My car's wiper was moving back and forth as I stepped out of it, impatiently. The sky growled and a shiny thunder pierced the stormy wind, making the grand guest house visible momentarily in front of me.

Before striding into the house, I gestured the watchman with my index finger and made sure he nodded in response.

I need no one to watch the show tonight.

"Monster! Monster!! You are making a mistake again. Leave me, or you'll rot in hell."

The desperate voice I was enjoying an hour ago still reverberates through the old walls of the house, once it senses my presence.

Without hiding my selfish smirk, I took off my coat and entered the room where he was wailing like he had another day to see. But little did he know-he got nothing.

"How pathetic, Diego!" My shoes were moving eerily on the floor, as I took measurable steps towards my prey.

I checked the rope that wrapped him in his place before pulling a chair to sit. Diego reeked of disgust and hardly lean up to meet my eyes. A trickle of blood dripped from his lips, though it was almost frozen.

"You are going to kill me, aren't you?" His vocal cord had strength, I see.

"But you still tease me with your reluctance."

Once he heard my voice, he scoffed at me. And it disappeared once he saw me drawing out the pliers from my pocket. The color in his face turned black & white, and the ominous silence took over the room. He knew what was coming.

"God will judge you for this, Zayan!" His plea was dominated by his groan as I stomped my foot over his hammered toe.

"Shh!" Caressing his head slowly, I pushed the pliers into his pinkie finger. "You have no idea how averse I am for a scum to call my name." Telling it to his ear, I pulled the nail mercilessly.

"ARGH!!" His scream was gruesome and loud, which I don't care one bit.

"If you could've thought twice before touching my circuit, you won't be sitting here without your finger, Traitor." I painted his cheek with the blood, which coated the pliers. Two minutes passed, aloofly, when he moaned with a grief cry.

"Louder!" I pulled the rod out and struck it over his knees. There was no pleading from him, which triggered me to give two more hits until I heard him say, "Ah! Stop... Please stop!"

I dropped the fractured steel rod and glared the half-souled fellow smugly. His attempt to look at me went fatal, as those eyes had hazy vision with tears.

"W-What you do... is not a business. It is a scam!" He blurted my own scheme at my face and earned a punch for it. But that guy had the heart to bear it.

"You export goods with legal proofs to Chicago and recoup them by your own dark network for double the prize it was, through the black market!! Would you ever think to stop the cycle?" With a mouth full of blood and broken teeth, he spit on my feet.

This man knew more than I thought he ever knew. Brilliant cause for him to die here.

"What pricks you, Diego?" I lift his chin with the revolver I took from my belt. "Huh, no journalist likes to see a weed to grow in front of them, monster."

"Monster?" I tap his cheek with the muzzle of the revolver, and he grunts, "I like it." I take back several steps to see his full view.

I clicked his picture with his own journaling camera and showed him. "Tell me. Do you want to die like this?" I kneeled to him and dragged his head to my face. His swollen eyes and worn lips smiled at me even when he knew he was about to lose everything he owned, especially his soul.

"If that's what it takes to end your story..." He pulled the revolver to him with his mouth, "Shoot me!"

The shadow of me was casting over his desperate face when I chuckled evilly. Not so soon.

"You don't understand what I'm saying, do you?" I stood to my full height and showed him another photo, which I took yesterday with his camera.

That made the change in his tone of voice, "No! Tell me this is fake!" He shakes his body painfully to come out of the rope, until he loses determination.

"Two policemen are hopelessly investigating whose body does it." I bend down to his face to whisper, "Don't you wanna go and tell them that's your daughter's?"

His abandoned cry echoes around the room, which was filled with flickering lights. "You're no better than an animal! Your own demon will devour you, monster!"

"Oh, don't shed tears, my friend. You deserve to live." Circling around his chair, I halt near the hourglass. Diego saw me placing it upside down in front of him. And the sand began to ooze down gradually.

"Your life is confined with this sand, Diego." He looked perplexed at me. "Decide what to do. The choice is yours." I resumed circling around his chair, calculating how much time I had to spend on him and to go, take a hot shower next.

"Whether you will destroy the evidence you collected against me and get to see your daughter for making a funeral... or dying here like she had..." I tittered with my whole heart that only I have the power to decide a soul to live or die now.

Within I could realize, a gust of wind shook the windows and patters of rain shed from the infinite sky as if they were crying for the man who is worth meeting death.

