With Shin, it was different.
She could not stop grieving. She could not tell if he was dead or not. She could not tell if he was safe or was being tortured by someone. She felt like he had abandoned her, like he had left her to the mercies of whatever would come for her. Suddenly, the building seemed to have become menacing and dangerous without him in it. She constantly wondered if she would fall off the stairs or if she would be attacked by some wild animal that had been lurking in the walls all the while. Waiting to get their slimy grimy hands on her. She walked with caution and made sure she didn’t make any noise, she now used the backdoor downstairs more often. The last thing she wanted was to be snatched by people who would kill her like she saw all those other men die.
“Oh common... be serious. You are not their target. Shin is.” She would say to herself sometimes because she wanted to be less afraid but somehow, she knew that if they had been able to kill Shin that day, she wouldn’t have been spared. She would have died alongside him. She knew that even if they knew that they were just neighbours who happened to be friendly, they might have killed her just to spite him. Now, as she moved through the motions of her life, reading the news and seeing the headlines declaring that the police had come to a dead end on the Asian men’s case, she knew that she would do well to get out of the town as soon as she finished her course.
Three weeks have passed since then. She received a text message. She looked at her phone screen and frowned. It had been a while since she received a text on her phone. When she opened it, it was Shin.
“Amie... lets meet. It’s urgent. Coffee shop!”
The text read. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Shin was alive! And he wasn’t just alive, he was in town. She had thought that he would be half way across the world by that time. She had thought that he would have forgotten about her and probably moved on and starting a new life with some other girl now. She had thought it was time for her to move on too and try to build a life without Shin.
“Oh my god!” she exclaimed. A wave of feelings washed over her as she thought about what he must have gone through in the last three weeks. Was he in town for good? Had he come to take her with him? Did he just need help with something? Her heart raced as she hurriedly pulled on her jacket and picked up her phone and purse.
“He abandoned you... should you be rushing out to see him so fast? Shouldn’t you give him some attitude at least?” a part of her asked.
“He didn’t abandon me. He had to go. He didn’t have a choice. Besides... I was safer here than if I was with him.” she was making excuses for him and she knew it but she couldn’t help it. Now that he was around and needed her, she was not about to deny him whatever he needed.
“You're just lying!” she said to herself but she was not listening anymore. She stepped into the street and half ran and half walked to the coffee shop.
She pushed the door open and walked in and noticed instantly that the room had not been used in a while. The blood had been cleaned but she could still see the faces of all of the men who had died there in her head. There were still the pools of blood and holes in the walls in her mind and she suddenly felt a wave of nausea. She walked into the kitchen area and remembered how she had seen Amanda on the floor passed out. She felt sorry for Amanda. She could only imagine how she must be feeling, especially with her shop shot up and the people killed in it. It was obvious to her the shop would not be coming back into business anytime soon.
The woman had seemed like a pretty nice person. She did not deserve to have her shop ruined like that. Amie made a mental note to volunteer if she ever opened the coffee shop again. She would work for free just to show the woman that she was sorry and help her get back on feet. She looked around at the damages and came face to face with a rather huge spider web. In the three weeks since the place had been empty of humans, the place was fast gaining new occupants. She brushed the webs off her face angrily and looked around again. This time, she was looking for Shin. He ought to be here by now? What did he think he was? Abandoning her only to show up three weeks later and request to meet and then come late to the meeting point?
“Where is this Shin?” she said aloud after she had walked through the place looking for him but seeing that he was not anywhere in sight.
“Right here baby!” she turned around fast and saw instantly that she had been deceived. It was not Shin who stood there but another Asian looking man. She turned and started to run towards the exit but she slammed into two other men who stood in her way.
“Well... isn’t she pretty!” one man said as she saw them closing in on her.
“Uuuggghhh! Not even one bit. She is ugly as fuck” the other man said as the all closed in on her. There seemed to be about ten of them.
“Yes... she is very ugly.” Another said.
“Oh common guys... You have to admit that Shin has good tastes. This one doesn’t look so bad” another chipped in.
“Excuse me? Can you see her nose? She looks like a tortoise!” one man exclaimed. Tired and angry with his colleagues for the way they were starting to debate about the girl, the man who had spoken first said with anger in his voice.
“Well... who cares? She will be very dead by the time we are done with her.”
The men burst into laughter and it was all she could do to not burst into tears. She suddenly realized that she should have known better. If he had really wanted to see her, Shin would have known how to find her and not have to resort to an anonymous text.
“Oh God! I'm so screwed” She said to herself as the men drew closer. She was looking around. Realizing that her only escape would be to call the attention of passersby, she raised her voice and screamed as loud as she could. The scream was barely out of her mouth when a hand covered her mouth and a handkerchief was held over mouth and nose. By the third gulp for air, she knew that she was not going to be escaping this. The blackness of unconsciousness beckoned towards her and she did not have the strength to fight it. Before the fight had even started, she surrendered to the effects of whatever it is that the cloth had been soaked in.
The room was dark and hazy. Or was it just her mind playing tricks on her? She stirred, or tried to stir but discovered that she was bound hands and feet. She had been coming out of the sleep gently before but now she woke up with a start.
