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Killer Queen

Chapter 2: Obsession

Notes:

Gonna be updating Thursdays, so have this one a little early!

Chapter Text

It was no secret among Jaina’s friends that she actually liked to study. She immersed herself in the pursuit of knowledge, both in her field of Theoretical Physics and in her other interests of history and political sciences. So even though it was Spring Break, she’d had every intention of studying more than she partied.

Only to run into a brick wall on the whole studying thing.

It didn’t help that she couldn’t get that party out of her mind, both the man who’d nearly roofied her and the sexy singer. The first left her feeling mostly angry but that wasn’t exactly an uncommon emotion for her. The second? Just made her horny and lonely, and the combination of all three was lethal. The talking heads on the news of another man disappearing barely registered.

The student who’d thrown the party was in the engineering department, and Jaina had gotten desperate enough to corner her while she was busy making googly eyes at the star lacrosse player exercising, just to get the name of that singer. It was a nice view, Jaina had to admit.

She’d only gotten an apologetic smile and casual hair toss in response, “I never got her name, I’m sorry. But I met her in the library?”

“Thanks.” So the library was where Jaina headed next to no avail. The librarian stared at Jaina and stumbled over her words but managed to squeak out that she’d seen that woman a few times but she’d been too intimidated to approach her.

If Jaina hadn’t been so distracted by thoughts of that woman, she would have noticed the librarian nervously trying to ask her out. As it was, she smiled politely and obliviously thanked the woman before she left the library.

“Shit.” She ran her fingers through her hair, loosening the braid as she stepped out of the campus library.

Why did she even care? Maybe it was the mystery of it. No one seemed to know her name, but she had to have some classes, it was just a matter of figuring out which ones.

A quite possibly impossible task, and Jaina’s shoulders slumped. Maybe she was getting a little obsessed and there were honestly easier ways to get laid than tracking down a mystery woman who was probably tragically straight. Belatedly, she realized that the librarian had been flirting.

She wished she’d thought to record that last song she’d heard, at least. She hummed it as she turned down the street. Jaina wasn’t a bad singer herself, even if she tended towards the soft pop end of the spectrum, as opposed to whatever satanic rituals that woman got up to in her free time. But that last melody? It haunted her. Really, like some kind of siren song leading her astray.

And Jaina wanted to go astray.

Not content to go home just yet, she stopped in a bookstore, spending about twenty minutes searching through stacks and shelves to find something interesting to read. She smiled at the man at the register, hit up the coffee shop next door, and settled herself at the park under a tree for an afternoon of reading. That she’d chosen some kind of supernatural romance with a dark and mysterious female lead was something she refused to acknowledge the reasons for.

And yet, she couldn’t focus. Once, she felt like eyes were on her, but when she looked up there was no one there. After another hour, unable to shake the uncomfortable feeling of being watched, she closed her book and got up to go home. A wind was picking up, and storm clouds were on the horizon. It was a good idea to get home before the rain came anyway.

Jaina almost missed her; a woman in a zipped up black duster, the wind kicking it up behind her as she leaned against the bus stop, arms folded, blue eyes scanning the street.

Nearly tripping over herself, Jaina rushed over to the stop, but froze when she got there. What the hell was she supposed to say?

The woman turned her head towards Jaina. Her lips were painted purple today, hair tucked under the hood of her duster. Gone were the bloody tears, smokey eyeshadow in their place that only seemed to draw out the light color of her eyes.

Those gorgeous lips turned up, and the woman spoke with that same rumbly timber that had made Jaina’s legs wobbly just a week ago, “You were at the party.”

“Yes,” Jaina replied, pleased that she managed to find her voice without turning into as much of a sack of goo as that librarian. She didn’t try to think too much about whatever coincidence had had them run into each other today. It was highly unlikely that this woman had been wanting to find her as much as Jaina had. But it was nice to think about.

“You didn’t stay long,” she replied, eyes studying Jaina’s face. “Did my singing chase you away?”

“It’s not usually my thing, but I liked that last song.” Jaina shrugged one shoulder, “I had something important to do.”

Pushing off of the stop, the woman leaned in close. She had a few inches on Jaina, and her lips were dangerously close to her left ear, “Chasing down that asshole?”

Jaina’s breath hitched, and she nodded, “Yeah. I didn’t want to let him get away with it.”

“Too bad they let him go the next day.” She shifted away, the words sending a chill down Jaina’s spine even as she felt anger rise up.

Sighing, Jaina replied, “Of course they did.”

“You tried,” the woman shrugged, turning away as the bus rolled up, the streetlights coming on giving a red hue to her eyes. “Pity it was a meaningless effort, but that’s life. Meaningless and short.”

She locked eyes with Jaina as she walked onto the bus, rooting her to the spot. It wasn’t until the bus had rolled away that Jaina realized she still hadn’t gotten the woman’s name, let alone her number.

The sky opened up and she turned her face up to the rain, feeling miserable.