by Ammar Habib
“You look like hell.”
“I’ll live.”
“You’re hurt.”
“The night’s far from over and I need your help.”
The reporter slightly nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
“My family is in danger as long as Griffin lives.”
“Where are they?”
“I told them to leave their houses and head to a hotel. They don’t know what’s going on yet, but know that they’re being targeted. I told them I would be sending a friend their way to get them out of the city.”
“I’ll look after them.”
“They’re waiting for you at the Olive Branch Hotel. Room 332.”
“What about Katrina? You need me to take her there?”
“She’s with her bodyguard. He’s a trained agent.”
“He might not be trained enough. You going to get Griffin?”
“I’m going to end him.”
William picked the remaining pistol off of the ground. The reporter checked to make sure the clip was placed correctly in the handgun. “I’ll keep your family safe. You have my word. Good luck.”
William turned to leave, but Ethan’s voice stopped him. “And Will…thanks. For everything.”
The slight smile that came across William’s face was hidden by his turned back. “Just do yourself a favor. Make it through this night in one piece. You have people that love you. Don’t take that for granted.”
With those words, they went their separate ways.
Chapter 28
Face-To-Face
The thirtieth floor of the Wyatt building was void of any furniture. The tiled ground was recently cleaned and polished. Dim ceiling lights illuminated half the room, leaving the other half shrouded in shadow. None of the windows on the four walls had any blinds, allowing the inhabitants of the room to see the downtown city that surrounded them on every side. There were two rows of off-white, cylindrical pillars going from one side of the room to the other. The large, floor-wide room was clear of any obstacles aside from the pillars, allowing its occupants to see wall-to-wall unhindered.
Anthony Griffin faced the open door that led to the balcony. His hands were clasped behind him as he patiently waited. Behind him were two black suited men who stood perfectly still. To his far right, leaning against one of the pillars, was a man with short, curly brown hair. He stood an inch below six feet and even a blind man could sense the expensive price of his attire.
Griffin himself wore an off-white sports coat that matched the color of the pillars atop of his black dress pants and burgundy, collared shirt. Every man in the room wore a holster on their belt, but Griffin knew that the weapons would be of no use to his guards.
Finally, one of the bodyguards touched his earpiece as a voice came out of it. Looking up at his boss, the henchman spoke, “Mr. Griffin, I just got word that our cameras are out. We may have an intruder.”
Anthony smiled to himself. “Call in the positions.”
Wordlessly, the bodyguard touched his ear. “Positions one to five, check in.”
There was a brief emission of static from the radio.
“Position one, here.”
“Position two, here.”
A slight pause.
“Position three, here.”
A long pause.
Hearing no reply from the last two positions, the bodyguard looked at his partner and then at his boss. Seeing that his back was still turned, he touched his ear again. “Positions four and five call in.”
No response.
“…positions four and five call in.”
Again, silence.
“…I repeat, positions four and five call in now.”
The boss spoke again to the guard, keeping his back turned to them. “Check them all again. Let’s see how many more are missing.”
The guard pressed down on his ear once more. “Positions…check in.”
Brief static.
“Position one, here.”
None of the others checked in.
Seconds passed in silence as the guards realized what was happening. They exchanged glances with one another, wide-eyed, but Griffin remained unmoved.
The guard spoke again. “Sir, I would advise that we leave.”
Anthony arrogantly snickered. “You can’t run away from a ghost, Harold. And how would we escape? Every man in the building is dead.”
The guard’s exchanged horrified glances with one another. They both instinctively drew out their weapons as they began to scan around the room.
Even before the guards had started to search for intruder, Anthony could see the beast lurking in the shadows of the room, but did not look that way. He had seen him invisibly enter the room only moments ago. But, he would let the intruder have his fun. He would let him think that he had the upper hand in this fight.
There was a short lived cry of pain. The two bodyguards suddenly collapsed dead onto the floor after two knives were thrown out of the shadows and cut them down. Their short, earsplitting cries fell on deaf ears as neither the assassin nor Griffin even turned their heads to look.
Two more knives flew out of the darkness, one towards each of the remaining men. With inhuman speed, Anthony pulled out his gun, twirled it around and shot a single bullet. It collided with the knife halfway across the room. With a loud crash, the knife shattered. Meanwhile, the assassin caught the knife only inches from his face by the hilt without even looking up. He carelessly tossed it onto the ground as he stayed leaning against the wall.
Griffin lowered his pistol. “Come now, Ethan, surely you don’t want to give me that quick of a death.”
From the shadows, a masked Ethan emerged.
Griffin holstered his weapon. His wicked smile covered his face. “After all, all three of us are dogs with the same master.”
Ethan drew out his bloody dagger. He finally looked face-to-face with the man he had been longing to kill. He could care less about whatever words came out of this man’s mouth. All Ethan cared about was gutting Anthony Griffin.
Griffin casually swung off his sports coat and tossed it to the side. “I trusted you would make it here and that we could finally meet. I think Victor was beginning to figure out that I had set him up to fail.”
