Fic: Glass
Mar. 13th, 2014 02:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
boxxsaltzTitle: Glass
Author: boxxsaltz
Rating: PG-13; R
Pairing: Tiffany/Jessica
Summary: Sometimes being threatened at knifepoint doesn't turn out the way you expect.
Glass
Tiffany used a foot to flush the toilet.
Stumbling, she turned on the faucet and scrubbed her hands in the rust stained sink. Looking at her reflection, Tiffany asked herself what the hell was she doing. Greasy, gas station, unisex restrooms with piss stains and sticky soaps sort of came with the territory of running away but it didn’t make things any less sad.
Using a paper towel, Tiffany pushed out of the bathroom, sucking clean air into her lungs. Grabbing a Red Bull and a bag of chips, she handed the clerk her card and headed back out to her car.
Dropping in, she tossed the plastic bag to the passenger seat.
“Open the chips, will you?”
It wasn’t until she started the car that Tiffany remembered. She had packed and left home alone. Alone. And she distinctly remembered not stopping for that homeless guy with the sign and a thumb up five miles back.
“What the hell?” She whipped around.
Hard eyes met her before she saw the glisten of silver metal. Tiffany had never seen such a sharp knife in her life.
“Drive.”
“What the hell?”
“Drive!” The woman demanded, forcing Tiffany’s leg down on the break.
“What're you doing?! Get out of my car!” Tiffany swatted the hand away and gasped when the knife rose up, sitting at her throat.
She sat back against the seat, heart racing and hands up.
“I’ll start over,” the knife dug in a bit as the woman squared her shoulders to face Tiffany. “Hi, my name is Jessica.”
She paused there. Tiffany cut her eyes to her, a minute late realizing that was her cue.
“Tiffany. I’m Tiffany.”
“Very good,” Jessica drawled, condescendingly. “Now, Tiffany, if you would kindly drive. I’ve been on my feet for the last fifteen hours and I need a place to stay for the night.”
“I think there’s a motel-”
“I’ll go wherever you’re going.” The knife scraped lower and Tiffany gulped. “It’s cheaper that way, see? Less of a chance of you calling the cops on me. You see where I’m coming from, right?” Tiffany dipped her chin just enough to nod. “Is that okay with you?”
“I-” she felt metal sink into her skin a bit. “Yes! That’s fine, that’s fine.”
“Good,” Jessica pulled her knife back and tucked it away somewhere in her coat. Reaching into the plastic bag, she took out the chips and ripped them open. “Chip?”
Tiffany shook her head.
Jessica shrugged and reached in to eat one herself.
“You can drive now. Go, go, go.”
-/-/-/-
It was morning by the time Tiffany pulled up to the family lake house. It looked smaller than she remembered the times her dad used to take her and her sister out to it and spend the summers away fishing on the docks.
“Hmm, nice place.” Jessica sucked chip residue from her fingers. Tiffany eyed her as she shut off the car. “Are your bags in the trunk?”
Tiffany nodded.
“Open it. I’ll get them.” Jessica started to get out when she leaned back, hand held out. “Your phone, please.”
“I don’t have a…” Jessica’s eyebrow quirked and Tiffany sighed. She dug into her pocket and handed it over.
Grinning, Jessica got out and threw up the trunk.
Tiffany watched her from through the mirrors, jumping when the trunk slammed and knuckles wrapped at the driver window.
“Are you coming?” Jessica yelled through the window.
Pushing out the car, Tiffany grabbed her satchel and followed Jessica to the door.
She had really chosen a shitty day to be her last to live.
-/-/-/-
Tiffany stood in the middle of the living room. She watched Jessica move around the house, inspecting corners, closing blinds, and checking cabinets.
“If you want something to steal, take the painting in the bedroom.” Tiffany deadpanned. She hated that thing anyway. And why did they have a photo of palm trees when it was a lake house?
Jessica scoffed as she paced back into the living room, swinging around her knife. Tiffany flinched when she got too close.
Jessica eyed her. “If I wanted to kill you I would’ve already done it.”
“Maybe you’re the psycho, serial killer types that like to torture their victims first.”
Jessica snorted and moved towards the bedroom with the throw that was draped over the couch.
“Where are you going?”
“To sleep,” Jessica called from the other room. “And don’t think about calling the police. I have your phone and cut all the landlines.”
Tiffany eyed the severed cord leading from the phone by the TV.
Plopping onto the couch, she dropped her head back against it and stared up at the ceiling.
She was not going to sleep tonight.
-/-/-/-
Splash!
Tiffany gasped, arms flailing and sputtering. She sat up on the couch, gasping for air and coughing against the water she had managed to breathe in. Wiping water from her eyes she stared up through wet lashes at Jessica who held an emptied glass in her hand.
“What is your problem?” She patted at her drenched shirt. “Are you trying to drown me?”
Jessica gave that same snort she had the night before. Like Tiffany was stupid for saying something so, well, stupid. But she didn’t know what else Jessica expected when she had been held at knife point and threatened her into coming. Anything could happen.
“You don’t have any food.”
“So?”
Jessica’s eyebrows rose up in annoyance. Tiffany huffed.
“Well, if you didn’t eat all the chips.”
Rolling her eyes, Jessica tossed Tiffany her cellphone. “Call delivery.”
“Why?”
“Because we have no food and I’m not going to sit here and starve.” She snapped. “And if you don’t want to be stabbed to death, I suggest you call. Now.”
Tiffany kept a straight face, brow pulled in as she picked up her phone and phoned information to get the nearest pizza place number.
It took everything in her not to let her voice shake in fear of what Jessica would do when she’d have to tell her that the pizza place didn’t open until ten.
It was only eight in the morning.
-/-/-/-
“Thank you,” Tiffany waved to the grocery delivery boy as he pulled out.
She turned back toward the house, catching Jessica standing in the window. A second later, she was coming down the walkway, helping Tiffany carry some of the bags.
“If you think I’m making you breakfast-”
“I got it.” Jessica sat everything in the kitchen.
She clamored around, opening and closing cabinets and drawers until she found the right items needed. Tiffany sat at the bar, watching her work with the mixing and pouring and the frying.
The spread she cooked up and laid out on festive red plates was surprising. Tiffany hadn’t had anything homecooked since she left home at eighteen to make a life of her own then binged on junk food.
Sitting at the dining table, she ate with Jessica who shoveled down her food sloppier than Tiffany had expected. She wouldn't truly peg this woman as anything dangerous either. Not with her blonde dye job, pretty makeup, and delicate fingers that looked better suited for petting kittens than wielding knives.
But Tiffany probably didn’t look like a twenty-something runaway who just upped and skipped out on the guy she had been dating for two some odd years. Or maybe she did. Her reflection looked gloomy and desperate when she saw herself that morning.
“This is really good.” Tiffany hummed, biting off what she figured was some sort of omelette.
“Is it?” Jessica sounded genuinely surprised. “I ripped the recipe off some grandma of this guy I murdered.”
“Well, it is to die for.” Tiffany joked, laughing.
Jessica eyed her from across the table and Tiffany shut up, clearing her throat.
“I mean, yeah. It’s good. Great recipe. Is there enough for seconds?”
-/-/-/-
Tiffany grunted and groaned while fumbling with the TV. She had been working on it for the past thirty minutes and nothing was coming up but static and a piercing noise.
“Would you cut that out?” Jessica hissed from where she stood by the window.
She was always standing by the window when she wasn’t lounging on the couch reading through some book she found on the coffee table or reminding Tiffany she couldn't leave.
“I don’t see you trying to help.”
“Television rots your brain.”
“You didn’t cut the wiring in the TV, too, did you?”
Jessica gave her that stupid look again and Tiffany seethed.
Punching the TV off, she moved to the recliner and plopped down, cranking the lever so her feet propped up.
“I’m bored. Why can’t I leave?”
Jessica sighed. “Because you can’t be trusted.”
“And you can?”
“You’re still breathing, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Tiffany laid out, arms draping over the sides of the couch and front presented. “Go on. Take my life! I don’t want to go on like this any longer!”
Peeking out of one eye, she saw Jessica draw away from the window. For a second Tiffany panicked, thinking she was really going to do something until she saw Jessica go for the door and walk outside.
Sitting up, Tiffany watched her through the glass walls of the lake house living room. Crossing the gravel drive, she continued her way down towards the dock.
After a moment, Tiffany got up and followed.
She found Jessica at the edge of the dock, body facing the waters. Tiffany came up on her side slowly, eyeing the lake that spanned for miles with nothing in sight. Unless she were to drive back the way she came, there was no one. They were all alone.
