What I Crave

Diablo

3 Years Ago

Ivan

"Just tell me where his money is...and you can go home." I said as I held the junkie up by his throat. When he pointed towards the hole in the wall, I quickly broke his neck, letting him fall to ground as I walked towards it. Grabbing the money from the inside of the hole I pulled out my phone and called Adonis.

"I got it. I'm on my way back to the spot." I said before hanging up.

I got in my car and drove to the drop off spot. While driving, I noticed I still had dried up blood on my hands and some even got on my face. Yet, I felt no remorse for it. Snapping his neck like that made me feel powerful. Once I pulled up to the spot, I got out the car and walked inside. Placing the money in the bin before I walked through the door. Once inside I was greeted by a bottle girl with a white towel in her hands.

"For you." She said as she handed it to me and quickly made herself scarce. I wiped my face and hands on the towel and drunk out of the bottle she'd given me. I kept walking through until I got to a room. Before I could knock, I heard a voice say roughly, "Come in."

I opened the door and my boss was sitting at his desk with a woman on her knees beside him. She didn't look scared but she looked drugged up.

"My new pet." He said with humor in his tone. I shook my head and looked at him.

"What's next?" I asked him.

"Ready for another one already?" Good." He said while pulling files from his desk. He looked through a couple before settling on one.

"By far, the hardest job I've ever given someone." He said with a look of knowing on his face.

Reaching for the paper I said, "I'll take Donny with me."

After a quiet stare down, he relented and gave me the paper. "When you finish make sure you call me."

I walked out without answering him. I was ready to hunt. I went to find Adonis and when I did he was in a corner in deep conversation with a girl I had never seen before. She looked a little out of place in here which me at she didn't belong. He looked like he was trying to get her to leave. As I got closer, I could hear their hushed conversation.

"You can't be here. If my boss sees you it will turn ugly. Let's get you out of here and I promise we'll talk Stephy. Please." He said pleading with her.

"You might wanna listen time him." I said as she turned around to look at me. "Our boss doesn't take kindly to strangers intruding."

She sighed and said, "Fine. But you have to explain this to me. All of it. Or we are done." She finished and then she turned to leave. As she walked out the door, I hung my arm around Adonis's shoulders loosely.

"Man, you sure know how to pick them." I said as he pushed my arm off him while he laughed.

"Dude, shut up.  So what's up? How was the job?" He asked as he sat on the couch.

"The same. I got another one. I need you though." He looked at me and then the paper I was holding. I handed it to him and he read it silently. After he finished he looked at me with confusion in his eyes.

"He really wants this job done?" He asked me puzzled.

"Apparently." I said back.

Shaking his head he said, "Let me go change."

As he left, I went to my room and pulled off the bloody clothes and got in the shower to clean myself up. After throughly washing all of the blood off of my body, I stood under the water for a few more minutes letting the water scorch my skin. I finally got out and put on all black like before. Black shirt, black pants & black boots. I grabbed my bag from my closet and looked in the mirror at myself.

Monster.

I shook my head and walked out the door. Adonis was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs and we both walked out the door together. We got in the car and drove to our destination in silence. It took us 45 minutes to get there and the whole drive we had to get mentally prepared for what we were about to do. When we finally pulled up, we got out of the car and went to the trunk. I grabbed my bag and Adonis went for his shotgun. Pulling the masks over our faces we went around the building and began to work. Our job was a simple one, once we took out the alarm system. I continued to mess with blue wires & green ones too, until I finally reached the black one. I cut it and the alarm system cut off. Picking the lock of the side door of the house, we opened it up and went inside. Looking at the map of the house, the master bedroom was on the second floor in between a kids bedroom and an office. We were to kidnap the man who lived here. His family appeared to be away but he had stayed behind. I could hear laughter above our heads.

