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A girl from a nowhere town, fueled for all the wrong reasons, ended up on the other side of the planet, learning things she never knew even existed.
It wasn’t easy, but when I came out, I was a different person.
A better person.
I accepted my past. Revenge was no longer my concern.
Even now, I didn’t care about chasing after the five men, more like three now. Because I knew they’d end up dead anyway. I was only doing it for the promise that little girl made when she thought she lost everything. After all, we humans start to die from the moment we are born. It was an inevitable truth that no one could change. Only the difference in timing gave the satisfaction of the kill. I learned long ago not to be satisfied with it. The moment you started to get high on it, the only thing you lose is yourself, and I wasn’t willing to sacrifice myself for anything.
Lost in thought, I found myself walking back. I was damp from the rain by the time I reached my place, with only the thought of a shower and sleep on my mind. Only for my pace to stall when my eyes landed on the black car with a very familiar plate parked right outside my apartment.
I didn’t realize a man like him would grace the Lowers with his presence twice in a week.
He was casually leaning against the hood of the car without a care in the world, knowing very well that anyone could put a bullet in his head.
“Good kill?” Arkane’s voice echoed through the dark street.
“What are you doing here?” I asked instead as I neared him. It was only then that I noticed Mikhail and a few other men standing guard among the shadows.
“Karl sent me the file. The name’s Ian Smith,” Arkane replied.
“I’ll see them tomorrow,” I told him before I proceeded to walk away.
“I have him,” Arkane said from behind me.
I sighed, turning back to look at him. “Fine. Let’s go.”
“Great.” Arkane smirked, gesturing for me to get in the car, and I sat without saying a word.
“You seem quiet,” Arkane voiced minutes into the ride.
“Hmm,” I said, not even bothering to look at him as my eyes remained fixed on the views of the late night. For the first time in my life, I was on the Pollux upper road on the Sky Bridge, which made us cross the city in minutes. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that privilege.
Arkane’s cliff house sat gloomy in the wet night, with the shadows of the moon casting a luminescent glow. Even then, it was beautiful.
“I assume you would want to see Ian Smith first,” Arkane said when we entered the house.
“Yes,” I replied, and he led me down the same path he did the first day he brought me here.
We walked through the same asylum-like hallways in his basement with the smell of death still lingering in the air.
“Aren’t you going to ask me how I found him?” Arkane regarded me with curiosity, his hands deep inside the pockets of his long coat. I wondered how many pairs of similar Victorian-style classic suits and coats of the same color he had.
“Is it relevant?”
“Not sure,” he replied. “He’s been living in a run-down complex in the Lowers for years. At night, he works as a bartender in the Gators Club. We had one of the guys there identify him.”
I nodded.
“He’s in there.” Arkane pointed at the same steel door where he kept Alan Dumfred. I hoped they at least cleaned off his blood and the stench of his death.
“He won’t speak a word, but he’s weak. I’m sure we can beat it out of him,” Arkane added, his hand closing around the door handle, and before he opened it, he gave me a hard look. “Just don’t kill him,” he told me. “He’s the only leverage I have.” The expression in his eyes and his tone were dead serious. One that said there would be terrible consequences if I didn’t keep the promise.
“Fine,” I said.
He nodded and let me in. Mikhail, Jon, and Grayson all stood quietly in the far corner of the room. Mikhail was his usual stoic self, and Grayson was already boiling with anger, for what I didn’t know
“Fuck, she’s finally here,” Grayson muttered, his disapproval evident. “Can we finally start?”
