Play music for best experience
when you see the music note 🎵
"You sure this is it?" Esmerelda asked, peering up at the tall building with neon lights, music blaring inside.
"Yep. Goliath's gang hangs around here, according to my sources. Your rhino guy should be here, or in the area."
Esme stood with her hands in her pockets, moisture clinging to her skin from the humidity. Even the fibers of her hoodie fell victim to the dew that hung heavy in the air.
She looked around, walking towards the corner of the street and leaning back against the lamp post, keeping her head tilted down with her hood shielding her face from people who walked by- though most of them looked so intoxicated she doubted they would ever remember her face. Or the mask that covered it.
She had waited two days for this. Poured all her focus into perfecting her suit to be thin enough to let her barbs sink through the fabric so that she could stick to walls better. Perfected her mask to have built in visors to protect her eyes both from rainfall and the wind when she swung. With the added technology of built in surveillance and holo screen.
Designed her suit to mimic the tarantula that bit her, mimicking the brown body with the feiry orange pattern on her boots, gloves, shoulder pads and a spider emblem that stretched over her chest like flames.
Half her mask had the pattern too, detailed with web patterns, an idea from Sophia. All of it served a purpose. She wanted to be able to take a punch as much as she packed one. Wanted people to remember her. Specifically one person.
The night was only beginning, women dressed in cocktail dresses or skintight pants and skirts holding their latest arm candy and moving in and out of the club.
If this is where the man who killed her aunt would be, then Esme wasn't leaving until she found him. She tried to discreetly look at everyone who walked past, checking their wrists for the rhino tattoo.
She waited, ear plugs muffling the outside world with music she popped on. It seemed to be the only thing that shut out the gunshot that echoed in her head.
Just as her hope was beginning to fade with the crowd, she noticed a familiar tall, stalky figure coming out of the club. He had another man with him, and his body seemed to sway as he staggered forwards, his fingers dragging a vape from his lips and releasing a puff of cloud into the air.
The edge of his sleeve fell down just enough to show the faint yet recognizable outline of a rhino.
Her fists curled into her hips. She waited for a second, watching him cross the street with an arm slung over his comrade, swaying and laughing as they moved into an alley.
"I found him. I'm going in." Esme whispered, slinking forward once she was sure she found an opportunity between cars.
She stopped by the edge, her back pressed to the wall and peering around the corner. She saw him enter a group of other men, dressed in the same style of dark clothes with pops of blue or green.
Her guy was dressed in all grey though. A tracksuit and a gold chain around his neck. The same chain he stole that night.
Esme's throat tightened. Her veins were burning with embers. One life over a necklace. She was sure she was going to pop a vein from how tense her forehead throbbed.
She couldn't help the thoughts that circulated in her head. She wanted to make him hurt. Wanted to make him scream for mercy. Wanted to tear him limb from limb and string him up for all of New York to see.
She took a breath, watching him move further into the bundle of people, trying to keep up with their boisterous movements as they traded vapes and handed off small baggies filled with white powder. Should she wait for him to be alone, or do it now?
She didn't want to risk losing him. It was now or never.
Esmerelda entered the alley way, it's walls seeming to tower over her. To the thugs that stood at the end, they could only see her dark silhouette illuminated with a red outline from the club lights behind her. Her hoodie fizzled out, leaving her in just her suit, her yellow white visors gleaming in the neon lights.
Her heart was pounding in her throat as she met their gaze, but all they could see was her mask from light behind her.
"Hey sweetheart, little far from cosplay fest aren't you?" A thug cackled, his voice grating. "Why don't you take off the mask?"
"Esme, it's not too late to back out now-" Sophia spoke into her ear but Esme cut her off.
"Turn the music up. I got this."
-•🎵•-
She walked closer, her fists balled on each side of her swaying hips that matched her shoulders. She was seeing red. Her gaze searched them for the familiar face of her target, but at this point she would take her anger out on anyone.
Her eyes spray painted each of them in red, glazing them in bullseyes. She saw the glimmer of one's chain necklace as it swayed against his moving chest, his body stalking forward like a lion.
A spider, a rhino, and four lions. It felt like a documentary scene, her place appearing minuscule in their animal kingdom.
The thugs chuckled, walking towards her and beginning to spread out their formation. Their dark eyes picked her apart like chicken rotisserie, some of them licking their cracked lips while one thug popped his knuckles.
She surveyed their bodies, noticing the tattoos on their rippling arms, their shirts stained with grease or covered in a leather studded jacket. Two of them were at least six feet tall, the rest she estimated five foot three, five foot eight, and five foot six. Manageable numbers.
Esme didn't waste a breath as soon as the nearest thug reached for her arm, her hand grabbing his wrist and twisting it with a loud snap.
His lips formed a "What the hell?!" but the music overpowered his words.
She swept his legs out from under him before evading a second thugs hands, her fist colliding with his gut right on tempo.
Esme leaned backwards, reclining on air as a leg swept the air inches from her nose. She rose back up and landed two sharp jabs to his wind pipe with the side of her hand.
He leaned forward to recover air before his head snapped, her fist collided with his jaw. She saw the blood from his mouth splatter onto the wall.
Two down. Three more to go.
They looked at their two fallen comrades on the concrete, calculating just who they were up against before reaching for their weapons. Esme had already observed the knives sheathed on their belts, she had already taken out the only two carrying hand held guns.
What, thought she had spent two days only on her suit? She researched the hell out of this gang, on each member, learning their MO's, what weapons they relied on, and running reconnaissance.
