A Gift from the Goddess

"Rae...I do believe this guy is alive," Zac said.

The two of us were peering into the cupboard, looking at a very tied up and very terrified looking Noah.

"Yep," I replied.

"Right...right....And, just to make sure we’re on the same page here, you are aware that normally I don’t see this part, right? That I come in afterwards?"

"I’m aware."

At the sound of the conversation, Noah immediately started to squirm and plead to Zac with his eyes, hoping that he would help free him.

Not that it would do him any good.

"So, what's the hold up?" Zac asked, still confused.

"Isn’t this just another Thursday for you? I’ve seen you do worse."

He was right.This really wasn’t that abnormal of a job for me to do.

But I gritted my teeth at his question nevertheless, hating how I had ended up in this situation.

"I...can’t," I said, deflating in defeat.

"I can’t do it."

"You can’t...do it...," Zac repeated slowly.

"And why is it—."

"Look, I just can’t, okay?" I said, cutting him off, irritated at all the questions.

"I’ve tried.I even tried again before you got over here.I can’t do it, I can’t do it, I can’t do it.End of discussion."

"...So why am I here? Just tell your dad that —."

"No."

Of course, Zac would suggest that.He didn’t know about every dark secret my father was hiding, only ever seeing as far as he needed to.

"No, I can’t tell him," I said.

"...And you can’t tell him either."

"Rae, the boss is expecting this guy dead," he said, taking a step back to look at me.

"I’m not really sure what’s going on, but you do realise he’ll find out sooner or later, right? You can’t just keep him locked up in a cupboard forever."

"Okay, fine! Fine...," I sighed in frustration, before slowly locking up to meet his eyes.

"...Then you do it."

Immediately, his face paled.

"What?! Rae, no! No," he blurted out.

"I don’t do that."

"c’mon, Zac," I whined.

"It’s not that different from cleaning up.Both have a lot of blood.I can talk you through it.Here...just grab this dagger like this...and then hold it in your hand facing—."

"Raven, stop!"

I'd been trying to get him to wield the weapon but he immediately held his hands up and stepped away.

"Just...chill," he said.

"I’m not going to kill someone."

"Argh! I spun around and angrily started pacing the room, beginning to get more worried as every second passed.I didn’t understand why this had to be so difficult.It shouldn't be this hard.Any other day, I could have done this job with my eyes closed.Why was I struggling to kill one random man? Who even was this guy? A small brown wallet then caught my attention as it sat on top of a table, and I walked over to inspect it.

guy look sort of familiar?" I

him as I went digging through

rental shop...a membership to

finally, I found his driver’s

sort of looks like that

Zac continued.

a few days

the name on

he the guy from the clean-up a few days ago?" I slowly spun around to look at Zac, my mind now racing with

is this guy’s last name,"

"Noah Kennedy."

we both then turned to look at

Miles was an

who'd tried to pull a fast

acquired problematic documents relating to him? But...‘clean

...If that were true...then didn’t that mean Noah’s death sentence today was because of

Noah and pulled out the cloth I’d stuffed

victim was possibly the dumbest thing I could ever do...but I felt we were already past the

go, please," he

anything.Just...don’t kill

I asked, disregarding the

a

"What about Miles?"

answering my questions plainly.I’d already had my fill of that

I crouched down to his eye level and sunk m y dagger into the wall directly next to his head, causing him to jump

hissed, pulling the

repeat myself

to huff out a ‘yes’, his head quickly bobbing

"Howe"

m-my brother," he

closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, already knowing I

last time you heard from

on Saturday.I think

don’t know where he is, I swear! I’ve been looking for him but it’s like he’s just disappeared....Is that why you’re here? Does this have something to

That caught my attention.

‘Business’.

something that held my curiosity and

already asked was already way

wasn't to investigate my father’s dealings, it was just to

of me wanted to

out whether or not his death

so I asked the question I knew I shouldn’t

business was Miles

"Rae—."

repeated, interrupting Zac before he

would know how bad of an idea this

was also under the same

"Smuggling," Noah answered.

businessman in town.Gets in supplies and rare goods

*definitely* shouldn’t have wanted to

businessman?" I asked

looked at me as if I were

Reid, of course.Who else in this city would be shady enough to need a

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

An employee.

been a goddamn

some random criminal or a rivaling businessman.He was on

...I killed an employee*.

bring him in at all? Was he trying to run away or snitch on my father? ...Did he

know better than most in this city what going

a moment and stop tunnelling down a thought process that had no end in

I was now left with a very important ‘what’; As in, what the hell was I going to do about Noah? And I quickly stood back up and stepped away, my brain swimming

like the jobs I’d had