The moon set itself sky high as the calm quietness enveloped the entire city with a serene mood. All the hustle and bustle of daily life turned quiet as everyone finally decided to rest their weary bodies. Among the dark houses within the district, there was a single window that still had a bright light, clearly shining as it illuminated the surroundings.
Within this small room, a 12-year-old girl was working hard as she wrote on a piece of paper her homework. She had been working on it for a long time, in fact, ever since she got home she immediately went to do it. Her hands were stained with ink and her face started drooping as she finished it up. The expected scene of this young girl happily sleeping did not occur, on the contrary, she went and took another piece of paper and started working on it once more.
As she laid her finished task beside her, one could see that there were five other papers that also had the thick scent of ink as they were also all filled to the brim with words. She had done this task six times now yet she did not stop, she immediately went to work on one more piece of paper taking another perspective as she wrote it in a different style of handwriting than the other six papers.
She felt especially drained this time around as the mental toll of thinking of seven different answers to the same problem while being wholly original in each was a monumental task in itself. Fortunately, she was what one could call a prodigy, innovative ideas and complicated problems were easily shifting through her mind as she continued on forward. The truly exhausting part of this task was having to particularly focus on the handwriting of other people.
As the moon above the skies, slightly covered by the mundane clouds, finally started to pass its highest point, the young girl also finished the very last paper she needed to do for the day. The young girl smiled as her eyes started to flutter, she was losing consciousness due to the extremely exhaustive nature of what she did. She leaned back on her chair and used it to support herself to stand up, she needed to make that three-meter distance between her desk and her bed.
She took her first step and felt somewhat fine as she took another. By the fifth step, she felt her world blur as she started to struggle to even stand straight. By the seventh step, she was only halfway the distance when she collapsed, quietly sleeping on the cold wooden floor.
The following morning arrived as the young girl’s father knocked on her door.
“Anna, wake up it’s time for school.”
There was no response.
“Anna?”
The man was worried for his child. Immediately, he opened the door as he felt something wrong. When the man saw his young girl curled up on top of the cold floor, he immediately scooped her up and laid her down on her bed.
Anna felt her father’s warm embrace and slightly opened her eyes, “Dad?”
“Anna, you have to stop sleeping like that. It’s been… I’ll call your school and tell them you’re sick-“
“No! I can still go!” Anna vehemently tried to oppose her father’s suggestion as she weakly stood up. Anna’s father clearly understood that Anna’s terrible sleeping habit finally took a toll on her frail body.
As much as Anna’s father wanted to make her stay, his daughter’s determined gaze made him falter in his decision. Her straight form and firm resolve moved him as he continued to weigh the pros and cons of both decisions. Before he could finalize it, Anna stood up and cutely sneezed from the sunlight that she was suddenly exposed to.
“Dad, I need to go to school. I have to submit our schoolwork, if I don’t then I’ll repeat the grade,” Anna looked away as she had a slight tremor in her voice as she said this.
Anna’s father looked at the multiple pages on her desk, the ink splattered on her hands, and the formation of the chair and deduced that Anna fell asleep from exhaustion after doing all of her tasks. If he was a normal person then he would’ve just let it go but he clearly knew what his daughter was trying to do.
“Anna, I’ll tell your teachers that-“
“Dad! They’re my friends! I was just helping them out.”
“Friends… can you look me in the eyes and tell me that you’re friends with them.”
“Err… yeah…” Anna looked away as she said this, clearly uncomfortable with the sudden intervention.
The rough-looking man stared directly into his daughter’s eyes, “Anna.”
Anna slowly placed her eyes and locked gazes with her father, “I… uh… I promise that they’re my friends and they’re not bullying me.”
Anna’s father was about to reprimand her when she suddenly spoke with even more conviction.
“Still!” Anna firmly stared into her father’s eyes and emphasized her next words, “I wanted to do it! They didn’t force me. Actually, I told them that I can do their homework so we can play after school.”
Anna’s father finally sighed and gave in. His precious daughter was telling him what she wanted, and he had no right to intervene since it wasn’t to the point where he needed to protect her.
“This might be a good experience for her in the future. She’ll learn who she can and cannot trust,” Anna’s father internally monologued.
