Cassius couldn’t believe how easy it had been. He had entered Havana barely an hour ago, and already he had stumbled into a situation ripe for his intervention. A rift had torn open near the heart of The Commons, releasing a flood of monstrous creatures. Two rival guilds had combined forces to deal with the chaos swiftly, their coordinated strikes bringing down the monsters with brutal efficiency. Corpses of the slain creatures littered the streets, their twisted forms already beginning to rot.

Even though they were hideous, Rift monsters were worth a lot of money. Their remains provided bountiful materials for many creations. Solid, protective armors could be fashioned from the bones. From the hides, you could make tents and tarps to keep the wind and weather at bay. The blood, could brew concoctions that would cure almost anything — and also be used to make deadly explosives. Both guilds strove to get the lion’s share of the carcasses. Their greed turned the battlefield into... well, a battlefield.

The delicate calm over The Commons broke like glass as weapons and Esper powers flared met and voices carried down the lane. Cassius couldn’t help but feel annoyed with the timing. Their little revel of rudeness was destructive and nothing more, but it was still his responsibility to do something about it. Greed, after all, was one vice not allowed to flourish unchecked, and The Commons wasn’t a place one could afford to let hunters have a free for all.

Those idiots put innocent lives in danger. And for what? To line their pockets with an extra credit or two.

Pathetic.

As the diligent enforcer he was, he felt obligated to step in. These small-time guilds weren’t worth much more than a few minutes of his attention, but they were causing a scene. He noted the broken windows and trampled market stalls lining the edges of the battle—collateral damage from their fight. Still, this was a minor distraction from his primary mission. One that would soon be over.

Shadows rippled around him as he intervened, binding the combatants and bringing their skirmish to an abrupt halt. His presence alone was enough to quell the fight, the guild members staring at him with a mix of fear and awe. After detaining them all, he didn’t have the heart to kill anyone else. Instead, he acted with mercy, letting the hunters walk away with a stern warning.

But even as he dealt with the situation, Cassius could sense multiple eyes watching him. It was an intuition he had picked up while living in The Limbo during his younger years. He scanned the surroundings, his sharp gaze settling on a trio of children hiding in the shadows, their eyes wide with fear.

“Oh, they’re just kids,” Cassius thought, dismissing any immediate concern. No need to do anything.

The three children seemed to realize they had been noticed and quickly turned to run. Cassius caught a glimpse of them as they fled: a short, dark-skinned boy; a brunette girl with bronze skin; and another boy with a similar paleness to himself, shaggy black hair falling into his eyes.

As they disappeared from sight, a thought struck him. These kids could go to the Beacon School in the area. He realized that children often knew more about the comings and goings in their neighborhoods than adults did. If these kids attended the local school, they might be able to point him towards the kid he was looking for.

As Cassius was about to leave the scene, the faces of the children lingered in his mind. He needed information, and these kids could be the key to finding what he was searching for. Deciding to act, he melded into the shadows, using his power to traverse the distance in an instant.

From his concealed vantage point, Cassius watched as the children ran, their fear palpable. With a swift, silent movement, he emerged from the shadows, materializing right in front of them. His sudden appearance stopped them dead in their tracks.

The kids froze, turning to see him standing there. Cassius looked at them and noticed their petrified expressions. “Am I that scary?” Cassius thought. “Well, let’s not try to be too intimidating. Kids are very aware of any shifts in tone. Let’s start with a question to open the conversation.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Where are you three headed?” Cassius asked, trying to sound as kind and warm as possible. Despite his efforts, the short kid immediately started trembling in fear. “Damn it, how did I manage to scare him with just a question?” Cassius thought, frustrated by his unintended intimidation.

“Uh, we were just... leaving,” the kid stammered. Cassius couldn’t believe he was getting this big a reaction from a mere question.

“Okay fine, the kind enforcer act isn’t natural. I’ll just act more business-like. I’m sure if I lay out my intentions, they’ll feel less threatened. I’m only wanting to ask a question after all,” Cassius thought.