“What is this place anyway?”
“My dad’s,” Tiffany sighed, eyes tracing a path of an invisible jet ski, watching her ten-year-old self screaming at the top of her lungs as he went full speed. “He first rented it for his honeymoon. But my mom loved it so much he bought it. We’d come here every summer.”
“How...Hallmark.”
Tiffany rolled her eyes. But Jessica was kind of right. “What about you and your trusty knife?”
“‘Trusty knife’?”
“Don’t all psycho killers have that one special weapon?”
“Why do you think I’m a psycho killer?”
“I don’t know.”
Jessica’s jaw tightened. “You watch too much TV.”
“Yeah, maybe.” She deflated and Jessica cracked a smile. Tiffany ducked her head to hide her own at seeing Jessica give her more expressions than that demeaning look. “But, really, why do you have it?”
Jessica laughed out loud and turned away to walk back up the dock.
Tiffany chased after her. “I’m serious!”
-/-/-/-
The book in her hands was snatched up and replaced by a buzzing phone that dropped onto her stomach.
“I’m tired of it ringing.” Said Jessica, taking the book and moved to the recliner where she began to read.
Picking up her phone, Tiffany saw the call get answered by voicemail. Her eyes widened seeing the number of missed calls, text messages, and voicemails already in her box.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She growled. Jessica shrugged, turning a page.
Rising off the couch, Tiffany closed herself up in the bedroom. She sighed, finger scrolling through the names. Not only had he called but he had gotten some of their mutual friends and even her dad.
Her dad of all people.
Tiffany hit the playback on her dad’s voicemail.
“Hun, you don’t have to come home but call us back. We can talk about this. All we need to do is talk about it.”
Tiffany hit delete after that. She hit delete on all the others, whispering a silent sorry to Yuri who was always on her side but she couldn't risk the chance of her family using her best friend to reel her in.
“Tiffany?” A knock at the door.
“It’s open.”
Jessica stepped inside, holding out her hand. Tiffany handed it to her willingly and got up to leave.
“You can turn it off if you want.”
“Everything okay?”
She stopped at the door, taken aback by the sincerity in Jessica’s voice.
She pushed on a smile.
“Peachy.”
-/-/-/-
Forty-five minutes.
That was all the time Jessica allotted her to hit the town for some supplies - especially alcohol - before she needed to get back.
Shuffling to the register at the convenience store, Tiffany pulled out her wallet to pay as the clerk rung her up. Behind the counter she saw a kid (probably the clerk’s) watching a dingy TV and sucking on a lollipop.
“The search continues after the trail went cold two weeks ago. If you believe you have seen the suspect, please notify authorities immediately….”
“Ma’am?”
Tiffany tuned out the new report and grabbed her bags.
Revving up the car, she started out of the parking lot.
-/-/-/-
“And guess how I know. Guess!”
Jessica looked over the rim of her glass cooly as Tiffany raved on. She had felt herself getting drunk but she was so far beyond that point that she now just felt sober with a slight case of delusion.
“You found the receipt?” Jessica tried.
“Wrong!” Tiffany cackled, tipping the bottle at her lips. “I found the ring. The ring! It was just sitting there in his underwear drawer.”
“What a moron.”
“That’s what I thought,” Tiffany slumped back against the couch. The bottle slipped from her grip and banged to the carpet. Neither moved to pick it up. “But then I started thinking that he’s not the moron. I am.”
“You are?” Jessica inquired.
Tiffany knew she was only humoring her but it was the best damn thing she had done for her other than making them breakfast and making sure Tiffany remembered to eat lunch when all she wanted to do was wallow in self pity in the bedroom.
“Because I actually believed I loved him!” Tiffany’s cackle turned into a whimper. She slapped a hand over her aching head. “Everyone made me believe it. My dad, my sister, me, even my best friend did.”
“What a shitty best friend.”
Tiffany turned over to Jessica, eyes hopeful. “Will you be my new best friend?”
“Sorry, not taking applications at this time.” Jessica peeled Tiffany’s hand away from her thigh and got up to grab a towel.
Tiffany laid down, sprawling along the couch in a drunken heap.
“I mean, he was good in bed and all but I don’t want that.” Her nose scrunched remembering his sloppy kisses and weighted body. She remembered his stroking touches and his dark eyes.
If she closed her eyes she could even smell him and his cologne.
“Ew,” she nearly gagged. “I don’t want that.”
“What do you want?”
Jessica’s voice close by drew her eyes open. She watched blonde hair sway as Jessica wiped at the spill on the floor with a towel.
“I want…” her lips smacked, taking in deep breaths.
She wanted something nice and pretty. Something that could take charge when Tiffany was tired of bossing people at the office and just handle her. She wanted something that she could wrap herself into its scent and ache with love and want. She wanted something that looked her in the eyes and gave her chills. She wanted -
“Something new.”
“Like?”
It was too much watching Jessica move around and Tiffany closed her eyes again. She could hear her walk through the lake house and return to sit on the floor in front of the couch. Metal clanked as another bottle opened and Tiffany heard Jessica take a drink.
“I want something like you.”
She heard Jessica choke.
“What?”
“Really.”
“You’re drunk, Tiffany.”
“I know, but listen. Listen - you’re new and different. I mean,” Tiffany snorted as she laughed. “You hold people at knife point.”
“Do you want me to hold you at knife point again?” Asked Jessica. There was something different in her tone. Something a little hesitant and thick.
“Maybe.”
“You’re into that kind of stuff?”
“I don’t really know what kind of stuff I’m into. But I could be into it.” Tiffany opened her eyes just barely. She shivered when she saw Jessica staring back at her. “I could...be into you.”
Her hand moved on its own accord, cupping Jessica’s face. She stroked at her cheek with a thumb, body heating up with the warmth that generated from Jessica’s skin. Maybe if she wasn’t drunk she would’ve believed Jessica had actually leaned into her touch.
“I could be into someone like you.” She muttered and Jessica looked away.
Just like that, the spell was broken.
“Come on,” Jessica stood, and tugged at Tiffany’s wrist. “Let’s get you in bed.”
-/-/-/-
“Tiffany.”
Damn. How much did she drink?
“Tiffany, wake up.”
“Go away.”
“Dammit, Tiffany, wake up.” Jessica’s voice came into focus along with the hand that was shaking her. “Someone’s at the door.”
“What?” Tiffany rolled over on the mattress. Her head was swimming. “Why?”
“We needed groceries.”
Tiffany winced when she split open her eyes. Pinching them shut she covered her face with the blankets. “You get it.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because…” Jessica trailed off. There was a knock on the front door. “Never mind.”
She heard Jessica rummage through the closet before her footsteps padded through the house. The exchange of voices followed wrapped up with a polite,
“Thank you!”
Tiffany smiled. She knew Jessica could sound sweet. With a voice like that, you had to sound sweet.
“Are you hungry?” Jessica called into the room along with more closet noises.
“No.”
“I’ll make you something.”
Burying her face in the blankets, Tiffany hoped she’d bring it to bed.
And bring herself as well.
-/-/-/-
Jessica had left her sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap on the counter.
Tiffany peeled it back and ate alone at the bar. Through the windows, she could just make out the speck of Jessica down at the shore, pants rolled up an splashing through the shallow waters.
Finishing, Tiffany changed into shorts and walked down.
“What’re you doing?”
“Splashin’”
Tiffany grinned at the childish answer. “Can I join?”
Jessica shrugged and Tiffany stepped into the water, hissing at its cold. She stood still for a moment to get used to it before she walked in deeper where she waited.
“About the other night…”
“We don’t have to talk about it.”
Tiffany winced. “I’m sorry anyway.”
Jessica shrugged again. She walked further down the shore before returning, hands in her jean pockets and head down as she spoke.
“Is your fiance-”
“My possible to be fiance.” Tiffany clarified.
Jessica rolled her eyes but it hardly held the same sting as it had the past weeks.
Wow. Weeks? Tiffany had lost all track of time.
“Was he bad to you?”
Tiffany shook her head. And that’s what made it all the worse.
“He’s perfect, actually.” She sighed and started walking, kicking at the water the way Jessica had. “Great parents, solid income, amazing smile.”
Jessica eyed her curiously a second, head tilting. “What’s the problem?”
“He’s too perfect.” Tiffany scrunched her nose. Her dad’s wish for her to stop dating bad boys came true with this one. She sort of missed the mystery and the edge though. But that was childish of her. “He’s not what I want anymore.”
