hurting me was normal, but me hurting him is unacceptable. Like women are meant to endure pain and trauma, just part of our shared experience, our collective misery, while men are expected - and allowed - to dole it out but not receive it."

Anette nodded, and sighed. This was one of those times where she felt genuinely bad for Kelly. She could see here was a young woman hurting deeply, even with her seemingly psychotic tendencies, and for a brief moment in time, Anette was able to see through the mask Kelly wore, and see the damaged little girl underneath.

"...anyway," Kelly said, exhaling, dabbing at her eyes with her fingertips, "Uh, I don't really wanna dwell on that."

"Okay, we don't have to," Anette said, "a good week otherwise?"

"...I guess," Kelly said, shrugging.

"Kelly," Anette said, crossing her legs and resting her arms on them, "Uh...you mention about how if there were no legal repercussions, would you be able to do something to him, and I just have to ask, even if you knew you wouldn't get caught, would you?"

A long moment passed, and Kelly started to smile.

"I guess we'd have to reach that point for me to make that decision," she said.

And once again, as usual with her interactions with Kelly Baker, Anette's blood ran cold.

                                                                             ***

"She scares me," Anette said, pouring a drink for herself and her date before walking back to the couch and sitting down, handing Tati her drink before adding, "I mean, she's a child, like a literal child, and yet she terrifies me. I've never run across a kid like this."

"Well, you've only been doing this a handful of years so far, so let's wait another decade and then see who turns up," Tati said, sipping her drink as Anette laughed nervously.

"This was our first session," Anette said, "and I was almost certain by the end of it that she'd somehow have found a way to kill to me in my office without being considered the prime suspect. She's just so...disengaged? Is that the right word? Like, like she...ugh..."

Anette leaned forward and put her drink on the coffee table as Tati reached over and rubbed her back.

"Hey, it's okay," she said, "It must've been weird and frightening, but it's over."

"No, that's the thing, it isn't. I have to keep seeing her," Anette said, putting her face in her hands, adding, "I have to...I can't pawn her off on someone else. I have to make sure that she never falls off this tightrope. That's up to me, now. That's my responsibility because she was brought to me. If I passed on her, and something wound up happening, then I'd blame myself."

Tati crawled behind Anette and rubbed her shoulders, leaning in and kissing her neck.

"You need to relax," Tati said, "you need to calm down, take some deep breaths and remember...you are not responsible for everyone. You cannot save everyone. You can only hope to help some people. We are here to listen, not guide. The moment you guide, the moment you get that involved, that's when all bets are off."

Anette reached up and ran her hands into Tati's hair, smiling as she whispered, "just keep kissing me."

These days Anette was single, but back then she appreciated having Tati's company. She wasn't sure if she'd been able to handle things without it, quite frankly. Now, however, she had to go it alone, and go it alone she would. She would do what she promised. She would watch over Kelly Baker, and make sure she didn't fall off that tightrope. Only trouble was...

...she'd already fallen long ago.

                                                                               ***

Kelly was laying in bed reading, when her mother entered her bedroom. She smiled and sat down on the side of the bed, reaching over and stroking her daughters hair. Kelly looked over at her and smiled back, and for a moment, Stacy was almost able to forget about the last 48 hours.

"I'm proud of you," Stacy said, "You went and you talked and you did well. I'm proud of you."

"Did I do something wrong?" Kelly asked.

"No, no of course not, and that's the thing," Stacy said, sighing, "I just...I dealt with some things when I was your age, and I was worried you might deal with the same things. That's why I wanted to make sure you got help. To make sure you'd be okay. What's going on isn't your fault, it's my fault if anyone's, because I'm the one who passed it down to you. But I was able to get help, and I've been stable, and now if you're having the same problems, then we'll get you the right help too."

"...I didn't mean to scare you," Kelly said, her voice quivering.

"Oh baby girl, you didn't scare me," Stacy said, leaning in and hugging her daughter now, rubbing her back comfortingly as she said, "I mean, I was scared because I wasn't expecting it, but I know it wasn't intentional. It's okay. You're okay, okay?"

Kelly nodded, smiling. As her mother pulled away from her and shut her light off, the glow in the dark overhead stars now illuminating the room, she leaned back in and kissed Kelly on the forehead.

"Now go to sleep," she said, "You have school tomorrow."

"Goodnight mommy," Kelly said as Stacy exited the room, blowing her another kiss. The door shut behind her, Stacy turned and began heading down the hallway. She down to her and her husbands bedroom and walked inside. He wouldn't be home for another hour at least, and she'd have ample time to take a shower and cleanse herself of this day. As she climbed into the searing hot water coming out the shower head, Stacy couldn't help but feel like maybe things would be okay. Maybe she could nip this in the bud like her own mother had done with her.

But the thing is, and Stacy had no way of knowing this of course, what Stacy dealt with terrified her. Kelly wasn't scared by it. To Kelly, it was normal. Ordinary. Perfectly okay. Stacy, as a child, had been mortified by her actions, and had wanted desperately to get better. Kelly, as it would turn out, would go the complete opposite direction. She reveled in her sickness. She made it a part of herself, unashamed and unafraid. She found strength and comfort in the horrors she unleashed.

