The Hitman and His Consort

VI – Relations

First Person P.O.V: VALENTIN HACKSAW

Needless to say that it has been a productive day.

I found the targets, and I’ve come up with a way to sniff them out. All that’s needed is to think of a way to ruin these young boys’ hopes and dreams. I’ve thought of a few, but I’m not a psychopath, I’ll keep them alive. A gift from me to them, something that they can cherish for a life-time.

‘I’m hilarious, no one gets me’

Should I keep them able to play? Should I even let them walk? Paralysis is too much, I want them to feel the full extent of the regrets that I’m going to serve.

“I can’t believe you’re this excited to beat up a bunch of kids,” Denis said with a chuckle as he took sat on the passenger seat. It’s 10:00 PM and we’re just about to leave and get this over with.

“I’m not excited, I’m being indecisive, should I cripple them? One leg? Both legs?” I replied as I weigh out the options in my head. I turned to Denis since he usually gives his unwanted opinions on things during these moments but instead he just gave me a bewildered look.

“Valya, these are children… spooking them is enough,” he reasoned.

‘He chooses the worst times to be boring,’

I just sighed and shrugged, “Fine,” is all I said before revving the engine of our incognito van while we were waiting for Diana, who finally finishes getting ready. I am clueless about who’s she trying to look good for.

We’re literally going out to kidnap high school boys.

She hopped in and settled on the backseat, carrying a large duffle bag, “What’s in the bag?” Denis asked.

Diana paused as she furrowed her brows at Denis, “…stuff, you don’t think we’ll be able to break bones with our bare hands now can you Denis, geez…” she replied as if stating the obvious making Denis shake his head in disbelief.

“What the hell…guys we are NOT crippling children!” he exclaimed, I’m not sure whether he’s angry or disappointed.

Maybe both, but that’s his problem. I don’t know what he expects from this family.

After huffing, Diana rolled her eyes and just leaned back on the seat, “…for the record, it was Valya’s idea” she mumbled.

“OH REALLY?" I asked back, looking at her directly, "Did I tell you to bring… I don’t know—an ax, with you-wait, why did you bring an ax?” I retorted as I reached and rummage through the duffle bag pulling out an honest-to-goodness tomahawk ax, pretty impressed—no, surprised to see it in there. I didn’t think she had it in her.

“It doesn’t matter who’s idea it is, we are not doing it, end of discussion, can we please get on with this?” Denis scolded.

Shrugging, I just drove to our destinations. I managed to message the targets that we’ll be in touch with them tonight and they’ll have to spend the night in the main sports center hotels and practice with the other chosen students from other schools in the morning.

‘I’m a professional liar too. It’s a high-paying job’

I even got this van to have a nice stick-on lettering of ‘N.A.C SPORTS FACTION’ with a convincing logo on the side so they’d feel more comfortable hopping in. As for their parents, if they can let their kids enter a warehouse that’s barricaded with 9ft high walls with a 12-inch width while under the influence, they should have no problem letting their sons enter a van and, albeit false, sleep in a f*cking sports center hotel.

Our first stop is Harry Jones. The kid was already by the curb when we got there. Diana slid the door open and plastered a bright smile on her face that Harry mirrored.

“Hey, there champ! Get in!” she welcomed gesturing to the second-row seating so she can maintain control of the door, and Harry, poor Harry, just did as he was told. He’s not a talker, but that’s just perfect, although he seemed jittery and obviously ecstatic.

When we arrived at Miles Goldman’s household I just honked once and he was already walking out the door, Diana opened the door for him with the same exact smile and once again another i***t happily walked into his doom, he sat right beside Harry and they did some sort of handshake as they both grinned wide to each other.

'enjoying while they can, huh?'

I shared a glance with Denis and he seems to think the same.

I felt my phone vibrate so I check before driving again, it was from Marcello De Jesus, the absentee. He told me to pick him up at a different place.

‘No big deal, I can give him that munch’

I picked him up near the city dumpsite, it was dark and he was wearing a black hoodie like every other edgy teen who yearns to be mistaken for a f*****g thief.

Diana threw a concerned look at me before opening the door for Marcello, “what are you doing here, champ? It’s already late, we could pick you up at home,” she said in a lighthearted tone. Marcello had his hood down as he walked in and even his friends noticed his sullen mood.