"No need to be quiet. He's loud enough to cover up our sound." I said to Adonis. He nodded his head as I pulled a gun from my bag. Setting the bag on the counter, I went up the stairs with Adonis following close behind me. When reached the top of the stairs, I could hear a woman moaning and the bed was creaking loudly. Creeping closer to the door of the room, I opened it. The man we were sent here to take was deep inside of the love of a woman who wasn't his wife. She rode him as he held onto her waist for dear life. His groans echoed loudly throughout the house and it sounded like he was about to finish. Before he could do that, the woman leaned down and kissed. We took this chance to enter the room. The woman heard us first and attempted to scream so I knocked her out. Adonis tied her up while I took care of the man. He tried to run into his office but I broke the door down. Once I was inside the room he jumped me from the corner. We rolled around the floor for a couple of seconds before I was on top of him hitting him in face. I could feel the darkness creeping in as I continued to whale on him. I was losing control.

Before I realized it, Adonis was pulling me off of him.

"Ivan! Ivan! Look at me. Look at me. It's your best friend. Calm down." He said in a calming voice. 

I took a deep breath and let it out. Adonis ties the man up and put him in the trunk of our car. Sitting down at his computer desk I went to work on wiping his cameras clean of tonight's footage. After I finished, I went in the bedroom and seen the woman. She was still on the floor, so I picked she'd up and put her in the bed before placing an Advil on the dresser next to her.

As we drove to the warehouse district, we could hear the man groaning in pain from our trunk. Ignoring him, we kept driving until we got the warehouse. Pulling the man out of the trunk, we drug him into the warehouse and there in the middle of the room was our boss, Z. He smiled a toothy grin when he seen the man in my arms.

"Ahhh finally. Finally we have you." He said.

The man looked at Z, trying to find any recognition he could and when didn't find anything familiar Z smiled at him.

"You don't know me but I know someone you do. Hang him up." He said in a commanding voice.

On the far wall, there was a wall of chains with hooks on the ends of them. Picking him up I took one of the hooks and pushed it deep into his back making the man scream in agony. He continued screaming even after the hook was all the way through. Picking up the second book, I pushed it into his skin even deeper than the first one. Once I finished, Adonis began to pull on the chain that suspended him in the air. He began to scream as he got higher in the air, the hooks threatening to break his skin. His screams were loud now as they bounced off the walls of the warehouse. I looked at Z and he nodded. I punched the man in the face. Hard. He stopped screaming but he began to groan like he had in the car.

"Now what?" Adonis asked.

Z looked at me. Mischief sparkled in his eyes as he looked at my hands.

"Ahhh, seems like you can't control your temper still." He said knowingly.

I rolled my eyes and took off my mask.

"I don't have a temper." I said back to him with a biting tone.

I had been doing these types of jobs for years.

What was one more year before graduation?

"Now Donny, we wait for our client. She's on her way." He said with laughter in his voice.

"She? A woman is our client?" I asked, confused.

Z nodded and began to explain why we had this man in our possession.

"This," he pointed to the man hanging up from the ceiling, "cretin has been stepping out on his wife. She wanted to find out if it was true, so I had one of our call girls seduce him. She found all types of things in his phone & even bit bait and they had sex." He explained. He continued, "Now, when she gets here, she'll tell us what she wants."

About 15 minutes later, I heard what sounded like tires pulling up towards our warehouse. Z's phone beeped and he nodded towards the door.

The client.

I went to let her in. The woman looked to be in her early 40s. Wrinkles weren't visible yet but it was apparent that she was a bit older. She had a nice figure, with full blown out blond hair that draped down her face like curtains. Her eyes were green and bloodshot like she had been crying all night. She was wearing a olive green dress that stopped above her knees and she was covered up with a fur coat. Her heels clicked against the pavement with each step she took towards her cheating husband. As we got closer to him, he began to move around. I looked up at him and he had seen his wife walk through the room. Adonis let him down a bit and she pulled the gag out of his mouth.

"Why Charlie?" She asked him with sadness in her voice. "Why did you do this?"

