Dead Money

The day passed slowly. Incredibly slowly. Boring. The rain kept any customers from coming in. Eventually, Starnsy decided to close up shop early. What was the point in staying open if no one was out and about in the first place. She turned the open sign around to closed and opened the door. Outside, the rain hadn't stopped, in fact, it probably got worse. Starnsy sighed once more, laying her head on the door frame and closing her eyes. She stepped out into the rain to begin her walk back home. She hoped Wobble would be there, so she could cuddle with her husband.

He wasn't. He was still at the office. Starnsy grabbed the mail from the mailbox, going through it as she walked up the driveway to her house. Bill. Bill. Another bill. Car payments. And another bill. Starnsy stopped abruptly as she looked at the final article of mail. The name of a familiar loan shark was printed upon it, as well as big, bold, red letters indicating that she was behind on  payments.

She was. A storm a month or so ago had caused a tree to fall on their property, damaging her car and their house. The payments to get both fixed were quite pricey, but with more storms on the way, and Wobble having to be called in at a moment's notice, they couldn't afford to have the car or the house out of commission. She had already been scraping the bottom of the barrel in savings, and Starnsy wasn't about to borrow money from her Dad. Never, not in a million years. Wobble made a hefty sum of money, yes, but even combined with her own money it would not enough to cover all of the bills and the payment on the loan. She had decided, without Wobble, to get a loan, hoping to keep it secret from her husband. She came up with a lie, telling him that she had dipped into an alternate savings account that she had set up before they had met. She had already been neglecting the payments for a while now, which only made it worse.

She looked over all of forms that came in the envelope. In a week they were going to begin repossessing everything until it adds up to the sum of money that they had borrowed in the first place. She continued to pore over the forms, hoping to find something, anything that could help their situation. It was hopeless, there was nothing that could be done. If the bills weren't paid, all of their utilities would be shut off, if the loan shark wasn't paid, all of their possessions would be repossessed. She set down all of the mail and rubbed her temples, closing her eyes and sighing. She hid the letter under a fake tile in the bathroom, along with all of the others she had put there before. She replaced the small green rug over it as she heard the door unlock and open. She smiled and stood up, leaving the bathroom and hugging him tightly.

Wobble smiled and picked her up a few inches off of the floor, spinning her around and kissing her nose. "Hey hun! Ah, I missed you so much Starnsy. I'm so sorry, I would've been home earlier but I was called in."

Starnsy smiled. "Oh? What for?"

"Eh, just some punks that were trying to rob a liquor store. Seriously, you know how much was in the safe and the cash register combined? 200 dollars. That's it. Fuckin' kids"

And something in Starnsy's mind clicked. She squeezed her husband tightly and shook her head, sighing. ”I’m glad you’re home, love. I missed you.” She rubbed his chest softly. “I worry about you a lot, you know.”

“Don’t worry hun, I promise, I’ll be fine.”

“You stay safe, okay hun?”

Wobble smiled and caressed her mane, nodding softly. "I will, I promise." He stood, holding her in his arms the same way he did those years ago when they were first married. He laid her down gently and she snuggled up against him, taking in his warmth.

The next day when Starnsy woke up, Wobble wasn't there. She sighed, her mood deflated. Today was Friday. Fix runs the shop by himself on Fridays. Starnsy sat up in the bed, stretching and groaning as she woke. Normally she would have stayed in bed on her day off, but she had work to do. She would have to get everything done, and quickly. Her husband could come back at any time. She put on some comfortable clothes, then went down to the basement. She flipped on the light and looked around at her personal workshop. Here she kept everything, her explosives, her knives, anything harmful, anything dangerous, anything technological, it was down here. A grin spread across her face as she popped her knuckles and approached the workbench.

Starnsy stepped out of the basement door and groaned, popping her spine and sighing. She was covered in black soot, along with some paint here and there. The next part of her plan would be a bit harder to explain to Wobble if he ever asked, but it had to be done. She reached her hand underneath her husband's desk and grabbed the key taped to the underside of it. Wobble was smart, but Starnsy? She knew him like the back of her hand. She stood and left the house, making her way into the shed in their backyard where she found a large, black cabinet. The same grin from before spread across her face once more as she inserted the key into the lock and turned it.

Starnsy finished loading the last of her things into an large, inconspicuous looking messenger bag. She stood and went to the kitchen, rummaging around in the medicine cabinet for a bit, before pulling out a roll of bandages and a box of sterile latex gloves. "Yeah... Yeah these will work..." She entered the bathroom and placed them on the counter along with the messenger bag. She left and locked the bathroom door, quickly changing clothes and leaving the house. She came back, looking around as she held a small plastic bag. Wobble hadn't come home. "Good..." She unlocked the bathroom door and stepped in, closing and locking it behind her. She looked in the mirror, this time she could see that same grin, spreading across her face.

Starnsy opened the door to their garage, slipping under it and closing it. She circled around the van she and Fix used to make their "house calls." Normally, one would come in to the workshop to have something made, or repaired. However, if the item was too large, or if the client was too far away to come into the workshop, they would drive the van out and do what needed to be done. She slipped into a white paint suit and put on a clear respirator mask, before pulling up the hood on the suit. And behind the mask, she grinned once more.

Once Starnsy had finished, she changed clothes again, putting the dirty ones in with a load of laundry in the washer. She sighed and laid out on the couch, yawning. All of the preparations she had done had exhausted her, both physically and mentally. About an hour later, the door opened and Wobble stepped in, smiling. He approached the sleeping Starnsy and picked her up, carrying her to the bedroom and laying her down on it. He quietly got undressed down to his underwear and crawled into bed with his wife, pulling her close. "I love you, Starnsy." He kissed her forehead and sighed happily, before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep as well.