Chapter VIII
"Make a move and I'll blow your brains out!" Someone barked, Ives immediately froze in place and stepped back calmly with his hands up.
He tried his best not to show any form of fear as he beheld the face of the gunman.
The man was obviously a foreigner – unnaturally pale skin, glassy blue eyes, white hair, a strong squared jaw and several scars possibly from a lifetime served on the battlefield. Despite looking advanced in age, he stood tall and well sculpted and the handgun in his hand made him even more intimidating.
Those eyes stared daggers into Ives' soul, the gun in his hand still and calm ready to fire at a moment's notice.
'This is a professional. I could die.' This thought terrified Ives inwardly. To have come so far only to get done away by this stranger, Ives couldn't even stand this thought. The thought of not finalising his revenge against his aunt's family, not finding the filth responsible for the death of his mother, leaving Isolde and Zeke, his most trusted companion. He was surprised by how much he cared about these two, despite the short amount of time he had known them, realising now they were his only friends.
"What do you want? I will pay." Ives negotiated.
"Come." The gruff man ordered, his voice low but lethal. Ives followed with his hands up, the second they crossed the door. The old man pressed the gun against Ives' back and led him down the hall. Ives co-operated, following the nudges of the pistol against his back to guide him.
They walked down six flights of stairs to the basement. At the door, a janitor handed over a set of keys to the old man and walked away briskfully.
'I have been set up.' Ives understood. The only way that could be the case was if Isolde knew in advance what would happen. Ives entered this dark, desolate corner of the building and immediately felt his heartbeat elevate rapidly. He felt exposed. Helpless. Weak.
With all his new wealth, he had never thought of finding ways to increase his individual strength.
The realisation hit him, money can buy you anything, even life but only if you could trade it in time.
In situations like this where there wasn't any form of cooperation between himself and the threat, he was naked and could die from a single bullet leaving all his wealth in the hands of someone else.
This was exactly what Zeke warned him about and now he regretted allowing Isolde to reject his offer.
They both went through a staff entrance and exited the building, Ives was completely out of the range of cameras and fellow humans.
He was being isolated.
Here, no one could hear his screams.
They arrived at a black jeep parked in the corner, Ives felt a prick as a syringe needle sunk into his neck.
"A little something for the road." The old man as everything faded to black.
— – – –
Ives woke to the sound of a soothing medley, he recognised it as his ringtone. He fought the fatigue and glanced up to see his phone in the hands of his captor.
The man didn't answer it; rather he held it to Ives' face, allowing him to see the caller who was none other than Zeke but he didn't give Ives the luxury of answering before the call cut off.
"Was that one of your cronies?" The old man asked frothing with hate.
Ives, still struggling to sit up on the chair he was handcuffed to, blurted out.
"That is my assistant, sir."
The old man asked with disbelief, "And what is a little twerp like you doing with an assistant. You look like you haven't even finished high school yet, probably your daddy's money er?" He then chortled, "Well that doesn't matter now. No amount of daddy's money gonna help you here and I will make sure to send a message to yer friends about messing with my girls."
"Isolde?" Ives finally put things together, despite his odd hair colour his physical features matched perfectly with Isolde and her mother.
The old man pulled out his phone, "This is the type of sick shit you made my girl do for yer kicks."
Ives lifted his head and saw it. It showed a naked Isolde tied blindfolded to a pole in the open. A thick white substance ran down the side of her mouth and from her countenance she looked dazed and out of it.
The next one was a video, the person recording it was none other than chubby tiger. In this one, Isolde was crawling nude on all fours across the floor while people around laughed.
Chubby tiger proudly declared, "How do you like my new pet?" The crowd erupts in laughter, "I will let you have a spin with her later." Chubby tiger proudly declared. The video ended there and the old man showed him a library for such content. Just as he was about to play another one, Ives stopped him.
"That's enough, I get it."
The phone was put away and the old man asked, "So are you not associated with this sort of people. From the fact I saw you coming out with her, she is your new property right or maybe you are one of these motherfuckers who want to take her out for a spin. I can't imagine what that poor girl had to go through just because of what that man did." The old man got a grip of himself and said with cold finality.
"That doesn't matter, I don't care even if you weren't involved. All I want to show the lot of you what happens when you touch my family."
Ives paled, the realisation dawned on him there was no way he was getting out of this alive.