“But you could want me?”
Jessica’s words stopped her. She turned to look at her, staring into those focused eyes. Tiffany could vaguely remember looking into them the night before, soaking in her heat through her palm. She had shivered then. Tiffany’s stomach fluttered now.
“I could.”
Jessica stiffened before she looked away.
“I’m not a good person, Tiffany.”
“No one is anymore,” she said then laughed. “Even Mr. Perfect possible groom to be isn’t. I mean, he drools in his sleep.”
Jessica laughed and Tiffany’s cheeks ached with how hard she smiled hearing it.
“You know, you’re pretty nice for a psycho killer.”
Jessica dropped her head, smiling sadly. “We’re not all completely bad.”
-/-/-/-
They finished off the alcohol over dinner. Tiffany’s treat.
It didn’t taste nearly as good as what Jessica had been making them, but she needed some way to repay her. Even if it was a little burnt around the edges.
“Why did you keep me locked up in here anyway?” Asked Tiffany over the run of the sink. Jessica took a wet plate from her and started on drying it. “When I realized you weren’t trying to rob me or anything, I wouldn't have gone to the police.”
Jessica was slow to answer her. “I had to make sure.”
“That’s a little dramatic.”
“I don’t like doing things halfway.”
Tiffany nodded, picking up her wineglass and sipped. Jessica put away the last of the dishes and they were left with nothing more than a slight buzz and an empty lake house.
Her eye caught Jessica who was sipping her wine serenely from the other side of the bar. She licked her lips, savoring it off as Tiffany sat her empty glass away.
There was something different in the air. Just like the way Jessica’s voice had changed that night. Tiffany could feel it in the pit of her stomach, warming up through her nerves.
Her pulse raced a bit when her eyes met Jessica’s. They were concentrated. They were still, unlike her chest that rose and fell in heavy breaths.
“I’ll, uh, take the shower first?” Tiffany announced.
“Okay.”
She carried the tension with her all the way to the bathroom, steam of the shower just making it worse knowing that those piercing pair of eyes and glossy lips were just beyond the door.
-/-/-/-
“Jessica?”
The knife against her throat dug in just barely when she spoke.
Tiffany was paralyzed where she stood, towel wrapped around her dripping body that was pressed back against Jessica who held her tightly with one arm. Out the corner of her eye, she could see the hand holding the knife shaking.
“Jessica,” she swallowed. God, she had been so stupid. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to.”
“Jessica, listen to me.” Tiffany pleaded. “Please, don’t. Don’t do it.”
“Why not?” The hand holding around Tiffany moved up, smoothing along the towel. “You’re not backing out are you?”
The question of what she meant never made it to Tiffany’s lips when her towel flapped open. Jessica leaned back enough for it to drop to the floor and pool at their feet. The hand against her front smoothed down, palming over her stomach and dipping low along her waist.
“Don’t you want to try?” Jessica sounded unsure when she spoke.
Tiffany shivered. Her fear molded into desire and she swallowed. “Yes.”
She heard Jessica smile before those lips were on her neck kissing her. Tiffany reached back, gripping Jessica’s thighs as her mouth ran up along her skin then back down, tickling the place at the nape of her neck.
The hand holding the knife drew away and Tiffany turned, hands gripping Jessica’s face to bring those lips against hers. She moaned into the kiss, immediately receiving the scorching heat of Jessica’s mouth as their tongues met.
Hands groped as Tiffany fought to get constricting clothes off Jessica. The knife clattered to the floor as she yanked off her shirt then worked on her jeans leaving what was underneath to Jessica.
“Kiss me,” Jessica begged and Tiffany brought herself back up.
Tiffany whimpered at the feeling of their bodies coming together. She felt the same reaction on Jessica with the roll of her hips that sent them moving. Tiffany landed on the bed first, tugging Jessica after.
Locking her legs around her back, she wrapped her arms around Jessica’s neck, holding her in place as Jessica searched her neck with that hot little mouth again. Hips rolled below and Tiffany groaned when Jessica grinded right into her.
“Yes, please,” Tiffany breathed, mouth falling open when Jessica’s mouth descending to her chest and sucked.
She clawed at Jessica’s back, bringing her hips up in time with each of Jessica’s thrust. Tiffany could feel herself being worked up fast, body filled with heady excitement of the experience. She didn’t know how to savor it, to let the nips and sucks of Jessica’s mouth on sensitive skin build slow. She couldn't keep the buzzing burn in the pit of her stomach from intensifying when Jessica’s hips circled just right and Tiffany moaned loud.
Jessica’s lips found hers again, sucking the whimpers right out of her chest.
“Don’t hold back.” Jessica muttered.
Tiffany’s eyes fluttered open as she felt Jessica slide down. A hand took hers, placing it into blonde hair. When she realized what Jessica was about to do, she pushed her down until Jessica was off the bed, knees hitting the floor.
Eager hands wrapped around her thighs and pulled. Tiffany’s back slid along the covers, center meeting Jessica’s mouth deliciously.
Heels dug into Jessica’s shoulder blades, Tiffany clung on for dear life.
-/-/-/-
“What?” Tiffany whined.
Jessica stared across the pillow at her, grinning.
“Stop looking at me like that.” She pulled the covers up to cover her face.
Jessica tugged them and TIffany fought her back. They rolled around, weight shifting until Tiffany was pressed into the cushion with Jessica above her, blanket separating them.
“Tiffany.”
“No. What?”
She felt Jessica lower to where her head was. “How was it?”
Tiffany groaned from beneath the blankets. She could hardly breathe under Jessica’s weight and the claustrophobic covers.
“Tiffany?”
She pinched her eyes shut, cheeks heating in embarrassment. “...amazing.”
Jessica took that to rip the blankets away. Tiffany squealed, trying to squim away from her but Jessica’s strength pulled her back, rolling her over.
“Quit, you’re embarrassing me.” Tiffany pouted.
Jessica kissed it off and Tiffany found herself giving into those lips.
“You were amazing, too.” Jessica muttered and Tiffany all but flushed.
She clawed at the mattress, crawling until she was on the edge and they rolled to the floor. Jessica held her pinned down, laughing into Tiffany's neck. She tried to push her away but teeth found her pulse point and Tiffany turned into that globby mess she had become at the mercy of Jessica’s mouth and fingers the night before.
“Okay, okay, you’ve made your- mmm,” Tiffany curved her fingers into Jessica’s hair, holding her in place as she sucked. Her hips moved up, grinding on the knee between her thighs. “You made your point - oh god, Jessica, not before breakfast.”
“You can be my breakfast.”
Tiffany blushed, body jerking to grind herself into Jessica’s thigh harder. “You might be okay with that, but I’m starving.”
Giving a firm push, she detached Jessica from her neck. They panted, staring at each other and Tiffany felt all flustered and embarrassed all over again.
Tiffany chewed her lip suddenly shy all over again. “Did you really mean it?”
“Mean what?”
“You know,” Tiffany grinned. “That I was…”
“You’ve got a lot to learn but-”
“Hey!” She slapped Jessica’s arm. “You just said I was-”
“Amazing. You were.” Jessica pecked her lips before getting up.
The blanket fell away from her naked body and Tiffany didn't know what to do with herself at seeing it in the light of the sun.
“You’ll have to go to the store,” Jessica informed as she picked up Tiffany’s towel and wrapped it around herself. “And get more beer.”
“Fine,” Tiffany stuck out her tongue.
Jessica snickered as she stepped into the bathroom.
-/-/-/-
Tiffany placed a six pack and a box of pastries on the convenience store counter and went for her wallet. Looking back up, she held out her card for the clerk whose attention was drawn down to the TV.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, sorry,” he shuffled over, ringing her up.
Tiffany’s brow furrowed as he turned back around to the TV, missing the card swipe.
“What’s going on?”
“You don’t know?” His eyes were wide as Tiffany shook her head. He whistled, running her card through the system and handed it back. “They think they caught that serial killer who’s been on the run.”
“What?” Tiffany turned her attention to the TV.
“Apparently a man saw her just last week.” He went on. “Close to here, actually.”
“...authorities are looking into the speculation immediately.”
The news report cut out there, going to commercial. Tiffany felt her stomach drop.
“Thank you.”
Pushing out the store, she ran for her car, forgetting her bag.
-/-/-/-
She saw the lights before she saw the cars.
Officers stood outside, arms waving for her to stop as she pulled to the mouth of the short dirt road that led down to the lake house.
Officer approaching, she rolled down her window.
