FIFTY-FIVE

Luis got into Lucy's room and she immediately hugged him tightly, then he hugged her back as she cried.

He pulled her back and said,"I promise you, I'll get your daughter back."

"I know you will."Lucy said,"...but please, have mercy."

He hadn't heard of that word for years; mercy, that was the word he mentioned when he took his first life, the name of the first teenager he murdered and the word a man older than him pleaded when they were being whipped for some trouble he caused, he didn't like that word.

He called me to come with him while Lucy took care of the triplets, then we left.

He asked me for all the information I had Andi told him everything, then he frowned deeply, of course...

Before I could say anything else, he was gone, and I didn't know where.

Luis had death in his eyes as his car drove through the forest road.

He checked the location of the tracker he had implanted within Johan's body and traced it to the Fern Cliff forest.

He parked the car in the middle of the orangery, as the Autumn breeze blew.

He casually walked through the pathway, while exchanging his bullets with rubber ones, then as the guards told him to stay back, he shot a bullet straight into the back of one of their throats.

He then picked up speed and dodged the bullets shot at him, taking all the men down, two by two.

The place was put under lockdown but the main gate stayed open when Luis smashed one of the guard's faces on a scanner.

He ran into the compound and a sniper carefully calibrated his movements as he ran in a straight line, then took the shot and his gun exploded as Luis had shot right through the nozzle before he had even pulled the trigger.

Several people were shot with bullets made out of rubber till Luis walked into the building, then saw Johan, standing before him, with a grin.

"Where is she?"Luis asked.

"Where is who?"He asked.

"Lucille, where is the girl?"

"Fancy you care about her all of a sudden."

In a moment, he exchanged his rubber bullets for real ones then shot Johan's foot, then his ear and the man writhed in pain as Luis pinned him to a wall and said,"All your men have fled this place either to Dreamland or to safety, you are stuck here with me and you have about thirteen more hours to live judging by your wounds, and thirteen hours is a lot of time for me to work on you."

"Go to h*ll."He said, spitting on Luis' face.

Luis licked the blood and said,"I rule over h*ll."

Then he slammed Johan's body into the floor and punched him repeatedly in the face as the man coughed, then Luis stood up and, massaging his wrists, asked,"You know something? I promised my fiancee that I would have mercy, and I'll keep that by ending you when n the pain is enough, agreed?"

"Please Luis, don't do this, I could talk to my boss and..."

Luis squatted besides him and said,"Keep talking."

"I've already said enough, if I betrayed him, I would never be part of it."

"Part of what?"

He didn't reply, then Luis grinned, this only got more fun...

***

On the news, it was reported that the Chief of Police had just been murdered in his penthouse and I sighed, so much for doing it the right way.

I went back to the hospital to visit Rose and when I got there, life flowed back into her pale and weak face, which I gently held.

"Hello rosebud."I said.

"Hi my little Tomboy."She said.

I cringed at that nickname and she began to giggle, then saw Ruby behind me and fought back tears with her own smile.

Ruby came closer to her, holding red roses, then said,"I'm sorry for what happened...and for how I acted."

"You had every reason not to trust me, and yet here you are, it means the world to me."

"I brought some snacks."I said.

"Oh good..."Rose said,"... because the only nutrition I've had for these several past days is a couple of fermented smoothies and highly concentrated solutions of nutrients fed directly into my blood stream, I'd kill for McDonald's right now."

"Ask and you shall receive."I said.

She munched into happiness but then asked about the Chief of Police, and I showed her a newspaper.

Mack said good riddance, but Rose's eyebrows furrowed.

"Why would someone as accomplished as him be killed so easily? And there don't seem to be any signs of struggle, it was like he let himself be killed."

"But why?"I asked.

"I don't know, but over these past days, I've heard lots of chatter over something big that's going to happen."

"Yeah, me too..."Ruby said,"...they spoke of some kind of chosen remnant."

I looked intently at the paper before me...this was the same cult from campus.

***

A maid brought Lucy some food as she fed Thomasina with her newly accepted semisolid food.

She thanked her for it, but continued feeding the child and looked out the window, hoping her daughter was safe.

***

There were cries and pleadings for mercy as Luis slowly forced a knife into Johan's fingernails, pulling them off, one by one.

Johan had already given him all the information he needed, he just wanted to keep his word.

When he was done, he then took his gun and pointed it at Johan's forehead and said,"I hear hell's swimmingly appealing at this time of year, you'll love it."

He then pulled the trigger and went out to clean up.

Driving his car back out of the premises, Luis called me and said there was something he needed to speak with me about urgently, so I said he should come to the hospital, where everyone was.