Killer Dolls, Part 3

by Nisa Santiago

  Rihanna looked up sadly. She had been easily broken and defeated. “Fuck you, Aoki!” she snarled.

  Rihanna was a threat, and Aoki couldn’t allow for her to leave the apartment alive. “Me sorry, Ri-Ri.” Aoki plunged the dagger into Rihanna’s heart and twisted it. Then she held her former friend’s hand while she bled out.

  Thirty--Four

  There were days on The Farm when the trainees went with less than two hours of sleep and no meals. It was a military boot camp on steroids. There was no slacking and no retiring. Once on The Farm, the only way to leave was to kill or to be killed. The trainees were up before the sun. There was a five-mile run and cardio training in the morning. A killer should never become tired. A trained killer was a machine that kept on going. On the Farm, trainees were taught the fundamentals first before they advanced to the more technical things. There was endurance, survival, strength, and knowledge. They were educated—brainwashed—day after day and programmed to act like the Terminator in the fields. They were cultured to not have any compassion or empathy for their targets. They were taught how to become their targets, how to think like their victims, where to strike and how. The Farm was a breeding ground for killers like Aoki and Cristal.

  *

  “How did you find me?” Cristal asked Aoki.

  Aoki smirked and responded, “Yuh can thank yuh grandmother fah dat. It’s her birthday, right? I knew yuh would visit her grave. Like De Farm taught us, know yuh target, be patient, then strike. Me know yuh.”

  “You don’t fuckin’ know me,” Cristal shot back.

  The two females were at a face-off, guns pointed at each other’s head in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn in the middle of the night. It was cold. It was the only time Cristal could visit her Grandma Hattie’s grave on her birthday without being seen by rivals. But she was wrong. It was a predictable move on her end.

  “So how long we gonna do this?” Cristal asked. Her 9mm was steadied in her grip, and it was aimed at Aoki’s head.

  “Until me make yuh bleed and fall,” Aoki answered with certainty.

  Both girls stood steady and fierce. It was do or die for them both, like Bruce Lee against Chuck Norris in The Way of the Dragon. Their breathing was shallow and their attention transfixed with surviving the night. Their eyes locked. It would take one false move for one or the other to die.

  Aoki knew this wasn’t Rihanna she was going against. She would be equally matched in battle with Cristal. She smirked. It was either kill her or die trying.

  Simultaneously, their guns exploded into the night. Cristal maneuvered sharply left with her arm outstretched, her feet moving like the Flash, and firing at Aoki.

  Aoki maneuvered swiftly right, returning gunfire.

  Bullets whizzed by them both, and then each took a gunshot to the body, collapsing against the ground, but still alive and still fighting.

  Cristal, a bullet in her shoulder, hastily took cover behind a huge headstone. She reloaded her 9mm speedily.

  Aoki, a bullet in her arm, took cover behind a tree.

  Quickly they recovered and were ready for round two. They both peered out from their hiding sites and exchanged more gunfire. Slugs tore into the headstone Cristal took safety behind, and bullets splintered the tree that Aoki was crouched by.

  Aoki was trying to reload when Cristal suddenly bolted her way and did a flying kick into her chest, sending Aoki staggering backwards, but she caught her footing and countered with a roundhouse kick that slammed into Cristal’s side.

  Fierce combat ensued with Cristal smashing her elbow into the side of Aoki’s face. It was another staggering blow, but Aoki refused to fall. She crashed her knee into Cristal’s ribs, and Cristal hammered her fist into her face with repeated punches.

  Aoki propelled backwards and blocked several blows to her face and body, and then she banged Cristal’s nose with her forehead, spewing blood. She then pushed her away and hit her with an uppercut, dizzying her.

  It was pound for pound in the cemetery, one assassin trying to outdo the other.

  Breathless and bruised, they stood poised with their fists clenched and their skillfulness shining. Aoki had to admit, Cristal was good. She was a brawler. She wasn’t going down without a fight. Neither was she.

