Chapter 24
118 hours. 4 days and 22 hours in counting.
They ran, the trees surrounding them overhead casting darkness so thick it was as if they were wearing blindfolds. The silence of the forest was like a chasm of emptiness, their breath sounded like roars in their own ears.
The branches of the lower trees nicked at their skin, their original path already lost. Somewhere behind them, they heard a man howl, his voice shrill and broken as if he were being choked. Soon enough, that howl was echoed and Amethyst began counting.
'One... Two... Three...'
They were close.
Voices, men that sounded like they were chanting an old tribal song came out of nowhere, filling the forest with indescribable terror. "Three blind mice... Three blind mice.... See how they run! See how they run!"
"Hurry!" she heard Ai yell from the front of the group. She could barely see their silhouettes in the dark. Everything was going downhill, some of them were already dead.
"Cut off their tails with a carving knife..."
Oh lord, how did this go terribly wrong.
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52 HOURS AGO
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Cameron asked Amethyst for the nth time that day.
Amethyst grunted, shoving a leather jacket inside her backpack along with her phone, her passport and her laptop. A black case lay open on her bed, inside of it was three different guns displayed on red cushion.
She took the three guns, reloading them before placing each barrel first into two holsters strapped to her thigh and one on her waist. Two knives were hidden in each boot and two more ready to be activated and used in the soles. The rings on her fingers were hidden knives laced with paralysing venom and the charms on her bracelet containing poison in powder form.
"Aren't you a little too heavily armed for a simple plane ride to Japan?" Cameron asked as he leaned against the wall, watching her arming herself. "It's 11 hours on a direct flight to Japan, Amethyst, I doubt they'll try anything while we're in the air."
She paused, checking to see if her earpiece was working before she replied, "We're dealing with Asia's most notorious hired assassination group, Cameron. Who knows what they all have under their sleeves."
"The others don't think so though." Cameron stared at her, trying to find a shred of hesitation and doubt but all he found was exasperation. He flashbacked to when she told them the perpetrators were hiding the leaders in Japan.
They all stared at her in disbelief, the papers slowly crumpling in their hands. "Is this your idea of a joke, Xavier?" Verna had scoffed, the very idea of being involved with the Japanese mafia bubbled her humour.
Amethyst had just stared back, impassive.
"Verna," warned her twin brother, an arm already on her shoulder in effort to keep her from doing something she might regret.
"This is the only lead we have on their location. I don't know about you people but I sure as hell don't want to sit here and wait like sitting ducks for the headline '328 missing persons found dead'." Amethyst replied blankly.
No one else said anything for a while. They knew she was right. They knew that her skills in the field of science were not something to undermine. If the research led them to Japan then, the results were concrete.
"I never said that the Japanese mafia were involved in this. I just said that it's one of the possibilities." Amethyst added quietly.
Vern frowned, "But it says here that—"
"I know what it says! Just... the ink used to write on that piece of paper isn't something you can find just anywhere."
"What do you mean by that?"
She took a breath in, her eyes finding Ai's and she gave him a look that made his insides go cold. Her next words just confirmed his fear. "It's a type of ink that was specially made with a hybrid species of a flower which is found only in a greenhouse in China."
"Okay so? What's so special about this flower?"
"It's not the flower that's special. It's the greenhouse. This greenhouse is located in the hearts of the Red District northwest to the mountains. Who do you think governs all the Red Districts in Asia?"
Everyone grimaced, their stances no longer hunched but now upright and alert. Cleary shaken, Kyle spoke the words no one dared to confirm aloud. "Hong Long—The Red Dragons."
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Amethyst (ON HOLD)
قصص عامة| THE PAST WILL ALWAYS COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU | Kidnapped, tortured and starved -- Amethyst has had her demons caged inside of her for as long as she could remember. When all of Europe's Mafia leaders kidnapped and possibly killed, even the cold of...
