"Things will never be the same again."
Gneiss Underwood never thought that he could have a shot of a normal life.
Growing up in an environment where everything defied sanity, guns and loneliness were his normal companions, if not danger and Death h...
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"Be honest not only to the world but also to yourself. Because when you remember how much you love someone, when you realize how much she means the world to you, it might be too late; you can never tell her how much your love her because you know she can't hear you anymore.
Number Twenty-One
Krad paced around, his eyes fixed on the blank-faced girl sitting in the middle of the messy room. He casually brushed off the shards of the vase that clung onto his dark jacket with his left hand; the other had a gun – a loaded one at that. His boots stepped on the broken pieces of furniture that she tried to use against him.
He had fired at her once, when she tried to escape after managing to inject a poison into his system. Unfortunately for her, like the sleeping gas, he too was immune in it. Her injury should be painful; he purposely hit the bone, lodging the bullet deep in her femur marrow. He felt no remorse as he watched blood trickle down her leg.
It was revolting. She was so small; she looked like a child. Tied on the wooden chair and gagged, it was a disturbing sight – as if he was offending the last angel on earth. She was so still, so beautiful, that it made him sick. Defiant green eyes stared at him. They were Faye's and for that he couldn't forgive her.
She couldn't have made a worse mistake in her life.
At a length, Krad spoke. His voice was menacing and cold as it was subdued. "As an assassin, I thought I understand that I didn't necessarily have to feel anything to kill."
He caressed the barrel of his gun, idly fingering the outlines of his steel companion. "I just follow my orders. People die surprisingly easily. Before I can even feel guilty, my job is done. It was as simple as that. Nothing personal."
Krad aimed at the middle of her forehead, the tip of the gun pressed against her skin. Her expression didn't change, yet he could hear her heart hammering. He smiled at this.
One could hide his or her fear, but the heart would always betray.
"But now, after seeing what you did, I didn't understand... this feeling of hate, the intent to murder." He gritted his teeth as he kicked the remains of her touch screen phone. He was at the edge of pulling the trigger, at the edge of his control, his composure as thin as onion paper. The quiet was gone. He was a volcano about to erupt. "Yeah, I admit. You fooled me; you're the greatest con artist I've ever met. But you underestimated Creed. You underestimated me – for that, you pay with your life."
Krad backhanded the blonde girl hard enough to rattle her brain, enough to make her vision swam. It was then that her lips pulled into a smile, the vilest kind that made Krad want to kill her at that very moment. Yet he calmed himself. He knew what she was doing. She intended to make him careless, taunting him to end her once and for all. No, of course he wouldn't do that. She was a valuable witness. She had to talk whether she liked it or not. He would send her to the facility where she could be properly questioned, tortured possibly – he didn't care. He just wanted her out of his goddamn sight.
