"Are they here?" whispered Jacco.

The three men were now standing in front of an empty house on Oosteindestraat. According to Graham's divination, the target should be hiding there in the same manner as last time; four of them there and there was one person scouting the area for a target house.

"They are. Now let's do as planned," said Valentine, who had switched with Graham just before they left the chapel.

The three masked men got into position; Luuk, with his Capricorn mask, went to the circuit breaker while Jacco, wearing his Aries mask, went to the back street of the house. He was not very suitable for a stealth mission, so his role came into play after the other two finished their job. Valentine approached the door and stood there. There was a thin yellowish mist covering his whole body and looking at it made people instinctively ignore the person. He was wearing a belt with an intricate pattern whose buckle was made of bones.

As Valentine crouched down to get on the level of the keyhole, he could hear the voice of the people inside the house.

"Clemens not back yet?" asked a man whose voice was annoying. Valentine remembered him being referred to as Jopp.

"Nu'uh. He ain't usually back 'till later. He said it's 'too difficult' to find a target now," replied a woman with a thick accent. Her voice was distinctive, so there would be no mistake; she was tonight's target.

"You sure we should be doing this? Last time we were almost busted by the rainbows," asked Jopp.

"It should be fine, ain't it? I have a superpower now. If things go bad, I can just use it and bust our asses outa there," replied the woman.

"This time we will be successful, yeah? I hope the money this time will be enough for me to come home," said Jopp again.

"Right? I even endured that painful ritual so I can get this power. I wanna leave this city soon," said the woman with a longing tone.

"You're not going anywhere until you repaid that man, are you?" asked Jopp. He was always dragging the last word of his sentence, making it sound irritating.

"Yea, don't know what he wants, though. He just gave me the scroll and told me to repay him. What a weirdo..."

Behind the door, Valentine started picking the lock, and not long after, a low click was heard. The door had now been unlocked. He then gestured at Luuk and the latter opened the circuit box.

Bzzz!

"What the fuck happened?"

Once the electricity was cut off, almost all of them started shouting at the same time.

"Maybe we're usin' too many appliances," said the woman.

"Go out there and turn it back on!" shouted a man from the second floor that Valentine recognized as the man called Norm by the woman. His voice sounded irritated.

"You go check!" shouted Jopp back from the first floor.

"What is happening..." said someone lazily. It was Constantino. His voice sounded like it came from somewhere on the second floor, far from the others.

Valentine had quietly entered the house, closing the door behind him. His night vision allowed him to see well in the dark, although the bright moonlight also helped to some extent. He sneaked carefully and quickly into the living room where the voice of the woman had come from before they got the chance to turn the electricity back on.

In the living room, the woman with a thick accent had seemingly calmed down and was now sitting leisurely in the dark. She didn't seem to notice the man with the duality mask, who was creeping closer and closer from behind the sofa that she was sitting on. His Concealment had prevented his presence to be detected, so he could walk silently to her spot, and when he was right behind her, he whispered to her ear.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to go to the middle of the back street quietly,"

Once he had finished issuing his Order, Valentine quickly went ahead of her and headed towards the door leading to the back. The door that was located in the kitchen was locked with a latch, so he unlatched it and exited the house.

The woman stood up involuntarily after getting Valentine's Order. Her body moved by itself and she walked carefully towards the door that Valentine had just opened, avoiding making a noise. She tiptoed silently while inside, her mind was screaming at her body to stop doing what it was doing. She couldn't stop, however, and reached the back street of the house, where three men had been waiting.

As she walked past the doorway, Valentine, who had been standing right next to it, closed the door carefully. The woman was still under the Order because she hadn't reached the middle of the narrow street. Valentine signaled at Jacco and without wasting time, he took out a knife from his pocket.

I've beat a lot of people up and sent many to the hospital. How hard can killing one more be?

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He approached the woman who still hadn't regained control of her body and quickly stabbed her in the chest, making sure he hit her heart. The sharp knife sank into her flesh and warm blood spurted, bathing Jacco with its crimson color. The sensation of stabbing a vital organ with a knife was new to Jacco, so his both hands, which were holding the weapon tightly, were shaking.

The woman's eyes were twitching and her expression was horrified. She couldn't believe what had just happened. Just a moment ago, she was sitting in the comfort of her hideout with the companions that she trusted, and now she was suddenly stabbed in the heart. Blood kept coming out and with every second passing, her death was getting closer. However, she couldn't do anything and that fact made her even more terrified. Her life flashed before her eyes and tears came running down her cheeks as her dying body collapsed to the ground.

"I... don- wa-- t-- die..."

She said with her last breath. The words couldn't completely get out of her dying mouth. The hopes and dreams that she had just built had now all vanished. She had become a Contractbound just recently and was expecting great changes to happen in her life. However, it was all gone now. Her body slowly turned lifeless and the expression of regret and terror on her face would be immortalized.

