Scarlet

20 | A Deadly Promise

"She's cold as ice. But in the right hands, she'll melt."

♢♦♢

Day Eight

"And what in the hell might you be doing here, Hayda?"

Tears began streaming down Hayda's cheeks as she trembled in her spot. The pain from her wounds had begun to engulf her body like fire, and at this point, even breathing hurt. She weakly reached up to clutch her oozing shoulder, and when Scarlet fired at the car right behind her, she screamed in shock.

"Wasn't father supposed to hang your body to his door? Because you called me Roselle?" She cooed as she leaned in further, and Hayda flinched away in complete fear. The insanity in Scarlet's eyes was disturbing. It was as if a hungry animal was trapped behind it, just waiting to be unleashed.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm s-so sor-sorry." Hayda weeped out of desperation, never scratching a dent in Scarlet's fury. She was livid. But she was also confused, and her question was also one of curiosity.

Scarlet stretched an arm out to grip one of Hayda's pierced shoulders. She looked around to see if anyone else was in the parking lot. Once she got the satisfaction that no one was, she pressed her thumb into the puncture on Hayda's skin, ripping another scream of agony from her.

"I'M SORRY, I'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING!" She sobbed, and Scarlet retracted her hand to give Hayda a chance to speak. It took her a while to comb up the strength to speak, and after a few deep breaths, she finally did.

"I-I was supposed to be punished today, but Miss Emerald saved me. She convinced the boss that she had a worse punishment planned for me, so he let me go and handed me to her." She began.

A chord of betrayal strung in Scarlet. Out of all people, she had never thought of her elder sister as a snake. Sure, the argument between them was explosive, but not enough to have her assign a hitman on Scarlet.

"So she sent you to shoot me, eh?"

"N-no. She sent me to kill that man with you. I heard her mumbling that this man was turning you against father. S-so by getting him killed, you'd not only be free from 'befriending' him, but you'd also stop questioning your father's way of raising you. But p-please ma'am, don't tell her that I told you all of this."

Scarlet zoned out at this for a few moments. Her rage remained untouched, but the feeling of getting stabbed in the back prospered too. The fact that Emerald would stoop this low just to protect their father's image was indeed horrifying.

"Emerald was right." Scarlet began as she aligned herself with reality. The injured woman's eyes followed the assassin's movement as she stood up. And when Scarlet did, Hayda's fear increased by a tenfold.

Scarlet was... smiling.

Her eyes were disturbing to look into, that was established. But the smile. Hayda shivered as she watched the manic grin on Scarlet's otherwise cold face. Never before, over the course of living with Scarlet, had Hayda seen her smile. Such a crazed expression was out of the question too.

"She did have a worse punishment planned." Scarlet muttered as she shot Hayda in the thigh. Another ear-piercing sob erupted from her mouth, but that didn't stop Scarlet. She moved the barrel of the gun just a little to aim at her other thigh, and her finger pulled the trigger.

"You want to die?" Scarlet mocked with an unwavering grin while Hayda weeped uncontrollably.

"Well, I won't kill you. I'll let those bullets do though. The holes they made will slowly drain your filthy blood." She explained vividly to the trembling and weeping mess of a woman. She turned away to walk towards the car that Davon sat inside. Scarlet was sure to wipe the smile off her face, but the psychotic nature of her gaze remained.

And while she did wonder how Emerald got to know her location, her attention darted towards the device stuck to her ear.

Scarlet scoffed as she pressed down on the button of the earpiece to ring Gray, and after a few moments, he picked up the call. She didn't even let him speak once they both connected.

"How did Emerald know where I was?" She asked, and the deadly calmness in her tone was quite misleading. Her emotions were blazing with earth-shattering wrath, but her voice was plain and flat.

"Gray, how did Emerald know where to send Hayda?" She repeated almost softly.

"Scar I- I had no choice. She forced me to track you down. She was going to bring father into this, and I didn't want him involved because things would get messy for you." Gray replied earnestly, and Scarlet didn't respond. Not immediately.

A deep sigh left the now bloodied assassin's mouth. She glanced behind her to see Hayda, who had stopped making sounds of pain. Her chest was still heaving up and down, so she hadn't died. Not yet at least.

"Well, you can send someone over to clean up the mess. Because I won't." Scarlet stated in her monotonous voice, clearly telling Gray that she was now closed off from him.

"Scar-"
"One more thing. Convey this message to Emerald for me;"

Scarlet looked through the windshield of Davon's car to see a worried expression on his face. There was no way he could have seen the encounter between Scarlet and Hayda since that was all happening behind another vehicle. But, the blood splattered on her shirt concerned him. He held a thumbs up as if asking her if she was okay, and Scarlet nodded in return.

"There's a fundraiser tomorrow. Sharp nine. Gray can locate it using that phone he hacked, since I'm taking it with me." She explained blankly as she continued her steps towards Davon's car.

"Do your worst."

And with those three words, Scarlet pulled the device from her ear and threw it to the ground. She could hear the faint murmuring from it, meaning that Gray was probably saying something. But she didn't care, she brought a leg up to slam her foot on the device. It crunched beneath her shoe like mere rubble, and Gray's distant voice could no longer be heard from it.

Scarlet finally approached the car and climbed in. Davon began bombarding her with questions about the blood on her and if she was okay, but one thought played in her head like a broken recording. And that thought drowned out everything else.

'Sister or not, I'll rip you apart if you touch him.'