Chapter 100

The cool afternoon breeze hit Alex’s face the moment he stepped out of Olivia’s apartment, with the front door clicking shut with a finality that signaled the end of his gentle role as the doting caretaker, who helped take care of his sick woman and his transformation into the cold dangerous man that would never hesitate to be ruthless to his enemies.

For a moment, as he stood silently outside, the lingering scent of honey, ginger and chicken soup which was still clinging to his clothes served as a stark contrast to the dark, killing intent which was currently brewing inside his chest.

He took a slow, deep breath, letting the warmth he felt for Olivia settle into the deepest corner of his heart, locked away where it wouldn’t be tainted by the... Not so good business he had to attend to.

After standing on the road for quite some time now, he was finally able to stop a damn cab and gave directions to the small-time boss’s villa before climbing into the back seat of the taxi.

The drive to the outskirts of the city felt kind of short if he were being honest. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he had just spent the entire time in the cab coming up with more cruel methods than the last to punish Zack.

Zack had been something even closer than a brother to him, and to find out that person who you saw as one of the closest people to you in the entire world was secretly having an affair with your bitch of a wife, could make any same man feel the cold sting of betrayal. And not to forget that the bastard had run away like a coward, leaving his poor mother to face the consequences for his stupid actions.

So, the thought of finally punishing that bastard was completely justified.

When the cab finally pulled up to the gated entrance of the large, familiar luxurious villa that he had once snuck in last time, a man with a cast in one of his arms was already waiting there patiently.

It turned out to be the small-time boss, who was the same refined young man in his late twenties with neatly styled dark brown hair and a well groomed mustache that Alex had dealt with some days ago after the whole Olivia kidnapping incident.

The man rushed out personally. His clothing looked impeccable as always, but his face was slightly pale with large beads of sweat already forming at his temple.

The chilling memory of his broken arm and the monster in human form who had inflicted it still haunted him. Now the said monster was just a few steps away from him.

"Sir! You’re here! Welcome, welcome," the boss stammered, his hands shaking slightly as he gestured toward the main entrance. "Everything has been prepared exactly as you ordered earlier. We haven’t touched him yet. So he’s still in one piece... just like you asked."

Alex didn’t offer a greeting or even look at the man again. He simply started walking, his stride radiating a suffocating pressure that made the boss’s breath hitch in his throat.

"Lead the way," Alex commanded with a voice devoid of any form of emotion whatsoever.

The boss personally led the way, dismissing his incoming guards with a hand gesture.

They moved through the lavishly decorated house that was opulent in a gaudy, try hard sort of way, but Alex barely spared a single glance at the expensive paintings that must have cost a butt load of fortune.

They kept moving until they reached a heavy, reinforced steel door hidden behind a decorative tapestry. The boss fumbled with a ring of keys that he had, at one point brought out of his pocket.

He finally found the correct key for the door, and inserted it, before pulling the heavy steel door open, revealing a flight of stairs that led deep into a damp, dimly lit basement where not even the annoying sound of crickets rang out.

With each step deeper into the dark room, the air grew cooler and damper, smelling of stale mildew and.... Dried blood? It looks like this basement was a place for torturing and killing their enemies.

In the center of the room, illuminated by a single, harsh bulb hanging from a frayed wore, sat that jerk, Zack, who was slumped unconscious in a reinforced metal chair that looked sturdier than its wooden counter part. His arms and legs were tightly bound with thick brown ropes.

And a discarded handkerchief lay on a side table beside him, still faintly smelling with the pungent scent of sedatives that had most likely been used to knock him out.

Alex stopped at the base of the stairs, with his green eyes narrowing as he surveyed the scene. He didn’t want Zack to see his face. At least not yet. He wanted that after this incident he’d still be that fake friend that the idiot would think he could manipulate, not knowing that he already had him wrapped around the palm of his fingers.

"Do you have a mask I can use?" Alex asked curiously.

The boss blinked, taken aback for a moment before saying.

"A... a mask, sir?"

"I don’t want him to know who I am," Alex said simply.

The boss hesitated, before giving a sigh. He reached into a nearby storage cabinet, his hands trembling slightly as he pulled out a medium sized wooden box.

"I have something... It’s a bit of a relic from my earlier days in the business. It was my signature look back when I was still working the streets. It might be a bit theatrical, but I assure you it’s high quality."