And it didn't help that, because she watched her parents succeed in a line of work that insisted everyone involved be a fraud, she learned to be a really good liar.

                                                                            ***

Stacy fell onto her butt, slowly backing away from the toybox, hand to her mouth, her eyes wide with fear.

After a moment of collecting her breath, she managed to crawl cautiously back up to the toybox and open the lid once more. She wanted to vomit at the sight. A beautiful dove, its wings cut off, its body covered in stab wounds, sat on top of an old quilt, keeping it from touching the other toys below it. And if it'd just been a dead dove, even a mutilated one at that, Stacy might've been able to handle it. But it wasn't the dove that terrified her. It was the fact that, surrounding the dove, almost in a perfect circle...

...were the corpses of all its children.

Jason had always wanted to be a teacher of some kind.

He wasn't just bit by the teaching bug, he was full on mauled by it, and by the time he was heading off to college, he had his future planned. He'd skipped a few grades - not something he was proud of, exactly, as it offset him from his peers - and soon he was a professor at the local community college, working his way up. He loved ethics. He loved teaching right from wrong. That was why being a parent was something that appealed to him so greatly; the chance to get to raise a child of his very own, and teach them right from wrong? It sounded like heaven. So where did things go so off the rails? When had his own ethics broken down? That was the question Jason was faced with now, as he laid on the bed, looking up at the ceiling of his new fancy apartment, an apartment a teenage girl was paying for, a teenage girl he was murdering people with.

Yes, when had ethics become so very easily ignored?

That was the difference between him and Kelly, however, was she never once questioned ethics. Right and wrong meant nothing to her. That wasn't to say Kelly didn't have much of a conscience, but she sure as shit didn't seem to care about the little conscience that she had. As she sat in front of her vanity mirror that very morning, brushing her hair and thinking about her plans for the day, the last thing to cross her mind would've been the ethics of her decisions. She was perfectly fine with being what the world considered "evil". After all, society's opinions of teenage girls were low enough as it was, she felt, so why not just kill people too?

                                                                          ***

"You here alone today?" Fawn asked as she stopped by Jason's table, where he was seated with his coffee and a small box of pastries.

"No, I'm waiting for someone," he said.

"You look better than usual," Fawn said.

"Do I normally not look good?"

"No you generally look like shit," Fawn replied, the both of them laughing.

"Yeah, well," Jason said, pushing his bangs from his eyes, "I've come into a bit of luck recently. Things have started to get better for me, which is nice. I'm even going to go bac to school soon, find a new career path. I think I have your coffee to thank for part of that."

"Oh really?" Fawn asked, "what makes you say that?"

"It really gets me going in the morning," he said, smirking at her, "Nothing helps you face the day like a decent cup of coffee."

Just then Kelly appeared by the table and slid into the booth across from Jason. Fawn smiled at her politely, then excused herself while Kelly looked at the box of pastries on the table and then looked at Jason, who just nodded at her, smiling warmly.

"Please," he said, "Breakfast is on me today."

Kelly smiled back, then opened the box lid and reached inside, pulling out a bear claw and biting into it, her braided pigtails swaying back and forth gently as she chewed. Jason lifted his coffee cup to his lips and sipped from it, neither one of them saying a word for a bit, instead just enjoying one anothers company. After she'd finished eating, she went back in and picked out a donut hole, popping it into her mouth and chewing.

"What's your plan for the day?" she asked.

"I was thinking of looking at college courses," Jason said, "Try and find something I might like to do. You got any ideas about what you might wanna do with yourself after high school?"

"Never really think about it," Kelly said, shrugging; she seemed off, distant and morose, which was unusual for her as she added, "Frankly, much to my parents chagrin, I'll likely not go to college. Opt for something else instead."

"Well, you're rich, so I guess you can do that at least," Jason said, "More luck to you in that regard."

"I'm not rich, my parents are rich. Just because I was born into wealth doesn't mean I accumulated it. There's an inherent difference there," Kelly said sternly, "I just take advantage of their success like some kind of tick, leeching off its host."

"Geez, alright, no need to get all emo on me," Jason said, which made her smirk a little.

"Sorry," she said, "I had a bad weekend."

She didn't elaborate on that, and Jason felt like it was weird to ask her to. Whatever was going on in her life, it was none of his business unless she decided to make him a part of her business moreso than she already had. But it was true, this had been a particularly rough week for Kelly Baker, and it all started with a girl named Amanda.

                                                                           ***

"I'm having a party tonight," Amanda said to Kelly last Friday night, sitting in study hall; Amanda waved her hand like it was nothing, adding, "it's okay if you don't wanna come, but I think everyone would like it if you did. You're Miss Popularity after all."

"Well, much as I appreciate the title and the adoration that comes with it, I'm not sure I'll be able to make it," Kelly said, "What time?"

"Around 8pm," Amanda said.

