Not a strand of his short, black hair appeared out of place. Even with the rough landing in the chair, it stayed perfect. Disgustingly perfect.
A grin full of white teeth curled his lips. For a moment, he just stared. His eyes pierced Martina’s very being. She felt herself being undressed and searched over for anything and everything.
Martina had long since become used to the man’s antics. She made her face as impassive as the nun’s had been and stared back.
No matter what she tried, her stare never matched his.
“That went well,” he said. His hand reached out and gripped the glass with gloved hands, though he did not drink.
Martina scoffed at that. “‘Well’ would have been getting the hell out of my town.” She shook her head in disgust. “That woman is endangering my students with her very presence.”
“I took a stroll around town earlier,” Rex started. He paused for a small sip of his drink.
Narrowing her eyes, Martina watched as his face contorted into a look of disgust. His golden eyes all but flared into a bright glow before he regained his composure.
“How can you stand drinking this?”
“If you don’t want it, pass it back,” Martina snapped. “That isn’t cheap.”
He merely hummed as he took another sip. A wince spread across his face, but he managed to control himself better than the first time.
Never again would she offer a glass of her finest Hellfire. Much too good, and expensive, for the likes of him. Stale water would suffice in the future.
Martina shook her head and focused. “What is the word in town?”
“Not sure about all the town,” Rex said with a sigh. “I was doing a little shopping, picking up supplies for my apartment. Normal things, yeah?”
Martina narrowed her eyes again. Rex either ignored or simply didn’t care for her ire.
“I struck up a conversation with the cashier at the grocers,” he took another sip of his drink. “I was hungry, you see.”
“The point, please?”
“I’m expecting,” he paused with a brief gaze into the wall before he waved a dismissive hand through the air. “Well, whatever her name was should be at my apartment in half an hour or so. A pretty little creature. Young too. She had such nice–”
“Zagan. The point.”
His golden eyes gave of a sinister glint for an instant. “I was getting there. Her father–whom she lives with–and some family friends were discussing the state of the town and school just the other day.” He drank the last of his Hellfire and dropped the glass on her desk with a clatter. “They seem concerned that if anything happens to the students, the school might close down which would spell doom for the rest of the town.”
“Given the incident around Halloween last semester, that is understandable.” Martina nodded an agreement. “Was she more specific about her concerns.”
“Not as such. I was more surprised that people actually care about this horrible little town.”
“Some people simply have no place else to go and no money to go there.” She sighed, mulling over her thoughts. She decided to speak few of them aloud. “We’ll drop some more fliers and post more notices. The text should warn against being around the nuns as much as possible without directly stating that they’re the problem.”
Martina received a mere nod in return.
“Try to press more opinions out of your,” she paused, gritting her teeth, “
“Speaking of,” he said as he dropped his feet to the floor, “I wouldn’t want to be late. Good luck with your schemes, Martina.” He turned and strode towards her office door.
“Zagan,” Martina called out. Rex stopped in his tracks. “We don’t need more bodies piling up.”
His face split into a white-toothed grin. Without a proper response, he left her office behind. The door shut with a soft hiss on his way out.
Martina waited. She counted down the steps until he left the reception area. The moment she heard the outer door shut, Martina reached up and pressed a button on her desk phone.
Her finger tapped against the desk while she waited. Just long enough passed for Martina to feel a tinge of annoyance before the screen came to life. Martina grit her teeth as she stared at the cocky figure on the screen.
Wearing her hair short and sky-blue today, the secretary didn’t even look up into the camera. Her eyes were focused on her long fingernails as she groomed them. The fur shirt she wore left little to the imagination with only a thin strip of cloth keeping the rest of her clothes attached as it ran from one breast to the other after looping around her neck.
“Catherine,” she barked.
The secretary didn’t even look up as she moved to the next nail. Her only acknowledgment was a slight humming noise.
Unless she was simply humming a tune.
“We’re running more fliers. Get the template ready by tomorrow afternoon. I’ll have content.”
