The Hitman and His Consort

XXXV - Peril

First Person P.O.V: VALENTIN HACKSAW

Panic. A feeling that’s not particularly outlandish to me. I know what panic looks and feels like. I know how it renders you at a loss for words, having you stunned, making your heart beat faster if not at all for a brief second, cloud your judgment, all of these are something I learned through observation. I know the face of panic as I caused it more times than I can count.

I’m pretty sure I felt panic too, to some extent, but nothing like how it felt now. It’s fervent. It made me think everyone in the room was at fault and everyone in the room is what caused something like this to happen. I wanted to blame everyone. So I did.

It was not my fault. It was theirs. I didn’t do anything wrong. They did. I couldn’t do anything at the time. They did. They could’ve stopped her, Arthur is a sensible enough person, if they had an ounce of concern and reason with them to stop that woman from leaving the premises of this small clinic. She would be in here.

But no. We waited for three hours. Still no sign of her. And no one knows where the f*ck she is and—

“Valya, what… what’s happening to you? Are you having trouble breathing?”

Denis asked as he placed a hand on my back, now showing concern and being nosey. Why didn’t he do that earlier, when it mattered? Instead, he’s putting all that wasted gesture on me when it does and helps with absolutely f*cking nothing. I slapped his hand away from me as I pulled out a cig. I need to calm myself down before I start thrashing the place.

‘Why the f*ck is my hand shaking?’

I stared as it shook with faint tremors. I got over it pretty quick as I placed the stick between my lips, lighting it up and taking a deep breath in. Denis went over to Inka instead and asked if she’s reached Arthur, her headshake meant that she hasn’t and Madeline sighed as he dragged his hands over his face.

‘F*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck—F*CK!’

Rodrigo’s starting to bite his lip and scratch his chin with distress, probably thinking of ways to solve the newly arisen issue, and this is just a thought, a wild suggestion if you will, but this would be easier if they hadn’t let her out in the first place.

“Don’t look at us like that, you i***t, we’re worried too,” Madeline said, and I spun to meet his eyes. Staring at me which such hostility, made me mad as I wonder where the hell he gets the audacity to even put on a face with anything other than apologetic.

“That’s what you are, all of you… Madeline, that was your sister, if I can bribe Denis to give me his car, wreck it, and ask him for money, you could tell your sister to not follow after me,” I spat and August was quick to grab on to her abrasive boyfriend, stopping him from taking another step towards me, at least someone in this place knows some sort of common sense.

“Valya, I think you need to—“

“Shut up… I’m really not in the mood, Rod… Arthur is… where the hell is she?” I managed to croak out, not even realizing I was chuckling at him, in utter f*cking disbelief at how this situation unfolded. Slowly breathing the smoke while having this feeling that everything is falling apart and I don’t know who I should make accountable for it.

Inka sighed loudly, rubbing her temples as she threw her phone on the ground. It crushed upon impact, and I wish I could do the same to all of them. I want to do something, anything, but what? What can I do? What is there left for me to do when I have nothing else to work with apart from the fact that she’s gone and this restrained rage?

“I need to find her,” I announced.

Rodrigo approached me and placed a hand on my shoulder, “No, that’s not—“

“SHUT UP! For the love of f*ck! What else do you want to do?! What more could you f*ck up with?! Everything’s wrong! It’s all wrong. I… I don’t know where Arthur is." I breathed out, pointing at the empty couch, "She’s not here—she’s supposed to be here…”

Everyone keeps staring me at like they’re in a f*****g museum, like I’m some piece of modern art having mechanical arms and flailing them for no reason. Do they not understand the f*****g gravity of the situation? Do they think that I’m only mad because she was gone for 3 hours? That the reason I’m b*tching about was a minor thing? Everything could have happened within three hours.

I could kill and get rid of a body within 30 minutes. What if the same had happened to Arthur? What if, as we speak, Arthur is no longer breathing? What if she’s already dumped in the ditch? People involved in the Mariella labs are questionable. I wouldn’t trust them with a dog, and now Arthur could possibly be with those people.

“I know you’re frustrated, Valya….” Rodrigo began,

I scoffed as I shook my head, “Oh, you could tell from all the f*cking shouting?” I spat,

He clenched his jaw and sighed through his nose, “Look, we know you’re worried… but listen, instead of going off why don’t you take a seat and discuss the next thing we’ll do so we can bring Arthur back, yeah?” he said as he slowly pushed me onto the couch.

I roamed my eyes at everyone, Denis was already clutching his chest like he was watching an intense drama, Inka’s visibly frustrated, and Madeline still looked hostile even as August tried to soothe him down. That all means nothing.

Mourning never raised the dead and regret never corrected a mistake.

I squeezed my head to ease the growing headache, but it did nothing. It only pissed me off more that I’m getting a headache on top of all this ongoing sh*t.

“It’s just on my head for a while now… but the labs have no record or identification of Arthur, as far as her real identity goes, she’s not a wanted person, right?” August announced.

‘…huh?’

I looked up to see her face, as everyone did, and Rodrigo nodded “They only have Valya’s, Madeline’s, and Inka’s, no one in that place knows what Arthur looks like, let alone know that she’s a part of this,” he added. I felt the back of my neck tingle at the small hope she’s alright. I sucked in another huff of smoke and, along with exhaling it, I hoped that it wears out the panic that’s been boiling in me.

