Chains That Bind Us

VII

"Talk."

My one word threat was accompanied by the screaming of the CCG member I had pinned to the ground. My knife lopped right through his index finger, leaving the stub next to the other three I had already created. I picked up the severed finger.

"Listen, man. You know as well as I that you are not going to survive this night. Make it easier on yourself and let me give you a quick, painless death." I licked the bloodied end of his finger. "Tell me about Arima."

His only reply was his saliva shot into my face. With a smile, I bit through the finger in my hand like one would with a carat. His screams resumed as I chopped his last finger off.

"Don't think I'll stop here. When you have no fingers or toes, I'll keep chopping and eating. I will make you watch as I eat your intestines, carefully enough so that you stay conscious until I am done with my meal. Then, I'll leave you to bleed out in a pool of your own blood and piss and let your last thoughts be about how you could have kept this from happening. How you could have had an open casket funeral. How your daughter wouldn't have to identity a mangled, disgusting corpse as her one and only father. But no, you had to be stubborn, so this is all your choice. Your doing. And I'll be piteous and ask one last time. Tell me about Arima, and die peacefully."

"F-fuck...you..."

I smiled, "I was hoping you'd say that."
•~•~•

From my dark, hidden perch upon one of the buildings, I pulled out a Manila fouler. I flipped through half a dozen pages of crossed out profiles of CCG members. Finally, I reached the man I had just finished with and put a big red X across the entire paper with a marker I've began to keep in my pocket.

I watched as flashing blue and red lights drove past me in the direction I came from. I began to walk in the opposite direction when I saw a person standing on the other side of the roof.

"Holy shit, why do you always have to show up when I don't want you to?"

"Does that mean there are times where you do want me to show up?"

I was shocked and began to actually study the person across from me. His build was too tall and not nearly thin enough. While Uta had a swimmers body, this person looked more like body builder. His smell was almost the same, but had too much cigarette smoke. No wonder his voice was different.

The man stepped forward to show a head of spiked up, yet slicked back brown hair. His nose was too wide and too square for his face and anyone else's face. There was considerable distance between his two eyes, or that was just an illusion played by the width of his nose. To be frank:

I hated this guys fucking nose.

The man walked forward a bit more and smiled.  It made my skin crawl and he said, "I have an order, and a message. Which one do you wanna hear first?"

My eyes squinted at him. "What are you talking about?"

"We have a mutual..." he said, his creepy grin still on his face, "acquaintance. A very powerful man, physically and politically."

"I didn't know there was politics between ghouls."

The man laughed. "Well, there is when there are Ghoul gangs running entire wards."

Of course I knew that he was talking about Uta. But I didn't want to see him or any of his underlings. "Get lost. You might think you look all big and bad but you could never scare me, or beat me for that matter. Tell Uta I don't want anything to do with him."

The mans smile slowly disappeared. "I have a message. And an order. Which one do you want to hear first."

"Fine," it was useless trying to be diplomatic with meatheads, "what's the message?"

"'Raven, you are going to live with us from now on so I can assure you do not cause anymore trouble with the doves'."

I stared at the man in front of me. He would have to be a complete moron to think that I would actually go with him to see Uta. Before I could tell him that though, he spoke.

"And my orders were to get you to comply by any means necessary. "

"Sorry to disappoint," I said turning away and about to jump off the roof, "but there is nothing that'll make me go with you."

"That's what he said you would say, but don't worry. I took some precautionary measures."

I looked over my shoulder slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Let's just say, the Doves have a very logical reason to investigate a certain apartment on Sina Drive."

I squinted at him when I recognized the address. "So to get me to go with you, you tell the CCG where I live? What if I just get another place?"

"I'll keep being a nark. But, how many apartment buildings do you think will get you a place with no background check? Not even an ID?"

He was right, but I still didn't want to see that jackass's smug face. "And if I just let myself be caught?"

His smile creeped across his face again, "you know what'll happen to you. Locked away in solitude, the only people you see are the Doves who show up to question you. Even if you keep that stoic face of yours, they'll still be able to take your body language and twist it on you. You'll unwillingly and unknowingly give them all of the details as to where to find your precious sister's family."

"What do you know about them?" I growled.

"Not a lot," he began to pace back and forth, " mostly just that they exist and that you are extremely protective of them."

I was about to do something, I'm not sure what. The anger was swelling up and I didn't know what was going to happen, would I scream? Attack? But before I could react, he went on.

"Oh, and one more thing." Somehow his wicked smile curled in spirals along his cheeks. "Uta has very fun intel on your brother-in-law."

"What is it?" I yelled without even thinking.

"I don't really know, Uta wouldn't tell me. Something about him somehow endangering the kids?"

"And if I go to Uta, he'll tell me?"

He shrugged, "I would assume so." I began to walk towards and past the burly man. "I'll assume that means you'll come with me?" My glare was the  only response I gave. "Oh yay, the name is Yamori, by the way."

"And I really couldn't give two fucks."