Chapter 3

"Is this him?"

"Couldn't he be someone else?"

"His identity and information match what the boss showed us."

I could hear voices in the distance. I could hear them whisper all around me. Their whispers weren't helping with my serious headache in any way but that wasn't my top priority here. I know I was kidnapped and in a different location because the atmosphere around me feels foreign and heavy.

Taking a leap of faith, I opened my eyes to see where I was, and I regretted it right away. The outcome of me looking into what kind of situation I'm stuck in ended up seeing guys all around me with piercings and tattoos. I was strapped on a chair with my arms and legs bound by ropes.

I can see that the location I'm in is dark but I can still see the furniture. A pool table, bottles adorning the shelves behind a long wooden table, and wine bottles and glasses stacked neatly, a bar? I was too busy examining the location that I didn't notice a man walking straight in my direction with something glinting on his right hand. Squint my eyes to see what the man was holding; I saw something silver and sharp, a knife in his hands. I started to panic in my chair but I knew it was hopeless. The ropes tied on my arms and legs were just too tight for me to slip out of.

He kept on walking in my direction. Fear was gradually building up within me but this isn't the time for me to breakdown. "Who are you, people? What did I do!?" I tried to sound I wasn't offended or even scared of them with my male voice but who would believe you weren't scared when your voice was shaky and uneven.

The man just continued walking straight to me as if I didn't even say anything. He stopped in front of me, holding the knife in his right hand, and then he raised the knife ready to strike me. I stared at the knife being lifted above the man's head. Waiting for it to strike me, then it rapidly went down towards me. I shut my eyes, waiting for it to pierce through me, but nothing.

I didn't feel anything. I waited for a while then, another leap of faith, I slowly opened my eyes. I wasn't expecting the man to slice through my restraints. He continued on slicing through the ropes until he stopped and threw the knife, not caring if the knife stabs someone. I heard a part of the crowd yell in fear then heard the clang of the knife hitting the floor.

"What's your problem?" A man yelled in the crowd. "We were having fun with scaring the life out of him."

The man didn't bother to look at the man who yelled. He looked a bit behind his back and sent a glare at them. "The boss's orders weren't to harm him." The man in front of me said it with such a prideful and monotone voice that it left me amaze yet it also sent me shivering.

With just those two words, the crowd went silent. I got to say, it's amazing that this guy can make this whole crowd of guys go silent. This man in front of me can scare the living daylights out of me with just his voice but maybe this man isn't the one I should be scared of.

The man walked away from me then headed to a door behind the bar. "Come on, I don't have forever to wait for you." The man said in the distance while looking at me. I didn't even notice that he was waiting for me. I thought that he was just about to leave me with these men's, but I guessed wrong. I stood from the chair I was sitting on then started walking my way to the man, avoiding the threatening gazes being sent to me, and then made my way to the man beside the door.

I started to walk fast, feeling the glares being sent to me getting intense, and when I arrived next to him. The man opened the door and it revealed a hallway. The man stepped in and I followed behind him, keeping a great distance between me and him. After we walked for a while, the man opened another door, and in that door were staircases leading to floors above. The man started walking the steps up then followed by me.

After climbing the staircases, each step echoing the spiral staircase, we reached the top floor. The man opened the door and revealed a long hallway with one door across from us. I didn't wait for the man to lead me and decided to walk in first myself.

Each step I took made me grow with anxiety and fear. I stopped in front of the door. It wasn't anything special. Just like any plain door, its paint was decaying and it was simple. I was just standing there, scared of what lies ahead, until the man suddenly placed his hand on the door and opened it without hesitation. The door creaked open and I saw ahead was a desk and a chair turned away from my direction.

"Go in." The man beside me said with his still same monotone voice.

I can't move from my spot, I was too scared to move but not to talk. "Why should I? What did I even do!?" I yelled trying to buy myself even some small time to not enter the room. I wasn't ready to face anything which comes after this. "I won't stand for this, and you can't make me!"

"...So you're not just a pathetic guy." The man said with a hint of sarcasm.

"What?" I said but before I could argue, he pushed me into the room. I was left stumbling to the floor and when I got to my feet he closed the door in my face. I tried the handle, but of course, he would lock it. Even though it was hopeless, I still tried everything I can think of to open the door until a cough from behind me made me turn my attention. I turned around, my back to the door, and saw a middle-aged man with black hair sitting behind a long desk illuminated by weak light. I can see his hair but I wasn't able to see his features that clearly.

"Welcome to the headquarters of the White Dragons." the man said while smoking a cigarette behind the desk.

I stood there, frightened. But I put all my strength into my voice and yelled at him. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to have a chat with you." The man said rather straightforward to my face.

"Why would you want to talk to me even though I don't know you?"

"Because you're my son, Richard Knight." the man said as he put out his cigarette on an ashtray. "Or should I say, my daughter, Christine Knight?"

