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this bloody city

T hey say the most painful thing in the world is a broken heart. Whoever said that had obviously never broken a bone.

With one foot pressed onto the centre of the man's back, one hand holds his shoulder, the other clasped around his wrist. I lean in close and his head turns, eyes locked with mine.

Fat beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, his eyes bulged out of his skull and his mouth opened wide, wrinkling and creasing the skin on his face.

With a bit of a pull to the side, the bone and ligaments in his arm snapped with a satisfying crack.

His screams echoed around us, louder than any broken heart ever could.

“Cinth,” Niko's sharp voice sounded behind me, but I didn't turn to look at him, intrigued and relished in the agony of the man before me. Niko's presence cautiously approached me, but his voice held firm. “Enough.”

The man's screams had stopped by now, whimpering, trembling, and weeping. Tears mixed with sweat, mucus, blood, and drool stained his face.

They're always the same.

Pathetic.

And it's become exponentially boring.

I licked the front of my teeth, clearly showing Niko my annoyance for his interruption, before finally releasing the man .

The man scurried away, his unnaturally bent arm dangling at his side. He spat a bit of blood from his mouth and turned. “You're insane! You're actually insane!”

I rolled my eyes, shoving my hands in my pockets.

“Why this one?” Niko asked, his jaw tight.

Nikodemus Kolden was a man in his late forties, fit and intimidating–to other people I guess.

A classy man, only seen wearing suits and always disapproving of my style, which was entirely opposite to his.

I much preferred my oversized hoodies and black track pants to allow more movement.

Though we have similar almond skin and dark brown, nearly black hair, his is cut short and styled neatly, with a clean stubble beard.

Whereas, I left my hair a mess, long enough to go over my eyes, which are two different colours.

Bright green and dark enough to call black.

I finally turned my attention away from the man and to my mentor. His dark brown eyes used to look at me with pride, but now they only reflected fear and disgust of what I had become and what I am becoming. He's kept me on a tight leash, but I'm growing much too big for my collar.

A few bystanders assisted the man, attempting to stop the bleeding in his nose, most likely calling the police and ambulance. Still, we'll be gone before they arrive.

“And in daylight?” Niko stated through clenched teeth.

I looked up at the setting sun, not that anyone ever really sees the sun, the constant grey clouds block us from it.

“I don't know.” I shrugged. “His shirt pissed me off I guess.” He was just a regular button-up, probably on his way home from work.

Niko took the collar of my hoodie and pulled me toward him. “I have had it up to here with you. You no longer look for an excuse anymore when you get into fights–”

“Does it look like he could even fight me back?” I chuckled. “Call it what it is, Niko.” I shifted my gaze back to his. “Attempted homicide. ”

Niko tries really hard not to show his horror for me, but he's been locking the door to his bedroom since I was ten. His grip on my collar loosened as he backed away. “Get in the car”–his eyes hardened–“now.”

I shook my head and walked towards the carelessly parked car half on the sidewalk.

He really wasted no time stopping me from my boredom.

We climbed into his car and just as we strapped our seatbelts on, a loud thud followed a man, now groaning on the hood, and I jumped in my seat.

Of all the things to fall from the sky, I don't usually expect it to be a person.

He wore a suit, his dark hair gelled back. Eyes squeezed shut, he reached up to grip the back of his head, now dripping blood. When he opened his eyes, he lifted his head up and let out a shout, as a tiny girl dropped down. Her feet landed on either side of his torso, making the car jerk again.

Her dark, cedar-brown hair was straight and long, the light wind picking up the ends of it down by her hips. The black turtleneck, long-sleeved top, short dark red skirt, black thigh high socks, and black shoes made it obvious which clan she was a part of.

Kokkino clan.

The girl eased herself down onto his stomach, her hand resting lightly on his chest. Slowly and soothingly, she traced her fingers up past his neck to the back of his head, then gripped his hair firmly, holding him in place.

His eyes went wide and stunned, mouth slightly parted, almost as if he were yearning for her touch.

Extending my neck, I attempted to catch a peek of her face, but it was curtained by her hair.

Her movements were slow, taking her time, as though savouring the moment.

She lifted the side of her skirt to reveal her thigh strap, packed with small throwing knives, taking one of them into her slender hands.

She pushed the tip of the blade all the way into the man's eye until he eventually stopped convulsing .

Bloody hell.

The girl yanked the knife out and slipped it back into her thigh strap.

She flipped her hair out of her face as she sat back up, giving me a slight glimpse of a red bandana covering the bottom half of her face.

Her chest heaved, the muscle in her legs trembling as she stood from her position and stepped toward the edge of the hood, scanning the area, seemingly waiting for something.

Her head snapped toward the audience from my rampage, watching with utter fear and disbelief. They were frozen with dazed expressions. Even the man I injured seemed to be entranced.

I turned to Niko, wondering if he could see this weird behaviour, but his expression mirrored the others.

The girl hopped off the car, leisurely walked away, and disappeared deeper into the city.

“My… My car…” Niko groaned, dropping his face in his hands. “My bloody car.”

Releasing a breath, I exited the car, Niko too devastated to move. I pushed the corpse off the hood, revealing the beating the car had taken, ignoring the shrieks and gasps of bystanders.

Oh, now they react.

I got back inside to see Niko slamming his forehead on the wheel, cursing under his breath. “My car. My car.”

“Just get a new car. It's time for one anyway.”

It’s not like he couldn’t easily pay for a new car–a million new cars–and still have enough money to live the rest of his life comfortably without lifting a finger.

He slowly turned his head towards me. “You don't understand, Cinth, it's not about the physical damage–” he gently caressed the wheel “–my baby has been through so much.”

“Does Renee know you love your car more than her?”

