trepidation

chapter four

60 hours left

The air up here hit differently, it was calm and warm but still came with a little bit of cold. I heard a voice behind me and looked back but there was no one there. As soon as I turned around I saw the vigilante known as the hood facing the view. He had a green hood on with a green bow and arrow as weapons. Scratch that, everything he owned seemed to be green. The grinch could have been his cousin.

"You are late," the voice revealed as he turned away.

"Didn't you just arrive? Also, I didn't know the famous vigilante had a tight schedule,"

"I don't have any time to waste. What do you want?" he asked angrily.

"I need your help to find a person,"

"I'm not a personal investigator. Go ask the police,"

"They won't help me. They can't help me. If you won't help, I will lose someone close to me, please. You may not know the feeling but I need your help, hood." I told him.

"What's the name," he replied.

"Greg Barrows"

"Barrows is dangerous. He kills for fun and is out after power,"

"I need you to help me find him fast,"

"I'll see what I can find about him," he said about to leave but I needed to ask one more thing.

"Wait. One more thing. Furusato," I told him instantly. "Not a name. A word. It means hometown," Instantly it hit me. He was here. If I could track the two men I saw that day then I could find Kenji.

"Look I may not have names but I do have a good memory of the two men. One had burn marks on the right side of his face. The other one was muscular, of normal height, and had a snake tattooed on his left arm," I said to him. "I received a call earlier and I have less than 3 days left. Greg could be one of them,"

"I'll see what I can find. I'll reach out to you. And don't do anything until then," he warned me. "Thanks," I said quietly as the hood left. I stood there watching over the city trying to think clearly. Where could Kenji possibly be right now?

Making my way down the stairs I find mom and Thea talking. "Hey, I'll be going home I feel tired. It has been a long day," I told them and mom gave me a small nod. "Take me with you. I feel like I will go crazy if I stay," Thea said and walked away from us and outside. "Everything good with Thea, mom?" I asked. "She has been distant a bit these days," she said and I sighed. "I have myself to blame I guess. I should never have left you and Thea." I said. "She probably took it hard," I continued. "It's nothing we Queens can't overcome," she assured me with a motherly smile and stayed behind as I made my way outside to go home with Thea.

A few guests started to leave by making their way outside. My eyes were searching for Thea only to catch a silhouette of a muscular man with a snake tattoo. "Greg Barrow," someone shouted and he turned around. It couldn't be. I hurried after him only to bump into Thea.

"Mel, when are we leaving?" She asked me. "Sorry, Thea. You are going to have to get home alone. I need to find Ollie and talk to him about something work-related," she answered with a simple but tiring fine and left with our old driver. As I turned around he was already gone.

The morning after - 48 hours left

It wasn't much time left. I knew that just sitting and waiting for the hood wouldn't satisfy me. I needed to dig into this too. I needed to find these men and fast. During my time in Soratoge, we used to access a database to gain information about possible threats and people. It wasn't impossible. The only thing needed was a high-security workplace and who is better than John Diggle's workplace? I already knew that the execution would be easy I just needed a plan. We had a problem with the Kenshin clan in the past but it couldn't have been them. Even if it was them they would never have attacked our palace like that. It wasn't their assassination style. This didn't make sense. The voice on the other side of the call sounded deep with an English accent.