The Lies You Told Me

Chapter 10

Katana's POV
I'd spent the last few days avoiding everyone. None of them really wanted to talk, so it wasn't exactly hard.  Even Bee and Val weren't really talking to me. Not that I was complaining.

After I'd left Kai to work, I didn't have much to do, and Dante wouldn't assign me any new missions, so I spent a few nights in my apartment in Boston. I hadn't been back since I'd met Kai, but then again it had only been a few days - it felt like a lot longer. I hadn’t done much, mostly reading some of my old books, but it was better than staying at home.

I only got back in the early afternoon. No one greeted me, which I expected - I was relieved though. I snuck through the corridors, but quickly decided that I didn’t want to be here. I couldn’t stand the tense atmosphere, and the awkward glances. Eventually, after pacing around the corridors for half an hour, I walked out to the garage, got on my bike, and raced over to the training grounds. It was just a few miles up the road, in an old disused army bunker.

When I reached the compound, I parked my motorbike in the garage, and opened the heavy iron doors using the hidden biometrics scanner in the wall. As the laser scanned over my eye, I felt my eyelid start to droop – I was exhausted. I hadn’t slept in days. I had more important things to do – sleep was never top of my priorities. I blinked a few times, and shook my head, trying to clear the tiredness from my head. It wouldn’t be good for me to look tired in front of the new recruits who were training today.

I started walking down the staircase, staring into the dark abyss below. The stairs went on for miles, going down deep into the earth. The deeper the base, the safer from outside threats. Or at least, that’s what my father insisted when he had it built for him.

Eventually I reached the main floor. It was a hollowed-out cavern, the walls covered in corrugated metal which made the noises of the new recruits echo loudly. Overhead fluorescent lighting lit up the area with a harsh white glow.

Low brick walls around the edge of the cave split it into different sections. Each section was full of groups of kids learning new skills – from knife throwing and shooting, to karate and first aid. In the middle was a large boxing ring, and I watched as a young boy beat up an already unconscious girl. She had blood sticking her hair together in clumps, and her face was covered in bruises and cuts. I flinched at the sight, and quickly looked away, trying to block out painful memories.

I wanted to stop the boy, but it was pointless. It would only make me look weak, and the girl wouldn’t be any better off. I sighed, and walked over to a corner where some of the kids were throwing blades at a target. Knife throwing had always been my speciality. I leaned against the wall, sighing as I watched the kids miss the target repeatedly. After watching over 10 of them miss, I stepped in to help them. An older girl was standing at the front, ready to throw at the target. She stopped as she saw me.

“Look, you guys are doing it all wrong. Watch me.” I reached down, and grabbed the knife slid inside my boot. The kids were whispering among each other, whilst smirking at me and looking me up and down. I spun the knife around my fingers, glaring at the kids, waiting for them to shut up. The whispers began to quieten down, but one boy had the nerves to speak.

“How exactly are you gonna teach us? You’re nothing more than a hot ass and a pair of boobs.” Him and his friends began to laugh, and I bit the inside of my mouth, trying not to say anything I would regret.

“And what’s your name?” I asked, my blade still twirling around my finger. I stepped forwards, so I was standing just a few metres away from him.

“Sam. And what’s yours, you sexy bitch?” I let out an exasperated laugh, and before I knew it, my knife was flying towards him. It hit the wall next to him, millimetres away, and I smiled as I saw his shocked face. He was frozen, not wanting to move for fear that the knife would cut him.

“Look, dickhead. I can tell you’ve clearly been deprived of a woman’s touch for a long time, but here’s a little piece of advice. Don’t talk to anyone like that, or that knife will be hitting you in a very, very painful place. Got it?” He nodded meekly as I continued. “Now, Sam, get the fuck out of my sight before I make you.” He almost ran away from me. I glared at his friends, who had been smirking at me.

“And as for anyone else that feels like commenting on my body, why don’t you follow Sam before this knife goes through your skull. Everyone clear?” No one moved a muscle.

“I said, everyone clear?” I repeated, louder this time. The kids nodded frantically, no one daring to speak. I gave them a brief smile in return, before returning to the front. I began to demonstrate the proper way to hold a knife. The kids all copied me, still quiet from my outburst. A few minutes later, we moved onto throwing the knives. Like before, first I demonstrated, hitting the bullseye first try. Then they began to practise. Although they weren’t perfect, there was a big improvement. Satisfied, I left them, and sat down in a rickety metal chair in the corner.

I groaned as I saw the kid from earlier walking up to me. He had a wicked smirk on his face, making me want to punch him.

“Hey, you know I was only saying that stuff about you cuz I think you’re hot, right?”

“And I said that stuff because you’re a dickhead that’s not worth my time.” I said, glaring at him.

“You know you like it really, don’t you?” He began to move closer to me, so that his thighs were touching mine, squeezing them together. He began to lower himself, so he was almost sitting on my lap. I felt so uncomfortable. I hated it. It took everything I had to not scream. I quickly shoved him off, and grabbed my knife from my boot again, grabbed the collar of his shirt, and held the blade to his throat.

“Listen here, you little shit. You don’t get to do that to me, okay? I’m in control here. I let you into the Mafia, I can take you out. So next time you think about harassing someone, think about me, and my knife. Think about whether you want to end up dead or alive. And don’t fuck with me, ever again.” I tightened my grip on the knife, forcing a bead of blood to escape his skin. He let out a little girly scream, causing everyone around to stare and me to laugh. I roughly shoved him away from me, and he tripped and fell onto the ground, a crowd had started to form, watching what was happening.  I glared at them, and shoved past them, kicking Sam on the way past. I saw a kid pulling their phone out, starting to film me. I didn’t say anything, and instead threw my knife towards them. It hit the phone, shattering the screen, sending glass shards flying everywhere. She dropped her phone in shock.

Everyone was still staring at me.

“Fuck off. All of you. No one said you could stop training.” The kids frantically backed away, returning to their stations. I sat back down on the chair; glad everyone was leaving.

As I sat there, watching everyone training, I could feel myself slowly drifting off to sleep. I rubbed my head, trying to stay awake, before spotting a vending machine in the opposite corner of the room. I slowly walked over. I felt a twinge in my thigh – my limp was worse today, but I soon reached the vending machine. To my relief, it had a few cans of monster, so I paid and grabbed the white one. I downed it, and it made me feel better for a while.

I stayed there for another few hours, helping out some of the kids, before driving home. I snuck into my room - I really didn’t want to talk to anyone. The moment my head touched the pillow, I blacked out from exhaustion.