The Man I Was Meant to Kill
1493 Words
The loud blast made my heart sink! Bang! Bang!
I was being shot at by the thugs. The bullet hit the back glass causing it to shatter over the seat.
The car almost flipped as I veered sideways, my tires producing a harsh, shrill sound against the pavement.
“Shit...”
They didn’t stop shooting.
My grip tightened on the steering wheel as I struggled to stabilize my car. My heart slammed wildly in my chest, but my mind… my mind refused to shut down.
"Think, Elara, you cannot afford to panic."
Ahead, the path squeezed shut, tree branches pressing close like walls. There were no traffic lights, no cars... hell. It was just the perfect place for an ambush.
“Of course,” I said under my breath.
The car surged forward when I pressed the pedal, hesitation meant death. The sound of bullets was really close now.
I checked the side mirror and I saw two vehicles. They were moving very fast.
“Damn it.”
I swerved again as something struck the back of my car. The force threw me forward, but the seat belt held me in place.
They were definitely trying to get me off the road so that they could finish their job. My eyes darted towards the passenger seat where the documents lay. My eyebrows furrowed in anger, I was not about to lose the only proof I had to take down this godforsaken Mafia.
I immediately swayed left, off the road and straight into the woods, trying to evade them. The car cut violently through trees, its branches scratching the sides of the car. I struggled to control the car through the narrow bushy path, but the gunfire continued. I quickly lowered my head as another shot narrowly missed blowing my brains out.
“This is not happening, not on my watch,” I whispered.
The path ahead dipped suddenly. Before I could stop it, I lost control and slammed very hard into something solid.
Everything went still.
For a second, I couldn’t hear anything. Pain surged through my body as I struggled to unbuckle the seat belt. My ears started to ring and my head ached badly. I opened the door slowly and forced my way out. I crawled slowly, then tried to stand, but my legs were wobbling. I had to force myself to move.
I took the envelope that was still in the car and ran off. Dried tree branches snapped under my feet as I ran deeper into the woods, my breath coming faster now. I could hear them slamming their doors from afar. They were trailing me.
“They went this way!”
“Spread out!”
I heard their voices, very close, but I kept moving, ignoring the pain in my side, the sting of cuts against my skin. I was thinking about surviving.
A dim light flickered ahead. I slowed just slightly, narrowing my eyes.
The docks.
I did not have the time to ask any questions, so I immediately ran toward it... toward the docks. The deafening silence of the place should have served as a warning, but I had run out of options.
I could barely hear them now. I had either lost them or fallen right into their trap. I started to slow down, attempting to collect my breath as I concealed myself behind a stack of crates at the docks.
Suddenly, my ears picked up low murmuring. It could be them or someone who might be able to help me.
So I adjusted myself slightly, careful, just enough to see and then, I froze.
Four men stood around him. He looked like the leader of them, but his back was to me, so I could not see his face.
A man was tied to a chair in the center. Blood covered everything. I should have looked away, but I didn’t.
Their leader adjusted his sleeve slowly. Then he spoke.
“Say it again.”
Something in my chest tightened.
That voice...
The man in the chair lifted his head weakly.
“Go to hell and f*****g burn,” the man said, almost choking on his own blood.
“Wrong choice.”
He reached for the knife in his bag.
At that point, something hit me hard.
Him.
The way he moved, the way he spoke, the way everything around him seemed to wait for his next step.
I had seen it before, years ago.
Flashes...
Memory breaking through, whether I wanted it to or not.
I remembered my father on his knees. He was covered with his own blood. I remembered this same calm voice but this time it sounded deeper and fiercer.
I felt my fingers tighten against the metal beside me.
No....
It couldn’t be.....
The man dragged the blade slowly across the man’s back.
The sound that came out of him made my stomach turn, but I didn’t move.
“Name,” he said again.
The man spat blood. “Kill me.”
The knife pressed deeper. And I knew immediately, that was him. The man I had been chasing. The man who disappeared from every record. The man with no face, no trace, no proof. He was standing right in front of me.
He gave a cold smile, dropped the knife to the ground and pulled out a hammer and nails from his bag.
He stepped closer to the man, then leaned in so close their noses almost touched. The hammer in his hand was raised up.
"Name," he whispered, his voice soft and deadly.
The man spat blood at him.
With a powerful blow, the hammer drove the nail through the man's hand and into the wood.
The docks rang with his scream.
My breathing slowed, not out of serenity, but out of control. He was here after years of following a ghost. Close enough to touch.
“Who sent you?” he asked.
The man shook his head.
“Wrong answer.”
Another strike.
That made me shiver, but I was unable to move. I should have turned around and vanished before he saw me, but I chose not to because, for the first time... it was not a ghost I was staring at.
The man who killed my father was the one I was staring at.
RAZE.
The name settled in my mind and I realized something else. I wasn’t just here by accident anymore. I had been pulled into his world, and part of me didn’t want to walk away.
He ran out of patience, kicked the chair, the man's body hit the ground first. Then he bent down, grabbed the man's hair and slammed it over the concrete. Once, twice, again and again until he was lifeless.
Silence followed.
He stood slowly, wiping blood from his mouth like it meant nothing.
My foot shifted slightly. The sound was small but it carried. His head turned slowly towards where I was hiding. My body locked instantly.
“Come out.”
My heart slammed against my chest, but I stayed still.
“Or I drag you out.”
A voice behind him shifted. “Boss, I can...”
“No.”
Just one word was enough to stop him.
I exhaled slowly.
“I’ll come out.”
My voice didn’t shake. I stepped out from behind the container. All four men looked at me, but I didn’t look at them. I looked at him. No doubt left, it was him. The same eyes, the same calm, the same man from that night.
“You watched,” he said.
“I didn’t see anything that concerns me.”
His gaze didn’t shift.
“You’re still here.”
“I was leaving.”
“Too late for that.”
He stepped closer. My body didn’t move. I refused to give him that.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Elara.”
He repeated it quietly.
“Elara.”
His eyes dropped to the envelope in my hand.
“Give me that.”
I hesitated, just for a second, then handed it over.
He opened it and read. Everything changed in a subtle way, and I saw it when he looked back at me... there was recognition.
Not of who I was, but of what I carried.
“Where did you get this?” he asked.
“It’s not yours.”
His head tilted slightly.
“Everything here is mine.”
I held his gaze.
“Not that.”
A faint smile touched his lips.
“You’re either very brave,” he said, “or you don’t understand what you just walked into.”
“I understand enough.”
“Do you?”
He was more focused.
I met his gaze without hesitation. The man I swore I would destroy was standing right in front of me and instead of killing him, I had just stepped into his world.
“Yeah,” I said quietly.
“I do.”
- Writer
