Chapter 14 by Zeebop

What Are They Smoking?

Crack Cocaine

It was a harsh, chemical smell. The glass pipes were small, the smoke puffing from out of their mouths white, but not...clean. The women turned and looked at her with jaded, dull eyes. Like looking at a collection of broken dolls. Bad teeth. Weird burns near their mouths, unhealed scratched on their arms.

Instinct told Lois to walk away, when she saw the crack pipes, the condoms hanging out of their belts. Tell-tale signs of **** use, maybe prostitution. Except...she recognized some of those women. They looked thinner and older than their pictures from social media, but she recognized Diana Reynolds and Mara de la Cruz, two of the women who had gone missing. If they were here...maybe they knew where the other women had gone.

"Hey," Lois said.

Diana Reynolds looked her up and down. The blonde hair was longer than it had been, the skin a little greasier. Her teeth hadn't started to stain and crumble just yet, but the lines in her face made her look older than her nineteen years.

"Fifty and I'll eat your pussy," she said.

"I...I just want to ask you some questions," the reporter said.

"Yeah? Uptight bitch? Too good to get your pussy licked?" Diana stalked toward her. She had the glass crack pipe in one hand, a little fragment of rock in the bowl. Mara came up behind her, eyes hungry...the shorter Hispanic woman had lost weight, but not in a good way. The reporter didn't doubt that most of her money went to her new **** habit.

"I'm a reporter with the Daily Planet," Lois said. Her spine stiffened, determined not to give ground. "Four women have been reporter missing in the last few weeks...you're one of them, aren't you? Mara de la Cruz, Diana Reynolds?"

"Di," she said automatically. "Well, I'm not missing."

"What happened?" Lois asked. "I just want to know...what your story is. Where the others are. Tonya Wong, Jennifer Dunlap..."

"Jenny," Mara said, lips twisted into a thin line.

Diana got right up into Lois Lane's face and breathed out a cloud of toxic smoke. Lois closed her eyes and mouth, struggled not to breathe.

"Yes. I'll tell you what happened. Better than that, I'll show you," Diana's voice was tired but mocking. "All you gotta do is take a hit off this pipe."