The Earth Online

22 The Demons of the Past

“You’ll find out tomorrow!” Manny said in a playful tone and proceeded to prance around in excitement. After reveling in the annoyed and terrified faces of the trio, he ordered his minions to kick them out of the shack.

Turns out they were in an abandoned shack in the unknown parts of Mount Uruk. Apparently, Manny and his lackeys dragged their bodies like sacks outside of the Lagash Interpoint and brought them to one of their shady meet up points.

“Damn, dude my body’s aching. It’s kinda like the feeling you get after a bad workout.” Kedrick tried to lighten up the mood, but to no avail, the other two were still feeling terrible about Manny’s condition.

Although the trio was forced to shank shady people from the streets, it was only Kedrick who had the experience of killing people due to money instead of necessity. Thaleos and Haya were always forced to kill people out of survival.

“I wished I didn’t have to say this, but we have no choice. We need those shekels, Thaleos.” Haya silently wailed out in a sad tone. Haya was the one obsessed with human life among the three, that’s why he wanted to become an architect, he was hell-bent on making houses for the homeless.

The beast tamer understood this and felt the tan man’s inner grief. The walk back home was a quiet one, every single one of them lost to their own devices.

After finally reaching the foot of the mountain and entering the Melam Military Base, the trio quickly had dinner and headed to their rooms.

While sprawled around on his bed, Thaleos felt trap in his mind as his consciousness couldn’t bear to kill innocent people, especially those who borrowed money from the loan shark out of sheer desperation.

He was going out of his mind thinking of other ways around the deal, but the only thing he could think of was compromising with Manny—and that sounded like making another deal with the devil.

As he went out to the kitchen to drink a glass of water, he saw Haya sitting on the chair and furiously scribbling down his notebook.

“Can’t sleep, too?” The bearded man asked in a tired voice as the other man just solemnly nodded his head.

“I think we can talk to Manny about who we have to assassinate,” Thaleos suggested this caused the younger man to look up from his notebook and his almond-shaped eyes shining with hope.

“Would he ever agree to us just killing the terrible ones?” Haya asked as the hope in his eyes slightly dimmed.

“I hate how we’re asking questions like these, but we can do it. I know Manny, his pride controls him. The moment he gets heated up, he’d kill the ones that annoy him the most.” The beast tamer knew this since Manny had a reputation in the underground world.

“It’s amazing how even in this game, money still makes the world go round,” Kedrick uttered in dismay as he entered the kitchen door.

They tried comforting themselves with burritos and an ice-cold beer and the midnight snack managed to help them a bit.

After reminiscing about some of their childhood memories, they went back to bed as they readied themselves for tomorrow’s task.

Contrary to his initial assumption, Thaleos managed to sleep quite well throughout the wee hours of the morning—it seems like his body still had remnants of the tranquilizer.

Once finishing suiting up and preparing his weapons, Haya coincidentally knocked on his door.

“Ready to go, T? Bad and terrible decisions are awaiting us.” The islander said in a dark manner, Thaleos wasn’t quite sure if he was joking or serious.

Kedrick appeared from behind and threw a decocked gun towards his direction, which the bearded man expertly received and quickly placed it in his holster.

They agreed to use guns last night since they didn’t want to prolong the victim’s pain.

The three men rode and drove their black jeepney back to the abandoned shack. The quick drive to the top of the mountain was just filled with silence, save for the song playing on the radio.

Hearing the truck’s heavyweight on the gravel, Manny immediately went outside of the abandoned shack and greeted them with a coy smile.

“I’m terribly you guys got here on time. The raffle’s ready!” The trio was confused as to what the shabby middle-aged man was talking about. Manny paid them no mind and just proceeded to push them in inside the dilapidated cottage.

Once they got inside, they immediately spotted the shiny new raffle machine since it looked so out of place. As if hearing their thoughts, the chubby man clapped his hands in glee and explained,

“So, since we have over 100 people that borrowed from me, you only need to assassinate five people for me, and this raffle machine will determine who those lucky fiver winners are!”

