CHAPTER SIX

There was a loud bang, but it wasn’t from Lance pulling the trigger. It came from behind him.

Lance jolted and turned to the side, his eyes widening in shock. The man beside him, one of the henchmen who had followed him into the warehouse, suddenly dropped to the floor. A dark pool of blood quickly spread around his body.

Lance took a step back, his hands trembling. The gun slipped from his fingers and clattered onto the ground.

Porto stared at the body for a second before shouting, “Everyone get down now!”

Everyone ducked immediately.

Then it started.

A rain of gunfire tore through the warehouse walls. The sound was deafening, endless, bullets ripping through wood, metal, and anything in their way.

Lance crouched behind a crate, his heart racing wildly in his chest. He watched pieces of the warehouse break apart from the impact of bullets.

“Shit, we are being ambushed” A man yelled, pulling out his gun.

Porto nodded as he looked around like he was thinking.

“I haven’t even started and I’m already going to die”, Lance thought. “I didn't even get to say goodbye to Tam, and oh Ylva.”

Through the chaos, Lance saw Porto giving signals to the other men, including one he didn’t recognize.

Almost instantly, they all pulled out their guns and started shooting back without hesitation.

More gunshots exploded across the room.

Some of the men around him were hit and dropped to the floor, but the others kept firing like it didn’t even matter.

By now, all the hostages Lance had seen earlier in the warehouse were dead. Bodies lay scattered across the floor, surrounded by dark pools of blood.

Lance felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs.

He shut his eyes tightly.

After what felt like forever, the gunfire finally stopped.

The silence felt just as heavy.

Lance slowly cracked his eyes open.

Porto was standing in front of him, grinning. His gold tooth glimmered in the dim light.

“Wow,” Porto barked out a laugh. “You’re shaking in your boots, boy.”

Lance’s eyes widened slightly. How could he laugh after everything that just happened?

Lance slowly stood up, though his legs felt weak, like they could barely hold his weight.

“You’ll have to get used to this, kid,” Porto said casually. “You’re gonna see a lot more of it.”

“It was the West Gang, the members are different from the usual and the shooting was sloppy, which only means… ,” one of the men nearby reported.

“They made civilians do their dirty work, and didn't want to risk their actual members getting hit in fire,” Porto continued.

He just shook his head.

“Those pests again,” he muttered. “They won’t give up, will they? One day the boss is gonna get tired of them and wipe them out completely.”

Lance barely heard what they were saying.

His eyes were locked on the bodies lying across the floor. Innocent people who had been caught in the middle of something they didn’t even understand.

Then his heart skipped.

One of them was moving.

Barely.

The person twitched weakly on the floor, blood soaking through their clothes.

They were still alive and obviously asking for help.

Without thinking, Lance started walking toward them with a bit of hope that he could help the person.

But he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

A loud gunshot echoed through the warehouse.

The person’s head snapped to the side, their body going completely still, eyes going pale and lifeless.

Lance whipped his head around.

Porto was calmly lowering his gun before sliding it back into its holster.

“You… you killed him,” Lance muttered, his voice shaking. “He was still alive.”

Porto only shrugged.

“Put him out of his misery,” he said casually. “And we were gonna kill them anyway. Whether you agreed to it or not.”

That sentence alone made Lance realize something terrifying.

He was surrounded by the most dangerous and heartless people he had ever seen.

After everything was cleared up, Lance stepped outside into the cold night air. The wind brushed through his hair as he tried to calm his racing thoughts.

“You’ve got a pure heart, kid.”

The voice came from behind him.

Lance flinched and turned.

Porto walked up beside him.

“What?” Lance asked quietly.

“I said you’ve got a good heart,” Porto repeated.

He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, taking a long drag before slowly releasing the smoke into the air.

“It’s gonna get you killed.”

Lance looked away, his fists clenching tightly.

“I’ll never be heartless enough to kill someone like you did.”

Porto scoffed.

“Not the first time I’ve heard that,” he said. “And it won’t be the last.”

He took another puff from his cigarette.

“Get used to it.”

“You won't be staying in your regular apartment, we have a building for the guys, you'll get a room and food there” Porto continued.

“I'm not doing that,” Lance said immediately.

“How about you live alone, an enemy attacks you and you die cause you didn't have proper defense”

That made Lance go quiet, before he reluctantly nodded.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Then Porto finally broke the silence.

“You failed your test today.”

Lance looked up at him.

“You can still stay with us,” Porto continued. “But one day, another test will come. And when it does, you won’t get to refuse.”

He dropped the cigarette to the ground and crushed it under his shoe.

“Whether you like it or not.”

With that, Porto walked away, leaving Lance alone in the night.

Lance stood there in silence, Porto’s words echoing in his mind.

You failed your test.

And what did he mean by the last part, were they going to force him to kill someone?That would honestly not surprise him at this point.

Lance didn’t bother trying to figure it out.

All he knew was one thing.

He would never take someone’s life.

Not for them.

Not for anyone.