Chapter Text
The worst part about it is that Katya isn't screaming back. Trixie wouldn't know anything was wrong if she hadn't looked through the window as she got out of the car.
Running up the stairs, Trixie can hear him shouting alright. Terror and panic swells in her as he gets louder, she can’t remember the last time she was this scared. Trixie reaches the third floor, and runs down the hallway. She just needs to make it to that apartment.
She makes it to the door in time to hear Katya cry out for the first time. It’s guttural, and Trixie is shaking.
Oh god. The spare key. Where's the spare key? Under the mat. Trixie scrabbles for it.
"You're cheating on me!"
"I'm not!" Katya answers, there's a loud thwack.
"Tell the truth!"
Trixie's heart beat is all over her body. Her blood is cold. Mouth dry. She finds the key and opens the door. There’s a moment of silence as Trixie steps into the flat.
"Who the fuck is that! One of your fuck buddies! You dirty-"
Trixie doesn't hear the end of his sentence over Katya's shriek of pain.
"Stop- Please-" Katya begs. There's a large crash.
Trixie runs through the flat. She pushes open the kitchen door. The kitchen has always been small, but with the amount of damage, it seems minuscule. There used to be a table in the middle, but it has been knocked onto its side.
Katya’s on the floor, glass shattered around her. There's a cut on her lip, and visible patches of red.
"Who the fuck let you in!" the man next to Katya shouts. Trixie looks at the demon that just hurt her best friend. Trixie grits her teeth.
"Get out," Trixie orders.
He raises an eyebrow. "‘Get out’," he mimics. "No. This is my house, my life," he looks at Katya, who isn't moving, "and my bitch. I'll do what I want!"
"Get out before I call the police." Trixie orders, she hears her own voice quiver. Her heart is beating harder and faster, dimming away her own thoughts. God, Katya's not moving. Why isn’t Katya moving?
He smashes a bottle onto the side. The liquid inside clatters across the floor and across Katya's legs. Trixie's body clams up with anger. The world is turning black and white. Trixie grabs a knife off the side, and holds it out. Hands shaking. Scare him off. Scare him back. Get him away from her.
“Get out of my home!”
He sprints at her. Trixie holds out the knife. He runs into it.
Trixie gasps, pulling the knife away and seeing the blood trickle off it.
His eyes widen at her, he looks between Trixie and the knife. His body goes limp. Falling to the ground and twitching. Trixie freezes as the blood spreads from the middle of his chest to the rest. A small amount trickles out of his mouth and onto his beard. He stops breathing.
The world goes still. Trixie chest constricts with fear. Oh god. Oh god.
Trixie looks at the knife in her hand, the smears of blood and at the body.
"Shit."
“Katya! I got in!” Trixie squealed with delight down the phone earlier in the day.
Laughing, Katya replied “I knew you would. You’re talented, smart, a bit of a slut but-”
“Oh shut up! I got in! I got into fucking cosmetology! I’m gunna be a make-up artist Katya!”
Katya remembered how happy Trixie had been when Katya had gotten all of her qualifications. They’d gone out on a sober night to celebrate.
“Like I knew you would,” Katya repeated. “Let me talk to the trade, I’ll see if he’ll let me come out to celebrate with you-”
“Let you?” the excitement in Trixie’s voice melted away.
“I’ll mention it,” Katya amended. She exhaled, “I’ll tell him now. Can you come pick me up? About half an hour?”
“Sure.”
Katya's never hurt like this before. She blinks her eyes open, slowly. It's fuzzy. There's a travelling ache in her body.
"Katya?"
Trixie? Katya leans up, a hand pressed against the pain in her head.
"Katya, are you okay?"
Why's Trixie crying?
"Yeah, I'm fine. Where's-"
Her heart stops.
The blood around his body is pooling. Trixie's hands are covered in it, so’s her dress. She has a knife in her hand.
"What, did you do Trixie?" Katya gags.
“He was h-hurting you Katya.”
The sobs leave Trixie’s chest in waves. Her makeup is as smeared as the blood is.
Katya tries to stand, her legs wobble beneath her weight but she makes it. Her muscles and bones ache with conviction. Walking over to her friend, she tries to avoid looking at him. She kneels on the ground beside Trixie, “what did you do Trix?”
Trixie swallows, “he smashed a bottle, he was going to hurt me too. I held out a knife, and-and-and-”
Katya nods, rage boiling in her. This was never meant to hurt Trixie, Katya’s. She was never meant to find out, and Trixie never did anything wrong. She runs a hand through her friend’s hair and pulls Trixie’s head to her chest. Trixie lets go of the knife. The metal clunks to the ground. Trixie’s grasps the fabric of Katya’s dress and buries her face against her body.
Katya’s an inch away from retching, “it’ll be okay.”
“He ran into it. Honest: I didn’t mean to. He stopped breathing,” Trixie whispers.
Katya’s mouth turns dry, Trixie’s telling the truth. She trusts her enough to know that. Looking across at her boyfriend, she sees where the blood originated. The stab wound. The mess. Katya’s head hurts so fucking much.
Katya picks up the knife and throws it away from them.
