Alvarez

Two

Everyone has a darker side. Good men fear it, evil men embrace it. - James Islington

Christian
The world has always been an ugly, filthy place. I hated it. But the underworld? Much more bearable. There were more rules, more demands and regulations that required to be met. You break them, you die. Simple as that. It was glorious.

I'd imagine less excitement in this version of the world when you didn't have enough power. When you couldn't collapse empires within a few days, have exorbitant amounts of stock within all the Fortune 500's, murder and not get caught, and kill with no remorse. It isn't a quality that comes easy, but when you develop it, it becomes absolute bliss.

I don't understand how Michael Arora thought he could've got rid of me all those years ago. Five years, to be exact.

He was a snake. It was actually my fault, I'll take the blame. I should never have trusted a man like him. Something was off when I met him for the first time. My gut and intuition had always been my best friends my entire life, as I didn't bother myself with the literal sense of the title "best friend". I am not a seven year old girl after all. But I'd always chosen to believe and rely on my instincts, rather than listening to the bullshit that is our world, and it's people. God I hate people.

I'd learned the meaning of fear when I was in prison at age 18 for murder, assault, battery you name it. It was all on my rap sheet. I got out at age 21 on probation and slowly, little by little, chipped away at each block in the underworld. My father, may Satan do the opposite of resting his soul, was absolutely useless. His death left me with nothing but debt. So I had nothing but my wits to rely on. I made my way though.

The fear in prison had taught me that the only way to get rid of said fear, is to control it. For me, I'd hated the thought of being in a world where everything was a variable. I didn't like variables. Even in mathematics. Everything had an answer. Every question, every equation, all of it. Maybe if I'd had the chance to go to university I would've pursued mathematics and not the life of a dirty criminal.

Making the decision to own your fears is the brightest one to make. In my case, to eliminate fear, meant to kill. It meant to murder, to feel blood on your hands and still sleep through the night like a baby. It meant you must fight till the last drop of blood is shed. Kill or be killed. Burn or be burned. That's the world, and the underworld is alike in that notion, they share that method of thinking. Eat or be eaten, they say.

Michael Arora was founder of the world's largest tobacco and cigarette trading company. He had grown an outstanding empire for himself, but he went dirty many years ago. He'd found himself a comfortable seat under the table and never left. There was one word to describe a man like him, greedy. Amongst all his illegal dealings of becoming this, that and the other, he also decided to become my sworn enemy.

He was making millions in his first few years at the firm. He did amazing work, hell, I can even say he was admirable. But once he lost some investors due to a shipping accident- caused by my brother Axle Kingston to get him out of the game, Michael decided to settle with the dirt rather than fix his mistake. It could be possible he realized the deepest, darkest parts of New York city is what made him the richest.

I, on the other hand specialized in everything the technological world had to offer. I'd found peace in coding, in my numbers and computer screens. In breaking down firewalls and intercepting information I had no business intercepting. It was so impressive, a federal agent actually reached out to me and offered me a senior position at the agency. I could've been a politician, and I would've made about forty times less than what I do now by exploiting my brain and computers. I guided Vincent Moretti to his competitors off-shore accounts and helped him ruin them, and Axle Kingston to his father's enemies and allies.