The Truth Berries

XXXIX

       Jess never believed in ghosts. He has survived for the longest time just relying on his wits, skills and his killer’s instincts. He has mastered every aspect there was in stalking his prey until the final moment, where he always closed upon the target for a silent kill. He knew a lot about infiltration, too. He could become whoever he needed to be just to achieve the success of his mission. But he was at his best whenever he becomes a shadow. Jess referred to it as a kind of art. It’s the art of being someplace without letting anybody know or even feel your presence in that certain place. His expertise in it secured more than half of his accomplished missions. Jess could nonchalantly walk behind his subject for a mile without them knowing about it. Before his targets could ever know that something was dreadfully wrong, his thin sharp blade would already have found their aortic vein or their neck cut open. That was how good he thought he was.

       But he was having doubts now if he was good enough. He already messed up in three different ways. First was the retrieval of the chest. The old man managed to steal the contents of the chest under his strict watch. But that slip-up was still manageable. It might have required a little finagling and time sacrifice but he knew it can be done. And he did it. He traced where the old man sent the chest to. His second mistake had cost him dearly when he failed to foresee his employer taking his wife and child as some kind collateral should he refuse to complete the new mission. He could try to rally heaven and hell just to get them back but he knew Baynes would come to them first before him. So he focused all his attention to the mission at hand. Jess knew that he was racing against time and he also knew that he was well behind it now.

       His third mistake was yet to be decided. Still, something told him that he had missed something before that brought a shadow behind him. Yes, there was something (or someone) following his own footsteps.

       Jess was not a superstitious man and he feared the living more than the dead. But he felt something when he first noticed it at the airport, when he was just leaving to follow the tracks of the chest. The feeling was unfamiliar for he very seldom encountered that. But deep inside, he knew it was fear because it made him look behind him all the time. Since then, he had seen the shadow twice already. First was when he was fleeing after she ended the life of the persistent woman who refused to tell him where the chest was. It was lurking in the darks of the backhouse, watching him finished her. The second time was when he was preparing to meet somebody a day ago. He has just gotten out of his room at the hotel he was staying and was about to take the elevator when he saw somebody peering at the far corner of the hallway. He called it but the shadow ran away fast. Jess tried to go after him but it mysteriously disappeared at the stairs, leaving him at the staircase gasping for breath. That has never happened to him for he knew too well the name of that game. But it seemed someone has found their way to beat him in his own game.

       Jess was walking back to the cheap hotel where he was staying after the successful meeting with a new friend. It was still early for the night but the skies were dim now and a heavy rain was starting to pour. He was two blocks away from his hotel when he felt the same feeling he had at the airport. His tiny hairs at the back of his neck started to tingle. Jess looked back and saw everyone running to take their own refuge from the foreshadowing heavy rains. Then he saw something wrong with the picture in front of him. At the corner of the street, where a newspaper stand was located, was someone hiding behind the papers he pretended to read. Who would read the news at this late of a day? Plus, he was wearing a shemagh when everyone was worried about the rain and it was almost night time. The dark sunglasses did not help him hide himself too.

       Jess took a turn at one of the dark alleyways in the city and hid himself behind the big green thrash can situated there. He waited for some time, enduring all the mosquito bites and the stink of the rotting trash. Jess thought if he was just overplaying the whole thing. The man could just be honestly reading the papers because he missed it earlier. Or that he simply had work this whole morning. He could have laughed at his own foolish assumption, but he trusted his guts. He never lasted that long in that kind of business without taking everything seriously. He held his own mantra all the time and he lived by it day after day.

       One miss and you’re dead.

       He didn’t know how long he has been waiting there for something to happen. But his legs got numb from squatting for too long and he was ready to laugh everything off when he heard a sound from the start of the alleyway. It was a footstep in a puddle of rainwater. This time, he was sure. He was being watched and followed. The shadow passed his hiding place and Jess saw the glint of a blade the man was holding. He wished he had his gun with him, but he knew it was too risky to bring it in the public.

       But Jess brought his other companion. Behind his lower left leg, he unsheathed his four-inch black ballistic switchblade and he silently stood up. This is nothing but a day’s work, he told himself. He was prepared to jump at the shadow following him, to use the element of surprise in his advantage, when his boot hit an empty tin can and it rolled towards the man. It alerted the man and he turned around to see Jess trying to close the distance between them in just two steps. Jess swung his blade at him, but he stepped on the can and it took the balance off of his feet. Jess missed his target widely and he was thrown to the ground due to his falling momentum. The man rushed to stab him but Jess kicked him as he was running and it made the man stumble. He cursed in English.

       “Who are you?!”, Jess furiously asked the stranger.

       “The Nightmare you created.”

       Jess was stunned by his words and he lost his focus for a split second. The man took his opening and launched a hooking stab. Jess was caught off-guard and all his reflexes told him was to step aside, which he did. But the attack still landed on him, though it was not fatal. Jess winced in pain, but he kept his focus this time. It could be worse if he did not manage to parry it slightly. Jess suffered a bleeding upper shoulder. The man wanted to try another attack but Jess grabbed his shemagh and it spun him around, making him fall to the flooding street face-first. Jess only got a glimpse of his face from the side. But he was engulfed with fear at what he saw. The man’s face suffered severe burns. Now, Jess just learned something.

       The man was indeed a ghost