A dark and stormy night...

Ran was just about to give lying another try and tell Jackie how wrong she was, when she heard the metallic whirring, followed by the sound of something hard hitting the floor. Her handle. Her door. Jackie broke the lock. She was coming inside.

She started to curse, but cupped her mouth before the words could get out. The last thing she needed to do was advertise her position. No, she had to stay calm, here. Ran couldn't see much, but this was her apartment, she was familiar enough with the layout to navigate it fairly without being able to see. She could use that, slip around Jackie and make her way out. She just had to be smart about it.

Ran tiptoed towards her bed, quiet and quick, then ducked down and rolled underneath it, sliding under the apron. The best hiding spot she could think of on short notice, and it gave her a straight shot to the front door. She listened for Jackie's footsteps, trying to get a feel for where she was in the apartment.

In the gloom of the apartment, only the vague outline of shapes could be made out, dark against dark, the occasional violent flash of light from the lightning outside spoiling any chance for the eyes to adjust to the shadows. Still, sound carried just as it always did, and the creak of the door sliding open was followed by the whisper-light footsteps of Jackie. Her outline was indistinct, wreathed in a drenched black rain-slicker, the deep hood pulled up over her head and hiding her features in a deeper layer of darkness. In her right hand, the idle drill hung casually, and her fingers gave a quick squeeze of the trigger to draw it into whining life for a second.

"Oh Raaaaaaan..." she called out to the blackness, the hood turning back and forth, "Where did you get to? I just wanted to have a little banter with you..." Her careful footsteps lead her deeper into the apartment, her free hand held out warily, seeking out any obstructions before she could stumble into them while she kept the drill clutched in the other. As she drew nearer, the iron-stink of blood that Ran had scented earlier grew stronger and thick, and as another flash illuminated the scene, it was clear that Jackie's outstretched hand was dripping with rich red blood...

Ran's heart was beating so fast and so hard that Jackie probably would have heard it if not for the rain. She had to clamp her mouth shut to keep her fevered breaths contained, knowing that the slightest whimper would give her away.

Blood. That was clearly blood. Whose blood? Ran knew Jackie was off the edge, that much was obvious from the interview, but this was just insane. There was no way she would leave the apartment, no chance she would give up and crawl back into whatever rat-infested hole she'd come out of. She was hunting. Jackie would find her eventually, pull her out from under the bed, and then...

Fear got the best of Ran and she darted out from under the bed, bolting towards the door at full speed and making a desperate beeline for the hall. She slipped and slid along the way on her socks, giving her an awkward and stumbling run. but if she could just get outside and call for help, just let out one scream, that might bring the help she needed. "Help, somebody-"

The words had barely escaped Ran's mouth before Jackie was on her. The open doorway, tantalizingly close and hanging slightly ajar, might as well have been a hundred meters away as Ran's mouth was covered by the sticky, bloody hand of Jackie, the cloying stink of it rammed right under the girl's nose, practically bending Ran over backwards as the Irish-born woman marched her towards the bed and hurled onto it roughly, leaping on top of her before her victim could escape. The drill was still clutched in the other hand, and it hovered terrifyingly close, though not yet pointed right at her. The bloody hand returned to Ran's mouth, the wet palm closing her mouth as the fingers squeezed against her cheeks and jaw.

"Ran my girl, where are you off to in such a hurry?" Jackie asked, her eyes just visible as a glimmer from beneath her deep hood, "I wanted to talk to you about a few things, like that interview footage I asked you to edit. I see you've been hard at work at it." she gestured using the drill, pointing towards the laptop that sat at the far end of the bed, the screen still displaying Jackie's terrifyingly angry gaze right in the camera. "Hmm, not my best side, might need you to do a spot of cutting there, Ran my dear," she added in a tone that sounded conversational, but carried the obvious threat beneath it.

Jackie was so small, it was easy to forget how incredibly powerful she was, too. What little size she had was nothing but pure muscle, making her probably stronger than many women twice her size. Ran wasn't in poor shape, herself. She went to the gym every other day, stayed fit, worked out, ate healthy. But against Jackie, she might as well have never even touched a barbell. She was nothing.

She put up a struggle, fought as hard as she could, but she was ending up on that bed and there wasn't much to be done about it.

Ran burst into a fit, trying to talk while Jackie held her mouth shut. Not easy. All she managed to get out were a few blubbering spurts, splattered syllables, as she shook her head from side to side and tried to free her face. "-stop!" She managed to get that word out rather easily, since it was the most common one she was trying to say.

Ran kicked and squirmed in Jackie's grip, but the pint-sized horror had her dead to rights, her powerful legs straddling the taller girl's body, her knees anchored into her sides as her steely grip forced the back of Ran's head against the mattress, while the other set the drill down beside her head, just within her peripheral view.