Rubbing his adorable daughter’s head, he set everything up so that she could be ready by the time the school bus arrived. By making her take a bath and setting up her clothes and breakfast, the man attentively showed extreme organizational skills. From having her clothes be extremely neat and tidy without a single wrinkle to even having multiple eggs be fried at the same temperature causing it to all look the same, the man ensured that there were no issues that would arrive this morning.
“Have a good day, sweetie.”
Anna, wearing her school uniform and carrying her oversized backpack turned around and waved back, “I will... I love you, dad!”
Anna’s father smiled and waved back, he kept this motion until the school bus was out of his sight. Now that his daughter was finally out of school, he could prepare for his job. He changed his clothes and changed into a black suit with an odd coloration of dark red lined across the entire fabric making it seem look even more professional. He even wore a transparent layer of gloves that completely blended alongside his skin, making the casual observer unable to recognize this detail. He took his briefcase filled with unknown contents and entered his own car. He had eight hours before he had to take his daughter home from school.
In the school bus, Anna brought out her backpack and took out six papers from it. Immediately, the surrounding children around her brought out ten dollars from their pockets, two of them even took out 20 dollars and gave it to her in exchange for their own homework. Anna happily exchanged her work for money as she excitedly counted the dollar bills that formed a thick stack on her hands. Everyone was in on it, Anna would do your homework, but you had to pay her depending on the task at hand, it also came on a first come first served basis with a few slots being auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Anna formed her own small business by selling her wits to her classmates, she could earn money while still being in school. Everyone kept this transaction a secret as everyone knew that they would get in trouble if the teachers knew about it.
Anna’s eyes lit up as she counted, “50… 60… 75… 80… hahaha! So much money!”
Compared to Anna’s usual five-dollar lunch money, 80 dollars was well beyond the amount she usually received. All the effort she put in rewarded her greatly.
“Thanks, Anna!”
“Wait… wow, you can do that? This’ll probably get me an A+!”
“I don’t get it but thanks anyways! Finally, Mom won’t scold me anymore, well at least this time.”
Mindless words of gratitude spouted out from these children’s mouths as they expressed understanding that Anna was their hero. This caused everyone to like Anna, if anyone were to do anything uncouth then the entire class would rally together and force you to submit. Anna didn’t feel any joy from being in control as she understood that compared to the real world, where she was at the very bottom.
The school bus finally settled in and parked in front of the private school. The driver pressed a button and opened up the school bus, letting out these energetic children out of their cage. He jovially laughed as he saw everyone run outside, basking in the morning sun, ready to go through another day of school.
On the other side of town, Anna’s father was currently sitting down as he talked with a person he was in contact with. He opened his briefcase and methodologically took out the contents of the box. As he opened it, there was a thin sheet of plastic covering a polyester material that truly contained his tools. He removed the thin sheet of plastic and uncovered this polyester material.
At a quick glance, it seemed to be random pieces of an object, carefully arranged in order of how it was supposed to be assembled. He first took out a hammer and a hammer pin, the base of his gun. He slowly put together these small objects and connected them to the handle, he added the spring mechanism and further smaller parts and then finally finished the assembly. He finally crafted the only tool he needed for his job, a gun.
The entangled man had his face battered and bruised and his body full of holes and blood, “Gio! I already told you everything!”
Despite this, Gio did not stop his movements. He then took out a smaller cylindrical compartment in his briefcase and rolled it off on the table in front of him. There were numerous tools such as scalpels and tweezers on it, some were bloodied while others were not. As the entangled man felt his skin tremble and his already weakened knees shake, he tried to desperately escape this hopeless situation.
Gio slowly placed down the gun on the table as he took out his most basic utensil, a scalpel. He went forward and came closer to the entangled man. He leaned down and tidied up the dirtied white shirt he had as he lined the finely-edged scalpel down the man’s shirt, slowly exposing his bare chest and gut.
The entangled man struggled once during this slow yet agonizing motion and accidentally made it pierce his skin, causing dark red blood to flow out. Feeling the sheer pain and agony of this small stab, he started to panic yet at the same time he knew he needed to compose himself lest he undergoes even worse torture than what he was experiencing right now.