Charlie just looked at his wife with no love in his eyes whatsoever. His voice was thick with an unknown accent as he said, "Because I do not love you. You do not make me happy."

Sobbing loudly at the revelation she took a few steps back and Z wrapped his arms around her offering comfort. She took it. Z looked at me and then at our client.

"What would you like us to do to him?" He asked her.

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. The love she might have had for him before she got here looked to be completely gone. The light she had in her eyes before she walked in was gone. All hope was lost to her. She had lost her soul to a man would hadn't loved her. I wasn't surprised at her next words but I also hadn't expected her to know of this name.

"Diablo."

Adonis froze in place as Z looked in my direction. I closed my eyes upon hearing my call name. I looked at her before finally asking, "Are you sure?" 

She nodded without hesitation. Diablo, was what they called me the field. I had been trained in certain arts every since I was a kid and I had never stopped practicing. I went to stand in front of the man. His body shook violently with fear. He may not have loved his wife, but I knew he didn't want to die. I pulled a knife my sleeve and lurched forward, slicing the nerves in the back of his knees. Blood sprayed from his wound as he wailed in pain. I lurched forward again, quickly slicing his stomach. Blood began to pool up around his feet. His wails were louder now. He was begging me to stop but the darkness had already taken over me. I lurched forward again slicing both wrists. The woman walked forward and placed her hands on my shoulders. She whispered a phrase I knew all too well into my ear.

"Cortenle la cabeza."

I made my way across the room to my bag. I pulled out my family's most prized possession. An ancient samurai katana. It had been passed down for generations in our family. Technically, I was a half blood so I wasn't supposed to have it but my father gave it to me anyway.

"A warrior always needs a katana." 

He said this to me before he passed away.

Pulling the sword from its sheath it hummed for blood. I was consumed. I didn't want him to die just yet. I continued my slow game of slicing until he hung limply from the hooks. Adonis let his body drop to the floor and then he laid his head across a concrete slab that was in the room. I walked towards him slowly, like a predator to prey. His eyes scanned my face but wouldn't live to see me again.

"You're... a demon...straight from hell."

I chuckled and placed my katana on his neck, letting him feel the coldness if my blade. It would be the last sensation he would feel before I separated his head from his neck.

"I'm not a demon. I'm the Devil."

With one swift movement, I swung my katana downwards in a swift motion. After retracting it, his head slid slowly from his shoulders as his wife watched. Adonis began to clean up the mess I had made while the woman and Z spoke in the corner. After they finished she handed him a large envelope and kissed him on the cheek. She walked out of the warehouse never looking back at the bloody scene she left behind. Z walked up behind and cupped my shoulders.

"Good job containing the beast tonight son." He said trying to be encouraging.

I shrugged and wiped my hands on a towel. He handed me a Manila envelope.

"Your cut for tonight, plus a bonus." He said while nodding towards my bag. He got up and went towards Donny with the same color envelope. Once we finished cleaning we all went out separate ways. Me and Donny drove to his house for the night. After we both got inside I went to shower again. When I got out, Adonis called me downstairs. Walking down the stairs, I walked into the kitchen. Adonis pulled two cups from the cabinets and a bottle of Jack Daniels from his father's bar. I sat down on a stool as he poured the drink.

"How much you get this time?" He asked me.

"1.5 mill. This must've been a big job." I said picking up the glass of spicy liquor. I had never been much of drinking but living with the demons that I have now it's become quite the habit. Putting the cup to my lips I gulped it down as it burned a hot path of fire down my throat. He poured me another glass and held up his.

"One more job?" He asked.

I nodded and held up my cup, "One more."

Now

I wouldn't have imagined having to become who I used to be again but I had to save Nova. She was in this because of me and I didn't see how I fit. Adonis was becoming more & more unhinged. It was getting harder to calm him down. After he seen that video of Envy, he hadn't been the same. I hadn't either honestly. My tolerance for insolence has been low lately and it's caused me to lash out at Leonia. I haven't been trying to but she's been saying things that have been making it hard to deal with her presence. I can't be around anyone for too long without having a drink in my hand. We'd pretty much figured out who gotten Nova. We we're waiting outside his house to make a move.

