Tourist

My onyx heels pounded against the cracked pavement as I made my way out of yet another shady, abandoned alleyway. A huge gust of wind threw my short hair out of place, blonde strands trailing along in every direction.

I was back in civilization. A ray of sun shot through the clouds, striping over my crimson dress. I reached into my feathered clutch for one of my four cell phones.  Gripping my leather gloves with my teeth, I slid them off of my hands in one fluid motion, skilled enough by now not to smudge any lipstick. My fingers danced tiredly over the buttons, and I picked up my pace as a stony voice echoed through the receiver.

"I did what you wanted me to. Obviously." I answered dully.

"Well I ain't gonna congratulate you for it."

"I wasn't expecting you to, idiot."

He chuckled, a high, raspy, wheezing sound that had me irritatedly pulling the phone away from my ear.

"Alright, get back here quickly. We ain't waiting 'round for you. You ain't here, we're taking off without you."

"You wouldn't dare leave me here."

With three distinct beeps, the line went dead. I sighed, stepping out closer to the street. Cars of every shape and color flew past me; a rainbow of exhaust and fuel stretching down an endless road.

Running my glossy, manicured fingers through my hair, I stepped closer to the oncoming traffic with a thumb out. It didn't take long for some sucker to halt his wheels, pulling up next to me with a desperate screech.

"Why hello there, sexy. Come on in."

I bit my tongue and gave the sleazy old man, whose remaining hair was tiredly slicked back with some sort of grease, a large smile. He returned the favor with an eager grin. His convertible compensated for his lack of teeth.  Yum. 

I threw my clutch into the backseat, watching the individual feathers glued to the front attempt to flutter away before hitting the hard leather seats with a thump.

For a few moments I stood still, one foot lingering in the car.

"Come on, baby. I'll drive you right on down to Pleasureville."

I raised an eyebrow, grabbing the man's sweaty palm and hoisting myself into the cardinal red sedan. Matched my outfit.

Continuing to smile at the man, I blinked twice, and my eyes began to illuminate in my sockets. They took on a bright green hue, filling in one of the man's missing teeth as it shone directly into his fading smile.

His hands gripped the wheel a bit tighter.

"Wow, that sure is a cool trick," he mustered, about to step on the gas.

I inhaled deeply, and bright orange flames roared out of my head, licking the seats around them with a serpent-like curiosity. 

The man's eyes bulged from his sockets and his breathing increased unsteadily.

I made sure to roll the windows down before I muffled his screams with a blanket of electricity radiating from my skin.

Placing my unconscious and possibly dead passenger across the backseat, I slid behind the wheel and focused on the road. 

It only took me three minutes to crash into the side of an ancient brick building. 

The car was obliterated beyond repair. 

"Great. At least I figured out how to start it," I muttered to myself, grabbing my clutch from beneath the smashed aluminum siding. 

I sped back out onto the road, managing to hail a bright yellow taxi cab in a matter of seconds.

  "Gotta love New York," the driver said with a smile.

He was a young man, probably in his early thirties with thick, slightly curly brown hair and bright eyes. His expressions were so innocent they were almost animalistic, like that of a dog. I was about to assume the wheel, beginning to heat up my eyes when the man began to talk.

"You're not from around here, aren't you?"

"Did my horrible taxi signals give that away?" I asked dully, looking through my phones to see if any survived my previous crash.

He smiled. It was warm and genuine, something I hadn't yet seen in this state.

"Nah, you just look lost. Where do you need to go?" he asked, leaning back to face me.

I looked him in the eyes, questioning my next move. I promised myself that I wouldn't kill anyone who didn't deserve it. He seemed nice enough. But I was really pressed on time. 

"Is everything okay?" he asked, pulling the cab onto the road.

"Yes. Just…take me downtown as fast as you can."

I'd give him ten minutes. If we weren't getting anywhere I'd dispose of him.

"Sure thing, Ma'am. You must be headed somewhere really great to be dressed up so fancy," he guessed, glancing back to me in the mirror.

"I'm actually headed home."

"And where is home?"

I bit my lip in thought.

"It's far I can tell you that. I had to take care of some business here."

"Well I hope you had fun. New York is a great place if you're set on adventure. You get lost, you always end up finding something new."

"I'm not very adventurous. And no, I didn't have much fun." I said, amusing his small talk.

I saw him look at me through the mirror again. I raised my brows back.

"You should always have fun. No matter what it is you're doing. Look out there!" he said, pointing a finger to the right.

A dozen women, all dressed in neon pink stood out on the street, their arms linked. They were doing a little dance, kicking their silver boots up in the air and cackling between each other. I couldn't help but give a small laugh.

"See? They're having tons of fun. You know this block's got a really great museum. Really cool. There's lots of ancient things from all around the world."

"Really."

"I know it sounds boring, but there's just something about seeing it up close that's just breathtaking. There's a mummy in there too! Thousands of years old, and it's right there. Right in front of you!"

I looked back out the window. This place had been bothersome since I first entered its bumbling passages. It was loud and noisy and made my job ten times harder to complete. But it wasn't that I didn't like those things. I didn't know what I liked. All I knew was that I had a job and if I didn't do it, I served no purpose. I looked at the little clock on the front of the car. Twenty minutes. I'd give him some extra time considering the amount of traffic built up around us.

"You been to Broadway?"

   "Excuse me?" I asked.

He shook his head, almost disappointed.

"Singin' and dancin' and a real spectacular performance! Oh, you're missing out. There's The Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked, and-"

"What's the point of that?"

"Entertainment. Lots of things. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll have a great time."

"Well, all I've learned about New York so far is that its taxi drivers are great advertisers," I answered, cracking a small smile at him through the mirror.

That seemed to fuel him, and he grinned from ear to ear, laughing softly,

"And I don't even mean to be, I promise. So what kind of work you do here?"

"I work for a…collection agency. I had to collect some…things to bring back home for observation."

"Funny, most collection agents are rude, obnoxious and cold-hearted. You're not any of those things," he said.

A car cut us off right then as I took his words in. I felt a strange twang in the center of my artificial chest. 

"Honk!" I shouted, cheering as the driver obeyed my demands.

"That's gonna cost you extra," he joked, giving one last honk for fun.

I laughed, wholly and genuinely. It was the first time in a very long time.

"I"m Jerry, by the way."

Jerry. Such a strange name.

"They call me Betty here," I said.

He reached a hand back to me and I grabbed it, unsure. He shook it up and down.

"What…what was that?" I asked, puzzled.

"You don't have handshakes where you're from? Wow, really sounds like no fun to me."

"It's not."

Suddenly, the car stopped. I looked up. We were here. The strange feeling in my chest dropped lower and seemed to get heavier as it fell.

"How much do I owe you Jerry?" I asked as he turned back to face me a final time.

He shook his head, curls flying underneath his cap.

"Don't worry about it," he said with a  wink.

I looked out the window. In a few moments I would exit the taxi, make my way down to my unit's ship, and present the boss with the specimen samples he requested. And then I'd be stored away until the next mission. This…New York would be over. I wouldn't have this skin anymore, this hair. This heart. I would be a prisoner to my planet, meant to collect data and function as a tool. I took a sigh and grabbed for my clutch, and then paused.

'Everything okay, Betty? I hope it's alright that I call you Betty."

"Actually…I think I'd like to see that Broadway thing you were telling me about. Care to join me?"

He beamed, eyes shining.

Mars could wait.