As his bare chest was exposed, Gio laid down his scalpel and took out another tool from his arsenal. This time it was nothing but a thin needle, seemingly unable to deal any significant damage. This might seem the case yet when the entangled man saw Gio bring it out, his face visually changed as his mouth started to gape and his eyes start to widen, he couldn’t even utter a single sound as he started to hyperventilate. This was one of Gio’s signature torture methods, self-mutilation.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Screams of pain and agony echoed throughout the empty building as Gio continued to torture the man for information. This was his job, a torturer for his own organization. It was an extremely twisted and cruel job yet it was one that perfectly suited him. He did not feel remorse, nor did he feel that what he did was wrong, he was only doing what he needed to so that his child could live a normal life.
After getting the singular piece of information that he needed from him, Gio took it out and finally decided to use the gun that he had placed down hours ago.
The entangled man saw Gio ruthlessly pick up the gun and aim it straight down his forehead and immediately shouted, “Wa-Wait, wait, wait-“
Bang. A gunshot could be heard as the previously noisy prisoner turned deadly silent.
Gio looked at the premium watch on his wrist, “Oh, it’s about time to pick up Anna,” Gio immediately left after phoning in a number, saying an address, and hanging up.
At Gio and Anna’s home, they both settled in after a hard day’s work. Anna dropped off her bag on the living room floor and immediately started taking off her clothes as she ran to her room to change. Gio gave an exhausted sigh as he begrudgingly cleaned up after her, he tried to explain to her what she needed to do yet despite her superior intellect she just didn’t listen.
“I guess kids will be kids. Don’t you think so, Maria?”
After Anna changed into her homeware, she saw that Gio was in the kitchen preparing for dinner. She immediately ran back to her bag and sneakily took out the money she earned and ran to Gio’s room. After moving a cleanly organized bedsheet, she took out the safe hidden underneath it.
“09… 11… 04… and the same pattern again… there! It’s still my birthday!” Anna brightly smiled as she opened the safe that contained barely any money left, it didn’t even reach a thousand dollars. As far as Anna knew, this was their life savings, so she put everything she earned today and dropped it off inside. She smugly closed this safe as she felt giddy at the fact that she could help out her father without him knowing.
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Unknown to her, Gio was looking from his room’s doorway, warmly smiling as she looked at how determined Anna was. He had known about this small ruse she had been doing behind his back for years now, what the safe contained was all the money she had saved up on her own. When the time came, he’ll give it all back and the entirety of his wealth that he accumulated for countless years. His job paid a pretty penny which let him afford such an exclusive private school.
Anna placed everything back to normal and slowly made sure that it was the same as earlier, without any mistakes. Seeing that she did it one more time without getting caught, her mood improved as she happily walked outside. Gio left as soon as she finished putting the money in, he didn’t want to let his sweet daughter know that he knew, it made her happy so there wasn’t any harm in letting it continue.
After setting up dinner, Gio made Anna’s favorite meal, steak. It was lathered in an extremely sweet and tangy sauce that Anna absolutely adored. As she was tearing into the meat, Gio suddenly said something that surprised Anna.
“I’ve been doing the numbers and we have enough money to go on a trip.”
Anna was about to eat an entire spoonful of meat when she heard this, “Trip?”
“Yeah, a family outing. We can go to an amusement park you’ve always wanted to go to.”
Anna’s eyes widened as she screamed in joy, “Yay!” She felt extremely accomplished naively thinking that her small contributions lead her to be able to visit an extremely fun place.”
“Alright, alright, settle down. We can go this weekend, you can invite a few of your friends if you want-“
“No! Just you and me!” Anna seemed to be extremely strict with these criteria. Gio could only shrug it off and rub her head once more, messing up her tidy hair.
“Daaaad! Stop it!” Anna pouted, she was extremely adorable.
“Hahaha, alright. We’ll have fun the entire day. So, get some proper rest, alright? If I see you sleeping on the floor again, I’ll cancel our plans.”
Anna felt as if she was being weighed down with stones as she remembered something important, she quickly gulped down her meal and left to go back to her room.
