The Art District starts booming, filled with customers in the late afternoon. Tourists chatting among them in restaurants. Carolyn walks down the street to the district, passing the restaurants. She breathes.
"Son of a bitch!" Carolyn thought. "Stavros and his shit— pisses me the fuck OFF"
A lady with poofy blonde hair and a really long red tail walked out of the restaurant.
"Mayor Goodman?" The lady said. Carolyn looked at her, silently pissed.
"Would you like to come in for lunch?" She continues. Carolyn breathes and calms down.
"Yeah. That would sound good right now. I'm starving."
"Right this way!" She opens the door, letting Carolyn in. Carolyn walks into the restaurant. The lady grabs a menu with her long dragon tail. The restaurant was quiet. The decor looks more authentically Mexican, filled with Mexico's culture in one sitting. The hanging flower decor, the paintings on the wall signify the outside neighborhoods of Mexico. Carolyn sits at a nearby booth, and the lady sits the menu on the table. Carolyn looks through the menu.
"I'll be back with the appetizers."
"Sounds great. Thank you." Carolyn said, softly smiling. The lady walks away into the kitchen. Her dragon tail slithers alongside behind her, elongating. Carolyn looks at the red elongating tail. The lady pulls her tail up to her waist. Carolyn squints her eyes at the lady.
"She looks familiar…" Carolyn thought. "She looks like Janis. But what is she doing here working at a restaurant near downtown?"
The lady walks out with Chips and Salsa. Carolyn goes back to looking at the menu. She sits it down on Carolyn's table.
"Here are the appetizers. Ready to order yet?"
Carolyn scrambles to put down her menu. "UH… Not yet. Still looking. It's hard to decide when there are a lot of good foods on the menu to try out." She let out a groan of joy. "So good, so good."
The lady smiles. "Can't decide what to eat sounds more like you, Carolyn."
Carolyn's eyes widened in surprise. "How the hell do you know my name?"
"Well, Madame Carolyn Goodman is your name, right?" The lady said, walking to the concession stand beside Carolyn's booth.
Carolyn playfully chuckles, "Why yes, it is. Trying to get my number? You don't look bad yourself."
"Oh, stop. I didn't properly wear the right outfit for this job." The lady turns around. "Whatcha doing in the street without your marshalls walking alongside you?"
"I had to take a walk. The energy at City hall took a toll on me."
"The energy of the press all over you about the massacres in Vegas?"
Carolyn laughs. "Nah, not really. Something personal."
"That's fair." The lady chuckles. Silence fills the air. Carolyn spoke up.
"You look familiar?"
The lady jumped. "I do?"
"Of course, you looked like an old friend of mine… Are you Janis Laverty?"
"Janis?" The lady said, "Nooo, you got the wrong woman. You might be referring to my twin Janis."
"A Twin? Ma'am, I know a lady with an elongating tail when she stands still, sits, or flies. I know a lady that has to pick up her tail when she walks to keep it not from elongating and keep anyone from tripping over her tail. It's red, just like it."
A man walks into the restaurant. He tripped over the lady's tail. The lady picks up her tail, wrapping it around her arm.
"SEE, JUST LIKE THAT!!" Carolyn exclaims.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The lady said. She puts her tail down and starts to get her checkbook, grabs a pen, and writes on the back of the paper.
"Janis."
"No, no… My name is Janet."
"Janet? Really?"
"Janet Jackson."
"You are NOT Janet Jackson," Carolyn said bluntly.
"I can! All I need is makeup to look like a glass doll." The lady said, dropping off the note onto Carolyn's table. She grabs her glasses and puts them on. Reading the message on the paper.
Meet me in the parking garage on Ogden and Main Street by 9 pm.
The lady walks up to her table with her checkbook in her hand. "Would you like a drink?"
"Um… Water sounds nice."
"Okay." The lady said, writing it down on her checkbook. I'll be back with your drink." She winks at Carolyn, walking away. Carolyn grabs a chip, biting into it as she looks at the lady walking back to the kitchen.
"Janis Laverty… Playing hide and seek, are we? Two can play that game." Carolyn smirks, biting into the chip again. "See you at 9 o'clock."
The lady turns around, looking at Carolyn. She smirks. "I'll see you at 9 o'clock."
An hour later, Debra drives to Downtown Las Vegas, stopping at the Art District. She looks around for a parking space.
"18b is packed today, and it's not even Friday," Debra said. She found a parking space to park in. She parks the car and breathes.
"Okay… Operation: Find Carol. Find out if she's dead or not." She continued. Debra gets out of her car. She goes up to the pay meter. She looks up and sees a woman that looked like Carolyn walking out of a restaurant with a bag of her leftover lunch. She gasps and blushes.
"Is that who I think it is?"
Carolyn stops to adjust her black vest. She looks around the district. She looks at Debra across the District, squinting her eyes. Debra gasps and hides behind her car.
"I hope she didn't see me–" She thought. Debra peeks over the car hood, Carolyn walks up to the car parked across the district. She hides behind the car again.
"Excuse me, ma'am?" Carolyn said. Debra's eyes widened, turning around, looking up at Carolyn. "Are you alright?"
"Um… no. YES! Yes, I'm fine, thank you!" Debra said, blushing. Carolyn helps Debra get up.
