Hostage (3)

Three siblings were lined up in a row on their knees like prisoners while a tall blonde man looked down on them.

The location was a souvenir shop with snacks, t-shirts, and magnets scattered all over the white tile of the store.

The only boy, Daniel, had one of his arms broken, while the other was transformed into a scythe that was wrapped in black chains. His face was swollen and bleeding from the beating he had taken.

The youngest girl, Daniella, had reverted to her original form, a teenage girl with brown hair and brown eyes like both of her siblings. Due to her trying to fight back, both her cheeks were swollen and red, her nose was broken, and her shoulder was dislocated.

Finally, the eldest girl, Debbie, had the lightest injuries. Her phone was crushed, and when she tried to breathe, it felt like something was stabbing her side.

All three of them had black chains wrapped around their necks, and they could only stare at the man, who had lost his warm smile and now looked colder than ice as he looked over them one by one.

“No-wait! How did you know? Nobody has been able to see through my ability!”

Daniella complained while glaring at the man.

It wasn’t fair!

Her transformation ability was seamless! It was so good that others couldn’t tell the difference between her and the real thing once she transformed!

How could this man see through it?

“You don’t need to know that,” Alexei responded with a blank expression.

Despite her decent imitation, it could only be an imitation since the little details that made up a person weren’t known.

Did it make sense for Cyril, a person who had been picky about sleep since he was a kid, to have no eye bags after sleeping outside for over three days?

This was a person whose least favorite word was sleepover and whose least favorite activity was spending the night outside his bed.

This was a person who had gotten his mother to successfully lobby the National Boy Scout Association into changing their law requirements for overnight outings.

A person who had gotten his mother to lobby 4 and 5-star hotels to customize their presidential suites so he could get a decent night's rest when traveling.

That kind of person had slept peacefully while being kidnapped by neighborhood hoodlums?

Even if he ignored that, there were other minor details missing.

The lack of white lashes due to it being Cyril’s natural hair color, not hair dye like people assumed, the slightly shaky eyes because of the pale eye color, even the red tinge that made his blue eyes seem purple, and the perpetual scowl on his face were missing.

He had almost fallen for it, no he wanted to fall for it, assuming the changes were because of the mind controller and whatever the angel had done, but seeing that switch as Cyril charged at him solidified it.

That wasn’t Cyril, only a cheap imitation.

But that led to the question of where Cyril was, given all the details this guy knew about him.

In his heart, he knew the probable answer, but it was something he didn’t want to admit.

Grinding his teeth, Alexei commanded the chains to squeeze the teenage boy kneeling on the ground before twisting his leg.

As the boy screamed, he asked the boy in as calm a tone as he could manage.

“Where is he?”

“Fuck you!”

CRACK!

One leg was twisted the wrong way, shards of white bone poking through the oversized black clothing as blood began pooling beneath him on the dirty tiled floor.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-“

Even as he screamed, he was held in a kneeling position by the unrelenting black chains.

“Where is he?”

“Fuck-”

“Ahgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh-“

CRACK!

The still transformed scythe arm was twisted off until it was held by a little piece of cartilage, the blood gushing everywhere.

Snot and tears streamed down Daniel’s face while his two sisters stared with green faces at the carnage taking place in front of them.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Their teamwork was unbeatable!

One to attack physically, one to attack mentally, and one to trick their enemies and cause chaos.

This shouldn’t be happening!

“Where. Is. He?”

“Please let us go!”

“It was just him! Daniella and I had nothing to do with it!”

Debbie and Daniella began pleading for their lives while hoping their brother would give an answer that would satisfy the man in front of them.

Clang!

Black chains immediately struck them both across the face before Alexei focused on Daniel once more.

“Where?”

“Heheheh, you really want to know? Fine. I’ll tell you. I can’t survive like this anyway. I killed him. Chopped him right in half. Snip snip. Died in 0.02 seconds. All he could do was stare at me blankly after handing over his wallet like a little bitch. Didn’t even leave me any coins, the little bastard. Ahh ahh”

As if he had used up all his energy to confess, Daniel began panting while staring up at Alexei with a triumphant smile.

“Snip, Snip. Watcha gonna do about it kill me? Hahahah” The broken fingers on his only remaining hand tried to make the scissor motion before falling down by his side.

“Chopped in half? Got it.” Without wasting another breath, the black chains flew in a circle, and all three heads fell to the ground before the bodies collapsed.

As the crystals fell out of their bodies, he quickly swept them up, feeling the energy rush into his body.

Coming to the last crystal that was over the boy who said he had killed Cyril, Alexei didn’t want to absorb it, resisting the urge of the energy to flow into him until it stabilized into a glass-like structure with energy stored inside.

Face completely blank, Alexei calmly grabbed the crystal before looking around the store and finding a stack of wallets.

Finding Cyril’s, the confirmation that he didn’t want, he carefully tucked the wallet, along with the shattered bits of a familiar cell phone, into the briefcase.

When he tried shoving the crystal in there, it refused to enter, so he had no choice but to hold it in his hands.

Then, he turned and left.

First, he went to his office, where he emptied the safe of important documents and precious metals and grabbed an extra change of clothes.

Then, to a familiar apartment whose owner was gone due to a senseless killing.

As he walked in, seeing the party supplies neatly stacked by the side of the doorway, a bitter feeling came to his mind.

“This wasn’t how your birthday was supposed to be.”

If he hadn’t taken the case, if he hadn’t taken the time to clear that portal of monsters or eliminate the prisoners, would he have made it in time?

Muttering to himself as he looked at the neatly decorated apartment, Alexei placed the crystal on the counter and went to take a shower, finally washing the blood and sweat from his body with cold water until it finally stopped running.

After he dressed up, he walked to the safe hidden in the closet and scooped up everything inside: identification, photo albums, and more.

It was surprising that more looting hadn’t happened yet, but when he considered the setup of Cyril's condo, it made sense.

“You should be making a fuss that someone is in your space without permission, dripping water everywhere, and eating your snacks.”

Still muttering to himself, Alexei absentmindedly ate the food in the fridge.

He had been ignoring the feeling but there was a hunger in the pit his stomach, but no matter how much he ate, it didn’t decrease.

After a while, he sent a message to a particular number and then went to sleep, completely exhausted.

After a couple of hours of sleep, he woke up to the sounds of somebody entering the apartment.

Since the owner was gone and few people had the key, he walked to the common area and stared at the door.

Seeing Cyril dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt and black pants, the comfortable clothes he often wore at home, Alexei felt the urge to sigh as a wave of anger surged through him.

Pale blue eyes met his own before a slight scowl appeared on the pale face.

“Lexie. How come you’re here?” hearing the familiar words spoken in a familiar cadence, Alexei began releasing black chains from his wrists.

The feeling of danger, which he had been listening to diligently, was warning him.

That thing, no matter how much it looked and sounded like Cyril, it wasn’t him.

And he was angry. Why did everyone insist on using a dead person’s face to torment him?

The black chains, as if feeling their owner’s irritation, quickly surged forward, aiming directly at Cyril’s neck with no hesitation.