In this modern society it was getting harder to not get noticed. The governments of various nations had realized there were people among them who were…, different. They wanted us dead or under their control. Dead was first choice. For the past forty nine years I drifted from job to job working with the bottom part of society. Not that the jobs I did could be called dregs but it was the places where I worked. Short order cook at the shipping docks, waitress at Harry’s Bar and later at Lynn’s Dinner left a lot of bloody arms in my wake. Some of those men thought copping a feel of the waitress came with the order. I didn’t happen to be in the mood or on the menu. Adjusting to what life had dealt me included a mental adjustment along with the physical.

“You’re late.” Julian admonished me as I walked into the hotel lobby.

“I’m early.” I pointed to the big clock on the wall behind the front desk.

“You’re out of uniform.” He kept digging at me.

“I’ll change in the employee’s bathroom.” I held up the uniform in my left hand.

“I’m going to dock your pay for coming in the front entrance. You know you are supposed to use the back employee entrance.” Julian wouldn’t let it go.

Walking over to the front desk, I laid the uniform on the counter. “I had to park three blocks south of here because this company is too cheap to allow employee parking in the parking garage. I can’t afford to pay for parking on what you’re paying me. It would be more than I make. The police station has free parking around it. I’m pretty sure my car will still be there when I get off at three in the morning. If you are docking my pay then hand me my paycheck now because I’m not coming to work.”

He glared at me as he acted like he was going to the office to print out my check. “You’re pushing, Nova. I’m short staff tonight or I would fire you. Stella called and said her husband was sick. She was taking him to the hospital. Morino called asking me to make his bail. He got tossed for fighting in a bar. If I wasn’t…”

“Don’t threaten me Julian. I don’t deal in threats.” I picked up my uniform and headed to the back to change. I knew why Julian was pushing. He would slack off for sexual favors. A couple of the girls talked about him. I knew why they didn’t quit instead of joining Julian in one of the vacant rooms for a quick one. They were desperately poor and untrained labor. They couldn’t find another job that easily and they couldn’t quit this one and pay the bills. Life really sucked at the bottom of the human food chain!

Unless one was one of the Predators! The problem with being a predator there were always nastier ones than yourself. It never ended well when we met.

The white maid uniform was off the rack and a size too large. It had survived the rear seat of my car with things being tossed on the top of it for the past couple days. This gave it a rumpled been a long day look when I put it on. My hair was tied off in a ponytail, long enough to cover half my butt. I always washed it in hard water with extra harsh soap and never thoroughly rinsed out all the soap before I dried it to get it to look dull and lifeless. Long, long ago I gave up cutting it when the changes first started. It had a length it wanted. If I cut it at night it would be back by morning. Cutting it in the morning meant it would be back by evening. People who saw me that morning would be doing double takes by the end of the day. So I gave up. My last trick at hiding it was the soap thing. For the rest of the evening I would look like I had a horrendous case of dandruff as I shed everywhere I went. By the time my shift was over my hair would have a glistening black sheen like it has been polished and oiled. And so went the way of little bits and pieces of this life I had somehow inherited.

Looking in the mirror after I changed, I hoped no one hit on me tonight. I was in a really foul mood after putting up with Julian’s sickening attempts at blackmail. I headed for the employee service station to clock in, ten minutes early. “Another night, another dollar.”

Gwen pointed to a food tray after I had clocked in. “Mr. Hradra in room three fourteen has requested grapes, caviar, wine, whipped cream. Watch his hands when you deliver. Marla said he groped her when she delivered extra towels earlier.”

“You probably should send one of the other girls. I’m not in the mood for that tonight.” I hesitated hoping Gwen would give me an out.

“Can’t, we are running three short tonight. Try and hold it in hon and for god’s sake don’t kill him. Be extra nice to him. If he wants to feel, accept it as part of your job.” She turned back to direct one of the other girls to clean up in room two oh six.

“Gwen, please, give me clean up and send Carla up with the tray.” I really was in an ugly mood after the exchange with Julian. Having a randy guest grope me was not in this hotel’s best interest.

“No can do. Now hustle girl, we are on a tight schedule and short on help. That goes to the sixth floor.” She pointed to a tray calling for Maria to rush a bottle of champagne to room six forty one.

“Fine! Don’t blame me if things go south tonight.” I hissed through gritted teeth. I was going to try my best to not go postal if the idiot decided the maids were part of room service.