How does he know about my true gender? I thought I was careful with my surroundings. I can't believe someone like him knows. And what's that about being my father? I can't stand this anymore, what was happening to me?! I wanted to argue with him, protesting that I don't even know what he was saying, but he looked at me with such sureness. I must have somehow shown him that what he was saying was true through my actions. He looked at me with such intense eyes that left me not able to argue with him.

"How did-" I blurted out but he spoke right away.

"What? Do I look like a father who forgets his own daughter?" He said with such sureness.

"Don't joke with me, I'm a boy!" I yelled my voice cracking as I did.

"...Protest all you want if it helps you ease yourself but I know what you are and what you are not... like your father."

This can't be happening. This is just a dream, right? It's just a little nightmare. I pinched myself, hoping I'll find myself in my bed. But no matter how much pain I inflict myself, I'm still here. We were just staring at one another, waiting for the other to flinch or continue the conversation. I was so confused, I ended up speaking first.

"Why am I here?" I said, controlling myself from all this confusion around me.

The man stood up from his chair and walked around his desk to stand across from me. Standing straight, the desk behind him, he walked a few steps to me but stopped midway. I and the man were standing 10 feet away from each other in the middle of the room with the light shining brightly. I could see him more clearly now, a middle-aged man wearing a suit with a dark blue necktie, wrinkles on his face, and brown hair trying to cover some grey hair underneath. I could smell the strong stench of smoke around the office of this man.

"...Because time is taking its toll over me and as the only one related to me by blood, I expect you to be the one to take over, as you have seen already, the mafia and take over everything." The man explained to me.

I don't know if what the man was saying was true or if the stench of cigarettes made me misheard what he just said. I had nothing to say to him, I just stared at him in disbelief. No words came out of my mouth.

"Don't worry." The man said. "Nobody knows who you really are, except for a few."

I've forgotten about that. I was so busy releasing my anger onto him that I had forgotten my secret that he knows. I was still filled with anger and in the end, my yell to him came out with anger. "Few! How few? And who?" I stuttered out.

"Me and my most trusted comrade, whom you will meet in a few hours," I replied back, unshaken of my anger sent to him.

"Your friend? How would you know that friend of yours won't tell anyone about my gender."

"Because he has protected you since you were a child, but you were unaware of him, and a friend who has stayed with me for a long time."

"Why should I believe you, a total stranger, and also my so-called "father"?"

The man didn't reply back to me. Why won't you answer my question? I breathed in and out slowly to calm myself and talk to him as someone more professional and not as a child.

"Just so you know," I said in an even voice. "I'm not going to participate in this."

"Even if you're not in the mafia, you are still the rightful leader of the White Dragons."

"I don't want anything to do with this! Even if I will turn out to be the leader, I'd rather run away with my life than to be shot in the head."

"I expected you would say that. That's why I've hired a bodyguard for you, of course, he is also in the mafia but he doesn't know anything about your gender. He is a trusted comrade for years and he has the skill to protect you."

Now, this is something more serious now.. A bodyguard, someone who would follow his client everywhere, means that I wouldn't be able to have any freedom anymore. I was just about to argue with the man when suddenly the door open and revealed another man with gold hair rushing in the room smiling.

"It's been so long since I've seen you, Christine." The man said with a heartwarming smile. He went to me and hugged me. "You've grown so big in the last couple of years."

I paused. My anger overtook by confusion. Why is this man hugging me? I don't know, what I do know is that when the man came in, he didn't close the door. I squirmed out of the smiling man's grasp and fled the room, fleeing from the two men and running down the stairs while every step I took echoed throughout the staircases. I can't stand another second in this building. I feel like my head might burst open in all this confusion and anger building in me.

Victor P.O.V.

"It looks like she hasn't accepted her true life yet." My companion said. "If you force her, she'll just hate you more as it is, Victor."

"...It doesn't matter if she hates me to death." I went back to my desk and grabbed a cigarette and lit it up with a match. I puffed out smoke from my mouth and started thinking heavily. "What matters to me right now is that I can keep her safe from those people."

Russell P.O.V

"That double-crossing jerk!" I yelled while Lin, Steven, and Daniel are walking with me in the school corridors. "He said he would come to school and where is he now."

"Calm down, Russell," Daniel said while checking his phone. "Maybe he's sick or something."

"Is he sick enough not to answer his phone?" Lin questioned.

"It's already 11," Steven said. "He should have called us by now."

"That leaves us no choice then," I said while going into my next class. "We're going to his place." I walked inside the class. Even though I was walking a distance away from them, I could still hear them whispering to one another.

"Rich is going to die." I heard Lin said firstly.

"By his hands." Daniel joined in.

You bet Richard's going to die in my hands. Just as I said that he should stick to his word on seeing him again at school, this happens. Don't think about any funny business. I still haven't forgiven you for making me lose my chance in hooking up with that waitress. You double-crossing jerk, just wait until I go to your house, we'll see who's the one laughing.

"This is going to be epic." I heard Steven say in a sort of adrenaline. I wasn't going to blame him, it might turn out into me either beating him up or getting on with our brotherly lives.