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A sleek black car, with four equally black and sleek tracks where wheels would normally be set, easily crossed the waterlogged dirt that came with the season of Doead. The old road dirtied the car, but had no effect in hindering the vehicle’s progress in steadily moving forward. Suddenly, the car jolted, then stilled.
The driver, a young man, recently hired, and still terrified of his employer, exhaled in a fruitless attempt to calm himself before he lowered the partition between the cabin and passenger area.
“We have arrived, Archgeneral Hewpac,” he quickly, and rather loudly, said. When he noticed that not even the woman in pink spoke, he gripped the wheel tightly before glancing in the rearview mirror. His courage was built only to be met with two black empty seats made of leather. He quickly changed his gaze from the seats to one of his windows before he caught a glimpse of the white clad Archgeneral and the pink clad woman, arm in arm, walking with ease onwards on a wet and muddy trail that led into the heavily wooded forest of yellow and green vegetation that flanked either side of the road that he had driven his passengers on. The pink clad woman held an umbrella above both of their heads as the trail dried below both of their footfalls. Soon, he could no longer see them; the lights that were barely brighter than the overcast sky dimmed and died as the engine’s rumbling stopped. He traded the sound of the engine for the car’s small radio, and although the signal was poor, the news made him appreciate working for the Archgeneral and not under her.
Once she no longer felt the eyes of her driver on her, she untangled her arm from the woman beside her.
“You know, you should have at least said something to him before you just jumped out dear,” the woman in pink beside her chided. “He’s just a child, and you’re an Archgeneral,” she continued, looking up at the woman who wore an all-white suit excluding her black gloves and round sunglasses. They spent the rest of the walk in silence. Even when they arrived at a circular clearing of tall grass beaten to the ground by the immense rain of Doead, not a word was spoken; in the center of the circle there sat in a line three thick black rectangular obelisks of stone that each stood seven feet tall. Hewpac walked forward, out into the light rain, and the woman beside her stayed still. Rain barely touched her before its moisture and coldness disappeared as the Archgeneral walked steadily towards the row of three stones that jutted from the earth. When she arrived, she immediately drew a pistol from underneath her impeccable white blazer; thumb easily finding the release, the magazine fell from one gloved hand to the other. Returning the weapon back to its concealed resting place allowed her to retrieve four bullets from the magazine to her now free right hand. Now, extending her arm, she allowed three of the four bullets to fall from her grasp and onto the ground in front of one of the pillars. The door easily yielded under her kick, catching Mapes, who was resting, by surprise. Three shots and she was at her temple. Hewpac finally let the fourth bullet drop. Before moving to the grave opposite of the central one, she slid another three rounds into her hand. She started packing, only to stop as she heard Teric’s hurried steps in the hall. Her face appeared in the doorway.
“Don-,” Hewpac dropped two bullets individually, but in quick succession before waiting just a little bit more to drop the final. Four more bullets, the last of the bullets that the magazine held, found themselves in her hand as she stepped to the side to face the central column, before she quickly turned her head. Tossing the four bullets to the ground, all at once, she saw Drawbett’s face through the close grouping of holes that now found themselves in the bathroom’s door, and she heard Drawbett as she left the way she came, stepping over Teric, and through the door of their quarters in Minsal, duffle filled. She stood there until the woman in pink approached her, umbrella in hand.
“Dear, don’t you think we’ve kept that boy waiting long enough?” And with a sigh, she nodded, quickly and mindlessly replacing the magazine to its original place before walking ahead, leaving a trail of baked circles behind her. The Archgeneral stopped herself from exiting the forest alone, and waited for the pink clad woman to hop awkwardly from spot of dry trail to spot of dry trail. Arms linked, they left the forest together, and into the driver’s vision. He hurriedly rushed out into the drizzle to open the door.
“Where am I to drive next, Archgeneral Hewpac?”
“The house is fine,” the woman in pink respond with an earnest smile. Once back in the car, he started the engine, closed the partition, and carefully turned the car around before he started to head back to his passengers’ mansion.
“I know today can be especially hard for you, so just know that I-,” Hewpac’s attention ceased on the woman’s voice and instead on the hand that had suddenly jutted out to clutch her own. Her eyes flicked from the raised sheet that separated them from the cabin of the car and to the tinted windows before speaking.
“What is the point of this?” she said in monotone, interrupting the other without thought.
“What? Oh,” the other woman quickly understood, retracting her hand, albeit slowly, before becoming silent as the other. They spent the rest of the drive in silence.