Picking up the tray I headed down the hall to the service elevators. Julian stepped into the hall ahead of me. “Come into my office when your time is up and I’ll give you some extra hours with overtime pay.”

The tray was balanced on my right hand, held shoulder high. My long fingernails sliced up through the bottom of it. My eyes closed to slits as I tried to contain the emotional explosion welling up inside me. Looking down at my feet so I wouldn’t focus on his face, I hissed. “Julian, get out of my way. If you value your life don’t speak to me again. EVER! Leave the other girls alone. This isn’t your harem and we aren’t your playthings. Run while you’re still able.”

“You stupid little bitch! I can make life a miserable hell for you or it can be easy. But no, you guard that pussy of yours like you was a virgin. Someone who looks like you ain’t no virgin. You’re a god damn whore is what you are!” He was reaching to grab me.

Did he really think he could drag me back into his office and fuck me? Was more going on in this hotel than I thought? Had they been grooming me as one of the call girls? Putting up with groping guests were part of the training program? Dropping the tray I took hold of his wrist before he made a latch on me. Turning my head to look back down the hall at the service area. Gwen had been watching.

I yanked Julian into me and slit his throat with one of my long fingernails on my left hand as easily as if it had been a stiletto. Julian was going to the floor with his hands wrapped around his own throat as I spun on my heel and marched back down to face Gwen. She didn’t look scared. She didn’t have time to process the fact Julian was bleeding out on the floor.

“Tell the police what happened and clean this whore house up or I’ll come back and do it for you. Give them all the tapes from all the cameras. Including all the ones hidden in the guest rooms. If you are afraid of what the police might do to you, it is nothing what you can expect if I have to come back. If the police are in on this cesspool, make that call to the state police. If this gets covered up I’ll get names and bodies are going to become plentiful down at the morgue. That includes the mayor if it reaches that high. No one is beyond my wrath. No one.”

I turned to go and then looked back over my shoulder to look at a very white shaking Gwen. “I’d appreciate it if I was erased off those tapes.”

Collecting my clothes and purse, I left knowing I had worn out my welcome not only in this hotel but this town and this state. A quick trip to my rented room, my car was packed with what few belongings I owned. The freeways and interstates would have been a faster exit but also the logical place for the police to look for a fleeing suspect if Gwen had turned me in. The old highways and back roads were slower but not as well covered as the interstate highways.

Sleeping in the car, buying lunch meat, bread, water from the grocery stores, and washing up in the bathrooms when I gassed up the car became my way of life for the next six days until I reached Houston. Winter was a month away and sleeping in the car in one of the northern states didn’t give me warm fuzzy feelings. My car was going to be my bed and breakfast for at least a month after I found a job. I had enough to pay for a room. If an emergency came up like last time and I had to abandon everything I wouldn’t have enough gas money to run.

Houston suburbs were where I landed a little before noon. I spent most of the rest of the day driving alleys until I found what I wanted. A car parked off in the weeds with current plates. If the car was repaired it would be months before they noticed the plates were gone. Possibly they might scrap the car and never think about the plates.

At two AM I parked several blocks away in front of a house collecting newspapers on the driveway. I was ghosting down the alley toward my goal. Black boots, pants, sweatshirt, ski mask, and gloves were my attire for this job. There was no way to hide my assets. No one who saw me was going to mistake me for a boy. I let my long hair hang down in a ponytail as it wouldn’t help to hide it. On my belt was a tool pouch with pliers, screwdrivers, crescent wrenches, torq drivers, and a set of wrenches to fit those anti theft screws and bolts. No matter what was holding those plates on, they were mine!

Halfway down the second alley a couple large dogs got to barking. That of course roused all the dogs for several blocks around and it became a cacophonous of yips from the smaller dogs to deep wolfs from the larger dogs. Shaking my head I muttered. “Neighborhood dog alarm system.”

I knew they would quiet down in a few minutes. And then I heard a gate open in one of the yards a couple houses down from me. It had to be to the dog pen because from the sound the gate didn’t open to the alley.

“SICKEM BRUTUS, GO GETEM SULTAN!” Rang out from a deep male voice in the yard.

Two huge German Police dogs cleared the six foot fence and hit the alley on a run coming directly toward me. “Oh shit!”