Kelly had always liked Amanda. Of the girls her age, Amanda was one of the few that didn't come off as bitchy for the sake of a personality. She had auburn hair and deep blue eyes and she knew how to dress well. Fashion was one of the things that had made the girls sort of friends, considering Kelly's fathers business and Kelly being a snappy dresser herself.

"I'll try and stop by for a bit," Kelly said, "I personally like to spend my Fridays alone, but it could be fun to come over and see what everyone's up to. But don't hold me to it, alright?"

Amanda nodded, grinning. She was just happy Kelly was even considering it, because she'd long since wanted to be better friends with her, but not for the reasons Kelly would've thought.

                                                                              ***

"So you started looking into some courses?" Kelly asked, sipping her own coffee now, still seated in the booth.

"I have, but I haven't really come across anything concrete just yet," Jason said, opening a pamphlet and spreading it out fully as he sighed; he continued, "I just...I don't know what else I wanna do. I like to teach. I guess I don't have to go back to the same stuff I was teaching, but I also doubt anyone would hire me to teach after what happened."

Kelly nodded. She looked around the cafe and sighed.

"I don't see any kind of future for me," she said, "People take advantage of me too much for me to trust them, except for you I guess, but even you're on a trial basis at the moment."

"Understandable," Jason chuckled.

"...I just wish I were capable of trusting people, but everytime I seem to open myself up, someone uses me. They come along and they take me for everything I'm worth, and it hurts, and it makes me feel like people aren't worth my time. Maybe I'm just not meant to be around as an adult. Maybe I'm one of those people who's only meant to exist for a predetermined amount of time, you know?"

"Hey, that's dark, come on," Jason said, looking up from the pamphlet now, chewing his lip, "don't say shit like that. You're an extremely bright person, you have charisma to spare, you'll find something you're good at and you'll succeed in spades at it."

The problem was, for Kelly, she'd already found the thing she was good at. She'd found it years ago. It just wasn't a viable career path. She sighed and put her coffee back to her lips, sipping again. As she felt the warm liquid go down her throat, she couldn't help but feel like she'd gotten in a rut, and she needed to get out of it, and quick. If only she had something to take her mind off things, like a social event. But not a party.

Not after last Friday.

                                                                             ***

Kelly did in fact show up to Amanda's party.

She was dressed in a tight black dress, her makeup flawless, bright crimson red heels. She looked fantastic, as she always did, and of course, when she entered the house, she turned heads. Not that this was anything surprising, she'd been turning heads since the time she was a child. Always the cutest kid, and eventually becoming an attractive young lady, she'd caught the attention of more men than she would prefer. And not even men her own age, sick to say. As she strolled through the party, heading to the kitchen, she couldn't help but feel out of place. As popular as Kelly was, she was also surprisingly introverted. She didn't mind socializing, but she also really hated having to be 'on' all the time. It exhausted her, and she found better uses for her energy. She stopped at the kitchen island and sunk her hand into a bowl of chips, slowly eating what she pulled out one by one until Amanda sidled up beside her.

"Glad you came!" Amanda said, touching Kelly's shoulder.

"Oh, yeah hi, well," Kelly said, chewing a chip, "I don't know, I didn't have anything else to do, so I figured I should make an appearance. Your house is beautiful, by the way."

"I mean, it's my parents house, but thanks," Amanda replied, making Kelly chuckle as they both turned and started walking back to the living room; Amanda began heading up the stairs, Kelly right behind her as Amanda said, "I wanna show you something, come with me."

"Alrighty," Kelly said.

As they walked up the flight of stairs to the second floor, passing hanging family photos on the wall by the steps, Kelly couldn't help but glance over at look. Amanda as a child, doing dance recitals and horseback lessons, Amanda and her family on vacation in various popular spots. Kelly smiled at these, because she rarely saw happy family photos it seemed. The girls reached the top of the stairs and headed to Amanda's bedroom, Kelly reaching out and touching the hallways beautiful floral wallpaper with her fingertips.

"So what is it you wanna show me?" Kelly asked as they entered Amanda's bedroom.

Amanda pulled open her closet and stepped inside.

"I'll be out in a second," she said through the door, "I just want your opinion on something."

"Well, I'm happy to help," Kelly said, seating herself on the side of the canopy bed, looking at the wall decor and thinking she should redo her own bedroom. After a few minutes, the closet door opened back up and Amanda walked out, in a beautiful swimsuit. She put her hands on her hips and did a little twirl, as Kelly tried to take in what she was seeing.

"What do you think of this bathing suit?" Amanda asked, "I bought it because I wanna be a swimsuit model this summer, and I thought it would look good on me, but you know your dad better than I do, obviously, so I figured you'd be the right one to tell me what he'd think."

Kelly dug her nails into the bedspread, her teeth gritting.

They always fucking wanted something from her father.

                                                                             ***

"People are scum," Kelly said, "They pretend they're not, especially when sizing up others, because they need that self esteem boost, but they are. Even if they don't wanna admit it, they are. Whatever it was you might've done, I guarantee they've done equally if not worse things. But we all have to put on a facade, pretend to be better than one another, more moral than eachother, so they never admit to their own sins."