Another sting hit him as a new dose of an unknown substance was injected into his bloodstream.
The old man coldly declared, "What I gave you earlier was a something to knock you out, this my friend will ensure nothing can save you."
Ives felt his heartbeat surge out of control, his strength faded to nothing. The world spun as streaks of blood ran down his eyes.
Ives bent forward and threw up his entire breakfast then some blood and finally something that looked like shredded flesh.
The poison was liquifying his insides.
The pain was unimaginable, Ives couldn't scream through the vomit that flowed out of his mouth, he clawed at the ground looking for some shred of relief which never came.
Snap! Something hit him square on the head.
Snap!! It hit again, the blow from the hard mass came again much more harder than before, Ives felt his skull crack.
He forced himself to look up and saw another hit coming and he shifted to block with his shoulder.
Crack! His bone fractured and the old man didn't take this well.
"Don't you fucking dare!" He said and kicked Ives to the wall. Ives was beaten to the edge of his life before the old man felt satisfied and still he couldn't let Ives go.
He took out a long knife and told Ives, "Pick which of your limbs you can live without."
Ives struggled to even breathe and yet the man wanted him to make such a choice.
'Go and die' Ives barely managed to strung out this curse into coherent words but the old man didn't hear it and thankfully he didn't have to.
The thick metal door clanked and slowly opened to reveal Zeke, clad in his black tuxedo with a mischievous smile on his face.
"Good evening. Good sir, I am here to retrieve my boss if you don't mind."
The old man reached to his side, ready to fire but Zeke pointed out almost like it was a joke.
"Do you think I came here alone? This place is surrounded and any harm that comes to me will be dished out ten times to your little daughter and her child."
"Are you the police?" The old man asked.
"No, we're worse. You can say we are with those like Mister Ives here."
That was all the man needed to hear, he immediately brought out his gun and pointed it at Ives' head.
"If you know what's good for yer little boss here, step the hell away." The old man threatened.
Zeke smiled and responded, "No matter what you do; you will not be able to fire a single shot at the young master there."
He made this absurd statement as if ordering an obviously deranged man not to utilise the only advantage he had in this situation.
The old man grinned then cursed, "Die in a hole pipsqueak."
His fingers pulled the trigger and a bullet flew out of the barrel into Ives' head, it all went black then suddenly Ives jolted awake, he was still alive and the gun shook in the hands of the old man who fought for control over his hand to pull the trigger.
Zeke smiled and in a shocking twist, he made a gun sign with his hand and held the imaginary gun to his head and the old man's arm mimicked it perfectly.
Zeke made his way to Ives with ease as the old man fought to regain control over his body.
"If you struggle too hard, the gun will automatically fire, ending your life so be careful."
"What kind of sorcery is this?!" The old man cursed, visibly stricken with fear and terror.
"If I tell you then I would have to kill you" Zeke freed Ives from his bondage despite the thick bile he was drenched in. "This won't do. I will have to teach a lesson here or else my employer will look too weak."
Zeke picked up Ives and left the room. "Follow" Zeke ordered with a single word and the old man walked behind them obediently and terrified that his own body was walking on its own.
Outside Zeke placed Ives into the care of another person who wore a featureless white mask.
"Excuse me" Zeke said and faced the old man before saying confidently, "Please come at me" Zeke said and rolled up his sleeves, the old man regained use of his body and immediately fired his gun at Zeke.
The bullets flew past empty space and in the aftermath of a loud bang Zeke was inches away from the old man's body.
Within a single minute, he launched nearly a hundred blows at his abdomen with crushing force and in the next second he flung the old man across the junkyard hideout to the car he abducted Ives in parked at the corner.
The old man spat out blood and tried to get up but Ives was already there and kicked him through the car door.
He then held him up from his hair, "I am only sparing you for the meantime. Once my master decides what he wants to do with you, we will hunt you and seal your fate."
Zeke left the old man in a wreck barely conscious and together with three other masked individuals they drove off back to Valkyren.
Ives said with last strength to Zeke, "Thanks."
"No worries, sir." Zeke patted him, "You may have to sleep for a while till we fully restore you, putting you back together will be troublesome."
Ives chuckled wryly, "I will join your little club just make me stronger, far stronger than… that." Ives faded and Zeke replied to his now absent boss, "My pleasure."