Beautiful Crime ※ DogNut

twenty three

Adelaide stared at Edison for a while before she spoke up, the word leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. "Who?" She felt numb, remembering the feeling of her heart completely shattering the second she heard that Clara had been killed. Just when she thought she'd have another chance of being happy after his death, that chance was ripped away from her.

"His name is Asher..."

Adelaide felt the anger rise within her as she gripped her sword. She had a name now; she had a target and she was going to get her revenge one way or another.

From beside her, Jordan noticed how angry Adelaide was and knowing her; she was ready to explode. "Adelaide, stand down. I know what you're about to do and I'm ordering you not to do it."

"I don't take orders from you, you know that by now." Adelaide told Jordan firmly before turning her attention back to Edison. "Take me to him."

Jordan tried to protest but he was ignored by both Adelaide and Edison who had both walked away from him, trying to find Asher amongst the crowd of people that surrounded them. He watched the pair for a moment before walking after them.

"Would DogNut be proud of you if he saw the person you've become?" He almost shouted after Adelaide, just to get some kind of reaction out of her and maybe make her stop what she was doing. Perhaps he went too far by mentioning DogNut and he instantly regretted it, knowing that mentioning him would've probably upset her.

Instead of getting the reaction he was hoping for, Jordan was faced with Adelaide's cold-hearted answer. "He's dead, Jordan. I will not mourn his death anymore, that time has passed. I want vengeance and I will get it."

As soon as her words left her lips, Jordan stopped dead in his tracks. This wasn't Adelaide. The Adelaide he knew and loved would've stopped at the very mention of DogNut and refused to go on, not almost completely ignore his entire existence and carry on with her mission of vengeance. Jordan was far too shocked by Adelaide's answer to follow her and watched her and Edison disappear into the crowd, not saying a single word.

Fairly quickly, Edison found Asher's group. His group weren't the most impressive – it really was just him and three rather ugly looking boys. But Adelaide didn't take much time to look at his group, she was more focused on Asher.

She eyed his dirty and ripped clothes carefully, checking for any weapons. She found one; a handgun on his waist. She knew she needed to take it from him so she wouldn't get hurt during their exchange happened. But she needed to wait for the right possible moment.

Asher looked back at her, his eyes narrowing as he looked between Adelaide and Edison. Asher knew full well who he was talking to – he would've had to have been living under a rock for the past few months to not know. "Can I help you, Adelaide?"

Adelaide's jaw clenched, her eyes narrowing like his. "You killed her, didn't you?"

"Your little girlfriend? She was stealing from my property." Asher said simply, shrugging his shoulders as if he just ordered food – not admitting to murder.

"An entire IKEA store is not your property, Asher. We were not in anyone's territory, we made sure of it. We went to that store for weeks and nothing happened, what changed?"

Asher shrugged again. "We got our hands on it and your little bitch just got in the way."

Adelaide almost growled then, pushing Asher back forcefully. "You take that back right now!"

Asher smirked, talking a step forward and towering over Adelaide, completely unaffected by her push. "Make me, bitch."

Adelaide didn't move for a moment before she nodded towards Edison and another one of her guards who forced Asher to his knees while she took the gun from his waist and raised it against his head.

"Adelaide, stop." Ed almost shouted at Adelaide from behind her, trying to place a hand on her shoulder.

Adelaide shrugged his hand off, not looking at him nor at the large crowd that had gathered around the scene. "Stay out of this, Ed. This has nothing to do with you."

"This isn't who you are!"

"It is now." Adelaide's hand shook as she held the gun, her finger over the trigger. "Why did you do it?"

Asher was panicking now, visibly afraid as he tried to get out of the grip of Adelaide's guards. "David told me to do it! He told me where your team would be and told me to kill the main girl in the group, assuring me that it would've been you. I didn't have a choice! Please don't do this!"

Adelaide shook her head, taking a deep breath to steady herself. She wanted to stop but she couldn't; she needed to kill Asher, and once she killed him, her mission would be complete. Then she'd be able to go home and never return. She would've avenged Clara and seen Jordan again; that was her plan all along, not really to fight in a war.

"Please, Adelaide, you don't have to do this!" Asher almost screamed at her, desperately trying to break free by this point but it was all in vain.

"Yes, I do. Blood must have blood," Adelaide muttered to herself as she pulled the trigger, watching Asher fall to the ground. She barely registered the sound of the gun go off and the screams all around her from terrified children that witnessed the event right in front of them. Rolling her eyes, she turned away from Asher's body and thrust the gun into Ed's chest, almost pushing him backwards from the force of her.

As she walked back to her part of the camp, she passed Brooke but showed no emotion towards her and knocked her shoulder with Brooke's as she went past, never once acknowledging her as if Brooke wasn't even there.

Note

If it wasn't clear in this chapter; David ordered Asher to kill Adelaide because she was one of the only people who could stand against him and since she wouldn't join his side, he would have her killed (because he's kind of a dick). David knew that a small group would go to IKEA for supplies and was led by a dark-haired girl and assumed that it was Adelaide, thus getting Asher to kill her. But in reality; Asher unknowingly killed Clara instead.

I've somewhat figured out where I want to go with this story (finally innit) and I'm going to try to finish this story before I go back to school in October and then I can get on with more fanfics I have planned out.