"This party might go on for hours. I'm gonna inside and observe the party. Stay here." Adonis said, "They won't recognize me, they'll think I'm a partygoer."

Z nodded in agreement, "Go ahead and Donny?" Adonis looked at our old boss with respect in his eyes. "We'll finds her by the end of the night. I swear."

Envy

I watched in horror as my best friend, was penetrated. Over and over by different men. At one point, the light in her eyes had went out. I was trying to keep it together because they hadn't done as much damage to me. But Nova...her body was mangled and unrecognizable. Her face was battered and broken. Her hair was matted to her scalp because of all of the blood loss and all I could do was watch in horror. Each time they beat her until she cried. They were always recording. Always with that damn camera. I had lost count of how long I had been down here in this basement. I can't even remember getting here. Nova's screams haunted my sleep so I barely did that.

The very last time they r***d Nova was possibly the messiest and most vile thing I had even seen in my life. The pain she must've been feeling had to have been excruciating because her screams kept me awake all night. She didn't stop screaming. It was like a broken record. They sat me down in a chair and made me watch as 6 men began to have their way with her. They forced her to give them oral as one of the men ejaculated on her back. Another man shoved himself inside of her from behind while she was dry and began to stroke like a dog in heat. They tried to keep her from screaming but it wasn't working. Finally, they shoved something in her mouth. Almost instantly, her body fell limp. They continued their violent act as she lay there. My body shook from the sobs that were coming from me. I tried to look away but a woman I had never met kept my head looking straight ahead. She was wearing all black everything as she watched with her own personal camera. I couldn't help but throw up all over her shoes.

"You bitch." She said as she slapped me hard in the back of my head.

A large man entered the room as I watched the scene unfold before me. He placed his hands in my shoulders while saying, "Don't worry sweetheart. Your turn is coming."

He placed his hand in front my mouth and shoved something into my mouth. Once it hit my tongue, I felt my senses dull. Slowly, one by one, my eyes began to lose sight. My ears began to ring. My tongue felt dry and my body felt limp. The last thing I heard before the lights went out were:

"Let's see if Ivan loves her after this."

Nova

I opened my eyes and I was laying some grass. I raised my hands to cover my eyes from the bright sun. It was warm and the breeze was making me shudder a little bit. After my eyes adjusted to the light, I lifted up to gather my bearings. I discovered that I had been laying a field of flowers. Daisy's, violets, tulips, daffodils & in the distance I could see bushes red and white roses. I could hear water falling in the distance and decided to follow it. While following the path through the trees, I could rabbits blooping along with their young following them. I could see bucks and does grazing in the field nearby. The stream that was near the path had different types of ducks living in its waters. I could see large gold fish swimming around in schools of five and swarming each other when they came into close contact. Near the end of the oath, I could see a woman wearing a glowing white dress. She turned to face me and I gasped. She looked exactly like me. Her hair was curlier than mine and it was a sandy brown, almost blonde in the light. When she see me me and waved me over. I felt compelled to go towards so I did. As soon as I was within a few feet of her, I could smell cinnamon and vanilla. It was a pleasant scent that danced around my noise. Once we were face to face she smiled. Looking at her face closely, she had the same freckles as me. The only difference was her eye color. Her eyes were grey with brown irises. She was smiling at me with love in her eyes. Yet I had no idea who she was.

"Hello, Nova." She said her voice full of kindness. She continued, "You are much more beautiful than I imagined." She had an accent that sounded like she could English but I wasn't sure.

"Walk with me?" She said as she held her hand out for me to take. I hesitated and all of my instincts told me to go with her. Hand in hand we walked towards a tall tree with pink leaves and white flowers growing on the branches. She sat down and beckoned for me join her. I sat next to her and she looked at me.

