“Mom, someone spilled choco milk on my shirt.” Little Madelaine pulled her shirt to show the brown stain on it. Her eyes were red and puffy as she looked up to her mother who gave a sad smile.
“It’s okay honey, no harm done. Let’s just wash it off at home, okay?” her mother answered, grabbing her hand, guiding her out from the school.
“But she intentionally poured it to me! And…this is Mickey,” she insisted pouting her soft pink lips, her fingers trailing over the sequence design sewed on her shirt that followed the shape of her favorite cartoon character. “This is my favorite shirt…”
“I’m so sorry about that, Mads. I’ll talk to your teacher and she will handle whoever did that, okay?”
“Why don’t you just scold her yourself, Mommy? I had one classmate who accidentally hit her face the
The red sedan car ahead decelerated and slowly turned to the right where the road leads to the city. Iris stepped on the brake, bringing the car to a halt, looking at the sedan slowly blur from her eyes as they take the detour. She stepped out of the car, the little hairs around her nape raised from the cold breeze that hit her skin. The month of iced coffees and tan lines had gone off and the raging storms and almost negative degrees celcius weather took over, one which Iris loathed from among all seasons in her life.She grabbed the freezing metal bars of the “DEAD END” barricade placed at the center of the unpaved road which was just a few steps away to an unfinished residential location built for the homeless people but was just used as a front act during the election of officials—one for sure to gain their vote, and two to show fake humility to the people.Max got off the car following her, frowning on wh
The assassin assigned to the back door stepped out to greet her. With a cocked eyebrow, his calloused big hands reached for the machine gun hanging around his barrel chest. “What are you doing here?” he asked when Iris finally approached him. She noticed the eerie silence around, her eyes flickering on the window upstairs.“I need to check the officers,” she answered boldly, narrowing her eyes on the Nightcrawler trying to recall who was in front of her. Barely knowing all of their faces, Iris had gotten used to seeing only two to three assassins that she usually meet to hand over their rivals and gang chickens back on when she was just hunter. She noticed that there were new faces like this man, ones that were grubbier than those she knew. She barely knows their gang members but if there is one thing remarkably common about them is that they always let their guards down around themselves. “You all will be fuc
‘I told you there is a proper way to deal with it, haven’t I?’Iris was afloat. She knows because she has been looking for a concrete surface below her feet but she couldn’t feel anything. She wanted to open her eyes, but every time she tries, her eyelidsfelt like tearing apart. ‘You didn’t listen to me, Madelaine. I have told you a hundred times not to use your power against anyone.’‘But Mom…’ she sobbed, not really parting her mouth to utter the words. She said it aloud in her mind instead, in where the soft soothing voice of her mother lingeredto talk to her. ‘They killed you…I’m lost too—I don’t know who I’m supposed to side with anymore.&
The knob twisting open caught Claire’s attention, there wasn’t a knock which should have come first if it was the hospital people. Her hand reached automatically under her pillow and searched for her gun. Her eyes caught the clockat her bedside tablealmost ticking to three in the morning. She unintentionally had to spend all her energy at nightfor she had been sleeping all day, missing the fact that no one visited her except for the nurse who occasionally checks on her vitals. Her phone hadn’t rang once and hence also lie rested on the bedside table idly. Her fingertips finally felt the rough handle and as the door swung open she pulled it and pointed it outward. Through the dimness. Her eyes were able to see aslender figure slid through, thin arm searching for the wall and flicked the lights on.Claire sighed in relief when the light painted the room in a bright glow. The pace of her breathing normalized. “Anderso
Max’ mind was swirling along the waves of events that happened so fast, he could not remember them all. One moment his heart was pounding fast as he ran towards the house in a remote residential area and climbed up to the second floor that he wasn’t even prepared to do, and the lack of training was almost certain to bring him to his death either by falling or with the Nightcrawlers would catch him. But he mostly remembered the joy and excitement he felt when he finally broke inside and saw the same expression to the ten officers who were all stripped off of their clothes and tied like dogs at a freezing cold room. Freeing them from the ropes was the only minute that felt right, and at the exuberance of their joy when Max gave the floor a jump to give a sign to Iris he had done his part just like what she had instructed, he realized it was the gravest mistake he ever did. He remembered hearing the rain of gunshots underneath them and his first instinct was t
The rain poured hard, slashing on the windshield of Max’s car as he drove off to the address of the Sanatorium that William had sent. His eyes drifted from the road to his cellphone resting on his cup holder, thinking about the strange call Iris had made. It wasn’t that he didn’t like what she said but rather if she had really meant it,becauseif there’s someone who’d be doing everything to stop him from going to William, it would be her. A lightning slashed through the starless sky and the thunder roared after, it wasn’t that long until Max had found the tall castle-like institution—a total creepy place he thought, butthen he realized it was the place he really expected knowing thathe’s dealing with a psychopath. Stepping out of the car, he didn’t mind getting drenched on the rain. A warm light was coming from inside, creating a shadow of a man stretched over the ground by the front window. He narrowed his eyes,blin
The long steel bar scratching against the window glasses woke the little Madelaine up from her sleep. Hugging her crocodile stuff toy her Mom gave her, she jumped out from her bed and sauntered towards her door but immediately halted when she heard a loud thud coming from outside. Gripping the knob with her soft tiny hands, she twisted it open and peered through the small gap she made. She heard her mother’s cries, pleading as she knelt on the floor with her hands cupped together, her back turned on Iris. She flinched upon hearing the sharp noise of the steel bar as it clanked on the tiled floor of their house. “Please, don’t take my daughter, you can bring me instead…please!” her mother cried out. From the gap of her door, she could only see half of his fath
William didn’t even flinched for a bit, but his eyes carried dismay and pain, as if he had never expected Iris to actually shoot him. Of course he didn’t, because Iris had always been submissive and loyal, he mistook it as an affection. That’s when he confirmed that she feels nothing towards him, not a single sentiment nor a speckleof respect. He looked at Iris’ face filled in horror as she fell sitting on the floor, and suddenly, his brother’s face flashed before his eyes—the face of agony when he was suffering from his sickness and the face of euphoria when he met Iris as his gift. He realized all of it just went straight to the drain basing on Iris’ change ofdirection. He could’ve killed her right at that moment, he could’ve told Max everything that he needs to know about her, he could crush her world in an instant and tear her heart into pieces that will never be mendedagain. But how could he d