The Queen's gambit

The circus tent swayed like a towering peppermint swirl against the clear German horizon, its vivid stripes of red and gold rippling with each gust of wind. With their next show still two days away, an unusual hush settled over the grounds—a quiet that put the Queen on edge.

Following her botched attempt to leave Laura exposed, the detective had stubbornly avoided her crimson-haired companion, keeping her at arm's length like she was a bad luck charm. Worse still, Laura had practically cloistered herself among the circus performers, closing off any chance for a clean attack. The last shreds of Laura's wardrobe might as well have been glued to her body—she barely took them off, much to the Queen’s growing suspicion that they hadn’t seen soap and water since the Swiss train fiasco. Even when Laura stripped down for showers and performances, her precious remaining clothes stayed secured under a top-notch lock the Queen couldn’t pick.

Running low on alternatives, the Queen figured it was time to try a different angle.

Across the street from the towering tent, the Queen made her move toward a lone structure in the field. To cut costs, the circus crew relied on a public shower block rather than installing their own facilities—an oversight that played right into her hands. Finding the place deserted, she swiftly swapped out every bottle of body wash with identical-looking containers from her bag, before tossing the originals into a nearby trash bin.

Not the most creative scheme, she would admit, but subtlety wasn’t the goal. The thought of Laura’s misery was enough to bring a smirk to her lips. But just as she turned toward the exit, a burst of chatter and laughter from outside froze her in place. A group of performers—Laura included—was heading straight for the showers. Trapped, the Queen scrambled back into the locker area, shedding her clothes in a flash.

By the time the others filed in, she was perched naked on a bench, using an oversized hand towel to both dry her hair and conceal her face. The women gave polite glances elsewhere as they undressed, though that did little to calm the Queen’s racing pulse when Laura stopped right beside her, close enough to touch. The detective’s casual conversation stretched into what felt like hours before she finally moved off. The Queen exhaled sharply, draping the towel over her shoulders. Her hair might be a frazzled disaster now, but Laura was about to have a much worse problem.

But before the Queen could put on her clothes, she spied the locker that Laura had left her clothes in. She'd forgotten her padlock! Not one to waste an opportunity, the Queen removed a lock pick from her bag and got to work.

"If you needed clothes, you could've just asked."

"AAAH!" The Queen yelped, horrified to see Laura standing before her, wearing nothing but a towel around her torso. Now painfully aware of her nakedness, the Queen's hands slapped across her small breasts and hairless crotch.

"So it is you. Halfway across the world, and you still managed to find me. You do have a nasty obsession"

"I assure you that my finding you was a complete coincidence. Though I gather your finding me wasn't?"

"Correct. I was puzzled at first when Annie returned from the spa wearing nothing but cardboard. Because if she was the target, then why had the invite been addressed to me? And then Annie had that sudden and powerful itching fit as we went to Switzerland. There's only one person I know who would have that big of a grudge, and use a tool as juvenile as itching powder." Laura looked almost joyful as she flaunted her deductive reasoning for the first time in ages, all the while slowly approaching the Queen with a venomous look in her eye. But as Laura talked, the hand covering the Queen's breasts was slowly inching up to the towel hanging around her neck.

"I figured keeping myself safely surrounded would make you impatient eventually, and that you'd just go ahead and attack the entire circus. And shower time seemed like your best opportunity." Laura's artificial smile slowly sunk into a menacing scowl. "But unfortunately for you, you picked a really bad time to fuck with me." The Queen backed up against a locker, the cold metal against her bare back sending shivers in her spine as Laura finally came to a halt, blocking any potential escape route. "So what was it you had planned? Superglue in the shampoo, again?"

"You're close, but not quite there" The Queen boasted, and Laura rolled her eyes at the oncoming monologue "In fact, it might be my greatest invention yet. It's a pity you won't get to experience it with the rest of your friends-" the Queen's hand over her Towel suddenly seized it in a tight grip, and she whipped the towel across Laura's right cheek, the sharp sting making her recoil. The Queen then shoulder charged Laura to the ground as she sprinted out of the locker room.

"Get back here!" Laura bellowed as she got back up on her feet and pursued the Queen. But in her blood lust, she hadn't noticed that her towel had come undone, and was left behind on the locker room floor.