Vile and Vicious

To normal people, going down the darkest alley in the city of Morzova was probably not the best idea. I felt the eyes of pickpockets in the shadows. One thing I learned as a smuggler and a bounty hunter was that the night was perfect for making illegal deals and steal a little cash from people walking to pubs. The dim hanging lights flickered as I passed by. The wind carried fallen newspapers through the alley. I stepped on one to see what it said. “Swarvas governments attack Morvindas brutally. Swarvas hired a minor last week. They refuse to tell anyone this minor's name. However,  she has made a reputation as ruthless and vicious. This minor managed to strike down one hundred Morvindas in fifteen minutes. Officers found an inscription “Ares '' on the ground. Experts are trying to figure out what this means..(continued on page 3).” I frowned.  I actually killed 150 men in ten minutes, thank you very much, but that’s beside the point. The point was I didn’t know my attack was already over the news. I only finished the mission yesterday and it was in an isolated place. Then, I saw a shadow up ahead. A man turned a corner and started walking towards me. My hand was on my dagger belt in a millisecond but he just nodded and didn’t stop walking. I hadn’t let my guard down even when he had passed me. Then,  I heard the footsteps behind me stop. I knew who it was.

“What do you want, Morvindas?” I asked. I used “Morvindas” as an insult, but I don’t think he noticed. The Morvindas had tried to recruit me many times and I don’t know how many times I declined. I turned to face the stranger. Knowing he was caught, he started walking towards me, his shiny black shoes making a loud “clack” sound, breaking through the night silence. I flinched. Those shoes were not for smuggling or any kind of sneaking. 

“You,” he accused, his voice filled with a heavy Morvindas accent, “killed many.” I rolled my eyes. 

“Wow, you just figured that out?” I asked, my voice filled with sarcasm. The man glared while I smirked. I loved how people found my sarcastic personality annoying.

“I know you aren’t fully Swarvas, you’re too innocent. You're just a girl,” he said kindly, which surprised me. I looked down. I didn’t know how to respond. Usually, when someone called me a girl, they ended up with a black eye and broken ribs, but I knew I wasn’t a Swarvas. Swarvas were vicious, they weren’t scared of blood, and they enjoyed it. I wore a black mask without eye holes while I killed people, allowing me to see the people I was killing but with no color.  I couldn’t see the vibrant red of blood spilling everywhere without panicking.  My viciousness was the mask I created over the last few years to survive. When I finally looked up,  I found the man standing right in front of me. 

“Come with me, join the Morvindas,” he whispered as he began putting a hand on my cheek. I snapped out of my daze and stopped his hand before it touched me. 

“You’re wrong, I am a Swarvas, and I always will be,” I said as I shoved my dagger into his stomach. I looked at his shocked face before I threw him onto the ground. Then, I pulled my dagger out quickly and walked away before I saw the blood spilling onto the cold concrete ground. 

********

I arrived at Swarvas’s hideout. With its ripped curtains and broken windows, it looked like a dingy hotel, but it was a hub for the most vile and vicious humans on Earth. 

“Hello miss, would you like a room for the night?” a man said as I walked into the hotel. The lights were dim so I could barely see him. I rolled my eyes, I hadn’t been here in two days and Rian already forgot who I was. 

“It’s me, you dingbat,” I said, slapping him in the face. He blinked. 

“Ares?” I groaned using my code name. He blinked again. I swear I was a minute away from smacking his face again, and this time to Mars. 

“Athena Zova?” I asked again. He looked at me for a moment before he finally recognized me. 

“Athens!! Good to see you again!” He smiled. I hit him in the head. 

“Took you long enough.” I then walked to the backdoor and swung it wide open. The Master greeted me with a smile. 

“Hello, Athena, I have been waiting for you.” He motioned me to sit down. I sat down right across from him and took a look around the room. I frowned to see the boxes of finished wine still in the corner of the room. I told him to throw those out a week ago. 

“The Swarvas have a mission for you. This is your last mission before swearing loyalty,” he said. I nodded. 

