January 5

City of Jagren

Its way past mid-night, and the whole city is as soundless as a cemetery.

All the lights from the neighboring buildings are cut off, curtains closed.

That's how its supposed to be at midnight, right?

Wrong...

Although it seems like the whole city is sleeping, nobody is.

Nor is Gabrielle, Gabi in short.

This silence seems like a torture, the calm before the storm.

Gabi has triple checked all the door locks, even the balcony door and the windows, pulled the curtains, turned all the lights off.

But still feeling that she didn't secure her apartment enough.

Lying in the bed staring at the wall, Gabi felt she should give the balcony door another check if it's locked or not..

She got up and went to the living room first.

Its not a living room actually, rather this room and her bedroom was the same room when she first came here but it was quite big. So she decided to put a partition and make it 2 rooms.

There's a couch in this room, a small coffee table, a TV set, and a painting on the wall which Gabi drew 3 years ago and decided to hang it on the wall.

The couch is cozy. Its also her favourite spot in this room. Often she just sits there reading a book, watching TV or scrolling through her phone for who knows how long. Sometimes she just falls asleep there.

Right now, the couch has today's newspaper folded on top of it.

Gabi stopped on her way, the blocked letters of the newspaper headline caught her attention,

"AXE GANG MEMBER MURDERED"

She picked it up and started reading that news again, for the fifth time.

Death of a gang member might not be important enough to make the headlines at any other normal cities.

But this is Jagren.

A city ran by the Mafia.

There are no rules for gangs in this city, except for the gang rules.

There are no words more important than that of the Gang lords.

Everybody know who controls the cops, or the mayor in this city.

No matter how much the mayor or the police try to deny it, everybody knows they're corrupted.

The Mafia runs everything here.

Everything.

From local bars, strip clubs, brothels to the police, the city council, mayor's office.

EVERYTHING...

No business runs without the direct supervision of the mafia.

No building gets built without their consent.

Nobody enters or leaves this city without them noticing.

And everyone who lives in this sin city either grows up to be a part of the gangs, or fear them for the rest of their lives.

Everyone fears them, from cops to the mayor, rich to poor, everyone.

And nobody bothers them in anyway even if it kills them.

The one gang that rules this city like Kings, the "Falcon gang", started off with just a few local bandits 3 decades ago, this gang has spread its wings outreaching this city of Jagren to a few other neighboring cities.

The gang leader, Don Louis and his eldest son Samuel, "big Sam" as people call him, are the most feared people in this region, maybe even the whole country.

Under their command this gang has grown into something so invincible nobody dared to rise up against them.

Until last year...

There have been another gang getting a lot press attention since last year, the "AXE Gang".

Nobody knows much about this new gang except the fact that they gained attention since they formed new bars, nightclubs, restaurants, shops on the Falcon gang's area.

It's the first time in years that another group of goons stood up against the Falcons. . . as if they don't care!

Since the initialization of this formidable act, there have been many gang fights between these two leaving many to die.

The general population, that is, people not related to any gangs are the ones who suffered the most. Their houses have been blown up, shops ruined, kids don't go to school for months and many have died.

They die either because they get caught up in the gang war, or they're suspected to be member of the Axe Gang.

Most of these killings are unannounced by the press.

But everybody just knows...

Since the cops favour the Falcon's, each and most of the members of the Axe Gang are on the most wanted list.

Everyone thought this will end very soon, cause the Axe Gang as people's guessed, mostly initiated their attacks using small axes they keep with themselves.

They couldn't have been more wrong, when they found out that this seemingly tiny excuse of a gang turned out to consist of some deadliest assassins in this city's history.

Thus, the situation went from bad to far worse.

And nobody knew that it was just the beginning.

Axe gang then killed 4 of the Falcon's high ranking members in one month.

Before the Falcon's could hit back, they faced the biggest defeat in their history in Eden.

Eden is a place on the North Eastern side of the city.

It's like a bridge between Jagren and the neighboring city called Lymington, the current HQ of the Falcon gang.

Gabi doesn't know much about what happened in Eden.

There's no news about it on TV, no article on the newspaper and somehow nobody Gabi knows of know about what happened.

It's pretty weird considering news spread like wind in here.

Anyway, defeat struck the Falcon's so hard, that they have to give up Eden.

At one point, the leader of the Falcon's, Don Louis was forced to make a peace treaty between them and the Axe gang.

Because without Eden, operations in Jagren will turn out to be almost impossible since they have to  get in the city through the jungle in south east of the city, or the tall as fuck mountains on the North West.

The police dropped charges on the Axe Gang leaders.

But how long will this peace last?

As long as the boastful Falcon crime family can keep their hands to themselves, which obviously isn't that long.

The tale took a new turn.

The leader of the Axe gang, Lord of the Axe Robert Jones' nephew has been missing.

This will take any sane citizen of Jagren to figure out that he has been kidnapped for extortion.

Or maybe they will squeeze out some information before killing him off.

Two of his personal bodyguards were murdered near a bar they own.

Gabi's neighbour Mrs. Boris, who by the way is very interested in the new gang,  believes that he is already dead by now.

