“Have a nice day.” A man robotically drawled. He handed his customer their bag of goodies, and they snatched it out of his hand and left without so much of a *Thank you*. “Whatever.” The man muttered to himself.

“Excuse me.” Came a small feminine voice. Standing in front of his counter was a dreary looking woman who was clutching a black pistol tightly in her hands. She shakily raised and pointed the gun at the man’s head. “Th-this is a robbery. S-so…um, t-take everything out of the register.”

‘This is obviously her first time…’ The man thought to himself as he noticed that the gun didn’t have a visible red dot. He now had a choice. He could try to buy some time until the owner of the store hears the commotion and calls the police, he could grapple the gun from the robber’s shaky hands and then call the cops, or he could just give her what she wants and call it a night.

The man opened the cash register, filled a plastic bag up with money, and then plopped said bag onto the counter. “Here you go.”

The robber stared at the bag in shock, and then raised her gaze towards the sickly-looking cashier. “Really? Just like that?” She asked in disbelief.

“Just like that.” He replied as he nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders.

The dreary woman’s dull brown eyes bore into listless green trying to find any hint of deceit, but all she found was indifference.  The woman snatched the bag full of money and ran out of the old corner store.

The green-eyed man leaned against the counter as he waited for his boss to come out of the backroom to tell him of the unsurprising news. He could have just walked back there to tell him or even call his phone, but that would’ve been too much of a hassle for the cashier.

The door to the store suddenly chimed and standing there was the robber. She came over to the counter and gently placed something purple onto it.

“Thank you, and I am truly sorry for what I have done. This has always been my lucky charm, and hopefully it will be yours as well.” With that, the lady quickly ran out of the run-downed store.

‘Huh. A desperate robber has more manners than all of our customers combined.’

“…kinda sad…” The man softly muttered to himself. He picked up the purple object and examined it. It was an earring, the type that dangles. A royal purple crystal dangled from a string of gold, which was attached to a golden pin.

“Simple…and yet expensive. Stolen for sure.”

Another choice must be made now. Should he take it to the nearest police station which so happens to be a bus ride away, throw it away and pretend like he never saw it, or keep it and sell it for a couple hundred dollars.

The dreary man could already imagine the life draining discussion of how he got into possession of the stolen earring with a paranoid officer.

‘And if I sell it online, then someone may figure out that it’s stolen.’ Which made the man shiver as he imagined himself in jail where he would be forced to do chores for however many years. The man pocketed the earring.

‘I’ll toss it on my way home.’

“Lin.” An old sounding voice called.

The cashier turned to acknowledge the old man who just called his name. An old man with a mahogany cane was slowly making his way to the register with a book in hand.

“I just finished with the work outback, so you can go home for the day.”

“Kay.” Lin replied. He grabbed his jacket from out of the cabinet located under the register and headed for the door.

“Oh yeah…we just got another robbery. They used a pistol this time. It was a woman, and she looked like a pro. She was wearing a ski mask so I couldn’t see her face, but she did have brown hair. I didn’t see any other noticeable features. See you tomorrow.” Lin left while the old man hanged his head and sighed.

Lin yawned widely as he walked the illuminated streets of his neighborhood. He was already looking forwards to laying his weary body down. He may only work for five hours a day, but five hours of standing and tending to the customers was more than enough for him.

Lin turned into a poorly lit alleyway, it was a little short-cut that he always uses to get to and from work. He was proud to say that it shaved off two minutes of walking, and less walking is great for him. Honestly, he would have just used teleportation to get around everywhere if he could.

The tired man stopped at dumpster full of, what would you know, trash. Lin dug into his jean pocket and took out the supposedly lucky charm.

“What a waste…” He commented as he chucked the earring into the filthy dumpster. He continued home, that is until he spotted a shadowy figure stepping from behind a little alcove.

“A waste indeed.” The figure spoke. “That pretty little thing would’ve looked beautiful on a girl.”

‘A knife.’ Lin noted as he glanced at the butcher knife that the figure carried in its hand.

“If you want it, then you can go get it.” Lin shrugged.

