Gunner's Paradise

Declaration of War Part 2

She wanted to ask how he died but she could not show that level of emotion to these men as they were a familiar part of the inner circle.

The shorter man interjected, "We believed this room to belong to a Ralph Fields, the clothes seller and we took him up along the way as he was heading in that direction to go home."

"We have him outside and Cassandra is asking for permission to interrogate him."

"She has my permission," Mathinda responded and bid the men leave for now and return when enough information has been gathered.

She was again alone in the dark. Like a good friend, it hid her true emotions and she thought about the first time she had met Mark. He had been her servant since she could remember, twenty years when she had to live a life as a noble. He knew her secrets, he had seen her terrible desires and he had never abandoned her when she had run away from home. When her father had discovered what she was doing, he had come along with her against his parents' better wishes.

They had many troubles along the way but Mark always had pulled them through it and in time she had seen him as her confidant, to share that which bugged her and that which she couldn't tell anyone else. All she wanted to do was serve her god to the best of her abilities.

She felt him calling to her in every sacrifice and every decision she made even when she had first arrived here it all seemed predetermined.

She said out loud, "that's right, Mark's death wasn't for nothing."

While she kept the impending thoughts in her head, it was only to help reach the next level of controlling this city in the name of her god. Now to fulfill this purpose with a far stronger resolve than ever before, a blood bath was coming it was he who acted first that won the game and so she got up from her seat and opened the door.

The rest of the council were summoned. The members of the hand except for Cassandra and Henry showed up. Everyone knew remotely what was going to happen so no one said anything first. Just with the expectation on their faces of what she was going to say next.

Mathinda addressed them, "Sisters, we have been attacked by the White Fist gang despite us not even wanting any war. We need to strengthen our security, we need to arm ourselves. We need to prepare for the war that is about to come."

She paused before continuing, "I will send word to the other two gangs to misguide them, a war that involves the three other factions will weaken them and we shall endure. They are all after this one girl; she has financial worth but the city is the bigger prize. The win for our god is the true king and therefore our scheming must be grander than ever. Throughout the years, I have prepared for a circumstance like this and all loyal guards are now to be fully armed with guns. I have made connections with the right people to secure ourselves in this event. We will keep ourselves locked in and watch; no more will we shelter anyone else as we wait out the storm and plot from the shadows."

Henry had been dragged before this door which he used to enter so proudly, the hall was dark and eerie. He was nervously shaking in fear even though he had two large men holding him. The others behind him, those that had been with him in this scheme seemed to lack the understanding of what was happening behind this door and the hell that awaited. At that table, sat its demons, those that he once consorted with. He wanted to pray but he didn't know who to pray to. Through this ordeal, he lost faith, or maybe he never truly had it in the first place. He tried to break free of the men's hand but it was no use his body failed him and wouldn't respond. It was like fighting against a relentless torrent as he heard and recognised the voices behind the door.

"My lady," Myra began, "we have been betrayed by one of our own that has led to the loss of our blood and the failure to capture those children."

The rest of the members whispered to each other in shock by the proclamation.

Mathinda slammed her fist on the table, "A traitor in this council...and who is this traitor? " she looked directly at the council members with fury in her eyes.

Myra shouted, "Bring him in!" as the doors opened and Henry was dragged in rags of his former clothes with a swollen face and the other members of the White Fist gang who were discovered with him.

Henry's body was sweating; he couldn't look directly at the table as fear once again overwhelmed him and so he cast his eyes down as if in shame. The others around him cursed the women with all different kinds of insults. One laughed as if he was going insane to himself, he had the face of a man who had given up on life.

"Henry?" Miyuki said to him, with sadness in her words. She had been the one to recommend him to the council and had known him the longest.

Upon hearing his name called, he glanced and stared at the table and what he saw did not resemble women at all. These monsters all resembled something more grotesque and inhumane than the last. As he shivered, the table was covered with a variety of blood and human parts He saw the faces of the White Fist gang and before Mathinda's seat he saw his own head.

They passed it around as they looked at him with menacing eyes. Tears ran down his cheek as he watched it happen. It was akin to her, devouring his soul and when she was done, an ominous presence took him that made him gasped for breathe that would not come as his body continued to shut down on him.