  They stood close, scowling, circling each other.

  Cristal abruptly charged with a high kick to her face, but Aoki read her move and dropped as Cristal rounded her kick. Aoki then executed a sweeping kick that lifted Cristal off her feet and sent her tumbling into the dirt. Aoki then threw dirt into her face, temporarily blinding her, and when Cristal recovered her vision, Aoki was already armed and ready to shoot.

  Cristal shouted, “They’ll kill you when you turn twenty-five! It’s all a lie! The Commission.”

  Aoki hesitated again. Why? She had the drop on Cristal. This was it. She won. She defeated the bitch after five months of hunting. But again, Aoki glared at Cristal, not pulling the trigger and finally ending this.

  “They won’t pay you anything,” Cristal said.

  “Yuh lie to live.”

  “I know The Commission. You kill me now, and you’ll be next on their list.”

  Aoki was ready to explode on her. She wasn’t going to be able to talk her out of death. She didn’t believe her.

  “When is your twenty-fifth birthday?” Cristal asked.

  Aoki didn’t answer her. In actuality, it was in a few days.

  “You’re a dead woman. They use people like us. And whether you kill me or not, they’ll still kill you.”

  Cristal figured that Aoki knew there was some truth to her story. If not, she would have been dead already. She went on to speak about GHOST Protocol, The Commission, and why she was being hunted.

  Aoki was only listening because of the lie they’d told her about Oscar. But she had heard enough and hesitated too long. She still had a job to do. She aimed and fired—Bak!

  Thirty--Five

  Cristal was dead, and Aoki went to Muriel, her only contact with The Commission and confirmed her kill with pictures of the body and a sample of her blood to test. Once again they met covertly at East River Park, where they stood side by side on the promenade.

  Muriel said, “You’re a stubborn little bitch, but you do well.”

  “Me tell yuh I would kill her.”

  “And her body?” Muriel asked.

  “Disposed of.”

  Muriel stood expressionless to the news. The Commission had been chasing her for years, and now finally their headache had been erased.

  “Me gon’ turn twenty-five soon. Dat means me gon’ age out. Me ready to put dis life behind me.”

  “You’re ready to start a new life?” Muriel asked rhetorically.

  “Me put in a lot of work fah yuh.”

  “We know.”

  “Me just want to live nice and slow.”

  “We understand. Your money will be available first thing tomorrow morning.”

  Aoki managed to smile. “Nice doin’ business wit’ yuh.” She turned and walked away, leaving Muriel standing alone on the walkway smoking a cigarette and looking preoccupied.

  *

  At home, Aoki couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. All night she stayed alert. She couldn’t sleep, although her apartment was booby-trapped from top to bottom. What if what Cristal told her was actually true? And Muriel was acting weird. Who could she trust? What if they sent assassins to silence her permanently? Paranoia swept through her once again. Aoki sat prepared and armed in her apartment, waiting for anyone to make that fatal mistake of coming for her. If they did, she was going to give them hell.

  Morning came. It had been a long, slow, and quiet night. No one had come for her. No killers came through her window or kicked down her front door. Of course, Cristal was lying only to save her own life. She was desperate, and despera
tion made people into liars.

  She went to her desk, sat down, and opened her laptop. She logged on to her online banking to check her overseas accounts. She was expecting a huge wire transfer in the millions to come through making her a very, very rich woman. The banks were open. She typed her information into the laptop, and her overseas account appeared. The money was there, but it had been red-flagged. It had been frozen. She couldn’t transfer anything into her U.S. account. She didn’t have access to anything. Even the large amounts she had previously in her other U.S. accounts had suddenly been frozen. It had to be a mistake. There had been some kind of confusion, and Aoki wanted to resolve the issues immediately. What kind of games was The Commission trying to play?

