My ears could hear a set of soft footsteps is heading toward me, just right around the corner of the large wooden crate I'm hiding behind. I press my back against the wooden box and prepare the tire iron in my hand. Since the woman's voice is closer to my area, then it must be her that is currently heading toward me. The moment I saw the handgun poking out from the corner, I lift the tire iron with enough force to knock the weapon out of her hand.

"Owen!" The woman screams to warn her friend.

I swing the tire iron at her head, but she shoves me away, pushing me back. My feet move behind me, stopping myself from going backward, and then I launch myself toward the woman. My hand brings the tire iron down to her head, but she avoids it again by sidestepping to the left. I see her clenched hand coming toward me, but I didn't block or dodge. Her fist connects to my cheek, I feel the full brunt of her strength, it's painful, but I can withstand it.

Another fist toward me, but this time I move the tire iron and hit her arm. She let out a yelp as her hand moves away from me then I took the opening and hit her in the head. Her body hunchs to the left, she still on her feet and fully conscious. I was expecting otherwise, but it doesn't stop me as I hit her again in the head, knocking her out this time.

"Arete!" The man panic.

Then, I hear a loud boom echo in the warehouse and the shift in the wind beside my face. My body duck and jump behind the wooden box. The man shoots his handgun toward the area where I was. Is this guy crazy? He might hit his friend if he fires his firearm like that. Some of the bullets pierce through the wooden box, I'm hiding behind, and fly by the side of my head but I lean back and in a calm manner, wait for the guy to reload.

"Die!!"

"You think you can mess with me?"

"Do you know who I am?!!"

The pain still resides in my cheek, and I can taste copper in my mouth, the punch must have left a cut on my cheek. I didn't avoid the blow earlier, my lack of fear is affecting my reflex, that's not good, need to be more careful. The handgun let out a clicking noise that it is my signal, I run out from cover and charge toward him.

Even in the dark, I can see that Owen is trying to reload his handgun. I throw the tire iron at him, and it hit his hand knocking the gun out of his hand. I was about to lay a punch on his face when a big guy slams his shoulder against me and throwing me into the wooden crates.

My back crash into the wooden box and breaking it into smithereens. The small wooden debris stabs me causing me to feel a few sharp pain on my back. My eyes wander to the person who crashes into me, it is the big guy from earlier, if I remember his name is Orrin.

"Orrin, take care of him while I go check on Arete!" Orrin nods his head as he let out an angry grunt.

The other guy runs past by his friend and toward the woman I hit earlier. Orrin takes out a large knife from his pocket and charges at me with the full intention of killing me. When he is about to bring down the knife into my chest, I quickly roll to the right on top of the small sharp debris and avoiding the sharp-edged weapon.

Orrin is relentless as he keeps trying to stab me while I roll away. As he is about to strike me again, I use my feet to push myself away from him by kicking his arm then I use the momentum to roll backward and stand up. After I get up, my sight move to the tip of the knife that is heading toward me, I move my hand in front of it, and it pierces through my palm.

I let out a scream as the sudden pain travels from my palm to my shoulders, Orrin then pushes the knife deeper causing me to walk backward until my back touches the wall. The knife guard is stuck on my palm, Orrin's strength is overwhelming me, he pushes my hand back and manages to pierce the remaining blade through my shoulder.

I scream again as the blade inside my shoulder and hand move. My clenched hand punches Orrin in the face causing him to let go of me. I push back the knife, and removing it from my shoulder, but before I could take out the knife from my hand. Orrin grab my body and toss me near where Arete is, my back slam to the floor while my hand with a knife inside of it hit the concrete floor causing more pain.

At the corner of my eyes, I could see Owen is carrying his lady friend somewhere, and I need to stop them before they escape. When my sight set on the large man in front of me, I see he is lifting a giant wooden box and ready to smash it on me. My head turns to the right and sees the woman's handgun that I knock out earlier.

Orrin charges at me with the wooden box in his hands like a rhino trying to impale me with its horn. I crawl to the handgun, grabbing it with my uninjured hand, and aim it at the charging man, but it doesn't scare him instead he keeps on charging at me while covering his vital with the wooden box.

My finger squeezes the trigger twice, a couple of loud thumps echo in the warehouse, the bullet pierce the wooden box but stops as it gets block by something metal in the wooden box. The charging man gets closer and closer to me, my heart starts to thump fast while my mind is calm, I aim down the sight at his knee and squeeze the trigger.

The bullet misses its target.

I'm not going to die here, I squeeze the trigger again, and it hit his knee causing him to drop the box, and giving me an opening then I aim at his head and fire the gun. The bullet hit right in the middle of his forehead causing the charging man to runs a few feet forward before falling face down to the floor and slide toward me.

I guess lady luck is on my side tonight.

But before I can take a breath, my hand aims the gun at the man carrying the woman then shoot it, hitting his leg making him cry out in pain and dropping the woman. I stand up from the floor and walk toward him.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

My other hand pull out the knife and feel the blade moving inside of my palm while I let out a grunt of pain so loud before finally getting it out. Blood drip down the sharp weapon and wetting my uninjured hand, I wipe the blade on my pant before sliding it between my belt.

"Who are you?!" He whimpers out a question.

I look down at the man then ignores his question and kick his face knocking him unconscious. Only then I let out a breath and look around me for a couple of chairs and zip ties.

*

The moonlight enters through the skylight and illuminating the dark warehouse.

My butt rests on the edge of the table while I wrap my hand and shoulder with a long bandage after I disinfect it with alcohol. I was lucky when I find the first aid box in the warehouse, and that class my father forced me to take on first aid actually came in handy. Who could have guessed?

My eyes go to the young girl tied up to the chair beside me, even with all the gun action been happening around her, she still unconscious or maybe she awake. I walk closer to her, and I could hear a quiet moan coming from her.

