Albert was in shackles as he was brought towards the throne room of the Torture Cell's leader. No one really visited that room unless they had done something wrong to the leader's eyes and they deserve punishment worthy of it. Where he had broken a promise that had a penalty for it too. The gigantic door was swung open to reveal a woman sitting on the throne.
"Well, Albert Nicholas! How a pleasant time to host your punishment! A beautiful day and a beautiful time." The lady spoke as she got down up from the throne. She descended the stairs, with her gown's gradient trail followed her, covering the entire stone staircase with colours and shining diamonds that made screeching sounds upon movement.
The stone work gleamered and reflected the light that highlighted the entire platform. The trail was so elegant, that it seemed that even a King or Queen couldn't afford to wear it. The colours featured, were a deep crimson, the colour of dried blood and completely opaque black. The remaining body work, was just a completely black satin with dense diamond work on the ends.
The standing collar was tied up with a small ribbon and a pin that held it in place. On top of her head was a crown, although, she didn't usually wear it. She would only do so during a meeting with a higher up, which meant she was waiting for someone with anticipation, but she wasn't really expecting Albert to not fulfil the quest assigned to him.
She clunked her heels on the last piece of step, and the room immediately turned more lively and in the distance, there was a chamber formed at the end of the throne room. The mysterious woman held her hand up in the air, and a sword appeared with a dark red wave of light. "After you become a member of Torture Cell, you are vowed to me as a slave that I can practice our punishments on."
As the sword was lowered onto his body, the diamonds on her elegant gown clicked against each other and created the sound of many small bells ringing at once. Albert screamed as his right arm was chopped off entirely from his body. The limb was collected and placed into the chamber he was meant to go into. Even that young girl who killed me twice, she had more mercy than this crazy women, Albert thought.
"Can you repeat that again? I couldn't hear anything." The lady spoke. "You said something about mercy, didn't you. And you said the girl who killed you, she had more mercy then me?" She picked her sword up again. "Then I will show you what it means to not get mercy!" She slammed it down on his body again, spilling more blood as it splattered against her gown a little more and completely dissapeared.
His hands were released from the shackles, but he could still see the chains tied to his limbs as it continued bleeding and left his shoulders hurting. He looked up at the woman's eyes, an almost similar pair that he immediately recalled.
"You got her eyes..." He spoke out a moment later. "And you just realized? If you knew before, you won't have scared her off like that." The creepy woman spoke as she slammed her sword in front of him, and took off her crown. The spikes dug onto her pale skin and blood spilled onto it, matching the dark crown the same colour as her dress.
"You know, I was very anticipated to meet her today. Such a fierce girl, with confidence that of a tiger. Until today, I wondered what the reason was behind why many people had their eyes on her power...especially the Guardians. What was her name? Aefia?" The woman spoke while looking down on Albert's face.
"No, that musn't be right. Her new identity says she is Aefia Tober, and a private detective?" She paced the space between the throne and Albert. "I was prepared...and confident that you would bring her to me. But just how much of a dissapointment you were that I had to remove both of your arms."
She abruptly turned around and faced Albert again. "Albert, tell me something. What do you see when someone says the name Aefia?" She spoke while placing her hand on her chin. "If you couldn't bring her to me, you can at least tell me that."
Albert hesitately for a few seconds, but gave up to speaking eventually. "She is...determined. A very savage teenager, a protective family member, a...ruler...stronger than most." He recalled every fact. "Anger calm on the surface, covered with a smile, but a blast of energy on the inside, the one all humans fear."
He forced himself to glance at the lady's eyes for another time. A gradient black with red glowing parts, a jewel-like shine that looked like she had rubies for eyes instead. It was intimidatingly similar to that of Aefia's except, she didn't have jeweled overcoat over her iris. "You must be some sort of related to her."
"Of course I am related." The lady immediately replied. "I am her...nevermind." She clapped her hand onto her eyes and turned around while heading towards her throne. "Anyway, you will have to be assigned a cage, so I prepared this one for you." She said while pointing the one next to her seat.
The entire of the cage was like it were for an animal, with a chain hanging from a rail to a spiked collar that was about to lock into place around his throat. "Now now, let's see...your punishment was...ah, yes! Breaking of a promise from me. You didn't manage to bring her along, so you should suffer for it."
Albert gulped upon seeing it. He still stared with confidence at the woman who was now sitting back on her throne and observing the crown on her hand. Something was off, not about the way she was just staring at it, she was just gleaming at the crown with teary eyes.
"Your majesty! Please give me one more chance! I have only broken two promises! I promise to bring her to you this time! I swear!" Albert shouted as the guards picked him up and tried to push him into the cage.
"I am no majesty!" She abruptly stood up. "If you have already broken two promises, how do I trust that you will keep the next! That girl is much better than me it seems, and you died by her hands, twice! You aren't even strong to her, not even with a partial of my power that I had given to you!" She snapped the crown with both of her hands and dropped it on the ground.
"It looks like...I will have to kill the Guardians who are trying to protect her. Then I will get her back!" The lady's eyes shimmered with something, which showed a lot of resemblence to Aefia's eyes when she was about to seek revenge. "You even told her...the quote that she found out was a white lie. She might be someone I struggle to get to, but I will try again. For now Albert, you will pay the price of a dime."