  Frustrated and worried, she removed herself from the desk and walked toward a hidden room in her apartment. It was time for some answers, and she would get them. If not from The Commission, she knew where. As she was about to access the room, stealthily her end came intruding, unexpectedly, into the room and toward her—a large gunman dressed in black—definitely sent by The Commission to kill her. Aoki was stunned and speechless.

  She wasn’t going down without a fight.

  *

  Cristal could hear the chaos happening on the other side of the door. It was an intense scuffle. She heard shots fired and furniture breaking apart. She could hear Aoki fighting for her life. Bound to a chair by heavy chains, she couldn’t do anything about it. She couldn’t move at all. She could barely wiggle her arms and feet. She fidgeted and squirmed, but Aoki knew how to secure her to the chair. She was a sitting duck trying to figure a way to escape her bondage. The hidden room was the size of a small bedroom with a swinging light bulb above. It was empty and it was cold.

  Aoki had kept her alive for a reason. After their fight in the cemetery, Aoki fired into the ground near her head. She believed her. If she didn’t, Cristal would’ve been dead. So Aoki kept her hostage alive momentarily. Now it looked like The Commission had sent someone to take care of Aoki, just as Cristal had predicted.

  Phewt! Phewt!

  It was definitely a silencer. There was a hard thump to the ground. The fighting had stopped. Someone went down. Was it Aoki or the other killer The Commission undoubtedly sent?

  Cristal gawked at the door in trepidation. Who would emerge from the battle? Slowly, the door to the room opened, and Cristal could see the silhouette of the victor. Her eyes fixed on their every movement. It was Aoki. She wobbled into the room looking out of it. She was almost broken, her clothing was torn considerably, her face black and blue, blood trickling from her mouth. Behind her was a dead man sprawled across her floor in his pool of blood, shot twice in the head.

  Cristal didn’t know whether to be relieved or concerned. Was she still a dead woman?

  Surprisingly, Aoki started to undo her restraints. Once they were off, Aoki stepped back and aimed her pistol at Cristal as she stood, stretching her legs and breathing out.

  “I guess you believe me now,” Cristal said.

  “How me know yuh won’t come fah me fi da murda of Daniel?”

  “An eye for an eye. I took Ms. Louise from you, so consider us even,” Cristal said. “Besides, there’s been too much bloodshed already. If I was in your position, I would have done the same. Does that answer your question?”

  Aoki didn’t respond. She respected the truth.

  Cristal’s heart still hurt for Daniel, but it was the past and she had to put that behind her. She felt that it was something she should have done long ago. She lingered on her feelings and love, and it cost an innocent man his life. Whoever came into her life was at risk of being killed.

  Though they weren’t trying to tear each other’s throats out, it still didn’t stop them from being cautious and wary of one another.

  “We need to keep a low profile, leave town, and never look back. I’m done with this life,” Cristal stated.

  Aoki looked reluctant to leave. She wasn’t a runner. She wanted payback on everyone who wronged her, starting with Oscar. And she wanted her money. She was out of millions of dollars that was promised to her on her birthday.

  Cristal noticed the reluctant look on Aoki’s face and knew things weren’t going to be that simple. She continued to tell Aoki about GHOST Protocol and The Bishop and how they had snuffed him out because of her. The girls actually had a heart-to-heart. They were two peas in a pod. They both grew up in the slums and ghetto of Brooklyn, made bad choices in life, and lost friends and family members.

  “You know, one thing has been bothering me,” Cristal said.

  “Eh?”

  “I remember you being, well, taller before.”

  Aoki laughed and looked down at her bare feet. “Me shoes came off when I killed dat fool.”

  Cristal admitted her envy of Aoki, and mentioned how she stalked her career through EP. Aoki had fueled her in killing and made her strive to become a better assassin.

  Aoki went on to tell Cristal that she shouldn’t be envied. She was a heartless killer, and it started when she was sixteen years old, when she took her father’s life.

