Work Text:
Ryan Carlson, that was the name on the top of the bounty. Cherri had taken it a month ago, and she and Apo had just arrived in the area he supposedly spent most of his time in, a midsized town called Fairbanks. They’d gotten a room for the night at the local inn, then scouted out the town, quickly finding their target drinking in the saloon.
Cherri obviously already wanted the man dead, there was gold on the line after all, but she hadn’t anticipated how badly she would want to slit his throat after they actually encountered him. At the moment, she and Apo were sitting together at a table, eyeing their target across the room. “We need to lure him away so we can get rid of him without anyone seeing.”
“How are we going to do that?” Apo asked.
“There’s a few ways, but most of them involve getting him to trust us.” Cherri stood up from the table. “I’m gonna go order something so we don’t look suspicious.”
“Yeah.” Apo nodded. “I can do that.”
Cherri ordered two drinks from the bar, and turned to return to the table only to see that her seat had been taken by none other than their target. He was clearly drunk, leaning forward into Apo’s space with a look on his face that made Cherri’s stomach churn. Apo was visibly uncomfortable, but she seemed to be doing her best to act like nothing was wrong. The sight made Cherri’s blood boil. She moved to tap Apo on the shoulder. “Apo, can I talk to you for a moment?”
Apo tensed, voice trembling slightly. “Y-Yeah, of course.”
“What’s this about?” Their target asked, leaning forward in a way he clearly thought was intimidating. “You better not be after my woman, you hear?”
Cherri clenched her fists. Keep it together. Keep it together. “Of course not, I just have to talk to her for a moment.” She pulled Apo aside until they were out of earshot conscious of the way her partner’s hands were shaking. “Go back to the inn and get some rest, we’ll move on early tomorrow morning.”
“No, I’ve got it! I promise I can do it!” Apo’s eyes were wide, her entire body reading fear. Cherri was too angry to process her words, only that the target had made her upset, and that wouldn’t go unpunished.
“Apo, go back to the inn. I’ve got it under control.”
“But-”
“Now, Apo.”
Apo hesitated, but finally nodded, stepping away and out the door.
Cherri returned to the table, sliding into the seat Apo had previously occupied and mentally bracing herself for what she had to do next. This wasn’t going to be easy, but it was what she had to do.
“Where’d she go? What’d you tell ‘er?” The target pointed an accusatory finger at her, and she forced herself to smile.
“She’s helping me plan a… surprise.” Cherri barely suppressed a shudder at the look on the target’s face.
“A surprise, eh? I like the sound of that.” His hand moved towards her, and she scooted back and stood up before it could touch her.
“Yep, that’s right. Just follow me, and you’ll get exactly what you deserve.” She made her way to the door, turning back to make sure he was following. She kept walking towards the woods, occasionally checking to make sure the target was still there. Eventually they made it far enough that no one in town would hear, and Cherri stopped walking. “Here we are.”
“Wha? Where’s my surprise, huh?” The target had stopped too, looking around stupidly.
Cherri drew her crossbow, loading one of the longest, sharpest bolts she had. “Right here.” She let the fake interest drop from her voice, leaving it cold and flat. The pretending was over, it was time for the punishment.
“W-What are you doing? What’s all this about?” Her target took a step back, and Cherri fired. The bolt sank into his knee, sending him crashing to the ground just as he moved to run. He yelled in pain, scrambling backward away from her and dragging his crippled leg behind him until he backed into a tree. Cherri walked calmly over to him, standing over him and staring coldly down as he shook and shouted, his words drowned out by the fog of rage in her head.
“Look, Ryan. It is Ryan, right? You were always going to die tonight, there’s far too much gold on your head to leave you running around. Now normally I take care of my business quickly, one killing strike and bag the head.” She crouched down to his level, looking him dead in the eyes as the gravity of his situation began to set in. “But you made Apo uncomfortable, so now I have to make this hurt.” She grabbed the crossbow bolt embedded in his knee, pushing it further into his flesh. He squealed, trying to wriggle away, but only succeeded in burying the bolt ever further. Blood squirted from the wound, coating the bolt and Cherri’s hand, but she didn’t let go, knuckles white beneath the blanket of red.
