#15

“That’s my girl,”

Chapter 7: Her Name

“That was but now, it will never be my name,” he growled.

“Young Vincent, it’s the name I’ve given to you and that name will be yours,” the man said.

“But, Kendrick, I have my own name; a name of which I’ve given myself,” he sat down on the chair nearest to him.

“And tell me, what is your name now so I could address you properly?”

“That, my friend and father, is a secret.” he flashed Kendrick a row of pearly whites.

The men there, including the guard gave him a weird look; a look that made him feel like he is out of place. But how could he? He practically grew up in this place, after all, Kendrick was the one whom took him in, gave him a name and gave him an identity. Not to mention, a home and a father he never once had. In return of all those wondrous things, he has to work for Kendrick, putting his life in danger, it’s a small price to pay considering on how Kendrick gave him a life.

After all, Kendrick could easily take away any life he has given. It was like a snap of his fingers, bullets will come raining upon the poor victim. He has witness every single one. There was this boy, once his good friend, the boy betrayed Kendrick, thinking he could run away from this awful place but without much to his knowledge, Kendrick, who has many men all around the globe managed to tracked him down in less than a day, captured the poor bastard in less than an hour and finished him off in less than a minute. That was how powerful Kendrick was and still is.

Kendrick even made every new member to witness on how he killed the boy. The boy, only a year older than him which was around ten years old, made up his mind one day;  a choice which he gravely regretted as soon as Kendrick found him. You see, the boy was still naïve but to Kendrick, once betrayed, always will betray, no matter whom. Kendrick, a man who believes in trusts will not have a member like him in the group or being part of the family. With much heartache, he finished off the boy with a poison drink, forcing the boy to drown it down his throat. And with every gulp the boy took, Kendrick’s hand shivered and tears started flowing down his grim face. To him, every member is like his son or his daughter. That was how painful for him to actually kill a ten years old boy.

Kendrick turned towards the men and said in a grave voice,

“Leave us,”

Chairs were being shuffled back and mutters started to stirs up the atmosphere. 

“That includes you, Rick.”

Kendrick tilted his head to one side while looking at the man that brought both him and her in.

“Yes, sir.”

Once everyone was out, Kendrick gave a loud clap, motion Miss Redhead to have a sit and he smiled at both at them.

She was nervous alright. He could feel her shaking for she sat close to him, thinking he would offer her protection, but from what? Kendrick will never, never harm them unless they betrayed him or something like that.

“It’s going to be alright,” he whispered, so soft only she could hear him.

She took a deep breath, turned towards him and gave him a small nod and a hint of smile.

“Now, let’s get started, shall we?” Kendrick’s voice echoed in the empty hall.

Leon arrived shortly after I was done getting dressed. I wore a black tank top due to the hot weather and a pair of green colored shorts which matched my green converse. I went into his car while tying my hair into a pony tail. As soon as I opened the car door, cool air greeted me along with a hint of cologne.

“Hello there,” Leon flashed me a smile which caused me to smile.

“Hey,” I closed the door and placed my sit belt into place.

“Tell me, Mighty Morgan, what should we do to have fun today?”

“Uh,”

“What about the beach?”

Leon started to drive down the lane.

I smiled.

“To the beach!” I yelled, filled with excitement.

Kendrick took out a notepad and a pencil. He looked at him with full of concentration.

“Statics reports for the past few days which you never even bothered to call me and actually give me a short notice at where you were.”

“I was sick,” he replied shortly. He reached over and placed his left hand over her shaking hands. It comforted her, until Kendrick burst out laughing.

“My dear Vincent,” Kendrick said while wiping his laughing tears away.

He growled though his teeth.

“You haven been sick ever since I’ve took you in, what caused the sickness now”

“I had a fever.”

“And how did you managed to catch something as stupid as that?”

“I was under the rain for quite a while.”

“Doing what?”

Kendrick’s blue eyes blazed like a pair of twin fire, burning brightly in his sockets. Kendrick was excited to listen to such information and he was curious too.

“Walking back to the house.”

As soon as those words escaped from his mouth, the pair of blazing blue fire died down a little, with disappointment. Kendrick thought maybe he was out hunting those men. He started to tap his pencil onto the marble table. She could not stop her nervousness. Kendrick turned towards her,

“Is it true?”

She managed to nod after gulping down her saliva, he tongue felt thick and dry and she thought is she would say something, her tongue would not cooperate with her. So, the safest thing was to give a simple nod.

“And the men?”

She cleared her throat and took a deep breath, she could feel seat started to gather on her forehead and her palms were getting sweatier and sweatier every passing minute.

“One of them got away,” she managed to whispered.

