DARK AND TWISTED

CHAPTER 35

Thank goodness there was nobody on the fifth floor. We got inside our room and Nyx went straight into the bathroom to take a bath.

I knew she was hiding something from me. After she got out, wiping her hair with a small towel. She stared at me with her dark eyes.

I avoided eye contact with her because I didn't feel like she was the Nyx I used to know.

"Hope," she called me.

"Why did you do that?" I rose from my seat with tears set my face. "You could've just ask them to let me go and we could leave," I hugged myself.

Her freezing fingers wrapped around my arms, "Listen to me."

"No," I sobbed as I pulled my arms away from her.

The hurt expression was plastered on her face, "sit down. I will tell you everything but promise you won't be scared of me and don't judge me. But first thing first, I'm sorry because I lied a lot to you. Only because I didn't want you to know the truth about me."

Still hugging myself, I sat on the couch far away from her. She sat on the bed while staring at me.

"Are you going to tell me or not?" I snapped.

She took a deep breath, "A long time ago when I was 8 years old, I was trained by a bunch of serial killers in a gang. Every day, they would teach me how to run away from the police, how to sneak in, how to kill people in multiple ways and so on. Until one day, the gang kidnapped a girl. I was sleeping at that time and woke up after hearing her scream. I never met another girl around my age so I was excited to have a friend.

"But when I saw what they did to her, I didn't like how they beat her because she cried. Luckily, she got away so I followed her from behind to make sure she made it alive. But, she tripped and hurt her knee. I ran to her and told her there's a road ahead if she walked straight."

Her story felt familiar, but I didn't want to ask questions.

"Then what happened?"

"After she escaped, the leader was furious because he wanted her no matter what. I know they will keep finding her but I don't know why do the leader wants her so bad. They never told me about it."

"When you said a bunch of serial killers in a gang trained you-"

"It's not like any other gang you know. That gang was from Sy Cove. There's not just that one gang in here. There are a bunch more. They all compete to be the best. That's why the leaders of each gang train the members and lackeys. I was a member, not a lackey. Being a member means you can be the next leader. They have ranks for each category of members. The lowest ones are rookies. They're the weakest among us. It doesn't matter if they train for almost a decade. They rarely improve and are just plain failures. They run errands all the time. People who trained more than 2 years, amateur. Trained for over 5 years, advanced. My rank is elite. People who are at the top, the best in everything. They trained me from when I was 7 until 20. Now, I'm 22. I did go to school for the first few years but later, they got private tutors to teach me.

"They made me kill innocent people. Every night, I get nightmares about those people killing me over and over. I felt guilty but I had to no choice. If I didn't do it, they would kill my family. I was taken away from my parents at the age of 7. My parents couldn't report about it to the police because the leader threatened them."

"So," I licked my lips. "You know how to fight because of this?"

"Yes. They turned me into a killing machine at the age of 12. My leader did that because he told me one day, he would do something that would change everything and those elite members are the keys. I had no idea about it, though. He's a bit odd for a few years. I had the highest kills and I'm ashamed of myself."

"How many?"

"Over 400."

"That's a lot."

"Yes. I had it enough so I quit. I don't want to kill people anymore but sometimes, in Sy Cove, not killing people is not an option. You already know how it's like in here, right?"

I nodded, "yes."

"About my dragon tattoo. From what I know, my gang is one of the most popular, terrifying, violent and just plain brutal. The dragon is the gang symbol. The koi fish tattoo on my back is a proof that I quit the gang. The rule is when you quit a gang, you have to get another tattoo on your back, no matter what. Like a badge of freedom.

"I had to kill those people because you were in danger. Every time you get into trouble, it's a switch for me to protect you."

"You become different whenever you kill people."

"That's the old me if you're curious. That's how I behaved when I was in the gang. Cold, heartless, and violent. Now you know why people fear me. That guy when we were camping and those idiots I dealt with just now. They know me because of my reputation."

"But you said you got here three months ago to find your friends."

"That's true. But I left for a few weeks to get back to my family. I wanted them to know I'm doing well. I got back here when I received the news that my friends were missing. Do you know I got a lot of money because every time I kill people, my leader will pay me over 10,000 bucks? The leader has a lot of money because every time the members kill people, he'll collect the organs and sell them. Imagine over 400 people I killed times over 50,000 bucks. Over 20 million bucks. I wanted to give the money to my parents but they refused when they knew where did I get the money. They had debts with a few loan sharks but I settled everything."

"Nyx," I climbed on the bed and she spread her arms, pulling me into her warm, comforting embrace. "Thanks for telling me about this. I feel closer to you."

She tightened her grip around me, "Thanks for not judging me. It's so hard to keep this a secret you know."