Marcello took a seat in the second row but not before Harry flicked his hoodie off, showing his black eye and several other bruises on his face.

“Dude… he hit you again, didn’t he?” Harry asked. Perhaps Marcello’s silence meant 'yes' because they paused for a solemn moment.

“Sh*t, don’t worry man, tonight that changes, we got a big break right here my boy,” Miles cheered, patting his shoulder earning a small smile and a nod from Marcello and we were off to the next.

Once again I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Diana texted me saying: ‘Valya, I’m feeling guilty,’

I met her gaze through the rearview mirror. ‘I’m not’ I texted back.

I drove to Tyrone Smith’s house next, he was also waiting by the curb and just as excited as the others, “Dude~ it’s finally here!” he gushed, I don’t know what he’s talking about but it sure warms my heart seeing them happy.

‘Ah… I crack myself up,’

Our last stop was at Maverick Anderson’s house, "M-Maverick said he couldn’t make it,” it was Marcello who spoke. Once again I exchanged looks with Denis. Diana was losing heart, so I can’t drag this on.

I shrugged and sighed, “Well, he passed up a once-in-a-lifetime chance, doesn’t matter, you four are enough,” I assured,

“Is there no second chance for him, sir?” Tyrone asked,

“Man… unfortunately no, it’s limited slots, kid,” I explained, making sure to sound bummed out about it too, making them shake their heads.

I still can’t grasp the feeling of sharing another person’s loneliness and regrets, why would you even want to share negative experiences. That sounds stupid, useless, and unnecessary. Then again, it's not like everyone does it.

Phase two begins, I drove them to one of our remote and abandoned warehouses far from the city. I knew they were starting to raise suspicion when we drove onto silent, dark roads.

By the time we were close to the warehouse, I shut the lights. They scuffled a bit, but we were prepared. I sprayed ammonia to knock them out while we three wore our gas masks.

It’s not like they’ll fight back while inside a running van but it’s easier to deal with them asleep.

We’ve arrived at the warehouse and the van is parked, Diana placed a hand on her hip as she massaged her temples, “I don’t think I can do this,” she hissed in a hushed tone and I placed a hand on her shoulder.

“… I know, that’s why I will, just ready five chairs right here, in a row, and get some duct tape. Then you can go and call your boyfriend… or something,” I instructed, and she hesitantly agreed. After giving me the stink-eye, of course, that's a given.

“Oh man, look! We got the old blindfolds here!” Denis gushed as he raised black bands that we used before to blindfold our targets.

“Denis, they already saw our faces, why the f*ck do we need blindfolds?” I asked,

“Shut up, it adds to the mood~ you wouldn’t understand cuz you don’t have class, you tasteless snake,” he retorted, shoving the blindfolds back to where he found them.

"What, you want to do some foreplay too?" I sneered and he flipped me off.

I rolled my eyes at him and turned to look at Diana who already laid out the wooden chairs as requested, handing me the duct tape. Visibly annoyed.

“Why do they have to be innocent dreamers? I thought they were delinquents! …messing with my head,” she grumbled, annoyed that she’s softhearted enough to sit this one out and have her expectations of them, being a fun beating, crushed.

Then I, one by one, carried these young boys and bound their hands and feet on the chair with duct tape. Denis was kind enough to wake them up and it took a second before they realized what was going on.

Denis gave me a stern look saying ‘don’t hurt them’ or something.

“whatever” I mumbled to myself before smiling at them, pulling out my phone, playing the video from the warehouse, showing them each a brief second before opening the voice recorder and putting it back in my pocket.

“You five… messed with my f*cking warehouse,” I explained.

They fell silent after that, realizing that everything was fake and that they’re in deep s**t, poor Harry was trembling, Marcello met my eyes and glared at me, the boy’s tough, he probably thinks that this situation is similar to when he gets beat up in his own home.

“Got something to say, Marcello?” I daunted with a smirk,

“Were you planning this the whole time?” he asked.

“No, we changed our minds last minute—of course, kid!” Denis jeered throwing out dramatic hand gestures, taking the words right out of my mouth.

“W-W..W-We didn’t do it!” Harry managed to stutter out.

“Harry shut up!” Tyrone whipped his head to him in an attempt to shut the ginger up,

“It’s true! T-Tha-That’s not us it was—“ he still went on,

“For f**k’s sake Harry! Shut up!” now it was Miles who interjected.