"Oh my god, she's actually ALIVE!" She thought. She looks at the bag. "What's in the bag? Smells really good."
"Oh, just my lunch. I had Carne Asada, why?" Carolyn asks.
"No reason, It smells really good."
Carolyn chuckles, "You know, I had a girlfriend that really loves Carne Asadas. You looked just like her. A moon witch with gray and reddish hair. She's really shy but loves to be curious about everything. I mean 'everything' I mean Everything. I'm curious if she has some sort of lust in her. I mean, she loves demons, wrath demons."
Debra's face turns red from blushing too hard. She screams internally. "HOW DOES SHE KNOW?!" She thoughts.
"But unfortunately, we broke up back in 2017. I couldn't bare her suffering after I caused so much damage in Henderson. Saying sorry wasn't enough for me to even take care of the damage I did when I was in a group." Carolyn said. "Well, I wonder where she is right now?"
Debra hugs Carolyn. Carolyn stands there, paranoid. Debra's eyes start to tear up.
"Carolyn…I'm sorry… I'm sorry that you saw the hurt in me. You didn't have to hurt yourself. I know you didn't mean to do it… I–I forgive you."
"Debra–" Carolyn muttered. She hugs Debra. "No… No. don't apologize for being hurt. You had every right to be upset with me."
"You didn't deserve it. I know you didn't want to do it, you hesitated, but Michele insisted. You didn't want to hurt me or let others hurt me. You just had to do what you were asked to do. Impulsively." She starts crying. Carolyn looks at her, tilting her chin. Debra looks at her. Carolyn smiles softly, adjusting her hat and wiping her tears away.
"I'm just glad that you're still alive, Carol." She continued. Carolyn looks at her, confused.
"Still alive?" Carolyn asks. Breaking up the hug. "Wait– Deb. Who told you that I was dead?"
"My assistant? She told me after months since you were dead."
"I thought you were finding a new assistant?"
"I did– I– Oh no… ROMERA!" She hits her head on Carolyn's chest, burying herself in it. Carolyn hugs her again.
"Romera tricked you with her shapeshifting powers, hm?"
"Mhm.." Debra said, muffling in Carolyn's chest.
"Fucking Michele…" Carolyn thought to herself. She looks at Debra. She looks around. Darkness surrounds the couple. Whispers of a faintly familiar voice pass Carolyn's ear.
"Come back to the mafia, Carolyn… Be a good girl~"
"No… I will never come back!" Carolyn yelled.
"Why not, Carolyn?" A spirit lookalike of Michele appears in front of Carolyn, smirking. "So I heard that you're 'girlfriend' found out you are still alive?"
"What about it?"
"Oh, nothing. I told Romera to lie to her that you died, which in this case is true. That was a way to make sure she doesn't get in my way taking over Henderson and the rest of Southern Nevada but I guess that didn't work because she found you."
"You can't blame her curiosity. She's way smarter than you think."
"AND THAT'S WHAT I HATE! It ruins my plans, you know this Carolyn. You broke up with her for a reason. You need to get rid of her or I'll get rid of her myself."
"You are NOT going to touch her! Not when I'm around."
"Who's going to stop me?
Carolyn grabs her dagger from her pocket, clicking it open pointing towards Michele. "I will. Don't try me."
Michele chuckles. "You think your small little dagger can hurt me. You are such a weak kike."
"I TOLD YOU TO STOP CALLING ME THAT!"
"Or what? What are you going to do? Call Oscar?"
Carolyn's eyes turn red. Sparks of red lightning surrounded her, breathing heavily as her demon horns grew from her head. Michele laughs.
"Get mad Carolyn! GET MAD! YOU WON'T DO SHIT!"
"Shut up… SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Carolyn yells, breaking the sidewalk.
"YES! You won't do shit to ME!" Michele gets closer to Carolyn, her eyes turned purple. Carolyn hugs Debra tightly.
"Touch her and you'll die where you are standing.."
"Like.. I… said. Who's going to stop me?"
Michele smirks and slowly touches Debra's shoulders, licking the back of her neck seductively. Carolyn swings her dagger toward the sky. Debra unburies herself from Carolyn's chest and looks up at her. She grabs Carolyn's arm, stopping the dagger.
"Carol… don't fight, please…what's going on?" Debra said, kissing Carolyn's cheek. Michele disappears. The darkness surrounding them fades away. Carolyn looks at Debra, her eyes turned back to normal. She breaks up the hug, putting her dagger back into her pocket. grabbing Debra's hands.
"Carolyn? Are you okay?" she continued. Carolyn looks around the area, scared. She sees Michele walking up to a nearby restaurant. She turns around to look at Carolyn. Her heart drops, frozen in fear. Carolyn rapidly breathes.
"I– I got to go." Carolyn walks away, Debra walks in front of her. Stopping Carolyn in her tracks.
"Carol! Are you okay? We can talk about this. You can tell me anything."
"Debra, We'll talk about this tomorrow. Okay?" Carolyn said, kissing Debra in the cheek.
"Okay"
Carolyn smiles. "Be careful going back to Henderson."
Carolyn walks away. Debra looks back at Carolyn walking. She smiles.
"Okay, I will." Debra said, walking to her car.