“Is there a problem?”
He pulled off his sunglasses, eyeing her. “Is that your lake house down there?”
“Yes, it’s my family’s. I’ve been staying there the past month and a half.”
The officer’s eyebrows lifted. “What’s your name, ma’am?”
“Tiffany Hwang.”
“I’m going to need you to step out of the car.” He instructed, stepping back.
Tiffany trembled as she pushed the door open and climbed out. Her eyes fell on the other squad cars, doors opened to shield armed officers from what threat could come up the road.
Tiffany’s stomach was in her throat as she was led over to the chief’s car. She stared down the road, heart hammering in her chest. The only people who had been up and down that pathway were delivery runs, her and Jessica.
Could Jessica...
“Do you know this woman, Miss Hwang?”
Tiffany turned her head to the picture held in the officer’s fingers.
Despite the brown hair, she knew Jessica off the bat. Those piercing eyes, those smirking lips, that long neck Tiffany had spent hours moaning and breathing into.
“Ma’am?”
“Y-yes,” she stuttered. It felt like knives in her throat to admit it. “Her name is Jessica.”
“Jessica?” The offer’s expression fell along with Tiffany’s stomach. “Ma’am, this woman is Jung Sooyeon. She escaped from our custody two months ago, evading arrest for a string of charges linked to a pattern of murders.”
“What?”
“This woman is a serial killer, Miss Hwang.”
“No, she’s not...” Tiffany shook her head. No she couldn’t be. “No, you’re mistaken. Her name is Jessica. I’ve been living with her for the past month and….”
She trailed off seeing the horror on the officer’s face.
“You said you’ve been living with her?” He questioned. “Miss Hwang, have you been seeing this woman?”
“No, I mean not exactly. We just met and-”
“Where did you meet?”
“At a gas station…”
“Which -”
“Chief! We’ve got her!”
Tiffany’s neck snapped over to the sound of guns cocking. She squeaked as hands pushed her into the chief’s car and the door was slammed on her, trapping her in. Spinning around on the seat, Tiffany watched through the back windshield as a set of officers led a handcuffed Jessica up the dirt path.
Tiffany broke.
“Jessica!” She screamed, beating against the glass. “Jessica, Jessica!”
Yanking at the knob, she jumped out of the car.
“Jessica!”
“Miss Hwang!”
The chief caught her around the waist just as Jessica turned to her, mouth parted in shock.
“Jessica!”
Rough hands pushed at Jessica to walk. She jerked forward, head falling down as they shoved her into a car.
“Jessica!”
Hard eyes turned up at her.
“Tiffany...” Jessica muttered.
The door slammed.
-/-/-/-
She stared into Jessica’s eyes three months later through thick glass and watery eyes.
Officers flanked on either side, guarding Jessica like the criminal she was and protecting Tiffany like the victim they believed her to be.
But she wasn’t.
“She didn’t want to kill me.” Tiffany had tried to tell them. “She loved me.”
Or so she would’ve liked to believe. What could’ve become.
But those weren’t the kinds of things they wanted to print in papers. Not about cold-blooded killers who seemingly had no soul. They threw words at her like stockholm syndrome but Tiffany would never agree to such claims. But no one wanted to believe that.
They almost made Tiffany believe it herself. Her family, her friends. They didn’t understand that she didn’t want to marry Mr. Perfect. She didn’t want any of that anymore. She wanted Jessica. Or she wanted something like Jessica showed her.
No, she didn’t need therapy. No, she wouldn't change her mind. No, she wouldn't come to her senses.
She was sane. It was everyone else who had a problem.
“Fifteen minutes, Miss Hwang.”
She nodded as she stepped forward.
Three months.
They wouldn't let her in to see Jessica until they believed she was better. So Tiffany played her part. She denied she ever felt anything for Jessica and that it was all a trick of manipulation.
Approaching the glass, Tiffany sank down into a chair.
The Jessica behind that barrier was not the Jessica she had known. This one was cold, fragile, empty. The one she had known was warm and wanting.
“Jessica?”
A head flicked up and the guards flinched at the sudden movement.
Placid eyes were slow to find Tiffany, but once they did, they locked on.
They locked on but they didn’t see. The didn’t see her.
“If that deliver boy hadn’t tipped us off…”
That was how they found out. Tiffany tried to remember when anyone else would’ve seen Jessica. Tiffany had always gone out to get the groceries or the take out. Tiffany was the one to go to the stores. Tiffany was always the one. Except for once.
Except the morning after she got drunk.
Jessica had tried to disguise herself when she went to the door. It didn’t work.
Tiffany beat herself up over it for weeks.
Why did she answer the door? Why would she risk it?
The only reason she came up with was Jessica just wanted to make sure she ate.
“Miss Hwang?”
Tiffany jumped. Wetness hit her hand and she realized she was crying. She wiped at her eyes.
“Why doesn’t she recognize me?”
“It’s the sedation, ma’am.”
Tiffany bristled. She couldn’t do this.
“I can’t do this.”
Getting up, she turned her back, following after the officers.
“Who’s Jessica?”
Tiffany froze at the doorway. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Jessica blink, releasing tears from her eyes. Her pale lips quivered, wrists straining against the cuffs and chains holding her.
Tiffany knew what she wanted. She wanted to reach for her.
“Miss Hwang!”
Tiffany approached the glass fast, hands pressed up against it and lips at the little intercom slits.
“Jessica, it’s me. It’s Tiffany! It’s me!”
“Tiffany?” Jessica’s brow creased.
“Yes, Tiffany. It’s me, Jessica. It’s Tiffany.”
“Tiffany…” the flicker of familiarity was gone in a blink as soon as it came. “Jessica?”
Tiffany dropped her hands away. That was it.
“Please, take me out of here.”
Hand guiding her by the shoulder, she walked out to the sound of Jessica’s voice chanting her name, each time a question as if it would click.
But none of those hurt as much as the last thing Jessica muttered before the door shut.
“I’m sorry, Tiffany.”
She never returned there again.
Fin.
-
Author: boxxsaltz
Rating: PG-13; R
Pairing: Tiffany/Jessica
Summary: Sometimes being threatened at knifepoint doesn't turn out the way you expect.
Glass
Tiffany used a foot to flush the toilet.
Stumbling, she turned on the faucet and scrubbed her hands in the rust stained sink. Looking at her reflection, Tiffany asked herself what the hell was she doing. Greasy, gas station, unisex restrooms with piss stains and sticky soaps sort of came with the territory of running away but it didn’t make things any less sad.
Using a paper towel, Tiffany pushed out of the bathroom, sucking clean air into her lungs. Grabbing a Red Bull and a bag of chips, she handed the clerk her card and headed back out to her car.
Dropping in, she tossed the plastic bag to the passenger seat.
“Open the chips, will you?”
It wasn’t until she started the car that Tiffany remembered. She had packed and left home alone. Alone. And she distinctly remembered not stopping for that homeless guy with the sign and a thumb up five miles back.
“What the hell?” She whipped around.
Hard eyes met her before she saw the glisten of silver metal. Tiffany had never seen such a sharp knife in her life.
“Drive.”
“What the hell?”
“Drive!” The woman demanded, forcing Tiffany’s leg down on the break.
“What're you doing?! Get out of my car!” Tiffany swatted the hand away and gasped when the knife rose up, sitting at her throat.
She sat back against the seat, heart racing and hands up.
“I’ll start over,” the knife dug in a bit as the woman squared her shoulders to face Tiffany. “Hi, my name is Jessica.”
She paused there. Tiffany cut her eyes to her, a minute late realizing that was her cue.
“Tiffany. I’m Tiffany.”
“Very good,” Jessica drawled, condescendingly. “Now, Tiffany, if you would kindly drive. I’ve been on my feet for the last fifteen hours and I need a place to stay for the night.”
“I think there’s a motel-”
“I’ll go wherever you’re going.” The knife scraped lower and Tiffany gulped. “It’s cheaper that way, see? Less of a chance of you calling the cops on me. You see where I’m coming from, right?” Tiffany dipped her chin just enough to nod. “Is that okay with you?”
“I-” she felt metal sink into her skin a bit. “Yes! That’s fine, that’s fine.”
“Good,” Jessica pulled her knife back and tucked it away somewhere in her coat. Reaching into the plastic bag, she took out the chips and ripped them open. “Chip?”
Tiffany shook her head.
Jessica shrugged and reached in to eat one herself.
“You can drive now. Go, go, go.”
