The Hitman and His Consort

XLVIII - Tracks

First Person P.O.V: VALENTIN HACKSAW

Much sooner than I got myself emotionally ready, my parents emerged, now, in appropriate clothing. The room fell silent once again when my mother looked at me directly, my father looking at me too, but he was waving, clueless about the recent events in this family, I guess. But that's just how he is most of the time.

“I… I’m his mother, Vanessa, and this is his dad, Gabriel,” she began with the introduction after peeling her eyes off me, not so sure what she was getting to but for some reason, she looked a bit tense. Dad just nodded to the others, and that was it.

“This is Arthur, and you met that guy last time, Madeline, remember? And the woman who’s using the unconscious guy as a footrest is Inka,” I introduce, respectively gesturing to each of them,

“Who’s the unconscious guy?” dad asked and mom gave him a subtle side jab,

“That’s Pierre, he’s a c*nt, he used Madeline as a lab-rat and kidnapped Arthur, which led to this situation,” I replied and he nodded, grimacing at Pierre.

“*sshole, not gonna kill him?” Dad asked again as he walked over to Pierre’s body, poking it with his feet like it was just roadkill. The others chuckled at the sight. My father always had a charismatic air around him for some reason,

Mom wasn’t having a good time as the others though, she was starting to fidget her hands, “V-Valya, excuse me, I just want to know… are they the ones who..” she trailed off, running her gaze on everyone’s faces before gluing them back to me, “Are they the ones who told you about your parents?” she asked,

As soon as she asked that, even my father’s kind demeanor melted away and his eyes darted to me with a stern gaze, “What’s this about?” he asked as he walked over to me, now having a hint of hostility towards the others,

“Who are they? What do they know about the Becking’s?” he asked, his gaze shifting between me and them that even they were bothered by it. No wonder, the mood change was quick. I stood up to establish a division between my parents and the group,

“What’s with the reaction? Wasn’t it you that said I was free to ask and snoop about them?” I hissed, and contrary to how he usually is, my father gave me a mild glare.

“We did, but not to strangers! When we said you’re free to ask, I mean you’re free to ask us, we’re the ones who knew them in the first place,” he argued and leaned back, couldn’t say I wasn’t taken aback by his attitude now because I’ve never seen this man remotely angry or aggressive. Now he’s strangely emitting the aura of a father, the negative ones, unfortunately.

I tilted my head, shifting my gaze between them, “What is this about, what’s with this unprecedented aggression for the wrong topic,” I began as I gestured at the door,

“I ran here because I was being chased by the authorities, I was all over the news recently, more now, that I blew a building up and you two are pissed because I didn’t ask you about my sh*tty parents?”

‘… she did not just f*cking slap me,’

I thought, but the sharp stinging pain I felt on my cheek was real and proved that my mother really did slap me across the face, looking at me with a disdainful expression and pointing an accusing finger at me,

“Don’t you ever! Don’t you ever say that about your parents! They did everything they could, they loved you so much that you lived!” she spat, her voice breaking and tears streaming down her cheeks.

Looking at her made me feel like I did something wrong. I obviously didn’t. She was hurting her own feelings by herself; I didn’t think a single negative comment about my parents is worth crying about. I talk sh*t about everyone all the time. What’s the difference?

I turned to my father to get him to help me settle mom’s flared emotions, but he didn’t look that willing to help. In fact, he was looking at me with contempt. What the f*ck did I do? Now I’m confused. What did I say that was so wrong? It was one word—‘Sh*tty’ is just one word.

Dad then walked over to the others, “Which of you knows about them,” he asked and Madeline shook his head before he answered,

“Sir, we know nothing basically, it’s this guy who does,” he said as he gestured to Pierre. Still unconscious.

That didn’t stop my dad, he grabbed Pierre’s body off the floor by the back of his collar and threw him over to the couch and checked his pulse, something we should’ve probably done earlier, before heading to the kitchen and coming back with a pitcher of what I presume is cold water.

“Gabriel,” Mom called out to reel him back a bit, but it was too late because dad already emptied the whole pitcher over Pierre’s head before slapping him awake.

It took a moment but Pierre finally gained consciousness, looking around in complete confusion before it dawned on him just what type of situation he is right now once he recognized our faces, my father, despite being unfamiliar with him, was more than eager to introduce himself.

“Pierre, right?” he began, his tone cold.

Pierre looked at the rest of us like we were going to explain the whole situation to him to make this a better experience before looking back at my father, “Who… who are you?” he replied.

‘Which was the wrong answer, apparently’

Dad landed a hit to his face, “I ask, you answer, clear?” he explained and Pierre nodded, he’s confused but he’s got the spirit.

Arthur gestured at me to come close with the subtle movement of her hand and while my dad does his thing, I walked over to her and leaned down. She’s a whisperer, after all. As I leaned down, I got a close-up view of her fluffy and unruly hair, understandable that it’s this messy after all of that but I just want to pat it down a bit, it’s like cotton candy.

“Is it okay for us to be here?” she asked, her tone softer than usual given that she’s already whispering,

“Do you prefer if you’re outside?” I replied,

“You little… I mean, is it okay if we listen in?” she asked again, glancing at the others who look equally bothered by this whole ordeal. Not Madeline though, he just looks constipated.

“Well, it’s not like they’re giving you a choice, just sit back, it’ll probably be over soon,” I assured, caving into my urges and combing my fingers through her hair. It didn’t help.

