People say the dead can't talk, but I'm here to prove them wrong. Who am I? Call me Lazarus. No, that isn't my real name, but it's what I decided to call myself after reincarnation. I was revived as an anthropomorphic wolf, dark tan fur covering much of my bipedal body, with a lighter underbelly and snout. I have a multi-tinted blue tuft on my head and end of my tail. I had golden rings on my canine ears. My attire was black, grungy jeans, leather jacket, and a t-shirt featuring a different band everyday. My purpose for this life? Bounty hunting. Today was a light day. It consisted mostly of paperwork at the small headquarters I worked at. It was a small place in Brooklyn, a secret subsection of the police. Surrounding me were more bounty hunters, all human. To my left was Edgar, a hunter in his early forties, who had been here since his early teens. To my right was the newest recruit, a young female named Evelyn. Two desks behind us were unoccupied, belonging to a pair who were already off on a case. I sighed, setting another overdue document to the side. Soon, the clock on the wall beeped, indicating the end of another workday, at least for the ones without targets today. I headed to clock out for the day. "Quiet day today, huh?" remarked Evelyn. "Yeah, but you never know when it just might pick up, " I replied.~~~ Later that day, I sat in my garage, tuning the Ibanez SZ320 electric guitar I owned. The body was black with a diagonal cobalt blue stripe. Around me was the rest of the band I was a part of. "Slow day at the job?' asked the lead singer, Samuel. Elias, the drummer, beat a basic rhythm. "Yeah," I said. The bassist Karisle played a complicated riff. None of them knew what I truly did for a living. "So guys," Samuel prompted, "ready to play?" Our band was called Tread Lightly Among Dragons, a name I proudly came up with myself. I started playing our main song, "Thunder and Lightning," playing the introductory riff I knew so well. After we played the song, I heard the doorbell ring. "Hold on guys, I might have to bail." Elias groaned. I opened the front door, revealing my boss, Mr. Richardson, standing there. "Anything new?" I asked him. "Yes. Your newest assignment is taking out a mob boss who has terrorized this city for far too long. All the details are in this folder." The boss handed me a case file. "What weapons will I need?" I replied, receiving the documents. "Just your teeth and a silenced handgun just in case things go awry.You have five days to take him down."~~~ I studied the file given by Mr. Richardson. The target was 47-year-old Alex Cardon. He had been a heavily-used mob rat since his 15th birthday, in which he later bludgeoned his boss at 32 to replace him. He was sort of a dictator, not just for the gang itself, but for all of New York. But that's none of my business, I thought, smirking. Mine is only to take him down a few notches. I loaded the clip on the glock and strapped it to my waist. I got ready to plan my escapade. Knowing my species would be suspicious, I couldn't hide as one of his cronies, but rather I had to get by without being seen. Luckily, the base of operations, as was illustrated in the given map, had many areas to stay out of sight. Oh, I forgot to mention something. When I was given life again, I gained the ability to be nearly invisible when engulfed in shadow. The building didn't have much in the way of lighting, as it was supposed to be inconspicuous. Not as inconspicuous as they wished. I smiled. "This will be perfect," I said aloud.~~~ I loitered near the headquarters of my adversaries for reconnaissance. Across the field was Evelyn, who wielded a scoped and silenced rifle. At the rear entrance lay a guard who had fallen asleep on duty. Evelyn took him out. I darted next to the entrance just as another guard came around the corner. Unfortunately, the sharpshooter had to reload. Good thing I was in a shadowy area, or I wouldn't be able to give him the bite on the neck to neutralize him. He didn't even have the time to let out a scream. I slid the door open just enough to sneak in, and stayed in the shadows. Evelyn didn't follow, as wasn't her calling. She had only to let me in. Before me was a large wallpapered room, bustling with the mob rats. I stayed around the perimeter, trying to avoid the notice of the men surrounding me. My goal was to get to the door across the room. When I reached 50 paces from the entrance, a member started to walk in my direction. I crouched down and stayed still, relying on my shadow disappearing abilities to stay out of sight. He held a pistol in his right hand. "I think I heard something over here," he said to a nearby person. The other man raised his pistol in my direction and fired. The bullet barely missed above my head. I winced. "Now why would you go around telling me fibs about intruders, Calvin?" the shooter prompted. The pair walked away, arguing. I slowly continued my trek towards the door. There was one place where a light bulb was placed just above where I had to travel. I ran past it, making a little noise. An alarm sounded. I ran as fast as possible. Somebody must've noticed the dead guards outside. "I told you I heard something," argued Calvin from the other side of the room. I rushed into the next room. "So, it has come to this," I heard a voice say. Before me was Cardon himself. He wore a pinstriped suit and tie, with a white shirt underneath. He chuckled, pressing a button which locked the doors around us. "Indeed it has," I agreed, lunging at him. He hopped back, firing his gun beside me. "Let's not get too hasty here," he remarked. "Do you realize how much devastation you've caused throughout your career-" "Enough talk," Alex interrupted, unlocking the doors. A figure barged in and slammed the butt of their rifle into the back of my head. I blacked out.~~~ I woke in a daze, my vision blurred. There was a muzzle over my jaw, and I was trapped inside a cage. "So you've finally woken," Evelyn noted. "Seems fitting, doesn't it? The wolf is trapped in the cage." "Why?" I pleaded, "Why do this? Why now? What about all the time we trained together? What about all the hours we sent in the office together?" "Simply a form of deception. We had to get you here somehow." Cardon, beside her, smirked. "Here's your daily provisions," he said, sliding a piece of stale toast through the bars. "Wh-what's this? I am a carnivore! I will not stand for this abuse! Give me some real food!" I raged, slamming the iron bars. "So the predator has become the prey. Deal with it." Evelyn chuckled, and the pair left the room, leaving me to sulk in silence.~~~ A few days had passed, and I spent the time planning a way to escape. Currently, Evelyn and Alex were away. The captors had taken away my gun and phone, so I couldn't use them to find a way out. The muzzle was made of leather. Something Evelyn didn't know about me was just how strong my jaw was. The leather was reinforced in many places, but that wouldn't be a bother to me. I sent a lot of force through my jaw, trying to break the binds. It took me a few tries, and once it burst, the wind was knocked out of me. My next challenge was to break the bars surrounding me. Luckily, there were a couple places that were pretty rusted on a series of metal. I used my teeth to wear away at the iron, breaking them just enough for me to squeeze through. For some reason, the room was empty when I slid out of the cage. I saw my gun laying on a table on the other side of the room. I grabbed it and went out a nearby door. I saw Alex and Evelyn talking in the next room, planning what to do with me. I sent a bullet towards Cardon, slaying him. "How-" Evelyn said, grabbing her rifle. "Stand down," I commanded, pointing my gun at her. "Fool! I'm the one with the bigger gun." She fired a shot at me. I rolled, dodging the shot, and got behind her. "Are you sure you want to face me?" I told her. She turned around, trying to hit me with the butt of her gun again. This time I was ready, ducking down. "So you force my hand." I said, bringing my jaws around her neck. I closed my mouth, releasing her soul from her body.~~~ A few days later, I was with the band again. The news was on the television I kept in the garage. "Highly powerful mob boss, Alex Cardon, has been found dead, but not by one of his people, but by a peculiar non-human. Rather, an anthropomorphic wolf by the name of Lazarus is determined to be the killer." "So that's where you've been these past few days," Karisle voiced. "People say the dead can't talk," I replied, "My purpose is to prove them wrong."