"Stop? Oh Ran my dear, we're just getting started," the words came from Jackie in a predatory purr, the contented rumble of a cat who had the mouse in its grasp and wanted to play with it a little before the inevitable end. Her bloodied hand lifted from the woman's mouth, leaving a sticky joker's grin of red across her lips and cheeks, and she sat back more upright on Ran's stomach, glaring down at her as a fresh stab of lightning brought her face into stark profile - a cruel smile, a mad gleam in the eye, and the eager willingness to inflict harm plain upon her expression.

"So, about that interview you and your fucking clueless friend made of me," she continued in a conversational tone, as though the pair of them were doing anything more sinister than having a little gossip over coffee, "I bet you thought that threat I made was all just hot air? No such luck there lass, I'm always serious when I make my threats. Which brings me to why I'm here."

She leant in closer to look Ran in the eye, so close that the deep hood of the rain slicker bathed the pinned girl's head in the same deep shadows, close enough for Ran to almost taste the alcohol on Jackie's breath.

"This is just a friendly reminder. Either you edit it to make me look like Mother fucking Teresa reborn, or erase the whole thing. Call it a technical difficulty, a bad file, I don't give a shit, all that matters to me is that you either play ball, or you dig yourself a hole so deep that I never see you again, and no one gets word of what happened in the gym. Am I making myself clear here? I can illustrate the point further if you need me too."

Ran clenched her teeth and hoped that none of the blood got in her mouth. She could smell it, that was bad enough. It filled her nostrils and made her dizzy, lightheaded, but Jackie's shifting weight centered her back on reality. The little woman was in control, here, trapping Ran in her own apartment. This wasn't like the movies where the hero rushes in at the last moment to make a grand save. No, this was a horror movie. No one was coming to save her.

She eyed the drill at her side and gulped, but managed to keep her freaking out to a minimum. If Jackie just came to beat on her - or worse - she would have done that by now. No, she had threats to makes, and Ran listened with her complete attention. It was all about exactly what she figured it would be about. The video, the interview, Patty. All the sudden, Ran found herself wishing she'd passed editing duties off this time.

She was glad that Jackie's hood covered her features in shadow, since it hid the look of utter revulsion as Jackie's breath fell across her face, the sick scent filled with alcohol. "Crystal, crystal clear!" She blurted out, pressing her head back as far as it could sink into the mattress to make as much space as possible. "I-I-I'll edit it out, I promise, you don't have to do anything!"

"Oh, but I do need to do something Ran. I need to keep an eye on you, watch you and Patty really close," Jackie said in a whisper, the faint hint of a slur in her accent now apparent, "Because I know you'll be a meek little lamb and keep your gob shut, but Patty? Oh, Patty has a mouth big enough for both of you, and if she talks to anyone about this..." Jackie's hand crept back to the handle of the drill, not lifting it from its position, but giving the trigger a squeeze to set it screaming into life for a moment, the burring drill bit close enough to Ran's ear that the disturbed air from it tickled her eardrum.

"So, it's in your best interest for you to look out for her, yeah?" Jackie continued with a grin that held no warmth or humour, "She's your friend after all, and you wouldn't want her to make any more...mistakes, right?"

'Friend' was probably a bit of an overly generous way to describe the relationship between her and Patty, but Ran didn't bother to correct Jackie. She was far too busy squirming at the whir of the drill for that.

Ran nodded like a shaken bobblehead doll, taking care not to bump into Jackie's face as she did so. "I'll talk to her, she wont-" She wracked her brain for a good explanation, something Patty would buy. It wasn't that hard, really. "I'll tell her the data was corrupted, she'll buy that, I can edit it out anyway you want!"

She tried to turn her head to the side and at least look away from the predator pinning her down.

Jackie's gaze continued to bore into the side of Ran's face as she turned her face away, trying to avoid making eye contact. The room was silent for a moment, save the pattering of the rain against the window. The storm was ebbing a little now, the rumble of thunder more distant. With a sudden motion, Jackie relinquished her straddle and stood up one more, scooping up the drill as she grinned down at Ran.

"Glad we understand each other," she said in a jovial tone, "And people tell me I can be unreasonable at times, can you believe that? Well, I'll get out of your hair, looks like you have some editing to do."

With that, Jackie backed away towards the open door, slipping through into the dark abyss of the lightless corridor. Ran was left alone in the silence, with only the signs of Jackie's invasion of her home to tell the tale; the scratched and stained door, now ebereft of handle; the spots of damp where her drenched rain-slick had rested on Ran's clothes and bedding; the sickly scent of alcohol and blood.