In a flash, the events that led to her capture replayed themselves through her mind and she was brought up to speed in a jiffy. She looked around the room, wide eyes and half surprised that she had not been killed. What did these men want? Why did they take her? What did they hope to get from taking her? She swallowed hard and discovered that her throat was parched. She needed water. How long had she been in that room exactly? She looked around again
“Hello!” She tried to scream but only a hoarse sound came out of her. She cleared her throat and screamed again and this time, she was able to make a good sound.
“Hello!” She was hoping that someone would hear her and come and give her some water at least. A door opened in the far end of the room she looked in the direction and saw a man walking in. He was one of the men that had taken her from the coffee shop.
“Hey... sleeping beauty... actually, sleeping ugly!” the man said as he came close to her and lifted her chin with his fingers.
“Please... I need water. I am thirsty!” she said with appeal in her eyes. He looked like he was about to burst into laughter for a moment but then he calmed down and looked at her.
“What makes you think I care if you are thirsty?” he asked. She swallowed hard again and her throat hurt badly.
“Well... I guess I would be dead if you wanted me dead” she said. He nodded quietly and looked at her.
“The ugly girl is kinda smart!” he said with an evil smile.
“Please... just give me some water.” She said again. Hoping that she would be able to appeal to his good side before the rest came in and collectively decided her fate. He shook his head and gave her a very evil grin.
“
Naaa... not wanting you dead yet does not mean that we want to pamper you. You deserve all the torture you can get.” She almost burst into tears because just then, before she could even try to persuade him anymore, the rest came in one after the other.
“But what did he ever do to you? What is Shin’s offence to make me deserve all this? What did he ever do wrong?” the men in the room looked at her with surprise on her face.
“So he never even told you anything about himself?” one of them asked her with mockery in his voice.
“We are not that close.” She answered with a shrug.
“But he likes you. We can see it. We know he will come here to try to rescue you and that is when we will make him pay for all he has done to the family.”
“Family? What Family? Are you all his siblings? What did he do to his family?” she was starting to get agitated. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she was dehydrated.
“Calm down girl. We are not biological siblings, but we all belong to a single clan called “the blood dragons.” We are one of the biggest business organizations in Japan and we control the politics, the streets, the drugs, the prostitutes, the money basically. We used to also do some dry cleaning jobs once in a while.” She looked at him with wide eyes.
“Dry cleaning?” She asked with surprise written all over her voice. What did dry cleaning have to do with the obvious organized crime gang that they were running? The men saw her confusion and laughed loudly.
“Well... we clean out people who stand in our way or in the way of people who are ready to pay us to do it.” One of the men said with a smile. He then ran a hand over her chest tentatively.
“People like you...” another man said.
“Shin was known as the Viper. He was the deadliest of us all and was so good at making deaths look like accidents. But he was best known for his temper. It was so bad that if anyone made him angry, he would strike them down hard and fast like a Viper. That was how he got the name Viper” she was looking at them with open mouthed awe now.
“But it wasn’t his abilities alone that endeared him to the master...” one man said.
“No... it was also his dogged loyalty. Shin was so loyal that when the master placed the katana in his hands and asked him to cut his best friend, he did it without hesitation. He would still be in the graces of the master if not for the war with ‘cobra 69’ ... I know it for sure.”
Now her head was reeling. What the hell was a cobra 69? She looked up at the man who had first come into the room.
“What is cobra 69?” she asked with a puzzled expression.
“It is another clan, more like another organization. We had a row out with them and master sent Shin to deal with their leader. He was supposed to infiltrate them and kill their leader...”
“Then he met that girl...” at the mention of the word ‘girl’, her ears perked up like a dogs and she looked up at them.
“Girl?” she asked. More like exclaimed.
“Ohhhhhhhhh” the men chorused.
“You like him too! Perfect!”
“What girl?” she repeated. But one of the men slapped her hard across the face, her cheeks became pink and he pulled at her shirt. The buttons of the shirt were sent flying in different directions in the room. She looked up.
“What ... what are you doing?” she screamed but the men only laughed and touched her all over. One of the men continued the story.
“He met the master of the cobra 69’s daughter and fell in love with her. They could not hold back. He could not carry out his master's order anymore. So the master ordered the clan to kill both of them. We raped her and took her head right there in front of him. It was a successful mission and we left after driving the katana through him. We thought he was dead but obviously, he wasn’t. Two months later, he came back and killed master and over sixty members of the blood dragons...”
“Then he burnt our temples to the ground and left a message telling us that we would meet god too if we searched for him. This was like a dare. We had to take it. And so here we are”
Suddenly the single bulb that served as light in the room went out and a couple of ‘oh’s and ‘ah’s from frustrated men who really wanted to defile her and it over with.
“Go check on the light, black scorpion.” One man said amongst them. The man who had been referred to as black scorpion grumbled and started to move in the direction of the light switch. As he walked away from the point where they were trying totals Amie, a swoosh was heard and then the man screamed in agony and the next thing they Knew, he was on the floor in front of them. His throat had been slit from ear to ear and he was doing the final dance of death. Jerking in a horizontal manner that put fear in the heart of everyone present. They all stood up and scrambled for their swords but even as they rushed around, two more men dropped dead and the remaining four ran into a corner hoping for cover.
