Chapter 1 Prologue

The young man stopped running when he reached a dead end in the alley he was trying to escape. He was looking around with frenzy for a way out, but alas, he could see none. His pulse that skyrocketed during the chase began to calm down. With a heavy sigh, his shoulders relaxed. 

Turning towards the entrance of the alley he was in, took off his jacket and bent down, putting it on the ground. A long knife appeared in his hand when he straightened up. That knife had a blade of about 40 centimeters and the handle seemed to be carved. The fingers were white from the force he used to grip the handle.

Sounds of sirens and shouting seemed to come closer. A cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. More of an animal's sneer.

Rushing footsteps grew closer. A few more seconds and he could see them coming around the corner. They were three, but by the commotion behind them, there were more to come. He started walking towards them, without uttering a word. As a matter of fact, he didn't make a sound.

The leading officer stopped when he saw him approaching, and the others stopped too. Aiming their guns towards the young man that kept advancing towards them without any emotion showing on his face, the leading officer shouted:

"Stop! Drop the knife!"

"Why should I?" The young man continued advancing, glaring at the officers. His steps were unhurried, approaching slowly.

"Stop! Or I'll shoot!"

"Shoot!" came the indifferent reply from the young man. He kept looking at the officers, without a hint of fear. Instead, his eyes gave a sudden sense of danger to the officers.

One step closer, then another. The sand crunched on the pavement beneath his feet. About ten more steps and he'd reach the leading officer. The clicks of the guns being armed broke the silence. One more step and he stopped. His right eyebrow rose slightly.

"Ok, let's see how far I can get." His indifferent voice sounded in a low volume.

A shot rang out. A bird flying above their heads gave a cry and dropped on the roof of a nearby house. The second the shot was heard, several things began to happen. The youth suddenly exploded forward. Sounds of many voices began approaching. The leading officer took a step back, trying to lower again the gun towards the young man in front of him. But he, by stepping back, bumped in one of the accompanying officers. Losing his balance, the second officer fell and, when he reached the ground, his gun fired a shot when the back of his head met a stone protruding from the stone pavement. His hat fell, rolling a couple of times then remained there. A pool of blood began flowing around the second officer's head, who remained motionless, looking at the sky with unblinking eyes, devoid of life. 

When the second officer's shot was heard, was followed by a gurgled scream and the third officer bowed, dropping his gun, holding his neck. Between his fingers, the blood flowed freely. Coughing and choking in his own blood, the third officer dropped to the ground. His heels began to grind the pavement for a couple of seconds then, with a final stream of choking blood being coughed out, he was no more.

But the first officer had no time to see what happened behind him. When he heard the shot behind him, he squeezed his head back into his shoulders. The young man was on him in the next instant. The hand that had the gun was squeezed and pushed to the side. Another bullet flew, and embedded itself in the wall of the house to his right. Then, he saw the knife reaching his stomach area and felt a molten fire invading his gutts. There was no pain, just the sensation of burning and he felt his knees suddenly buckling while he lost all his strength. He clawed at the assailant's clothes trying to cling to him to remain on his feet. The knife was jerked back and thrusted once again in his chest, this time reaching his heart. He dropped to the ground and remained there.

"Thanks for the help!" said the young man jerking the blade free again with a squelching sound. He drew his blade over the necks of each of the fallen officers, just to be sure. No more chances for them.

He finished and wiped the knife clean on the second officer, the one that hit his head. Then walked towards the approaching ones, with the same unhurried pace as before. He looked at the sky and mumbled to himself.

"Almost dark. Need to quicken the pace. Otherwise can't reach home before the curfew." With a laugh he passed the corner of the alley. The street was wider here. And they were here, waiting for him.

About ten to fifteen officers were pointing their guns towards him.

" Drop the knife! Surrender, you have no way of escape!"

"Which knife? This one?" the young man waved the hand with the long knife. "Or this one?" he flicked his left hand that was in his pants pocket.

A flicker of silver light flew through the air and stopped in the neck of the officer who spoke. A small throwing knife was embedded now there and the officer gurgled while dropping to the ground. The others stared for a moment at their fallen comrade, then opened fire. Hell broke free on the street as shots rang out. The young man flicked again his wrist and another officer dropped with a little knife in his chest, while the young man dodged a bullet by dropping to the ground. The bullet passed whistling overhead and broke through the window of a house behind him.

"Watch it! What would have happened if you shot someone?" barked laughing the young man. He rolled to the right and another bullet bounced from the place his head used to be just a second before. "Damn! What did I just say? I'm over here!" Another flicker of light and another officer was down. 