-/-/-/-
It was morning by the time Tiffany pulled up to the family lake house. It looked smaller than she remembered the times her dad used to take her and her sister out to it and spend the summers away fishing on the docks.
“Hmm, nice place.” Jessica sucked chip residue from her fingers. Tiffany eyed her as she shut off the car. “Are your bags in the trunk?”
Tiffany nodded.
“Open it. I’ll get them.” Jessica started to get out when she leaned back, hand held out. “Your phone, please.”
“I don’t have a…” Jessica’s eyebrow quirked and Tiffany sighed. She dug into her pocket and handed it over.
Grinning, Jessica got out and threw up the trunk.
Tiffany watched her from through the mirrors, jumping when the trunk slammed and knuckles wrapped at the driver window.
“Are you coming?” Jessica yelled through the window.
Pushing out the car, Tiffany grabbed her satchel and followed Jessica to the door.
She had really chosen a shitty day to be her last to live.
-/-/-/-
Tiffany stood in the middle of the living room. She watched Jessica move around the house, inspecting corners, closing blinds, and checking cabinets.
“If you want something to steal, take the painting in the bedroom.” Tiffany deadpanned. She hated that thing anyway. And why did they have a photo of palm trees when it was a lake house?
Jessica scoffed as she paced back into the living room, swinging around her knife. Tiffany flinched when she got too close.
Jessica eyed her. “If I wanted to kill you I would’ve already done it.”
“Maybe you’re the psycho, serial killer types that like to torture their victims first.”
Jessica snorted and moved towards the bedroom with the throw that was draped over the couch.
“Where are you going?”
“To sleep,” Jessica called from the other room. “And don’t think about calling the police. I have your phone and cut all the landlines.”
Tiffany eyed the severed cord leading from the phone by the TV.
Plopping onto the couch, she dropped her head back against it and stared up at the ceiling.
She was not going to sleep tonight.
-/-/-/-
Splash!
Tiffany gasped, arms flailing and sputtering. She sat up on the couch, gasping for air and coughing against the water she had managed to breathe in. Wiping water from her eyes she stared up through wet lashes at Jessica who held an emptied glass in her hand.
“What is your problem?” She patted at her drenched shirt. “Are you trying to drown me?”
Jessica gave that same snort she had the night before. Like Tiffany was stupid for saying something so, well, stupid. But she didn’t know what else Jessica expected when she had been held at knife point and threatened her into coming. Anything could happen.
“You don’t have any food.”
“So?”
Jessica’s eyebrows rose up in annoyance. Tiffany huffed.
“Well, if you didn’t eat all the chips.”
Rolling her eyes, Jessica tossed Tiffany her cellphone. “Call delivery.”
“Why?”
“Because we have no food and I’m not going to sit here and starve.” She snapped. “And if you don’t want to be stabbed to death, I suggest you call. Now.”
Tiffany kept a straight face, brow pulled in as she picked up her phone and phoned information to get the nearest pizza place number.
It took everything in her not to let her voice shake in fear of what Jessica would do when she’d have to tell her that the pizza place didn’t open until ten.
It was only eight in the morning.
-/-/-/-
“Thank you,” Tiffany waved to the grocery delivery boy as he pulled out.
She turned back toward the house, catching Jessica standing in the window. A second later, she was coming down the walkway, helping Tiffany carry some of the bags.
“If you think I’m making you breakfast-”
“I got it.” Jessica sat everything in the kitchen.
She clamored around, opening and closing cabinets and drawers until she found the right items needed. Tiffany sat at the bar, watching her work with the mixing and pouring and the frying.
The spread she cooked up and laid out on festive red plates was surprising. Tiffany hadn’t had anything homecooked since she left home at eighteen to make a life of her own then binged on junk food.
Sitting at the dining table, she ate with Jessica who shoveled down her food sloppier than Tiffany had expected. She wouldn't truly peg this woman as anything dangerous either. Not with her blonde dye job, pretty makeup, and delicate fingers that looked better suited for petting kittens than wielding knives.
But Tiffany probably didn’t look like a twenty-something runaway who just upped and skipped out on the guy she had been dating for two some odd years. Or maybe she did. Her reflection looked gloomy and desperate when she saw herself that morning.
“This is really good.” Tiffany hummed, biting off what she figured was some sort of omelette.
“Is it?” Jessica sounded genuinely surprised. “I ripped the recipe off some grandma of this guy I murdered.”
“Well, it is to die for.” Tiffany joked, laughing.
Jessica eyed her from across the table and Tiffany shut up, clearing her throat.
“I mean, yeah. It’s good. Great recipe. Is there enough for seconds?”
-/-/-/-
Tiffany grunted and groaned while fumbling with the TV. She had been working on it for the past thirty minutes and nothing was coming up but static and a piercing noise.
“Would you cut that out?” Jessica hissed from where she stood by the window.
She was always standing by the window when she wasn’t lounging on the couch reading through some book she found on the coffee table or reminding Tiffany she couldn't leave.
“I don’t see you trying to help.”
“Television rots your brain.”
“You didn’t cut the wiring in the TV, too, did you?”
Jessica gave her that stupid look again and Tiffany seethed.
Punching the TV off, she moved to the recliner and plopped down, cranking the lever so her feet propped up.
“I’m bored. Why can’t I leave?”
Jessica sighed. “Because you can’t be trusted.”
“And you can?”
“You’re still breathing, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Tiffany laid out, arms draping over the sides of the couch and front presented. “Go on. Take my life! I don’t want to go on like this any longer!”
Peeking out of one eye, she saw Jessica draw away from the window. For a second Tiffany panicked, thinking she was really going to do something until she saw Jessica go for the door and walk outside.
Sitting up, Tiffany watched her through the glass walls of the lake house living room. Crossing the gravel drive, she continued her way down towards the dock.
After a moment, Tiffany got up and followed.
She found Jessica at the edge of the dock, body facing the waters. Tiffany came up on her side slowly, eyeing the lake that spanned for miles with nothing in sight. Unless she were to drive back the way she came, there was no one. They were all alone.
“What is this place anyway?”
“My dad’s,” Tiffany sighed, eyes tracing a path of an invisible jet ski, watching her ten-year-old self screaming at the top of her lungs as he went full speed. “He first rented it for his honeymoon. But my mom loved it so much he bought it. We’d come here every summer.”
“How...Hallmark.”
Tiffany rolled her eyes. But Jessica was kind of right. “What about you and your trusty knife?”
“‘Trusty knife’?”
“Don’t all psycho killers have that one special weapon?”
“Why do you think I’m a psycho killer?”
“I don’t know.”
Jessica’s jaw tightened. “You watch too much TV.”
“Yeah, maybe.” She deflated and Jessica cracked a smile. Tiffany ducked her head to hide her own at seeing Jessica give her more expressions than that demeaning look. “But, really, why do you have it?”
Jessica laughed out loud and turned away to walk back up the dock.
Tiffany chased after her. “I’m serious!”
-/-/-/-
The book in her hands was snatched up and replaced by a buzzing phone that dropped onto her stomach.
“I’m tired of it ringing.” Said Jessica, taking the book and moved to the recliner where she began to read.
Picking up her phone, Tiffany saw the call get answered by voicemail. Her eyes widened seeing the number of missed calls, text messages, and voicemails already in her box.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She growled. Jessica shrugged, turning a page.
Rising off the couch, Tiffany closed herself up in the bedroom. She sighed, finger scrolling through the names. Not only had he called but he had gotten some of their mutual friends and even her dad.
Her dad of all people.
Tiffany hit the playback on her dad’s voicemail.
“Hun, you don’t have to come home but call us back. We can talk about this. All we need to do is talk about it.”
Tiffany hit delete after that. She hit delete on all the others, whispering a silent sorry to Yuri who was always on her side but she couldn't risk the chance of her family using her best friend to reel her in.
“Tiffany?” A knock at the door.
“It’s open.”
Jessica stepped inside, holding out her hand. Tiffany handed it to her willingly and got up to leave.
“You can turn it off if you want.”
“Everything okay?”
She stopped at the door, taken aback by the sincerity in Jessica’s voice.
She pushed on a smile.
“Peachy.”
-/-/-/-
Forty-five minutes.
That was all the time Jessica allotted her to hit the town for some supplies - especially alcohol - before she needed to get back.
Shuffling to the register at the convenience store, Tiffany pulled out her wallet to pay as the clerk rung her up. Behind the counter she saw a kid (probably the clerk’s) watching a dingy TV and sucking on a lollipop.
