• Trembling and exhausted he escaped along the dimly-lit suburban street, yet he could still hear the sound of footsteps. He knew they were close and he himself was getting slower. He thought he would never be found, he thought he could hide himself forever, he thought he finally escaped this wretched world and had left it all behind. He was wrong. As he kept on thinking about how good his life had been ever since he left crime behind, his pursuers were drawing ever closer.

    ‘What could they possibly want?’ He thought hastily to himself as he desperately tried to pick up his speed. ‘I paid all their ridiculous fees, did all the dirty work they asked me to do... I never ratted them out and never will, I swore to the boss that I wouldn’t be a rat!’ Realization struck his mind. ‘That’s what he wants, he wants to see her. They think I’ll know where she is just because I was the last to see her.’

    He was almost there. Salvation was ahead. At least in this place he could fight back. He could gain back some ground and perhaps be able to escape once again. But would he just be found again if he were to escape?

    He pushed himself to keep on running. On the long and narrow stretch was the pier. In between here and there, was nowhere he could hide.

    A shot rang out.

    He clutched his left shoulder as the pain seared through his body. Stumbling, he cried out in pain as his injured shoulder was jostled in the fall. He tried to get up to run again but was pushed roughly to the ground eliciting another cry of pain.

    Turning so he could lay on his back he looked at the two burly men before him. The sneers they held on their face reminded him of the reason why she left. She was a rich find. Her skills, that delicious body and that smart-a** mouth. She was one of a kind. They betrayed her, tried to kill her but she fought back. Half their men gone in one week. They didn’t have a chance. ‘Too bad though. Such a waste,’ He thought as he returned his focus onto his visitors. A scrap of paper with the word ‘death’ scribbled on it clutched desperately in his hand.

    The attackers were clad in black suits and sunglasses. One stood quite behind the other to make sure no one was watching and nothing went wrong. The other attached a silencer on to his gun and pointed it to the man on the ground.

    “Sorry, just procedure,” He said mockingly.

    “Any last words...Victor?” He continued. His face gleaming with malice.

    “Just two,” Victor rasped out. The pain in his shoulder becoming unbearable as the blood pooled around him. The man in front of him remained silent, urging Victor to continue to satiate his curiosity but getting ready to fire if Victor became a smart-mouth.

    “She’s dead,”

    *Bang*