***
"Aefia, aren't you going to pay?" Nada spoke while shining a wide smile towards her while she stayed out of the crowd at the counter. She sat at their table and chewed on a candy while zoning out. "Aefia?" Ms. Avry approached her while shaking her shoulders. "Nada was asking you to pay for the group...if it is still alright with you."
"Yeah, that's fine." She stood up while walking towards the counter and handing the bill, ten angcles. "Keep the change." She spoke while quietly walking away and waiting outside the restaurant. She played around with the stick of the lollipop while staring into the sky.
Inside, Anasiy stared with suspicion at her, which she didn't interact to. Ms. Avry was definitely curious how she had gotten that much, and realized she hadn't payed for sometime now while helping around the office to earn a few extra money. Must be savings than. She proceeded with taking the receipt and walking outside to stand with Aefia.
She was holding out her hand to collect the snowflakes onto her palm, while holding the strap of her bag with which she carries her books around in. While standing outside, someone pushed her while passing by which caused her to choke on the candy.
"Hey kid! Watch where you are going!" A man shouted and right after saying so, he flashed a grin expecting a frightened look back.
"What do you mean? You can't just bump into someone who is standing five hands away from the exit. Unless of course, you are a greasy-faced, fat guy." She spoke as she stayed looking at the ground and leaning against the railing. She played with the lollipop around her fingers as if it were a pen.
Embarrassed, the man looked at her with an angry face. "Don't try to talk back on me, bastard!" He raised a hand in order to smack her. Suddenly, she held out her fake identification card and pointed it at his face. "The only bastard here is you, to try and go against an official." She spoke while snapping it shut and putting it back into her bag.
"Now, what I am trying to say is, I am giving you a reason to scammer and run away. Better take advantage of it...otherwise, I don't have a wish to deal with drunkards like you." She spoke while pulling out her gun.
The man brought down his hat over his face and walked away. Once he was walking inside a shadowed regions, he called his gang members with a small flip phone. "I need a group to immediately summon in front of the restaurant I had been to. There is an officer I would like to rip apart." He shut his phone after sending this message and put it inside his pocket.
As he was walking deeper into the dark space, he heard and saw footsteps on the snow. He walked faster, but the footsteps were faster. Eventually, he held out a bat and looked back. "Who's there!" But there was no one to confront. Suddenly, a prick was felt in his lower back and he grabbed while spinning around.
"Oh, I didn't mean to be a fright! I thought you were a homeless person, so I followed to see if I could help." Aefia said while smiling. "You know, I have some trauma with greasy-faced, greedy people like you."
The man looked at the thing he was holding, a knife and the sharp blade caused his hand to bleed. A gun was pointed at his head and without a second to block it, he fell to the ground with blood spewing out of his head.
"One down. Let's see how many more." She picked up his flip phone and sent a text before closing it shut and flinging it into the air and catching it back. "Exactly six more then. He must have thought himself smart, but I have some hunting to do." She said as she walked back towards the restaurant.
"Where the heck had you been! We came out looking for you and I had to cover up for you!" Helio spoke while grabbing onto her wrist and speaking softly so no one heard. Aefia looked towards the bag and took it instead. "I was out there exterminating a few pest. I will need my bag back, thank you for taking care of it though."
She waited for him to let go, "If you don't believe me, you might enjoy the next scene." She spoke as she looked towards the six people approaching at once. They all had bats and one had a chainsaw. "What's going on?" Helio asked concerned.
"Just wait and watch." She spoke while standing straight with zero regret on her face. She was still stuck on the tight grasp, but she managed to unshealth her knife with one hand only. "Was it her?" A fat man asked while pointing at Aefia with a bat.
"Must be. An officer huh? She looks like a student. Mustn't be a hard task then." One man jumped in front of her and held his bat high into the air. But Aefia held out her knife while steping forward, "a cutlery is powerful enough for me to deal with on all six of you."
"What are you going to do? Cry to mommy?" A man made a weeping gesture with both of his hands. "Who? Me? I was thinking, that you guys were the ones who were going to cry to there mommies to bail you out of jail." She smiled while bending low to pounce at them. But Helio just tightened his grip on her wrist.
"Must be nonsense she is talking about. Alright guys! Let's get some blood drawn." The man in the front spoke as he raised his bat again. Suddenly, sirens erupted from both directions and purplish colours flashed.
Police came out with guns clasped at their hands. "Thieves! One has a chainsaw while five others have bats!" An officer shouted as he slowly neared the vicinity with hand-cuffs. "We had received a message about an attempted robbery at this restaurant." Another said while bringing more hand-cuffs.
"What do you mean? We are renovators!" The one holding a chainsaw spoke. "That girl pointed a knife at us!" While the police officers were locking them up, they inspected them too. "Then explain the bloody blade? How many murders have you committed? Maybe you killed the 'girl' you mentioned."
They were all taken away, one by one as the their weapons were ceased away from their hands. Both Aefia and Helio watched the scene from the distance, while Helio remained silent and shocked, Aefia remained confident and grinning.
"What was your point of doing that?" Helio asked after a very long time. "Well, the first person was the most problem, so I was easily able to get the remaining of the gang detained. Luckily I got confronted by that drunkard that I managed to stop more trouble from arising. Guess you can say...I was just contributing into this city with a price of a dime." Aefia replied while all proud.