I wasn’t in either of the clans yet. I still had a week to choose. I was committed to working for Swarvas, but my encounter with the Morvindas made me second-guess my decisions.

“You're a Swarvas idiot, what do you mean you don’t know? Morvindas is a group for the weak, not the powerful like you.” I thought before asking The Master a question. 

“What’s the pay?” I asked, The Master smirked, that was my first question every time he gave me a new mission.

“Just a million dollars plus becoming a full-on Swarvas, not a newbie you are now. Everything we learn, you know. No secrets anymore since you wouldn’t have the nerve to tell Morvinsas.” He poured himself a glass of wine. My stomach churned, it was red, a color I didn’t want to see. 

“What’s the job?” I asked him, tearing my eyes away from the blood-red color of his wine. 

“Killing.” I didn’t know what to say. 

“Seriously? Why do I always have to kill people? Who do I have to kill this time?” I asked to cover up my terror inside. 

“Killing Brant,” he said, not answering my question. My blood went cold. Brant had done so many bad things to me, but I still loved him deep inside. 

Brant didn’t want to be in either clan, but he chose Swarvas because of me because I wanted to work for them. We had done dozens of jobs together. He trusted me, and I trusted him until I figured out what he was. 

He was a Soulive, creature who acted and looked like a human. Its only difference was his eyes. A Soulive’s eyes capture your soul and make you fall in love with them. The more you look into its eyes, the more your soul belongs to them. Then they would kill you and leave you on the streets heartbroken and dead. 

My friend had died because of one before, which was part of the reason I hated Soulives. They had no emotions, their lives were just filled with the hunger for innocent souls. I figured out that Brant was with the Morvindas, looking for the secrets hidden inside me. He was a spy. He had taken half my soul, and I know he still owns it. 

“So, do you accept it?” I looked up to see The Master staring at me. He knew this was my weak spot. He wanted to know if he could count on me. 

I was about to decline, I couldn’t do this, but I knew two things. One, I needed to kill him so I could have the other part of my soul back and two, I couldn’t decline. I wanted to be a Swarva, I needed to be vicious. I couldn’t show weakness or fear. 

I looked up at him, my eyes colder than ice, “I accept.” 

**********

I was in the weapon room when Rian found me. 

“So,” Rian said, leaning against the doorway. I picked up a cleaning cloth and started cleaning my daggers. 

“So?” I asked him. I grabbed a grappling gun, and my sword fashioned with a gold handle and emeralds. 

“I heard you're killing Brant” I didn’t look up. 

“Yeah I am, I’m almost ready to go.” I put the sword on my belt with my daggers and put my grappling gun in place, as well as my favorite shotgun. This gun was quieter than any gun I had ever held. 

“You think you can do it?” he asked, concerned. 

“I killed people before, I can do it,” I answered, my voice unwavering. I tied my long black hair into a tight bun before tying my black mask in place. 

“Athena,” Rian grabbed my hand before I could walk past him. 

“What?” I asked, now very annoyed. 

“You know you can’t do this, it's Brant.” 

“He owns half my soul, Rian. I need it back.” I growled, “Besides he deserves it” 

“Are you sure about that Athens? Remember those moments when you two clicked? Did they mean nothing to you?”

I stopped fighting him. Memories came flashing back to me. The time when Brant and I  first met, his joke about Swarvas being kind and beautiful, a joke we used all the time when we finished our first mission, and the pride we had both felt when The Master complimented us for our work.

I had slowly fallen in love with him, those gray eyes were all I could think of at night. Then, when I was at my friend’s funeral after she was killed by a Soulive aka her boyfriend, everything changed. I remembered that when she talked about her boyfriend she only thought about his eyes, the most dangerous part of a Soulive. That night I knew, I knew what Brant was, I knew that he had betrayed me, and I knew that he owned my soul. 

