I was in a hospital bed staring at my mother. I could gradually see life fading from her eyes.“Somebody! Help! Please anybody!” I screamed but no one came. She looked me in my eyes and told me, “Malcolm, I’ll always love you” she said and let go of my hand.“No!” I screamed and then suddenly the ground opened up and I fell through a bottomless hole. I kept falling and screaming for a short while and I hit the floor pretty hard.I lay on the floor and tried using my hands to clean my face and saw blood!. I screamed in fear as I turned to my right and saw a hooded figure approach me.“No! Stay back!” I screamed as I tried to scramble away from the person but as I crawled he grabbed me by my ankle and pulled me back to him.He removed his hood and displayed his face before getting up and pulling out a gun, a large grin on his face. As he pulled the trigger I screamed in fear and woke up in my room.‘I was just dreaming’ I thought as I sat up in my bed. I picked my phone up and checked t
I got home that day and felt a sense of peace, I was finally free from the shackles of the Shade family to some extent and I cherished my new found solitude.A week has passed before I went back home and I spent that week following my normal routine, except for the fact that I’d been tutoring Ariel.We’d made arrangements on that weekend after my father called asking me to come home and for the past week I’d been tutoring her.Exams were fast approaching and I saw her making a lot of progress.We would meet at my place everyday after school and study for about two hours before she would head home.My apartment was closer to school and she always had a driver take her home anyway so it was convenient for both of us.She wasn’t complaining anyway. One day after we’d finished studying we had a deep conversation about our plans for after school.It went thus.****We’d just finished studying that day.I let out a huge yawn as Ariel packed her bags. I had no reason to study, I already knew
A couple of days later, I was fast approaching my exams. I did most of my things the same except that me and Ariel had been having overnight sessions where she would sleep over and go home the next morning.I also slowly grew my wealth as I continued to earn from stocks. Satushi had finally responded to me, and I proposed the idea of him working for me to him. At first he was skeptical and in disbelief but when I asked to meet up with him he knew I was serious.He explained how that wouldn’t be possible as he was very broke and that he didn’t have the funds to transport himself from Japan to America.I spoke to him for some more days and when I finally gained his trust, he finally agreed. I offered to pay for his flight and accommodation when he got here and he happily accepted.He didn’t have a job, his family lived in a village away from the city he lived in, he had no girlfriend or special ties with anyone and when I offered him a hefty sum he complied.And so this was where I curr
A couple of days has passed since I met Satushi and I put my business life on hold to focus on something else. That something else was my education.Our exams were fast approaching, Ariel was way behind in studies and we thought about what we could to help her catch up.She was far behind in the curriculum at all we did at cram school were revision questions so we both reasoned how we could help her get prepared in time.After contemplating for a long we both came to an agreement and we decided that she would be taking overnight classes at my place.I was perfectly fine without studying, i already used Render a long time ago to accurately write out the exam questions and I’d studied them very well.I considered giving them to Ariel but I figured she would feel much better if she actually got her admission on her own.And besides, I remember vividly that in my past life she had one of the top scores in the entrance exams so I wasn’t bothered by her too much, she was making decent progr
[Ariel’s POV]It’d been a while since I’d been this happy about spending time with someone. Malcolm and I had become so much closer since that day.I was right, he’d definitely changed, but I never took the time to find out why he’d changed or what changed him and now that he finally opened up to me, I couldn’t have been happier.I was happy because he saw me as someone he could express himself with, I was happy because he felt vulnerable with me, I was happy because he finally opened up to me.Our exams were fast and at first I was very worried about what I would do, but with Malcolm’s guidance and tutelage, I started to feel confident in myself.We were practically living together now, I had to spend the night at his place most times as we would be up studying till late at night.Most times after school I’d cook, and he said he enjoyed my cooking a lot. Sometimes he tried to help with cooking and most times he would end up making a mess and we would both laugh it off.We didn’t speak
[Malcolm’s POV]As I sat there in the room and awaiting the call, I conjured possible scenarios in my head as to who could’ve wanted me kidnapped and why they would want to kidnap me.I picked up my phone and dialed Logan’s number. It rung a short while before he picked.“Hello, Logan. I have something I neee to ask you” I said.“Give me a second to leave my work area” he said and he excused himself and went to the restroom.“I wasn’t expecting a call from you but you sound like it’s serious, what’s wrong?” He said.“It’s nothing” I didn’t want to get anyone involved in this and I trusted him so I knew it couldn’t have been him. “I was wondering if you’d revealed my identity to anyone?” I asked.“Of course not, why would I? What happened to make you ask me that?” He asked, he sensed something was up and was trying to get to the bottom of it.I wondered if I should tell him, but I quickly changed my mind, this was something I had to do on my own.“I was just curious, I’ll be in touch”
I knew the location where they were keeping Ariel. I would launch a surprise attack on them before they knew what hit them, they would never see it coming.My increased agility, strength and stamina gave me confidence, but I didn’t feel prepared enough.I knew these guys were probably amateurs based on how they left the room after they left, but I couldn’t underestimate them. For all I knew they could have guns. I couldn’t take any chances.“System?” I said.“Download and install martial arts techniques from all regions of the world and download them to my muscle memory” I said.[Yes] [No]“Is there any way to reduce or avert the pain?” I said.I didn’t have time but I guessed that that would have to do.“Alright, begin the process.” I said.*DOWNLOADING INFORMATION…**DOWNLOAD COMPLETE**TRANSFERRING INFORMATION…1%*With all my preparations being put in place, I threw on a black jacket and a black top with black pants. I would go at night and I waited patiently for the sun to set.
I was shocked by my own guttural strength. The door weighed at least 300 pounds and I was lifting it easily.I jammed the door into its hinges and walked into the room. I could see that they were prepared for me as they all stood shining flash lights at me.When they stared for a while and realized it was me they all burst into laughter, they must have thought I was a sitting duck and that I’d fallen right into their trap, little did they know that I was the predator and they were the prey.‘I need to find a way to take out their light sources, one of them has a gun, he’s the one I need to target first. If I can get my hands on his gun, I can use it to shoot the other flashlights from their hands, but then I’d also be blinded by the darkness.’ I thought.‘System, do you have a night vision function?’ I asked.[Yes] [No]‘Perfect’ I thought. In my early teenage days Fred would take me to the shooting range on our property and train me on the use of guns. I’d go there whenever I had a