What the hell does Harry know that they need to hide even in this situation?

“DON’T TELL ME TO SHUT UP!" he snapped, "What are you scared of?! Ice?! Ice isn’t here! They are!” Harry, now yelling as he gestured to me and Denis, clearly at his wits' end, choking up with tears.

'He is absolutely right,'

“If we kept quiet Ice wouldn’t hunt us down but that doesn’t matter if we’re already dead, and for the record, it was Maverick who made us take those drugs!” he continued.

‘Hold up… drugs? The plot thickens’

I exchanged glances with Denis who shrugged and raised a hand to stop the commotion along with their blame parade before they get too much into each other’s emotions and start crying or whatever disgusting feelings they decide to ride on, “What drugs?” I asked, and Tyrone averted his eye from me as well as everyone.

I pulled out my gun, yes I always have it with me, and shot it on the ground. The loud booming sound rang and echoed in the warehouse and I lifted it up for them to see before asking again, “What… drugs?”

By now I can hear the loud gulps. It was Miles who answered, “Maverick gave us drugs from Ice, h-he said that he’ll kill us if we told anybody,”

“Who’s Ice,” I asked again,

“He’s from a street gang, he’s a drug dealer…but the drugs he gave Maverick were… different,” Tyrone explained.

“Different how?” Denis asked,

“It made us crazy… i-it’s like a sports drink, like… like..” Harry trailed off, unable to find right the words,

“Adrenaline?” I said, helping out,

“Yeah… Maverick told us that Ice was planning to do business in that block but he couldn’t because your building had guards walking around all day so… so we… we messed around—but we don’t know what we were thinking we were high as hell! I don’t even remember it!” Harry pleaded, and I sighed, pulling Denis aside.

“They’re dumb… dumb as f*ck,” I whispered as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

‘So to mess with security they infiltrated the place, but that just made the place more vigilant against future intruders—ugh, my head’

Denis snorted, “I know, right? The li’l kid's about to piss his pants, what’re we gonna do?” he whispered back.

“I don’t know, do you think we’ve scared them enough?” I asked and Denis nodded.

“Yeah, we’re way past the scaring part you’ll probably a topic of trauma, they snitched so we’re probably done here, just threaten them or something, we found bigger fish anyways,” he agreed,

“So we’re going to meet this ‘Ice’ person?” I asked making Denis nod again,

“Let’s just tell him that he can bring his business elsewhere and we have no beef with him,” he clarified and I nodded before walking back to our tied-up friends.

“We have a verdict, children…We’ll keep you alive, who of you knows where Ice is?” I asked and Tyrone gulped before answering, “I do”

“Good, We’ll bring you back to the city, you can walk yourselves home…and you see, I’m not Ice, I don’t tell people I’ll kill them if they snitched on me…” I trailed off as I stood beside Harry, “they’ll just drop dead,” I said with a hum and it seemed to send the message.

'then again telling them this meant that I'm exactly like Ice,'

“When you get home you’ll say that you were not good enough to be in the big leagues and you’ll tell them that you will never be, keep a low profile kids, you’re drug addicts now, you’ll probably be kicked off your little high-school basketball team if your coach knew this,” I added pulling my phone out to show that’s its been recording the whole thing.

“Tyrone, I’ll be picking you up tomorrow… and I hope you all understand your situation?” I announced, but I was met with silence.

“I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!” I yelled, just a little something to spook them and it worked.

“Yes sir,” they answered,

Since I’m pretty satisfied, I went ahead and opened the door of the van and cut them loose from the chair. I have their hands taped up but I can take that off later.

They got back in the van and soon enough we were back on the road, it’s pretty late, as promised the moment we entered the city I stopped by on a deserted corner pretty far from the bustling, busier parts and got them off, Diana un-taped their hands before dropping the car off to our disposal area and got an Uber.

“What were you doing the whole time?” Denis asked Diana,

“...Talking to Rod,” she replied,

“Ew,” I mumbled, making her slap my arm.

We reached home and plopped into our respective rooms. Just thinking of doing business again tomorrow already has me tired. From stupid high-schoolers, to druggies, to drug dealers.

I just hope everything is solved by tomorrow so I can have a day off.