Animals [z.m. || a.u.]

xv.

xv.

"Hello?" Benjamin's palm held his phone by his ear. If he were honest, he would have accepted the fact that he had received the phonecall without checking the caller-id. If he were not so much absorbed by the disturbing topic about Zayn Malik holding a girl hostage with some unknown motives, maybe he would have noticed that the phone call was on his personal number which happened to ring-up pretty rarely.

"How dare you, you asshole!" the response to Benjamin's decent acknowledgment very finely contradicted the posh poise with which his new anonymous boss carried himself. He did not know his name neither did he know what he looked like. Benjamin only knew that this boss of his liked to call him 'Ben', much to his irritation, and also that he's ways of conversing were very much posh; which Benjamin was starting to question since the greeting. The pact with this anonymous person did not really mean anything to Benjamin. All he was concerned with was just one part of the pact : getting rid of Zayn Malik. He knew how ethically wrong it was to just pull a knight off the chessboard to gain monopoly but - to quote his subconscious - fuck ethics!

"Hello?" Benjamin made sure to repeat the greeting and rose his eyebrows in anticipation of what would be the 'boss'' problem's extremity that he started the call with a curse.

"You fu.king get information about Zayn and you don't think it's important to let me know about him holding a girl ransom?!"

"Wait, wait, wait! Why do I have to tell it to you? I mean-"

"Ah, now that's the difference I'm talking about, Ben. You are such a blind dog-"

"Excuse me? I fucking-"

"No! Let me finish! Zayn is not the one to be assigned with kidnappings or holding someone back for a long time-"

"There's always a first time?" Benjamin's retort came out much like a question for he was just as much unsure of his answer as he was to the theory the person on the other side of the phone was plotting.

"You don't get in, Ben! Zayn is a professional assassin! He kills people doesn't hold them back! You are the one for the kidnappings!"

Benjamin sighed. The person was right, somehow. It should have bothered Benjamin as to how did this person know so much about Zayn and his professions and the Boss' choice of people for a particular task but he let it slide. Although he sure made a point to find out the person who was letting such vital information slip away to people.

"So what do you suggest we do now?" Benjamin asked a tad frustrated because of the double work load from the two bosses.

"Oh just you wait and watch, Mr. Gray." The sophisticated voice was back and so were the scowl lines on Benjamin's forehead. Benjamin had hence concluded that the bearer of the sophisticated voice was a completely out of his mind and surely unaware of what he was going to collide head-on on. He gritted his teeth together.

A sacrifice made is worthy if the bottom line is success.

__

Claire Watson collapsed to the ground. Gravity suddenly acting harsher on her than any other moment, tugging her body down, succumbing her to the depths of remorse. Her shoulders slouched and shook as unbearable tears cascaded down thin cheeks. She was sure her eyes were bloodshot red after holding the tears in for such a long time. All the words the murderer whispered to her, the way he touched and threw her like she was of no value, all of it traumatised the poor girl. Violence had never left a speck on Claire's heart since her father was in an occupation where violence was an everyday thing. Yet, now that she was to face the horrifying consequences, suddenly violence made Claire tremble. When the black haired boy had caged her against the wall, Claire swore she almost thought she was to lose her virginity that day. But the fact that she hadn't lost it wasn't completely relieving, either, for she knew as long as she was to be in the clutches of the two men who did vices and violated laws at the drop of a hat, her life had no security and her mind had no peace.