Building a Criminal Empire

by Logan Jacobs

  “Lets …” Ava stopped mid-sentence and looked toward the door.

  You have visitors.

  The keys melodic voice informed me what Ava already seemed to know.

  Assassins?

  At first, I heard nothing, but then I heard the slightest creak from the stairs outside.

  “Wha?” Dar asked as he waited for Ava to finish her thought. “You okay?”

  “Wade?” Cimarra squeezed my hand. “What is it?”

  “Shit,” Ava hissed as she unsheathed her two blades and ground them together to create a metallic whistle.

  “What?” Penny asked as she too unsheathed her blade, stood, and turned to face the front door.

  “Cimarra, get behind me,” I said as I stood to my feet and pulled out my blade.

  There was another creak from the stairs outside, and that confirmed it.

  “I thought I lost them,” Ava hissed as she glanced over her shoulder at me. “They are fucking everywhere.”

  “Fuck them,” I said as I clenched my hands around my blade.

  “Open the door for em,” Skam growled as he pulled out his hooked blade.

  “Assassins?” Dar muttered as he stood and moved next to me with his dagger extended in front of him.

  I nodded.

  We didn’t even have the apartment for one night, and now we were about to fill it with assassin blood.

  But, as Ava liked to say …

  So be it.

  Chapter 18 - Dar

  “Are ya sure?” I whispered out of the side of my mouth as I kept my eyes glued on the front door. No one had moved or talked for about twenty minutes, and there was still no sight of any assassins. Plus, I still hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary that got everyone worried.

  Halflings weren’t the best listeners, to begin with, but still.

  Did Wade and Ava just hear the wind?

  It was looking that way.

  “Shh,” Wade hushed me as he crept closer to Ava.

  I guess I would be on edge too if an entire guild were trying to kill me. Well, shit, I guess there actually was an entire guild trying to kill me too.

  Fuck, I needed to focus.

  “Should we draw them in?” Wade whispered into the blonde assassin’s ear.

  “No,” Ava muttered as she sheathed her blades. “I thought they were getting bold, but it looks like they are still patient. They will wait for days, weeks, months until they get us in a position that they like.”

  “What’re you thinking, then?” Wade asked. “You know how they operate much better than me.”

  “First, keep your voices down,” Ava whispered as she looked around the ceiling as if the assassins were above us. “They might still think I’m the only one in here.”

  “Good,” I said as a cold chill danced across my spine. I hated thinking I was being followed.

  “I wouldn’t celebrate too much, halfling,” Ava said with a slight smirk. “You’re still coming with me.”

  Fuck, she was right.

  “What’re we doing then?” Wade questioned. “If we aren’t drawing them in, then what?”

  “We’ll need to take it outside and play dumb,” Ava breathed. “There is probably one waiting in the back of the wagon, one outside on the roof and potentially a third somewhere else.”

  “Let’s just fuckin’ go out there and kill ‘em,” Penny growled. “I’m tired of waiting around like a bunch of caged rats.”

  “We have to be smart and calm about it,” Ava replied. “But the red-head is right, we’ll have to go out there first.”

  “Alright,” Wade said as he scratched at his chin. “Ava, Skam, and Dar …”

  My heart felt like it turned into ice when Wade called my name. I was decent with my blade, but my last fucking meal was a bowl of oats at the theatre, and it would have sucked to die without at least eating a fine steak or some pussy.

  “You three pretend as if you are about to leave,” Wade began. “All the while being aware of your surroundings. Then Penny and I will be close behind once the assassins make their move.”

  “After the assassin's attack?” I asked.

  “We need to provoke them now,” Wade said. “While we know where they are.”

  “He’s right,” Ava said with a nod. “It’s not every day you know where an assassin is lurking, especially if they are after you. But I don’t think you should reveal yourself, Wade.”

  “Why?” Wade asked. “I’m not gonna stay in here and watch you all fight.”

  “You have to,” Ava replied. “Just in case they don’t know you are here. We can draw them off you here.”