"Jesus," Jason whispered.

"I say to hell with that, and go back to teaching. Sure, don't teach the same thing, do something different, but don't leave the field you love behind simply because of the opinion of others. Do whatever you want. Everyone else fucking does."

"Are you okay?" Jason asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"...like I said, I had a bad weekend," Kelly said softly.

                                                                           ***

"You...you want my opinion?" Kelly asked, now slowly standing up from the bed, "You want my unbiased opinion? Really? You sure you want that, you goddamned starfucker?"

Amanda's eyes widened in surprise. She certainly hadn't expected this sort of response, but Kelly was fed up with people using her to get to her father, and thus, his assets and connections to the modeling and fashion industry.

"I...I just thought..."

"You thought fucking wrong," Kelly said through her teeth as she approached Amanda, backing her into a corner, adding, "this was never about me, about our friendship, or even about this party. You just wanted to make me feel like we were friends, like I mattered somehow, so you could - like so many others - use my dad as a way to make headlines in the business. It's people like you that are making my life so goddamned difficult."

"I'm sorry, I just thought you'd know best and that maybe you-"

Kelly didn't wait for her to finish. She grabbed the pearl handle letter opener from the nearby desk and stood there, gripping it firmly in her fist as Amanda cowered to the floor in the corner of the room. Kelly wanted to hurt her. Kelly wanted to do even worse than hurt her. But...she couldn't. Strangers, or people loosely related to their lives, those were fine. But not someone she went to school with. Not someone people would notice she was around, and wonder what happened as a result. That was too close to home. Instead, Kelly knelt down and pressed the letter opener to Amanda's cheek, her voice lowered.

"Let me make this perfectly clear to you," Kelly said quietly, "if you ever come near me or my father again, for any reason whatsoever, you won't have a face worth modeling. And if you think you can go to someone, try and have me investigated for threats of violence, let me remind you just who my father is, how much money we have and how easy it would be to ruin your pathetic little life. So do yourself a favor, Amanda, and keep your stupid mouth shut, alright? Because, believe it or not, I don't wanna hurt you, but if it comes to it, I will have someone do just that. Understood?"

Amanda nodded slowly, her eyes watery.

"Good," Kelly said, standing upright again, putting the letter opener in her dress pocket and heading to the door. As she pulled it open she looked back at Amanda and smiled, saying, "For what it's worth, it's a nice swimsuit, and you look good in it. It emphasizes your figure perfectly."

And then she left.

                                                                            ***

"There's nothing you wanna do?" Jason asked, "I have all these different pamphlets for various colleges, and you're telling me that you have no interest in anything?"

"I like what I do already," Kelly said, smiling as she raised her coffee cup to her lips again and sipped, then saying softly, "and I'm sick of pretending I'm not."

Jason raised an eyebrow, but, unlike most of the people she'd come into contact with, he'd learned pretty quickly not to question Kelly Baker.

The front door to the apartment opened, letting in a nice breeze and the warm air. Kelly and Jason stood in the doorway for a moment, just taking it in, before walking inside, Kelly shutting the door behind them. Jason turned around, almost in awe, as he looked at every inch of the place. Kelly walked into the nearby kitchen area and admired the cabinets and their handles.

"This is...can you do this?" Jason asked.

"Don't worry about what I can and cannot do," Kelly said, smiling, "You can't stay in my dads love nest forever, nor should you be living in your car. I said I'd repay you handsomely for your help, and this is just a part of that."

Jason stopped, hands on his hips, nodding.

"This is....wonderful," he said, "Hell, this is better than the place I was living before everything in my life went to shit. Do your parents know you're-"

"They know what I want them to know," Kelly said, walking away from the kitchen and back into the living room, putting her hands on the walls and feeling the dried paint job, continuing, "but no, they are not aware that I've done this. My father gave my access to his bank account a few years ago, on the off chance I needed money to fix my car or for school related purchases. He has so much money he won't even notice some missing monthly."

"This feels wrong...I feel like I can't accept this," Jason said.

"Oh, you don't have a choice," Kelly replied, laughing, "I need to know where you are and you need a place to stay. This is what's best for both of us."

Jason couldn't really argue with someone giving him free room and board, especially fancy free room and board such as this in a high class apartment complex. God, he thought, he'd be able to do his laundry for the first time in weeks without having to beg for change first. He walked over to the deck door, pulled it open and stepped onto the balcony, looking out over the tenants sitting in the pool area. Maybe he'd go for a swim. He noticed Kelly walked up to the rail beside him and they glanced at one another.

"You got a swimsuit?" he asked, and she smirked.

                                                                           ***

What did it mean to be a good person? Well, that's the question. A question Jason Tulridge often struggled with. Standing in front of his class, he pulled his glasses off and sighed, rubbing his face.