He turned and looked at her; the pair of onyx eyes was so intense that she could not bear to see his face any longer. Instead, she bent her head down with shame, not wanting to look at anyone in the eyes. Not the pair of baby blues that were getting brighter and brighter every minute, not at the pair of onyx that was filled with much hollow and coldness towards her. He snatched his hand away from her as though she has some kind of weird disease on and it will infect to those who come in contact with her.

“WHAT!?” Kendrick yelled, his voice echoed through out the whole hallway, it was so loud that the men outside the room actually took a step back; fearing Kendrick might burst through the doors any second.

“You did not finished them off!?” his voice now directly towards him. He turned his head and faced Kendrick, staring at his baby blues while saying these few words.

“They were dead when I left them,”

Kendrick howled with much frustration, his snow white hair was being pushed back over and over again as he swept his hand over his hair. Finally, he stopped, sat on his chair and stare at him.

“Did you confirm?”

He nodded.

“Did you place the Liquid on both of them?”

“That, I did. I even stood there, making sure that both of them melted along with the liquid,”

“Then, either one of you must be lying,” Kendrick said it in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I saw one of them on my way back from his house!” she said while standing up, she was no longer afraid. After all, she was innocent as a baby. She indeed saw one of the men got up and shuffled slowly into the dark alley.

“Oh? Did you finish him off when you saw him?” Kendrick now fully directed his gaze at her.

“N-no,” she stammered as she sat on her chair, feeling ashamed for not finishing that blardy bastard off.

“Wait!” she cried, her eyes glittered with excitement.

“You said ‘both’ didn’t you?”

He nodded, filled with determination and authorization. Of course he said both! After all, there were both men there, trying to kill him. One even managed to cut his chest.

“I saw the third one lurking at the corner of the alley, maybe out of your sight. I thought you saw him, I don’t know, but at that time, I had to go off to help one of the men.”

“But why my Dear, didn’t you finish him off?” Kendrick’s voice was now soft with sympathy.

“I was scared, I was afraid I was not up to it, not as strong as him,” she nodded at his direction, “nor as intelligent as you. Even though you’ve trained me, I was still afraid for I’ve never been on the field before.

“My Dear, this shall be the latest assignment for you and you only. No one is to help you and if you asked for help, you know what will happen if you disobey me.”

Miss Redhead nodded, she remembered quite clearly about the ten years old boy.

“Yes, sir.” she said quietly.

We had an ice-cream each and a hot dog too as soon as Leon parked his car. Halfway through my ice-cream though, I smashed my cone on Leon’s face due to the fact that his cheeks looked red.

“To cool you down,” I said with a cheeky smile.

Leon started to chase after me and as an athlete, he managed to catch up on me within seconds, pulled me on the sand and we started rolling on the sand like playful puppies.

“It is not me that needs to be cooled off, Morgan; I believe the heat has gotten into you to actually smash your ice-cream cone on my face!”

He picked me up and carried me to the wide ocean.

“Leon! Wait!” I started to squirm, wanting nothing but to get away from the ocean.

He stopped and looked at him, his legs were in the water and if he lets go of me, I’ll be drenched head to toe.

I laughed and wiped a cream off his nose. He smiled and pulled me closer to him, to kiss him. Unfortunately or fortunately, a huge wave broke in, causing Leon to fall down which then caused both me and Leon himself soaked. I pushed Leon as I tried to get up; he held onto my hand and pulled me down on his lap. The tide has gone down within seconds. I wished I could stay like this, in his lap with the sound of the waves breaking in forever but I felt guilty; really, really guilty.

Golden rays hit my eyes and I was forced to shield my eyes from the sunlight.

“Sun set,” Leon breathe in my ear.

“Let’s sit under a tree and have a better look,” I got up and held out my right hand to Leon. He took my hand and led me to a tree where we watched the sun go down the horizon. It was beautiful, like a picture painted. The rays of the sun were reflected on the ocean, causing the ocean to have a magnificent golden color, like a golden paint was being dipped into a blue water color. Instead of being mixed together, the blue was being over powered by the golden. I sighed with happiness and leaned my wet head onto Leon’s shoulder and he rests his head on mine.

“Beautiful.”

“Hmm?”

“Both you and the view.” he lifted his head from mine and I looked at his wasabi eyes.

He leaned towards me, decreasing the space between us. My heart was pounding really hard at that moment; I was afraid it might break my rib cage and started running away from me, from the cage it was contained in. His mouth was inches away from mine.

Until I sneezed.

What a way to spoil the mood.

Leon looked at me with amusement in playing in his eyes.

“Let’s go back before you actually catch a cold and I would not be able to bring you out again.”

I nodded and sneezed again. We both headed to his car, hand in hand.

“That’s my Michaela!” Kendrick said with a smile.

Michaela’s baby blues burned with determination as he stood up. He could not wait until he put his arms around Red Rose but then again, it would be so unprofessional, so unlike him. He sighed as he walked out of the door before Kendrick could utter another word.