  “If you’re getting overrun out there, then Penny and I will step in,” Wade sighed. “If not, then we’ll stay back and wait it out until morning.”

  “I think that would be wise,” Ava added.

  “Fine,” Wade said with a nod.

  “Are we goin’ out with blades drawn or just vulnerable?” I asked.

  “Vulnerable,” Ava said as she eyed my dagger. “Ready?”

  “No,” I sighed as I sheathed my dagger at my side. “But I know this is for the best.”

  “Skam?” Ava turned to the dwarf.

  “Aye,” Skam grunted as he sheathed his hooked blade on his leather belt. “How are we goin’ about it, though?”

  “Just follow my lead,” Ava said as she nodded toward Wade and then stepped toward the door. “Be ready.”

  “We will,” Wade said as he clapped my shoulder when I passed him.

  Then, Ava opened the door, and it took all I had not to fucking run out and look like a frantic person. Instead, I pretended I was on the stage acting. So, I casually stepped outside, took a deep breath, and started down the stairs.

  “Great weather we are having, eh?” I asked Ava as I glanced behind my shoulder.

  “Sure is,” Ave replied. “Skam, how far of a ride do we have?”

  “Eh, I …” Skam stuttered as he closed the apartment door behind him. “Not far, not far at all.”

  “Good,” Ava said. “Dar, just to be safe, why don’t you check the back of the wagon for any supplies we forgot to drop off here. I’d hate to come all the way back.”

  “Got it,” I said as I cleared my throat. Of course, I would have to be the one to check the back of the wagon and get ambushed first.

  I finished walking down the steps and headed toward the wagon. I wanted to get a quick glance at the apartment’s roof, but I didn’t want to be obvious, so I decided against it. So, I just continued toward the wagon in the middle of the alley. This time it was facing the exit, though.

  I could hear the crickets chirping, I felt a tiny breeze cool my sweaty neck, and I saw a few halfling folks across the street smoking their pipes.

  For most, this was an ordinary night throughout the realm, but for me, it could’ve been the night I died. I tried not to think about death, but I couldn’t help it as I approached the back of the wagon.

  Would it hurt?

  Would I meet the Ancient Lords?

  Or would I be banished to the dark eternal caves like my mother used to tell me?

  “Dar,” Ava’s voice pulled me from my thoughts of death. “Did we unload everything?”

  “Uh …” I sniffed as I hovered my free hand near my blade and reached with the other to pull back the wagon’s canvas flap. “Lemme see.”

  Fuck.

  I shoved the flap to the side and expected to have a halfling assassin come flying at me, but instead, nothing happened. So, I took a deep breath, looked one more time at Ava, and then climbed onto the back railing of the wagon and peeked my head inside. I squinted within the darkness and unsheathed my dagger just in case.

  Rolled up in the corner was a sheet we covered the barrels with, but other than that, nothing but darkness.

  The wagon was empty.

  Maybe there weren’t any assassins?

  “It’s--” Before I could call out that the wagon was clear, I felt a sharp edge against the back of m
y neck.

  “Come all the way inside,” a tattered voice breathed from above me. “Now.”

  How the fuck was he above me?

  I didn’t have time to think, so I just obeyed the voice and climbed all the way inside the back of the wagon with the blade still pressed against my neck.

  Then the figure hopped down behind me, but he had somehow clung to the wagon’s frame and hung upside down on the iron bar until he saw me.

  “Dar?” Ava called out. “You alright?”

  “Answer her,” the voice breathed in my ear and smelled like old coffee. Then the assassin pressed the blade harder into my neck.

  “Yeah … uh …” I cleared my throat. “Just folding up the sheet back here.”

  “Good,” the assassin muttered. “Now, you will leave the wagon, shrug, and pretend you saw nothing. If you cooperate, you will not die. We only want Ava, and we want her alive.”

  Fucking liar.

  “Fuck,” I hissed as I looked at the dead-end of the alley. It looked like this was my dead-end too.

  My vision started to tighten into a small tunnel, and my heart throbbed in my ears.