“The search continues after the trail went cold two weeks ago. If you believe you have seen the suspect, please notify authorities immediately….”
“Ma’am?”
Tiffany tuned out the new report and grabbed her bags.
Revving up the car, she started out of the parking lot.
-/-/-/-
“And guess how I know. Guess!”
Jessica looked over the rim of her glass cooly as Tiffany raved on. She had felt herself getting drunk but she was so far beyond that point that she now just felt sober with a slight case of delusion.
“You found the receipt?” Jessica tried.
“Wrong!” Tiffany cackled, tipping the bottle at her lips. “I found the ring. The ring! It was just sitting there in his underwear drawer.”
“What a moron.”
“That’s what I thought,” Tiffany slumped back against the couch. The bottle slipped from her grip and banged to the carpet. Neither moved to pick it up. “But then I started thinking that he’s not the moron. I am.”
“You are?” Jessica inquired.
Tiffany knew she was only humoring her but it was the best damn thing she had done for her other than making them breakfast and making sure Tiffany remembered to eat lunch when all she wanted to do was wallow in self pity in the bedroom.
“Because I actually believed I loved him!” Tiffany’s cackle turned into a whimper. She slapped a hand over her aching head. “Everyone made me believe it. My dad, my sister, me, even my best friend did.”
“What a shitty best friend.”
Tiffany turned over to Jessica, eyes hopeful. “Will you be my new best friend?”
“Sorry, not taking applications at this time.” Jessica peeled Tiffany’s hand away from her thigh and got up to grab a towel.
Tiffany laid down, sprawling along the couch in a drunken heap.
“I mean, he was good in bed and all but I don’t want that.” Her nose scrunched remembering his sloppy kisses and weighted body. She remembered his stroking touches and his dark eyes.
If she closed her eyes she could even smell him and his cologne.
“Ew,” she nearly gagged. “I don’t want that.”
“What do you want?”
Jessica’s voice close by drew her eyes open. She watched blonde hair sway as Jessica wiped at the spill on the floor with a towel.
“I want…” her lips smacked, taking in deep breaths.
She wanted something nice and pretty. Something that could take charge when Tiffany was tired of bossing people at the office and just handle her. She wanted something that she could wrap herself into its scent and ache with love and want. She wanted something that looked her in the eyes and gave her chills. She wanted -
“Something new.”
“Like?”
It was too much watching Jessica move around and Tiffany closed her eyes again. She could hear her walk through the lake house and return to sit on the floor in front of the couch. Metal clanked as another bottle opened and Tiffany heard Jessica take a drink.
“I want something like you.”
She heard Jessica choke.
“What?”
“Really.”
“You’re drunk, Tiffany.”
“I know, but listen. Listen - you’re new and different. I mean,” Tiffany snorted as she laughed. “You hold people at knife point.”
“Do you want me to hold you at knife point again?” Asked Jessica. There was something different in her tone. Something a little hesitant and thick.
“Maybe.”
“You’re into that kind of stuff?”
“I don’t really know what kind of stuff I’m into. But I could be into it.” Tiffany opened her eyes just barely. She shivered when she saw Jessica staring back at her. “I could...be into you.”
Her hand moved on its own accord, cupping Jessica’s face. She stroked at her cheek with a thumb, body heating up with the warmth that generated from Jessica’s skin. Maybe if she wasn’t drunk she would’ve believed Jessica had actually leaned into her touch.
“I could be into someone like you.” She muttered and Jessica looked away.
Just like that, the spell was broken.
“Come on,” Jessica stood, and tugged at Tiffany’s wrist. “Let’s get you in bed.”
-/-/-/-
“Tiffany.”
Damn. How much did she drink?
“Tiffany, wake up.”
“Go away.”
“Dammit, Tiffany, wake up.” Jessica’s voice came into focus along with the hand that was shaking her. “Someone’s at the door.”
“What?” Tiffany rolled over on the mattress. Her head was swimming. “Why?”
“We needed groceries.”
Tiffany winced when she split open her eyes. Pinching them shut she covered her face with the blankets. “You get it.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because…” Jessica trailed off. There was a knock on the front door. “Never mind.”
She heard Jessica rummage through the closet before her footsteps padded through the house. The exchange of voices followed wrapped up with a polite,
“Thank you!”
Tiffany smiled. She knew Jessica could sound sweet. With a voice like that, you had to sound sweet.
“Are you hungry?” Jessica called into the room along with more closet noises.
“No.”
“I’ll make you something.”
Burying her face in the blankets, Tiffany hoped she’d bring it to bed.
And bring herself as well.
-/-/-/-
Jessica had left her sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap on the counter.
Tiffany peeled it back and ate alone at the bar. Through the windows, she could just make out the speck of Jessica down at the shore, pants rolled up an splashing through the shallow waters.
Finishing, Tiffany changed into shorts and walked down.
“What’re you doing?”
“Splashin’”
Tiffany grinned at the childish answer. “Can I join?”
Jessica shrugged and Tiffany stepped into the water, hissing at its cold. She stood still for a moment to get used to it before she walked in deeper where she waited.
“About the other night…”
“We don’t have to talk about it.”
Tiffany winced. “I’m sorry anyway.”
Jessica shrugged again. She walked further down the shore before returning, hands in her jean pockets and head down as she spoke.
“Is your fiance-”
“My possible to be fiance.” Tiffany clarified.
Jessica rolled her eyes but it hardly held the same sting as it had the past weeks.
Wow. Weeks? Tiffany had lost all track of time.
“Was he bad to you?”
Tiffany shook her head. And that’s what made it all the worse.
“He’s perfect, actually.” She sighed and started walking, kicking at the water the way Jessica had. “Great parents, solid income, amazing smile.”
Jessica eyed her curiously a second, head tilting. “What’s the problem?”
“He’s too perfect.” Tiffany scrunched her nose. Her dad’s wish for her to stop dating bad boys came true with this one. She sort of missed the mystery and the edge though. But that was childish of her. “He’s not what I want anymore.”
“But you could want me?”
Jessica’s words stopped her. She turned to look at her, staring into those focused eyes. Tiffany could vaguely remember looking into them the night before, soaking in her heat through her palm. She had shivered then. Tiffany’s stomach fluttered now.
“I could.”
Jessica stiffened before she looked away.
“I’m not a good person, Tiffany.”
“No one is anymore,” she said then laughed. “Even Mr. Perfect possible groom to be isn’t. I mean, he drools in his sleep.”
Jessica laughed and Tiffany’s cheeks ached with how hard she smiled hearing it.
“You know, you’re pretty nice for a psycho killer.”
Jessica dropped her head, smiling sadly. “We’re not all completely bad.”
-/-/-/-
They finished off the alcohol over dinner. Tiffany’s treat.
It didn’t taste nearly as good as what Jessica had been making them, but she needed some way to repay her. Even if it was a little burnt around the edges.
“Why did you keep me locked up in here anyway?” Asked Tiffany over the run of the sink. Jessica took a wet plate from her and started on drying it. “When I realized you weren’t trying to rob me or anything, I wouldn't have gone to the police.”
Jessica was slow to answer her. “I had to make sure.”
“That’s a little dramatic.”
“I don’t like doing things halfway.”
Tiffany nodded, picking up her wineglass and sipped. Jessica put away the last of the dishes and they were left with nothing more than a slight buzz and an empty lake house.
Her eye caught Jessica who was sipping her wine serenely from the other side of the bar. She licked her lips, savoring it off as Tiffany sat her empty glass away.
There was something different in the air. Just like the way Jessica’s voice had changed that night. Tiffany could feel it in the pit of her stomach, warming up through her nerves.
Her pulse raced a bit when her eyes met Jessica’s. They were concentrated. They were still, unlike her chest that rose and fell in heavy breaths.
“I’ll, uh, take the shower first?” Tiffany announced.
“Okay.”
She carried the tension with her all the way to the bathroom, steam of the shower just making it worse knowing that those piercing pair of eyes and glossy lips were just beyond the door.
-/-/-/-
“Jessica?”
The knife against her throat dug in just barely when she spoke.
Tiffany was paralyzed where she stood, towel wrapped around her dripping body that was pressed back against Jessica who held her tightly with one arm. Out the corner of her eye, she could see the hand holding the knife shaking.
“Jessica,” she swallowed. God, she had been so stupid. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to.”
“Jessica, listen to me.” Tiffany pleaded. “Please, don’t. Don’t do it.”
“Why not?” The hand holding around Tiffany moved up, smoothing along the towel. “You’re not backing out are you?”
