Alessandro stared at the man who had killed his granddaughter. He was tied up in a chair, bloody and bruised. Around him were five mobsters of the Bianchi familia.

“What familia is he from?” Alessandro asked, not taking his eyes off the bloodied mess of a man.

“The Cornelius Familia, sir,” one of the men replied. “Tch. Of course.” Alessandro took out his pocket notebook and opened to the page that he had called “possible suspects”. The Cornelius familia were part of the big three mafia families in Italy. Alessandro had guessed that if one of the big three had been involved with the hit it would be them.

“So, it wasn’t the Niotos familia that actually did the hit, huh. So, they hired you?” He grabbed the man by the back of his hair. “I ordered the hit on them, so why is it that they hired one of the big three?”

The man didn’t say anything, he just whimpered, trying his best to keep his composure in this difficult situation. Alessandro’s patience had run thin, he pulled out a revolver from his waistband and placed it near the man's head.

“Don’t talk, then. I’ll go get my answers elsewhere.”

As Alessandro was about to pull the trigger, he heard the click and shuffling of a gun near him. As he turned to look, one of his men had pulled a gun on him. Two of the mobsters pulled a gun on the man and the other two pulled their guns on the other two mobsters.

“I can’t let you do this, Alessandro, you had no authority to kill any of the Niotos members and now you’re going to kill a Cornelius hitman?! And for what, some dumb bitch and her daughter?”

Time felt like it had stopped in this moment as the two locked eyes. “Mateo, how long have you worked under me?”

Mateo didn’t answer. “Since you came into this familia fifteen years ago, I have taken you under my wing AND YOU WOULD PULL A GUN ON ME.” Anger seeped from every pour in the Alessandro’s body.

“The Niotos were planning to attack us. I calculated every move they were making, what they were doing didn’t make sense to me until I realized they were going to attack our land and seiz—”

“YOU DON'T KNOW THAT! You predicted they would! You’ve been wrong befor—”

Alessandro pulled the gun away from the tied up man and aimed it towards Mateo. He let his anger take over. “DON'T YOU EVER INTERRUPT ME AGAIN, I have only miscalculated three times in my lifetime, and every other time, I have been right and helped the Bianchi familia grow.”

Everyone was on edge with their fingers on their triggers. A lone figure, who was in the subspace of that area was patiently and intensely watching the scene play out.

“My dream has always been to take this familia and make it into the big three,” Alessandro shouted.

Mateo just looked displeased and disappointed at his former underboss. “If you go through with this we would be at war with the Cornelius’s, the Niotos, and all of their allies! The real boss gave me the okay, Alessandro. But I’ll give you the chance to walk away, and we will deal with all of this later.”

Alessandro couldn’t believe it, to be told by a young brat like him that he was wrong, to have went behind his back and talked to the Don of his familia to plot against him.

But what he said made sense. He lowered his gun and in the shift of movement the picture of his granddaughter fell out of the pocket notebook in his other hand. He stared at the beautiful angel in that photo one last time.

“This isn’t you, Alessandro, you have never cared about any of your children before so why care about some dumb kid?” one of the other mobsters said, as they all relaxed their guns down slowly.

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

Alessandro picked up the photo and put it back in the notebook. As he put away the notebook, he lit a cigarette and took two puffs before leaving it in his mouth.

“Because this is my justice.”

BAM

He lifted the gun and shot the man tied to the chair. Everyone in that room quickly moved their guns back into position. Alessandro aimed at Mateo, who in turned aimed at him.

Bam

Bam

Bam

Bam

Bam

It was a barrage of bullets and lights that engulfed the basement. The figure who watched the entire exchange, yawned and carefully analyzed the bodies that laid on the floor.

She could see that Alessandro was still alive dragging his bullet-ridden body up the stairs, leaving behind a trail of blood.

He clutched his notebook in his hand and crossed out the names of Mateo and the Cornelius hitman. As if knowing that there was a high probability Mateo could betray him.

Sweating and panting he slowly walked up the stairs. “Got.. to.. get out…”

As if he could. The whole building had heard those gunshots and were now on high alert.

But Alessandro already knew that.

///

Elysium

Underworld arrival zone

Jeremy the ghost stood near the arrival zone of souls in the underworld. It was here that newly formed souls or freshly dead human would arrive and have to be allocated to their correct lines.