Gio knew what she was about to do yet teasing asked, “Where are you going? So, you don’t want steak anymore? I understand-“
“No, no, no! I just had uh… homework I forgot to do! Yeah!” Anna screamed from within her room, forced to speed up so that they could finally go on a family trip after so long. She had been looking forward to this for such a long time, ever since her mother died, it hadn’t been the same but if Anna and her father, Gio, went and finally had some fun then perhaps, with the slightest chance, she could be happy again.
Gio finished his fun teasing his daughter and went to brew a cup of tea for himself. As he set the water to boil, he started to read the text message that he was sent for his next job.
“Name: Johnathan Dyson, find out information about who the moles are on our side,” Gio’s previously warm eyes turned cold and frigid as he continued to read on.
“Location: 52g4 hkk3 t5o88,” Gio uncoded the message mentally as he was taught to. This was to ensure that it was as secure as possible. Only Gio and his contractor know this specific sequence as each and every single other person in his field creates a personalized code that only two people know about. This was to ensure secrecy and ease of pinpointing who betrayed the family.
This had been such a normal occurrence that Gio even used to read his orders even when Anna was around. He had been so desensitized that the innately cruel act of murder didn’t even make him so much as bat an eye.
Gio heard the teapot boil as he stood up and expertly brewed his preferred tea leaves. After finishing his preparations, Gio eased down into the living room and decided to watch some television while enjoying his tea as his pastime. The light outside soon turned dark as the once-looming darkness encroached on their humble abode.
As Gio was relaxing during his leisure time when he noticed something odd, the vividly colorful images on the television were starting to blur and their very energetic voices turned dull and monotone. He looked around him and saw furniture warp and deform as his mind slowly numbed itself from all its senses. He let go of his cup of tea which shattered upon impact on the floor, creating a hot damp spot on the carpet. He used all of his will to get up and run toward his own room. Despite his quick reaction, he was no match for the poison that was striping him of all motion.
“A… Anna…. Ann… Ah…” Gio tried to desperately call for his daughter, yet his throat started to turn stiff as his last try for help was rendered worthless. At the corner of his eye, as he lay down on the floor, he saw a very familiar suit, one that he used to wear to his work yet it had a blue hue instead of the dark red one he had.
“Gio Arvani, tsk, tsk, tsk, you just had to push it too far for far too long. You know there are rules to this… so why did you do it?”
“Guh… Gahri… Garry… you sni… snitch…” Gio tried his best to speak but with poison completely depriving him of every sense possible, it was already a miracle that he could utter a single word.
“Gio, the Bloody Hand of the Czaro Family, my oh my how far you have fallen.”
“Guh… fuh…” Gio was still struggling to speak as the poison continued to spread throughout his body. He could no longer even sound out humane words, his entire vocabulary was nothing but gurgles and grunts.
Garry looked behind him, seeing a pink door decorated with cute wordings and a photo of a young girl cheekily smiling at the camera. He didn’t say anything but instead, he looked between the door and Gio. This small motion completely aggravated Gio, he fully knew what Garry was implying.
Gio had been in this business for an extremely long time, he knew what was going to happen and there was nothing he could do to stop it. His body was shutting down as the poison was starting to finally constrict his muscles to the point that he was choking himself.
“It looks like it's finally settling in. Don’t worry, by the time you wake up you’ll see something very familiar. It should calm you down when you see it. Good night…” Gio’s consciousness finally started to darken as the very last word that Garry spoke made him shudder.
An unknown amount of time passed as Gio finally regained his consciousness only to be met with an extremely familiar scene. A single source of light is a light bulb that flickers ever so often. The musty air that’s scented with blood and rust, was a reminder of how many people had taken his place right before himself. Not to mention the most eye-catching thing in the room, the set of morbid tools that were designed for the most painful methods of torture.
Gio had resigned himself to this fate as he knew what he did went beyond what the common agreement between these families was. He was planning to leave, and no one was kind enough to let him do so, most of his wealth had been used to contact brokers that had contacts with people that could safely escort him and his daughter away from all this bloodshed.
Gio had thought that he was home free since he had already gone over the most dangerous part of the transaction, moving the money under the mafia’s nose. Unfortunately for Gio, his close acquaintance sold him out to get himself into better standings within the mafia.
For what was about to come, if Gio was given the option then he would’ve immediately, without hesitation, chosen to commit suicide. The true horrors that he was about to experience would make even the most steady man on earth shiver in fear. He should know, he the one of the best in the field.
