“Why…?”
“Hm?”
“Why do you keep following me?” I asked the red-haired woman walking next to me, who, unfortunately for me, was my boss.
“…I thought we agreed I’d walk you home.” She said with her usual monotone voice.
That was partially true, I suppose. She did offer to walk me home, but I thought she was joking, which is why I had simply brushed it off with a half-hearted “sure.” Yet there she was, following me uncomfortably close as I walked down the street.
“I guess we did…” I sighed.
“You don’t seem pleased by this.” She was a pain to deal with. Ever since we first met, she treated every single interaction we had like some sort of game.
“How would you feel if you were leading your boss, whom you hate, to your own home?”
“Hm.” The smile never left her face, even as she pretended to be deep in thought. I hated that smile. Sometimes I wished I could just punch her in the face, but I wasn’t sure if that would be pushing it; she took all of the insults and threats I threw at her with an amused smile, but that might’ve ended up being the last straw, and she’d decide to either kill me, kill my family, or do both. In hindsight, maybe I should have punched her every once in a while.
As we walked together, it felt as if the streets stretched forever. With every step I took that seemed to take me nowhere, with every attempt at small talk made by Makima — certainly just to try and get a reaction out of me, as always — I felt as if I was getting closer and closer to giving in to temptation and crushing her head like a watermelon.
“Say, if I killed you, would you get angry?” I decided to play along. I had just gone through a particularly tiresome encounter with a devil, so I was in a bad mood, bad enough to actually give her what she wanted.
She remained silent for a moment, her smile disappearing as she looked genuinely surprised for a second. “Would you like to try me?” Her smile came back, and it was even creepier now.
“…no, it’d be a pain in the ass if you fought back.”
“Scared?” She teased. It seemed she wanted me to go for it.
“Of you? No,” I snorted, unable to hold back my laughter.
“Of losing, I mean.”
“I wouldn’t lose.”
“You seem very sure of that.”
“I’ve killed you once. I can certainly do it again.”
“That was just luck.” Who would’ve guessed Makima was a sore loser?
“You know it wasn’t.”
“It was.”
“Was not.”
She was about to retort, but as we finally reached the entrance to my apartment, one of my neighbors came up to me; it was the sweet old lady who lived next door by herself — well, most of the time, at least. Her son, who was attending university, tended to come visit on weekends, but usually, she stayed all by herself, so whenever she spotted me, she made sure to make some small talk.
“Oh, hello there, dear,” she greeted me with a genuine smile. I would have loved to have a friendly chat with her if it wasn’t for the woman I had as company at that moment. “You don’t usually come home this late.”
“I’m sorry, I ended up having to work overtime.”
“Oh, no need to apologize,” she waved her hand with a chuckle, “I know times are tough. And, besides…” she looked up at Makima with a knowing smile — I couldn’t help but frown as I guessed what she imagined the relationship between us. “It seems you’ve landed yourself a nice woman.”
Makima giggled, certainly amused at the situation, and made no attempt to correct the lady, so I figured I’d do it. “It’s not like that,” I explained, “She’s my boss. And she should be leaving about now,” I glared at the redhead, whose smile never faded.
“Oh, don’t be shy,” the old woman laughed, “My son’s just like that. Never able to admit when a woman catches his eye.”
“Sure…” I let out an awkward laugh, “Now if you don’t mind, I need to get myself cleaned up.” She hadn’t even batted an eye at the bloody mess that were my work clothes.
“Of course, dear, of course,” she stepped aside as I unlocked my door and opened it, “If you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask.”
“Thank you.” Once Makima and I were inside, I closed the door behind me, locked it, and let out a deep sigh.
“Shouldn’t I ‘be leaving about now’?” Makima broke the comforting silence, receiving a glare from me, which she brushed off with her trademark smile.
“I’d love for you to get going,” I undid my tie, so soaked in blood that it had changed colors, “But there’s something I want to ask you before you go, so make yourself home for a bit.”
“How nice of you.”