  Maybe he had already killed me, and I was traveling into the afterlife.

  “Dar?” Ava called out again and snapped me out of the death trance I was in.

  “Tell her you’re coming out.” The assassin nudged me with his blade, and a bead of blood slithered down my spine like a ruby snake.

  “I’m … I’m … comin’!” I said as I shifted my weight forward to leave the wagon. But as I did, I saw a shadow running along the top wall at the end of the alley. I noticed the shadow carried a bow and was ready to fire it at any moment.

  It looked like they surrounded us and would fill us with arrows as soon as I stepped out of the wagon.

  I couldn’t let that happen, though.

  I had to fight.

  So, I resisted the assassins nudge from behind me and felt his blade sink deeper into my neck. There wasn’t any time for me to fear death. It was time to defend the vision I believed in. The vision for true freedom throughout this fucking realm.

  The vision of Wade, Penny, Cimarra, and I being kings and queens of our criminal empire.

  I’d die for that, even if my last meal had been oatmeal.

  “Get out there, fool,” the assassin commanded through gritted teeth.

  “Fuck you,” I said as I swiped aside his blade, pushed my feet out in front of me, and launched myself into the assassin.

  We both tumbled across the wagon, and I lost track of where his blade was. We were tangled together in a mess of limbs, and every time I tried to get my hand free, we would roll again and crash against the sides of the cart.

  “Rooftops!” I shouted to tip-off Ava and Skam where the assassins were and what they would do. “Arrows!”

  “Fucking fool,” the assassin growled in my ear.

  But I found his blade that had slid across the cart as we rolled. So, as we wrestled to get free from each other, I stretched out my right hand and felt for the dagger.

  “No,” the assassin knew what I was doing, wrapped his arms around my torso, and pulled me down onto him back first. Then he squeezed to try to collapse my lungs.

  “Argh,” I coughed and felt my eyeballs pop out of my skull. The fucker had me in a snake-like hold and trapped me. The harder I tried to move, the tighter his grip felt.

  I couldn’t believe that a halfling assassin caused my death by squeezing the air out of me in the back of my cousin's catering wagon. As I tried to break free, I felt my strength leaving my muscles, and I could hear both Ava and Skam fighting the other assassins.

  I could hear blades clash together, groans of pain as Ava probably sliced some assassin open, and Skam cursing in the dwarven tongue as he fought.

  “It’s over, just give up,” the assassin panted as he continued to squeeze the life out of me.

  My vision started to turn into a tunnel once again, but this time I saw a familiar face at the end, waiting for me.

  Faye.

  I could see her bronze curly locks floating in the wind, and her hand raised to welcome me into death. A cluster of golden clouds appeared behind Faye as she started to walk toward me.

  Fuck … maybe dying wouldn’t be so bad if I could spend it with the one person I had truly loved.

  I reached out my hand toward her. She was so close I could even smell the rose perfume she loved to wear for special occasions. Her round eyes were soft and kind, just like I remembered, and her skin was as white and soft as cotton.

  “Faye …” I choked out as I breathed my last breaths in the middle of the wagon. But my focus was still on the love of my life coming to usher me into the afterlife.

  She reached out her hand again, and this time I could feel her fingers intertwine with mine, but instead of pulling me free, she squeezed my hand.

  “Fight, Idarim.” Her mouth didn’t move as she spoke, but I heard her silky voice in my mind. Her eyes seemed to glow bright gold, just like the clouds behind her. “Fight.”

  Fight?

  She wanted me to fight instead of joining her in death?

  But why?

  I wanted to ask, but when I blinked, she was gone, and I was back in the wagon on the verge of death.

  Apparently, I still had some fight in me, and if Faye wanted me to fight, then that’s what I would do.

  So, with the last amount of energy and life I had, I lowered my head to my chin and then shoved my skull into the throat of my attacker. It wasn’t much, but he loosened his grip just enough for me to repeat the same action, so I did the backward head butt again, and this time connected with the fucker’s chin.

