Daughters of Dusk 1

by Michael Hudson

  “You act like all I want to do is kill.”

  “You act like you aren’t the only one who has that twitch.” Ovelia slowly curled her fingers into fists, silencing the minute shakes in them as her eyes hardened on Wren. “After all, that is the problem with Peter. He’s a stuck pig surrounded by wolves and I’ve even seen Mary twitch at moments when she could kill him and get away with it. We were only ever supposed to leave on missions. To kill. It’s taking its toll by now that we haven’t done so.”

  Mary didn’t even flinch at the accusation. After all, Ovelia wasn’t wrong, and they weren’t about to accuse her of it. After all, while they were all highly trained combatants, you could still only teach a child so much, even with twenty hours everyday spent learning. That was part of why they were in teams. Wren covered survival, medicine, and explosives, Mary covered urban traversal, weapons, and vehicles, and Ovelia covered psychology, stealth, and technology. Even without Quill, who covered logistics, leadership, and culture, they were still an effective team as they were and they didn’t question the others skills.

  That in and of itself brought up a question that they finally had to face though as Wren shelved the discussion so far for the moment. “We need to talk about the new girl. X seems different, but she is still strong. Stronger than possibly any of us if my gut is right, though I don’t know exactly how. After all, she lacks any muscle, her breast size would normally strain your two’s backs, but she holds it like it’s nothing, and she won’t speak even when commanded. What do you two think of her?”

  Ovelia and Mary once again shared a glance with each other. It wasn’t unusual for the two to discuss things more with each other, as they were meant to act as a unit together for better infiltration and it had spread into their normal behavior. That was why they had volunteered to share a room together. Of course, it helped that this was the second biggest room in the house and it was Peter’s old room. Ovelia had hoped that fact would teach her something, but outside Mary believing Zelda was something she once knew about, they were all unknowns to her and she would need computer access to figure out what knowledge she had actually gained from it all.

  When they looked back at Wren though, none of this was on their minds as they said, “She is our fourth.”

  Wren nodded at the response, before finally sitting herself. She had to actually consider what she would say next. She didn’t like it though. Quill was so much better at this leading stuff. Wren was just supposed to be a meat grinder. Someone who could carve her way through body after body with her bare hands. She wasn’t meant for this analytical shit.

  Mary helped a little as she hopped down from the bed, reached under it, and pulled out one of the pizzas that had been left over after dinner. None of them had eaten much of the grease covered pies, as it had made them almost sick due to their previous diets. That alone upset Wren, and she scowled as she looked at the pizza box,before she swiped a hand over the top and took off large, jagged swathes of cardboard from it. “What makes you think I want any of that?”

  Mary gave her a very small smile as she lifted what remained of the cover up. “Because I saw how fast you ate yours.”

  Ovelia helped Wren’s case though by promptly saying, “We have been taught not to take long with our meals. There’s nothing to be read into it.”

  Mary didn’t pause at the words. Instead, she pushed on harder as her eyes hardened. “We have also been taught to analyze our food. That if we did not acquire it ourselves that we should take it slow if we have the time. Make sure we are not poisoned. You didn’t do that after your first bite.”

  Wren turned her head away, scowling at the silly accusation. It had no grounding… Or so she would have believed so if she didn’t hear Ovelia humming. “Oh, you cannot be serious.”

  Ovelia raised an eyebrow at the other girl. “I can be. After all, you were the only one of us to actually become sick from the grease and salt. You were also the one to be done with your single slice the fastest. I do not believe these things are not unrelated, and Mary’s line of thinking would be a logical conclusion as to why those happened.”

  Wren clenched one of her fists, but just as before she didn’t tell Ovelia she was wrong, just as Ovelia would never do so if she told her to eat a cockroach to survive. It was all a part of the training. “So what? You want me to eat right now? Because I’m not hungry. I’m still surprised you managed to have two slices yourself and not get sick.”

  Mary closed the box, biting into her lip a little as she tucked it back away, just as they had done with any extra pieces they could manage to get ahold of back in the facility. “It… It was nice to have pizza and soda again. Made me think of my birthdays.”

  Both of the girls grew silent at that, before Ovelia slipped off of the bed. She then reached out with a single hand, put it on Mary’s shoulder, and squeezed it, all the while while staring at Wren to make her stop.

  Wren didn’t though, not as she came over herself and did the same to Mary’s other shoulder. Mary flinched at the touch, her body bracing for more, before she looked up at Wren with tears in her eyes. Wren merely looked away before muttering, “Damned twelve year old.”

  Mary smiled a little, before letting out the barest hint of a giggle. It was a sound so foreign to all of them, at least one that was so genuine. It wasn’t meant to antagonize, or to manipulate. It was just a simple chuckle made out of memories shared between them all from how long Wren had been calling her a child.

  Though, by Wren’s calculations, their ages would have been twenty for herself, twelve for Mary, and seventeen for Ovelia. Their actual ages respectively were twenty, twenty-four, and twenty-two.

  Wren didn’t let the moment last any longer than it took for them all to reflect on that fact as she stepped away and asked, “I can’t change your two’s minds, can I?”

