Closer Raisa (couple of parts, contest entry)

My name is Raisa and I am a closer.1

To many a closer won't mean much. I'm not a case closer for the police or a lawyer. I don't go around closing cabinet doors behind lazy people. I don't close a door after you've walked through. That would imply that I also open them, but that's far from the truth.2

I am an eye closer, a room closer. So yeah, I guess I do shut the door eventually. I am part of an organization of assassins, and I'm the end deal. I'm the one they call when things need cleaning up. I wipe down the room. I clean up fingerprints, the blood and any other fluids to be found.3

My job's not glamorous, but it pays the bills and there's an added security a young woman needs in this day and age.4

Normally I'd be off the radar of the law, but just twenty-four hours ago, they showed up early. Now my life is at stake.5

I've not slept or eaten since that botched job. Here's my story...6

Chapter one...7

I was sleeping when the call came. I only remember because I was really enjoying the dream. The arms that were wrapped around me were strong and secure, unlike the ones in the future, but I didn't know that yet.8

Those arms really put a smile on my face. But that's getting off track.9

The call came and instead of picking it up I pushed my alarm clock onto the floor. When this failed to make the annoying noise go away, I cracked open an eye and noticed my phone doing it's pretty light show. I watched as purple turned into blue, then red and so on down the rainbow. I had bought it for this reason. I sometimes have a hard time waking. The lights help focus me.10

As soon as I grabbed the handset the light show stopped and the room was plunged into darkness again. "Hello?" I mumbled, fighting to keep my eyes open.11

Dead silence radiated from the other end. I took the phone away from my ear, getting the antenna knotted in my hair, to see if it was on. It was.12

"Hello?" I tried again, my voice clearer.13

"End deal, Raisa." Then a dial tone.14

I sighed and hung up. I threw myself back on the pillow before pushing my warm covers off my nude body. Padding to the end of the bed, I put on a tight black tank top and pulled over a black hoodie with a C embroidered over my left breast. This hoodie got me in places a normal twenty-something girl wouldn't be permitted to enter. Next, black jeans with black all-weather boots.15

All the while I was wondering what I would be walking into. The last one had been a disaster. No way that could be staged as a natural death.16

I pulled my shoulder length strawberry blond hair into a ponytail as I walked to the door. Everything I needed was waiting in the car below.17

My hand slid down the gray granite counter-top, feeling the tiny bumps, before swiping up my car keys and heading out the door.18

The hallway was empty, but what did I expect? It was falling just past two in the morning. The quiet buzz of the sconce lights serenaded me as I swiftly walked the carpeted floor. Plant leaves swayed as I hurried to the elevators.19

I hated the elevators. They always smelled of lemons, vomit and day old sweat. I caught myself in the glass doors wrinkling my nose at the smell. Time also seemed to creep, like a slow worm, when I rode them. At last the bell dinged and as soon as the doors were opened far enough for me to slip through, I did. 20

Waiting in slot two-hundred and fifty-five was my reliable, but somewhat beat-up white Corolla. Dependable, without standing out in a crowd, my Toyota was the best. I just wished the darn radio would stay where I programmed it to. I patted her affectionately before sliding in the driver's seat. 21

"Wonder what music I'll be listening to this dark and eerie morning?" I asked myself in the silence of the parking lot. 22

I checked to see if my Bag of Tricks or BOTS was stocked before starting the car. BOTS was full of everything I would need, including money if I needed to get away. Directions for the job were clearly written on my pad of paper I kept on the passenger seat.23

I had always wondered who was fast enough to write the address on the paper in a locked car. I probably always will.24

Getting to the site wasn't difficult. I'd seen the name a couple million times when reading the newspaper. Mr. and Mrs. Grossman, Carter and Lily. Mr. Carter Grossman had made his fortune in real estate in the early 2000's, when the market was at its best. Lily Ann Fossen had married well. Both in their mid-forty's. Enough said.25

Apparently someone didn't like the wealthy couple. A hit gone bad. That's why I had been called. No one called me to show me they'd done good.26

The Grossman's penthouse was, of course, on the east side. The upscale side of town. Beautiful people, gorgeous places of residents.27

Finding it wasn't hard. I'd been thinking about upgrading and Wall Avenue looked like a good enough place. As if I could really afford it. I sighed, but a girl can dream.28

The job was good. Good pay, great benefits. No one tried to kill me, no one ever took notice of me. Maybe that's why I felt reluctant as I walked through the lobby.29

The doorman was sleeping. His snores were like a small chainsaw in the distance. The lobby was full of plants. Big leafy potted foliage sprang up from urns, surrounded by smaller ferns. Their long arms swung with my passage.30

I should have felt relieved as the doors of the elevator closed in front of me, but even the cold walls couldn't squelch my nervousness.31

My only comforting item was my BOTS hanging from my hand. Everything I needed was at my fingertips, well almost. Sometimes I had to search for the item.32

So with my Bag of Tricks at my side, the doors closed and I had only to do my magic. Magic being a loose term. I had acquired my 'magic' by means of seduction and trickery. There really was no other truthful way of putting it. I had literally slept my way to the key.33

The feeling of disgust washed over me as I slipped the deceptive key into the penthouse slot and waited for the car to start moving.34