This was going to be easy.
She leapt onto the wall and bounced off with the heel of her foot, twisting her hips before she landed two kicks on the bald headed thug. The first to his chest to disorient him, the second an upward cut to his chin, smashing his teeth in.
He fell backwards like a tree, timber! He landed with a thud.
Esme landed and propelled forward, evading a slash of blade before catching his hand between hers, twisting the blade from his grip and hearing it clatter to the ground. The other man rushed forward, forcing her backwards to dodge the attack.
She felt a punch land to her side, she had been too short. She braced past the pain and slammed into him in retaliation, his body sent flying into the chain fence behind him.
Baldy grabbed her shoulders and slammed her into the wall, his hand going for her throat before she ducked, grappling him and slamming his back into the opposite wall.
She head butted him, not caring as she felt her own blood trickle from a cut on her temple, slamming her head against his again until she felt his body slump to the ground.
She walked backwards, chest heaving before the twinge in the back of her head alerted her. She side stepped as a blade dived past her, short hairs flying in the air as it grazed inches away from her neck.
Esme reeled forward, slamming her palm into the thugs chest before anchoring him by his broad shoulders and kneeing him in the groin.
One of her eyes was glued shut by her own blood now, but she pushed on. She threw him to the ground, kicking him. Over. And over.
She didn't care about the crunch of his bones or his screams. She couldn't hear over the music. Or see past the red that filled her vision. She just wanted the pain to stop. Wanted the sound of the gunshot out of her head. Wanted revenge.
She didn't realize the man she was beating to a pulp wasn't even rhino, that she had knocked him out right before this and was now just beating a disarmed thug. Feeling pain jolt up her leg and the sharp crack as she kicked what felt like a rib.
"Esme! Esme enough!" Sophia's voice finally broke into Esme's head, the music stopped.
She staggered backwards, her chest heaving. She felt her palms stinging and looked down, unfolding her hands and realizing she had been gripping them so tightly her nails had cut into her gloves and drawn blood.
Esme felt wet, fat tears roll down her cheeks, leaving streaks against her dirty and bloodied face caked against her mask. She could feel the air circulating in the little space she had beneath the fabric, hot against her skin. The thugs on the ground groaned, knocked out or clutching their wounds in pain.
The man lying by her feet was spitting up blood, his face badly bruised and swollen that she barely recognized him anymore. She looked back to the others scattered on the floor, finding rhino and stalking towards him.
She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him up and pinning him to the wall. She was going to take care of him differently than the others.
She lifted her hand to his battered face. Her heart was pounding harder than her fists had been. She felt like she was fighting a maelstrom that threatened to overwhelm her. Her limbs thrashing in the current, wind lashing against her face and hair as she struggled to keep her head above water.
She could hear her Tia. Hear the gunshot. See her face, the blood on Esme's hands as she held her.
Esme wanted to hurt him. Want to unleash the sparks that flickered between her finger tips. Wanted to see him bleed out like she watched her aunt.
"Esmita."
Her fist froze. The red in her vision was blurring, her head pounding as the voice filled her head.
"Esmita. Don't."
She squinted her eyes. No, not when she was so close. This was for her. For her aunt. So why? Why was she being stopped by the same face she was doing this for?
Because it wasn't for her aunt. Tia Maria would have never wanted this- she knew that. She was being selfish. Chasing an relief to all her grief she knew would never be hers just from killing this man.
And even if she did kill him, what really would she be accomplishing?
Nothing, except becoming just as bad as him.
She sprayed a web to his chest that splattered and pinned him to the wall, before she splayed his arms and legs and webbed them up too. She webbed his mouth next.
She then took out the piece of paper she had brought, pinning it to the wall with her wrist while writing with her other. When she was done, she webbed it to his chest and stepped backwards, webbing up the other goons into cocoons on the floor.
She may not be able to make him feel the amount of pain he caused her, but she sure as hell would make him feel pathetic.
She looked at her handy work, then back at the exit of the alley way. She would need a different exit.
She climbed the fence, standing at the top before leaping up and gripping the ledge of a fire escape, pulling herself up with her upper body and then scaling up the wall til she made it to the roof.
Despite everything she did, the ache in her heart was still there. It didn't make her feel better like she thought it would. In fact, it just left her feeling... empty. There was no satisfaction.
It was almost sad how easily he went down. And only reinforced the guilt that she could have easily saved her tia that night. She could have easily caught up, easily spared all the grief that tormented her every night.
Tears pooled to her chin but nothing escaped her lips. The knot in her throat was gone, and she could only just stand there and watch.
"Sophia... alert the nearest police about the thugs." Esme spoke softly.
"Already done... are you okay?"
Esme almost didn't hear Sophia over the wind blowing around her. She looked out over the ancient city, admiring the spirals of white that soared into the sky, the systemically placed hover signs that flanked the highways, the towers that gleamed with chrome windows.
Everything seemed to have a place. Everything except for her Tia.
"No. I'm not okay." She softly spoke.
Sophia remained quiet for a moment, trying to calculate what she could possibly say to reassure Esme, before determining that there really wasn't anything she could say.
"What... what did you write on the note?" She asked instead.
Esme paused. "I wrote, here lies the murderer of Maria Costello. May she finally rest in peace knowing justice has been dealt."
What she hadn't wrote, but what Esme dearly hoped her aunt could see anyway, were the words that repeated over and over in her head.
She hadn't let vengeance shroud her heart.