Wrath

Chapter 1: Nine Circles

He took out his knife and lunged.

She dodged and pierced his arm.

He dropped the knife and backed away with a wince.

She halted, observing.

He looked at his good arm. It wasn't a pretty sight. Blood everywhere, he couldn't feel his fingers, and some tendons were probably severed. He picked up the knife with his other hand and readied himself.

She charged again.

He tried blocking. A dull crunch could be heard. He looked down and saw his knee bending in a weird direction. The crunch was followed by the sound of metal against flesh. His arm screamed with pain.

Then another crunch.

And another.

And another.

He fell. He could see red oozing out his arm. Everything hurt. He couldn't think straight. Something hit him again. He blacked out.

An authoritative but slightly concerned voice spoke from her radio, "That's enough, he's down. Detainment of the escapee is our primary objective. Cuff him and head back to the extraction point. We'll take it from there."

"Understood." The reply was nothing more than a word.

Finally sitting down after dragging the man to the van, Lucy took a moment to examine herself. Due to the excessive beating she gave, she unsurprisingly found blood spattered over her brown coat and covering her knuckles. It was a brief ride from the Gate back to the penitentiary, but she made the most out of that little time by wiping her hands clean of blood. For almost every day of the past year, Lucy has been visiting the Nine Circles Correctional Facility after being transferred to the Reacquisition Department. Tracking down escaped prisoners and bringing them back, easy enough job. To her, the worst part was all the waiting and the paperwork that came after the fighting.

She found herself shifting a lot by the reception. Waiting for the paperwork, the only thing she hated in the whole procedure. She sat down, almost falling asleep looking around aimlessly until the clerk by the counter called her to sign the papers.

"Josef Riley, Seventh Circle, outer ring. Escaped on the 6th of October, 2015 AD. Recovered 8th of October, 2015 AD." Reading out the information on the form, the man quickly scribbled on the corner of the paper and stamped it before handing it to her, "Please sign here."

Lucy signed the form and left. As she walked out of the facility's entrance reviewing her performance today, her trail of thought was interrupted by her buzzing phone. It was her father. She picked up.

"Lucy dear, welcome back. I've something to discuss with you over dinner, so you should come home ASAP. Don't worry, take your time, but as soon as possible, got it?" It never ceased to amaze her how her father could sound so calm and collected but excited at the same time.

"I'm on my way home." And with that, she hung up.

Days like this was Lucy's definition of mundane. Nothing much happened anymore. The last time she recalled having a memorable day was the prison break last year. She even broke an arm that day. Prison breaks aren't a good thing, but she wished interesting things would just happen more often. Living in actual Hell was well, a hell lot more boring than she wanted.

With these thoughts, she closed the gates behind her and walked past the garden leading to the place she calls home. Casually patting the hound by the door, she entered. Lucy closed the door and walked inside the grand mansion. Ignoring the unreasonably low temperature indoors, she changed into a fluffy pair of slippers and hung her slightly bloodied coat on the coat hanger by the entrance before walking towards the dining table where her father was.