"Morality isn't decided by your actions, but rather the decision to act upon those actions," he said, "To make the choice, not fulfill it, that's what decides your morality. Acting upon it is superfluous, you've already made the decision to do so and now you're just following through. It's making the decision at all that renders you moral or immoral. Contrary to popular belief in this field, there's no such thing as a grey area. You're either moral or you're not. Some are less moral than others, certainly, but there's no grey area. Your decisions define you and your morality."

He scratched the back of his head just as the bell rang, releasing the class of college students. Jason waved them all goodbye, and stood by his desk, organizing some papers for his next class in a few hours. He thought about going to get some coffee first, fuel back up for the remainder of the day, but before he could do that, he heard her voice behind him.

"The hypocrite in you is off the charts," Emily said, "you know that, right? To stand up here and preach about morality when you yourself are immoral."

Jason smirked and turned back around, looking into her eyes.

"I do know," he said, "That's why I'm working so hard to ensure you and your fellow classmates don't follow in my footsteps. Gotta pretend to be a good role model at least, right?"

Within minutes, Jason and Emily - his brightest student - were in his office, fucking on his desk. Jason knew it was wrong, even though she was of legal age at 21, because not only was he taking advantage of his position as her educator but also because he was married. And yet...he couldn't help himself. Emily had far more interest in him than his wife had had lately, not to mention how young and beautiful she was. Her amber hair and her chocolate brown eyes and her perfect skin, and her figure, god her figure, the kind of figure you only get between the ages of 16 and 23, without even having to try. He just couldn't resist. Men were sick creatures, he knew of that, he know of his genders immorality, and that he himself had fallen prey to it.

But when he had her bent over his table, pulling her hair, fucking her from behind, he didn't care about morality anymore. All he cared about was feeling good. He reached up and put a hand over her mouth so she wouldn't alert any other teachers in nearby offices with her wild moans. She grinned at this gesture, which only made him like her all the more.

Morality be damned. You only live once.

                                                                          ***

"What's it like to be spoiled rich and get everything you ever wanted from the youngest age imaginable?" Jason asked, treading water in the pool rim, looking up at Kelly as she sat in a lounge chair in her two piece with her sunhat and large sunglasses over her eyes.

"It's pretty great," she said, laughing, "people say money makes you a bad person, but I don't that's true. Money doesn't make you inherently evil. You're evil with or without the financial inclination. Some of us are just born bad, all there is to it. Money only helps further those ambitions."

"Certainly seems to help further yours," Jason said, making her laugh again.

"You're benefiting from it as well, don't forget," she said.

"How could I," he mumbled to himself, before asking, "So...got any work coming up?"

Kelly lowered her sunglasses ever so slightly, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you starting to enjoy what we do?" she asked, sounding surprised, "I may have something on the horizon, but I need some more time to figure things out. Can't go in half cocked. Always need to have everything planned to a tee before executing these sorts of plans."

"I get it," Jason said.

Jason swam away from the poolside and dunked under the water. When he came back up, he slicked his hair back and looked back towards Kelly, who was finishing putting sunscreen on her legs before picking up a book she'd brought with her and opening it, reading. Jason couldn't lie, at first this whole situation had seemed sickening and reprehensible, but now he couldn't imagine going back to his car. Money sure does change people, whether Kelly admitted it or not.

                                                                             ***

Lying in bed, Jason couldn't help but listen to his wife snore quietly. He rolled his head on his pillow to look at her, and could see the moonlight peaking in through the window dancing on across her face. Her eyelashes, they seemed to sparkle. He still loved her, so why was he doing what he was doing? He sighed, climbed out of bed and grabbed his cell phone off the table, walking into the living room. He dialed a number, and was surprised when she answered.

"What's up, it's really late," Emily said.

"I didn't wake you, did I?" Jason asked, sitting on the couch and speaking softly.

"Naw, I'm fine, I was up," Emily said, "Everything okay?"

"...can we meet somewhere?" Jason asked, "Not...not for anything, ya know, like that. Just to talk."

A pause, and then Emily said okay. They agreed to meet at an abandoned drive in nearby. They parked side by side and both laid on their cars respective hoods, looking up at the night sky overhead. Lying there with Emily, Jason felt so much more comfortable than he did lying in bed with his wife at home, and that only made him feel all the more sick.

"...maybe I'm wrong," Jason said, "Maybe morality doesn't matter. I mean, we all wind up dead and gone at the end of the day, so what really makes something right or wrong when we inevitably don't face consequences after a certain point?"

"You're looking at this far too broadly. Morality is a human creation, dictating how we define one another or ourselves. It has nothing to do with the afterlife or anything like that," Emily said, "some of may believe it does, believe that Heaven and God play a part, but it's not true. It's simply a way for us to gauge one another and thus judge ourselves against those who do things we either like or don't like so we can feel superior in our own decisions."

"I just...I refuse to believe that you can believe in morality but not partake in immoral things," Jason said, "So many religious people, for example, perform the most horrible atrocities. You can do both. You can believe and still do the opposite. I still don't believe there's that area of grey, but I also don't believe it's black and white."

"What do you believe then?" Emily asked, sitting up and looking at him.

