The first thing I saw when I woke up was the tip of a knife pointing right at my eye. The person holding the knife was a beautiful woman. She was Donna, the girlfriend of the guy I killed.
“Who are you?” she demanded, her voice full of anger.
I was confused. Then it clicked. I touched my face—it was my cheekbone, my slightly oily skin. I saw my reflection in the knife. I wasn’t Don anymore. I was Zak.
I looked at her and said, “I can explain.”
“Oh, it better be a good explanation,” she threatened. “Otherwise, I’m going to jam this knife into your skull.”
I swallowed hard. I could lie, make up a story, but I didn’t know how she’d react. I didn’t want to take that chance. Fuck it, I decided to tell her the truth.
“I killed your boyfriend.” She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t react negatively, so I kept going. “He was supposed to take me to the courthouse for my trial, but he tried to kill me in the van. I couldn’t escape without killing him and… burning his body. I’m sorry.”
She stared at me for what felt like forever. Seconds passed. I closed my eyes, sure she was going to kill me. Then minutes went by, and nothing happened. I opened one eye to see the knife was gone. When I fully opened my eyes, she was sitting on the sofa near my legs, shocked by what she heard.
“He’s gone? Forever?”
I looked confused. “I don’t think you can come back after being killed and burned.”
Tears filled her eyes. “He’s really gone then. The bastard is dead.” She tried to smile, but tears kept falling, and soon she was crying.
Bagley showed up beside me. “Well, what are you waiting for? A broken girl is crying in front of you after being abused by her boyfriend. You should hug her.”
Ignoring his harsh words, I slowly moved towards her and hugged her. She didn’t push me away. Instead, she held me tightly. This poor girl must have suffered so much under her boyfriend.
“You can let go now, thank you,” she said, pushing me away. I quickly pulled back and sat on the other side of the sofa.
“I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from me. Like I was stuck in a terrible nightmare that’s finally over. You have no idea how good it feels that he’s not coming back.”
I scratched the back of my head. “He was really that bad, huh.”
She licked her lips and nodded. “He was. Whenever I talked back to him in a tone he didn’t like, he’d burn my leg with a cigarette. If I didn’t make food he liked, he beat me with the buckle. If anyone saw me talking to another man, he’d hurt me in bed.”
Suddenly, I felt happy to have rid the world of this man. One less abuser made things a little better, and that made Bagley smile.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Zak.”
She wanted to hear my story—what I was doing before killing her boyfriend, the details of his death, and how I managed to turn into him.
“So, are you some kind of alien?” she asked.
“No, I’m human. Just someone with special abilities, you know. A shapeshifter. By the way, how are you handling all this so calmly? I thought you’d be shocked and want to kick me out.”
She smiled softly. “I am shocked, but more than that, I’m relieved to be free of him. One reason I couldn’t leave was his threats to kill my family—my parents and my little brothers. Living with him was torture, and being free now feels numb, like my other senses are dulled.”
After I explained my situation and how I was on the run, she offered me a place to stay. Technically, it wasn’t her apartment; it was Don’s. But she knew my secret and had leverage over me, so I had to agree.
“What will you do now?” she asked, genuinely curious about my plans.
“I need to sort things out. There’s a whole syndicate and the police after me. I have to stay hidden and be careful, but I also need answers and information. To understand just how deep I’m in this mess.” I paused, then had an idea about where to find more information. “Can you drive me to a newsagent shop?”
———
Blake was in deep trouble. That was the simplest way to explain how he felt. Gale, Mr. Smith’s trusted aide, had given him an ultimatum. If the boy wasn’t found in the next 72 hours, Mr. Smith would take his anger out on him.
When Mr. Smith gets angry, things can get deadly.
For the last three hours, Blake had been scrambling to find any clue that could save him. He checked camera footage, satellite images, phone calls, phone records, and even contacted his school, but found nothing.