“You can leave soon, but first, I need some information. You see, I’m looking for a kid about your age. His name is Sabir Quinn. Do you know him?” Cassius asked.

“Okay, okay good job Cass, you have made your intentions clear. Now they know you are not trying to hurt them.”

The three kids in front of him seemed to squirm in discomfort. Their eyes darted back and forth. “Okay, nice, either I’ve just completely destroyed their psyches with fear or they know something,” Cassius observed.

There was an awkward silence upon his delivered question. The awkward silence was excruciating for Cassius; he never did well with children. Not that he ever did deal with children, upon thinking about it.

The girl was the first to break the silence. Cassius cheered in his mind; he wanted this exchange to end. Reluctantly, the girl asked, “What do you want with Sabir?”

Cassius couldn’t help but smile. He’d done it. He had the greatest lead. “These kids can take me directly to him.” Now all he had to do was reassure them that he wasn’t going to hurt Sabir and he just wanted to ask a few questions to help with his investigation.

“I just want to talk. So, do you know where he is?” Cassius enquired with the best smile he could muster. The three continued to look troubled. He couldn’t understand why these kids were so scared. He made sure to tell them he wasn’t going to hurt them. What else must he do to gain their trust?

Just as Cassius was thinking about how to make the three more comfortable, a voice cut his thoughts short.

“You’re looking right at him.” The kid with the shaggy hair stepped up towards Cassius. Cassius couldn’t believe it. His luck was never that good. “The kids are scared shitless for some reason. There’s no reason for them to lie, and it also explains why they’re so jumpy after I asked if they knew him,” analyzed Cassius. There was no way the kid was lying.

Cassius had done it. He could finally stop this investigating nonsense and go back to doing what he does best—inflicting pain on The Triads. Yet, just as thoughts of his next mission crossed his mind, the face of the old woman who led him here resurfaced, her tired eyes brimming with a quiet strength.

The granny had been suffering from Lurmia, a death sentence in The Limbo. The flesh-eating worms slowly consumed her from the inside, gnawing away at her body, leaving her in constant agony. She had begged for an end to her suffering, and Cassius, with a heavy heart, had granted her that mercy. Even as her blood soaked into the ground, he couldn’t help but feel there had to be another way. There had to be something he could have done.

It was too late for her now, but not for the promise he had made—the promise to help Sabir. In her last moments, she had entrusted Cassius with this responsibility, making him swear that he would find the boy and protect him from whatever fate awaited him in Havana.

As Cassius looked towards the boy named Sabir, the weight of that promise settled over him like a shadow. His eyes narrowed with renewed resolve, the easy temptation of cruelty replaced by something heavier, more complicated. He clenched his fists, as if preparing for a fight, but the battle wasn’t with Sabir—it was with himself.

“Found you now,” Cassius muttered, his voice quieter than intended. Sabir’s golden eyes fixed on him, unflinching. For a brief moment, Cassius saw a glimpse of the old woman in Sabir’s determined expression—bravery, defiance, and an unyielding will. “You’re coming with me.”

This wasn’t just another job. The boy wasn’t just another target. Cassius wasn’t sure why, but he could feel the old woman’s presence in his mind, urging him to look after Sabir like she would have. And now, bound by his own sense of guilt and duty, he realized that this was more than a mission. It was his responsibility.

Cassius reached out with his shadows, enveloping both himself and Sabir in a swirling vortex of darkness. He felt the boy’s gaze fixed on him, his golden eyes watching intently. The shadows wrapped around them tightly, obscuring their forms from view.

“No!” Samantha’s scream pierced the air as she lunged forward, her hand outstretched towards Sabir. Her fingers brushed against the swirling darkness, but it was like grasping at smoke—intangible and fleeting. Her desperate grip closed on nothing but air as the shadows swallowed them whole.

Cassius and Sabir vanished in an instant, leaving Samantha standing there, her hand trembling, her eyes wide with helplessness. Max stared in shock, rooted to the spot as silence fell over them like a weight.

Samantha’s outstretched hand slowly fell to her side, her voice a faint whisper. “Sabir…”