He opened the box with his good hand to reveal a black skull mask. It didn’t look like those cheap plastic ones, that someone could get at the carnivals for one dollar; it was crafted from a matte black composite material, that was intricately carved to look like a hyper realistic human skull, with darkened mesh over the eye sockets and a jagged, permanent grin that looked demonic, especially in the flickering light of the basement.

Just perfect. He needed this mask to look like a demon to the man who had ruined his life in his previous one.

Alex took the mask, turning it over in his hands. It was cold and a bit light, but maybe for a normal human it would be kind of heavy. He slipped it on, and it fitted snugly like a glove.

Behind the black mesh, his eyes disappeared, leaving only two hollow voids of darkness that looked particularly intimidating. The boss took an involuntary step back, with a shiver running down his spine. Just seeing Alex in that mask was like looking at the personification of death itself.

"Wake him up," Alex commanded, his voice muffled but also in a way, intensified by the mask’s acoustics. "Use the coldest water you can find and splash it all over his face."

The boss nodded frantically to one of his subordinates. The man grabbed a bucket of ice cold water that had been thoughtfully sitting in the corner and threw it with full force directly into Zack’s face.

Zack gasped, his body shaking violently against the rope as the freezing shock jolted his brain back to life. He coughed, spitting out water, with his head lolling about as he tried to blink the sting from his eyes.

For a few seconds, he was disoriented, and his gaze darted around the dimly lit room in a panic. When his eyes finally landed on the shadowy figures surrounding him, his face drained of what little color it had left.

"W-what the hell... where the heck am I?" Zack stammered, his voice cracking. "Who are you people? Do you know that what you’re doing can have you put in jail for a long time? One of my friends’ dad’s a cop, he..."

"Shut the hell up," the boss barked while stepping into the light.

"Who are you? I don’t remember offending someone like you?"

"Who am I? Haha... I am the man, whose woman you decided to stick your pathetic little worm inside. Did you think I wouldn’t find out where you were hiding, you little punk? Did you even honestly think I would just forget about everything and let it go?"

Zack’s eyes widened with fear, and he began to shake.

"What? No! Please, wait! It was all just a misunderstanding man! I-I didn’t know that she was yours! I swear! She told me she was single! If I had known she was your woman, I wouldn’t have touched her, even if they begged me! Please, man, we can talk about this!"

Alex remained in the corner like a silent motionless shadow. The skull mask seemed to absorb the light around it, making him look like the devil himself.

He watched Zack’s desperate grovelling with a sense of profound disgust. This was the boy who had deceived him so well in his past life? This was the boy that Olivia had cried over? This was the same son who had broken his mother’s heart?

The boss turned towards the corner, his demeanor shifting from aggressive to humble in an instant.

"He’s all yours, sir. What is the verdict for this piece of trash?"

Alex stepped forward, the heavy thud of his boots on the floor echoing like a funeral knell. As he spoke, he intentionally lowered his resonance, thereby deepening his voice into a gravelly, demonic baritone voice that was unrecognizable even to someone who knew him very well.

"Zack. You seem to have a very specific problem. You have no respect for the sanctity of others. You take what isn’t yours, you hurt those who love you, and you think your dumb charm can get you out of any cage. Let me tell you something, I’ve seen a million people who are by far better looking than that place you call a face."

Zack stared at the skull masked figure, with his breath coming in ragged terrified gasps.

"And who are you? Please... I’ll do anything. Just let me go. I can even try and hook you up with my mom. I can promise you, she’s a ten out of ten."

The moment Alex heard that, black frost began to appear in his palms as a chilling green light managed to flash in the eyes socket of the skull mask. The boss who was behind him froze as he noticed how quickly the room’s temperature plummeted and Alex’s hands glowing with an eerily black frost before it suddenly disappeared.

Alex’s voice instantly turned noticeably colder.

"Since you really enjoy sleeping with other people’s women so much, I think it’s only fair that we cut off the organ responsible for all your depraved acts."

...

A/N

Hi guys!!! Finally! We manage to reach the huge milestone of 100 Chapters. I just want to say thank you to all of you who are still reading this novel. Thank you! Oh and before I forget, please (>_<) don’t forget to support this novel with any gift, golden ticket or powerstones. It might not mean much to others but it means the absolute world to me. Thank you!!!