I woke up on the floor of the living room. My living room. I sit up, looking at the woman before me. On the couch was a dark haired lady that stabbed me with a needle and pumped me full of something, at the same moment I covered her mouth with a chloroform rag. She was waking up too. I managed to get to my, no wait. I managed to get to my knees as she stirred, and fell off the couch. Damn, my closest weapon is past her, beneath the couch. I fall over her, crawling painfully as I fight the fogginess in my mind. “Damn, jess.” I mutter. She was a dentists assistant or maybe a nurse? I couldn’t remember now. I reached under the couch and gripped the machete. I felt Jess push me but didn’t make it very far.

I tugged against the restraints on the blade, then remembered that I needed to unlatch it from it’s holster. I clicked it open, just as I heard the ringing of a small knife against her jewelry. I twisted out of her clumsy stab. Pulling the machete with me I rolled off of her and once more rose up. I managed to make it to my feet this time, but so did she. She held an army issue combat knife, probably from a surplus store or something. I had a machete I bought online. Reach was on my side, but if she rushed me… She did, and tripped over her feet. I slammed the blade down, hitting my carpet and shearing through it. Dammit! It was shag, and expensive.

She got to her feet, the chloroform was wearing off faster than what she stuck me with. I stare at her eyes, trying to get a read. And I couldn’t. Just cold dead calculations behind her baby blues. Just like me. “Did you just to kill me in my own home?” I ask incredulous. “You we’re gonna kill me in your own home?“ she demanded back. We stare at each other a moment. I shifted, not liking her tone at all. I smirk, “that much easier to dispose of you,” I explain, keeping my machete between us. “Drop your car off at your house tonight while you scream your lungs out behind the false wall in my basement as you melt into goop.” I gloat. Realization dawns, “chemical factory,” she says, “that’s brilliant!l” she relaxes immediately, knife dropping to her side. I did work as a waste disposal working for the local chem plant. Got lots of free shit when the books are kept by a dyslexic chimp.

I slowly lower my machete. “What’s your plan?” I ask, now curious. She grinned wide, a frightening madness in her gaze. She opens her purse, “We EMTs deal with so many ODs.” she says revealing several pieces of drug paraphernalia. “What’s one more?” I nod, and she had access to plenty of shit as an EMT. “Alright, respect earned.“ I acknowledged. She wasn’t like the filth out there. She was a predator like myself, a good one at that. I look over at the sink, the dishes from dinner still unwashed. I needed to get those done. ”Professional courtesy then?” I ask turning back, and finding her 2 inches away from my face. I don’t flinch, even as she kisses me. “Fuck no.” She whispered, “Now we fuck.” I frown, so not exactly like me.