“Y-You’re a psycho!” Her target choked out, face white even as he pulled together the last of his previous bluster.
“And you’re an idiotic creep who followed a random woman into the woods just because she faked having an ounce of interest in you. Call it natural selection.” Cherri pulled out another bolt, driving into her target’s side and twisting it viciously. He cried out again, scrambling to pull out one of the bolts. Cherri grabbed his wrist, pinning his hand to the ground and impaling it with a bolt to keep it there. He tried to grab at her with his other hand, and got his wrist broken for his trouble.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!? That bitch would have been lucky to have me!”
Cherri paused for a moment as her vision went red. This creature had the audacity to claim something like that when he was so clearly making Apo upset? She drew a new bolt, plunging it into the creature’s stomach, pushing it deeper and deeper until she could hear the hiss and bubble of acid leaking out. She drove another into his kidney, and another into his liver, and another into his lungs. Bolt after bolt after bolt until the flesh was barely visible beneath the blood and humors.
The creature was crying now, choking and shaking and coughing up blood. He tried to speak, maybe to beg for his life, but all that came out was a gargling rasp. Cherri drew her knife, pressing it into his throat. Deeper and deeper and deeper it went, flesh giving way to tissue, the metal sawing against the bone until it snapped. The light finally left the creature’s eyes, and Cherri finished the cut quickly. She stuffed the head in a sack and began the walk back to the inn, leaving the body where it was. Let them find it, let them see what happened to animals like that.
The young woman working the desk stared up in wide eyed horror as Cherri trudged in, tracking a trail of red behind her across the wooden floor. “Oh my word! Miss, are you alright?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve already got my key, don’t say nothin’ till I’m out of town, yeah?” She tossed a gold coin to the woman, who gingerly wiped the blood off of it before nodding for Cherri to go on her way.
She entered her and Apo’s room to see Apo sitting on the bed and staring blankly at the wall, knuckles white as she gripped her forearms. She looked up as Cherri entered, taking a deep breath before turning to face her.
“Look, Cherri, I know I- Jesus!” Apo screamed, almost falling off the bed when she saw the state Cherri was in. “What happened to you? Are you okay?”
“M’fine. It’s all his blood.” Cherri gestured at the equally bloody sack containing the creature’s head.
“It’s all- how the hell did he bleed that much? I’ve never seen you this messy after a bounty!”
Cherri shrugged nonchalantly, moving to put the head in the sack away in her bag. “He made you uncomfortable, so I had to make sure it hurt.”
“I- What?” Apo stared at her, seemingly taken aback. “What do you mean?”
“He was being a creep to you, I made sure he regretted it.”
“I was doing what you said. I know I wasn’t selling it though, sorry.” Apo stared at the ground, shoulders tense like someone expecting beratement or a blow. Cherri just stared at her, torn between being concerned and confused.
“Apo, what are you talking about? What do you mean you weren’t selling it?”
“You said you needed him to trust us, same as my father’s clients. I promise I tried, I just…”
“What do you mean? What does your dad have to do with this?”
“Did you not- Never mind.”
“No, Apo, what does that mean?”
Apo winced, looking apprehensive and ashamed. “Well, if one of my father’s clients was particularly stubborn, sometimes he’d sweeten the deal with, uh, me. I thought that was what you wanted me to do with this guy.”
“He what?” She was going to find whatever circle of hell that monster had ended up in and kill him again.
“He’d sell me for a night as part of his deals sometimes.”
“And you thought I wanted you to let that guy…”
Apo nodded. “It just made the most sense.”
“No! No the hell it didn’t!” Cherri moved to take a step forward, but stopped when Apo flinched away. “I will never ask you to do that, you hear me? Never.”
“Oh.” Apo stared at her in shock for a moment, then her gaze dropped to the pool of blood slowly forming on the ground at Cherri’s feet. “You should probably go wash that off.”
Cherri took the change of subject for what it was and nodded, grabbing her sleep clothes and leaving the room. She’d said what needed to be said and done what needed to be done. By the time she’d returned, Apo was already laying in bed with their back to her. Cherri lay on the opposite side, staring at the door. Sometime tomorrow a headless body would be found in the woods stuffed with crossbow bolts, and she and Apo would be long gone.