Aziel

AZIEL

The strong waft of burning cigarettes filled the entire room leaving him in a state of ecstasy and euphoria he wanted to drown in forever, disconnected from the terrors of reality, The terrors of his daily life.

Euphoria–an intense feeling of happiness. Happiness was a feeling he only got to enjoy in moments like these, he had buried all sorts of emotions a long time ago. He was now nothing but an empty shell that resorted to drugs to let him experience what normalcy felt like.

If only he could feel like this forever.

If only the world stopped looking so Gray.

The list only went on. He would soon have to face reality after this moment of bliss.

He didn’t realize he had fallen asleep until he felt someone nudge him repeatedly on his shoulder.

Everything was suddenly clear as day.

The shabby and sludgy walls of their meeting place, the leaking roof, and the sickening smell of rotting dead animals.

His reality was the definition of disgusting.

Dante stood right in front of him with his arms crossed and eyes watching. He was probably thinking of a snarky remark to give seeing as his eyes held distaste and displeasure.

It wasn’t like anything Dante would say was going to bother him anyways

Every single one of them was just trash including himself.

They were all just a bunch of thieves, murderers, and liars who worked for an insanely rich fraud.

They were all basically scum.

“Boss has a job for you. Meet him at his office pronto, we can’t have you lazing around and smoking weed all day now can we?” Dante announced and with one last glare went off to join the others in the room just right beside his.

He was an outcast even amongst outcasts but it was nice seeing as he got his own special rat-infested room.

He breathed in and found himself walking towards his boss' office. His boss Mr. Alexander Ross was an influential man, he had basically everything. Money, women, power. He simply couldn’t understand why he always craved more.

He honestly could never understand rich people and their greed.

Why did they always want more?

He was content as long he could afford his sister’s hospital bills. He didn’t hope or desire any other thing. Aspirations and dreams. He had none of that.

Mr. Alexander’s office was the only decent-looking place in the entire building. At least it had painted walls, a table, and a chair and wasn’t infested.

Two other members of his gang were there probably to shoot him down if he decided to rebel against Mr. Alexander.

It was a form of security, although they all knew Mr. Alex always wore a bulletproof vest and carried a gun with him all the time.

“Aziel. Welcome, I have a very important job for you.” The old man’s voice always seemed so graceful for someone so evil.

As long as he didn’t have to kill anybody. His only job was to steal. He wouldn’t do any other thing. Although if Mr. Alex insisted he had to murder someone, he would have no other choice.

“I won’t call it stealing seeing as you would only be returning to me what was rightfully mine. I’ll tell you a short story son.”

Now he had to listen to the old man's blabber.

“An old friend of mine stole a really important flash drive from me some years ago. On the night I was finally to retrieve it from his dead wife’s corpse I realized I had been fooled into believing she was in possession of it. He made me commit an unjust murder. Fortunately for me, I received word that he had a daughter hidden from the rest of the world. He had given this great treasure of mine to a child as a birthday present. Now this child has blended in with a society of commoners. He had her surname changed and every single thing about her. End of story.”

He knew this story. He was there on the night when that woman was murdered. He had been assigned to accompany Mr. Alexander that day as a bodyguard while the rest did the dirty job.

A lot of people died.

“Listen up Aziel.” Mr. Alex’s tone suddenly changed. He could finally hear the true voice of an actual scum.

“All you have to do is get into that girl's good books. Befriend her, date her, do anything you want. All I want back is that flash drive. When you do get it back, I also want evidence of her demise.”

He felt the blood drain from his face.

Murder?

They wanted him to not only steal but kill?

“You–you.” He struggled to find the words to express himself. He hardly spoke against any job he was given to do but this was just insane.

He couldn’t actually take the life of a person.

Before he could process anything more he felt something cold at the back of his head, it didn’t take him long to realize that a gun was pointed at him.

He couldn’t say no.

He would be killed for defiance.

If he died who would take care of his little sister?

He gritted his teeth.

“Do you still have some kind of morals Aziel? There is no difference between a thief and a murderer. You are simply stealing a life.” Cain one of the gang members commented as he pressed the gun deeper at the back of his head.

They were right. What was he still holding onto? He was just as much as a murderer as the rest of them.

“ I understand. Just give me every single detail about her.” His voice came out weaker than he had anticipated. Nothing ever shook him but somehow this situation brought a reaction out of him.

Cain stepped back and a document was thrown at him which he caught swiftly. He opened it up and began to read out loud.

“ This is all you need to know about your target. Arya Garnet Allen, age eighteen, lives in Hammock valley with her aunt Marilyn Allen from her mother’s side. Attends Midwest high just a twenty-minute walk from her apartment. Here is a picture of your target.”

A picture of a plain-looking blue-eyed brunette was passed to him.

He was two years older than her. How was he possibly going to befriend her? He was not only antisocial but also completely oblivious to the concept of friendship.

This was his worst job ever.

“ I’ll have you enrolled in her school.” Mr. Alex pitched in as he lit a cigarette. That was the easiest way to connect with her. He had dropped out of middle school and never had the chance to get to high school.

This was truly going to be terrifying.

He sighed internally and rubbed his temples. He had to think of an idea, Mr. Alex’s time limit for every job was one month. So he had one month to get Arya to trust him.

He had one month to get that flash drive and one month to end her life.

“ I’ll give you the grace of two months as my way of being generous.”

He looked up at Mr. Alex in surprise.

“ If you fuck up on this job Aziel I’ll have your sister’s head but if you succeed, you would never have to worry about her hospital bills.”

The only thing he ever truly valued was his sister’s life. He couldn’t afford to mess up on this job.

“ I understand Sir.”

And with that, he was dismissed.