6

Chapter 6

Kira

I make my way back home after deciding not to carry out the mission. I spend the next couple of days hooked up inside, not wanting to see anybody and not wanting to be disturbed. Luckily, no one comes to disturb me, and I am able to completely collect my thoughts.

I have an idea of what is going next. If Dante finds out that I didn't carry out my mission, there will be trouble for me. Even now, sitting on a rooftop in the dead of the night, I find myself contemplating why I haven't done it. My life has been smooth sailing for a very long time now. And as long as I complete each mission, I'm able to continue living to the fullest, enjoying freedom and independence.

But now, by not ending him, I have completely fouled things up. I keep uncomfortably feeling someone approaching me. I don't ask who he is, though, because I already know who it is.

"How long are you going to keep hiding away?" he questions.

I glare at him at the way he suddenly arrives and starts questioning my decisions. I'm also very annoyed at the fact that he doesn't even have his real face on. No, he's wearing a mask.

"Xavier, take off your mask," I command crossly. "And if you're not here to tell me anything important, I suggest you leave, or you will regret it," I finish.

I might have noticed if he looked shocked, but I don't because of the mask that he still doesn't take off.

"Geez, so touchy," he comments, clicking his tongue.

I count up to five in my head and then count back down in an attempt to calm myself down. At the moment, I really intend to throw him off the roof entirely, but I have some general self-restraint that's keeping me from doing something so drastic.

He contemplates for a moment before slowly obeying, taking off his mask and smiling at me. "I do have something important, so you shouldn't be sending me away just yet," he states.

"What is it?" I question, though I already have a good idea, and I'm dreading what the answer would be.

"Dante requests your presence," he says, making the words slow and deliberate. He knows the effect, knows exactly what is about to go on, and it annoys me that he seems nonchalant about it. But most likely, in his mind, he's actually happy.

"What does he want with me?" I question, but he laughs out loud.

"What does he want with you?" he repeats slowly. "How am I supposed to know that? But I'm sure you know," he continues, looking into my eyes. "Didn't kill him, now did you?"

I restrain myself from hitting him, even though that is what I want to do right now.

"I thought as much," he responds, smiling at me. "Well, you did not complete a mission for the first time in how many years. You know what the consequences are and how they would affect you."

"So it's all your fault," I tell him, and he laughs while I look at him crossly.

"What's so funny? How would this be my fault?" he questions.

I look away from him, not willing to share my personal life for any reason. He is not even supposed to know about the mission in the first place. The normal me is very uncomfortable with people having to do with my business at all, and already he knows too much.

"Fine, don't tell me if you don't want to," he states, raising his hands in surrender. "Anyway, you can't keep on running. Dante is our boss, and he requests your presence at this very instant. So I suggest we get going."

"In the middle of the night?" I ask, but he stands up instead, smiling at me before slipping away.

I remain on the rooftop, one of my favorite reflecting spots, for a couple more minutes before getting up. Although I don't want to, there's not much of a choice for me. I might as well face the consequences instead of running away from them because obviously, I can't.

About 10 minutes later, I'm standing in Dante's office, glad for the dark of the night that shrouds me with shadows. He might have turned on the lights to aid visibility and also so he could mount more pressure on me, but he doesn't, and I'm glad for it. Maybe he appreciates the darkness as much as I do—at least that's one thing we have in common. I can't see him glaring at me, but his eyes are piercing through even though they're not exactly visible to me.

"What is this I hear?" he starts out slowly. "I give you a mission, and you come back without completing it, and you don't even report back to me that you didn't, telling me exactly why you didn't."

I try my best to maintain my cool. When he puts it that way, it really makes me sound criminal.

"Tell me what happened," he requests, his voice low and deep. "Was it too heavily guarded for you?"

"No," I respond finally, knowing that he requires a response this time around and silence would do me no good.

He frowns harder. "Well then, did you not see him there, or did you find it difficult coming out alive and decide to prioritize your life?" he questions once again.

I contemplate my next response carefully. He is presenting me with reasonable excuses that I might use to escape punishment this time around. After a while, I decide that there is no real reason why I should refuse his assistance. Maybe I can keep putting off the mission as much as possible, or maybe after this, he will simply let me be and send another person. Yes, that's fine with me, I think quietly to myself. If another person is sent to kill him and succeeds, I'm pretty sure it won't really matter anyway.

"I didn't meet him there," I respond. "The timing was wrong, and because of that, I had to leave as soon as possible before I completely lost my way out."

He is silent throughout my speech, and I wait for him to accept it and let me be. Alas, he doesn't, but instead makes a rather terrifying move.

"When did you stop lying to me, Kira Rogers?" he questions.

"What?" I reply, speechless.

"Answer me," he continues. "When did you start lying to me?"

"I don't understand," I respond.

"If you keep on denying it, I'm going to really teach you a lesson," he tells me. "It's been how many days now, and you didn't even so much as report what happened? Clearly, something disturbs you, and it's obviously not anything to do with him not being there. In addition, within those couple of days, you would have been able to go again and get him on your own. You are that skilled."

I smile bitterly. I had been so foolish to actually think that it would work out so easily for me. For him to be giving me a way out, an excuse—he naturally had a way to counter it himself. And even at the moment, it's pretty clear that he has been playing me all along.

"I'll give you another chance," he says. "Tell me the truth."

"I couldn't kill him," I respond finally.

"What do you mean you couldn't kill him?"

"I just couldn't."

"I see." Again, there is a silence in the room, one that gives me a premonition that things are about to go south.

"I'll give you another chance," he says. "If he's not dead by sundown tomorrow, you'll be punished severely."

My breath catches at his words, knowing he isn't joking.

"Leave," he commands.

I proceed slowly out of the office, my ears ringing. The warning is brief and simple, yet it resonates deeply within me. When I get to my little apartment, I sit down and study the building plans again, spending some time to craft out another method of breaking in. I stop for a while to rest before continuing drafting out different plans. Next, I simulate the instances all in my head, practicing mentally in rigid determination.

Luca Romano might be charming—yes, there's clearly something about him—but I'm not going to let it affect me. I won't let him destroy the carefully crafted balance that I just so happen to have in my life. This isn't just about him anymore; it's starting to affect me. However, when I'm at the point of killing him in my simulation, I stop once again.

"Hurt him," I whisper for a second. "Fuck. I can't even kill him in my head," I think, pushing myself to pull the trigger. It doesn't seem possible at first. But then I narrow my eyes, thinking hard and pushing it mentally.

BOOM! There it was—there it is, the shot ringing in my ears. I look to see that I have actually shot a gun in my hand, which is miraculously there.

"All right then, I'm ready," I say to myself, standing up in determination. "Whatever magic he pulled off on me, it's not going to work this time around."