Kill The Luna

44

The gruesome, unholy sight made me freeze solid in absolute disbelief and horror, the hot ceramic coffee mug nearly slipping from my trembling fingers. My eyes stared wide, unable to look away from the pool of blood spreading across the floor, and a violent shaking took over my entire frame. The woman didn't even blink at the two dead bodies lying at her feet; she simply turned her head toward the silent soldiers stationed in the corners and gave a wave of her manicured hand.

"Pack this disgusting mess up immediately," she ordered, her voice completely smooth and casual, as if she were merely asking them to clear away dirty dinner plates. The robotic guards moved into action without a single second of hesitation, grabbing the heavy ankles of the dead men and dragging them out of the luxurious room, leaving dark streaks across the polished floor.

I sat there shivering violently, the sheer shock of the brutal execution rattling my teeth together. The woman watched me closely, her sharp eyes tracking the way my shoulders shook. A look of mock sympathy crossed her features, and she unbuttoned her expensive designer jacket, slipping it off her shoulders. She walked over to my side of the golden table and gently draped the warm fabric over my trembling shoulders.

She glided back to her own seat at the far end of the table, crossing her legs comfortably before leaning forward. "So... how exactly have you been doing all these years?" she murmured, her face softening into a look that resembled a proud relative. "It has been such an incredibly long time since I last saw you with my own eyes. My goodness, you have grown so big... you look exactly like her now."

I pushed the warm jacket off my shoulders, letting it slide to the floor as I glared at her through a veil of pure hatred. "I am absolutely not saying a single word to you," I spat, my voice raw and shaking, though I forced my chin up to show no fear. "If your ultimate plan is to kill me, then you better just do it quickly and get it over with. You should know you are definitely not the only monster out there who wants me dead, and if you keep wasting time playing these twisted mind games, you might not get this opportunity ever again."

A loud, melodic laugh escaped her lips, her eyes crinkling at the corners as if I had just told the most amusing joke in the world. "Oh, you are so incredibly funny, my dear," she chuckled, resting her chin on her hand. "You can call me Elda, by the way."

Without taking her eyes off me, she dipped her hand into her side pocket and pulled out the small, silenced handgun she had just used to end two lives. She placed the cold metal weapon flat on the smooth surface of the golden table and, with a gentle flick of her fingers, tossed it sliding straight across the wood until it tapped against my coffee mug.

"I would never in a million years want to kill you, Fedora—it is quite literally the very last thing I would ever want to do to you on this earth," Elda explained, her tone turning deeply serious as she gestured toward the door where the bodies had been taken. "In fact, you are the exact reason I just put those bullets through their heads."

My brow furrowed in deep confusion, my eyes darting between the weapon and her smiling face. "Why?" I demanded, the word slipping out before I could stop myself.

"Because everything I am doing right now is simply to protect you," Elda replied smoothly, her expression shifting into one of pure calculation. "And I am deeply afraid that if those greedy mercenaries were left alive, they would easily sell me out or turn against us the very moment someone offered them a bigger pile of money. Men like that are strictly for hire; they have absolutely no loyalty and can never be trusted."

A sudden wave of pure disgust wiped away my confusion, and I slammed both hands on the table as I shouted at her. "And what about you?! You think you can be trusted either?! Those men were your own employees—the ones you just murdered in cold blood without a second thought! You sit there acting like you are completely innocent and trying to play the victim in all of this, but you are a much worse person than they ever were!"

Tears of fresh grief burned the backs of my eyes as the memory of the highway flooded my mind, and my voice cracked with raw pain. "And the absolute worst part about those bastards is that they had absolutely no mercy in their souls! They violently threw Ella straight out of a fast-moving car window without a single ounce of remorse or pity, even though they knew with absolute certainty that she was just an innocent, helpless child who had nothing to do with this!"

Elda’s smile vanished instantly. She dropped her gaze to the golden table, her slim face twisting into a heavy, saddened expression that almost looked genuine. "I am so deeply sorry," she whispered softly, her fingers tracing the edge of her seat. "I honestly had no idea that they did something that horrible to you during the trip. Well... to be completely fair, I had a really bad feeling about their cruel nature from the very moment I hired them. I guess that is one thing we are very alike on; our instincts are identical."

Seeing her act so calm and casual after everything that had happened made something inside my brain snap. My hand moved on pure instinct, my fingers wrapping securely around the cold, heavy handle of the gun she had tossed to me. I lifted it in one smooth motion, pointing the dark barrel straight at the space between her eyes.

Instantly, the heavy silence of the room shattered. A loud chorus of metallic clicks echoed through the air as all seven of her robotic guards raised their heavy military rifles, aiming them directly at my head from every single corner of the living room. One wrong move and they would blow me to pieces. But Elda didn't move a single muscle; she just sat there perfectly still, her face completely calm and relaxed, as if she didn't have a single care in the world.

I tightened my grip on the trigger, my eyes narrowing into a dangerous glare as I stared at her across the distance. "The absolute worst mistake you made today, Elda, was tossing this gun over to me," I growled, my voice dropping into a deadly, steady whisper that filled the quiet room. "Because unlike you... I promise you I don't miss the brains."