  Ovelia shook her head, allowing Mary to stay silent for now as the other girl continued to hang her head down. “No. I believe that if we are going to find a new place, it shall be here. Besides,” she said with a crooked smile, “if today is any indicator, we will not be punished for every kill we make while we obey to being with our simpleton of a handler.”

  Wren grinned at the copy of her own personality, her own crooked grin showing as she looked back upon her team. This may not be where she wanted to be, but she had them, and she wouldn’t be entirely stopped from performing her job.

  There wasn’t a lot more she could ask for then that.

  Dawn of the Second Day

  “Hey, listen! Hey, listen! Hey, listen!”

  Peter’s eye twitched as his hand reached for the headboard over his pillows, but found nothing. No, instead, he merely thumped his hand against hard, carved wood that stung as much as it didn’t move. For a moment, Peter wondered why his phone wasn’t there before reality began to come back to him. The girls that had come yesterday, the information that they supposedly would kill people, and the fact that they needed help and a place to stay. For a moment, his head even considered how he would feed them, before remembering about the nice stipend he was given, and he began to slump back into bed. It was too early for him to get up anyways. He could feel that.

  “Hey, listen!”

  It wasn’t entirely voluntary when Peter flipped out of bed and slammed into the floor. That sound merely haunted his nightmares and he had just remembered where his damned phone was. With a look to his right, he caught sight of the light of his screen before he finally reached over and turned the alarm off. He had put it there last night for the same reason why he groaned at the phone now. After all, he was used to afternoon shifts, staying up until three in the morning, and waking up at noon.

  It was seven in the morning.

  He had gotten up at seven in the fucking morning all because he wanted to be able to make sure the girls woke up to something to eat. Probably Mcdonalds, since he barely knew how to cook cereal.

  He slinked out of his room, clothed only in a light t-shirt with a triforce on it a
nd a pair of sleep pants with puppy dog prints on it. He wasn’t about to get properly dressed after all, because he expected to go back to sleep within an hour, and felt like he was barely alive. For a moment, he even considered getting himself an energy drink, but he had long ago given up on those bitter bastards. He was a sweet guy after all, and liked his drinks the same way.

  The only problem is that when he got to the middle of the stairs, where the walls came away so you could see the rest of the house, he looked left and saw X and Ovelia at the table. The first was merely staring out the window, her eyes not even blinking as she sat at the end of the table. Ovelia on the other hand had a pen in one hand, a paper beneath it, and was tapping between her fingers with a pen. That wouldn’t be impressive in and of itself, but she was doing it almost faster than Peter could keep up with, at least in this state, and he could hear her muttering under her breath numbers counting down from somewhere in the several thousands.

  When he turned his head right, he saw Mary and Wren working out. The first one was upside down, balanced on a single hand, and bending her arm until her forearm was pressed to the ground before then raising herself up, all of which was done in the span of maybe five seconds. Wren on the other hand was just doing push up. One a second.

  Peter glanced back and forth between the groups before his eyes lingered on Mary’s chest. Up and down. Up and down. Her suit did not do well enough to keep them contained, despite outlining both of her breasts perfectly. How they smacked against her chest, the clap whenever they hit each other, and they came so close to crashing into her head that he kept expecting her to get knocked out. Honestly, that sort of thing didn’t sound like a bad way to get knocked out. Did these girls get trained in breast attacks? Was that a form of karate he hadn’t thought about? “Jiu-tit-su?”

  In an instant, every girl’s head snapped towards him. There was the sound of metal whistling through the air, before a butter knife impaled itself into the wall behind Peter’s head, Wren jumped behind the coffee table and lifted it up in front of her, throwing the controllers on it into the couch, while only Ovelia managed to seem to keep her cool by saying, “What an interesting idea, honey!”

  Peter glanced over at Ovelia, taking in that X was now looking at him and seemed to have noticed none of the insanity, just like he hadn’t in his tired state. Or, at least, not the knife that had come a centimeter from impaling him. Instead he just asked, “Really?” After all, he liked the idea of boob based martial arts but he was surprised any of the girls were even entertaining the concept. Then again, if any of them were to…

  Wren brought that idea down though as she shouted, “Don’t humor him! Not only would you have to put one of your most vital points in danger,” she then paused and turned to Peter before clarifying, “your heart, it would likely deal as much damage to you as the opponent. Beyond that, it’s simply impractical. After all, you would need breasts so big that they’d snap even my spine in order for them to be so long as to be reasonable weapons when compared to arms or legs. He’s just being an idiot.”

  Peter raised a hand to that statement, holding it high as if taking an oath. “I swear that I have never tried to claim to be anything else, or to be a man who does not enjoy a pair of tits. However, I yield to your…” He blinked a few times, the words now failing to come to his mind before he tilted his head. “How are you able to think right now?”

  Wren put the table back to how it was supposed to be, scowling for a moment before brushing part of her wild, red mop back. It had gotten into her face from her sweat, which now made her whole body glisten and would have been Peter’s next question had she not then said, “Why should you be surprised? We’ve been awake since three. Well, X has been awake since sunrise, but my team is sticking to their training schedules.”

