Jester

Clarity Hotels, a luxury hotel trademark known for its replication of seventeenth-century architecture, imitating grand cathedrals where religious prayers were chanted. Its walls and window frames were constructed of tempered iron that survived through the years since Aries's existence. Despite its antique design that mimicked the artifacts of old century cathedrals, it was an abandoned hotel that the citizens of Aries were never remotely interested in because of its aging architecture. It was simply too inconvenient without the modern technology of Aries, which had convenient automated room service, vibrant shining interiors, and a wide selection of grand foods. The hotel only had one frequenter; a janitor kept the iron walls and tiles spick-and-span.

One night, the janitor received a call from an unknown service that they would make a delivery into its cafeteria, but the janitor rejected it stating that the hotel was out of business. Several minutes later, the janitor's phone rang once more from another unknown number. When he answered the phone, high-pitched giggling, and breathing, forcing him to hurriedly hang up because of its unexpected eeriness.

Several minutes later, the janitor heard the sounds of heels clicking outside the hotel's entrance. Each click occurred two seconds after another, moving tremendously slow as the steps began to draw in closer and closer. The janitor deactivated the main power breaker of the establishment, turning the hotel's interior to nothing but darkness.

"At the… dark end… of the street…" A high-pitched female's melodic singing voice echoed outside the hotel's entrance. The janitor hid in fear, shivering violently with a flashlight in his sweaty grasp. "That's where we always meet…"

The janitor whimpered and hurled himself over the receptionist's desk. He clicked his flashlight on and fidgeted to hold it still. His sweaty fingers and glands on his hands only made holding it even worse, fumbling to even point it in the general direction of where the singing voice came from.

The melodic humming came where the janitor fumbled the flashlight towards. "Hiding in shadows where we don't belong…" The voice became gradually louder until the footsteps came to a full halt. "Living in darkness… to hide our wrong… living in darkness to hide our wrong, living in darkness to hide… our… wrong…" The voice gradually became more distorted until the janitor realized that it was a voice recording utilized to distract him from imminent danger. The voice recording distorted into a deep voice until pangs of cries and laughter shattered the machine's circuitry.

The janitor's ears heard nothing. Not even his breath.

"You and me." A sudden voice came from behind the janitor's ears, startling him. The shrouded figure splashed an unknown liquid on a torn rag, covering the man's panged screams as he fought to break free. The liquid began to numb the man's senses, rendering his body fully unconscious after several seconds. His flashlight collapsed on the ground, shattering the lens into miniature glass pieces.

The figure chuckled before ascending the hotel stairs, boots clacking so loudly and menacingly that death was encroaching. "At the dark end of the street… you and me…" The person sang continuously. "He's just a robot. No heart, no brain, no… dick," The person nearly broke out into laughter. "What would he know? He can't feel a single thing. Not even a touch or a tickle to the nerve. Can't change a single thing about him, can't make him feel again… unless for this. Some nerve."

The figure continued climbing the hotel stairs while holding a massive silver briefcase. The person slid their palms across the old-century ragged stairs, collecting particles of dust and grime. They whistled to the tune of the song they had sung earlier, skipping through the carpeted regal floors in sync with the rhythm of their lyrics. After ascending more stairs, the figure retrieved two grenades from their back holster, detonating them near the entrance. Three-dimensional pixelated animal images shattered the stairs to prevent anyone from ascending them ever. The person giggled and began ballet dancing across the hallway, spinning and circulating with great elegance.

"Hmm… now that's absolutely ripe!" The figure said, looking at the destruction site of her explosions. The person jerked their head to the right suddenly, slamming their fist into the wall and shattering a weakened portion of the foundation. "Hey, you shut up! He's giving me tough love. You don't know whoop dee fucking doo. Well, I'll show him… and I'll show him the right way."

The figure revealed herself underneath the neon lights that the grenades created. A young pale-skinned female with an elongated beige ponytail hairstyle that resembled the rebellious type. She had hot pink highlight streaks running across the left side of her temple. She dressed rather low maintenance in baggy sagging sweatpants. However, she had an armored nanosuit vest that revealed her slim hips and thin belly. She spun around gracefully once more and slammed her foot against one of the hotel doors. The door's foundation completely crumbled from the impact of her blow.

She inhaled a breath of fresh air with her nostrils tingled. "Now this looks convincing!" She exclaimed, setting her briefcase on the iron-framed queen-sized bed. She jerked her head behind her and began to examine the interior. Her eyes widened in astonishment. "Rich ironwork here. Really neat, really neat."

The figure opened her briefcase, revealing disassembled parts of a semi-automatic sniper rifle. As she whistled to the harmony of her song, she began assembling the pieces together. She flipped a silencer barrel and attached it to the muzzle of the weapon. She giggled as she ran her fingers through several bullets, each etched with a lazily drawn bunny on the sides. "Don't worry little guys," The girl teased, playfully tapping the tips of each bullet. "Mommy's gonna make sure you're used right."

"Mommy?" A little girl's voice called in the distance.

The slender figure, who was preparing her sniper rifle, pulled out a silver pistol that resembled an old-century Colt M1911. Its frame was inlaid with a chaotic inferno-colored gradient that had marks of wear and tear. She pointed it outside the door where the little girl called, spotting a small head peeking from outside the corner.