While he never had that duty, he was aware and had studied it just in case his master Zhong kui ever ordered him to.

Jeremy was one of the few lucky souls to be taken out of the cycle of reincarnation and asked if they wished to serve in Elysium with the deities. He got even luckier that his master was a noble deity like Zhong kui.

In life Jeremy was a bit of a loser and didn’t fit in with everyone else. Here he got to be a ghost and have a true purpose, one that he was good at fulfilling. Not to mention, the pay and benefits were pretty good.

He was swimming in faith and auruns, the two currencies of Elysium. He stood at the waiting song holding a small white sign with the name “Audrey” written on it.

He was tasked by Zhong kui to meet with Charon the ferryman of souls, who was bringing Audrey here from earth. He was summoned to an emergency meeting and couldn’t be there to get her. His master told him that she could be a bit brash and loud but was a good person.

To Jeremy, those type of people were the hardest for him to deal with but he would never turn down a request from his master.

“I wonder if she got scared when she saw Charon,” he wondered aloud. Charon looked like a zombie. That was on purpose, some souls could be rowdy so Charon would look and act scary to put them in their place.

It was like how farmers put scarecrows up on their fields. Although, Charon wouldn’t appreciate being compared to a scarecrow. Jeremy would also never say that to his face either, he was unbelievably scared of Charon.

Finally, after a while, he heard the waves and ripples the boat made; it was starting to appear in his ghostly vision.

“Yeah, so then they tried to jump me to try and finish me off after I fought off everyone else.”

“Unbelievable. Don’t tell me you were able to fend them off too?”

“Nah, I was already bleeding like crazy! I couldn’t even blink anymore. Beth showed up and was all like, leave my bestie alone and kicked the bitch that was about to jump me.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nah, I’m telling you the truth! Do that thing you told me you can do, read people's souls!”

As the boat got closer Jeremy could hear the conversation that was being had. The boat got close enough for Jeremy to see the sukeban and the ferryman of souls chit chatting together, as if they knew each other for years!

Audrey herself was laid back in the seat without a care in the world. “Wow you weren’t lying, you really are a tough one. Of course, I could already tell. You got that aura about you child,” Charon said with a joyful tone.

As the boat docked Charon opened the wooden door and motioned the souls out that were also on the boat.

“Single file, one at a time please.”

Once it was Audrey’s turn he grabbed her hand and assisted her off the boat. “Watch your step, young lady, and good luck in the Tryfing.”

Charon smiled at her and then looked at Jeremy; his face turned back into a sour scowl. “Later, Charon.” She noticed Jeremy slowly walking up to her holding the sign with her name. “Man that guy was funny, he was telling me these funny stories about him and the Greek deities.”

Jeremy blinked a few times. Charon never looked that happy before, I wonder what she did to win him over, he thought. “Miss Audrey, I’m Jeremy. I’m here to pick you up. Master Zhong kui is in an important meeting at the moment, so I’m here in his place.”

She stood with her hands at her hips and looked around her surroundings. “I dig the vibe of this place, feels kinda homey,” she said with a smile.

“Homey isn’t a word I would describe this place.” Jeremy himself hated being in the underworld and was surprised she would even say that. He was able to move out of the underworld and find a place in Elysium only recently, the fruits of his labor!

“Alright Jeremy take me to where Zhong kui is going to meet us!” She patted Jeremy’s back which he wasn’t ready for, causing him to be pushed forward a bit. Yep, she's someone I don’t like dealing with, he thought.

Jeremy led the way as the two proceeded to head to the main offices of the underworld’s wardens.

“Hey, could you get some food and drinks for me?” Audrey asked.

3rd Tryfing

Official judge: Heroic Greek deity, Achilles.

Support judge: Angel, Damaris.

Chosen deities:

Ra: Demi-God: Darren Donaldson

Lugh: Knight: Ariel Morales

Zhong Kui: Exorcist: Audrey Rhodes

Inari: Polymath: Kento Sanosuke

Freya: Assassin: Charlie Wilson

Nuada: Conqueror: João Machado

Minerva: Tactician ???

Team Arc-Angel: Hero Luther Satenly

Fantasia world: The world known as Helioan

Starting year: not yet decided.

20:45:55