The letter arrived at her apartment in Sim City carefully sealed in a baby blue envelope. Across the front her name and address in perfect block lettering seemed to indicate more care went into the writing than the envelope choice. Olive turned it over in her hands, considering it carefully. There was no return address. The only indication of it’s origin was a black postal stamp that said “Happy Holidays from Oasis Springs”. Considering it was nowhere near the holidays Olive raised an eyebrow.
“Alright then, let’s find out what you are.” Brandishing an old silver mail opener with a christmas tree for the handle Olive sliced through the top fold. Inside was one plane ticket and a small index card. “What the plum?” Olive held the plane ticket in one hand and the index card in the other. “A ticket to Oasis Springs and an address …” she squinted at the small writing, “also in Oasis Springs. This isn’t suspicious at all.” She turned the index card over to see a one sentence note. “We have a job for you to do.”
The flight was turbulent and Olive’s mind over-ran with thoughts about this new “job” and the life she was leaving behind. Upon landing she realized that the airport was tiny, as she stood at her gate the front doors were in full view. A couple of taxi’s lined the sidewalked. Olive collected her luggage then presented the folded index card to a taxi driver. “Can you tell me how far that is from here.” The driver gave her a partially toothless smile.
“About an hour and half.” He hopped into the driver’s seat leaving Olive to load her luggage into the trunk and crawl into the back seat. As the taxi rumbled over the smooth roads Olive’s eyes got heavy and she began to drift off to sleep.
Her sleep was restless and fraught with voices. Her father clearly told her she couldn’t run from her destiny in his quiet yet wise voice. A party raged on in a separate room as she looked into the deep blue eyes of her former boss. His voice was stern. “You can’t be alone forever. You have to learn to deal with people.” She could even feel the weight of the champagne glass in her hand and the tight anxiety in her chest. Then she was outside, by the lake that her family visited when she was a child. Another little girl with long blonde locks beckoned her from the end of the dock. “Come on!” The sun seemed to shimmer off her hair as she jumped into the water.
Then there were the screams. A woman and man fighting followed by a gunshot.
A male voice pierced her dreams. “Hey lady!” Olive bolted straight up from her curled up position in the back seat. “Hey! We’re here.” Olive rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms out. “Hey, we’re here. Get out.”
Disoriented Olive examined her surroundings. They were in the middle of a desert. The wind kicked up mini dust storms that blew across the street. It looked hot although Olive wasn’t sure just how hot since the taxi was very well air conditioned. “Ok, ok. How much?” The driver shook his head.
“The lady over there took care of it. We couldn’t get you to wake up. I thought I was gonna go to jail because you were dead.”
“Ok, well, um, thanks for your concern I guess.” Stepping out of the taxi Olive was hit with the arid heat. Dust and dirt surrounded her. A small house with a sweeping desert mesa behind it sat in front of her. A blonde woman in a dark suit, complete with a fedora, approached her.
Olive took another look around, the blonde woman was clearly heading straight for her.
“You’re the girl they hired for this?” The blonde looked her up and down. “Whatever I guess. Listen up, one: I’m the boss here. Two: This is a very prominent family, you plum it up and we all go down. If we all go down you will find yourself in a date with the reaper. Do you understand?”
Olive, intimidated by the fierce attitude the blonde portrayed, nodded slowly. “I’m Olive and I’ll be honest. I’m not completely sure what I’m doing here.” The blonde rolled her eyes.
“I’m Nance, you can just call me boss or dragon lady, whatever floats your boat. This is your place.” The blonde gestured to the small house. “You’ll get paid but you have to do some small things for us as well, just to … earn your keep so to speak.”
Olive bit the tip of her finger, “Ok, but what am I doing here?”
Nance the boss dragon lady sighed. “You’re Olive Rios?” Olive nodded. “You pulled off multiple high level hackings while in high school?”
“I wouldn’t call them ‘high level hackings’ …” Nance shot her a glaring look.
“You masterminded several museum robbery’s? That was you correct?” Olive froze. “Olive Rios … the killer?”
She took a couple steps back as the words hit and her stomach dropped violently, “I didn’t do anything.” Nance laughed.
“Look little girl. If you know nothing else you need to know that we watch everyone, especially people that could be … let’s say on the wrong side of what we need. When we find people with a lot of promise and so little direction …” She offered Olive a sarcastic yet sympathetic smile. “We try to bring them to our side, give them that guidance, and in return they do things that we can’t be seen doing directly. It’s up to you not to get caught.”
“I didn’t come here to be a fall guy.” Nance the boss dragon lady shrugged.
“No one said you have to be a fall guy. Like I said, that’s all up to you. You seem to be pretty smart, figure it out.” With that Nance the boss dragon lady turned and walked away. “Oh ..” She turned and threw a pair of keys towards Olive. “Everything you need is inside. Don’t plum up.”
Olive grabbed the keys from the dusty sidewalk. The silver glinted in the sunlight and a light breeze blew dust around her ankles.
Across the street, outside his rusting mobile home, Johnny watched the two women talk. As the woman in black walked away the red head seemed to sink into herself. As if feeling his eyes boring into her she turned to look at him. “Oh crap.” He moved rapidly attempting to look busy. Johnny grabbed two planters and maneuvered them slightly so he could get a better look at the red head but when he looked back she was gone. The front door to the house across the street slid shut behind her. “Well, it’s always a good time to make new friends.” Johnny said to his plant. “I’ll have to go over there, maybe I can take a …” He looked around at his dilapidated trailer, “An apple or something. That’s what you take to greet new neighbors right?”
Sims Stories 
I really enjoyed this! Nice use of Nancy and Johnny! I’m also writing some fanfic using the Landgraabs, and mine has no pictures! I’m not game-playing it, just writing it. I’ll look forward to following your story! 🙂
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