“Yes. And she respects us,” Niko spat, finally turning the engine as the sirens approached.

“Us,” I mocked. “Gods, you're embarrassing.”

He laid on the throttle and swerved the car away from the area with a jerk. “It's my job to embarrass you.”

After a bit of driving, I looked over at him. “Are you going to tell Silias one of his clansmen damaged your car?”

Niko knitted his brows in confusion. “Why would I do that?”

“Because the person who did that was obviously from the Kokkino clan.”

There was a long silence.

“What's the point?” he muttered under his breath. “Doesn't matter if he had seen it with his own eyes. I'm not getting anything from that greedy bastard.”

I shrugged, picking at the dried blood under my nails.

That girl stabbed the man in the eye, a signature kill of the Kokkino clan’s Grim Reaper. But she looked really young, too young to be in the Kokkino clan. All the stories I’ve heard, Reaper seemed to be in her twenties.

The first whispers began right before summer and the rumours about her have only continued to grow and spiral.

The woman was a menace, never leaving a soul alive in her wake.

No one's ever seen her before, but maybe, now that she's been named by the streets, she doesn't care if she's seen. Perhaps it's pure amateur sloppiness.

I shook my head. It wouldn't do anyone any good to snitch on her, especially if she wasn't a part of the clan.

She shouldn't have worn Kokkino's colours if she's going to be causing problems. No matter what unwritten laws the Underworld unspokenly agreed upon, Silias didn't have any limits to what he would do and no one had the guts to stand up to him anyway. You don’t cross the most powerful man in the city, especially after what he did to get there.

It made him a particularly dangerous and vexing man.

I sat further back in my seat, staring mindlessly out the window.

Gods, I hate this bloody city.

Soulesity, the Northernmost city on the planet, with ten months of winter and about two months of warmth.

Although, it never gets warmer than twenty-five degrees.

It’s isolated, surrounded by the sea and everything North of it is large, deep canyons.

After that, an endless cold desert, monstrous mountains and from there…

Well, no one had returned from the mountains and the massive glaciers make it impossible to take a boat.

Stygia, Demon territory, was located somewhere in the mountains.

Though Demons were technically extinct, no one had the courage, or the stupidity needed to explore the area and check.

My eyes fell to the North. There used to be a tall stone wall there, spreading the border between the North of the city and the canyons. Built to keep Demons out. Once heavily monitored and guarded, now abandoned and mostly destroyed from the war seventy years ago.

We drove over the only bridge connecting the West and East side, crossing a large, raging river that divides the city into two parts.

There have been talks of building a dam to help control the water and create clean energy to power Soulesity.

However, they’ve been discussing it for years and nothing has come of it.

After the war, the neon lights of the West were no longer thought of as high-tech. Now they casted shadows for gang violence, drug dealings, and the homeless. The quiet side of the East held old buildings that were now considered elegant.

I tilted my head back, looking through the sunroof of the car. Above Soulesity, somewhere within the clouds, was the Ether Kingdom, where the Angels supposedly watched over humans. I've never seen an Angel before–no one has since the war–and I'm not sure I want to.

Niko took a turn in the opposite direction of our home and parked us on the side of a street. “Your bow's in the back.”

I rolled my eyes, unfastened my seatbelt, and reached for my bow and arrows behind me, before following Niko to wait in the shadows until nightfall.

Usually smart people lock their doors and close their curtains during the night. The ones that don’t pull stupid shit that get their name written on the contract after ‘kill.’ It was funny at first, but now it’s just sad.

Being the best grows dull and people only feed me so much entertainment. I’m hungry, starving for a thrill. Craving a rush I never find.

Niko and I stood on a roof for hours, waiting for those we needed to eliminate to reveal themselves in the window of the building opposite us.

Eventually, the light switched on and we pulled our bows back, aiming and waiting for the perfect moment.

The string of my bow pressed against my lips as I took slow, deep breaths to steady my aim.

Before either of us had a clear shot, the lights switched off.

Blood splattered against the windows, blocking our view, but we didn't need to see to know it was a slaughter. Slowly, we lowered our bows.

I hate being double-booked.

“Kokkino clan,” Niko said, just as I spotted the red clothing. “There must have been multiple grievances with them.”

Police cars surrounded the building as countless officers raided the inside.

“They’re messy,” I commented.

“But they get the job done. Even if they’re caught, they won’t be prosecuted.”

“Why don’t we become a part of a clan, again?” I sighed, even though I knew the answer .

It was meant to be rhetorical. We used to work with the Kokkino clan, before Silias took charge. We were never officially a part of it, but Niko was close friends with the previous leader.

“Because then we’d be restrained by rules and have to care for other people.”

A figure opened the window and jumped out. Squinting my eyes, I recognised the twins, Leo and Sterling, having had a few encounters with them before.

“What–” Niko started.

The last figure wore the same outfit she had on earlier today, this time her hair tied up in a high ponytail.

What a busy girl.

The infamous twins with her confirmed it.

“I’ve only heard stories about her,” I said in a low voice, as she hopped on the back of one of the motorbikes before they sped off. “They call her Reaper.”

I lifted my bow once again, aiming it at the motorbikes.

“That’s Reaper?” Niko laughed. Hardly anything shocks him these days. “She’s so small, I almost thought she was a child.”

I released my arrow, a warning shot not to take my job again, and it flew after them, piercing straight through the side mirror of the bike Reaper was on, causing the twin driving to wobble.

He quickly swerved the bike to a stop, using one foot on the ground to steady himself.

Then turned his head up towards where we were and stared at us for a long moment.

Finally, he revved his bike and sped away.

Honestly, I'm not too interested in Reaper; if she doesn’t stand in my way again, she'll live a long– well, longer life.