Given all that, if none of the Mariella labs knows who she is… who does?

“Who does?” I asked out loud to ask for their input. I’ve only known her for a few days, I don’t even know where she'll be if she’s not with me, I have no idea what she does in the times that we’re not together or I don’t see her, I don’t know how she does things, the only thing I know about her through observation is how she eats…

I really do know nothing about her… so why?

‘Why the f*ck am I so f*cking pressed.’

“Well… not many people from her company, but she’s taken some time off to do this and it’s not like she has buddies to hang out with, to the point of not answering her phone,” Inka announced,

“Yeah well obviously someone apart from that got a hold of her and however they are they are worth missing your calls,” Madeline argued and Inka glared at him.

“Well, you wouldn’t know whoever that is because you were hardly around recently, are you? Because you’ve sacrificed your career and life for what…” she trailed off as she glanced at August and Madeline immediately stepped in front of her with his usual hostile glare,

“Don’t bring August into this…” He spat, and behind him, I could see August cower as she frowned, she must’ve known what Inka meant, but it’s too late to feel guilty about that no. Far too f*cking late.

“She is why we’re in this in the first place,” Inka retorted before storming onto the other couch and taking a seat, her hands cradling her head as she lowered it. It seemed like a hopeless group meeting and I was a fool to have the momentary relief of knowing there was a chance Arthur was okay.

The room felt like it was shrinking, and the air felt so dense you couldn’t inhale it.

“Her exes…” Inka suddenly whispered, like she didn’t want to announce it, I looked up to face her but she kept her head low,

“Exes?” I repeated, she can’t just say that and hope we’re going to understand it from that point onwards, Madeline shared my inclination as we both waited for Inka to resume her narrative or so help me I would make it so that the only she’d be able to do is talk and that goes for the rest of them.

With a sigh and a dramatic dragging of hands over her face, she finally looked up to meet me eye to eye, “She had past boyfriends, Valya, she’s a charming sweetheart, of course, many men will try to ruin that for her," she went on only to click her tongue after, "ah s**t… It’s messed up that it is, kind of, making sense,” she said before whispering to herself.

I felt the heat on my fingers, I didn’t notice that my cigarette was almost done so I just put it out on the ashtray Rodrigo previously placed on this coffee table, “What is… Inka, I don’t know what I’ll end up doing if you keep up this charade sh*t,” I began, unbothered by the reaction that statement alone gathered,

“Either we all collectively find out, or you could complete your f*cking sentences,” I added, I’m not sure what’s stopping her from giving us all our possible leads, especially in this situation, I smirked as I looked at her resentful glare directed at me, her knuckles lightened as she clenched her fists, knowing just the fastest way to get her to spit everything out.

“If you give about an ounce of f*ck about Arthur, you’d be more than eager to give ways to find her, was the concern earlier just for show?” I asked, and it struck a chord, apparently. The next thing I knew was Inka lunging at me with murderous intent like she’s gone rabid. Madeline held her back though, Denis did too, but I doubt he even helped in holding her back.

“You can run your f*cking mouth about sh*t you don’t know all you want, you can stomp on my pride too—but don’t you f*cking question my concern and love for that child!” she yelled daunting me with her index finger, “she’s the daughter I'll never have so don’t you EVER f*cking test me when it comes to her,” she followed as she scuffled out of Madeline and Denis’ grasps, taking a deep breath.

I clicked my tongue as she continued to take deep breaths; I wish she just finish whatever outburst this is and go straight to giving up the information that I’m trying to wring out of her. She’s not my main focus here. Arthur is.

“You’ve gone too far, Valya,” Rodrigo scolded, throwing a glare at me. Unfortunately, I’m not in a mood to give a f*ck.

“Don’t care, try again,” I replied and another set of distasteful frowns faced me like I’d be affected and my mood will be more tolerable because a handful of incompetent criminals think I’m ‘gone too far’.

Madeline, overcoming his stupid sentiments from earlier, somehow managed to pull some decency from his vile personality and nudged Inka’s shoulder to make her face him.

“Inka, we need to know everything, what about her exes? Do they have something to do with this? Which of them, how many even are they?” Madeline bombarded one question after the other.

Inka huffed as she turned away from Madeline, having her back face everyone in the room, “She’s had scums as partners, and I know I should’ve done more than warn her about them, but she was having fun and she’s been pretty insistent on most of those relationships, they’re people like us with good reps, so there’s a good chance one of those *ssholes took her… or something,” she trailed off and now I’m in a more pissy mood than earlier.

‘I’ll need more than a smoke to calm down,’

What does she mean, ‘Or something’? How many men are we talking about here? How many scums does one woman have to go through to grow the least bit of cognizance and common sense to stop seeing dubious men?

“How many are there?” I asked,

“How many what?” Madeline asked back,

“How many exes?” I repeated, clearing the question for those who can’t catch up to speed.

“Why do you even—oh…” Denis paused as he came to his first correct conclusion for the day, “Don’t tell me we’ll be hunting those men one by one,” he asked, almost asking for me to confirm his guess, but everyone in the room already knows that I’ll be doing exactly just that.

Inka massaged her temples as she turned to face us again, “I’ll… I’ll pull their profiles up,” she announced and I lowered my head, feeling this minimal dose of relief and hope again knowing that we’re doing something to solve the issue at hand.

Still, there is this severe itching at the back of my head that’s been telling me the next moment I’ll go off will be our next problem.