“Have you talked to his family?” Amelia asked as she walked up to his desk.
Blake was confused. “How? I told them not to let anyone bother me.”
“Oh, they did tell me. But I said I was working on something important that could help your case.”
Blake waited for her to continue. “And what is this information?”
Amelia showed him her phone, and his eyes went wide. There were several photos of Blake with his mistress at a hotel.
“Where did you get these? Are you threatening me? As a law officer, you know I could put you in jail for this.”
Amelia sighed. “You could, but then these pictures would end up on your wife’s phone in five minutes. I wonder how Helen will react when she sees her husband cheating.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Blake glared at her. He tried to say something, but no words came out. He took a deep breath and thought for a moment. He could arrest her and destroy the phone, but if she made copies, they’d still reach his wife. He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. This was going to be a nightmare.
“Alright, what do you want.”
“It’s simple. I want to help with the investigation.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And what do you get out of it?”
She smiled. “Helping bring Zakir Osman to justice.”
Blake kept watching her a bit longer, trying to figure out if she was lying. But there was nothing that showed she was. Still, he didn't feel comfortable involving her in his investigation. If she found out about his connection with Mr. Smith, she'd become a problem he’d have to deal with. It would be a real mess, to put it simply. So, he decided to take a chance, hoping it wouldn’t end that way.
"Alright, you're in. But you have to follow my lead. And to answer your first question, no, I don't have permission to talk to his family. The higher-ups stopped that."
"That's strange... Anyway, leave it to me. I'll talk to them and see if there's any clue there."
Just as she was about to leave, Blake grabbed her shoulder, and she turned to look at him. "You have exactly one day to find a clue. If you don't, I don't care if you tell my wife. I'll make sure you end up in the worst jail there is."
Amelia smirked. "Are you threatening a lawyer? Someone who knows the law?" she said, pulling his hand away.
He smirked back. "No, just some friendly advice."
-------
Getting to the newsagent wasn't easy. I had to cover my face with a mask, wear a hoodie, and hide my whole body. Don’s Mustang was a convertible, so there wasn’t much room in the back. I ended up squeezing into the front seat while Donna drove. On the way, I had to take off my mask a few times to breathe. It felt like I was suffocating with the roof and windows up.
Luckily, Donna was a quick driver. She sped us to Mr. Mann’s newsagent and we arrived in just a few minutes. She parked right in front of the store and we hurried out of the car and went inside.
Harleen was at the counter, and she looked up at me, confused by the masked man and the woman next to him. We seemed suspicious. I saw her reach for the button under the counter. Damn, she was about to call the cops.
“Don’t press the button, it’s me,” I said, taking off my mask and hood. She gasped. I wasn’t sure what she would do next—call the police or ask me to leave. After all, I was on the run, and she probably saw me on the news. Bagley echoed my thoughts.
“Maybe you should have thought about a better way to reveal yourself if you thought she might call the police.”
But we were wrong. Instead of calling the cops, she ran from the counter and hugged me tightly. “Zak, it’s so good to see you. I heard what happened on the news, are you okay?”
I hugged her back, feeling tears slip down my cheeks. “Yeah…I’m good,” I replied softly. As she held me, memories of everything that happened flashed through my mind—the fight, my arrest, the assassination, and killing those officers. Through all that chaos, I realized how much I needed someone to hold me and check if I was okay.
We pulled apart, and I wiped away a tear. I then introduced Donna to Harleen as just a friend, whispering to Donna to keep my power hidden since Harleen wasn’t aware. Donna nodded in agreement. Harleen then changed the sign from Open to Closed, locked the door, and pulled down the shutters. She led us to the back of the shop, into a small kitchen room.
“Harleen, what’re you doing here, whose watch—” He dropped his sandwich the moment he saw me, clearly shaken. He swallowed hard before saying, “Zak, what brings you here,” followed by an uneasy laugh.
