What Went Wrong After I Killed Him

Chapter Six: Survive

Wraith House

Ava's POV

I was left alone with a guy, I just figured his name is Marqueza and I also just realised that he was a man of few words, he hadn't given a reply to the questions I asked.

He walked two steps ahead of me down a corridor that didn't look like anything I expected from a place with a name like Wraith House, no dim lighting, no dripping pipes, just clean concrete floors and doors that all looked the same, unlabeled, like the whole building had been built to give nothing away.

"Jax will take it from here," Marquez said, stopping in front of a door at the end of the hall. He didn't knock, he just opened it and stepped aside, signaling me to go in.

The man inside looked up from a table scattered with folders and a laptop that had definitely seen better days. He had the kind of face that smiled easy, like it cost him nothing, and eyes that didn't quite match the smile, something more tired sitting behind them.

"You must be Ava." He stood, offering a hand like this was a job interview and not whatever this was. "Jax."

I shook it because it seemed easier.

"So, I'll be the one guiding you through everything, Ava,” he paused. “I can call you Ava, right?” He asked. He seemed to be the nice one around here, but I can't get comfortable, not with anyone in a place called the wraith house.

“Yes” I said with a voice that don’t even sound like mine anymore.

"Okay Ava, Sit. This part doesn't have to feel like an interrogation.” He gestured at the chair across from him.

I sat anyway, even though I didn't want to, but I'm sure, I'm not in a position to refuse anyone here.

He didn't waste time, he laid it out plainly. Victor Cole, the company, the reputation Roman intended to take apart piece by piece before anyone put a hand on the man himself.

Jax talked about it the way someone might describe a project timeline, unbothered, and I understood, somewhere under the numbness, that this was a man who had learned to say terrible things without letting his voice change.

“And you Ava, are going to be on training.” Jax said, and that brought me back. Training for what.

“Training?, like?” I asked, but I'm not sure I'm ready for the answer.

"Training and Learning how to move through his world without him noticing you've changed." He tapped the folder in front of him. "You're still his PA when you walk back through those doors in three weeks. That doesn't change. What changes is everything underneath it.” He said. Three weeks, hearing it out loud made it worse than knowing it in the abstract. Jax was giving a good explanation, but I was really finding it hard to understand. If I hadn't killed Ethan, all this wouldn't be happening. I wouldn't be dragged in the middle of their feud, I wouldn't be used as a weapon. My life has turned into a mess, everything went wrong the moment I killed him, everything.

"Come on," Jax said, standing. "Let me show you around before your head explodes trying to picture all of this.”

The rest of Wraith House unfolded room by room, and I could say with certainty, that I was feeling worse than before. A woman named Priah cleaning a handgun at a table like it was routine mending, two brothers who ran surveillance out of a room lined with monitors, a quiet man near the back Jax introduced simply as "the tech," Deshawn Price, who glanced up long enough to nod before returning to whatever glowed on his screen.

"You'll be spending time with him eventually," Jax said. "Not yet, though. Ivy first.”

“I wanted to ask who Ivy was, but I just swallowed my words back.

We found her in a room with padded floors and mirrors on one wall, mid-strike against a bag that swung hard enough to suggest she wasn't holding back for anyone's benefit. She didn't stop when we walked in, I felt pity for the bag. She finished the combination first, unhurried, and only then turned to look at me, in the way, that increased the tension, no kidding, this Ivy lady doesn't like me.

"This is Ava," Jax said.

"I know who she is." Ivy's eyes swept over me once, head to shoes, and whatever she found there didn't seem to impress her. "She doesn't look like much.” She said. If that was coming from someone outside this building, then they would hear alot from me.

"Ivy—"

"I'm not being cruel, Jax, I'm being accurate." She crossed her arms. "Three weeks. That's what we've got to turn her into something that doesn't get herself killed the first time someone looks at her wrong.” I'm offended.

"I can learn fast," I said.

Ivy looked back at me, like I wasn't worth speaking to. I felt the heat crawl up my neck, but I kept my face still. Don't let her see it.

"Everyone says that." She turned back toward the bag, already dismissing me before I could give a reply. "Be here at six tomorrow. Don't be late, and don't expect me to go easy because Roman picked you himself." She said.

Jax touched my shoulder lightly, steering me back toward the hall, and once the door shut behind us he exhaled like he'd been holding it the whole time.

"She's not usually that warm," he said, and there was something wry in it, something almost fond.

Warm?, warm my foot, for the fact that I'm being forced into this whole horrible situation, and another lady acting like a jerk, really makes me pissed. I hate this world. I've only had a wish to continue living my quiet life, but here I just got insulted, like I worth nothing. At least, they should all realise that, I'm also a victim.

"You should've seen her with me the first month." He said it lightly, but I caught the flicker underneath — something that didn't belong to me at all, something older, worn smooth from being carried a long time. "She'll come around. Ivy just doesn't trust easy. None of us do, if I'm honest.” I know he was trying to lift my mood, but I wish I could tell him, it actually wasn't working. Jax seems nice, but he's still part of them.

Three weeks, I thought, walking back down that unlabeled hallway. Three weeks to become someone Victor Cole wouldn't recognize standing in front of him, and I wasn't sure yet if that terrified me, or if it was the first thing in a month that had felt like relief.

I killed Ethan to survive.

I killed Maya to be safe.

My next one, would be to survive.

Here’s to the peaceful life I've always dreamed of.