The basement was dark and smelt of mould, the light from a flickering lamp barely reaching the bastards as they huddled around me.
Around me, a dozen gang members stood— previously my people but friendships in this line of work were like a stripper’s G-string, could snap at any moment, their eyes cold and unfeeling.
I was in the middle, on my knees, beaten to within an inch of my life— face swollen, and my long black hair sticking to my forehead.
My eyes remained unfocused. Not fear, not regret... just nothing.
I couldn’t lie, I expected something like this to happen. However, I never thought I would get caught this soon.
"Why Miles, why?" Casper said, voice hoarse from smoking his lungs to ash, but he looked sad—or at least tried to.
"After everything I did for you, I brought you from fucking nothing!" He screamed and spittle flew everywhere. "I gave you everything. Money, women, protection—everything. You were my best man, yet you..."
Casper closed the distance with two fat fucking steps and grabbed my face, "Just why?"
I slowly lifted my head; through the curtain of my hair, I saw the old fat lazy bastard who’d put me through hell and swung freedom before me like a swaying dick inches from a horny hooker’s mouth.
The man who taught me to handle a gun before I even learned how to ride a bicycle. The man who made me the monster I am today.
"Casper, you wanna know something funny..." I looked him dead in the eye and smirked. "I never asked jack shit from you."
Casper released my face with a hard shove forcing me back down against the floor.
I heard the cocking of a gun followed by Casper’s voice with a gun pointed at me. "Just when I thought I was out, you pull me back in."
I chuckled, "You heard that from the godfather, right? Cuz’ I could’ve sworn I said that exact thing to your daughter last nig—"
A bullet fired and tore through my shoulder and I gritted my teeth in agony, wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
It wasn’t the first bullet I’d been shot with but each one of them stung like a bitch.
"Just kill him, boss. He is now wasting our time."
Hearing that bitch-ass voice, I raised my eyes and locked on those blue ones.
"Leo? Ah!" So that’s how I got caught, not surprising, Leo did always have a thing for crawling into people’s assholes for warmth.
The only man in this organisation I could’ve called a brother was the one who handed me over to the devil.
Wow... what a shit world is this?
With my head down, I laughed for the last time. This was great. We’d all get to die together tonight. Kinda poetic.
Soon, a cold metal pressed against my head as Casper’s voice arrived, "Raise your head, traitor. I wanna see the fear in your eyes when you finally die."
With a grin, I raised my face. My eyes were closed, and a happy smile stretched my lips—but what caught Casper’s attention were the grenade pins between my lips.
"Shame you forgot I was the only smart one you had in this shit show."
"Fuck!" The realisation dawned upon the bald man a moment earlier before it happened.
The night sky was torn apart by a deafening explosion, flames roaring as they consumed the building—the grenades weren’t enough, but given the fact that everything in the basement was flammable...
The blast shattered windows from nearby buildings, and the ground trembled under the sheer force. Thick smoke billowed into the air, curling into the night like a sinister omen.
Every gang member who came along, Casper and Ben, died in that incident. And the one who was behind the blast....well, I died with a happy smile on my face.
If only hell wanted me.
"Hhhhhh—AHHhh!" I gasped back for air as cold water splashed on my body.
My eyes shot out immediately and frantically felt down my whole body—
"WHO’S THIS BITCH YOU’RE TEXTING, MILES?!" A blonde screamed in my face, right hand practically shoving a phone displaying screenshots of text chain, while the left was with the empty glass.
My heart was still drumming in my chest and I had absolutely no idea what the fuck was going on or who the fuck was this.
I blinked twice, ignoring the crazy lady for a moment and taking in my surroundings.
I was on a bed that was more than comfortable, with sheets I could’ve sunk in, the rest looked like the regular hotel room with a television, neutral interior decor and a mirror in the—
Wait!
I glanced over at the mirror again. Closed my eyes for a second too long and opened it, I still saw a stranger looking back at me.
"Miles!" The very pissed off beautiful—cause I don’t think I said that before—girl screamed my name again. "If you don’t give me an answer to why a girl’s texting you "I want you so bad" right now, I’m walking out that door."
"Uhhrr..." I really did want to give her answers, mostly because she looked like she would strangle me if I didn’t but I didn’t have answers for her.
"FINE!" She screamed for the last time before hurling the phone at me and storming over to the closest.
I flinched off the bed and towards the mirror, examining my body more closely.
Still had the same black hair but it was somewhat shorter now, giving my cheekbones more notice and purple eyes I definitely didn’t have before.
"Fuck!" I flinched back as What’s-her-name threw the glass cup at the mirror in front of me shattering it.
"What the hell?" I muttered and immediately regretted it. Her icy gaze locked on to me and sent me to the gallows instantly.
"Pendejo... always making me think he’s fucking changed just to do this shit again," she said, shoving clothes angrily into her box.
I watched her in silence and when she was finally done she straightened up and stormed past the kitchen—grabbing a knife I didn’t see—to the door.
"Fuck you, Miles!" She said as she swung the door open. "I hope you rot in hell."
I offered a confused wave goodbye and that lit the dog shit on fire, she flung the knife at me with only the force a pissed off Latina could.
Not even standing to check the aftermath, the door slammed in her wake before the knife hit the ground.
Except... It didn’t.
I ducked immediately, hands over my head waiting for a sound that never came.
Cautiously, I raised my head to see the knife still floating before me with an outline of purple the same shade as my eyes.
"I couldn’t just stay dead, could I?"