"Oh… look at you," The woman complimented, placing her pistol away. She kneeled and edged forward to the frightened little girl. "You've been gone for a while, haven't you? I know how you feel. Stripped and taken away by the girl that you loved… and strangled nearly to death. I hear your voice all the time. But I don't even know what to do about you."

"Let me in." The little girl pleaded.

A single shot of her pistol startled the little girl, firing directly into the wall behind her. A loud bang followed by a ricocheting blast. Smoke trailed off from her pistol's barrel, filling the room with its fumes. "And why the hell should I do that?!" The woman said, cackling crazily after. "You ran away from her. You told me that so many times already. Now you want to call it quits and come in? No chance. Daddy's a part of me now. You should have thought about your decisions before you made them, bucko."

"I… I regret it," The little girl said, clamping her hands together. "I didn't know what love was. I was confused."

"Listen, you snotty little brat…" The woman said, dangling her pistol by the trigger with her finger. "I'll tell you when you can come in. You want to be yourself, I get it, yadda yadda. But if you think daddy's gonna let you in, you've got another thing coming for you. No excuses, okay? Or I'm gonna have to shut you up."

The little girl reached forward with the tips of her fingers, attempting to touch the woman with the gun. "… this is not what you want. You want your life back-"

The woman slammed her head with the butt of her pistol, causing her to slump backward in desperation. After the blow connected, the little girl vanished in thin air. "Shut up! You don't know anything about me, you piece of shit! You wanna know how I feel? I'll show you how I feel, you little shit! Right here! Right now!"

She rushed towards her briefcase and instantly sped up her assembling process, muttering incoherent phrases of vulgar language as her eyes violently fidgeted beyond insanity. Incoherent voices began rambling in her eardrums, rattling them to the point of unintelligibility. One particular voice was feminine, yelling at the woman for the damages that she had done. Once the voices had increased in volume, the woman's face began to twitch and sweat without remorse.

"Shut the fuck up!" She cried. The woman swiped her arm across the room in distress, striking multiple antiques on the desk next to her. Her body began to violently swell up in heat. Her cheeks blistered uncontrollably as she struggled to assemble the last of the sniper rifle parts. "Daddy, I'm yours. I'm yours. I'll show you. I'll show you that I'm worthy!"

The woman kicked over canisters of molded food, along with aged dried-up paint cans. She leaned her sniper rifle against the edge of the window and jammed a clip inside the gun's chamber. "You're gonna like this, baby. I don't want to hear any more from you. I'm gonna shoot your pretty little face off, prince. Just watch!"

More incoherent whispers began entering the woman's ears, catching her off guard. She slapped both of her cheeks and ears before kicking the walls in anger. "I said, shut up! I'm busy! Can't you see I'm doing my work? Fuck off!" She cried, accurately setting the scope of her sniper perfectly.

While using the scope, the woman aimed it directly near the edge of a lantern-lit stone bridge. She fixated on two targets; one was a young slender black-haired female, and the other was a short brown-haired man. "The hell is this? They go for a swim or something?" The woman spoke to herself, noticing that her targets were doused in water.

"It's been a while since you went for a swim," The same woman spoke in a deeper voice. "Maybe after this, you should treat yourself to a nice little spa visit. That way you can-"

"Hey!" She interrupted herself once again. "Shut up!"

"Bitch." She spoke in her deep voice once more.

Seconds passed as the woman honed in and controlled her deep breathing. She placed the sniper's stock against her shoulder and aimed it above the two people doused in water. Two more individuals, one male, and one female approached the duo and spoke in a hurried manner. "Oh, you're not gonna like this guys… you're not gonna like this one bit…" She muttered with a smirk on her face.

The woman inhaled and held her breath to channel her concentration. She aimed the sniper to the right of the female, seeing another man that looked oddly familiar to her. As soon as her eyes locked with his, the woman heard a sharp ear-piercing ringing sound in both of her eardrums. The man's face caught her off guard. She reared her shoulder back as if someone was grabbing her from behind, echoing in her ears to come to follow her.

You… You have beautiful eyes.

The woman screamed as she reared her sniper back, firing an unexpected bullet without striking the proper target. Instead, the bullet struck the black-haired woman in the shoulder. "Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!" She shouted, aiming her scope towards the targets below. From the distance, a distortion grenade that closely resembled the sniper's style exploded to cover the remaining three targets' tracks. With her vision obscured, the sniper's frustratingly brash temper began firing a volley for bullets recklessly as she screamed at the top of her lungs. "You can't control me! Not now! Not ever!"

She continued firing until there were no bullets left. She ripped apart the curtains and detached her sniper rifle, placing all the pieces back into the suitcase. "But that man…" She whispered. She slapped herself immediately after. "No! He means nothing! Not anymore! But he does… no, he doesn't! Fuck!"

The woman lay on the hotel room's bed, spreading her legs apart and reaching her arms to the ceiling. She pulled her hands back and massaged her hips. She moved her hands gradually upwards until she flicked her hair in a sensual manner. "I can do… whatever I want," She muttered. "No robo daddy is gonna fuck with me."

Because I'm the motherfucking jester.