Tricky to Decypher

A Rough Beginning - 1

I was only a child when a knife had first made contact with my skin. It was a sharp and stinging pain that will forever be embedded in my flesh.

I was born and raised in a toxic household, but not the kind of toxic you may be thinking.

I was born into a crime family.

Thousands of families were wrapped around my mother's fingertip; the power acting as a predator, and she was the prey. She was a dangerous businesswoman, and a dangerous parent. She didn't care about her children, but she'd convince you otherwise. She was a shark among helpless fish, and I was one of them.

Years of trust was completely thrown to waste when I first heard the sirens outside our old house's door. We ran.

She grabbed her purse and ran for herself, however. My brother and I left dumbfounded, as my father quickly ran after her.

That moment left a permanent bruise in my former clear view of my parents. That small action left a dent so deep in my mentality that I never really recovered from it.

You probably think my brother and I grew close, or even ran away together to get away from the crime.

Nope.

My brother was just as bad, if not worse, than my mother. He was reckless too. When our parents left us in the hallway that day, he pushed me out of his way to make a run for it.

My eyes were stinging and my legs were giving out. My throat felt like something was caught in it as I basked in the ocean of betrayal I was thrown into.

I ran.

Fast forward to today, where I'm in a similar situation.

"Shit shit shit shit shit" I whispered to myself. Back pressed up against the wall with the back of my hand to my forehead. I found myself silently cursing my mother for giving me an extremely daunting task.

"It seems as though our hitmen are not as reliable as they were advertised to be. Cyph, be a good daughter and do what he couldn't, will you?" She smirked, putting pressure onto the now dead hitman's head using her foot.

I gulped, not wanting to disobey.

"I'm not trained, miss. You know that," I reasoned, taking a step towards her using the little confidence I could gather. She glared at me with a cocked eyebrow. 'Fuck'

"Trained? You're a Verlice. There is no training involved with Verlice's."

"But—"

"Out, now," she ordered, pointing her finger towards the door. I sighed quietly as I stride to the exit.

She had hired a hitman to kill a long term enemy prior to that conversation. He was caught, however. He managed to return, with the enemy's men following closely behind.

We needed to take care of that powerful man fast.

But I, am not much better than any hitmen. My mother had held me and my sibling at a high standard, tricking herself into believing we were just as skilled in fighting as the men she hired were.

She usually only referred to me with my code name. We all used fake names for eachother when on the job, just in case any audio was being recorded in unknown locations.

My code name was Tricky.

Why? I wasn't sure. Possibly because of how difficult it was for me to complete any task; or maybe because of how difficult I was to deal with in general. I just accepted it, really.

My real name carried unwanted memories, whenever someone referred to me as my real name, I would instantly grow cold. I hated my name, my family, my legacy.

I hated Cypher Verlice.

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A/N: WOOO HEY HI! So this is just the first chapter and I'm sorry for how short it is, I meant to make it longer but I felt like that was a good ending for the first chapter 🤟

I don't blame you if you cringe LMAO