Leah looked left and right before stopping. She stood now in a secluded corner, away from all eyes. Her expression showed that she didn't like the thing in her hand. It was a latte offered by her dear friend, still radiating a breath of warmth.
Her breath fogging in the freezing air, Leah glanced down at it. She gritted her teeth against the cold.
Leah's eyes slowly scanned her surroundings again, saw both men and women walking beyond the alley, all with their coats and misty breaths. It was better to stay vigilant. In her world, one bad step and you'd be dead. It was easy life. With a shallow smile on her lips, she poured the latte in the dumpster, her fingers trembling as they tipped the cup.
The aroma of the coffee lingered briefly. With a sigh, she turned to leave. But she suddenly felt eyes on her.
Someone was there.
Two pairs of green eyes she knew very well.
She was behind the private club, in an alley no one probably frequented. It was a cold winter night, the kind that bit through skin and left bruises. Leah wasn't dressed warmly. She was still in her thin performance dress.
She preferred to stay inside. However, this was a matter that needed to be taken care of. Nothing should convince her to keep anything from that person.
For Leah, it was better to not make a useless enemy out of her dear friend. She needed to keep the fake face. There was no poison worse than the unexpected unfortunate twists.
"That's not something a friend should do!"
The voice beckoning her to get away belonged to her dear friend, Celeste. It was a silhouette framed by the warm light spilling from outside the alley.
"I wasn't thirsty," she replied, her voice steady despite the cold.
Celeste stepped closer, showing her crossed arms and angry expression. Leah didn't care much about it. The only thing that bothered her was that from now on, she needed to label Celeste as a formal enemy.
"You weren't going to drink it?" Celeste's voice was sweet, almost playful. But there was an edge to it that would make anyone feel threatened. "I thought you loved my latte."
"I didn't need it."
"You're always like it. Labeling everything in your head into two drawers, useful and useless. Other things, you don't care much about them."
"You're wrong."
Celeste chuckled, rolling her eyes. She paused once she was a few inches away from Leah.
"I have more labels in my mind than two drawers," Leah continued.
It made Celeste laugh heartily.
"You're always so dismissive of me, despite all the help I've given you," Celeste's smile sharpened. "Since when?"
"What do you mean?"
The wind picked up, swirling snowflakes around them. Leah shivered. Her breath hitched as she tried to read Celeste's intentions.
"Since when you stopped trusting me, Leah?"
Leah burst into laughter. For the first time in a long time, for years, she felt humored. Trust… There was no trust in their world.
"What makes you laugh?"
"You're so funny. I never took you for someone who uses the word 'trust'. Well, just not you."
"I've been with you through everything. I carried you when no one else did. Is this how you're repaying me?""
"Bitch, please. On the night of the blood moon, I knew you talked to Ralf. He was a strategist. He had the mind of an honorable warrior. There were so many plans in his head that you couldn't help but steal some. I saw you, you know. You pushed him towards the wolves and they ate him. I watched it all but I stayed silent because it wasn't my business."
"Oh! I didn't know that."
"You stole some of my achievements. The others too. All you've been doing is stealing from others and your idea of payback is stupid kindness. You know, the worst of it is that you make others believe you've been doing them a service."
"Careful Aurora! You're walking a thin line."
Aurora was Leah's real name. She never loved it. Ralf gave her that name when she told him she didn't like her own.
"I've been walking it for years," Leah retorted. "And I'm still standing."
She didn't feel the need to correct Celeste. She glanced down at the spilled latte one last time before hurrying back inside, from the back door.
From now on, she needed to be extremely careful. In her world, only those with skills could survive.
She rubbed her hands together, wondering when she'd get on stage. It was her performance night. Leah loved dancing. It was the only thing that gave her true freedom.
She mingled with people through the corridors. Tonight was a full night. She didn't like boasting but she got a lot of clients that came only to watch her dance. Suddenly, something heavy fell on her shoulders.
A long coat hung over her, preserving some of her warmth.
"It's cold," a man whispered in her right ear.
She glued a smile on her lips before glancing back.
"Sebastien!" A little warmth mixed in her voice.
Sebastien was a middle-aged man and their boss. He owned everyone who worked in the private club with no-name.
Leah chatted a bit with this man. She handed him back his coat before walking away. It was her time to shine. She stepped onto the dimly lit stage and let her white gown flow around her. The fabric clung to her in all the right places, pinning lustful eyes on her movements.
The loud voices all around stopped as soon as the music started again. There were other dancers on stage, helping her shine further.
She closed her eyes as the music swelled and let her body take control. On stage, there were no contracts, no debts, no shadow of the past. Just a beautiful painting and her freedom.
Her ears turned deaf to the cheers as her feet moved in rhythm. She had been practicing for weeks for this night's performance. It was a new dance that used swan's movements as inspiration.
But as the music came to an end and the cheers turned louder, she opened her eyes. It was never easy to come back from her dreamy world full of freedom. While dancing, her mind always wandered far from reality, imagining all sorts of things she could do if she was free.
On stage, she was untouchable, unstoppable.
People asked for more. She started dancing again, replaying her old performances like a broken record.
As she twirled, she caught Celeste's eyes in the crowd. She was glaring at her, sinking all hostility in that moment.
The root of Celeste's hostility didn't have a reason in Leah's mind. There was nothing that explained that. It was normal to see each other as rivals and work their hardest to rise their ranks. However, it didn't make sense that Celeste abhorred her that much.
After all, they were all assassins.
In the midst of the crowd, a sweet, thick scent propagated. A few were bothered by it but it didn't mean much in the face of the show. All eyes were hypnotized, even their target. It was a wealthy man that angered someone.