Luuk, who was supposed to be stealing her belongings, was stupefied and didn't do anything. Jacco quickly pulled out his knife and stepped back with a heavy expression under his mask. It was much worse than he had expected. Taking away someone's life with his own hands was totally different from beating people up half-dead, because the latter, even if the person died, they wouldn't die right in front of him. The woman's last expression and words in life would forever be etched in his memory.

Shortly after, her whole body burst into flames and turned into ashes. There was a brown scroll lying among the ashes and also an object that began to form slowly.

"Where is Jaina?" asked Jopp from inside the house.

The electricity had come back up, and now they realized the woman had gone missing.

"I don't know. Maybe she's in the toilet," replied another man whose voice he recognized. It was Constantino, the Slumberer.

"It's a pity that I pay him a visit in this manner, G," muttered Valentine.

He had promised Constantino that he would visit him to try to recruit the man, but he had been very busy lately and had had no time to do so.

Meanwhile, the object had completely formed. It was a round, white stuff that looked like rice pudding sealed in copper stips. Jacco quickly picked up the object, along with the scroll, and got away from the area. Luuk had already gone ahead and Jacco was trying to catch up.

Valentine, whose hand was now bleeding because he had made a cut with his knife, walked to a tree and started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, offer this blood as a medium,"

The blood on his palm emitted a mysterious yellowish mist.

"For I declare this place under the Shroud of Secrecy hereafter!"

He dropped the blood to the soil underneath the tree. Once he was done, he walked to where the ashes of the woman were and stood there.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order these ashes to scatter in the wind!"

The grey ashes started coming up one by one in a mysterious fashion like they were attracted by a magnet above. After that, they quickly scattered to every direction, removing the last piece of evidence of the woman's whereabouts. The blood around her had burned away along with her body, and only her blood that was on Jacco's face and clothes remained.

Once he had finished removing the evidence, Valentine quickly got away from the area. He had told Luuk and Jacco that he didn't plan to meet up with them again after this mission, so the other two didn't wait for him.

Instead of going home, Valentine quickly went towards the location of his next target as he was last seen through Graham's divination: the park on Herenstraat. It wasn't far from Oosteindestraat. In fact, by just turning right on the junction ahead, he already arrived at Herenstraat, where the bridge crossing Amstel River was. The park was on the other side of the river, so Valentine quickly made his way across.

Before reaching the park, which was just up ahead on the left side of the road, he went behind a tree and lied down in the bushes, away from people's prying eyes. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing. Not long after, his mind started to drift and he fell asleep. Graham woke up just seconds later and he quickly got up. The bushes made his body itchy.

"How can you sleep in this kind of place," he muttered as he cleaned the dirt off his clothes.

Before entering the park, Graham took out his lighter to make sure the target was still in the area. They had only spent less than thirty minutes to deal with the female burglar, so there was a high chance that Lucas Meijer was still there.

The flame from his lighter got bigger and there was an image of a man sitting lazily on the park bench. It confirmed Graham's belief and he quickly put out the fire and put the lighter back inside his pocket. After that, he left his spot and walked into the big quiet park.

There were currently only a handful of people hanging around at the park that was brightly illuminated by the streetlights. However, there were spots where the lights didn't reach, and those spots were usually where sketchy people gathered. Graham went deeper into the park and quickly found the bench where Lucas Meijer was sitting. He looked exactly like he did in Graham's divination; sitting lazily like there was no concern in this world.

He quietly approached the man who didn't even notice there was someone else there. His Gemini mask and the dark attire that he was wearing made him look mysterious and intimidating. Graham sneaked in front of Lucas and once he was within the man's sight, he put his face very close to the surprised man and held him down with both hands, his glowing red eyes stared right at the man. Graham spoke in a very intimidating tone; he made his voice as hoarse as he could, and his mask helped him achieved the intended effect.

"You! From now on you're banished from your home! You are not allowed to set foot even anywhere near your house or approach your family member!" he paused.

Lucas Meijer showed a terrified expression and he couldn't say anything. He was still processing what was happening, and the state that he was currently in didn't help either.

"If you dared to go against my words, you will suffer a fate worse than death!" said Graham with a threatening tone. His voice sounded like thunder in the cold night.

The man still didn't say anything.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to obey the command I've just given you!"

Once he finished chanting, Lucas's expression became twisted, like something was force-entering his brain. After that, he nodded blankly and the terrified expression on his face was gone. He now just looked like someone who was very confused.

Graham quickly let go of his grip and got away from Lucas and the latter stood up purposelessly and left the park. He walked robotically towards the north and disappeared from Graham's sight.

"He should be gone from his family's sight now. This way, we don't have to deal with getting rid of a dead body,"

After finishing his job, Graham left the park and headed home. There had been so much happening just in one day and he felt very tired.