“We’ll figure it out, okay?” the words feel weak coming out of Katya. She looks at the window. The moon is large; it taunts her. “We’ve got each other, that’s enough. We’ll-We’ll run. Dorothy and Toto style, yeah? We’ll go somewhere they won’t find us.” The grip around her friend tightens. “ Katya murmurs, “I’m going to fix it for us. Honest: you’re going to be fine.”
There’s a knock at the door.
Trixie pulls away from Katya’s waist. She swallows. Her face is messy from tears; Katya takes her jaw into her hand and wipes at Trixie’s cheeks with her thumb.
“I’m going to get that,” Katya says, “and it’s going to be okay. I need you to go clean yourself off in the bathroom. Can you do that?”
Trixie nods.
Katya met Trixie seven years ago. It was a late night in a bar, as was most of Katya’s life at the time.
Trixie had sat next to her, and ordered the same drink as Katya. Katya didn’t recognise her, and drinking always did make her more sociable.
“You new around here? These parts? This land?” Katya joked.
Trixie frowned, smiling despite it, “I moved here a week ago actually. I got offered a job in a fucking makeup store in New York and I thought ‘anything to get out of this hell’ and packed up.”
Katya laughed, “You do makeup? By the way, you just went from one hell to another larger, sweatier one. We all realized that when we moved here. ”
“Honey, I am makeup. What do you do and where are you from? And, I don’t mind sweat,” Trixie answered. She’d turned in her chair to face Katya.
“I’m a burlesque dancer” Katya said, Trixie’s eyebrows raised. “It pays the bills, gets me trade and keeps me fit,” Katya finished. Trixie nodded in agreement. “And, I’m a Boston descendant. Oh, so the naturally sweaty pheromones don’t turn you on too much then?” Katya asked with a straight face. Trixie barked out a laugh.
“I’m Trixie,” she waved a little at Katya. Katya waved back.
“Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova,” she declared. When Trixie's eyes widened, Katya grinned, “call me Katya.”
Katya peaks through the peep hole. It’s Max, her neighbour, and she’s biting her nails. Katya opens the door a smidgen, not letting her into the apartment.
“Hey,” Katya greets, she hears her voice swing with the vowel. Recoiling at it, Katya chastises herself. Get it together or Max is going to guess, she’s going to call the police. Trixie will get sent away and Katya will be left all alone. All. Alone.
Max flinches at the sight of Katya, bruises covering Katya’s pale skin. Some old. Some new. “Katya? Darling, I heard shouting. I just wanted to know if you’re okay?”
Katya nods, “It’s all okay now. Just a misunderstanding. Thank you Max,” Katya’s breath catches, “you’re a good friend.”
Gritting her teeth, Max whispers, “Katya, I have friends you can stay with,” she reaches out and takes Katya’s hand, “let me help you.”
Too late. Katya smiles, “I’m fine. I don’t need help. Thank you though.”
She shrugs off Max’s hand. Max chews on her lips.
“Any time,” Max says. She enunciates the words and stares directly at Katya. Katya wants to throw up, she closes the door. Deeply exhaling, she gives it a second before she looks through the peephole of the door to see if Max has left. She has.
Turning around, Katya catches her reflection in a mirror. She stares at a woman with a black eye. Not just a black eye, but the whites of her eyes are red. There’s a cut on her lip, and blood on her shirt in the shape of Trixie’s hands. Katya sees the tears fill her eyes. What’s happened? She’s dreaming, she has to be.
“Katya, who was that? ”
Katya flinches at Trixie’s interruption. She turns to look at her best friend. Trixie’s no longer covered in mess. Katya sighs.“Max, you know, my neighbour?”
Trixie nods, “hollywood glamour?”
“Yeah, that one.”
Trixie’s still crying. A moment of comprehension. Staring at Katya’s beaten body, “You should have told me he was hurting you,” Trixie starts.
Katya opens her mouth to respond. She flounders before sputtering out, “it didn’t matter. It wasn’t that bad. This is the worst he’s ever- I won’t let him hurt you.”
Trixie swallows. She walks to Katya, they’re face to face.
“Um, he won’t? I-I killed him.”
Her boyfriend is dead, why doesn’t she feel more upset? “You didn’t mean to,” she sighs.
Trixie puts a hand over her mouth, “I’m going to go to jail. I deserve to. I killed him. I’m a murderer!”
The city is eerily quiet. Katya can’t remember the last time it was quiet in this flat. There’s always been noise: laughter, screaming, crying, fucking.
“Stop shouting. You’re not going to jail. Honest: I won’t let that happen,” Katya states. She looks up into Trixie’s eyes, they are rimmed red. “We’re going to run.”
“They’ll catch us.”
“Not if we’re smart,” Katya insists. “We’ll get all our money out. We can-We can find fake IDS somewhere on like a black market. I know places. We’ll motel jump until the heat’s off, and then we can move somewhere,” Katya devises the plan in her head as she speaks.
“It won’t work,” Trixie whispers.
Katya takes Trixie’s hands in her own.. Trixie makes note of Katya’s black eye, and wants to sob again.
Katya bites her lip and feels the pain shoot through her mouth. “We’ll make it work,” she declares. She squeezes Trixie’s hands and forces another smile.
For just a second, Trixie believes her.