  Peter’s head continued to turn, almost becoming parallel to the floor as his eye twitched. “Three? But… But you all went to bed with me. That means three hours…”

  Mary shook her head as she finally righted herself, performing a small hop as she got back onto her feet. Downside was that she faced away from Peter for the trick, but at least that gave him a chance to appreciate her nice, tight rump. She didn’t notice his tired leering though as she turned around. “We stayed up another hour. After all, we were molded to do two hours of sleep, two hours for eating and rest over the entirety of the day, and twenty hours of training.”

  Peter’s eyes widened at the description before he yelled, “I feel like I’m dying right now, so how?”

  “If you died from exhaustion, you were considered a failure and buried like all the rest.” Ovelia then turned her head, letting her long hair sway in front of her face as she smiled, her teeth seeming to gleam at him as she chirped, “Not that you would enforce that. You’re too good for that.”

  Peter slowly nodded to himself, before groaning and putting his head into his hands. He had been awake for five minutes and already somebody had brought up death. That was going to be his day apparently. If they were that ready to talk though, he would take care of what he actually needed to now. After all, they had pizza to finish if they were hungry. “Well, on that cheery note, why don’t you all come around the foot of the stairs. We need to talk about rules and what not.”

  Mary strode towards the stairs first, nodding as she came to the tiles before the front door and stood at attention like she had when she had first arrived at the house. “Of course. As is normal, a landlord will have rules and contracts for his tenants to sign and follow. If we are to continue living with Peter, it is only natural that these would come into play.”

  That seemed to get everyone else to start moving, with even Wren begrudgingly nodding her head at the explanation. The only one who seemed baffled by the statement was the supposed ‘landlord’ as Peter let his mouth hang open for a moment before he shook his head wildly. He needed to wake up, and now. “Look, I’m flattered that you think so highly of me, but I ain’t no Tom Nook, and you don’t owe me anything. In fact, I don’t have any rules for you outside of ‘please don’t break my shit’. After all, I’m a dude, and as you saw first hand today, I think you’re all amazingly hot. So,” he said as he offered a hand out to the girls, “what rules do you have to offer?”

  All of the girls glanced at each other. Even X joined in on the odd look, before staring back at Peter. They had expected a lot of things from this morning. A mandatory strip search, being told what jobs they would do, and maybe even being sent out to kill on his behalf. Getting control of the house… Well, that was supposed to be Ovelia’s job, not something that was just given to them.

  They were silent at first though, before X stepped away from everyone. She picked up the pen that Ovelia had left out, as well as the paper she’d been using that had only five dots on it. Her hand worked slowly, but no one was in a rush as Peter tried to resist the urge to sit down and sleep. When she was done though, she strode back towards the stairs and lifted the paper up to one of the slits in the banister.

  Peter reached down and grabbed it, yawning as his eyes scanned it. “No touching? Okay, I can do that. Is that just for you, or do you girls…”

  Mary shook her head calmly, while Wren simply cracked her knuckles and said, “I don’t need a rule. If you touch me in a way I don’t like, I’ll just remove the appendage.”

  Ovelia was the true odd one out as she lowered her eyelids to be almost half closed and said, “I don’t mind you touching me at all, sir .”

  Peter nodded, said, “Of course,” and then went back to waiting as he handed X back the paper.

  Mary glanced down as the silence stretched on, before nodding to herself and looking up. “Um,” she scowled at the start, before getting back to her words, “I would like it to be that we get to choose at least one meal each day.”

  “As long as it’s not sushi, you girls can pick every meal. I’m not too picky.”

  Wren came in now and said, “And we can eat anytime we want.”

  “Why would I st
op you? Though I guess that means me getting actual food in the house…”

  This was getting bizarre, before Ovelia stepped behind the other two and chirped, “Girls, you’re thinking too much like we’re back at the facility. We’ve been blessed to be welcomed into a normal home, which means normal rules apply, not what we used to have. Now it’s more… Personal.” She then wrapped her arms around her two friends, squeezing their breasts as she gave Peter a smile.

  The two didn’t miss that even Ovelia was tense at the situation. They were supposed to need to usurp this sort of power and respect, not be given it. Not be treated as… Whatever this was. Even Wren, for all her aggression, knew that if she’d had to put up with his commands for a chance to get away on her own terms, she would have.

  But he had even just given one of them the ability to not even be touched. He had willingly given up any way of punishing them. Anyway they knew at least, and it was only now occurring to them that they all had given up that option… but he still didn’t make a move towards them. Not even Ovelia.

  The girls separated a little from each other, all of theirs eyes darting away, before Mary’s glanced past Peter. “The shower. You… You can’t come in there when one of us is in there.”

  Peter rolled his eyes as he let out a huff of frustration. “Of course! What sort of asshole does that? I won’t come into your rooms without knocking first, I won’t steal your clothes whenever I do laundry, and if you girls need anything reasonable, you can ask me to go to the store and get it for you.”

  Wren raised an eyebrow. “Reasonable?”

  He shrugged before yawning. “You know, things like food, toothbrushes, drinks. You know, normal things.”