"Father? Where are you going?"
"Nowhere."
"Tell me. Where?"
"I..said nowhere. Okay…I'll tell you, only if you promise me one thing.."
"Promise? What is it?"
His father took a long breath, put his hands on his son's head, patting it. He couldn't see anything but his father, as if the surrounding was dark and covered with ink. He could feel the touch of his father going away and coming inwards at the same time.
"Can you see that person?", his father pointed towards a figure, a distant figure. It was a silhouette of a person, holding a knife in his right hand.
"Yes, I can see it", he said after zooming in on that figure.
"He….is the person who is going to kill me today."
"What? What are you talking about dad? Is that true?!"
"Yes…it is.
"There is no way I'm going to let that happen!", he quickly stood up and ran towards the figure, with a flame-like killing intent. But, the further he ran, the further the figure went away, without ever moving a limb.
But he never stopped, his endless chase resulted in his father finally holding his hand and stopping him, he said, "Stop it. This is exactly what I want you to promise."
"What…are you talking about, dad?", he was breathing heavily, tired from running.
"Killers may seem to be the biggest sinners, but those are often the ones who don't kill you, but don't let you live either. Yes, I am one of them. My destiny was set in stone the day I chose to be a sinner, but yours? It is in your hands, don't make it dirty."
"Dad..are you telling me I should let him kill you? How stupid is that?"
"I want to apologise to the world, to the person trying to kill me, to you and everyone. If I can't even take death as a punishment, the easiest one, how can I call myself your father? Look at you, you are strong. And strong people know when to apologise. Let me do it, please."
"But how can I live without you? Dad!"
"I'm always with you. As long as I can live in your heart, I'm alive. So please don't ruin your life by trying to get justice for me, the cycle of justice ends with me. Son, I'm always with you, guiding you through your life which I assure you'll not lead to demise."
A lot of people started coming to his mind, not just his father.
"Remember that movie?" "Let's go to the museum tomorrow then" "What happened to your girlfriend bro?" "Hey! Can you pass me that ball?"
Not in this exact sequence, but life had given him enough moments to remember at this moment. He was shocked to see how the terrible moments of his life weren't coming to his mind, even if they were in majority, his subconscious was filtering them out.
"Dad…I'm sorry..I couldn't understand you better. But I know you are looking at me. We are all sinners, but what I should not aspire to be, is stupid. Let the cycle end here."
"That's my boy! I know it will be hard, as life might often go against you. But I know you are strong!"
A little smile appeared on his face, but disappeared soon when that silhouette appeared behind his father, with that knife. His father was still smiling, as that figure behind him stabbed his with the knife.
"Dad!", he quickly held his father's hands as he was falling on the floor, and the silhouette slowly transformed into a visible person.
The surrounding became clear, and his father transformed into a silhouette.
"Dad!!", he screamed and as soon as he glanced at the killer behind, he saw something otherworldly. Maybe not otherworldly, but different to the world he was in recently now.
"Are you okay?", a soft spoken sound came from somewhere. His vision started unblurring, and he started to move his body. He felt that his limbs were feeling some kind of freedom, as if it was tied for a long time, though it came with pain.
"Wh-where did dad go? Where am I", he mumbled slowly as he opened his eyes. What he saw then was a girl, one with gorgeous eyes and long hair. She was staring directly at his eyes.
"Are you okay, Gary?", the question came again.
He was unable to speak, but his instincts quickly kicked in as he tried to lift his body up. He felt that his head was lying on the girl's lap.
"You don't have to wake up if you can't.", her voice seemed tired, as well her eyes, but with a special energy spiraling towards Gary.
Gary breathed out, and then asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm someone similar to you, that I can say at least.", she said as she looked away from him.
Gary waited for an explanation, and she finally gave one, "Elias Blackwood is not here anymore as I can observe, neither is Luther Kane. I have been living here in this apartment since 2 days ago. And….well, what about you?"
"What about me?", Gary asked, enlarging his eyes a bit.
"I know some things about you. Your situation is kind of connected with mine. And you, you seem trustable.", she spoke with pauses.
"Know things about me? Such as?", Gary asked.
"That your father died recently, killed to be exact as you know. I'm truly sorry for your loss, Gary.", she said.
Gary just continued staring at her with a blank expression, but at the end, he smiled a bit and said, "Leave things about me, what about you? What is your name and identity, I don't even know that, you seem to know a lot on the other hand."
The girl hesitated at first, then brought up some courage and said, "Did you know about detective Ralph?"
Gary instantly answered, "Yes! I do know about him. He was the one who helped me get to Elias together with his team, what about him?"
"You see…", her face became gloomy, her eyes half closed, "He died recently."
"What?", now Gary finally sat up, "That is surprising considering how clever he was, but his job is not so safe either to be honest. But how do you know him?"
She looked at Gary and said, "His real name was Ivan Norris, not Ralph or anything like that."
"And….how do you know that?", Gary asked calmly.
"I'm his sister, my name is Gillian Norris."
Gary continued looking at her being speechless. After a minute of silence from both of them, Gary spoke up, "I'm sorry Gillian that you have to go through this..", Gillian instantly interrupted him and said, "No no, you don't have to be. Look at how calm you are even after losing the only family member you had, after having such a rough childhood. I aspire to be like you, my life has been full of violence, yet I don't know why, just after meeting you here right now, I don't want it to be full of violence anymore."
"Me and calm? I-I caused a person's death some days ago…", the thought popped up in Gary's mind while he was hearing her speak, but he also couldn't stop himself from asking, "What kind of violence,
Gillian?"
Gillian put both of her hands on Gary's shoulders and asked, "Have you heard the name 'V'? The famous thief?"
Gary took some seconds before answering, "Oh, yes I have. My friend Lucian…", Gary stopped suddenly, his mind started to race.
"What happened?", Gillian asked as Gary stopped speaking.
"Yeah, nothing.", Gary resumed after a while, "My friend told me about it. So what about it?
"Yes…so that V is…me.", Gillian said while looking into Gary's eyes.
"What…are you talking about? You are the famous 'V'? Yo-You are a thief?", Gary asked while leaning back.
"Not…exactly. I work with security systems and have done a lot of ethical hacking jobs for the government, but I also took jobs from underworld criminals, and my name spread as 'V'."
Gary's facial expressions changed in a matter of seconds.
"But…why?"
"It was because of my brother", Gillian said, "I wanted him to get wealthy as a detective. He was too much of a formal person to take money from me even when he needed it, and small jobs often didn't equate to enough money for him. So when I started participating in big thefts, it often made big news and cases, which led to my brother getting much more well-paying jobs. That is exactly why."
Gary didn't say anything, hoping for something more than this absurd reason.
"But….now he is not even here. No point in me doing anything anymore.", Gillian's eyes got teary.
Gary tried to empathize and got closer to her despite being a little weirded out.
"I understand how it feels to lose someone so close to you, but what has been done cannot be undone. Why don't you share your experiences with me? I might relate.", Gary smiled at her, trying to console her.
Gillian slowly controlled her tears and spoke to Gary, "Gary, can you please help me with one thing I'm trying to achieve right now?"
"Tell me what it is. I'll try my best.", Gary said enthusiastically.
"Have you heard about the organization, O3?....