Chapter 4
1865 Words
The sisters went their separate ways. Val never stopped running from those who were chasing her, while Devi continued to endure the humiliation inflicted by the family members of their deceased adopted father.
"Your sister isn’t even contributing to your expenses, and you’re still useless!" Devi’s aunt shouted. She had lost count of how many times she had been yelled at that day... she just kept her head down, knowing she had nowhere else to go.
"Sis Val, where are you? Get me out of this hell," Devi thought.
"Sorry, Auntie. I’ll replace the broken things when Sis gets back," Devi replied.
"Why don’t you just leave? Why did you come back to our lives, huh? You’re a curse; you’ve already killed my brother, and you still have the nerve to show your faces to us!!!" their father’s sister yelled at her.
"Auntie? Please don’t do this to me?! We were fine before! Why do you have to treat me like this now? We worked so hard to gain your trust, even after Papa’s gone! My sister helped you so we could pay you back, even a little! We didn’t say anything when you hurt us! When you locked us up for no reason! Do you know why? Because Papa told us before he passed to never leave you alone! So why are you so cruel to us? We didn’t do anything wrong! We didn’t want him to die!... Because when we lost hope of living, Papa reached out his hand to us!!"
"How dare you talk back! I’m not feeding you to disrespect me!! GET OUT!! Leave us!! Go back to your sister! I can’t stand seeing your face every day! So please, just leave our lives! Before we get cursed by the misfortune you bring!" Devi’s aunt said bitterly.
Devi can’t blame her for being angry! It hurts so much to lose family… to lose a sister. She knows that pain because that’s what happened to her entire family.
Everything vanished from her. Her right to be happy as a child was taken away.
She grew up quickly because of the cruelty of the world towards her and her sister. So as much as possible, she didn’t want to give up on her older sister since they were all each other had left.
No matter how hard it was for her, she continued to hold tightly to her sister to keep her from straying off the right path.
"Auntie!! Please, don’t send me away! I really need a place to stay right now! W-we can’t be together with Sis Val yet! Please, I’m begging you!" Devi suddenly knelt before her aunt, completely humbled. She couldn’t be sent away... not now.
Matilda’s anger wouldn't be eased just by Devi’s pleas. The pain she felt and her longing for her brother weren’t that easy to dispel. Like Val and Devi, her brother had been her parent, so it wasn’t easy for Matilda to accept Devi and her sister, whom she suspected was responsible for her brother’s death.
"If I had known!! I would have stopped my brother from adopting you two!!" Matilda shouted, unable to hold back the tears from her eyes.
Devi could no longer respond; she knew her aunt was struggling, and it was their fault. If they hadn’t entered her life, maybe their father would still be alive.
Devi was shocked when suddenly someone grabbed her hair and yanked her so forcefully that she cried out in pain. "Uncle?! Let go of me!!"
"Don’t touch my wife!!" he shouted.
Her uncle was the cruelest one; she really couldn’t stand him in that house. One time he almost raped her, but she couldn’t tell anyone because who would believe her in that house?! In the end, she would be the only one who came off as the bad one.
"Uncle!!" Devi shouted, but he didn’t listen. He continued to pull her hair until he locked her in a cabinet. "Uncle?! Auntie!! Get me out of here!!" Devi begged, but no one listened to her pleas. Devi was almost out of breath. "U-uncle!" she whispered.
Suddenly, Devi’s vision blurred, and some kind of vision appeared in her mind. She didn’t know if she was just delusional, but it was happening too often. She was seeing images, memories that seemed to be hers, but they couldn’t possibly be hers. Because those memories seemed to have happened a long time ago... about a thousand years ago.
Val's POV
I have nowhere else to go; I almost wander around, even though I know the road is more dangerous. But I had no other choice. I have to be tough and almost numb to the danger I could face at any moment.
I need to be strong to get home safely to Devi because I promised her that I would come back and get her out of that hellish house.
"Val? What are you doing here?"
"Let me in again," I say without hesitation. I know the job I’m about to enter is dangerous, but I have nowhere else to go.
"You could get in trouble, you know that. Do you still want this job?" Jae replies.
Jae was with us at the orphanage when Devi and I were orphaned. Due to the hardships of life, he was forced to leave the orphanage and take his own path. Until he got this job, a dangerous one that could cost him his life and safety.
When I first came here, I immediately left, fearing I might not return home to Devi alive.
Our job is to hunt criminals. Wealthy people pay us a lot of money as long as we can bring them the people they want.