The sand in the hourglass gets dropped almost close to its end, and Diego keeps his silence like I have expected. A man of honesty doesn't deserve time to bargain. I try to beat it every time, but-

"I'll do your bidding, spare my life!" Diego desolately screamed to my astonishment. Hmm, my attempt to give him some time didn't go in vain. The timer had one minute left, I glared from my side eye.

"Well, well, well." I pushed my fists inside my pockets. "Tell me, where is it?"

"I had it all on a hard drive. It's inside the safe of my home. 8999 is the padlock code. Now, leave me... Give me a chance to fall on her legs for forgiveness! Chasing behind your monstrous tail, she left me with her soulless body." His tears wetted the floor with dark patches.

"I want to see her. Please, let me go! Plea...se!"

Huh, I don't understand the language of adamant rivals. They come forward to die and then beg for their lives.

I take the revolver and swing-out the cylinder. All the cartridges fall down with a clatter, and he sighs in relief. "Diego... You are loyal, I know that. But you don't know that I leave no loose ends, do you?"

The world's darkest shadow... I saw that falling on his face. His blood's pace beats the speed of light. And I could hear his heart beat loud and clear.

I lock the cylinder to the revolver and touch his forehead with the muzzle of it. His eyes blindly watch it in horror. "You liar!! You'll suffer a thousand times more than me. You'll pay for this... You'll burn in he-"

An ear-piercing shot reverberated when I puled the trigger, "SHUT UP!"

His annoying voice dissolved in thin air as he lay in the chair with no motion. My aim was right at his heart, and salty blood was jetting out. He had no idea that I had a single cartridge left in my weapon, for surprising him.

"You'll never... win, Zayan." His lips moved, and I growled, "YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO SAY MY NAME!"

Grabbing my other gun on the table, I gave two shots to his heart. "...FILTHY TRAITOR!"

>Three bullets to the heart (which had the need to live)

The thunder screamed beside my voice, and Diego's face hung low. His blood tainted my shirt, and I craved its smell so much.

My kingdom of injustice glows in the midst of dark and crying night. For the world outside, I am a successful human, the CEO of a billion-dollar-worth company, and a proud son of Mr. Farhan.

But deep down, I have a secret to keep... A black screen that separates me from the blue earth... I am the Mafia boss of ZN04 [Zona Oscura 04], an underworld organization including black market influences, cargo forces, and several unnameable ventures-where my coat is always bloody.

If no one serves to live, no one deserves to live.

It is declared once again. "Now reserve a seat for me in hell, won't you?" I kissed his head and placed my gun on his forehead. The room lights flickered, in fright of seeing me.

>Three bullets to the brain (which planned to take me down)

I told myself, and my finger was almost there to pull the trigger when this happened.

ding dong

My grip stiffened, and I heaved once. What the heck just happened? Turning my attention behind me, I sensed the anomaly.

Someone's at the fricking door.

"You'll never... win, Zayan." Diego's voice comes back to me as a hallucination, and my heart skipped a beat. This can't be happening. I lowered my gun and cursed the lucky guy.

Leaving my prey without six bullets is never my fashion, but I have to do it.

I raked my hair before sprinting towards the main door. The watchman must brace himself that he's going to get fired right away.

As I pulled the wooden door to the fullest, I was left alone. There was none. Flood was blinding the pavement, and mist attacked my eyes. Chilling breeze mocked at me as it flew across my face. And I still stand alone.

A visible frown occupied my forehead as I developed a bad feeling in my deep heart.

I heard the bell ring, I trust my ears. If so, my heart says I was watched.

An unwelcome visitor has involved themselves, which makes sense that I am not done with cleaning the blood stains.

I bit my lip as the heaviness boards my temples, and I kick my feet against the door.

"WATCH MAN!!" I fired my gun randomly around the veranda, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SUCKING UP THERE?!"

The guy, who was several yards away, came chasing his breath with his big belly. "Sir...?"

Putting myself in the rain, I planted a slap at his cheek, and he cupped his face in agony. There were only traces of dismay on his half-red face. We both were all drenched, and only I was exasperated among us.

He flinched as I grabbed his collar. "Who rung the bell?"

I bet he started to tear up. "S-Sir... What are you saying? I-I had no idea."

Fuck!

"Why are you even standing here? Check whether all the gates are closed, damn it!" I stomp my feet, and a graceful amount of water splashes across us.

"Okay, sir." He lowered his cap and ran away from me.

I scanned my eyes around the compound. Everything was perfectly fine, getting bathed in rain. Now, Diego needs a coffin to rest in peace before the sun rises.

Mr. Farhan should've chosen me to appoint a right watchman. 

He is getting older...

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