The question of what she meant never made it to Tiffany’s lips when her towel flapped open. Jessica leaned back enough for it to drop to the floor and pool at their feet. The hand against her front smoothed down, palming over her stomach and dipping low along her waist.
“Don’t you want to try?” Jessica sounded unsure when she spoke.
Tiffany shivered. Her fear molded into desire and she swallowed. “Yes.”
She heard Jessica smile before those lips were on her neck kissing her. Tiffany reached back, gripping Jessica’s thighs as her mouth ran up along her skin then back down, tickling the place at the nape of her neck.
The hand holding the knife drew away and Tiffany turned, hands gripping Jessica’s face to bring those lips against hers. She moaned into the kiss, immediately receiving the scorching heat of Jessica’s mouth as their tongues met.
Hands groped as Tiffany fought to get constricting clothes off Jessica. The knife clattered to the floor as she yanked off her shirt then worked on her jeans leaving what was underneath to Jessica.
“Kiss me,” Jessica begged and Tiffany brought herself back up.
Tiffany whimpered at the feeling of their bodies coming together. She felt the same reaction on Jessica with the roll of her hips that sent them moving. Tiffany landed on the bed first, tugging Jessica after.
Locking her legs around her back, she wrapped her arms around Jessica’s neck, holding her in place as Jessica searched her neck with that hot little mouth again. Hips rolled below and Tiffany groaned when Jessica grinded right into her.
“Yes, please,” Tiffany breathed, mouth falling open when Jessica’s mouth descending to her chest and sucked.
She clawed at Jessica’s back, bringing her hips up in time with each of Jessica’s thrust. Tiffany could feel herself being worked up fast, body filled with heady excitement of the experience. She didn’t know how to savor it, to let the nips and sucks of Jessica’s mouth on sensitive skin build slow. She couldn't keep the buzzing burn in the pit of her stomach from intensifying when Jessica’s hips circled just right and Tiffany moaned loud.
Jessica’s lips found hers again, sucking the whimpers right out of her chest.
“Don’t hold back.” Jessica muttered.
Tiffany’s eyes fluttered open as she felt Jessica slide down. A hand took hers, placing it into blonde hair. When she realized what Jessica was about to do, she pushed her down until Jessica was off the bed, knees hitting the floor.
Eager hands wrapped around her thighs and pulled. Tiffany’s back slid along the covers, center meeting Jessica’s mouth deliciously.
Heels dug into Jessica’s shoulder blades, Tiffany clung on for dear life.
-/-/-/-
“What?” Tiffany whined.
Jessica stared across the pillow at her, grinning.
“Stop looking at me like that.” She pulled the covers up to cover her face.
Jessica tugged them and TIffany fought her back. They rolled around, weight shifting until Tiffany was pressed into the cushion with Jessica above her, blanket separating them.
“Tiffany.”
“No. What?”
She felt Jessica lower to where her head was. “How was it?”
Tiffany groaned from beneath the blankets. She could hardly breathe under Jessica’s weight and the claustrophobic covers.
“Tiffany?”
She pinched her eyes shut, cheeks heating in embarrassment. “...amazing.”
Jessica took that to rip the blankets away. Tiffany squealed, trying to squim away from her but Jessica’s strength pulled her back, rolling her over.
“Quit, you’re embarrassing me.” Tiffany pouted.
Jessica kissed it off and Tiffany found herself giving into those lips.
“You were amazing, too.” Jessica muttered and Tiffany all but flushed.
She clawed at the mattress, crawling until she was on the edge and they rolled to the floor. Jessica held her pinned down, laughing into Tiffany's neck. She tried to push her away but teeth found her pulse point and Tiffany turned into that globby mess she had become at the mercy of Jessica’s mouth and fingers the night before.
“Okay, okay, you’ve made your- mmm,” Tiffany curved her fingers into Jessica’s hair, holding her in place as she sucked. Her hips moved up, grinding on the knee between her thighs. “You made your point - oh god, Jessica, not before breakfast.”
“You can be my breakfast.”
Tiffany blushed, body jerking to grind herself into Jessica’s thigh harder. “You might be okay with that, but I’m starving.”
Giving a firm push, she detached Jessica from her neck. They panted, staring at each other and Tiffany felt all flustered and embarrassed all over again.
Tiffany chewed her lip suddenly shy all over again. “Did you really mean it?”
“Mean what?”
“You know,” Tiffany grinned. “That I was…”
“You’ve got a lot to learn but-”
“Hey!” She slapped Jessica’s arm. “You just said I was-”
“Amazing. You were.” Jessica pecked her lips before getting up.
The blanket fell away from her naked body and Tiffany didn't know what to do with herself at seeing it in the light of the sun.
“You’ll have to go to the store,” Jessica informed as she picked up Tiffany’s towel and wrapped it around herself. “And get more beer.”
“Fine,” Tiffany stuck out her tongue.
Jessica snickered as she stepped into the bathroom.
-/-/-/-
Tiffany placed a six pack and a box of pastries on the convenience store counter and went for her wallet. Looking back up, she held out her card for the clerk whose attention was drawn down to the TV.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, sorry,” he shuffled over, ringing her up.
Tiffany’s brow furrowed as he turned back around to the TV, missing the card swipe.
“What’s going on?”
“You don’t know?” His eyes were wide as Tiffany shook her head. He whistled, running her card through the system and handed it back. “They think they caught that serial killer who’s been on the run.”
“What?” Tiffany turned her attention to the TV.
“Apparently a man saw her just last week.” He went on. “Close to here, actually.”
“...authorities are looking into the speculation immediately.”
The news report cut out there, going to commercial. Tiffany felt her stomach drop.
“Thank you.”
Pushing out the store, she ran for her car, forgetting her bag.
-/-/-/-
She saw the lights before she saw the cars.
Officers stood outside, arms waving for her to stop as she pulled to the mouth of the short dirt road that led down to the lake house.
Officer approaching, she rolled down her window.
“Is there a problem?”
He pulled off his sunglasses, eyeing her. “Is that your lake house down there?”
“Yes, it’s my family’s. I’ve been staying there the past month and a half.”
The officer’s eyebrows lifted. “What’s your name, ma’am?”
“Tiffany Hwang.”
“I’m going to need you to step out of the car.” He instructed, stepping back.
Tiffany trembled as she pushed the door open and climbed out. Her eyes fell on the other squad cars, doors opened to shield armed officers from what threat could come up the road.
Tiffany’s stomach was in her throat as she was led over to the chief’s car. She stared down the road, heart hammering in her chest. The only people who had been up and down that pathway were delivery runs, her and Jessica.
Could Jessica...
“Do you know this woman, Miss Hwang?”
Tiffany turned her head to the picture held in the officer’s fingers.
Despite the brown hair, she knew Jessica off the bat. Those piercing eyes, those smirking lips, that long neck Tiffany had spent hours moaning and breathing into.
“Ma’am?”
“Y-yes,” she stuttered. It felt like knives in her throat to admit it. “Her name is Jessica.”
“Jessica?” The offer’s expression fell along with Tiffany’s stomach. “Ma’am, this woman is Jung Sooyeon. She escaped from our custody two months ago, evading arrest for a string of charges linked to a pattern of murders.”
“What?”
“This woman is a serial killer, Miss Hwang.”
“No, she’s not...” Tiffany shook her head. No she couldn’t be. “No, you’re mistaken. Her name is Jessica. I’ve been living with her for the past month and….”
She trailed off seeing the horror on the officer’s face.
“You said you’ve been living with her?” He questioned. “Miss Hwang, have you been seeing this woman?”
“No, I mean not exactly. We just met and-”
“Where did you meet?”
“At a gas station…”
“Which -”
“Chief! We’ve got her!”
Tiffany’s neck snapped over to the sound of guns cocking. She squeaked as hands pushed her into the chief’s car and the door was slammed on her, trapping her in. Spinning around on the seat, Tiffany watched through the back windshield as a set of officers led a handcuffed Jessica up the dirt path.
Tiffany broke.
“Jessica!” She screamed, beating against the glass. “Jessica, Jessica!”
Yanking at the knob, she jumped out of the car.
“Jessica!”
“Miss Hwang!”
The chief caught her around the waist just as Jessica turned to her, mouth parted in shock.
“Jessica!”
Rough hands pushed at Jessica to walk. She jerked forward, head falling down as they shoved her into a car.
“Jessica!”
Hard eyes turned up at her.
“Tiffany...” Jessica muttered.
The door slammed.
