Oᴄᴛᴏʙᴇʀ 6. 2024
"I'm not going to comment on how you haven't been answering my calls for the past few days. I know what I'm going to do with the old man now." Alessia tells Katya in a breath and Katya decides not to comment on her absence either.
"Does it involve a bullet in his skull?"
"What? No! I'm not killing anyone anymore. I'm done with that." She hisses, rolling her eyes up at the ceiling of her bathroom. "I've been doing that for far too long now, with no right of determining whether someone gets to live or die."
Katya frowns deeply, staring at her toes in her own bathroom and taken aback by the sudden change in her friend who didn't care about that before. "What about the victims of abuse and all those other innocent people getting hurt by others?"
"Don't try to confuse me. We both know it's a mix and a reason isn't always there when we get a call." She spits with disdain. "Have you ever thought of the innocent people who're just making a living and gets doxxed by someone who's jealous of their success? I'd just go through with the job, having no idea as to what that person did or if they even did anything, 'cause that's how we were trained."
Kat is shocked into silence. What her friend said is pretty deep. She would have never expected to hear something like this from the Phantom. It was a given that Alessia was nonchalant to the point of being called a psychopathic killer. Who knew that her feelings ran this deep? Still, she doesn't agree that Petro should live? He has a debt based on the amount of lives he has ruined and is in the process of ruining, and to Kat, that should only be paid by taking his own.
"I understand," she breathes, clenching her jaw, "but leaving Petro out there is unacceptable. He deserves to die a gruesome death."
A pregnant pause flows through the line and the sound of running water becomes an intermission.
"Lexy...?"
"I know this might come off as selfish, but for my wellbeing, I have to be." Alessia states, thinking about the time Ryan died and Phillipeño comforted her. She compares it to Phillípe telling her to her face that she's sad. "I have my plans already on how to deal with Petro. However, whatever happens to him after that isn't my concern." Katya takes that as her way of saying she can do what she wants afterwards. "You have your plans, I have mine, and they're contradicting, but it shouldn't matter as long as I complete my part in ending this game..."
"Babe?"
Kat looks up with teary eyes at Alan who's standing in the bathroom doorway. He comes in groggily to hug her around her waist, having heard their whole conversation because he couldn't go back to sleep. Why does it sound like Lexy's about to lose herself? What is she planning? It's hard to think about as a friend, and as an assassin, she knows she'll have to play her part no matter what it takes.
"Be careful, Katya." Alessia sighs tiredly.
And, Alan rubs his girlfriend's back comforting, staring blankly at the strained words that comes from the phone.
"Y-you too, take care." Kat says shakily, unable to hold back her sobs anymore.
This is too unfamiliar and she doesn't like it. Alessia isn't supposed to be this way. She is worried and the white-haired girl notices.
She smiles a bit and chuckles, "Don't worry about me, Kat. It's not like I'm going to commit die or anything." She hears a failed giggle from the other line and continues, "It's just tiring to stand strong all the time, you know? I need to sit down. I'm tired and I'd like some peace."
"You really do." Katya cries. "You've always been a pillar, but pillars need maintenance too."
They both know that this'll probably be the last call they share, in a while.
"Just don't disappear on me..."
A faint laugh comes from Alessia's side as she says, "You'll definitely know where to find me. I don't even need to promise. Anyway, it's quite late and you need your beauty sleep."
Kat sniffles, but makes no comment on the riddles her friend just spewed. If she says she'll know where to find her, then that means she'll know. She'll just have to take her words for it.
"What about you? You need your beauty sleep too!"
"Girl," Lexy smirks over the phone, "I'm the Phantom."
So what?! "And, your point is--?!" A bip sounds in her ear, to which Katya pulls the phone away to look at it. 'Call Ended' is in bold, white font, making her gasp. "She hung up on me!" She sneers in disbelief, then turns her face up to Alan's, whining, "She hung up on me..."
Trying not to laugh at the look on her face, he hugs her to his chest, rubbing her back again. "Aww, what to do, babe? Let's go to bed, okay?"