Heavy black clouds filled the sky, blotting out the waning crescent moon.  It was the end of October and Cookie had started her new life in a small Central Californian town.  She had an apartment and a job as a secretary and, although the dating pool was fairly shallow, a boyfriend.  Regardless of her blessings, she often found herself looking back.  Tea hadn't been able to move with her, and Cookie had left everything she owned behind in her old life.  That even included her cat, Mayonnaise, who lived with is aunt Tea. She kept phone calls brief, often imagining they were being spied on. Although she and her sister always used different phones, Cookie felt like the people she had burnt on her last job were only a few steps behind her. 

The wind wuthered in the allies and along the corners of each building on the street.  Cookie pulled her hat down over her eyes and grimaced, her teeth grinding just slightly as she pushed through the blasts of frigid air.  Her car was parked further down the street, an old habit she'd picked up in New York.  Leaves and discarded paper trash whipped past Cookie and she ducked a naked tree branch as she got into her Pontiac Streamliner and started the car. The radio wasn't working well, so Cookie spent more time that she should have fiddling with the dials. A few moments later she sat up and looked in her rearview mirror. What she saw caused her to shriek and jerk the wheel. 

"Marlon!"  She felt cold hard metal pressed against the back of her skull.  

"Pay attention to the road you bitch!"  Marlon growled.  Cookie nodded and felt tears prickling her eyelids.  She brushed them away with a fierce swipe and cleared her throat.

"How did you find me?" 

"It wasn't that hard. You care too much about that cat of yours."

"What does my cat have to do with this?"  A bead of cold sweat rolled down her forehead, narrowly avoiding her eyes. 

"You send your sister money orders. It's pretty simple to figure out where they're coming from.  After that I just had to put out eyes.  And you know I have them everywhere." 

"Dammit." 

"Did Johnny send you?"  There was a guffaw from the backseat. "Hell no.  Johnny and I have nothing to do with one another.  He's angry, but not angry enough to kill you.  me on the other hand..." Marlon trailed off, then pressed the gun into Cookie's head a little harder.  "I want you dead.  Drive to Our Lady of Perpetual Grace." 

Cookie swallowed, her hands were getting moist and her hair was sticking to her face in thin wisps.  She thought about Marlon and how she'd loved him once.  How they'd promised each other forever and forever.  She had always forgiven him, pardoned his inebriation, his broken promises, hell, even his temper.  A broken arm, a bruised ego, she had forgiven it all.  But there was one thing she couldn't forgive.  A trip down the stairs that ended in death.  She vowed to make him suffer the same way she had.  A few gallons of kerosene, a match and an elaborate trap and thought she had gotten her justice, but now, as a cruel trick, Marlon was alive and looking to finish the job he had started five years earlier. 

As they neared the church Cookie took a few deep breaths and clenched the wheel in both hands, searching her mind for an out.  Every rushing thought that came into her head escaped just as quickly and she turned the corner towards the graveyard in complete despair.  A flicker of light caught her eye and she slammed on the gas.  Fire was either going to save or damn her, but once again the flickering flame she loved so much was calling to her. 

"Slow down!" Marlon screamed.  She could hear hysteria in his voice. 

"Not until one of lands in hell!"  With a final stomp on the accelerator she crashed through the wrought iron fence and turned the wheel ninety degrees to the left.  Marlon crashed against the door on the opposite side, cursing and trying to right himself.  Cookie didn't give him a chance, veering through the marble headstones, the cracking of concrete and marble echoing through the wind filled night.  She was heading to the source of the flicking light, newly placed votives on a fresh grave, a towering marble monument that overlooked the entire cemetery. 

"Bless you." She whispered to the newly deceased right before she crashed her car.  Her hair flew all around her head like a red halo, shards of razor sharp glass cut through the air and the last thing she saw before it went dark was Marlon's head and body flying in different directions.