If that's not enough to start a war then what is?

The Axe gang kingpin directly said if his nephew isn't back within midnight, it will mean war.

Its one o'clock now, the last time Gabi checked the TV there is still no news.

Gabi puts the paper down.

Maybe I'm worrying too much, she thought.

Maybe the gang war won't be that violent that it might somehow end up hurting her.

Because there's no way she is going to get involved.

Right?

But what if something happens? What if?

The falcon gang has a reputation of blowing things up without second thought.

And nobody knows what the strategy of Axe gang might be, since they became well known for their cunning secrecy.

Moving a very little portion of the curtain, Gabi looked outside the window.

The streets are quiet.

So are the houses.

These empty quiet streets create a fearsome silence.

This silence is deadly, Gabi fears.

If fear has an aura, this is it.

After a few moments a lonely man is seen walking in the middle of the street.

That takes balls.

"Walking through the valley of death, I fear no evil", which song was it again? She forgot.

He's walking straight towards her building.

He finally got in their lobby, out of Gabi's sight.

Who might this be? A neighbor? Or a visitor? No way that's a visitor.

Not at this hour.

Gabi finally gave the door to the balcony a check. Closed.

Time to remove all the worries and fears.

Just as she just sat down on bed, the door just knocked.

A shiver went down Gabi's spine.

Did she mishear?

Nope.

There was another knock in the door.

She definitely didn't mishear this time.

Who is here at this hour?

Mrs Boris?

Or any others?

Not likely.

Nobody is supposed to visit her.

Not now, not ever.

She lives without her family.

She doesn't have one, except her father.

And he is the last man on earth to her doors, Gabi made sure of that.

Then who is it?

Is it the stranger she just saw in the street?

The one with a lot of balls?

What does that stranger want with me? Fear himself knocked at her door

Her heart started pounding fast...

She slowly took a frying pan from the kitchen and walked towards the main door.

Gabi:- Who's there?

Stranger:- Is Gabrielle White home?

Says a manly voice.

Gabi's stunned, that's her full name.

How does this guy know her full name?

Gabi:- How do you know my name?

Stranger:- From Bailey's.

Further shock for Gabi, that's where she works!

Gabi:- What do you want?

Stranger :- I have a message for you.

Gabi:- Right now? Seriously!

Stranger :- Open the door please.

Gabi:- If you want to give a message, say it from there. I'm not opening the door.

A short pause.

Nobody said nothing for a while...

Stranger:- It's from your father.

Gabi further puzzled, what message does dad have?

Why so serious that it needs to be delivered at this hour?

It's moments like this when Gabi wishes she had a peephole.

She slightly opened the door and took a peek at the stranger outside.

A tall, shady guy with black high-collared overcoat.

Damn. . . Gabi thought.

If it wasn't a situation like this, she would've thought he was quite handsome.

Stranger:- Hi.

Gabi:- Hello, who are you?

Stranger:- My name is Ryan. I'm here to escorts you, you need to come with me.

Gabi:- What?! Why should I go with you? I don't even know you?

Ryan:- Listen, miss Gabrielle. Now isn't the time to argue, just come with me.

Gabi:- No! I'm not going I'm gonna stay right here. You can tell my dad to stay the fuck away from my life. Bye!

She was about to slam the door close but this Ryan guy is way to strong to let that happen.

He pushed Gabi away from the doorway and got in the apartment.

Gabi was about to scream but he was fast enough to grab her mouth.

When she tried to beat him with his pan, this dude just  twisted her wrist which caused her to let go on the pan.

She pushed him away and screamed on the top of her lungs.

She started running towards her room, went inside and locked the doors.

Without wasting another second, she took her phone and dialed 911

The phone didn't even start ringing, before there was a big sound in the door.

WHAM!

Gabi watched in horror as an axe almost tore half of her door.

She screamed.

Someone picks the call up soon.

The phone starting ringing.

WHAM!

Another blow on the door.

Just two blows from an axe  and the door is almost destroyed.

WHAM!

Final blow on the door.

With a kick, the door flew open while the lock is still on its place.

Gabi felt like she is in a live horror movie.

Whoever this guy is, he isn't sent from her father, she understood that much.

If he was, he wasn't supposed to do that.

This stranger named Ryan stepped inside the room, with an axe in his hand.

There isn't any place for Gabi to escape.

The phone is still ringing.

Ryan looked at Gabi and stood still. And said,

Ryan:- Drop the call, they can't help you.

He took his right wrist and held it towards Gabi to  show her something.

She looked in horror, as she saw a medieval battle axe tattood there,

Identification of an axe gang member!

Someone finally picked her  call...

Operator:- 911 what's your emergency?

Gabi knows, Ryan is right.

In this city, no human can help her.

Not from a gang member.

Tears started falling from her eye as she sat there hopeless and looked at that tattoo.

Her phone fell down from her hands to the floor.

The operator hears the thud noise the phone made while falling and starts yelling,

"What happened?!

Hello?

Anybody there?

Is everything okay? Hellooo...."