-/-/-/-
She stared into Jessica’s eyes three months later through thick glass and watery eyes.
Officers flanked on either side, guarding Jessica like the criminal she was and protecting Tiffany like the victim they believed her to be.
But she wasn’t.
“She didn’t want to kill me.” Tiffany had tried to tell them. “She loved me.”
Or so she would’ve liked to believe. What could’ve become.
But those weren’t the kinds of things they wanted to print in papers. Not about cold-blooded killers who seemingly had no soul. They threw words at her like stockholm syndrome but Tiffany would never agree to such claims. But no one wanted to believe that.
They almost made Tiffany believe it herself. Her family, her friends. They didn’t understand that she didn’t want to marry Mr. Perfect. She didn’t want any of that anymore. She wanted Jessica. Or she wanted something like Jessica showed her.
No, she didn’t need therapy. No, she wouldn't change her mind. No, she wouldn't come to her senses.
She was sane. It was everyone else who had a problem.
“Fifteen minutes, Miss Hwang.”
She nodded as she stepped forward.
Three months.
They wouldn't let her in to see Jessica until they believed she was better. So Tiffany played her part. She denied she ever felt anything for Jessica and that it was all a trick of manipulation.
Approaching the glass, Tiffany sank down into a chair.
The Jessica behind that barrier was not the Jessica she had known. This one was cold, fragile, empty. The one she had known was warm and wanting.
“Jessica?”
A head flicked up and the guards flinched at the sudden movement.
Placid eyes were slow to find Tiffany, but once they did, they locked on.
They locked on but they didn’t see. The didn’t see her.
“If that deliver boy hadn’t tipped us off…”
That was how they found out. Tiffany tried to remember when anyone else would’ve seen Jessica. Tiffany had always gone out to get the groceries or the take out. Tiffany was the one to go to the stores. Tiffany was always the one. Except for once.
Except the morning after she got drunk.
Jessica had tried to disguise herself when she went to the door. It didn’t work.
Tiffany beat herself up over it for weeks.
Why did she answer the door? Why would she risk it?
The only reason she came up with was Jessica just wanted to make sure she ate.
“Miss Hwang?”
Tiffany jumped. Wetness hit her hand and she realized she was crying. She wiped at her eyes.
“Why doesn’t she recognize me?”
“It’s the sedation, ma’am.”
Tiffany bristled. She couldn’t do this.
“I can’t do this.”
Getting up, she turned her back, following after the officers.
“Who’s Jessica?”
Tiffany froze at the doorway. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Jessica blink, releasing tears from her eyes. Her pale lips quivered, wrists straining against the cuffs and chains holding her.
Tiffany knew what she wanted. She wanted to reach for her.
“Miss Hwang!”
Tiffany approached the glass fast, hands pressed up against it and lips at the little intercom slits.
“Jessica, it’s me. It’s Tiffany! It’s me!”
“Tiffany?” Jessica’s brow creased.
“Yes, Tiffany. It’s me, Jessica. It’s Tiffany.”
“Tiffany…” the flicker of familiarity was gone in a blink as soon as it came. “Jessica?”
Tiffany dropped her hands away. That was it.
“Please, take me out of here.”
Hand guiding her by the shoulder, she walked out to the sound of Jessica’s voice chanting her name, each time a question as if it would click.
But none of those hurt as much as the last thing Jessica muttered before the door shut.
“I’m sorry, Tiffany.”
She never returned there again.
Fin.
-
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-03-13 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-13 08:59 pm (UTC)BOXXY IT'S YOU. SPAAAAHTTTSo, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling icky (gawd I hope I'm not getting sick), so I thought to read a bit of amazing fic-- your fic specifically. I knew it'd take my mind off things.
Girlie. Omg girlie. You're after my own heart, tbh. This way AMAZING. Just the right blend if sexy and twisted humor/fate that I relish. I'm not an angst junkie, but you know I'll eat it up if it's written well (and, obviously, anything by YOU).
From the beginning, I thought, "Ooh sexy Stockholm Syndrome. Nice." Though, the narrative is different in this instance. Tiffany's character lacked the will to live from the beginning. Jessica required the knife at first and clearly didn't wield it as much as she anticipated. The forced part of their situation got blurred along with their relationship. Not to mention Fany was running away in the first place... I believe another factor had to be Jessica's attractiveness. She didn't *look* like Tiffany's mental image of a serial killer. That gave her a chance to embrace Jessica's quirks....not to mention embrace her sexually.
That sex scene tho. Yaaaaaaassss.
(Omg that line where Jessica begged Fany to kiss her. So hot.)
Loved it. You made me realize I had a "kidnapping fantasy." Hahaha. That ending hurt, ugh. Had to happen, unfortunately. I mean, who did Jessica kill? It'd be extra effed up if the majority of her past victims were dark haired-chicks that resembled Tiffany. Her type~~
Too much Criminal Minds. xDDD
Thanks for this You're a beast!!!
no subject
Date: 2014-03-13 10:22 pm (UTC)While reading this, I wasn't sure if we'd ever find out what Jessica had done. I know there were hints throughout that it was a serious crime - such as her kind-of-not-at-all joke about the guy she murdered - but I guess I had hoped (...like Tiffany had hoped, maybe) that it was a petty crime. And I feel like Tiffany also didn't want to know what Jessica had done, based on the way she pointedly ignored the news on one of her first grocery runs, and the way she talked about Jessica being a cold-blooded killer but not actually believing it fully. I liked the way they slowly got used to each other, and then of course the alcohol helped, and the tension started. ;)
I still think there's an aspect of Stockholm syndrome in here, even though it's all a bit dubious. Is it bad that my heart still breaks for them at the end that they couldn't have had their "happy ending"? I think it would be interesting to see whether they would have lasted. Anyway, I really liked the way you ended this.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-16 07:55 pm (UTC)I went back and forth with the ending - to have them escape together or have Jessica caught. Me being me it had to have been the later.
Thanks for reading!
no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 04:07 am (UTC)Love this shot. It just sucks how they didn't get the happy ending they deserve. Thanks for writing :)
I want to order a fluffy shot please keke
no subject
Date: 2014-03-16 07:57 pm (UTC)Thanks for reading, friend :D
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Date: 2014-03-14 07:14 am (UTC)All in all, great story, great writing, you're great!! I am your fan!
no subject
Date: 2014-03-16 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 07:59 am (UTC)P.S. Quick Q: at the end, when Jessica said, "Sorry, Tiffany" did that mean she actually knew who Tiffany was and was just pretending to be heavily medicated and not recognize her? That's the subtle, well-written hint I got, but just want to ask for your insight for clarification -- Bc if true, that just adds another whole level of feels. Thanks!
Your ability to pull me to read this is just...
Date: 2014-03-14 10:51 am (UTC)Re: Your ability to pull me to read this is just...
Date: 2014-03-16 08:01 pm (UTC)The title came about from the ending: Jessica and Tiffany on two different sids of glass. Basically what you said. So close but there's that barrier. Also, when I think about if they had escaped together with Tiffany knowing the truth, Jessica's crimes would always be a barrier between them regardless.
Thanks for reading. I hope you read more jeti!
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Date: 2014-03-14 12:21 pm (UTC)That scene after they did it was so so so cute. It made me forget for a while that Jessica was hiding something and Tiffany was just so in love.
And then bam, things went downhill.
But overall, you made me so happy with this! It's great to know that one of the best authors still hasn't left the fandom!
Thanks for this! x
no subject
Date: 2014-03-16 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 12:32 pm (UTC)It's sad that there love story ended abruptly and poor Jessica was so sedated by all those drugs...
A bittersweet one...
Ah...
Date: 2014-03-15 01:48 am (UTC)Re: Ah...
Date: 2014-03-16 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-15 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-16 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-16 06:26 am (UTC)The whole time I was reading thing I was just like, "Tiffany is crazy." Crazy for not trying to run away. Crazy for actually coming back after getting groceries. Crazy for falling for Jessica, but I'm so glad she did.
They were so adorable and so beautiful.
Stupid delivery boy. HE RUINED WHAT COULD'VE BEEN ;__; (What they already had was already amazing though.)
Sad ending. *cries violently* </3
no subject
Date: 2014-03-16 08:05 pm (UTC)speechless
Date: 2014-03-17 05:27 am (UTC)They way you described jess--I fell in love with her immediately. Shes so sweet, really.
I teared a little at the ending, but thats what good writers do to you, right? ;_;
Thanks for sharing this piece of work with us, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-01 09:01 am (UTC)You da best, boxxybutt.