"Daddy..."

I look at her forearm and notices the fresh needle mark. They must have drug her before I come, she is in a high that's why she is quiet. Well, there nothing I can do, better get to business, I reach for the petrol canister under the table after I pull it out from the car crash earlier. My eyes set on the two people in front of me tied to the chair with zip ties, Owen and Arete.

After my hand unscrews the cap of the petrol canister, I splash them both with its content, and the smell of gasoline lingers under my nose as it drenches their entire body. The pungent smell always reminds me of a car workshop or a gas station, it is understandable that the fume suggests me of those two places.

The man wakes up, shock and scare. When he finds himself tied to the chair, he starts to wiggle his hand out of the zip tie but fails. He then looks at me with intense anger and rage after he fails to let himself go.

"When I get out from this, I will kill you!"

"So much anger..." I look at him unamused by his threat.

"Wh-what's going on...." The woman next to him wakes up groaning and moaning.

"Arete... are you okay?!" The look of concern on his face intrigues me.

"I think, I'm fine, but my headache is killing me, what just happen?"

"And who are you?"

"And why are we drench in gasoline?"

"I'm... I'm nobody, and the gasoline thing is not important right now."

"Nobody my ass!" Owen spits his saliva at my feet.

"If you're here for the girl, take her and leave us. We won't come after you, we promise."

"No way, I won't let him go. He kills, Orrin! I will make him pay!" The man growls at me as he tries to wiggle out from his bound.

"Owen, calm down... please... I don't want to die." She looks at him with teary eyes, begging him to calm down.

The man clenches his teeth as he relaxes his body after seeing the woman's face, "Damn it."

"I'm not here for her."

"What?" My answer surprise the woman, I could see the confusion on her face.

"I don't care for the girl. I'm here for something else."

"What is it?"

"Three years ago, you kidnap someone right in front of her house, and kill her when she escapes." My hand starts to clench without me noticing.

"A girl... three years ago?" The woman rolls the word on her tongue as she tries to remember.

"Your that kid! The one in the coma." Owen finally realizes that I'm the same kid from before.

"But how do you know it was us?"

"Your upside-down dagger tattoo on your wrist and that black SUV parked outside of the warehouse. Oh, I remember that SUV very well."

"Wait, you're the same guy from the gas station."

"It's weird, right? How fate let us meet each other."

"But we didn't kill her!" The woman let out.

"Then who did?"

"Don't tell him, Arete. He will kill us if we tell him!"

"We are going to get killed by him if we don't tell him, but if we tell him at least he will go after the other guy instead of us!"

"Listen to me. Don't! He will do to us more than kill if he found out."

"Who is this other guy?"

The woman is relenting to tell me as she looks back and forth between Owen and me.

"Damn it, Owen... I don't know what are you talking about." Owen let out a smile after he hears the lie coming from Arete.

I take out my phone and dial 911 then I show it to them, "I'm not gonna call this number until you tell me what I want to know." I place the phone on the table and walk to Owen.

My hand takes out the knife between my belt then I place a hand on his forehead, pushing it back and revealing his neck. He squirms under my grasp, but I'm strong enough to hold his entire head still. His eyes widen as I bring the knife closer to his neck, the metal edge touch the skin of his throat.

"What are you doing?!"

"Owen!"

My cold eyes set on the woman beside the man, "you got about 10 seconds."

I cut through his neck with the knife, my hand feels the hard steel wiggling into his meat, cutting through the muscle and artery until it meets with his trachea then I pull back the knife. His blood drip down to my hand then I feel the wet red liquid trickle from my fingers onto the floor.

There a lot of blood coming out from his cut, a human has about 1.5 gallons of blood in them so how long before he lost half of his blood? Maybe, I should look it up in the book when I get back home.

I take a couple of steps back and watch as both of them let out an earsplitting scream. The corner of my lips turns up all of a sudden as I witness the terror that I cause in front of me. Owen begins to choke on his own blood as his own blood filling his lungs, a few trickles of blood hit my face as he coughs out blood.

"Owen!!"

"Hang in there, Owen!!" The woman starts to cry as she sees her man dying right beside her.

"5 seconds left," I taunt the woman.

She looks at me with pleading eyes and an ugly frown showing her distraught. "It was the son of the Russian Mob boss! Boris Dimitri!"

"He kills the girl! He was angry that she escapes her restraint. It was supposed to be an easy job, he the one who plans it all, and he was there that night. I told you everything, please.... call the ambulance, quick!!"

"Where is he right now?"

"I don't know, maybe the penthouse floor at the top of Zatax tower. He lives there with the Mob boss."

"Please... The ambulance."

"No," I said nonchalantly then turn my back on them.

"What do you mean, no?! His dying!! PLEASE!!!" She begs me with all her heart, trying to call on my inner humanity, but it's useless.

"I didn't promise you anything."

My ears hear the man's feet squirm underneath him and the sound of choking as he tries to breathe in the air then the choking stops, so does his leg. May he rest in peace in the afterlife, even though I never like the guy anyway. The women keep screaming his friend's name repeatedly after the man stops moving while his mouth gap open and his eyes roll upward.

I turn around to face the woman and see that she is sobbing. There must be some kind of relationship between the two of them, lovers? I point the knife at the sobbing woman.

"Are you guys a thing?"

"He was my lover... you killed him..." She whimper.

"Well you did take my Daisie away from me, so fair trade or is it an eye for an eye?"

"Just kill me... You monster!!"

"Will do..." I slide the knife down my belt that takes out a box of matches that I found in their car earlier. Shaking the content, I could hear the wooden matchsticks inside of it hitting the cardboard box. She looks at me with terror as I tilt my head to the right slightly with a smile on my face that appears without me realizing it.