Chapter 2

He ran down the empty street of the cold night and staggered when he bumped against the lamppost. Not far from his position, she was following closely. Her right hand played with her sharp butterfly knife while her head was hung low. He heard so much about this Blind Bandit.

For years, the person named Blind Bandit had been ravaging countless criminal organizations and brought them down to their knees within the same night. Her name soared in the outlaw's world, yet she chose to become somebody's subordinate instead of building her criminal organization.

He clutched his black briefcase closed to his chest and kept on running away from her. No matter how fast he ran, she was always a few meters behind him.

Celeste's ears picked on the sound of her boots stomping against the pavement. Her eyes adjusted to fit her situation. She wasn't blind. Celeste still could see, but not in a usual way. She could see through the sounds. It was like echolocation mixed with a radar sense. As long as there was a sound, she could see anything. The things she saw with her eyes weren't picturing the real things. Like radar, she saw the outlines of the thing she wanted to see. Despite being a disabled person, Celeste didn't consider this as her weakness.

Furthermore, she never saw herself as a disabled person who needed care twenty-four-seven. Her other senses worked wonder for her. That was how she could maneuver herself easily without any aids.

"Look at him running as a pervert old man got caught watching porn," Leto said in amusement next to her. He lit a cigarette and took a long drag of it before he exhaled the smoke out. "Man, he should have just paid the money he borrowed."

"You're screwing with my senses," Celeste frowned as her hands waved off the smoke from her face.

His phone chimed once in his pocket, and he checked it. "We have two hours to get this done. Boss wanted to go to the match. The owner said he got a good candidate."

She frowned again but nodded. Celeste stopped walking and listened to the sounds from the empty back alley. The man they had been pursuing led them into a pitch-black alley. What he didn't know was that he led them to a place where they had mastered.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Celeste taunted as she still played with her butterfly knife. "There's nowhere to run to anymore."

The man came out of his hiding place and pointed his gun at them. Leto chuckled at that. The bullet could barely immobilize them. Celeste tucked away her knife.

"Give me three minutes. Then, he's all yours," she told Leto.

He grinned, looking down to the dent on his jeans. "Make it quick, Les. I have a boner already."

Both of them were weird in their own way, but Leto's weirdness was a whole new level. As a man who loved inflicted pain to others and himself, he indeed fit everywhere in the dark side of the business world. He found pleasure in someone's misery and himself. Sometimes it made Celeste think that Leto had way too many loose screws somewhere.

"I got the money!" The man shouted to them when Celeste made her first step to him. "Please, just take the money and leave me alone."

"Your debt had been overdue for a month. Boss doesn't like it," Leto replied, puffing more smoke into the sky. "When the boss doesn't like it, it means playtime for us."

"Stay back, or I'll shoot!" The man threatened.

Celeste strutted in his direction. She ran her palms on her hair, and slowly diamond covered her entire body. He made the first shot to her, and her palm caught it.

"Can't shoot through diamonds, idiot!" Leto hollered.

The man ignored Leto's statement and kept on making the shots. Each time, Celeste caught the bullet with her hands. Two bars made of diamonds protruded from her palms, and she hurled them in the direction of the man. One impaled his left thigh, and another impaled his shoulder, pinning him to the wall behind him.

"What the hell are you?" He asked shakily.

"One of your worst nightmares." Celeste's body returned to its normal state.

She didn't even know what she was. All she knew was that she had this power since she was ten years old. That was five years after somebody abandoned her in front of an orphanage. The Sisters in the orphanage took her and then, she realized she was one of the two weird people in the place. The other one was Leto. Perhaps that was the reason why her parents didn't want her. Nobody could explain this strange power and why she had it.

Leto took pleasure in torturing people. His eyes allowed him to see through someone's skin and located their nerves. In the first stage, he didn't usually use his fists to get the things he wanted from someone. All he needed to do was poke the right nerve. When it came to the second stage, the real honor began.

Celeste grabbed the diamond bar which embedded through the man's shoulder and twisted it a few times. He screamed in agony, but nobody could hear his screams. As long as her second power was active, his screams would never reach the ears of other people.

"He's your worst nightmare," she stepped aside to let Leto start his masterpiece.

He tapped his chin a few times. "Did you remember the thing we did the other day? The acupuncture thing."

Celeste nodded and created a hundred needles with her diamond power.

"You see, my main specialty is to play with someone's pain nerves. A needle made of diamond-like was different from the needles used in a professional acupuncture business. Her needles are far worst."

Leto pushed one needle to the man's thumb, and he yelled in pain while the former was laughing excitedly.

"Ooooo, I'm just getting started."

He kept doing it to the man until the last needle. It took Leto forty-five minutes because he got carried away by the screams from the man. The more screams their victim made, the longer Leto would take to get his masterpiece done. He clapped for his masterpiece and looked very proud of it. Once again, he looked down at his jeans. Celeste shook her head. He always had a boner on a situation like this.

He licked his lips, and at the same time, he grabbed a hunting knife from his left shoe. "Now, the real fun begins."

Celeste turned around and checked the black briefcase on the ground. She grew up with Leto and had seen many things he had done in their careers. But, she opted out when it came to seeing him skinning someone alive. It was a gruesome scene to look at. She didn't have a strong stomach for it.

She counted the money in the briefcase while Leto laughed sadistically. She could hear he was ripping the skin from the man's body and letting it drop to the floor like some wet paper towels, except that it was human skin.

When the screams ceased, Celeste checked how Leto was doing but almost vomited out her lunch when she saw it. She didn't even have proper eyesight like him, yet the scene was gruesome for her to see.

"Holy shit, Leto. Did you have to do that?" Celeste cursed.

"An artist must create a masterpiece of their creativity." He made a clicking sound with his tongue. "Do you like it? Come on, Les. You never liked anything."

"It doesn't involve a skinned man with his dick in his mouth."

"You could see his dick in his mouth?" Leto sounded awed. "Wow, out of many things you could see, you got to mention his dick."

"You need to get yours sorted."

"Let's hit the strip club. I mean, I go there. You go see the boss and hand the money."

"Always making me do the hard work, eh?"

She snapped her fingers. The diamond bars and needles on the man disappeared in thin air. He dropped to the ground with a thud.

"Boss requested your presence. Not mine." Leto grinned as they walked away. "I'll call the cleaners."