"Damn! Move faster, please. I'm getting bored over here! At least put a decent fight before you die!" the young man mumbled displeased.

Bounding forward he closed the distance in the blink of an eye. Another flicker of light embedded in the left eye of another of the remaining officers. 

And then, there was no more time for throwing. He chopped horizontally with the large knife from left to rightand it got stuck in the neck vertebrae. He drew the knife towards him while hurriedly stepping back and a fountain of blood gushed out after the jugular was severed. He turned to his left and stabbed forcefully, feeling his hands warmed by the gutts of another one. A shot rang out and he felt a punch in the back of his left shoulder. He felt it was hard to breath. He leaned forward and jerked the knife free and turned around. Another shot in the stomach. He staggered forward, trying to maintain his balance. His vision began to darken. He clenched his teeth, shaking his head to clear his vision. He couldn't keep standing and his knees buckled underneath and he dropped to the ground. A few moments of silence followed after he fell.

"Is he dead?" he heard faintly as if from afar. An officer approached him cautiously. He felt himself being tapped with the tip of a boot. But he remained motionless. The officer got closer until he reached his vision and lifted his foot to kick his knife from his hand.

Summoning all the remaining strength in his body, he suddenly jerked upwards and stabbed the knife to the hilt in the officer's pelvis, while mumbling "One more!"

He tried to twist the knife, but the strength was gone. Another round of bullets were shot and he fell on his left side, still holding the knife, which he jerked free when he fell. A pool of blood gathered underneath him, but he couldn't see anymore. Didn't feel the final bullet being shot from less then two meters when it pierced his brain, either.

The news that evening were all reporting the bloody incident that happened earlier. A young man, Vlad Basarab, was shot on the street, after causing a bloodbath, killing twenty police officers, before succumbing due to blood loss. But before he died, he managed to cut the heads of the officers and impaling the heads on the fences of the houses along the street.

When the reinforcements arrived, they found him fallen, leaning with his back against the wall of a nearby house, surrounded by the decapitated bodies of the dead officers. Nobody knew why it all happened, but soon there began to spread some rumours. 

A couple of weeks before, soon after the imposing of the state of emergency due to the pandemic, his family was attacked in the street by police enforcing the law, because they lacked proper documents to attest the motives of being outside. When Vlad filed a complaint accusing the officers of excessive violence and excess of zeal in enforcing the law, the charges against the officers were dropped due to some backup from some high-ranking people. Among them, it was rumored to be the minister of internal affairs, who died a horrible death a week before. It was rumored he was impaled in his own house. A bunch of other high ranking officers and politicians ended in mysterious ways, without the culprit being found. 

But all those things were just rumors. Soon, everything returned to normal. All this story was forgotten. 

In the night air, the fog drifted on the street. Nobody was seen nearby. The fog seemed to stop in front of a large iron gate. The gate squeaked slightly when the fog crossed through. There were trees along the road which led to a large, delapidated house. It looked like it hadn't been anyone here in a long time.

The fog started drifting towards the house. Reaching the end of the road the fog stopped beneath a tree and began to condense. After a while, under the tree stood a tall, middle-aged man. The moon shone through the clouds and the man lifted his pale face towards the sky, closing his big, green eyes. The mustache trembled slightly.

"Finally, the circle is complete. It took so many years to reach the starting point again." A humorless laugh was heard in the night. "What now? Where should I go? After all I've died already so many times to be free." 

A furious voice rang inside the house. "Vlaaad! Get back here! Right now!" 

Hearing the voice he gasped. "Maybe not quite so free. Fuck me, here we go again!" he muttered. And then sighed and shouted in the house's direction. "Patience, Diana, patience. I'm coming". And with a blur of speed he got inside the house. Soon, sounds of broken furniture and pans and finally a clap followed by a furious woman' and the man's servile voices.

"Why are you so late, Vlad? Where were you? Did you go see her again? You promised me you'll never see her again"

"No, Diana, my love! I swear, I haven't seen her in a long time! I just finished something I had to do and as soon as I was done, I came back to you. I'm all yours, baby. All yours, I promise. I'm a one woman's man! You know me better than anyone else."

A laughing snort was heard.

"As if. I know you better than anyone, remember? But I guess you're right. If I catch you wandering remember what I promised to do to you!"

"Yeah, I know. You'll cut off my balls and feed it to the dogs! That's long been in your repertoire, honey. Try finding something new, something more interesting."

There was a sudden silence followed by the sound of teeth grinding and the woman's muttering voice. "What did you just say? Care to say that again?" 

"Who, me? I said nothing! Nothing!... Maybe it was the wind..." the man's words ended with a squeal. "Ow, Ow! My ear! Let go! Ow!"