With a mighty roar, Ethan charged his mortal enemy. Anthony watched his opponent move with lightning speed until he was upon him. Ethan lunged with the dagger in hand, but Anthony easily countered the assault and disarmed the masked man. Blocking Ethan’s kick, Anthony kneed him right in the stomach before striking Ethan’s face with his forearm, sending the masked man staggering a few steps backwards.
“Of course, nothing Victor could have done could stop people like us. We are brothers, after all. We are all from the same father.”
Reaching under his cloak, Ethan pulled out two more daggers and launched them at his enemy. Anthony caught them only inches from his face by the tips of the sharp blade without cutting his fingers. With his sinister smile, he let them fall onto the ground.
“Surely you can beat a man twice your age, Ethan.”
Not hesitating to think how it was humanly possible for Anthony to have caught those knives the way he did, Ethan charged once more. He unsheathed his second dagger, but within a few seconds, Anthony had disarmed him again. As the blade loudly clanged against the floor, Griffin kicked it away. Ethan sent blow after blow, but Anthony blocked and countered them with ease, as if he could see what Ethan would do before even Ethan decided to do it.
In sudden move, Anthony grabbed Ethan by his collar, lifted him off the ground, and threw him across the room. Travelling through the air for several yards, Ethan landed perfectly crouched down on his feet, but immediately stood back up.
He prepared to charge again, but stopped short when he saw the fourth person who had entered the room. Looking to where the assassin had stood, there were now two men: the assassin and his hostage.
Standing in front of the assassin was Brett.
The
assassin had a .38 revolver with a long barrel pointed at the skull of Ethan’s father as he stood behind him and held the hostage by his shoulder. He wore a cruel smile as he looked towards the intruder, knowing the fear that now coursed through Ethan’s veins. But Ethan could not see the assassin’s expression. All he could see was the fear on his father’s face.
Ethan instinctively reached under his cloak to launch a knife at the captor, but the assassin cocked the weapon and pressed it harder against his hostage’s skull. His smirk grew as he taunted the masked man. “Really? You still think that’s going to work?”
Ethan pulled his empty hand out from behind the cloak.
The assassin looked down at his polished revolver. He could tell that Ethan was trying to figure out a way to disarm him. “You like it? I call it my executioner. Every close kill I’ve ever done has been with this bad boy. Now take off your mask and I’ll show you its magic trick.”
Slowly, Ethan grabbed his mask by the top and peeled it off. He tossed it next to his feet. Upon seeing his son’s face, Brett’s eyes widened. Not a word needed to be spoken. He stared at Ethan’s bruised and stoic face as the son took a few deep breaths, trying to calm his own heart rate.
Anthony glanced at the hostage. “Your friend was able to save your brother and his family, but it appears that your dear daddy was not as fortunate.”
Ethan looked towards Anthony, still feeling his father’s burning stare. “Let him go.”
Anthony ignored the command as he slowly moved closer towards Ethan. “That’s the best fight I’ve had in years. It’s good to finally meet another person that can actually go toe-to-toe with me.” He casually motioned towards the assassin with his gun. “Now, my friend Jaing here is just as good as me if not better. After all, he and I are part of the same brotherhood…just like you.”
Ethan’s heart was momentarily shocked upon hearing the name of the assassin. A name he had only heard once before.
Griffin’s cruel smile slightly grew as he came closer to Ethan. The captor began to circle Ethan as the young man looked back at Jaing’s wicked smile. “The beast you murdered for your true father; he’s the beast that Jaing is named after. It is an appropriate name, seeing how both of them are unstoppable forces.”
Ethan finally spoke back. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Jaing was the person to reply. “Do you really believe that you’re the only person to make it back from the domain of the devil? That’s a pretty arrogant thought.”
Anthony took over the reins of the conversation. “Of course, we all know that he’s not the devil. He’s something else entirely.”
Brett and Ethan simply stared at each other. Ethan knew that there was no way he could disarm Jaing without him pulling the trigger. Every scenario that quickly played out in his mind ended with a bullet in the head of his father.
Anthony came up from behind him. “Put your hands up…please.”
Without looking back, Ethan raised his arms towards the ceiling as he kept his eyes locked with his father. He felt Anthony unfasten his cape and hood with his powerful hands. Detaching the cape from the rest of Ethan’s attire, he threw the bloody cloak and cowl several feet away. Anthony took a step back as he looked at all the knives Ethan was still wearing.
“You do travel vigilantly…I’ll give you that.”
Jaing let out a short snicker.
Anthony began to walk towards the closest fallen dagger. As he came to it, he heard Ethan’s voice. “What do you want?”
Tossing his gun to the side, Anthony picked up the dagger. “To tell you the truth, Ethan. Until last night, my plan was to tear you limb for limb for trying to cross me. Then…then my father told me the truth about you. He told me that you were part of the family and my plans changed entirely.” He came back towards Ethan, dagger in hand, and stopped right in front of him. With his free hand, he began to unfasten the straps of knives.
Ethan did not resist, knowing it would be futile.
