In the morning, the news channels barely covered the incident that destroyed the Sterling Blood Bank. Two-thirds of the building was destroyed. Not a single blood packet could be salvaged. Only some of the metal cots and some other tools were eventually recovered from the rubble. It wasn’t a big building, but Charles had built it for himself as well as for the citizens, so seeing it go down in flames left a bitter taste in his mouth. Charles kept receiving many calls from different investors and even the Myers family, but he just wasn’t in the mood to answer. Hours passed, but he just sat on a bench by a footpath and was staring aimlessly all around. His clothes were torn and covered in blood, so people avoided him, thinking he was either a beggar or someone carrying some sort of disease. Some called the police, but after the police learned about his identity as Charles, they left him to his devices. Charles again kept staring at the fallen building. He had no idea if it was coinc
Still wearing the torn and bloody clothes, Charles went straight to the Supreme Bank’s headquarters. Again he wasn’t allowed inside by the guard who had a gun. Not wanting to fight with him, he asked if Sosa, the CEO, was there inside or not. The guard shook his head. His heartbeat told Charles that he probably wasn’t lying.He then went to Sosa’s house, but Sosa wasn’t there. The watchman told him Sosa left for work in the morning and didn’t come home yet.“Where the heck did he go?” Charles was getting more and more angry to the point he was worried he might grow fangs in front of the public. “Surely, he didn’t run away with my money, did he? He’s the biggest fish. This wouldn’t have happened without him knowing. I must find him and make him spit who forced him to do this.”At the same time, in the Bones’ hospital.Sosa had been admitted into the ICU because he had suffered an accident. A truck had hit his car. He was wounded badly, but thanks to the treatment, he just opened his ey
Charles gave the pizza to a beggar and went to a bar for a much-needed drink. He spent a hundred dollars and downed three bottles of wine, but that didn’t even make him feel tipsy.“Damn this life. Even concentrated wine isn’t doing a thing to my mind,” he frustratingly walked out of the bar. It was already close to midnight.A taxi stopped before him. The driver opened the back door and whistled. “Get in, sir. I’ll take you wherever you want faster than a flight can.”“Take me 30,000 ft off the ground, please,” Charles requested, shocking the driver.“Haha, I was talking about the land routes, sir.”“Take me to a casino that we can get to by land route,” Charles casually said and entered the car. He sat in the back seat.“Which casino?”“Any casino.”“Okay.” The driver took advantage of Charles’ words and kept roaming through the city for a while until eventually stopping at the farthest casino from where they started. “We’ve arrived at the Origin Casino.”“How much?” asked Charles.
Charles started with 500 dollars, and turned it into 25,000 in under an hour.25,000 dollars wouldn’t even be enough to buy a good pair of shoes for Sofia, so he felt really driven to earn more. A lot more.Even though he hated playing poker at this point, he could think of no other way. Of course, he could rob a bank, from the same Supreme Bank that had fucked him up big time, but without even knowing what happened to Sosa, he just didn’t want to act rashly.He was taken to a bigger table since he had more money now. While people mumbled as to why Charles was playing with such low bets, they saw someone they least expected approaching that table.An old man with short hair and light white stubble. His blue suit was of Myers’ brand, but what caught Charles' eyes were the two black roses in his pocket near the chest. The flowers crossed each other like the swords displayed on a wall plaque.Charle’s heart skipped at once at the thought that crossed his mind.The crowd kept murmuring.“
Raven was currently on the rooftop of his hospital. He looked toward the brick water tank, where Andres was crucified with nails and was beaten pretty badly.One of Raven’s underlings sprayed water with a tube and woke Andres up.“I-I’m not hiding Carlos anywhere,” Andres had to put a lot of effort to squeeze out a few words because his diaphragm was cut open and pepper was sprayed on it. “I’m telling you the truth.”“I believe you now, Andres,” Raven's eyes were filled with fake-pity. His brows also did some talking. “But I’m still going to take your life as well as the lives of everyone that Sofia dated. If I do that, I’m sure she’ll connect the dots sooner or later and realize that she can’t escape from me.”Tears flowed out of Andres’ eyes not just because he was going to die, but also for coming into Sofia’s life. He remembered how harshly he treated Carlos when he told Andres to leave his wife alone. He even broke Carlos’ legs and threw him in a cottage, leaving him alone to rot
“Here’s the truth,” Andres bore through the searing pain in his gut, shoulders, and hands as he spoke. “These bastards kidnapped me to ask for information about a guy called Carlos, but I didn’t give them any information… cough, because Carlos is my best friend.”Charles had gone silent, a shade of darkness creeping over his face.“I thought I was going to die, but then you came. Please save me,” Andres begged as blood dripped down his chin.“Your best friend… what does he do?” asked Charles, as anger set his nostrils ablaze.Andres wasn’t expecting that question. He thought Charles would save him like the superheroes in films would, so why was he asking about his best friend when this wasn’t the time, place, or situation to ask about something like that? “W-We should hurry. If they return, both of us will be riddled with bullets!”“What did you say your best friend’s name was?” Charles’ voice was as stern as ever.“Carlos.”“His full name.”“His full name?” The question stirred the h
Before Andres stopped crying and wailing and shaking, Charles put his foot on the other knee of Andres.“Day after day, night after night, with no one to share my pain with, I wondered when it’d all end,” Charles' eyes turned wet with woe. “Those forty nights in the cottage… as much as I want to move on from them… they come back to haunt me time and again. I don’t think I can ever forget those horrible moments, thanks to you.”Charles then broke the second knee in the same fashion, but with even more speed and power. Blood spread out from his second knee as well, and Andres was howling in horror. The shock was too much, and he violently shook and soon passed out from pain. Whether he heard Charles’ words and realized who he was or not, only he knew.“I don’t think this is enough, but perhaps, you’ll know the pain I went through and change if you experience something similar to what I had gone through,” Charles then dropped bits of his blood on Andres’ fatal wounds and healed them, but
Charles was sitting at a corner on the rooftop of a sixty-floored building. The winds whipped at his face, but his heart was so heavy he wasn’t troubled by these belting currents.Even though he had broken both of Andres’ knees, there was no satisfaction in his heart. He still felt the same if not more terrible tonight.Was he feeling guilty for cruelly breaking Andres’ knees? Just the thought made his hand shiver. He had to forcibly clench and reassure himself, “Don’t let this stop you. Finish what you started. Until then, don’t look back. You can’t have the life you want anymore. Nothing awaits you in this world other than death.”After turning into a vampire, and after taking a human life, he had felt that going to his past life before he met Sofia was impossible, forget about all the stress, strain, and the scars the Myers family had put on him.Charles reminded himself of the time when Sofia brought Andres’ home. Charles went to her room to talk with her, but then he overheard he