Titus returned to the dock, his hands shaking with anger as he breathed in deep hisses. There were four hours till 9pm.
Zanze returned to the beige home, he made dinner then fell into a food coma. There were two hours till 9pm.
Titus checked his bribe, five thousand pounds wrapped in plastic lining laid on his bed. 15 minutes till 9pm.
The time came, he carefully dismantled a window screen and tied a jute cord to his bed. With a knowing confidence he scaled down the house and landed gracefully on the ground. He quickly made a good distance away from Zanze.
. . .
A vision of the castle, the waves crashing against the cliff, the expanse of grass. The visualisation of it became increasingly real, he could smell the salt from the sea, and the grass on the ground. Soon enough he was there, his vision became tangible; he was there.
The ruined castle was once again before him.
He should be here.
Titus entered the ruined castle, his steps muffled by the drone of the sea.. He wandered the stone halls, in that time coming across what seemed to be dungeons, sculleries and tapestries long devoured by time.
He made his way into what seemed to be a dining hall.Titus looked around until he was taken aback. He couldn't quite make out what was on the wall but there was a strange insignia.
As he moved closer to it, Titus began to feel something familiar from it. Something he had felt from himself and Miguel before.
"Why are you staring at the wall?" Miguel questioned. Titus, who was frightened, looked around the room trying to find him in the dimly lit hall.
He turned his head again.
Immediately, a dense darkness rose to engulf him.
All traces of moonlight were gone.
As quickly as the vantablack engulfed him, it was gone. What replaced it was a bright alleyway in searing hot weather. Titus could now see clearly, the sudden light made him squint. He was in an alleyway with what looked like colourful umbrellas and food stands just beyond, with crowds of people walking through...
But for a reason unknown to him, he was inside a shadow while Miguel was above him standing on the pavement. Miguel's face was etched with confusion as if to say why aren't you out of the shadow, Titus tried to get out of it but he couldn't. It was like quicksand.
"Could you help me get out here?"
Titus asked, Miguel turned his back on him and walked towards the bustling market with his hands in pocket, Titus was indignant.
"The least you could do is help me get out of here." Miguel still walked away, stopping at a food stand that was selling arepas. He bought two and came back to him
"Do you want one, the beef filling is really good." He stretched out his hand with the food. Titus was angry at this point.
"How am I supposed to eat when I'm stuck here!" He shouted, his hand pointed to himself and the shadow he was stuck in.
"You can teleport, dumbass." Titus was instantly humiliated. He focused on the alleyway and willed himself to teleport to where Miguel was standing.
"Oh.... Right…."
Miguel took his hand and gave him the snack.
"Eat n' follow me, try not to get lost in the crowd," He then walked onward to the market again. Titus appeared beside him and took a bite of the food. His eyes widened, it was as he said.
"Why did you bring me here? Weren't you going to discuss my work?" Titus mumbled with food in his mouth.
"That's why we are here," he said calmly.
They continued to walk through the ocean of people; the noise was almost overwhelming. The smell of diesel and plastic was in stark contrast to the saltiness of his town.
In the distance he could see an enormous grey cathedral with 2 bell towers. Titus took his plaid jacket off and tied it around his waist.
The sprawl of the open market gave way to buildings and the mass of people thinned, replaced by cars. Miguel entered one of those buildings.
In it was a crude boxing gym; all the punching bags in sight were torn and faded in color.
On a dusty boxing ring, three men with boxing gloves were trying to strike a man who was blindfolded. It was embarrassingly easy for the person to dodge their jabs. It was almost like he could see the future.
"Oi, Hugo." Miguel called.
The blindfolded man ended the match; then, with a powerful jump, he landed right beside Miguel. Hugo removed his blindfold revealing striking eyes with an odd pattern of twelve tiny pupils surrounding a larger one in his right eye. His left eye was hidden by long curls.
His stature was that of a little giant, he towered over Miguel at 6 '5. His jaune skin seemed too tight around his body, as if it was struggling contain his muscles. He had 2 jagged scars that winded down his arms.
"Miguel, cómo está?" He asked with a grin.
"Ótimo, obrigado a ele."
Hugo turned his attention to Titus, a wavering cool pressure emanated from him then it stopped. He smiled.
"Why did you follow him?" Hugo prodded.
Titus didn't answer immediately; he didn't have an exact answer but at the same time he only had one.
"I didn't think refusing would end well for me," I explained honestly.
Hugo held in a scoff as he gave a glance at Miguel.
"You're going to the greenhouse right, I guess I have to come with you."
Titus squinted his eyes.
"We're going to where? Are you gardeners?"
Miguel and Hugo ignored him and started to walk away.
"O garoto. Você tem muito trabalho pela frente, mano." Hugo snickered.
. . . . .
After an hour of walking they reached a lone building close to the outskirts of the city. Titus looked at it assessing if a living soul would even reside there, the decades of rain and sun were evident on it.
