Crash Here Tonight

Eight pm, that Thursday night. Rica frowned as Caleb laughed at her standing in his apartment door. Carrying a rifle bag and a suitcase, homeless.

“You're kidding, right?” he asked with a grin.

“No, I'm homeless you jerk! Now stop laughing and let me in!” she pouted.

Caleb nodded, “So this is you and your mom's plan to keep an eye on me, hunh?”

“Oh don't flatter yourself, you boy!” she said looking away.

But Caleb pulled her inside from the hallway, “Heh heh, come here you!”

“Hmph!” Rica resisted a little, but soon changed her tune when she smelled the cooking food, followed by a her stomach growling,"Oh!”

Caleb smirked, “I guess you’re homeless and hungry! No worries, I'll fix you a plate.”

“I don't need your charity!” she cried.

But he ignored her and fixed her a full plate of seared codfish, salad and yellow rice. The evil little girl, coy at first, soon dug in.

“Oh! It's sooo good!” she complimented.

“Yeah, I know. I ate some,” said Caleb laughing before he reached in her bag and removed her rifle, Strongbow. Rica watched him, but the weapon wasn’t loaded, so it was ok. Besides the food was too good to stop eating and scold him.

“I've heard of your kind...Rifle Girls,” said Caleb holding Strongbow.

“Eh? *nom nom*” Rica looked at him confused, “There’s no such thing as a Rifle Girl.”

“Ha! Okay, I'll rephrase...why do you use this rifle?”

“Hmm...Strongbow's more than a rifle, he's like my puppy. I have to take care of him and he does bite, heh heh!”

Caleb appeared to hold Strongbow the way Rica did in that white house when she killed that man. “This is cool,” he said.

“Nya! Technically Strongbow is an M24 single bolt action, and no freaking joke!” She stood up and aimed the rifle out of the window in a sniper's tactical stance. “See, he likes distance. He can kill a man at over a thousand meters, depending on the wind and bullets of course.”

“What? A thousand meters? That's over half a mile!” Caleb yelped.

“Nya, but even at close range Strongbow's deadly too!” Rica switched stances and pointed the barrel at Caleb, thrusting it in his face.

Caleb tried to block and evade. But in that blink of a moment, Rica flipped the rifle in her hand and stopped the steel butt plate a hair breadth away from his face.

“Ah!” He blinked. “So fast!

“And strong, too!” she teased. “You know that move would have broken your jaw, pretty boy!” she bragged, then yawned, “Mmm, so tired.”

Caleb grinned. “Did the sleepy fighter have a long day?”

“Mmm..it was the heavy food, nyaaawn!”

“And you ate it all, come here you.” He pulled her on the couch.

“Eh?” She gently resisted, “I'm not going to do bad things with you....mmm.......unless…”

Conflicted, and only eleven, Rica didn't want to do anything that her mother would consider wrong for a girl her age. But yet....she knew she would do things..if Caleb wanted her to.

He caressed her face and silenced her, “Ssssh...sleepy fighter. No bad things, not here.”

“Oh~”she blushed.

Caleb dimmed the lights of the living room and sat on the couch. Rica sat next to him and lay on his shoulder, while Caleb selected a song on the digital player.

Seduced by the dreamy voice of the female vocalist, Rica's eyes closed, and she lowered her head onto Caleb's lap..seduction.

"...Mm that song..”

As the song played Caleb stroked Rica's black hair ..bad boy... she drifted.. and let go.

Drifted

At two am Rica's phone alarm rang. She jumped up from the couch startled and found the living room empty. “Caleb?”

No answer. In the dim light Rica spotted a note on the table:

When you read this note it should be two am. You can get to me in twenty minutes if you use that app you put on my phone to find me, or not. I won't oblige you, this is my fight.

P.S. I kissed you on your forehead before I left, and I borrowed your gun, please don't be upset.

-Caleb

“What?” Rica checked her small carrying bag. Her Smith and Wesson nine millimeter handgun was missing. “Caleb, you bum!” Apparently Caleb laid a trap for Rica, and she was fully aware of his intentions. For he knew his villainous Loli girlfriend would do anything to protect him.

All alone, Rica grabbed and hugged her only friend at the moment, her rifle Strongbow.

“Strongbow, that boy has a death wish! I need your help!”

Rica loaded a five round clip of soft point bullets, before locking and loading Strongbow's chamber. The smooth click! sound made when the magazine hit the chamber meant Strongbow had answered Rica, and he said to her, “I will not jam, I will not miss!”

In under five minutes Rica clad herself in full black tactical gear, to include bayonet and suppressor for Strongbow's muzzle flare. With no time to lose, she grabbed her phone, turned on the tracer app, and remembered once more who she was:

Rica Reyes, Rifle Girl - Assassin Type.

“Tch! Damn, troublesome boy!”

And with that, she vanished, into the night.

.....