58 Luke

That massacre was 3 weeks behind us now, but the image was still etched in my mind. The sight of all those people getting shot down, slaughtered. It wasn't something you forgot easily. Yes, I knew we had a plan. I knew it involved "a trap to catch some Rats", but this, this I didn't sign up for. I was not expecting to get shoved to the ground as arrows flew above my head, killing everybody in front of me, no. That wasn't what I signed up for.

I mean fuck, how could I have known. I was told that we would be hitting Rat hotspots to try to lure them into a trap. I thought we would just beat 'em up. Kick the shit out of them. Fuck me. Who the hell am I kidding. "Kill all Rats". What the fuck else would have happened. But no. I saw those bodies. 27 dead. And guess what? 2 of them were Rats. 2! The rest of them I had never seen in the Rats ranks before. Hell, I recognized some of them. They were just civilians. Not fighters. I don't know why they were fighting us, but they didn't have to die. We killed 25 innocent people who didn't have to die. I told it to Danev and Riu and they told me that it was their own fault for attacking us. I mean sure, they shouldn't have attacked us, but fuck, did we need to kill them? We were killers. I didn't kill anyone myself, but fuck, I may as well have, and now, we were marching down the street, parading in victory.

We weren't parading. As Danev called it, we were cleaning house. The Rats had gone back to their wherever they were hiding and weren't even poking a single head out. Now, we were following every lead we had, kicking in the door of every house or store with any ties to the Rats whatsoever. I didn't take long to get whatever we needed to know. We went from house to shop to abandoned housing project, back to another house. It was nightfall when our latest lead took us to an all too familiar building bearing an all too familiar sign: "Mishi's Scrap Shack."

"No." I said. "Fuck that. I'm not going in there."

"Yes." Danev said. "You are."

"I'll stand guard outside or some shit. I'm not going in there."

"You'll stand guard inside and make sure he doesn't try running. When the Rats became the top dogs in the slums, Mishi decided to forget his debt and throw all his cards in with these fucking rodents. We can't have that kind of disloyalty going around our turf. Mishi's about to learn that he made one hell of a mistake."

"Our slums? What? Riu forget about the military district already?"

"What Riu has in mind doesn't concern you. Now follow me."

And so, I did as I was commanded. Danev walked in first, followed by Goni and Sar'di. Then me. By the time I walked in, Mishi, somehow looking even older and more fragile than I had last left them, was standing still, petrified behind his counter, sweat already building up on his face. When his eyes locked onto mine, just as they had those months ago when I had first betrayed him, I felt that same hurt. But this time, I knew he messed up. I knew why we were here and that this wasn't just a shakedown. This was business. I looked away. I knew what was happening next and I didn't want me to be the last thing he saw before it did. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sar'di grab the man by the shoulder, pulling him out over the counter onto the ground, too weak and old to resist.

"Goni." Danev called. "Guard the entrance. Luke, find his stash."

I already knew where it was. I couldn't save him this time. I had helped him all I could last time. I left him money. Hell, it was enough to pay off a guard, buy a carriage ride, and get as far as Ba-Sing-Se and still have money to rent an apartment. Not a good one, but still, I gave him a chance. He didn't take that chance. I couldn't help him anymore.

I tried to ignore it, but still couldn't block out the chaos happening behind me. I peeked over my shoulder and saw Mishi on the ground, clutching his shoulder as Sar'di stood over him, placing a kick here and there as well as the occasional punch. "What are you hiding? What did the Rats give you?"

"Nothing. I don't know what you're talking about."

"What were you hiding for them!"

I went to the storage room door. Of course, Mishi had learned. It was locked. The door was just plywood though, ready to be knocked down. All it took was 3 good kicks at the handle and the door was down in two pieces, a third still hanging on to the hinges by a thread.

And that was the storage room. It wasn't that same room of odds and ends it had been last time. This time, it was swords, bows, arrows, spears, shields. An arsenal. Danev saw it too, as did Sar'di and Goni.

"You call that nothing, you old fuck?!" Sar'di yelled as he kicked the man in the head, knocking his head completely to the side, leaving a nice stain of blood on the wooden floor.

It wasn't over. I walked over to that same lighter floorboard and lifted it up. Some habits people never changed. This was one of them. 8 gold, 14 silver, and 46 copper pieces all lying in a nice iron strongbox. I helped him last time. I can't help you this time, old man. I picked up the open box and brought it over to the store lobby, setting it down on the counter for them to see.

Sar'di smiled, looking back down on the man. "Man, do I wish I had nothing too." He kicked Mishi over the head again, knocking him down as he was trying to rise to a kneel. Mishi knelt down on top of him, pounding his fist on the man's face.

I thought he was going to stop after doing it once or twice, but when he didn't, I looked to Danev. He merely shook his head at me and went back to gathering the supplies in the storage room. Sar'di changed his routine and when he saw the poor man was about to pass out, he went back to kicking him in the side, knocking the air out of him once, then twice, then-.

"Sar'di, that's enough!" I didn't even know I had yelled until the words had already come out. They were all looking at me. Danev, Goni, Sar'di, even Mishi with his one working eye.

"Got something to say, you little shit?"

"He-He's had enough. We got what we want. This doesn't have to go any longer. Let's just grab what he's got and get the fuck out."

"Oh." He said. "Oh. Oh, ho ho oh no. No! We are not just letting him get away with fucking us over time and time again. Fuck that!"

"What more can you do? Look at him, he's go nothing left. We did it. We taught him his lesson. There's nothing left here."

He laughed, looking at Mishi, back to me, Mishi again, then back to me one more time. "What more can I do? How's this?"

And with that, in one single motion, he unsheathed his iron sword, plunging it into Mishi's heart, pulling it back out to let the blood flow, painting the wooden floor red.

I wasn't thinking. Sar'di was down lower than me, sword still and hand, and that look on his face. That look of hatred and sadistic joy as he stood over my old friend's body. I couldn't handle it. I lurched forward, swinging my first in an arc, taking him in the side of the head. He recoiled back, placing a hand on the bloodied ground to steady himself. Then with that same hand, soaked in Mishi's blood, he swung at me, hitting me square in the jaw, knocking me straight to the ground. I felt a wet feeling on the left side of my head and couldn't tell if it was my blood or Mishi's.

When my eyes opened, I just saw them, the Hornets, standing over me, Mishi's supplies in hands, looking down at me as I lay there on the ground. Sar'di spit on my face and left. Goni was next to leave. Then it was just Danev, standing over me. Danev, I tried to say, but the words wouldn't form with only a weak croak coming out. He shook his head, then turned his back on me, leaving. He shut the door behind him, leaving me in the shop of a dead man.

I let my head fall back to the ground. And the last thing I saw before my vision went black was Mishi's dead eyes looking straight at me.