The echoes of pained screams and cries from a distant past filled his mind. He was about to suffer greatly, even more so than what the mortal mind could possibly conjure. To take on this profession was to abandon your humanity, to become the nightmare that makes grown men run and young children cry. To exist as a form of pain in itself, to understand that the other party is nothing more than an outlet for your own sick and twisted thoughts.
Gio had both his arms shackled, being chained up to the ceiling, and both his legs chained to the floor. He was dangling in mid-air as he wasn’t even allowed the slightest maneuverability, even his neck was static as a helmet-like device ensured that if he moved too much, a blade would poke holes in his spine, being a non-lethal injury while making one experience one of the greatest pains known to man.
Gio was left with nothing but the encroaching fear of what was about to come. Having no other loved one left other than his child, he wished that at the very least they would spare his daughter for she didn’t deserve a father like him.
A creaking sound could be heard as a heavy rusted iron door opened showing a man wearing a black suit with a blue hue, signifying a person that Gio knew very well since this was the very person that sold him out.
Gio grinded his teeth as he grumbled, “Garry…”
“Oh, Gio, if you stare like that your wife would get jealous,” Garry had an extremely wide grin as he waltz closer to the set of tools atop a table. He cheerfully walked over, creating small gestures to what one would be able to discern as a dance.
“It’s going to be a very loooong night, Gio.”
Gio gave up all resistance against his captor and numbed himself by using his repressed madness to try and cope with the upcoming pain. Garry saw Gio’s body droop even further down and sighed, he knew that Gio was trying to limit the amount of pain left in his body by shutting everything off.
A technique that requires extreme mental fortitude, and an essential skill that every single professional in this field possesses.
“Well, well, well, I knew you would be troublesome so I decided to bring someone ‘new’.”
Gio understood the extremely terrifying scene that was about to come.
“It would’ve been boring if it was just the two of us so I thought-“
Gio’s eyes didn’t even bother creating a façade as he immediately bawled his eyes out, tears were falling down like a waterfall.
“Crying? That’s not going to change anything now, is it?”
Gio’s breathing became irregular as he started hyperventilating, he didn’t want to see, nay, he didn’t even want to think about that singular possibility.
“Anyways, I’ve always loved dolls when I was young. They were so cute with their porcelain skin and pretty ribbons. If you take care of them well then they would last for an extremely long time while retaining their beauty.”
“…”
“No more responses? Yeah, I guess that’s as far as you’re going to get to breaking down.”
Garry went outside the room and started to haul in a giant cube. There seemed to be a slight whimper inside it. If Gio was given the choice, then he wouldn’t hesitate to die right now. Even if he was tortured for years before dying he wouldn’t have had minded as long as he didn’t see what was left of her.
“So anyways, here she is. Your brand-new daughter! I took some… creative liberty with her. You can thank me later.”
Garry opened the metal cube’s hatch as Anna’s face was the very first thing that showed up. Her face was untouched as her clear eyes and silky hair were untouched. Garry didn’t immediately show Anna’s transformation as it would’ve ruined all that build-up he set up.
“Wakey wakey, Anna. Rise and shine, cutie.”
As Anna’s eyes opened, her first and immediate reaction was to shriek in an agonizing cacophony. Her high-pitched scream was filled immensely with trauma that no man should ever experience, much less a young girl such as herself.
Garry tilted his head and winced as he heard it. He took out a very long needle from the table and placed it in front of Anna, right after seeing it, countless traumatic memories and heartbreaking scenarios appeared in her mind. The sheer brutality she saw already broke her mind, the only thing Garry had to do now was to break her body.
Anna’s entire body froze as she fully focused on the extremely long needle that had once entered her body, numerous times. Each time she experienced it, she would be reminded of being ripped apart again and again, each time more painful than the last. It initially started with a single inch, slowly growing by half an inch each time until it finally reached the length of a 40-inch-long needle that pierced her very being. In fact, there were four needles in her body right now that were still embedded from their previous session.
Gio’s mind was breaking away, withering away. His very own flesh and blood were crying in agony a few feet in front of him, yet he couldn’t do anything but watch. He saw that his once innocent and prodigious child was nothing more than a toy used to torment him.