From above the ceiling, Amie watched a rope like object descend towards them and then swung straight at them in that corner. It had moved so fast that none of them had seen what it was until it was buried in the heart of one of them. Even Amie started to shake in fear especially since she did not know who it was that was attacking them. She did not know if it was Shin who had come to rescue her or some other person who just wanted to kill everyone. She didn't know if she was going to be one of the dead people by the time the person was done or if she would be spared and allowed to go back home in peace. Even if she wanted to run, she couldn't because both her hands and legs were bound and she was unable to move around. She kept her eyes closed as she didn't want to see any more people die right in front of her eyes. For alloy the ills that they had done to her, she hated to see them all die so gruesomely. Besides, who was to tell her that she was going to survive it all either?
“Shin… I know you are there… Show yourself and stop being cowardly!” One of them, the one who appeared to be the leader said with a loud voice. The room was deathly quiet and she could suddenly hear the birds outside chirping. She was sure that if a pin was dropped in that moment, she would have heard it clatter to the ground. The three men huddled together, looking scared but holding onto their swords firmly. She could not see their faces, but at that moment, she felt like a bloodhound, perceiving their fear and their sweat mixed with the blood of their comrades all over the place. She could tell that the men believed that the person they were up against was Shin. She still couldn't be sure. She didn't want to raise her hopes just in case it turned out that they were wrong. She didn't want to rely on what those men thought that was happening.
The silence of the room suddenly became shattered as one of the men screamed out loud again. Amie couldn't see what had happened to him.
Again, Amie could not really see him. She really couldn't tell how the mystery killer achieved this feat but the man that was dangling from the roof was evidence that it could be done.
Finally, there was only the leader standing, the one whom she had begged for water. The light suddenly came back on and she was treated to the gory sight of the men who were littered all over the floor and the ceiling. Her hands, though tied started to shake at the violence that stood before her. Suddenly, one of the asbestos ceilings in the room caved open and Shin jumped down. He was dressed in all black and looked like he had lost a whole lot of weight. She watched him warily and semi angrily. She was mostly naked and her hair was basically the only thing covering her up. A rage of different emotions washed through her as she wondered if she should just scream at him and attack him with her nails once he freed her or to just pick up the shreds of her clothing and dignity and leave the town forever. But there was still business to be settled. He walked over to where the leader stood and looked into his face.
‘’I heard that you are the new master’s errand boy…’’ He said to the man who now stood with his katana drawn and his face expressionless.
“Don't worry… It is a good job if you are working for a good master. But the Blood dragon…’’ He shook his h
ead gently.
‘’I don't think that is a good place to be a servant.’’
The man looked at him with contempt in his eyes and shook his head.
“I am not a servant. I am a brother…’’ Shin laughed at this. He seemed genuinely amused
“I thought the same. But as I came to find out, it wasn't so. Not in the least.’’
“Let’s get this over with. It will be an honour to me to be the one to take your head to the master. I will particularly love it.’’ Again, Shin laughed at the man.
“Of course it will be. But have you ever stopped to wonder if it happens the other way around? What if I kill you? Will all this have been worth it? Is one man’s greed enough motivation and justification for your death?” Shin was trying to convince the man not to fight. This bit was obvious but the man did not seem to be getting the point as he took a step towards Shin in warning.
‘’Stop preaching to me. If you are afraid of me, then say so. I promise I will give you a quick death. And her too… Though I cannot promise you that she will not get a full dose of me before I take her head.” it was all the motivation that Shin needed to fight. Shin drew his Katana and stood at ease. The other man rushed at him with sword stretched out. Shin raised his own sword in defence but it was a little too late and he lost his balance. He landed on the floor with a thud. The other man saw his chance and pounced on Shin.
‘’You are getting weak Shin… Western girls aren’t doing you a whole lot of good, is it?” Shin pushed him off him and the man rushed back at him, hoping for a repeat of what had just happened but Shin was ready this time and he met the assault with his own. The two of them were soon embattled in a hot swords fight. They pranced around the floors of the room, meeting aggression with aggression, and offence with offence and over the next twenty minutes, they battled. Amie could see that Shin was not quite in the condition to be fighting. He still hadn't healed completely from the wounds that she had helped him tend. She could see that he was slowly tiring and what the other man lacked in skill, he had in a lot of stamina. She started to struggle to free herself from the ropes that had been used to tie her. Slowly but surely, she twisted her hands around and soon one was free. Then the other, the second her other hand was free, she set to freeing her legs. She did it within minutes also and rushed across the room to get a Katana that had been dropped by one of the dead men. She picked it up and almost dropped it as she realized just how heavy it was. She realized that it would take iron of this weight too cut through flesh and bone so cleanly as Shin did at the coffee shop. The weapon was too heavy, it was not something that she could wield and she had to drop it and go for a dagger instead.
Hidden: A Dark Mafia Romance (Forbidden Kiss Book 1) Page 9