"...I don't really know," Jason said, "All I know is that, for some reason, being moral hasn't made me feel like a better person, nor has it made me any happier by extension. Ethics are...they're just like laws or commandments. Shit we made up to try and control one another. There is no right and wrong because everyone has a different viewpoint. Okay, sure, there's right and wrong on the level of 'don't hurt others' like being racist, but like what we're doing...you're of legal age, so nobody is actually doing anything technically wrong here."

"I bet your wife would differ on that," Emily said, chuckling.

"Well, what she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?" Jason asked, the both of them laughing.

Emily crawled across the hood of the car and rested her head on his chest. He reached down and stroked her hair. It was nice, having someone understand him like this. His wife certainly didn't. But the thing is...that's what all men facing down the barrel of eventual middle age think. They think nobody understands them when in reality they aren't complex in the slightest, and everyone understands them all too well. They simply use that way of thinking to justify their actions.

If only he'd known then what she would do to his life, maybe it all could've been avoided.

                                                                                ***

Kelly pulled into the driveway and parked, stepping out of the car and heading up the walk to the front door. She loved coming home. She'd always loved coming home, because home was the only place she ever felt safe, like nothing could touch her there. As she entered the foyer, she didn't hear anyone, and just assumed that her mom and dad were still working, so she got herself a yogurt from the fridge, ate it while watching a reality show on mute and then finally headed upstairs to her bedroom.

She took her clothes off, got into the shower and bathed. Afterwards, now in her silk robe, she sat on her bed and thought about her situation with Jason. She had him wrapped around her little finger, and he knew it, which only made her feel better about it. She was glad to have an accomplice, because doing what she had been doing by herself had begun to get difficult. She put on some music and sat on the bed cross legged as she pulled a bottle of mint green nail polish from the bedside table and started doing her fingers.

Her phone rang and she put it on speaker.

"Hello?" she asked.

"It's me," Jason said, "Sorry to call, I just...I feel like I never properly thanked you for getting me this place and whatnot. Today was a nice much needed break from hell."

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," Kelly said, tossing her hair from her face as she continued to paint her nails, "but you know, I don't want you to think you're on easy street as a result. Sure, I'm giving you a place to live, but I do still want you to try and get on your own feet again while we do what we do, you understand?"

"Of course," Jason said, "Can't go back to what I was doing before, so I'll have to find a new line of work, but still, be good to get my life back on track in some capacity."

"Exactly," Kelly said, "My dad's always said that our future is our most valuable asset, and we need to prepare for it even if it's difficult."

"Your dad sounds like a smart man," Jason said, "Anyway I'll see you tomorrow, sleep good."

"You too, goodbye," Kelly said, hanging up, thinking about her father and her future. She hated parroting what her father had told her, mostly because she didn't believe it herself. She didn't see a future for herself. In all honesty, she didn't see much of a future at all. She sighed and kept on painting. When she was done, and her nails were dried, she laid on her back and looked up at the ceiling, at the pretty cloud in the dark stars her dad had helped her put up when she was a little girl. She reached over and pulled her stuffed bunny closer to her, squeezing it tightly.

She'd never been able to imagine a future. Even as a child, she'd never been able to think about herself growing up, and now that she was about grown up, she had trouble thinking about herself being even older. She didn't want to do anything with her life except hurt people, but unless you joined the military that wasn't a viable career choice. She sighed and shut her eyes. At least she had a friend in Jason. Maybe, she thought, if she could get Jasons life back on track, then she could feel a bit better about her own life eventually flaming out. At least perhaps one of them would get a chance at redemption. At good living. Because, as far as she was concerned, she never would.

For someone who acted so resilient, so in charge and decisive, underneath this facade, Kelly Baker was still just a child.

A very, very angry child.

The young man, in his early twenties, went outside to the mailbox and pulled it open. He reached inside and gathered what meager offerings it held, before shaking his head and heading back up the walkway to the front door, totally unaware of the teenage girl watching him from the car just a bit down the street. Kelly jotted something down in a notepad, then exhaled. She reached over, picked her coffee up from the cupholder and sipped it before starting the car again and pulling away.

The thing she'd noticed most while doing this was how little people realize their surroundings. They just go about their day to day business, never once bothering to take in what changes there might be or what differences - mundane or worrisome - might just show up nearby. It was like they were oblivious to such things. Kelly thought that was a terrible way to go through life, so completely unaware of what was happening just around you. This is why people vanish. Why they go missing. Why they get kidnapped. Because, to her at least, they were simply too stupid to prevent it otherwise since they just. never. looked. up.

                                                                             ***

Jason was sitting on the couch in the lovenest, eating breakfast he'd gone out and gotten from a nearby diner with some cash Kelly had left him when he heard the front door open. He heard the sound of her heels walking behind him, but he stayed focused on his scrambled eggs and hashbrowns and bacon, his eyes glued to the news on the television when suddenly a report caught his attention.