“I’ll stab you in the neck if you ever say that again.”
“You don’t like being called nice?” She made herself comfortable on the couch, resting her head on her knuckles.
“Not by you.”
“Can I ask why?”
“…since when do you ask for permission?” I couldn’t help but be surprised by the wording of that question, even if just for a second. She didn’t acknowledge my question, likely waiting for me to answer hers first. “It doesn’t make me feel good about myself… Being called nice by someone like you.”
“Someone like me?”
“You’re a horrible person.”
“Ah, I see,” she leaned forward with interest, “Most people wouldn’t say that to their boss.”
“I’m not most people.”
“That’s true. Most people wouldn’t threaten to kill me like you do.”
“If you feel threatened by me, you could just kill me,” I unbuttoned my shirt, frowning at the ridiculous amount of blood on my clothes.
“I couldn’t do that,” she admitted.
“Because I’m stronger than you?” I smirked.
“You wish,” she chuckled, and for once, her laughter didn’t feel artificial. “No, I…” she paused for a moment, her smile disappearing. I had never seen her look like she was struggling to find words before, “…if I killed you, I’m sure my days would become very boring.”
“…” I stayed silent for a while, taking in her words. I had never seen her look so genuine in all my time working under her. “Don’t you have the chainsaw boy to entertain you?”
“That is going to take a while,” she leans back, sighing, “And it’s not like it’d be the same. He obeys me; he answers all my requests and orders like the dog he is…”
“You’re fucked up.”
“I suppose I might be,” she laughs, her smile coming back ever so slightly, “You, though… You’re different. I’m your boss, so you should…”
“I should…?”
“…you know how my power works, don’t you?”
“I do, yeah,” I nodded. There weren’t many people who did, I imagined, which made me wonder every now and then why she hadn’t just killed me like she had done with so many others, for far less.
“No matter how much I try, I can’t see myself as superior to you,” that fact seemed to genuinely bother her. “And I can’t exactly pinpoint why…”
“Maybe because I’ve killed you before?”
“That was just luck.”
“You know it wasn’t. You’re just in denial.”
“I… Maybe.” She admitted.
“So…”
“So what?”
“Do you see yourself as inferior to me?”
“Let’s not push it,” she laughed. “Anyway,” she stared directly at me, and I couldn’t help but feel… Well, I wasn’t exactly sure what I felt. “Are you just going to stand there? I’m sure you want to clean yourself up. All that blood will probably be hard to wash off.”
I nodded, “Yeah, a hot shower would be nice…”
“So…?”
“I’m wondering… If you don’t think of me as superior or inferior to you, what do you see me as?” I wondered if I should have kept quiet, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what she had just said.
“I…” She was at a loss for words; what a rare occasion that was. “What do you think?”
“I’m not too sure. I hate you, but…” The word hate felt strange on my tongue at that moment. I shook my head, breathing in and out, “Maybe equals…? In a fucked up kinda way, I guess.”
Maybe that’s pushing it…
“Equals…” The word felt foreign to Makima, and she was visibly conflicted. I’m sure she didn’t want to admit it, but in hindsight, I believe she liked the idea. “I guess I should be on my way.” She stood up, but before she could leave, I stopped her. A part of me that I thought had died a long time ago told me I couldn’t let her go after all that had just happened.
“There’s still something I want to ask of you.”
“Oh, right, you said something like that. What is it?” Her false smile returned, which, for the first time, didn’t make me feel repulsed by her; instead, I felt disappointed.
“I’d like a day off tomorrow.”
“Sure,” she said. In all my time working for her, she had always let me do as I pleased as long as it didn’t interfere with her interests. “You don’t even need to ask—”
“And…” I interrupted her, afraid of saying the next few words, “There’s a movie I want to see in theaters… would you like to come with me?”
“Are you asking me on a date?” She smirked. “I’d love to.”
“Great.”
“Anything else?”
“…you wanna stay for dinner?”
“I thought you’d never ask…” She placed her hands on my shoulder, “But you should wash off all that blood first, though.”