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Ballad of a Phoenix

DaoistfBiybA
21
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The average realized release rate over the past 30 days is 21 chs / week.
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Synopsis
Heartbroken and revenge-stricken, the underworld's prized, Ava Kovacevic, stumbles upon a golden ticket to get her pound of flesh. The catch-- she must team up with an elusive man riddled with his own set of bad history, Nonetheless, she remains determined, obsessed even as they both don new personas, veiling their identities as they dive into the ugly abyss of New York's underworld, hoping to infiltrate the apex predator in his domain. But as tension rises and masks slip, two forces tug them from both ends: The challenges that lurk ahead, and the need -- the necessity to overcome, even if the throes of adventures force them to face a feeling they both hurled to the depths of hell.
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Chapter 1 - Back from the dead

CHAPTER TWO

BACK FROM THE DEAD

AVA'S POV

The torture was horrible, and I meant horrible --- to relive through. Each rise stripped me of weight, and then the fall--- left my insides rattling. The impact was so raw, each time the carriage dropped, a thin rill of blood would splatter out my nose, and my brain would bounce across my skull.

Yet, he let it happen again...and again.....and again, and again. Like a cyclical torture.

At this point, every muscle in my being fought to reel me out of this awful dream and connect me into this reality, probably alien and unforgiving as well. Especially when the worried voices returned to frame my ears.

"Is she gonna be alright?"

"I don't know, she seems to be having a seizure of some sort".

The voices were almost indistinguishable, and their statements were laden with a hushed urgency. And every time, those mystery voices landed, I felt my muscles tense over and over again. This was enough to pull me off that hell before a firm touch pressed against my arms, pinning me flat against a firm, foreboding surface.

The heat of a nearby fragrance followed after, immersing me into a world of cool breeze and sandy banks that gathered after the forward lap of sea waves. The scent was enthralling, but unfortunately, triggering as well.

For some godforsaken reason, I was thrust back. Time had rewound to the moment where everything had stopped for a minute. The moment when I finally managed to cry out, the message, barely carried by the ragged breaths that escaped my throat.

"Hugh, please!!!.... We are a family. For Christ's sake, I am about to deliver your child.

"Mr. Rivera, it appears that your wife is in her late trimester. I suggest we suspend any further----

"Shut up! I am thinking". He sliced through a suggestion from one of his senior attendants, jolting everyone around him exactly two steps back. As if he could order hell on earth, and they would obey like brainless zombies.

The scenes after that tyrannic display seemed to fade, and for that I was glad. But as dull glimmers of light began to bore through my eyelids, the spark of his rage sprang back, yanking me back to when I was hung hopeless, awaiting his response.

Back then, I thought that was going to be the key to literal salvation. The machine was even ordered off, settling the carriage into an abrupt rest at the centre.

Remnants of how my dishevelled hair spilled over my face haunted me after, and then, everything from the tears and sweat drenched in it thawed my skin.

"Please".

It was just a single word. But it was my last resort.

It almost worked. At least it had seemed to have affected both corroborators. Sienna didn't even look to be as basking as I had thought she would. Her upright stance looked prepared, ready for the ultimate denouement, but her irises... It told a different story.

They never settled at my direction; instead, they just darted around like a foosball, bouncing off every corner of her socket. The feeling seemed to be mutual with Hugh, too, as the tightness in his face slackened, and a glaze had flashed across his eyes. So fast, I thought it was a mirage.

 But it was there, and it was real. That emotion was too rare to come by, but too familiar to miss... It was something I hadn't witnessed from him in years.

TREPIDATION------ UNCERTAINTY

So, when he gazed over one shoulder for Sienna, I felt my heart tug with hope. I let myself believe in the impossible.

Yes. The impossible. I am saying it as it was – he didn't release me that night, and this was me reliving a nightmare my past. So---when he raised his chin, eyes elevating for one final time before I died once...that hope plunged like my body the moment he cast his judgement.

The verdict, swift and unforgiving.

"Do it".

And just like that, I was helpless to that vertical execution. My last cries rising in sync with the nearing call of my demise. I could still hear myself calling out that Devil's name. "SIENNA".

Her name, forever etched in stone, as life blitzed past me , and the winds dragged my skin skyward.

Then--- agony.

A molten movement followed, roasting the ends of my entrails as the unforgiving descent jolted my ribs in.

Something had slipped from me.

And then, my world went dark. At least I thought it would be. The end. The curtains of a tragic story are finally drawn.

But here I was, back snapping straight, legs flat on what seemed like a gurney, as if the call back to life had yanked me from that stream of consciousness, and without even thinking—too tired of living in my head--I launched off the edge—feet landing far before I ran—sprinting for the exit, while I ignored the outstretched silhouettes cast from my right.

 However, before I could make a run for it, one of the familiar voices drew close, the same time a lengthy shadow cast along my path, the width of the shoulders more akin to a man's own, and soon, I found myself trapped by sinewy arms wrapped around my waist.

"Hold still, you are in no condition to leave."

"Let me go!! Get your filthy arms off me". I thrashed my weight against his frame, viciously clawing on any surface of flesh I could make contact with. We struggled in that position until a calm, soothing voice ceased our movement.

"Took you long enough to get up. Was starting to wonder if the Big old man still had plans for you here. You fought like hell.... Literally".

I was supposed to stop. Supposed to run, especially when the man I presumed to be a medical attendant unhanded me.

But I didn't. Something about his green eyes stalled me. Crippling me to a standstill.

His effect even sent chills down my spine as I responded, staring him down completely.

"That depends", I murmured, holding his gaze. "Are you offering to finish the job or give me the gun?".

He gasped out in near laughter. His short breath ghosting over my senses, but it was the expression he wore on his face that informed me that my nightmare wasn't over.

"Ohh!! I like you. You'll do. You'll do just fine" ...