“I may do just that.” It said as it walked towards Lin. Lin could now see that the shadowy figure was a man, and a pretty one at that. He had wavy hair that seemed to shine like the sun in the dim alley lights, and crystal blue eyes that may have once shone with life. “But I’ll do that later. We have a game to play after all.” The man smirked.

“Game?”

“Yes. A game.”

“Does it involve doing nothing?”

“Where would be the fun in that?” The man giggled. “It’s a…let’s just say it’s a game of tag. You will run for your life while I give chase, and if I catch you, then you die. If I don’t, then you live. Simple, yes?” He explained as he played with the glistening knife.

Another choice ha-

“Yeah, no. I rather you just kill me.” Lin deadpanned.

“…”

“…”

“…what?” The man, WHO IS OBVIOUSLY A KILLER, asks in confusion. It was the first time that one of his victims chose death voluntarily.

“Kill me.” The crazy idiot repeated.

The understandably baffled killer stared in shock before shaking himself out of it. He instead gave out an unstable giggle. “You are a very interesting little lamb.” He giggled again. “I will be more than happy to fulfill your request, but not in such a boring way. So how about you run away little lamb, before the big bad wolf gobbles you up.” The man giggled hysterically as a creepy smirk appeared on his face.

“Nah, sounds like too much of a hassle.” Why on earth would Lin waste his nonexistent energy on running from a psycho, when he could just die and rest for eternity.

‘Doing nothing for all of eternity sounds like heaven.’ Lin thought dreamily.

“Then I guess I’ll just have to make you run.” The killer dashed at Lin with the knife still in hand. “DIE LITTLE LAMB, DIE!” He laughed hysterically, but Lin didn’t move an inch. This didn’t deter the unstable man; he was confident that Lin would turn and run. All humans are afraid of death after all.

Oh, how wrong his assumption was, because even after his knife became a few inches away from those listless green eyes, Lin still had no attentions of moving.

The knife wielding man noticed this and managed to redirect his sharp weapon at the last moment. Instead of piercing through emerald and into the occipital lobe, the knife nicked Lin’s ear as the killer knocked him to the ground and straddled him.

A giggle, then a chuckle, and then finally full blown laughter was heard from the psycho above Lin. “You seriously didn’t move! Are you truly just giving me your life?” The killer laughed.

“It’s too much of a hassle.” Lin muttered.

“So, you rather die.” He stated, slowly coming down from his high. “What an interesting lamb indeed.” The man brought his knife up to Lin’s face, and gently caressed his cheek. “But killing you like this would be boring. So how about you scream? Or even plead.” The killer put some pressure on the knife, and a small line that oozed red appeared.

“Please kill me so that I can laze around in my coffin.” Lin blandly pleaded, not at all phased by the VERY SHARP knife caressing his face.

A few moments of silence went by, before the killer sighed. “You’re no fun at all. Interesting, but no fun.” The man got off of Lin and stuck out a hand to help him up.

“No thanks. I’m comfortable lying right here.” Lin said, rejecting the offered hand.

“You are truly an interesting lamb.” The killer murmured to himself as he put his hand down.

“I’m not a lamb, I’m a Lin.”

“Lin…my name is Noel.”

“Noel.” Lin tried. “That’s a pretty name for a psycho killer.” He smirked.

Noel smirked back, but then quickly shook his head. He was bonding with his victim, and he knew nothing good will ever come out of something like that. Noel shivered as he remembered his first victim. She was so nice and innocent.

Noel shook himself from out of his memory and headed to the forgotten dumpster instead. He dug through the maggot infesting bin until he found what he was looking for. A purple earring now sat in his hand. Its sparkle was dimmed by the slimy gunk, but it was still a pretty work of art. Simple, but beautiful.

“Now, you said that you don’t mind if I have this right?” Noel asked as he turned towards the strange man who was still laying on the ground, but silence was what answered him. Noel crept back to the silent man and giggled.

Lin was asleep, his chest gently rising and falling peacefully.

Noel kneeled beside the sleeping man and stared at him. He felt calm.