After finishing his enthusiastic ramblings, the three lackeys behind him started clapping in the same excited manner, while still maintaining their expressionless faces.

“Alright, let’s find out who the first winner is!” Manny hollered in glee, as he rapidly swung the machine’s lever, he was clutching his fists in anticipation.

As the machine gradually slowed down, a red ball with number “54” engraved on it rolled out. As soon as the ball settled on the table, one of the guards took out a list and skimmed through it.

“Ella, single mother of one, debt $30,000.” The muscled man coldly stated, almost as if used to his boss’ useless antics.

Thaleos and Kedrick retained their stoic expressions as they heard the announcement, while Haya felt like the berserker in him thrashing around in rage—he remembered the day his mother was shot in the head by another loan shark. He remembered how his mother forced him to hide in the closet and told him not to come out until she says so. He remembered staring at her dead body for three days straight while starving and thirsting for water.

He remembered the stench of death lingering on his skin, even after showering for six hours straight.

He forced himself to calm down since he knew that Manny had advanced and enchanted weapons. He knew that if he attempted to kill the unassuming debt collector, his friends would be affected.

In his mind, he was already ripping the older man into shreds and then feeding his remains to the wolf eagles.

Thaleos was also fuming on the inside but decided to suck it in for now. After inadvertently grinding his teeth in anger, he finally spoke up,

“Manny, I think it’d be a better idea if we assassinate the bigger bosses instead, maybe ones with debts similar to mine?”

The middle-aged looked directly at the beast tamer while carefully assessing his proposal. The usual smirk or glare was absent from his face, and there remained a close-off and calculated look.

After a couple of minutes of dead silence—the kind of silence that you hear before someone goes insane—the tiny man slowly mouthed the words,

“No…” Which made Thaleos’ heart stop in dismay and made Kedrick grunt in anger. Seeing their reactions, Manny’s expressionless face started slowly shifting into a mocking smile. He then continued his words,

“…problem! As long as you kill them for me, I have no problem whatsoever.” The ridiculing tone in his voice made Haya gnashed his teeth—he was itching to bite the tiny man’s head off.

Kedrick just shook his head in resentment at the mind games.

“Alright, just kill Muson Talk, the CEO of MarZ.” The playful and insane middle-aged man said.

“Muson Telk, like the billionaire? The dude who’s got severe paranoia and has hundreds of guards around his private island?” Haya gritted out in annoyance, to which Manny responded to with an eager nod and question,

“Exactly, you’ve got it! Wait, don’t tell me you’re a fan of Te—”

“f**k off.” Haya unconsciously responded, since he absolutely hated the earth-destroying billionaire.

This caused Manny to lose his smile and directly stare at Haya with this unnerving look—almost as if going off the hinges.

Thaleos was already strategizing different ways on how to maneuver against the minions’ advanced weapons. The bearded man knew how the middle-aged debt collector absolutely hated being cut off.

Manny hated it with a passion; and this hatred even pushed him shot someone on the head just because they accidentally said “ow” while Manny was going on and on about golf.

After what felt like an eternity, Manny’s face returned to the cheesy grin it had before.

“No issues here, my friend. Although, I highly suggest that next time I speak, do not, and I mean this when I say, do not ever cut me off.” Before any of them could even move, Manny had one of his men quickly move behind Haya and lightly s***h his neck.

After slightly grazing Haya’s skin, thin lines of blood started appearing and slowly dripping down his collarbone. Haya did everything in his might not to swallow in nervousness as the knife was dangerously close to his Adam’s apple.

Thaleos and Kedrick were just staring intense silence, not knowing what to do.

Once seeing Haya’s eyes squinting from the pain, Manny finally signaled his minion to stop, which the muscly man immediately followed. Thaleos immediately brought out a thin roll of bandages from his utility bag and gave it to Haya.

While Kedrick helped in cleaning the tan man’s light cuts, Manny just had this cold look on his face and started,

“I’m sending my two guards with you guys, good luck!