Well, back to my father’s business, I guess he and Pierre got to an understanding because now they're having a direct conversation,

“Do you know Dorian Becking?”

“Yes,”

“How?”

“He’s the pioneer of my current project,”

“Like hell, he destroyed that,”

“Not all of it,” Pierre rebutted and dad was so taken aback that he had to turn to my mother to make sure he heard Pierre right. He gestured for Pierre to continue talking,

“We were able to patch some things up, we’re trying to adapt his research into our current project called Herc,” Pierre followed,

“Who’s we?” dad asked again,

Pierre gulped, “We… as in me and my partner, August, in the Mariella labs, but honestly, it was she who did most of the manufacturing and—“

Pierre was cut off when Madeline jumped out of his seat to land yet another punch on his face, “You watch your f*cking mouth, don’t even f*cking say her name,” Madeline warned, back to acting like the feral animal he is, grabbing Pierre by the collar.

Dad frowned at me and I sighed as I pulled Madeline back and seated him back on the couch, “Wait for your turn, Mads,” I told him as he took in a deep breath, meanwhile my father gestured at Pierre like he’s the ugliest animal he’s ever seen,

“This guy… wait, what was your reason for going to the Mariella labs anyways? Can you explain everything to me, son? Because frankly, I don’t know what the hell is happening here, collectively,” he said, rubbing his temples, circling his index finger to our group. Damn it, storytelling was never my strong suit.

‘I’ll have to explain either way, better now,’

I cleared my throat, shoving my hands in my pocket, “Well, Let’s start with Arthur,” I began as I pointed to her, “We met at Ale-something’s wake,”

“Alejandro,” Mom corrected, like it was important, but whatever,

I nodded before resuming, “She was targeting Señor Georgio, I didn’t know the outcome of that,” I noted looking at her and she did the ‘OK’ sign with her fingers so I suppose that went well in her favor, “Anyways, I met her there and when we met the second time, she recognized me and realized I’m your son, mom,” I remarked,

Mom raised a confused brow at her and Arthur gulped before giving her a small smile, “You were a really important role model ma’am, I think every woman involved in this kind of thing knows your name one way or another, Madre Maria is amazing,” Arthur gushed, and mom’s expressions softened as she glanced at dad.

‘… fun, moving on,’

“That aside, she asked me if I would be interested in helping her out with something, that something is finding and retrieving her brother, which is this one,” I narrated as I pointed to Madeline who frowned at me before waving his hands to both verbally and visually interrupt me, is it normal for older male siblings to be insufferable?

“Wait, that’s it? You asked him to help you because you know his mom?” Madeline exclaimed at Arthur with a cringe, putting Arthur in a defensive position, glaring daggers back at him,

Arthur took a deep breath before pointing at me “He was going after Ice, I thought we could work something out that was beneficial for both of us, and he agreed to join in pretty easily too, didn’t you, Valya?” she asked with wide eyes,

“I did,” I immediately confirmed with a nod. I felt like she’d give me a right hook if I answered wrong with that stare of hers.

Arthur nodded and crossed her arms as she gathered her composure and sniffed, nodding back to me, “Sorry about that, you could… you could continue, sorry,” she mumbled, like a bird whose feathers got all ruffled.

I brought my focus back to my parents, “Right, after some investigations, we found out said brother was involved with Mariella, contracted to kill this blonde c*nt and August, but he fell in love with August and did not have what it takes to suffer the consequence—“

“Hey!” - Madeline

“—and he was instead used as the lab’s little test-thing, long story short we rescued him, but now since he’s not strong enough to do it on his f*cking own, he dragged us along to save August,” I trailed off, I noticed Pierre was about to say something but all eyes turned on him, so he just stopped and shut his mouth,

“We got August back, and now this little b*tch," I said pointing at Pierre, "got all fussy and hired another contract killer to hunt us down, said contract killer was Arthur’s ex-boyfriend, kidnapped her, and apparently brought her back to the lab,” I followed and Arthur huffed as she glared at Pierre, I don’t know exactly what happened and how she managed to knock out those people that I found in that basement, I’m just relieved she alright.

‘Wait, what? Anyway...’

“We got her out, we bombed the Mariella labs down, which brings us here,” I finished. Dad tilted his head at me like he was confused when I did everything I could to simplify things as best as I could,

“And how do you know about your parents?” he asked,

“Arthur stole some documents back at the lab when she got Madeline out of there and when we got August, she explained who those people and it turns out I look so much like my mother,” I replied making mom gasp she had to grab onto dad’s arms for support. What are with these reactions?

My dad held onto her hand and gave me a solemn look, “Does those documents perhaps… have their details and current status?” he asked and Pierre scoffed,

“Of course not! Those are old records,” he chimed in. This time I was the one who punched him. It felt great. I can’t wait to get my hands on this guy, but I’m feeling generous, so I’ll let everyone who wants to have a punch or two in to get their chance.

“No one’s talking to you, you’re not a part of the conversation, you are a pending corpse,” I told him as he spat out blood with a tooth.

Mom and dad turned to each other before facing us again, they did it for a while that I started to wonder if married couples develop some sort of telepathic skills to communicate non-verbally, mom was the first to speak, “Then, is there anything we can do to help?” she asked,

I sighed as I sat back down on the couch beside Arthur, “Maybe, but right now I just want to rest my bones,” I replied,

‘I’d hate to drag them into this but if worse comes to worst we’ll need an all-hands-on-deck situation,’