“You see, Ethan, none of us have any family left. None of us really came back from that place. None of us survived our deaths. We thought we did, but the truth is that we were all reborn. We all lost our identities and our bodies. We all lost our families, our lives and got new ones. Better ones.”
Ethan remained silent as he kept his gaze on his father.
Anthony tossed the belts several yards away before motioning towards Brett. “So, in essence, this man here is not your father. He was the father to the old Ethan, the Ethan that died, but not to you. To you, he is nothing more than a stranger. Your real father is the one who visited your dreams last night.”
Ethan quickly looked at Anthony. “How do you—”
“He told me. He’s told me everything.” Anthony took a step backwards. “You see, Ethan, Daken told Jaing and I the truth the day we left his domain. He told us what we really were. He told us what he was. He told us his plans. He told us why he needed…sons and soldiers like us.” He paused for a short second. “But with you, he did not tell you anything. He just told you that you were free and sent you on your way to seek your revenge.”
“He lied to me.”
Griffin held up his finger. “Don’t speak ill of our father. It was not a lie. We are all free…relatively speaking. We’re his children. He lets us use our gifts for our personal gain. Like any good father, he wants his children to be the best. All he wants, all he asks for, is that whenever he needs us and calls on us, we do his bidding. All he wants is our loyalty.”
Jaing finally spoke again. “It’s really not a bad deal. I’ve become the most feared assassin in the world. There’s good money to be made when you’re the best. And Griffin here has used his to become the most feared and powerful man in the world.”
The most feared man in the world took over. “And what about you, Ethan? You’ve squandered your gifts. What have you done? Tried to settle down with a girl and live a quiet life? I hear you even bought an engagement ring.”
Again, Jaing snickered.
“It’s too bad you won’t be able to put it on her finger. It’s a real shame.” The captor glanced over at Jaing for a quick moment. “But the saddest part of all this is that your beloved Katrina doesn’t know that the person she’s with isn’t even the real Ethan. He’s really nothing more than a clone of him. Nothing more than a shadow.” Griffin’s fiendish smile slightly grew. “And the irony part is that you didn’t even get the revenge you set out for. After going through all this trouble, you failed. So what did you get, Ethan? What did you get since coming back? Or have you just been living a life of lies?”
Every word they said burned his insides, but Ethan’s face remained calm. “Inner peace.”
“Really? Or is that just how you justify failing to get Naira her peace?”
Ethan wanted nothing but to strangle this man every time he let out his taunts, but he knew he was powerless. There was no way he could try to do something without Brett ending up dead. “She’s already at peace.”
“Said who? Your self-justification? Or was it Katrina?”
Ethan looked back at Jaing and his hostage. “So what do you want then? To just taunt me before my death?”
With a smile, Anthony began to circle his prey. “I’m here to officially welcome you to the brotherhood. I’m here to officially welcome you to the true family that you must embrace.” Anthony stopped moving when he was right behind Ethan. “Of course, a man cannot have two families and be loyal to both, now can he?”
Ethan did not reply.
“And as long as your old family lives, Ethan, you’ll never truly embrace the brotherhood, or our glorious destiny.” He placed his large hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “But not to worry, Ethan. I’ll make the choice easy for you. Our father is very merciful.”
He was unresponsive, fearful of where this was going.
“You see, Ethan even our father is not perfect. Sometimes, he makes mistakes.”
Ethan looked back into Anthony’s eyes. “What do
you mean?”
“When the transformation happens, when the soul switches bodies, the memories of the person’s past life always disappear. They wake up not knowing what has happened. They wake up with undying loyalty to Daken.” Anthony’s gaze left Ethan for a brief second. “But with you, that did not happen. Your misplaced love for Katrina, your love for Naira, and lust for revenge kept your memories intact. They made you think that you were in the same body as before. They kept you from becoming a full servant of our father. At first, Daken believed that sending you on your quest would make you soon realize what had happened. That the effects would wear off and that you would become like the rest of us in only a matter of time. But it was a false hope. If anything, your connection to him has faded overtime. ”
As he listened to every word that was spoken, Ethan’s and Brett’s gazes connected and Ethan could see fear replace the disbelief in his father’s eyes.
Anthony removed his hand from Ethan’s shoulder and began to walk towards Jaing and Brett. “I’m here to take you back to our father. So he can right his wrongs and make you another loyal son. A son that will not care for or remember anyone from your old life. One that will only think of our glorious purpose.”
Even through his fear, Brett was beginning to understand the events that had led to this point in Ethan’s life.
“But, our father was disappointed that you slapped away his hand when he tried to visit you. When he asked you to come back, you spat in his face. He is angry that you would refuse him, so blood must be paid to make things right again. And whose blood is better than the one responsible for your disobedience: your beloved Katrina?”
Hearing him utter her name, Ethan became ignited with a burning anger that could not be tamed. But he hid it.
The captor looked back up. “With Katrina, the process is already underway in accordance to Daken’s precise orders. As of right now, your fiancé has been kidnapped by my team. Her guard put up a good fight; took out three of my men before they could put him out cold. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this. I try to avoid killing innocents under normal circumstances.”