"We've just picked up this story about a young woman who had the worst celebration imaginable. In a freak turn of events while celebrating her college acceptance, one miss Lana Plummer caught a firecracker to the side of her face, resulting in the loss of her ear. In the trauma ward for a week, Plummer has since stated that she-"

Jason shut the TV off and leaned back on the couch. He knew exactly who the girl was, and exactly how she'd actually lost her ear. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair as he set his plate down on the little table to the side of the couch while Kelly pulled the fridge door open and pulled out some celery sticks and peanut butter. As she started to put the two together, humming to herself while spreading, Jason looked over at her.

"Don't you have school?" he asked.

"I go to a private school, Jason. They don't care about attendance so long as my father continues to writ them big fat yearly donation checks to keep their other wings open," Kelly said, "I should go, yes, but I had something to do today."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"Keep an eye on someone," she said, biting into one of the sticks and chewing for a moment. Once she was finished she continued, "now get your shoes on, I have something for us to do."

He hated hearing those words.

                                                                               ***

"So who is she?" Jason asked, pulling the binoculars down from his eyes and handing them back to Kelly.

They were sitting on a park bench, watching a somewhat older heavyset woman play with two little boys on the nearby playground. Kelly shifted, crossing her legs and tossing her hair.

"I'd think the less you know the easier it'd be to get this stuff done, wouldn't you agree?"

"Hey, if I'm gonna do this, I need to know they deserve it," Jason said, "I'm not gonna just do this because you tell me to. There's need to be some common ground here to alleviate my guilt, alright?"

"Okay, fair enough. Her name is Shauna. She was my nanny growing up," Kelly said, "She was a very good nanny. She helped me with homework, she took me to therapy, she did my laundry and cooked dinner for me. This was back when my folks were working a ton, which they don't do so much now. The workload has kinda evened out. Anyway, she was excellent at her job."

"So...why doe she deserve grievous bodily harm done unto her?" Jason asked, raising a brow.

Kelly paused. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, then she turned and looked Jason square in the face.

"Because one night, when asking for a pay raise, she told my mother how bad she was at being a mom. How she was never around. How she didn't seem to care that she had a child she should look after. That's never sat well with me," Kelly said, "Then, a week later, she left and never came back. Never said goodbye, never explained her absence. She was just gone. That stung. I don't like being abandoned."

Jason was starting to see that she happened to be targeting people who'd specifically done her parents an injustice, and thusly by extension, herself. This wasn't as random as he'd been led to believe. There appeared to be some sort of method to her madness. He leaned back against the bench and took a bite from the pretzels they'd bought at the cart in the park, chewing.

"So," he asked, "how we doing this?"

Kelly smirked. It was nice working with someone so easily pliable.

                                                                               ***

Shauna Myers was exhausted.

She'd just spent hours watching over two little boys, ages 5 and 7, and all she wanted to do now was to get home, kick her shoes off, drink wine and watch TV. As she pulled into her driveway and parked, she didn't even notice the random car parked down the street, as nobody ever seems to. She got out of her car, gathered her bags and headed into her house, while Kelly and Jason watched from the car. Kelly pulled on her leather gloves and adjusted them as Jason prepared his little toolkit Kelly had put together for him, consisting of a pair of pliers, a screwdriver, and various other tools and instruments.

"They never notice," Kelly said.

"What?" Jason asked.

"Nobody ever notices when things change around them," Kelly said, "They go about their lives, never once blinking an eye to, say, a random car parked on their street that's never been there before. They simply don't question things, because questioning things makes them paranoid and let's face it life is stressful enough without that added issue. So they go about their lives, not noticing people who may be watching them, then acting shocked when they're suddenly abducted seemingly out of the blue."

"...you're not wrong, and that's what's sick. I did the same thing. I went through my day to day life, never once looking up and seeing the cracks slowly forming in the facade," Jason said, "I just...one day everything was different, and suddenly I didn't have the life I used to have. The life I took for granted."

"At least you're aware of it."

"Yeah, only after the fact."

"That's still more in tune than most people will ever be," Kelly said, reaching into the backseat and pulling a small bag to her lap, adding, "By the way, I picked us up some masks. This way it'll be harder to identify us, if some sort of accident occurs where we get sloppy."

She pulled out two plastic masks, one fox and one rabbit, and she looked at them, smiling.

"Got a preference?" she asked, and Jason shrugged.

"I guess I like the rabbit," he said, "When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time on my grandparents ranch, and they had a rabbit hutch. I was always partial to bunnies. Never got to have one as a pet, but I got to spend a lot of time with them there, so that kinda made up for it."

Kelly nodded, then handed him the rabbit mask, which he pulled on over his face. Kelly did the same with the fox mask, and then they looked at one another. She took a deep breath, then snapped her fingers and away they went. They went around the side of the house, finding the side door leading from the garden into the kitchen unlocked, and Kelly twisted the knob slowly and quietly. The door slowly swung open, and they crept inside, but Shauna was nowhere to be seen. They could hear water running, and Kelly assumed she was in the shower.