They don’t discriminate, regardless of age or gender. As long as you commit to the work, you work quietly and without asking questions. They’ll accept you without hesitation.
I don’t feel bad about this job; I know we are hunting bad people. The only difficult part is how we deal with that evil.
But I don’t know what to call myself. Am I like them? Because I kill to survive?... Even though they are human monsters, they were still born human. By human laws, what I did is still wrong.
"Val? Can you handle it again? Aren't you going to run away again?" Jae asks.
"I won’t, I need a job. I need money. Besides, I’m looking for someone. I know you could help me— I must find him as soon as possible—if not, I’ll be dead."
"Don’t tell me it’s him again? You don’t even know what exactly you’re looking for?! How can we find him?" Jae replies.
"I don’t know!" I accidentally raise my voice because even I don’t know what to do. I don’t know his name, his appearance, or anything about him!! I don’t even know if he’s human or not! All I remember is Ava saying I must find the Phoenix to live safely.
I don’t know anything about him, but I know—I will feel it when I find him.
"Alright, come with me tonight. There’s a new mission, and we can earn a lot of money, so we can’t fail," Jae says, and I immediately follow him to HQ to prepare what we need.
We need weapons for this job.
It was past midnight when Jae arrived at our meeting place. We both wore black clothes to move freely in the dark.
"Abril Fernandez, 35, murderer of the mayor’s daughter. He’s our target tonight—The mayor doesn’t care if we bring him in alive or dead, let’s go! We must bring him his head," Jae says, so I follow him without complaint, even though fear envelops my body now.
Abril Fernandez is at the top of the wanted list!—he is not just a simple murderer but a serial killer. There’s only one possible outcome for this night—if we bring the mayor his head or we’ll end up on his list of victims.
"Are you okay? Can you handle it?" Jae suddenly asks, probably noticing my pale face.
"I have to!" I reply firmly, then ready my gun.
"Be alert; he might be around us without us realizing it," Jae reminds me.
I take a deep breath before putting on my mask. The clouds in the sky are heavy, so we’re moving tonight because it only preys when the ground is wet— it’s truly weird to think about, but no one can say why. Whenever it rains— someone is sure to die.
"Val, if you need me, just call. I’ll be on the other line," Jae reminds me as he quickly puts a wireless earpiece in my ear.
"Got it!" I reply. We need to separate to find the target quickly.
When we finally part ways, a heavy rain suddenly pours down.
I wandered around for almost 30 minutes, entering every alleyway I could pass. When I suddenly heard the sound of steel being dragged, what surprised me was that I didn’t hear any footsteps.
The person whose footsteps are silent is the most dangerous.
I stop walking as my hand trembles. "I-I can’t!! Our opponent can’t be a human monster?!" I think.
I grip my gun tightly, even though my hands are shaking more, a sign that danger is close. "Come out, whoever you are!!" I shout.
"Val!!! Are you okay?!!" I hear on the other line, but I can’t respond because suddenly Abril steps out from the darkness.
He’s holding a bloody baseball bat. It seems we’re too late because he already has a victim.
He suddenly closes his eyes as if he’s inhaling deeply. "The smell of your soul!" he says in a deep voice. "It feels so strange! The moment I sensed you, my body wants to break every single bone you have!!"
"That’s not gonna happen!" I reply bravely.
He laughs wickedly. "I want to kill you!! I don’t know why! But I want you dead!"
Suddenly, the mythical creature I read about related to water comes to mind. "Vodyanoy?!" I utter.
"How did you know me?!" he retorts.
My suspicion was correct; he is Vodyanoy, the water spirit.
Vodyanoy is said to be relatively calm but dangerous. Despite his wrinkled skin and peaceful demeanor... Vodyanoy can be quite destructive.
In Slavic lore, if anyone angers the sea creatures, the Vodyanoy would destroy every man-made structure near the body of water he resides in... or worst drown humans and drag his victims down to his underwater home where they would be enslaved for eternity.
"Who wouldn’t know someone like you who was a plague in your time?" I reply, with a hint of mockery.
"I became human despite my evil obsession!" He suddenly laughs with a mix of insult. "So in this life, I will go all out. I kill when it rains because the scent of my victims’ blood is stronger. So now, I want to smell your blood so badly!!"
I step back slightly at his words!— My blood is my weakness. Just a small scratch can summon a demon or monster wherever my blood scent reaches.
- Writer
