Listen to You Need To Calm Down by Taylor Swift

(Can we take a moment to appreciate how beautiful and heartwarming this song is? Especially the phrase that says "Shade never made anybody less gay!" BTW, 'Shade' here means the shade of homophobic protestors' banners and poster that block the sunlight )

Stella Davis

"Are you ready?" 

Danica and I stood in front of her little sports store in Attaland as sun ruthlessly baked the roads.  The giant board that spelt AttaLand Sports was laden with dust and soot. And the letter S was smudged clean.

 Three helpers leaned on the truck they brought to empty the store's contents into. They chattered noisily, inhaling into their shared cigarette every once in a while with their dry, chapped lips. 

The sane part of my mind told me to just run away from anything that was related to David.  But still, I was here, trying to convince myself that I'd be alright. Although I was shit scared of him, the fact that he thought I'd hide away after a death threat made me mad.  I was ready to take him down.

I knew exactly what he was thinking.  She's a woman.  She'll stop nosing around even if I flash a fake knife at her.

If you ask me, I would have done a far better job designing the exterior of David's store, but anybody could tell that David didn't really care about this shop.  He just wanted a backup income if something went wrong with his underground businesses.  And a lot can go wrong in such businesses. 

But I had to admit that David was clever enough to keep this sports store as his cover.  

"I'm so ready.  Watch me blow this motherfucker's cover into dust." I rapped, cocking my fingers into a gun at the storefront. When I saw Danica eying me queerly, I apologized, "Sorry, Danica." 

Should have refrained from saying 'motherfucker' in front of his mother.  

The only girl of the three helpers called for my attention. She wore a dirty blue jumpsuit and a hat to hide her frizzy hair. "We need to do a double run, sissy.  There is too much stuff here." 

"Okay."

"You'll have to pay extra for gas."

"What?  Come on!  My office is less than a mile away."

She shook head no with firm determination.

"Okay, fine!" I huffed in exasperation.  

"Let's get to work now." I clapped my hands to get them started, eying the badminton rackets and ping-pong bats collection that vibrantly occupied the display wall behind the cash counter.   They didn't sell just sports wardrobe.  It was a full package of sports equipment, clothing, footwear and accessories.  Every possible sports article was mercilessly stashed inside this stinking little chamber. 

Danica slowly rooted herself beside me after showing the helpers what to evacuate first.  

"I was hoping I would only shift your sports wardrobe to my storage facility.  What are you going to do with the other stuff?" I asked, motioning at the rackets and cricket bats that the helpers were throwing into large cardboard boxes.  

Danica pondered, folding her hands across her chest.  Her silk scarf was wrapped around her thick throat like a leash.  When she spoke, her voice was clear and disciplined as if she had practised the words several times. "I want you to take all of them," she stated with an air of finality.  

I wrinkled my nose.  "Okay." 

To be honest, I was confused.  Danica did not seem in the least like the timid, little woman I first met at my office.  She stood tall and straight beside me, almost commanding me what to do.  It seemed that her nervousness about avenging David has suddenly morphed into defiance.

"I'll release them in a limited merchandise sale, then."

"It's up to you." She then marched away with more orders for the trio that were currently giggling at each others' jokes, distracted from work. 

_

When the service truck had rallied twice from Attaland Sports to Stellar Fashion's storage facility and the sports store was only an echoing emptiness, Danica approached me with a satisfied smile.  Her stern wrinkles had softened at the sight of the store with nothing but floating dust.  

"Thanks, Stella.  I couldn't have done this without your support."

"That's alright," I smiled. 

"Alright, then.  Let's leave now," she said, wiping the sweat off her forehead and turning around to walk out.  As I followed her, I heard her scoff something that sounded like "I hope that asshole goes to prison..." 

Ever since she's been contacting me, she wanted to be careful enough to make sure that David doesn't go to prison, because of her obvious motherly reasons.  She also thought that he'll murder her if she had anything to do with his arrest.

Just when I was shrugging it off telling myself that she was simply mad at him, I watched her trip over the floor before straightening herself.  Even though she didn't fall, she groaned in pain, examining her red toe.

"Dammit, Danica.  You okay?"

_

I wasn't sure how much the fall hurt her, but I was a hundred percent convinced that there was a  little shaft on the wooden floor that made her trip.   

Something clicked in my head.  A basement door.  

It was tiny and almost hid under the thick dust, but I knew it was there. 

Danica never mentioned a basement to me.  Didn't she know about it?  

If that was the case, I was paranoid that her son might be hiding something in there.

So I was back in front of the store again at midnight, breathless and scared of what I was going to do.  I was going to break in.  

Okay, Confession:  I wasn't actually going to break in.  I wasn't that cool, yet.  Danica left a key to the store with me.  

I didn't want to get caught spying, so I thought I'd execute my mission when everybody was asleep.  At midnight.

The floor creaked as I tiptoed into the dark room, the sound thrumming in my ears at every step.  It immediately brought me back to last night's kidnapping and my hands unconsciously flew to my face to feel my skin.  

When I was sure that I was alive, I knelt down at the spot I thought I saw the little shaft.  My palms grazed the dusty, rough floor to feel for the basement door handle.  

I quickly turned the handle when I found it.  Hearing only my heart's throbbing, I squinted futilely to see past the staircase that leads to the basement.  I took a step down inside, switching my flashlight on.  

But my foot slipped and I went hurtling down the entire steps.  I screamed in pain when my teeth slammed onto a step.  I stayed at the bottom of the stairs as a curled foetus for several minutes, waiting for the stinging pain in my mouth to subside.  

When I knew I hadn't broken my teeth, I looked around with a dripping, bloody mouth.  Unlike the room I was in kidnapped to yesterday, this one had a hanging lightbulb over a pool table covered with packets of white powder.  

I knew instantly that they were drugs. 

I winced at the pain in my upper jaw when I turned.  

You should not have come here, I scolded myself. 

It didn't smell so bad in here, so I consoled myself that at least there weren't any open human bodies here.

A huge box stood on the other side of the room.  It stood tall and wide, gleaming in the light.

I debated on my two options.  Just drop everything and sprint out of here or check what was inside the box.  

I slowly stood up with noodles for legs and took a step upstairs.  

You've come this far, Stella.  Go see what's in there, an ugly voice in head whispered.  

I turned around to eye the steel box.  My heart was in my throat, struggling to escape.   

Without second thoughts, I broke into a run towards the box, my weak legs plundering on the floor ominously.  I caught its knob and yanked the door open.  

Beaming light flooded into my eyes, making me close my lids.  

It was a refrigerator.

When I cautiously opened them, I could only make out a pair of objects falling out of the refrigerator towards me.  

A shiver went down my spine when my shoulders stopped each of those ice-cold, heavy objects from falling down.  

My scream got trapped in my throat when I saw what they were from the corner of my eyes.  

Frozen dead girls.

Please vote and make me smile. 

Question:  If ice cream flowed out of a toilet seat, would you still eat it?

UGGGGHHHH! Biggest writer's block!  Spent 10 hours writing and rewriting this chapter.  And I still wasn't satisfied with the outcome.