"Perfect," Kelly whispered as she and Jason entered into the living room. They could hear the shower running down the hall, and Kelly leaned against the wall, sighing. Jason stopped and looked at the photos on the wall. Shauna and her parents, Shauna as a child on vacation, and then one photo stopped him in his tracks. He pulled it off the wall and walked to Kelly with it.

"Look," he said softly.

"What?" she asked, taking the frame in her hands and examining the image, "...so she kept a photo of us together, so what?"

"So she clearly felt bad about leaving," Jason said, "I don't think she deserves this."

"That doesn't mean shit. Like you said, it only alleviates her own guilt. She let me live with abandonment for years. She made my mother feel like shit. She doesn't deserve to get to live in peace just because she kept a photo for herself while I had to go to therapy to deal with being left behind," Kelly said, almost snarling.

Jason sighed and placed the frame back on the wall, just as the shower water turned off and they heard the bathroom door open. Shauna came out, in a robe, and walked into the living room. She stopped and looked at the frame hung slightly askew on the wall and furrowed her brow. Had that been that way for a long time and she simply hadn't noticed? She didn't even hear Jason come up behind her, choking her out.

When Shauna Myers came to, she found she was sitting tied to a chair. She looked around, but it was dark. She couldn't make heads or tails of her immediate surroundings, at least not until the light flickered on. That was when she realized she was in, what appeared to be, a cellar. She saw the two people standing nearby - one in a fox mask, the other a rabbit mask - and she started to feel like she was in a nightmare of some kind. After a moment or two, the fox masked person approached Shauna and pulled the rag from around her mouth and then stepped back.

"What's going on?" Shauna asked.

"Your entire career is based around watching over children," Kelly said, her piercing eyes looking out through the mask eyeholes as she added, "and yet you let some children live with believing they weren't good enough to keep you around. What do you think that does to a childs self esteem?"

Shauna's eyes widened, shocked at this question. Who was she dealing with? What even was going on?

"I...uh...what?" Shauna asked as Kelly pulled a stool across the floor, the wooden legs scraping against the dirt and concrete, and then sat in front of Shauna, mask still over her face.

"How do you deal with knowing that a child thinks less of themself because you left, when your entire job was to be there for them?" Kelly asked, "Children already are so fragile, they're already so...so very scared of the world. Confused by the actions of the adults that surround them, and yet...here you are...just leaving without a word."

"Sometimes it isn't my choice," Shauna said, "Sometimes the parents require me to leave without saying anything to avoid a scene, or because they think the child is becoming more attached to me than the mother. If it were up to me, I'd never leave without saying goodbye."

Jason started to pace in the back of the cellar, unraveling his toolkit onto a table and scanning the items available to him. Kelly snapped her fingers and then held up her index, indicating she wanted a number one. Jason nodded, pulling a pair of pliers from the belt and walking it over to her. He put it in her hands, and she thanked him, then turned back to Shauna as she put the pliers up to her nails.

"For what it's worth, you're a good nanny," Kelly said, pressing the nail between the ends of the pliers before adding, "but you're never better than a mother" and then tearing the nail from Shauna's hand, making her scream.

                                                                             ***

Shauna Myers was left in the cellar until she passed out from the pain, and then they left her on the side of a usually busy road so she'd be found by someone. After dumping her, Jason and Kelly went to get dinner at a little bar and grill. Sitting in the bar and grill, sharing a large chicken salad between them, Jason couldn't help but feel sick. He still wasn't adjusted to this line of work, no matter what he'd told himself. After a little bit, he looked up across the table at Kelly, who smiled at him and cocked her head to the side.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"How do you do it?" he asked, "How do you stand doing something so despicable?"

"I don't think about it," Kelly said, "Everyone has their price, and everyone is capable of doing horrible things, even if they think they aren't. But when pushed against a wall or into a corner, everyone goes down fighting. I just am better at ignoring my actions than most."

"I feel awful," Jason said quietly and Kelly sighed.

"I'm sorry, I know it's hard to get used to, but you will eventually, trust me," Kelly said, "David said the same thing."

Jason just raised an eyebrow, then ignored it, stabbing another piece of chicken and eating it. He chewed for a bit, swallowed and then took a very long drink from his root beer before looking back at Kelly.

"I can't stay in the love nest forever," he said, "I mean, I'd love to, it's wonderful, but eventually your dad's gonna show up and I don't wanna be squatting when that happens."

"I'm already working on that," Kelly said, "and we'll deal with it this week, but for right now I don't wanna talk about things. I just wanna eat. This really builds up an appetite."

Jason nodded, picked his fork back up and continued eating, even though all he could see when he shut his eyes was Shauna screaming as he nails were pulled, one by one, off her fingers. That was a sight he wouldn't soon forget. After Kelly took Jason back to the love nest, she went home and headed upstairs to find her mom in bed. As she entered the room, her mother looked up, setting her book down in her lap.

"Hi sweetheart," her mother, Stacy, said.

"Hi mom," Kelly said as she climbed into the bed and snuggled up to her mothers side.

Stacy stroked her daughters hair and then kissed the side of her head.

"How was your day?" Stacy asked.

"...pretty good," Kelly replied, smiling.