Throw In The Dice

Chapter 1

The wind and rain blew my hair in my face as I stopped at the property line of the abandoned building. My fingers tightened around the gun I was holding, water running down and dripping onto the pavement. There was a single light in front of the property casting an eerie glow around the lot. I looked around to make sure I hadn’t been followed before proceeding.

I slowly approached the door and tried to open it. It was jammed. I stepped back and kicked it a few times before I got it to open, but the hinges were so rusted, the door fell in with a slam. The inside of the building was musty, dirty and dark, the only light coming from the light outside. It made the chilling feeling all the more noticable. There was a smell of rotting wood, along with years of collected dust, and a few spiders scuttling across the floor. When I stepped inside, I could tell someone had been there. I thought I heard the faint noise of scrambling.

I hummed, thinking how adorable it was that he thought he could hide from me. I slowly walked further into the building, looking for evidence of his movement or the place of his entrance. The floorboards creaked as I moved through the room. I checked the back room thoroughly before returning to the room where I had entered. Rain was falling in the doorway and there was a cold draft in the air, but it was conflicting with the draft from the door. I turned and noticed a window on one of the side walls was open as well, and smirked to myself.

“Ma-ax…”, I sang as I looked around. “You don't really think you can hide from me, do you?” I listened for any noise or movement, and grinned. He was trying to convince me he wasn't here. “C'mon, you don't think you can trick me again, right? Because if you come out now, I might make your death a little less… well, excruciating.”

My eyes scanned the floor before settling on a footprint in the dust. I walked in the direction of the footprint until I stood next to it, raising my gun. I fired off two shots and heard a whimper as some of the ceiling’s cracked plaster fell around me. I walked over and pulled him out of the corner. He had attempted to barricade himself with a few pieces of furniture. He looked pale and he was shaking under my grip, too scared to put up a fight. Coward.

I pushed him onto the ground and stood in front of him, one foot on his left shoulder. “You thought your little scheme would go unnoticed, with your attempted intervention of the plan. Thought you could fool me.”, I said, watching his reaction.

“H-how did you know about that?”, he asked, stuttering a bit. I chuckled, squatting in front of him.

“Let's just say I've been at this for a while. For three hundred and twenty years, actually.”, I said, as if making small talk. Confusion flashed in his face and I grabbed his jaw, forcing him to look me in the eye. “I know when people lie to me, Max.”

“I-I’m sorry! I'm sorry!”, he cried. I raised an eyebrow, standing back up and increasing the pressure on his shoulder until I heard the satisfying snap of his bones breaking and his pained wails.

“If you were sorry, you wouldn't have sent me on a wild chase, or even started this mess.”, I hissed, setting my gun down and pulling my knife out. I’d had this knife since the early 1900s, it always got the job done. It was silver, with a turquoise handle and admittedly, looked great when there was blood on it. He made a distressed noise when the blade broke the skin on his cheek. “We aren't even getting started yet.”

I dragged him up into a chair and tied him up with some dusty curtains I found nearby. I left him ungagged, though, for answering purposes. He stared at me with fearful eyes. The bloody knife might have contributed to that. “You know, truthfully, I just want answers.”, I said, twirling the knife in my hand, tugging his head back with my other hand. “What were you hoping to gain by telling Azzara about the plot to smuggle those vases to the black market? Did you think he’d intervene and redirect it? Or expose it, at the least?”