Chapter 8

I stood on the top of a building, the city unfolding before me. The dim morning light barely breaching the walls.

The world was so small below me.

It was a cold day, the kind of day that made your hands numb and your face red but the sun still shines. These were my favourite days, I always loved the cold. It gave me a sense of rest, of calm for some reason. The feeling of knowing that the world could only get warmer.

"You really shook Arachid, you know?"

It was Jack. I sat down onto the ledge, my legs dangling over the cold city, concrete and stone dropping from my feet.

"Sam what's wrong with you? Why can't you just look at this logically? We aren't heroes. We kill bad people because the oppressed pay more. What did you expect from this guild, from this world. We don't do this out of the goodness of our own hearts. Our members have families to feed. You of all people should be able to see how far people will go for their family."

"Shut up!"

"What do you want? What do you want from us?? If you want to be some hero then you've joined the wrong guild. You thought we at a MURDER GUILD! Would be nice people? What do you want?!?!?"

"I don't know!!!! I just know I can't stand by and watch people, Innocent people! Die."

"Look kid," Jackie removed his cloak and his mask sitting next to me. He had a handsome face with a clean shaven chin and a clear face, free of worry and stress. He was a little taller than me and slim. "I used to be like you. I used to look up to the guilds like idols. I mean who wouldn't? But that's the outlook of a child. You can't think like that forever."

"Then what happened to you Jack? What was so twisted that you can sleep at night after witnessing so much death. After picking and choosing people to kill?"

"You want to know? Finish this job. It's a former member of your guild again. Finish this, collect the twenty million, then I'll know you want to keep being a member of Grim Reaper. The president of Eight lives left. Kill him and bring him here in let's say twenty four hours again and then I'll tell you everything."

He picked up his cloak and fitted his mask walking back and tapping me on the shoulder.

"I know this life is tough, but it's necessary." and with that he left as quickly as ever.

I held the white card in my hands, staring at the name. Tears rolled down my cheeks.

"FUUUUCK!!!!!" I leaped up and shouted the word until my throat was raw and my voice was hoarse.

I pushed past the curtains like vines, my body silently pushing past the white fabric drifting gently in the wind. I pulled up my hood and fitted my mask, the wide smile covering my face. I pushed into the long hall keeping from the doors and lights dodging into the shadows.

Why him?

I pressed on past the deserted furniture and past the paintings.

Do I really want to do this?

I crouched past the knives and swords hanging on the wall like a display.

I need to.

Right?

I have to save him.

I need to make more.

I have to kill to do that

I don't have a choice.

I don't need a choice.

I gripped my knife as I stepped through the labyrinth of doors winding through the mansion until I reached it. The office room. I pressed on the door gently as it opened, the warm flame flickering across the room. He was sitting there. He was always sitting there.

"Heeeeey Samael!"

My oldest friend. My old fighting partner. The strongest man I'd ever known and the only guild member that didn't leave me. The only one I left.

"What's wrong sammy? You seem shocked." he stood up, his long slender figure pushing off his chair.

"And I thought I was so quiet."

He looked down at me as I stood up, his tall body staring down at me like a child.

"Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah SAMMMYYYY!!!!!! YOU FINALLY HAVE IT! YOU FINALLY HAVE THAT GLINT! YOU KILLED SOMEONE DIDN'T YOU?!?!?!?"

"Yeah"

"Ooooh did you come here to kill me???? Yes Sammy, it's finally time. Time for us to fight! You're finally ready!!"

He leaped up into the air four guns following him. He pulled a pistol from his back and started shooting the small gun, bullets flew through the air like rain. The bullets showered onto the floor as I jumped back, my knife slipping to my hand from pure instinct. I ran down the hall diving into the shadows. He walked out with a huge smile on his face as he looked around the room, his eyes beaming like a demon. He pulled a machine gun from his back and held it in one hand, bullets spraying from the end as he fed a string of the steel cartridges into the long black gun. I ran across the room with my knife behind me as I rushed him dodging the spray of bullets. I ran up to his feet, my body crouched and hunched. I tried to jump into the air. His smile grew more sinister and evil as he pulled a shotgun from his back, the small barrel pressing into my chest. I dropped my dagger grabbing the barrel and pushing off it barely dodging the wide shot of bullets as they clattered into the wall behind me I pushed off the gun my body flipping over his head and wrapping my legs around his waist gripping his neck with one arm and summoning my dagger with the other.

"Woah, impressive!"

He pulled his shotgun down aiming it at my leg.

He fired.

I pulled my body out supporting my whole weight onto my one arm as I struggled to stay in the air. He reloaded the cartridges falling to the floor with a satisfying clink. He reloaded two shots and pointed the smoking gun at my head.

He fired twice as I pushed up into the air, my body flying above the bullets. He pulled the gun back to my head aiming just in front of my body as I fell.

I stared helplessly down the double barreled gun, the grey smoke gently rising from the barrel. I pressed down on the barrel again pulling myself to the side and clear of the shot. The blast was like a smack to the head. The world went hazy. I couldn't hear my own breathing, I heard only two things.

"Die"

And a gunshot.

It wasn't the sound of the shotgun. It was different.

I felt weak, so weak

And cold too. A chill whistled through my bones.

I dropped to the floor clutching my chest, blood poured from my stomach as I stared up at him.

He crouched down to my side moving the mask from my face.

"You see Samael, There is a joy to killing humans that you can't get from killing monsters. You couldn't see that so you kicked me out but it's all fine now. You have that glint. You have that same deire, you want to murder Samael!"

"St… c…..…..g ..e th..a"

"What was that my old friend?"

He bends down further to my bleeding body, his hand pressed against his ear.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!!!"

I lunged forward and pressed my knife to his throat, the cold enveloping me as it spread out of my knife.

"YES!!!! SAAAAAMMYYYYYY!!! DO IT! KILL MEEEEE!!!! BECOME THE KILLER I ALWAYS KNEW YOU WOULD!!!!! DO IIIIT"

I slit his throat, blood stopping as it met my blade and froze. He couldn't talk but I knew he was already dead. I dropped down to the floor, blood was still spilling from my gut.

"Wow, cold."

"Wh…..at do… you want…. Shaun."

"My best friend is dying. What else? I'm here to help you."

"You're a ghost…. Eughk …..what are you hoping to do?"

His hand reached down the glowing palm wrapping around mine and pulling me up. I stared into Shaun's eyes as he picked me up from the ground.

"Come on Sammy, can't have you dying now. You'll ruin my rep." behind me some tall and big hands wrapped around my back lifting under my arm and supporting my body. It was Kane, my knife saved him.

"Kane?"

He only smiled, pulling me along the rich and furnished room. Kane's body was trailing behind me as I limped across the room.

Kane was my oldest and dearest friend. I've known him since birth. We grew up in the same orphanage and used to fight together all the time. We were the first founding trio of my guild. We used to be the best of friends until one day. One painful day.

I decided to check on Kane as he was wiping out a bandit camp. We had a strict no killing humans policy. I walked into that camp to find him on a pile of bodies, his guns soaked with tears and blood. He slaughtered and butchered them all. I was broken. He was my oldest friend. The one person I thought I knew and it broke me to see the friend I loved covered in blood and smiling at the sight of so much blood and death. I failed him and I've always hated myself for that. I kicked him out of the guild and three years later he formed his own. It was a murder guild. Not an illegal one. They only took bandit and thief quests and they murdered and mutilated them all. I guess I'm no different anymore. I dragged his body to the roof and collapsed, my blood slowly dripping off the edge. I sat on the ledge staring down at the city and at the sunrise. The red sun glowing over the fields.

£45,000,000