The memory of the acquisition of the key was never easy, but each time I used it I made myself remember. After being introduced into the 'club', I had been given a long and drawn out training. As if Closing would be hard. I'd been cleaning for people anyways, just not to this extreme.35

Kale Gardener had been my instructor. Wide shoulders V'd into sturdy hips that made every woman lick her lips and say yum. He was one man that got under your skin and stuck like a burr to a dog's leg. Strong willed with deep, wishing-well brown eyes, ones you could emerse yourself in and not come up for air.36

He'd not fooled me, at least that's what I keep telling myself. I had taken him for a ride, not the other way around. I was the one he sought and I played hard to get. Only giving in when I knew he would give me what I wanted, needed.37

I'm not beautiful, I know that. I'm pretty, that I can admit, but if I am persistent I can get what I want or need. I needed that key. Not all Closers are given one. I don't know why, they just aren't. I knew that if I were to make this job work I was one of those that needed it.38

So here I was riding the penthouse elevator up to an assassination gone wrong. This is where my job started.39

The apartment was a mess. The smell of gunpowder was heavy in the air, almost like after a fireworks display. My nose burned and I wrinkled it. There was something sad about walking through a dead person’s apartment. It always reminded me of my gramz’s house. My mom and I had the unfortunate job of cleaning out her house. I remembered my mom’s muffled sobs and how gramz’s perfume was everywhere. It was as if she was still there. Every once in a while I could swear I could still hear my mom’s cries when I was working. 40

First things first, I searched my BOT for gloves and full body suit. These things were wonderful. My hair and any other DNA particle would be contained within these lightweight plastic babies. I would have bought stock in the company that had manufactured these suits if they would have let me. I put the gloves on with a snap that echoed through the empty apartment.41

The penthouse amazed me. I was expecting elegance- expansive paintings and curios. What I found was comforting wood furniture. Dark wood with scrollwork, deep colors of mahogany browns mixed with royal purple and gold made up the fabrics and enhanced by plain white walls. Bay windows that reached from floor to ceiling, looked out over early morning sun. I swiftly strode over and closed the thick gold fabric, for privacy. Although it didn’t seem possible that anyone could see in here.42

Next was assessing the condition of the bodies. I forced myself to walk past the overturned loveseat and follow the hall to the bedroom, there I found Mr. and Mrs. Grossman.43

Lily Ann was where she was supposed to be, lying on the bed, curled up on her side, like she was sleeping. At least the assassin got that much right. Her short blonde hair was perfect, as if she had just stepped out of the salon.44

Along with the directions to the site, came the instructions on how the job was to be set. This was a homicide/suicide situation. Mr. Grossman had found a note from his wife’s lover. He was distressed and angered. Then pulling out the .38 revolver he’d bought for protection last fall, he shot Lily while she slept. Then he turned the gun on himself. Thus the murder/suicide.45

Easy, right? Some how our “man” was surprised. I could just imagine what had happened. Maybe Mr. Grossman wasn’t sleeping. Maybe he was stronger then the assassin. So I was called. I reached up and scratched the back of my head through the hood in frustration.46

First to position Carter’s body. He had managed to get to the bathroom. The floor was a complete mess. I had to try to get most of his blood contained, so that I could make the scene believable by having the blood around the body. The hard part was getting the blood and brain matter to splatter on the wall beside the bed to make it look like he had offed himself right there instead of getting killed in the bathroom. I guessed the Company owned a lab where all my neat little gadgets were manufactured. I even had this little bottle that held a serum that would halt the blood from congealing. A couple of drops of this and the magic begin, if only for a while, undetectable to most tests. That was one my favorites.47

Another was the turkey baster. Yeah, you read that right, turkey baster. It’s great for blood splatter.48

My bangs had fallen in my eyes as I lifted the body up. I had to grab him from behind, with my forearms under his armpits. What struck me as odd was that his heels left lines in the carpet. Dragging him right under my nose made the smell of copper and gunpowder more overpowering. 49

After I had Carter positioned I started on the bathroom. As I wiped up blood, the little that was left, I caught myself revisiting how I had gotten the job as Closer. 50

I hadn’t been wealthy or poor. I was average, middle class. My father had been a salesman for a sporting goods store, the only one in our small town. He was a bear of a man, barrel chested with a dark beard and white teeth flashing under his mustache. My dad was a good salesman. He laughed easily and often.51

Mom was a stay-at-home mom, and it drove me crazy. She was over-protective, and I didn’t understand what my dad was doing with her. I still don’t. By the time I was fourteen, I spent nearly no time at home. My friends were more my style. They had parents that worked.52

It just so happened that I had been out prowling around the neighborhood, looking for some friend's that were supposed to meet me, when I noticed a strange car parked in front of a friends. I sneaked up to the window,stepping over the rock border and looked between the partly closed curtains.53

I watch in horror as my friend's parent were murdered. Yeah, so they had been the local drug dealers. So they were basically bad people. It was still wrong to take another’s life.54

After I witnessed the ‘execution’, I stumbled back and fell over the decorative rock border. Hearing the commotion, the assassin raced outside to find me limping towards the trees.55

She captured me and was about to kill me when the black masked female received a phone call. After a few clipped responses she hung up and hauled me into the strange car.56

I found myself, a little later, sitting on a hard, red chair in a nondescript room. Nothing to see but gray cinder blocks for the walls, the chair I was sitting on and the bright overhead light.57