You Are My One and Only

Patricia’s eyes lit up at the sound of this, and she thought the ring was the perfect weapon she needed. She wished she had had it last night to fend off Isaac’s untoward advances. If she could stab him in the neck with a needle soaked with anesthetic and rendered him completely limp, then she might not have been kissed by him.

“I’ll take it,” she declared. “Do I get to use it more than once?”

She hoped the ring would not be useless after just one use, seeing as she was stretching her budget just to accommodate its hefty price tag. However, the shop assistant reassured her, saying, “You can use it as often as you’d like until the anesthetic stored in the cavity under the gemstone runs out. Of course, you can refill it on your own, but I reckon there are about three hundred shots in there before you have to do that.”

Convinced, Patricia bought two of the rings at two hundred each. It was a small price to pay to save her life, she decided, especially since a young and single woman such as herself was more likely to end up as a victim of harassment.

“Here, you take the other one, just in case you run into trouble at the club,” she said to Darcie as she handed her one of the rings.

She had once stayed at the modern-day pandemonium that was Everbright, and she knew how rowdy it could get over there. So, it went without saying that she was worried about Darcie’s safety. She would return to her old job, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave her three children at home, and she kept thinking, What will happen to the kids if something terrible happens to me?

Darcie took the ring and said graciously, “Thank you!”

out of the shop,

other woman down the street across from her. She stopped in her tracks, then gritted her teeth and ran up to them in a fit of feral rage. Before the couple could react, she grabbed the man by his hair and snapped, “You son of b*tch! Do you know how sick our daughter is right now? All I asked was for you to

did not give the man a chance to speak before she slapped him hard across

he tried to regain his bearings. Next to him, the woman he had been walking with

back and grabbed Darcie by her hair, knotting his fist close to her scalp as he

Zeke and his lover hitting Darcie, she quickly took

and the other woman’s heads with it, drawing blood. When the bystanders

the ground. A

trio apart. The corner of Patricia’s lips was bleeding, and her hair was a tangled mess. On the other hand, Darcie was sporting a swollen cheek as she straightened

her back, she would have succeeded in bruising the man up even more. “Stop!” one of

air and crying as he pointed at the two madwomen, “Officer, they beat my girlfriend and me up for no reason! I’m going to sue the crap out of them!

and Patricia calmed down, but they had to admit they enjoyed the adrenaline rush. That said, they couldn’t go to the police station and risk getting

shield her. “Officer, I