A few days passed, and the church was painfully quiet, the place was getting dirty. The holy mass is still held, yet both of my parents are absent, and I had to be the one attending.My mother is in the church's room, which is also considered a confession room, on the second floor all day. Even in the past few days, I felt worried every minute. I have to walk from my house to the church to knock on the door and bring her food every day.One time, I caught her creaking the door open, but her eyes widened as she saw me standing just outside with a tray of food, and my heart cracked as I saw her appearance; she has a black eye, bruises everywhere, fuzzy hair, dark circles under her eyes, and she was extremely thin."M-Mama..." I sobbed as I put the tray of food on the floor and hugged her."What did papa do to you?" I cried while wrapping my arms around her waist."Allura, I'm sorry. Callista, baby. Let me call you that... I'm sorry, Callista, come back." She said with a hoarse, cracked
"Marry...? That's ridiculous." My smile kept as I read the letter once again."Is that even possible for me?" I whispered while my smile faded."It's forbidden, everything I do is forbidden."I inhaled deeply as I folded the paper and stuffed it into my pockets, but my attention was drawn to the one spot in the chapel where the lights were swiftly flickering.I was about to fix the lights until I heard my mother call me, which caused me to remember that I'll still be checking on her."Callista!" My ears perked up as a ringing voice in my ears jolted that made me remember that my mother is inside the room."Ah, yeah, I almost forgot. I'm coming!" I shouted as I rose up from the pew and headed down the church's second-floor balcony to check on my mother after entering the narrow stairwell."Ma, what do you ne-" I said as I opened the door, but my eyes widened and my stomach dropped at what I saw."MA!" I shrieked as I knelt down beside her unconscious body on the floor. She has cuts all
202211:11Silence. Remorse.Only the ticking clock could be heard inside the room, especially the hazel-eyed woman, whose eyes were filled with void and blatantly stared into the frigid atmosphere."Allura..." Fernando said in a barely audible voice."Years ago, the young guys who are now a dangerous criminal organization known as Regio told me that if I don't show myself up to you, they'll help me get out of my case in prison, but they deceived me, and I willingly accepted my sentence." My father said."After your mother died, I've been having dreams, sometimes, even nightmares about her, and she never left me, she never did." He said."After you woke up from the coma, your stepmother... she took care of you, pretended to be your mother, and the one who helped you graduate.""Regio is dangerous, even if they were still a child." My father faces you with tear-filled eyes. "Y-Your stepmother... I had no choice... She- She plays a role in this. Without her... w-we're-" He added, but co
1 YEAR LATERBangI clicked my tongue as the bullet penetrated through the center target, and I sighed as I pick up more ammo and inserted it in the magazine's Glock. I lifted my arms once again, this time aiming for the center target while gripping the pistol hard and firmly, waiting for the perfect moment to fire.BangSmoke came out from the muzzle part as I blew it after the bullet landed perfectly on the target.I fixed my belt around my waist as I kept my Glock inside one of the belt's pockets. I'm wearing a tight black long-sleeve shirt and slacks with a belt around my thighs that has pockets and around my waist.A year had passed, and I knew about my heinous past which I never wanted to go back to. I decided to live with Araoluwa and move on with everything, especially when I left my father in a juvenile and cut connections with him, and now I'm starting to forget about everything.Even The Regio."Allura," I heard Raven from behind as he entered the training ground just outsi
FLASHBACKSAfter a week of knowing my past and from the juvenile, I decided to live with Araoluwa, since I had nowhere to go. Regio isn't an option. That one week was the worst in my life; I was staring at the wall for days, refusing to eat, until I finally decided to pull myself together, since being like that wouldn't help me at all, and now I'm here."So, have you decided, Allura?" Amanda asked while the two of us are standing in front of the training ground just outside the mansion. "Do you want to train to be able to be one of Araoluwa's members and be my right-hand man? Don't worry, you're free to refuse, Allura, no pressure!""U-um," I gulped in nervousness as I saw the training ground, people were being beaten up, there were gunshots everywhere, mentors were being ruthless with their trainees, members were being yelled at, and they were being forced to do laps around the training field if they made one mistake."Ah right, you're still a newbie. Don't worry, the mentors won't t
"Ooh, so this is how you reload this rifle?"I asked Raven who was smoking a cigarette while I was outside the training field with him, testing out guns."Mhm, there are more similar guns to that, like these," him said as he tossed a few rifles to me. "Catch."I quickly catch one rifle with a single hand with my quick reflex, and, of course, Raven also trained that."AKs? I'm not a huge fan of AK-47s. No, M4- my recoil control can't handle this! Is it really necessary to pair this with an Uzi?!" I pondered as I handed the other guns back to him. "Give me something more like an FN SCAR." "Chill out, we're not learning automatics yet—" Raven said, but he was cut short as I quickly continued to shoot at the target."Hah?! See that?! HAHAHAHA!" I grinned as I continued blasting the target as the ammo spread out and ripped the target completely off, leaving a gaping hole till it was worn out."Seems like you learned that in advance again." Raven muttered as he crossed his arms."Uh—? What
"It's more like a masquerade ball!"Amanda announced to Araoluwa at the long table while reading an email she received from a certain business organization that will host an event at the nightclub that would be similar to a masquerade ball."Really? We're invited to that?" Goro blinked. "Seems a little extra bro.""Nothing is extra, Goro," Hasen laughed. "My acquaintance owns that luxurious club in Tokyo. They're also hosting a little masquerade ball for their business event, and he decided to invite us, bringing us a special invitation letter.""Especially because Jin is the one who brought it!" Hasen laughed as he slung his arms around a certain man's shoulder who was sitting with them at the meeting table."U-uh, it's not really that necessary. I just issued the invitation. I can go home now!" Jin said as he scratched the back of his neck. He'd just returned after months away and is Araoluwa's most trusted friend. I had never interacted with him before, but I had seen him once just
Even though it was too late, I dashed upstairs to the VIP room, swearing in my head at what a bizarre coincidence it had been."Allura? What happened to you?" Amanda asked as they were sitting on the couch relaxingly while gambling and drinking.But my brows furrowed in analyzation, quickly noticing that half of the Araoluwa executives were drunk, inebriated, and barely sober or conscious. I know what kind of people Araoluwa are, and when they hear that one certain word, they'll be easily agitated. They're aggressive, and they lose control of themselves, especially from alcohol.And I never want to see Araoluwa and Regio together... fighting. It'll cause more chaos and it'll be a bloody scene. All of those horrid scenes flashed in my head, and my heart pounded in fear. "Nothing, it was just a hallucination." I said as I went back to their couch."Oh— are you sure? You look like you just saw a ghost." Amanda commented."Hey, Allura, calm down with the alcohol." Hasen said while gambli