"The fuck you grinning at—"
SMASH!
Glass detonated against his head. The impact snapped his vision sideways and pitched him forward, stars bursting behind his eyes as the world lurched. For a single, disorienting second, everything rang hollow.
He spun back just in time to see her charging him—knife raised, teeth bared.
Arion barely got his hand up.
Too slow.
Still rattled from the blow, his timing was off.
The blade punched clean through flesh and muscle, straight through his left hand, with a sickening finality.
She threw her weight into it—both hands wrapped around the hilt—forcing him backward. They stumbled, boots tangling, tripping over the unconscious Kenny. They hit the floor hard.
The added momentum drove the knife deeper—sliding into his shoulder as she fell on top of him.
"GRAHH—"
He groaned through clenched teeth, pain ripping through him.
"Haha! Mmm—fuck yeah!" she laughed, breath hot, eyes wild. "You enjoy that, asshole?!"
She leaned into the knife, grinding it.
Arion snarled.
He smashed his free arm into her inner elbow, a sharp, brutal strike. Her arms buckled instantly. As her jaw dipped into range, his knuckles slammed into it.
It wasn't clean nor powerful, but it was enough.
Her grip faltered. Her balance shifted.
He tore the blade free from his shoulder—blood slicking his fingers—and without hesitation dragged it across her face, jaw to eye.
Blood burst outward.
"AHHHHH!"
She screamed—pain and horror tangling together.
"Fuck—fuck! You bastard!" she shrieked. "You cut my face!"
One hand flew to the ruined side of her face. The other grabbed blindly—fingers closing around one of the heavy pool balls resting on the nearby table.
She hurled it.
Arion, still spinning, took it across the head.
"Ow—shit!" He staggered, rubbing his skull. "You fucking stabbed me, you crazy bitch!"
They locked eyes for a heartbeat.
Then she turned and ran.
"Where you running off to?" he growled.
Arion, still wobbly, scooped up the ball she'd thrown and sent it back.
"Kyahh!"
It struck her square between the shoulders with a heavy THUMP.
The cry was thin—pathetic. She collapsed hard, skidding on the ground.
Arion stalked after her, rage still coiled tight in his chest, begging to be spent.
She tried to rise.
A hand fisted in her hair and yanked her upright.
"Kya—"
DUMFH!
The woman's cries of pain were cut short by her head meeting the edge of the pool table.
"S-stop it…"
Her arms flailed weakly, nails scraping uselessly against his grip.
CRACK!
"S-tap ish pwease…"
CRUNCH!
Teeth and blood sprayed across the table. Her mouth collapsed into ruin. Her arms went slack.
No response.
Arion tossed her aside like a discarded doll. Her body hit the wall and slid down, lifeless.
He turned back toward where Jerry had been.
Gone.
He moved toward the back, passed a closed door—then stopped, turned, and glared at it.
THUD!—CRACK!
The toilet door exploded inward under a front kick.
Jerry cowered in the corner, shaking, eyes blown wide.
"Now that's over…" Arion said quietly, eyes burning. "Let's carry on our previous conversation. Yeah?"
"Heeeee!"
Whimpers of terror followed as the door slammed shut behind them.
—— ❖ —— —— ❖ —— —— ❖ ——
A car rolled to a stop outside a small estate.
Arion stepped out and tugged the gate.
It didn't move.
"Seriously?"
He groaned as the last of the adrenaline drained out of him.
He climbed the wall, dropped down—and hissed in pain as he landed awkwardly, collapsing onto his side.
"Ughhh…"
He lay there, chest heaving.
"Guess I took more damage than I thought…"
It took effort to stand. More to limp to the door.
He knocked.
Footsteps approached.
"Who is it at this hour!?"
Locks clanked. The door swung open.
"Hey, Unc. Long time no—"
"Arion? What happened?!"
"Well, the thing is—"
His words slurred. Darkness swallowed him whole.
—— ❖ —— —— ❖ —— —— ❖ ——
…
Weeks passed by.
CHZZZ.
"A tragic finding took place today. Enforcers have confirmed the discovery of a young girl, Oline, previously reported missing and suspected abducted by underground gangs operating within Scanten City."
"Initial reports indicate she passed weeks prior to discovery. No confirmation of gang involvement has been established yet."
"Sergeant Treya commented earlier this afternoon—
Thank you for having me. Our deepest condolences go out to the family. There hasn't been a—"
THUD!
"Stop! I don't know!"
"—for over a decade we've maintained public safety—"
PUFF!
The radio drowned beneath the sound of flesh and bone colliding.
Arion stood over a kneeling man. Blood dripped steadily from his knuckles. The man's face was already swelling shut.
"Where are they?" Arion asked calmly. Too calmly. "The traffickers. Tell me."
"I-I told you—I don't know! Only through a proxy!"
"Proxy? Where?"
"He never told me his name! He calls through a one-way line to schedule meetings, I swear!"
"His next visit?"
"Two days from now! Here, he said he had a list of new orders his boss wanted"
Arion stared at him, then nodded.
"That will do."
The man laughed weakly. "S-so I'm free to go?"
Arion looked down at his bloodied hand.
"No. Filth like you don't deserve life."
"No, W-wait, please—"
CRUNCH!
The man's scream froze halfway out of his throat as Arion's fist caved into the man's face.
He felt no mercy for this man, or any of them. They got rich while children, men and women got their lives ruined.
They either came back alive, or unfortunately, maybe fortunately, they didn't survive the torment that awaited them.
That was the grim reality of the tracking business which was veiled underneath many layers of secrecy and corruption.
The sound of tearing flesh and splintering bone filled the warehouse.
KRRCHH!
The man went limp at this point, but that didn't change anything.
SKRACK!
The noise faded in the background, vision collapsed as sound trailed on as echoes.
CRACK!
"Stop! Arion!"
A worried, quiet voice echoed, now sinking down an endless pit as the memory slipped away.
…
THUNK–KRRSH!
The sound of fists hitting through flesh and ice echoed the surrounding woods.
WHMP–SPLKRSH!
A wet crunch followed as knuckles smashed through frozen bone and splurt of flesh. It cracked like glass under weight—thicker, wetter, uglier.
A head with a face was there a few minutes ago, now it was a ruined ice sculpture, with its face mangled and completely caved in.
SPLRRK–TSSHHH–KRRK!
A slushy explosion of half-frozen blood sounded. Blood, pus and lymph liquids dripped and flowed down the ice—It mixed with the sweat, tears and saliva on the floor below.
An orgy of bodily fluids and red ice lay at his feet.
Gore covered his fists; he couldn't tell what was ice, bone, or his own blood.
The real world manifested back into existence. Arion finally gained consciousness, he blacked out for a few moments from a trauma induced shock.
He stepped back, discovering what he had done.
Looking down, he saw his fists, arms and robe covered in a person's bodily fluids.
The sight of it should have churned his stomach. Yet, it didn't.
All he saw was a version of himself, a piece of him he had tried to bury.
He then glanced back at the camp.
"Scum like you don't deserve to exist."
He stretched out his hand, Recall flew into it.
She pulsated rigorously, as she felt the sensation of his Vitalis signals.
They were eerily steady.
Cold.
Murderous.
—— ❖ —— —— ❖ —— —— ❖ ——