“Those memories mean nothing, Rian. I am a Swarvas and nothing will ever change that.” I then snatched my wrist out of his grasp and stormed out of the hotel. I grabbed my grapple gun and climbed the wall of the building with ease and jumped from roof to roof. But the harsh wind couldn’t get rid of the truth, I had no idea what side I was on anymore. I knew I was a Morvindas, less brutal and less of a villain, but being a Swarvas was the only way to survive the city of Morzova. Except right now wasn’t the time to think about these things. I needed to find Brant and I needed to kill him before he killed me. 

The Master had given me a location. Moonlight Square at exactly one am. I had thirty minutes to create a trap, which was barely enough time. 

First, I had to track down his contact. He was supposed to trade titanium for some information about the Swarvas’s next move. I was doing two missions, tracking down the spy and killing Brant. 

I found his contact in Moonlight Square. I found it a little suspicious that he was here thirty minutes early, but what was I going to say about his life choices? Nothing. 

I leaped out of my hiding place right behind him and headlocked him with my dagger by his throat in three quick motions. 

“Ares!” He gasped, trying to breathe. I choked him harder. 

“This is your punishment for spying on the Swarvas idiot,” I cut his throat without hesitation. He stopped struggling and slipped out of my arms. 

I looked up at the town clock, twenty minutes left. I quickly moved his body to the place I was hiding in before finding another hiding spot so I could sneak up on Brant. 

The clock struck one o’clock. It echoed through the quiet square. I couldn’t breathe, I just needed to get over it. The seconds went so slow I thought I was just standing in the shadows for the entire night. Just when I was about to lower my guard, a hooded figure walked into the center of the square. It was him. I quietly drew my dagger and walked slowly in the shadows so I could get closer to him. 

“I know you're there Athena,” Brant called out to the empty square. I froze in place, had he heard me? Or was this a trap?

“Oh just come out, you can’t run,” He turned to stare directly into my eyes. I swore under my breath. Then, I slowly came out of the shadows, I didn’t have any other choice after all. 

I kept my face down, I couldn’t look into his eyes. 

“You scared of me Athens? I didn’t expect more from a rat like you,” he taunted. 

My face burned with rage, he had broken my heart and yet he still insulted me?

“I’m not scared of you Brant, please shut up. Oh and also, maybe get a mirror while you're at it, 'cause the only rat I can see right now is you and your ogre face.”

“I know you don’t think of me that way,” his voice turned as smooth as silk. 

  “Yeah right, you can read minds now?” I asked him, still looking down at the ground. 

“I own half your soul, I know what you think,” I cursed myself silently, I forgot about that part. No wonder he knew where I was. 

“I know why you're here Athena, you're here to kill me to take your rightful place with the Swarvas. I’m here to give you a choice, you can kill me and pretend to be a killer for the rest of your life,  or you could live your best life with me and the Morvindas,” He whispered into my ear. I froze.

“He’s messing with your mind you idiot, what could the Morvindas give you that the Swarvas can’t?” I thought.

“Your peace,” He said, still whispering in my ear. I rolled my eyes, it was a little annoying that he could read my mind. 

I realized I was being a fool, I thought I didn’t know which side I would choose, but I had known it since the beginning of my criminal life. I finally looked up into his beautiful gray eyes. 

“You seem surprised Brant,” I said as I put my hand on his chin. 

“I am,” He smirked, "I didn't think you would ever look straight into my eyes ever again."

My heart skipped. Before I could regret it, I yanked his shirt towards me and our lips met. Brant flinched at my touch but then he grabbed my head and pushed me harder onto his lips. I finally pulled away. 

“I’m ready for our future Brant,” I whispered, still staring into his eyes. He smiled. 

“I knew you would agree, come on,” He grabbed my arm and started leading me out of the square. 

I knew I was making a mistake, I knew I made the wrong choice but it was either fear or pride that shoved my dagger into his back. 

“Idiot, you know who I am? I am the daughter of Ares, the god of war.  I was born for a fight, not for you. Enjoy death,” I growled into his ear before pulling the dagger out and throwing him onto the ground, just like my other victims. This time though, I took my mask off to see the blood dripping onto the ground and I smiled. Why? I did want a peaceful life as a Morvindas, but I was vile and vicious all the same.