Wringing Life
In her childhood, Ilyana had been taught to kill. It wasn't only to kill her enemies and to show them Hell for messing around with Pandoras but also to protect her from harm as they all knew how easy it was for an heir to be killed. Not to mention she was born a girl who everyone look as an easy prey. She had gotten used to the idea of being killed that every morning she would wake up with a knife under her pillows. For someone who had learned how to kill, Ilyana only thought it was natural for her to be killed, accepting it almost like an instinct.
Olivier had always been a silent man. She recalled how he was always scorned but her mother insisted on letting him work with her, disregarding the comments people made of how he is half westerner. Ilyana didn't question either, she sees that blood had nothing to do with the person themselves but right now Olivier had betrayed her.
Looking around the dark alleyway, Ilyana passed by to see the men who had sprawled on the ground with blood pooling underneath them. Their body was still freshly killed, perhaps before Olivier came to take her away.
"If you wanted to take me away, you could have done it without killing them," Ilyana commented to the man who was holding her life a hostage.
The damp smell was mixed with blood, filling their nose with the ill fragrance. Olivier watched Ilyana who was only an inch shorter than him. "I had no choice."
"So you would betray my mother's trust on you because you had no choice," Ilyana picked his words, provoking him on purpose. Olivier didn't flinch, seemingly to be unbothered by her words. "You do know what your betrayal would mean to every other half westerners in Pandora, don't you?"
"You also knew how half westerners are treated there, don't you? If they agree to stay in Pandora they should have prepared themselves for the accusations others would put on them. I'm not the one responsible for the segregation but the westerners and the locals here. I believe you knew this better than me, Young lady Zhou," Olivier responded coolly.
Ilyana's eyes narrowed as she looked at the end of the dark alleyway was an automobile with its window tinted dark.
"So can I at least know your reason Olivier?" Ilyana continued to speak. She watched the four men that stood near the car, as if they had been there to wait for her.
A brief silence ensued between them. Ilyana brushed away her question, thinking that Olivier wouldn't respond to her and perhaps deep down he does felt guilty for betraying Pandora. However, a betrayer is always a betrayer. But his old voice came from behind her again,
"I love Pandora more than anyone milady."
Ilyana turned her face briefly, curious of his expression as he had said such sincere words when a loud gunshot rang against her ears. Olivier who was standing straight then fell backward. She blinked off the red drop that had settled on her long lashes and watched Olivier limp body on the ground. Her inky eyes that were one serious slowly morphed into anger. She snapped her eyes forward, finding that one of the four men had shot Olivier. They then aimed the pastor toward her which she quickly dodge by bending her body downward.
"Shit!" Yelled one of the man who was inside the car, "Didn't you tell that man to kill her off as soon as possible?!"
Ilyana guessed in that split second the man who they ordered to kill was none other than Olivier. Perhaps indeed out of shame the man didn't gather enough courage to finishes her off, something she often see from betrayers. With ease, Ilyana rolled on the ground, avoiding the numerous bullets that were rained on her. She calmly pulled out her gun that she had hidden at the back of her hips. Holding to the trigger, she rolled the cylinder across her arm, letting the bullets to roll inside the revolver.
"That woman is dangerous—" the man had just turned to warn his ally when Ilyana drew a deadly shot directly to his brain. The wonderful red splatter colored the tinted window, alarming the rest of the three men.
One of them immediately jumped inside the car. He ordered with the loudest voice, "Kill her and we escape! Quick!"
The other two ground their teeth as they had been forced on the most difficult task. They rushed toward the pillar she had hid herself in. Thanks to her slender body she could easily fit herself behind the thick wall, knowing that the bullet won't ever pierced through. But the two men were more in number and could easily sped up to bring her out of her hiding place.
What they didn't know was that Ilyana had been waiting for them to come toward her. Upon seeing their head, she took no hesitation to shoot. The other man who saw this felt his gaze covered by blood of his own friend.
"You will pay for that!" Roared the man, rushing forward with a knife and the pistol.
"Dogs bark louder when they're about to die," Ilyana responded, angering the man even more as he pulled his trigger recklessly. She dodged the first bullet he shot only to see his other arm slashing a bigger knife to her neck. Using the edge of her revolver, she held his blade away from her neck. The man moved his pistol toward her again and in haste she kicked him by his stomach. The man toppled backward, not expecting that she would be so strong.
Ilyana then raised her arm, aiming at the man's head again like a predator when suddenly her feet slipped. She looked down to find the water that had dripped from the old sewer. Her eyes lifted to see how a knife pointed straight to her eyes before she could react.
"Damn it," she cursed briefly. The blade she expected to carve a wound on her face made a sudden unexpected stop. Her eyes curiously look around to find the reason that had saved her, finding a tall figure that had came by.
Lev kicked the man's head, letting a loud shattering nose that made her sure he had just destroyed the poor man's nose. The man who got mad pointed his pistol to him instead of her, quickly pulling the trigger. Seeing that, Ilyana's eyes turned red. She pulled Lev by his waist, turning his body around and pressed her barrel to her enemy's head, blowing his insides on the brick wall behind him.
She clicked her tongue, "Disgusting dogs."
She wanted to kill the man twice for trying to hurt Lev but she could hear the faint groan from behind her and turned around to find how Lev was holding to his arm that had bleed out. "Are you alright?" She immediately demanded for answer.
"The car!" Lev responded back to her. She looked past behind him, finding how the car had drove away. The window was tinted, making it difficult for her to know the location of the driver but her wrath was uncontrollable. She didn't care if she wouldn't be able to extract information from her enemy, all that matter was to make sure the person inside to die and for him to pay for ruining her night. She launched another storm of bullet. Thankfully she had filled in her empty barrel with new ones in earlier, allowing her to shoot the car again from the back window until blood filled the tinted windows, turning it crimson.
She released her arms from Lev's waist and walked to the door of the car. All this time Ilyana had uttered no words, simply letting her unknown rage to speak with a louder volume. She opened the door, dragging out the man inside with one single pull. She saw how her bullet had missed his head but had pierced his stomach, drilling numbers of holes.
"Who sent you?" Ilyana's face was covered by darkness when she demanded for answer. Her voice was chilling cold, enough to make the dead shiver from her menacing tone.
The man coughed blood. Despite his face turning pallid as he felt the expression that crossed Ilyana's face to be more frightening than the impending death, he didn't want to lose. He whispered in a bitter smile, "Hell. Hell sent me here.."
Ilyana responded to the man's words by twisting the corners of her lips, "They did?" She pulled her revolver, seeing that she didn't have a single bullet left in it, she decided to wrap her neck around the man's neck. "Then tell Hell this for me: I will come there later so you don't have to eagerly invite me for a visit. Sweet dreams."
Lev who rushed after her out of concern stopped when he saw her back inside the car and the blood that painted the car anew in the scarlet color. He stood behind her and watched as she squeezed the man's life out by his neck. It was difficult to imagine such strength come from a fragile woman like Ilyana but he would never dare to use the word "fragile" beside her name. She had no guilt as she wring the man's life, seemingly doing it out of anger instead to ensure the man's death. Her anger, the deadly silent, and the voice of someone begging for air filled the empty alley, would fill anyone who had seen the scene to turn stiff from trepidation and Lev stood there, watching her action with his lips gape.
What crossed his mind wasn't Ilyana's concern until she heard his breathing voice. Her neck snapped behind, finding Lev who appeared frozen in place as he had witness what was of her worse side.