By Ashlee Dodd
Chapter 1
Year: 2024
Sanbu
“Scattered City”
Such a lively known city for such little vibrant occasions, well if you’re looking for the next market trade, or selling items for brief funding of any kind — whatever shady situations are made to come across this place.
Of course, there are specific levels of each class here. I, in particular, come from a filthy rich family, the first level. I should have it easy for myself like many other spoiled brats these days, right?
Well, I hate stereotypes.
ding
A well-dressed suited woman with dirty blonde hair and light brown skin steps inside the pawn store, one of her gloved hands turning the ‘open’ sign on the door to its opposite side silently, and as if on choreographed cue, the young store clerk at the front glances over his papers to see her from a short distance, directing his words “Welcome to Value Haven, let me know what I can help you with at the front.”
The woman turned her emerald-like eyes over to glance at the person and gave him a small smile and nod, turning her attention over to the slightly dusty but well organized shelves of sold items people gave up for sale, running her hand over to barely collect a grain of dust on her black glove, clearing her throat before speaking to the teenager, looking back at him.
“You know something, I’m not exactly here for these stocks, Mr. .. Elijah.” She start to say to the young boy, her tone of voice clear alto as she inched closer over to the front of the store, barely giving attention to his name-tag before staring at him in his face, her eyes calm but her eyebrows slightly furrowed a bit, analyzing the boy’s facial features as she pointed a finger gesture to her own face to address something.
“You look deathly pale there. Are you sick or something?” She then questioned, raising a brow as Elijah himself stood straight to situate himself, running a hand over his head to wipe away cold sweat as he shook his head, speaking to the woman.
“Oh, I’m fine, it’s been so… drafty than usual tonight, messes with my head, y’know?” He’d say to her for some form of reassurance, although it sounded quite fake, like he was trying to convince himself of it more than her. The boy’s heartbeat was racing, his eyes narrowing slightly as his jaw clenched tightly; he seemed twitchy.
“.. Hm, of course.” The woman hummed once more as she looked at him, adjusting her gloves a bit before talking again. “Well, why don’t I just cut the act with you? I know you’re one of those fang people.” She admitted forward as she looked at him, leaning her arms on the counter.
“And don’t bother lying, that doesn’t end well for most people who do that to me.” She added an unspoken warning as she stood by the counter, holding her arm down before sliding over the frame, standing straight in front of him. She watched while he backed up immediately, the two calculating each other’s movements from different views.
“What– what are you talking about?” Elijah then quipped in a more frantic and defensive tone this time, moving away from her, clenching his hands to fists.
“I prefer not to explain my job. I have someone for these types of searches; I happen to know most about you, your family, the people you talk to, where you live, and exactly what event you created to enhance your state. Am I wrong?” She returned, like she was casually talking about the current weather, moving forward as she spoke further. “So, are we gonna do this the easy way or the hard way? I can do either one, but like it or not, you won’t be here anymore, unfortunately,” She stated as she stepped on guard before stopping still completely.
Her eyes narrowed once she heard him start to snarl suddenly from upcoming bloodlust, ducking quickly to avoid his lunge towards her as he fell onto the counter, he’d counter back with an elbow swing that she caught mid through with her own hand but grunted once her back hit the wall behind her.
Making sure to get up fully and grab him from behind his neck, the two hassled in a tight close-encounter before she managed to throw him and herself outside the back door, shoving him over to a wall in the alley as she held him on the wall by his shoulder, wincing in pain once she felt him scratch her arm through her sleeve with his claws, watching his eyes grow more intensely dark as he gritted his fangs at her.
“It’ll be over before you know it. Don’t struggle, you can’t keep this up.” She noted in a low tone as she lowered her free hand, now wielding her syringe of a sedative, prepping it as she held a strong grip of holding him down, and not too long before she pierced his neck and injected the fluid into him, watching as he struggled to try and get out of her grip once more, before his hands slowly began to lower and his breathing slowed .. more .. and more, until she felt no more movement.
The woman exhaled a breath to herself before pulling out the syringe, raising her hand as she briefly shut the kid’s eyes fully, lowering him down carefully on the ground against the wall.
“He’s down, send the truck over.” The woman spoke into her cell phone. Her eyes furrowed as she looked at the boy lying in front of her. “I took care of his belongings, IDs, his contacts, the usual. Task’s done, Director.” She added quietly before closing her phone, putting it back in her pocket as she waited for the pick-up to arrive, leaning on the wall with her arms crossed.
Looking over to feel liquid dripping from her arm, she muttered to herself under her breath, seeing red starting to stain over her arm-sleeve as she sighed through her nose.
“I liked this suit too.” She spoke with mild frustration in her tone as she grabbed a handkerchief, pressing it over her wrist as she stood and waited.
Most know me in the underworld as “Hellhound”, some call me my parent’s “nepo-baby prodigy”, but my actual name is Iris Arya.
And I do well with my job as I please.
END.
AUTHORS NOTE: I chose to share this piece of my own work because not only did I write about my own character’s parts in a story, but I also improved my writing and formatting as the plot line grew. I’m most proud of my spacing because in my past work in writing, I had really large paragraphs in posts and never thought about spacing between sentences and lines. And my theme from this excerpt chapter was to convey a sense of fictional action with a mix of supernatural cases and working classes/ranks.