Was trying to live a normal life really deserving of this punishment? Gio was forced into this job by his parents due to their debt, being forced into accepting it as he slowly grew numb to the suffering he inflicted on others. Why was the price for finding solace in pain this?
Anna’s frozen face spoke volumes of what she went through. Garry smiled, satisfied that his training managed to make its way to Anna’s very core being. She was getting one step closer to being a beautiful doll that he had always dreamed of having.
Garry then immediately lowered the hatch one more, time now showing Anna’s head down to her shoulders. She seemed to have no clothes on as it slowly lowered. Oh, how Gio wished that was the only thing missing from her. Other than the mental anguish and pain she was suffering, there was one more even glaring aspect that was missing. Gio couldn’t even bear to look at what his daughter had become.
A once-prodigious young girl that had a heart of gold was now nothing more than a broken person with trauma that would last a lifetime. Even if she managed to escape as now, Gio had no doubt that she would most likely take her own life before even thinking of what her next meal would be. Gio’s loving child that was doing homework a few days ago was nothing more than a trophy for this sadistic monster. “Don’t you like her makeover?"
This ‘makeover’ that Garry referenced wasn’t even remotely close to being one that beautified her. Playing the devil’s advocate, if you had a predisposition to liking guts, blood, open muscle, and torn injuries, you would be extremely interested in what Anna’s body had become. From his neck downward, there wasn’t a single inch where she had skin, expertly removed by Garry.
“Yeah, her skin was really smooth. In fact, I made it into a pretty dress. I’ll show you later, you would love to see it.”
Anna was completely silent as she tried to drone out the voices in her head, she wanted to escape as well yet her limbs were bound and she was in constant pain as the open air continued to assault her open wounds, that being her entire body.
Garry was having the time of his life, everything was going well and his plan was finally bearing fruit. This was the best day he had ever gone through ever since his first kill. Everything was going well when the rusted iron door creaked open once more.
“Garry, the boss… what the fuck did you do?!” Another man showed himself as he wore another suit that had a light green hue. His pure expression showed just messed up the entire situation. He saw a young girl’s skin ripped off as Garry paraded it around in front of her father. This was way beyond the orders that they gave him.
“Anthony, I can-“ Garry’s head was immediately blown open as Anthony, the man who wore the light green hue suit shot him in the head, unhesitatingly. The man who caused so much pain and anger within Gio was finally dead but it did not give him even a moment of glee. He was too troubled about the fate of his daughter.
Anthony glanced at Anna once more and visually retched but managed to keep it in. He was purely disgusted at the very scene he was looking at.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Anthony stomped his foot down as he slowly edged closer to Anna who had dull eyes, clearly losing hope as she resigned her fate to her own demise. She didn’t even bother changing her focus in the distance.
Anthony crouched down, trying to process everything that had just happened. He was just about to tell Garry that Gio would’ve been tortured enough and end it all, but that psychopath just had to bring in an innocent person, a child no less. There were rules against this behavior yet Garry the psychopath didn’t even bat an eye as he mercilessly tortured her.
“Gio… I… I don’t know what to say. We didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Gio’s broken mind could only utter one last thing, “Kill her. Please.”
Gio’s very flesh and blood and he just ordered to kill her. Gio loved her so much that he needed to do this.
“This… I understand. I’ll kill her after you-”
“No.”
“Huh?” Anthony didn’t understand what Gio just said.
“I want to see her suffering end with my very own eyes,” Gio’s steely resolve made Anthony hesitate even further but understanding his thought process he followed it, “Very well.”
Amidst this unbearable situation, Anna regained a tiny bit of clarity, “Da… dad?”
“Anna? ANNA! Dad’s here… Dad’s… here…” Gio cried out at the very top of his lungs and his voice slowly weakened.
“I love you-“
Bang. A gunshot echoed throughout the room as Anna’s head was pierced through with a bullet. Her short sweet-lived life ended like this, Gio had nothing else to live for.
“Sorry, Gio. I really am. If I had to listen to another word, I just don’t think I could’ve pulled the trigger,” Anthony was breaking down as he just had to kill a small innocent child of his own volition.
Gio didn’t cry nor did he show any expression, “I understand. Do it.”
Bang.