Harleen gestured for me to sit on the sofa. Donna and I settled onto the old red sofa that had lost its original color. Harleen and Mr. Mann sat down on the wooden chairs opposite us.
“Why did you betray me, Mr. Mann? I worked for you, toiled for you, and even tried to save your life, but you stabbed me in the back.”
Harleen laughed, confused. “What do you mean he betrayed you, Zak?” She turned to her father. “Dad, what is he talking about? What happened?”
Her father turned away and stayed silent. The longer he didn’t speak, the more Harleen pressed him for answers. She tried to get me to speak, but I knew Mr. Mann would reveal the truth himself. It would be better to hear it from him.
“Alright fine,” he yelled in response to Harleen’s persistent questions. “I denied that you ever worked here. I told them you attacked them out of nowhere and killed that boy.”
Harleen suddenly stood up, so forcefully that her chair toppled over. “Dad, are you serious? He saved you, and you’re blaming him? Why would you do that? He saved you!”
“I saved you, Harleen,” he yelled back. Then he took a deep breath, looking between Harleen and me. “This shop isn’t doing well. We’re not getting enough customers and can’t pay the suppliers. We were sinking fast. I needed loans to keep us going, but no banks would lend me money because of my bad credit. My friends didn’t have the cash either. So, I had no choice left—”
“You went to Mr. Smith,” I interrupted.
“Yes, but I never met him directly. I wasn’t allowed to. I only met Gale, his right-hand man, through a guy named Tyrese.”
I glanced at Donna, who had been silent since we arrived. “Tyrese, like the drug dealer in Tower Hamlets who always hangs around the basketball court?”
He nodded. “Yes, that Tyrese. I ran into him by accident, and he took me to meet Gale. They gave me £100,000 in cash and said I had two months to pay it back. After what happened yesterday, you can guess I haven’t been able to repay it. Though they did extend my time.”
“And Mr. Smith extended the time to throw me under the bus,” I added.
“Yeah,” he looked down, “but I was also trying to protect Harleen. It was my first time talking to him, but I was in the interrogation room at the jail. Someone gave me a phone—a man named Don.” Donna and I coughed, but Mr. Mann continued. “I talked to Mr. Smith there. He gave me two choices. First, I could distance myself from you, blame you, and not talk about his son. In return, he would reduce my debt to £50,000 and give me more time to pay. Second, I could reveal what his son looks like and have my daughter killed. So, Zakir, as a father, what would I have done?”
I thought about his words. Then I looked at Bagley, who was standing with his arms folded. “It’s a tough situation,” he said. “But it’s your decision. I want to see how you handle it. Do you punish him or let him go? That’ll define the Apostle you become.”
I took a deep breath. I knew the answer but hoped it was the right one. I turned to Harleen. Her face showed shock, sadness, and guilt. I wanted to hear her thoughts, so I asked her Mr. Mann’s question. “Harleen, what should Mr. Mann have done as a father?”
“I—I don’t know,” she replied, turning away.
“What does your heart say?”
She looked back at me. “It says what my father did was horrible. It was terrible to do that to you. But he had no choice; he did it to protect me. If he had a choice, he wouldn’t have thrown you under the bus. That’s what my heart says.”
I smiled at her and stood up. Donna did the same. “I won’t forgive you, Mr. Mann, for what you did. But I understand why you did it.” Donna and I walked out the door with Mr. Mann and Harleen following us. Harleen opened the shutters and unlocked the door. Donna was already out of her car, but I had more to say. “If any of you talk about me visiting or even mention Donna to the police or Mr. Smith, I’ll come for you both,” I warned. They swallowed and nodded. I put on my hoodie and mask, then left the shop and got into the Mustang.
As we drove away, Bagley appeared in the backseat. “I think that was the best way to handle the situation, though I would’ve preferred if we had taken his soul.”
I cracked a smile, which was reflected in the car window. “Don’t worry, this path I’m on will have plenty of souls for me to eat up.”