On the rooftop of a thirty-floor skyscraper, a man dined alone.
Everything around him spoke of luxury, and he himself wore an all-black, luxurious suit with a tie.
He was eating a delicious meal freshly made with fine details by himself.
Only the sound of chewing could be heard other than the sound of wind blowing and ruffling his hairs.
As the meal neared its end, the sound of the knife against the plate grew more frequent.
Just as the man finished his meal, his phone rang. He wiped his mouth with a napkin, composed as ever, before answering.
"Speak."
"Boss, the police have managed to find your location and currently they are on their way to arrest you. You need to RUN NO-"
BAM BAM BAM
Before the man on the other end could continue, gunshots erupted… then everything went silent.
"Sigh…"
The man, Alessio D'Rossi, held his phone in silence for a long moment before snapping it in two pieces and tossing it off the building.
Alessio was a mafia boss, currently being hunted by governments across the world for the countless crimes he had committed… and the lives he had taken.
He was born in a third-world country, where an empty stomach left him no choice but to join the local gangs.
Hunger… those who have never felt it will never understand its horror.
For Alessio, it became the only thing driving him forward.
When he stood on the verge of starvation – with no home, no family and nothing to his name – he killed a man… for a piece of bread.
Seeing a child no more than nine years old repeatedly stab a man just for a piece of bread impressed those gang members standing in that shadowy alley.
One of them saw something in him… and brought him before their leader.
That was the beginning of Alessio's life of crime – a starving child with nothing to his name.
He kept growing more powerful within the gang and eventually took it over.
At every step of his journey, he killed anyone who stood in his way, leaving no resistance behind.
Eventually, he became the boss of the world's largest mafia, built on thousands of dead bodies and millions of victims.
His childhood experiences shaped him into the man he was today. Even though his edge had dulled after reaching the top, it did not change the fact that he was the most wanted man in the world.
****
Alessio waited on the top floor, leaning against the rooftop balcony of the skyscraper as the sounds of police sirens and helicopters echoed through the city, aware of the fate that awaited him.
The wait did not last long, as numerous armed policemen began pouring onto the terrace.
One officer among them stepped forward, clearly filled with emotion at what might be the biggest arrest in more than a decade. But before he could say anything...
"Tell me, Officer Brian – are you excited about the promotion, the medals, the honor, and the fame you'll soon be rewarded with?"
Alessio asked with a smile, looking at the officer who had been on his tail for ten years, if he remembered correctly.
"..."
Officer Brian stayed silent for a long moment before finally asking the questions that had been burning in his mind since he took on the task of capturing him.
"Can you tell me why you did it?"
"And what exactly are you referring to, Officer? There are many things I've done in this life of mine."
Alessio chuckled, finding the question amusing.
"…You had enough money long before you went after every other criminal organization you could find, leaving bodies in your wake. You could have lived like a king in some small country, with nothing to worry about.
But instead, you chose to spread your mafia into every corner of the world. You kept making enemies for no reason… and turned yourself into the most wanted criminal in every country you entered. Why?"
Officer Brian could not understand why a man who had everything in his own country – where even the government could do nothing against him – would choose to walk closer and closer to his own death.
Alessio laughed for a while, then composed himself and looked at the officer in front of him seriously.
"Tell me, Officer – have you ever seen a starving child, pushed to the point where he would do anything for food?"
"I understand where you are com-"
"Have you?" Alessio cut him off before he could start preaching about morals.
"…No," the officer replied after a moment of silence.
"I was that child for the first nine years of my life. And do you know the most important thing that I learned during that time?"
Without waiting for Officer Brian's answer, Alessio continued.
"There is no such thing as enough. Hunger drives you to take everything you can, never knowing when it might be the last you'll have. And so I did. I took everything I could get my hands on, kept it for myself… and kept going until I had what you might call… enough."
Officer Brian remained silent, continuing to listen, knowing this man would not escape tonight.
"And there was one more thing I realized after that. Human greed knows no bounds… and I happen to be one of those humans myself." Alessio chuckled as he finished speaking to the officer.
He decided to be generous enough to answer the man who had spent so long trying to catch him.
Brian was appalled… that a man who had committed such heinous crimes could still call himself human
"You dare call yourself human? After everything you've done? What about the lives you shattered – the wives you left without husbands, the children robbed of their fathers, the mothers forced to bury their sons because of your greed?!"
'Sigh… People and their moral preaching never stop'
Alessio let out a silent sigh in his mind, his gaze fixed on the agitated man in front of him as he continued speaking.
'They don't care when children starve to death. They show no compassion to beggars. They never help anyone, always minding their own business… yet the moment the so-called privileged are hurt, their morality awakens.'
He clearly understood why he alone was being hunted by governments across the world, when there were many other powerful mafia bosses and criminal organizations out there.
"Them?" He tilted his head lazily, his eyes gleaming cold. A smirk spread across his lips as he leaned in. "You think I give a damn?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he jumped off the terrace railing. All the policemen, including Brian, rushed to stop him – but he was already falling from the towering building.
By the time Officer Brian reached the railing, Alessio was already falling – arms spread with a wide smile on his face and eyes closed as if embracing the fall.
He looked as if he were relishing every last moment he had to breathe before succumbing to his ultimate end.
And that was how the life of Alessio D'Rossi, the most wanted mafia boss in the world, came to an end.
Or…did it?