  His grip loosened, and I got my feet on the side railing of the wagon, then I pushed with my feet, flipped over the assassin, and broke his grip. I was now behind my killer, so I wrapped my arm around his throat and started to squeeze the life out of him like he had tried to do to me.

  “Fuckin’ die,” I panted as I felt his beating heart against my forearm, so I squeezed harder.

  “Ackk,” the assassin croaked as he tried to elbow my ribs, but the position we were in protected me just enough to not absorb the full brunt of his attacks.

  I squeezed and squeezed until finally; the fucker went limp in my arms and died with a long-winded gasp.

  Then I collapsed back into the rear of the wagon and caught my breath. I could still hear Ava and Skam fighting, but it sounded like they were winning since Skam laughed as he fought.

  “Dar?” Ava shouted as the sound of her blade ripped through someone’s flesh.

  Then there was silence.

  Until the chorus of crickets returned.

  “Yeah?” I panted as I sat up and moved the dead assassin off of me.

  “It’s all clear out here,” Ava replied, but her voice sounded distant.

  “Same in here.” I crawled to the rear opening of the wagon and then climbed down. That’s when I saw Skam surrounded by four dead halflings like crumpled pieces of trash.

  “We’re gonna have to move these bodies,” Skam said as he sheathed his bloody blade and wiped his hands along his trousers. “We can throw em in the back of the wagon for now.”

  “Where’s Ava?” I asked.

  “Up top,” Skam pointed behind me.

  “Shit,” I huffed as I turned and saw Ava finishing her last victim on top of the roof across the alley.

  “I’ll bring these bows inside the apartment and give the all-clear to the others,” Ava declared as she placed a few bows along her shoulder.

  “Good work,” Skam replied as he nudged me. “Let’s get these fellows inside the wagon with the one you offed, eh?”

  “What about the ones on the roof?” I asked.

  “They’ll rot just fine up there,” Skam chuckled. “No one will find em.”

  “I guess no one really climbs on roofs these days,” I muttered as I helped lift a lifeless assassin with Skam.

  “More are probably coming, so
we better hurry,” Ava called down from the apartment’s roof. “Load those up, and then we can get the fuck out of here.”

  “Aye!” Skam replied as we tossed the body we held into the back of the wagon.

  I turned to see Ava drop from the roof and walk inside the apartment.

  “C’mon, three more to go,” Skam chuckled as he clapped me on the shoulder. “Ya heard Ava, we could have another batch of these assassins on our tails soon enough.”

  “I know, I know,” I said as I helped the dwarf with another dead body. We continued to clean up the surrounding carnage until we piled the five other dead assassins in the back of the wagon.

  “Alright,” Ava said as she came out of the apartment and trotted down the steps. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Please,” I added as I leaped onto the wagon and positioned myself in the middle of the bench. Ava followed and sat next to me on my right while Skam took the reins on my left.

  “Good work, guys,” Ava said as she glanced over her shoulder.

  Then Skam clicked his tongue, commanded the horse to get moving, and we were off.

  “Wasn’t so bad, eh?” Skam said as he steered the wagon to the left and onto the main road.

  “Not bad at all,” I said as I thought about Faye’s face still fresh in my mind.

  “Stay alert,” Ava nudged me. “We probably have another pair of eyes on us already.”

  “Fuck,” I sighed. “I dunno how you’ve survived on your own like this for a few days.”

  “That’s why I asked Wade for help,” Ava replied. “I’m only human.”

  “What did ya tell Wade?” I asked as I gestured toward the apartment far behind us.

  “Just reminded him to lie low with Penny and Cimarra until morning,” Ava said as her eyes scanned the road ahead of us. “I don’t want the guild to know where he is for as long as possible.”

  “You don’t think they do?” I asked.

  “No,” Ava breathed. “If they did, they wouldn’t have waited for us to leave the apartment, they would’ve sent in hundreds of members into that apartment until it was overflowing with assassins.”

  “Shit,” I hissed. “You all are relentless.”

  “It’s all we know,” Ava sighed. “Well, it’s not me anymore.”