Shadow Hands

In the days that followed, the gangsters of the Rosetti Family brutally murdered every person that David had ever come in contact with in the hopes that they would strike it lucky and take out the culprit. Not even the food stall owners David had visited in the past were spared.

That went to show just how serious, as well as desperate, the family really was. Not only had the police raided the majority of their storehouses—leading to immense losses—but the consigliere had also been killed.

During normal times, they would have never even thought of harming a hair on an innocent civilian's body, fearing the trouble that might follow. But now they had completely thrown caution to the wind. Seeing the gruesome corpse of the consigliere had really done a number on the don.

On this day, Bobby was tending to his customers in his butcher shop as usual. Suddenly, three men dressed in suits, trench coats, and fedoras walked into his shop. Bobby instantly recognized them and a foreboding feeling welled up in his heart.

He had naturally heard the news of all the shit that'd been happening to the Rosettis. And now, when he saw the family's men arrive at his doorstep with hostile intentions, he couldn't help but curse his fortune.

"Alright everyone, shop's closed. Get out," he instructed all the customers inside. Some of them grumbled and left, while others cursed Bobby and tried to stay. But eventually, they left as well. After everyone had left, the Rosetti gangsters and Bobby walked toward the cold storage without speaking a word to each other.

A few minutes later, the three men came out of the shop, one of them with a deep cut across the chest that was bleeding profusely. The other two had blood smeared on their clothes. One of the men couldn't help but comment, "That was one tough bastard."

The man who was the most heavily injured snorted. "I'm gonna go get fixed up. There's only one target left. You sure you two goombahs can do it yourselves?"

The other two men looked at each other and remained silent for a few moments. Then, one of them said, "Wouldn't hurt to get a few more men, I suppose."

"Yes, the Don said no failure was allowed," the other man replied.

The three men went their separate ways.

...

Inside a diner in Brooklyn, two detectives were having dinner. The younger woman was absentmindedly pushing her food around her plate while the older man looked on in worry. They were none other than Phil Greyson and Olivia Cook, and ever since leaving Elena's house, Olivia had been acting differently.

Phil had asked her about it and her answer was something so bizarre that he refused to even believe it. She was adamant about the fact that Elena, as well as the maids and servants working in that mansion, weren't humans!

She'd even disclosed that on one occasion, Elena had transformed her hand into a black, scaled claw in order to threaten her. But how could Phil believe such bogus crap? How could there be monsters living among humans? That was ridiculous.

He looked at Olivia and gently asked, "You still thinking about that bullshit?"

Olivia simply rolled her eyes. "Forget it, you don't believe me anyway."

Phil could only sigh and continue eating dinner. After he paid for the meal, the pair got into their car and drove off. The older detective was planning to drop Olivia home first, then head to his house. However, midway through the drive, his eyebrows furrowed as he realized they were being tailed.

Just as he was about to speak into the radio scanner, he felt something nudge him at the back of his head, followed by a cold voice. "I wouldn't do that If I were you."

Alarmed, Olivia turned around, only to see another gun being pointed at her face. There was actually a person hidden in the back seat all this while, and they hadn't even realized it until now!

"Oh, and I've also deactivated the dash cam as well as any other communication devices," the person added.

'Fuck!' Phil couldn't help but inwardly curse. He continued driving as he calmly asked, "Who are you and what do you want?"

The man pressed his gun against Phil's head and coldly ordered, "Shut the fuck up and take the next left."

Phil nervously gulped and did as he was told. He couldn't take any unnecessary risks as Olivia was being held at gunpoint as well. However, he covertly took out his phone and sent a text and his live location to the only person he thought could get him out of this mess.

...

Three cars entered a container port and stopped at a relatively secluded spot by the Hudson River. Men dressed in suits and trench coats stepped out of the two cars and went to the third one. They opened the doors and violently pulled the two detectives out, then disarmed them.

There were two Rosetti capos present and five made men. One of the capos coldly looked at Phil and got straight to the point. "Were you behind the death of Boss Marcel?"

Phil was taken aback. "Marcel Aubert… is dead?"

The capo was also taken aback. But the next moment he delivered a solid punch to Phil's face and asked, "Tell me what you know!"

Phil looked at him and replied, "I know nothing."

Although he was in on the plan of eradicating the Rosetti Family with David, he didn't know that the teenager would be so quick to dispose of the higher-ups. Moreover, he had no plans of snitching on the youth.

The capo knew that the person with the highest chance of being involved in the consigliere's death had to be this detective. After all, he was the one who had been leading the other police officers and detectives in raiding their storehouses. It simply couldn't be just a coincidence.

Thus, the capo decided to press on. He gestured to one of his men behind him. "Tear the girl's clothes off."

Phil was furious. "You dare—"

However, before he could finish speaking, he was once again ruthlessly punched by the capo. Meanwhile, Olivia stumbled back in fear as she brought her hands in front of her chest, covering it.

But something felt wrong. The capo turned back and roared, "The fuck are you waiting… for…." Suddenly, he realized that the men he had brought with him were all missing. Only the other Capo and one of his men were present.

Seeing his puzzled expression, the other capo also turned around and was dumbstruck. "W-Where'd everyone go?"

Right at that moment, his last remaining man was suddenly grabbed by what seemed to be a large hand made of shadows and viciously pulled away.

"Aaahhhhhh!!!" the man screamed in fear as he vanished into the shadowy passage between two containers.

Everyone present shuddered in fear at that. The two capos aimed their guns at the dark passage in horror and one of them screamed, "W-Who's there!?"

The next moment, two hands made of swirling darkness emerged from their own shadows and ferociously grabbed their wrists, instantly breaking them and disarming them.

"AAARGGHH!!"

The two capos screamed in agony as they looked at the bones jutting out of their wrists. All of a sudden, footsteps sounded from the dark passage, getting closer to them.

Everyone, including the two detectives, looked toward the source of the sound in sheer dread. The things that'd happened earlier had truly terrorized them. Finally, the silhouette of a person grew visible in the passage between the containers.

Following that, the figure soon came into view. It was a young man wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans. His face was shrouded in darkness because of the hood that had been pulled over his head.

One of the capos trembled in utter fear as he stammered, "W-Who are you?"

The figure turned his head toward the capo and two scarlet eyes with black vertical slits suddenly glowed under the dark hood.

"The fuckin' bogeyman."