"Oh, I wish I had more time my love." She said with tears forming in her eyes. "But I be here for a little while."

I looked at her and I felt myself trying to speak but the words wouldn't come out. "I remember when you first came earth side. I was so happy to see you. You little face was all I could think about. When I closed my eyes that day and traded my life for yours...I prayed you would live well and you have. But, it's time to come home..we're waiting for you. You're family is waiting for you. You'll never have to be alone again. Ever. I'll protect you. I promise."

When she finished her words rang in my ears wind chimes in the wind. My head was swarming.

Was this woman my mother? 

How did she get here?

Where am I?

Where is...Ivan...

That's when the pain hit me. Like a rock falling hard against my body. The memories flashed through my head. The kidnapping. The drugs. The....

The woman looked at me with sad eyes while she touched my shoulder. "I had to show you the lain you would be returning to if you decided to turn back. You would never be right in your spirit if you survive this." She said with a gentle warning in her voice. I could feel the tears falling as I clenched my hands into the grass.

Should I really go back? 

It's not like anyone really needs me anyway. 

I have no family. 

I have no kids. 

I have nothing.

In the back of my mind, I could see my best friend. Envy, me and her walking on the beach the second night we worked at the club together. The promise we made to stick together. I could see Adonis. Picking me up as he hugged me and spinning me around until I got dizzy. I could see Imma and him sitting on the beach as we shared a blunt and secrets. I could see Ivan, clear as day. Sitting in the bed on the island as held me in his arms his kissed my forehead and let me sleep on his chest. I could hear him tell me I was beautiful.

Could you really leave them behind? 

Could you really leave them without you?

I looked at her with questions in my eyes. Questions that, I knew she had no time to answer. I had a choice to make. Go back home and face the pain that's waiting for me or go with her.

Adonis

11:45 p.m

I walked inside of the mansion trying to get a good look around. The house was full of men and women dancing with their bodies pressed hard together. It was difficult to maneuver amongst them, so, I made my way up the stairs. The hall was long and doors were on each side of it. Four doors lined up in a row on each side. I looked around and listened. The music was blasting loudly and I could hear distant moans of men and women in different areas of the house. Making my way back downstairs, I found a way to get to the kitchen. Walking past kissing couples and plastic cups I get to the kitchen. There's a crowd of people surrounding a closed off area by what I'm assuming is the basement. After sending a quick text to Ivan, I scan the house and find a place to hideout until the party dies down.

Envy has to be here.

3:00 a.m.

The party is coming to a halt and Ivan & Z have already found a way into the house when the lights go out at 3:30. I've been hiding inside of this coat closet for the last few hours and it's not the comfiest place to be. But the only thing I can think about is my sister.

I have to get her back. No matter what.

Trill

As my party began to end, I started to feel on edge. I had no idea why but something felt wrong. Every since I had taken Nova and kept her underground it's been unnaturally quiet. We hadn't received any word on the ransom. Complete radio silence. So, they've just been downstairs making more videos to torment that guy she was having s*x with. I'd been drinking more often than not. So, when the party died I went upstairs to my bedroom. I climbed in the shower and began to wash all of the sweat and smoke off of my body from the party. Just as I was about to get out of the shower, the lights went out. Cutting off the water, I quietly walked towards my bedroom and out into the hallway. Glancing over the railing, I could hear footsteps moving through my living room and before I could react I felt two large arms wrap around my neck. They were pulling tightly against my neck as I gripped onto the railing of the stairs. I could more footsteps coming up the stairs as the person kept their grip on me. My eyes only adjusted a little as he loosened up his grip and when he did that I felt a dust connect with my jaw. Before I could get up, another person began to kick me in my ribs, head and back until I stopped trying to cover myself up. The man with the big arms picked me up and looked into my eyes. The fear I was feeling was something else entirely as he asked me, "Where are my girls?"