Before the performance, Sebastien summoned Leah and Shayne. Leah was the distraction. Shayne had to strike the judgement.
Leah caught Shayne in the crowd too. When he wasn't an assassin, he was a bouncer. This night, he was both. He easily got close to the man and quickly pulled him out of the crowd. Because of the noise, no one heard the brief scream.
With a radiant smile, she kept dancing. However, the radiance was short and her body froze mid-step. A thin vine slithered down from the ceiling, shimmering a darkish green in the dim light. Her gaze darted around the ceiling.
The air grew heavy with the scent of overripe flowers. It pressed against Leah's chest, making every breath harder to take. More vines emerged, spreading quickly, filling every part of the ceiling.
She looked back towards the crowd and noticed they didn't react to her stopping. It wasn't normal for that to happen. Every single one of her movements was watched carefully. If she did a mistake, eventually, somebody reacted. But no one did, as if she never stopped.
Leah's pulse quickened. Her instinct screamed at her to run. But her legs felt rooted to the spot.
She had never seen something like that. The world didn't have magic of anything. So for a second, she was wondering if she was hallucinating because of the thick scent. She also felt dizzy because of it.
The vines weaved through the crowd, branching to suffocate every person and pull it up the ceiling.
Leah's heart was pounding hard. She stepped back first, her heel catching on the stage's edge, nearly sending her toppling. Celeste was no longer in her spot by the bar. Instead, she was trying to get to Shayne.
It took a while for her to realize that only the crowd was mesmerized. The vines surged closer, slamming into tables and shattering glass.
"Leah!" Sebastien's voice called behind her. "Jump down. We need to get out of here."
She turned, spotting him near the exit, his face pale and drenched in sweat. Celeste stood beside him, shouting something Leah couldn't hear over the rising cacophony.
Leah jumped down and pushed her way through the crowd mixed with the vines. She tried her best to avoid the vines and not touch them. It was hard to get to the door.
It didn't make sense. Things weren't right.
"Leah!" Celeste yelled. "Give me your hand."
Without second thoughts, Celeste's hand pulled Leah out of mess.
Leah gasped, the cold night biting into her skin as she stumbled into the street. She noticed Shayne standing with some other people she knew.
However, Leah couldn't help but stare back at how the building was swallowed by a giant flower, producing an army of vines. It was nothing like she had ever seen before and it threw her out of control.
"Hurry!" Someone yelled.
Leah faltered, her mind racing.
"It's beautiful," she whispered, unable to tear her eyes away.
Leah loved anything beautiful.
The whole phenomenon hypnotized her. It was cold. She was still in her flimsy white gown. But whatever happened, it was beautiful in her eyes.
The vines kept spreading not only inside but outside too. It created a mass panic.
"Why did you stop? We gotta run. Call it what you want but Sebastien finds you useful," Celeste said behind her.
Leah smiled back at Celeste before looking back.
"That's beautiful! The snow… that giant flower. It looks like it's out of a movie. I wonder if we're just hallucinating. This is too magic to be true."
"Beautiful? Are you insane? I'm off here. Stay if you want to stay."
She shook her head. The sight held her captive. A strange mix of terror and awe bloomed in her chest. Snowflakes fell around the monstrous flower.
"I don't know if I'll see this again. Maybe once we wake up from all these hallucinations, we can look back and laugh about it."
Leah thought about it and came to the conclusion that this was a dream or hallucination. Whatever that thick scent was, it certainly was the biggest cause of what was happening to them. There was no way giant flowers existed.
For a fleeting moment, Leah thought she saw faces in the petals, screaming.
"You're always like this. Always down to earth. Maybe it's time you… stay behind."
Celeste let go of her.
Leah thought Celeste walked away. Looking at the speed the vines spread with, she calculated that it would take a few minutes before they reach her. She could admire the horror a few moments before that.
She felt like that building, getting swallowed by everything she could never control. Her whole life, she tried to do better, be better, fight for her dreams… But it never worked out.
She was just… invisible.
She wanted a good life, a better life than this. She didn't want to be an assassin. The reason why she stuck being a dancer was because she was never a good fighter.
"I wish I had a life I could be proud of," she murmured to herself.
A little nod then small prayer, she turned around, ready to run away again. But instead of her body listening to her, it fell forward as the vines closed in.
The vines imprisoned her and a black flower bloomed instead. As life seemed to drain from her, she thought that her hallucinations felt too real.
A single 'No' suffocated in her throat, panic rising. She didn't want to die. Not like this. She kicked and thrashed but more flowers bloomed, roots digging deeper into her skin. Pain exploded as thorns pierced her flesh, drinking her blood.
She tried to scream but her body didn't feel like her own anymore. Before darkness swept her vision, she caught glimpse of the red dress Celeste was wearing.
"No, that can't be it," she rasped, her voice barely audible.
The vines pulsed, almost alive. Blood trickled down her arms and legs, feeding the grotesque black flower blooming around her.
On death's doors, the only thing she felt was the cold…
Then, silence. Her body felt weightless. Emptiness.
However, the scream that died in her throat finally found its way out in unexpected ways.
She opened her eyes, her hands clutching a rosy blanket, screaming. Nothing felt real in her head anymore.
There was something else that was wrong apart from the monstrous vines.
Her scream died again but she wasn't totally dead. She flipped her hands back and front. They were smooth, pale and unblemished.
Her chest felt heavy and her hair tumbled down her shoulders, bright.
"What…?" she whispered.
People broke into the room. New faces. She looked for Sebastien in every single one but he wasn't there. Instead, she felt like she fell into a world in the medieval past.
"Welcome back, daughter! I'm glad that it all worked out," a middle-aged man said.