"This is the greenhouse?" Titus asked rhetorically.
"Of course it is, there is plenty of foliage inside." Hugo joked. He pushed the pit, the interior looked like a battlefield long unused, dried blood on the floor, broken pieces of wood everywhere and a broken glass ceiling. Chairs and tables were scattered everywhere
"Ele saiu para resolver o problema em Tepito?" Miguel asked.
"Provavelmente, graças a você." Hugo replied, while Titus was standing by awkwardly, he wondered what they were saying in Portuguese.
Miguel turned to TItus.
"Since our boss is not back you will have to stay here for some time. In the meantime I will tell you everything about us and what you will do."
?
"You're not the boss?"
Miguel nodded in affirmation. There was a table with an opened bottle of water, Miguel took a seat and drank some water.
"The Casaverdeja are mostly a retailer of sorts and a security group. Most of the people who work in this business are Mandala users including Hugo. Our operations are practically worldwide."
Miguel drank more water.
"The most profitable of those operations, and the one you will be assigned to, is tea."
Titus widened his eyes in horror.
"T-tea? Tea! I knew you were sketchy but this, this' just evil. Why?"
"Tea isn't inherently bad, It depends on the person and who drinks it."
Ok, yeah this is just a criminal organization.
Titus felt deeply disgusted by Miguel's response.
"What do you mean 'depends', tea is the deadliest drug."
"And what will you do?" Miguel asked darkly,
"I wouldn't be here regardless, but I know you would be able to find me anywhere in the world. There's no point."
"..."
Miguel kept quiet,
his calm face turned serious for the first time in front of him.
Miguel glared at the entrance as he brought out a gun from under the table.. Titus reflexively shifted away from him and looked to the door as well, a grenade rolled inside.
"GET DOWN!!" Screamed Miguel.
He yanked Titus's head, the grenade exploded, releasing a myriad of shrapnel everywhere making the already rundown building worse. Miguel's ears were ringing while Titus was overwhelmed with pain.
Titus' shoulder was bleeding severely; he could feel shrapnel lodged deep in his clavicle. He tried to stop the bleeding with his hand to no success. His heart was beating wildly.
From the now broken door, 4 armed men entered with long scars on their necks. Miguel recognised them and was deeply troubled.
Ele não lidou com eles?
He gritted his teeth and looked at Titus.
"That corridor, teleport there and go find Hugo. He will heal you while I deal with the guests." Miguel shouted.
"I can't."
Titus who was in blinding pain couldn't focus. Immediately the 4 men opened fire at both of them, Miguel hissed then gathered the shadows around him in a dome to protect himself.
In that barrier he transported Titus to the eastern corridor.
Ack
A bullet grazed Miguel's thigh, his barrier of shades dissolved to intangibility under the rain of metal.
Jumping back into a pile of broken wood, Miguel quickly shrouded his gun with his own shadow instead.
An air of lethality surged from his weapon as he aimed for the head.
Thwoom
The greenhouse shook as an explosion tore through a wall. Miguel breathed deeply as he was given a short respite.
A lifeless corpse now laid under some rubble.
Ttch, not good enough. Butterfly knife it is.
The ones who managed to survive responded with another round of automatic fire,
Instantly, he scrambled a layer of light shadows from the sourrounding objects. It wan't quick enough to prevent a graze to his arm.
Miguel crouched down behind a cover of broken crates and jute bags, deepening the shadow protecting his body.
With a bit of respite, he paitently waited for the metal rain to end.
Click!
Salvation resounded in his ear as one of the automatic rifles jammed.
Click!
Another one jammed.
They don't even clean their tools and it's basically evening. Why would they send such morons?
Tsssh.
Miguel focused on their elongated shadows.
Then he was gone.
Wielding the short blade, he hacked them down, blitzing from neck to neck.
The firefight ended.
Meanwhile, Titus was passing out from blood loss. He could see Hugo at the end of the corridor walking towards him. The white curls he first saw Hugo with now had red accents to them, his hands were speckled in red as well.
He seemed disturbingly happy and confused at the same time.
Titus weakly raised his hand.
Hugo rushed to him and removed his bloody shirt. Quickly inspecting the wound Hugo straightened two of his fingers. His will seemed to focus around his hand, it then became unnaturally solid. He pierced Titus' clavicle and removed the grenade shrapnel and threw to the side.
Hugo took a deep breath, he rotated his palm counterclockwise towards Titus' shoulder. Light began to warp around them, tiny fragments of bone and flesh began to stitch back together, the blood soaked shirt began to revert to its original colour, all the blood he lost began to coalesce around him and seep into the shoulder.
It became untouched in appearance and Titus became more lucid.
Miguel approached the two of them, he had his own injuries as well, though not as severe.
"It's your turn to clean up."