  Aoki wanted the money owed to her from The Commission to help her buy forgiveness, which Ms. Louise always preached to her about. Her death had created an opening into her soul, and made her open to turning her life around. She even had an insane idea and thought about donating half of the money to the local church. Both girls had gone through the pits of hell, shoveled shit, and they were still around. They’d found each other, and now it was time to give ’em hell back.

  They needed to leave the apartment and never go back. Aoki was sure that someone would call the police, and there was no time to clean the blood and remove the body. Though they were leery of one another, they realized that in order for them to survive, they would have to stick together.

  Before leaving the apartment for good, both girls grabbed duffel bags of guns, cash, and knives. They were at war, and they would need an arsenal to fight.

  Aoki felt her childhood home in East New York was the safest place to hide out. She figured they could hide in plain sight until they figured out how to win this battle with The Commission.

  Thirty--Six

  Aoki and Cristal experienced two weeks of peace at Aoki’s childhood home. For Aoki, being back in East New York brought back sudden and harsh memories of why she’d left in the first place and never come back until now. There were more bad memories than good. Her parents were hell, her life was torment, and she could still smell their blood and feel their deaths haunting her. The place also reminded her of AZ, Rihanna, and Tisa; it was their hangout spot. The place was a home to her crew, but her crew was now dead. If only the walls could talk, what would they say?

  Cristal told Aoki about Ida and the tarot cards, and how she predicted what would happen to Daniel and told her about the curse on her family.

  Aoki listened intently. She felt that her family was cursed too. Growing up, her father was always dabbling in black magic on a small level. Maxwell would go on and on with that shit, especially when he was high off crack about voodoo dolls, hexes, and other chilling things. His Jamaican roots made him a believer.

  Cristal wanted to go back to New Orleans to see Ida again. Though she had been spooked by the woman’s foretelling, she wanted to know more about her future and her past. Aoki wanted to see the psychic too to ask her some questions. She wanted to know her future. She wanted some clarifications on her own life. Why was she like this? Why did she enjoy bloodshed and murder so much? Though she felt herself changing and wanting out of the murder-for-hire business, Aoki had always been a violent person and there was always some reason or someone pulling her back into killing. She wondered if she even had a future. Both girls needed answers.

  The girls sat in the living room sipping hot coffee and talking. It looked like a slumber party, but they weren’t talking about boys and music, but their techniques and
survival. They were trying to formulate a plan to stay off The Commission’s radar. They wanted to leave the country, but their money was low. Without a doubt The Commission would have the airports covered, and the moment they were spotted on surveillance, the goons would come gunning for them.

  “Me have a plan,” Aoki said. “Me know someone wit’ a plane. But me gon’ need yuh help to take him down.”

  “I’m down,” Cristal said without hesitation.

  They talked like they’d suddenly become sisters.

  “We probably make better partners than we do rivals,” Cristal said.

  Aoki chuckled. She sat on the floor Indian-style. She was relaxed talking to Cristal, a female on the same speed as her, with the same nightmarish past. It was somewhat therapeutic. They somewhat started to trust each other.

  Cristal stood up from the floor to get more coffee from the kitchen. The moment she stood though, she saw it—the tiny red dot moving around on the wall behind her. Then another red dot appeared suddenly on the wall, and a third—until there were half a dozen dancing red dots on the wall. It quickly dawned on Cristal and Aoki. Cristal shouted, “Shit, they found us!”

  Right away intense gunfire exploded around them, blowing apart the windows, and high-velocity bullets ripped through the walls of the house.

  Cristal hit the floor hastily, shielding herself from the debris falling around her. The girls kept low and scurried for their weapons. War had just erupted in East New York.

  A group of assassins had converged and were approaching the house, spraying machine gun fire. They were in black fatigues, black boots, and tactical vests. They were from GHOST Protocol, and with them was the deadly black widow Natalia—The Bishop’s ex-girlfriend and his murderer. She was leading the charge. She wanted Cristal’s head on a stick—Aoki was the added bonus.