In Darkness I Hide: A Zootopia Story

Saturday - Darkest Before the Dawn - The Sixth Morning

Savannah Central – Lemming Bros. Bank Corporate HQ – 44th Floor, Executive Offices
Saturday – 12:01 AM – Scattered Clouds / Slightly Chilly Breeze

The crimson started to leak through her shirt as the serrated dagger brought jagged pains that shot up and down her rib cage every time she breathed. At the angle it was twisted, trying to move it or even attempt to pull it out would result in catastrophic and potentially irreversible damage without expert medical equipment and know-how. She could do nothing but grope the handle sticking out from her body as she fell back onto the floor, stunned at the diminutive otter standing above her.

"Finish the job." Jack repeated over the speakerphone.

Heaving and seemingly upset at what he had to do, Ron answered back without taking his eyes off Murana's, "She's done for, Savage. She isn't going to get help anytime soon. Just let her die in peace."

"Ah...letting her suffer to the bitter end, eh? You're crueler than I expected." Jack seemed a bit impressed. "What about the witness? I see that there is a third person there with you."

"Him?" This brought Ron's focus back to Max, who was looking at him with an unreadable expression. "He's just a kit. No harm to anyone."

"Kill him too." Jack ordered unceremoniously.

Ron's tail thumped on the floor loudly as he adjusted his glasses with a finger. "I didn't agree to work for my father to kill children. I did what he asked and struck my mark."

"Ronald, you know what your father will do if you disobey. Do your job. Remove all witnesses. Now." Jack's voice was steel and offered no room for rebuttal.

After a few moments to mull it over, Ron faced the window directly. "This is wrong. I was led to believe Murana was a fellow assassin-turned-criminal that needed to be put down."

"We're all criminals, Ron. What's your point?" Jack was started to get irritated.

"What was described to me was not what I found. She is much more than some petty thug who kills for pleasure. She has a family." Ron reasoned, gazing back over to Max.

"We all have families. That doesn't excuse the fact she was marked for death by Rosco, your father. You do the job or I do it for you." The rabbit chastised over the phone. "What happened to you, Ronald? You were so eager to take your first kill. You poisoned her chicken skin, steeped her tea in nightshade and more. So anxious to prove yourself, and now you turn yellow and stop right when you're at the finish line."

Ron gave a long, hard look at Murana. She was no longer staring at him, instead just blankly looking at the floor, her mind seemingly in another plane of existence. "That was before I got to know her. The more I read up on her, met part of her family and saw how they were together, I realized it was something I was missing. I never had that before, not even with Rosco after Mom passed away. I looked at her with her family and thought to myself, if she could find and create a family long after her days being an assassin, why couldn't I do the same?"

"And yet you stabbed her regardless." Jack chuckled into the phone.

"She backed up into it, I hadn't decided yet if I was going to go through with it." Ron explained, regarding his paws, the instruments of this destruction. "I only turned the knife on instinct. I didn't really have time to think."

"Humph, you're pathetic. I'm pretty sure Rosco will forgive me if I tell him I eliminated a filthy traitor."

Both Max's and Ron's ears shot up as the phone clicked off. Ron dove to the floor as three more holes appeared in the glass window, the bullets zipping over their heads and splintering through the opaque glass paneling of Murana's office. Scrambling over on all fours, Ron picked up the sniper rifle next to her and raised it to his eye level. He calmly fired off a few shots at the exact position he trailed the angle of those incoming bullets from.