"You dare do this to me?! Do you know who you are dealing with? The Krabers do not take humiliation lightly!"
Caesar slapped him again. He couldn't care less who had Berk's back. They could be the strongest, wealthiest, and most influential group in the world, and Caesar would still slap anyone he wanted.
"Stop doing that! When I get back, We will bring hellfire upon this place and kill you myself!"
Caesar titled his head.
"Who said you'll get out of this alive?"
Berk was stunned in silence. His mouth opened and closed as if he didn't think that this threat would be disregarded like that. Everyone in this line of business cowered anytime he dropped the name 'The Krabers'.
"Do you know who we are? We are the single-most largest and strongest underground organization in this town. Our reach extends to towns and cities others would only hope of stepping foot in!"
Of course, Caesar knew who the Krabers were. In terms of goals, they were one of the biggest obstacles he had to face if he wanted complete control of this town.
Someday or another, he would have to compete with them toe to toe on the town's big stage, but right now, he neither had the strength nor resources to fight them head on.
But that didn't mean he was afraid of them.
Caesar looked back at Rola, who was still recovering from that situation. She tried hard to brush it off, but her hands were still clearly shivering no matter how hard she hid it.
"I'll give you a chance. Kill him."
Rola and Berk were both stunned at Caesar's suggestion. They both thought the worst thing he would do was humiliation; they didn't think he would go this far. There was a fine line that once someone crossed, one could never turn back from.
Rola probably knew more about the Krabers than Caesar, so she knew how menacing an organization they were. They controlled mostly 60% of the production and trade of Joy.
They made so much money off of that business that they have bought most of the government officials and police force into their own pockets.
But the civilians had no idea about the illegal dealings of the Krabers. They only knew them as the company that produced and sold anything from candy to cement.
They were completely legal, in document form. Their day company, the Kraber Manufacturing company, laundered all of their illegal money into clean and fresh money.
With all that money in their pockets, they were free to purchase as much Miracle Drug as they wanted. They even had a martial arts school that secretly trains their Miracled so they could fight for the company's interest.
Now, Caesar wanted to kill a member of this organization. Was he crazy?
"This is your only chance, Rola. I'm giving you the offer of a lifetime. There's no downsides to this."
Rola looked at Caesar's devious smile. She couldn't tell if he was serious or just toying with her emotions just because he liked it.
Even though she hated Berk enough to cripple him, she didn't think she could pierce a person's heart with a knife with her own hands. This would change her forever.
"Come on. This guy more than deserves death. He is scum of the scum, destroying people's lives just for fun. This isn't murder, but justice."
Caesar kept tempting her, but Rola couldn't muster up the courage to do it. She couldn't sully this orphanage with blood; this is where she grew up. She won't do it. Especially when there's children watching.
"I don't–"
"You know what, let's change locations," Caesar said, interrupting Berk.
Without waiting for anyone, Caesar borrowed a scarf from a kid and tied Berk's hands behind his back. Then, he dragged him out of the orphanage.
Rola looked up at the sky as she followed Caesar out of the orphanage. The sky was dark, with gray clouds covering the heavens. It looked like it would rain at any second.
She saw Caesar head to the back of the orphanage. She knew where he was going. He was heading towards a land where tombstones and mausoleums covered the land. He was going to the cemetery.
This place was dreadful already with the souls of the damned wandering around, but it became even more dreary with the dark clouds setting a dark tone as they entered.
CRACK
Bones were crushed under Caesar's feet as he walked into the legs of a skeleton hidden under a thin layer of soil. Some families had no money to pay for coffins, so all they could do was dig a few feet underground and lay the deceased there. After rainfall and erosion, some skeletons surfaced over the ground.
Caesar continued dragging Berk until he found an empty patch of soil in the ground. This was the end of the cemetery with the last tombstone located a few meters away from them.
He threw Berk into the earth, dirtying his face and his clothes with soil.
"You'll regret this!" Berk snarled.
Rola looked at Berk sitting in a patch of cemetery soil. There was no one around. No one would see it even if she succumbed to her emotions and killed Berk.
Caesar positioned himself behind Rola, whispering temptations in her ear like a devil.
"If you let him go now, he will come back and kill everyone here."
Caesar took out a knife behind his back and subtly placed it in Rola's hands.
"Will you ever forgive yourself if your family gets killed because you backed out in the most critical moment?"
Rola's hands trembled as she held the knife.
"This isn't like Zaturn. The Capo gang could never touch the church, so they couldn't touch the orphanage even if they wanted to."
Caesar guided the knife in Rola's hands to point straight at Berk's heart.
"The Krabers are more influential. They're stronger and they're more willing to rebel. They could get away with killing everyone in the orphanage by paying off the priests to look away."
Rola's eyes started to waver. Caesar's words were becoming more and more reasonable.
"Don't do this! The Kraber family will find out who killed me! You fuckers, you shits, you…"
Berk started to shout profanities as he saw the knife in Rola's hands getting closer and closer to his heart. At this point, Caesar's hands were nowhere near the knife; this was all Rola's doing.
Rain started to fall, the soil became mud, and Rola's face became wet with drops of rainwater concealing her true emotions. This was too much pressure on a girl like her.
Rola's hands trembled as she held the knife with all of her strength. She took a step and pointed the trembling knife at Berk.
Terrified, Berk started to crawl backwards. His eyes widened with fear as he realized he had backed up into a corner. He had nowhere to escape as the knife neared his heart.
Rola pierced the knife into Berk's chest, but she couldn't muster up strength to push through the skin. She stopped as she hit his rib.
"AAHH!"
The sensation of flesh and bone, the blood staining Berk's shirt, coupled with the intense scream almost made Rola puke. But she held it in. She only needed a small push and she would hit his heart.
She had to kill him now. She had to. Or else her family would pay the price.
Theresa, Mitre, Ybarra, and everyone else's freedom and life depended on her breaking her moral code. Was the life of innocent children worth more than her conscience?
The rain wet her fingers, loosening her grip on the knife's handle. She needed to kill him now. She can't lose her grip; she didn't have enough mental strength to pick it back up.
She had to kill him now.
Lighting followed by an intense thunder rumbled in the sky. A sliver of light flashed on the blade's handle. Rola saw her own handwriting chiseled on the handle. She carved this when she was little, a small five-pointed star.
'Always be a shining light,'
Theresa's words echoed in her mind. What was she doing? Theresa would never hurt a person even if they had done her wrong. She was a shining beacon of goodness.
And with that, Rola's grip loosened and the knife fell into the dirt. She couldn't do it.
"HA! I knew you couldn't do it. You kids are a bunch of naive kids who haven't seen the cruelty of the word."
Berk felt a huge relief. He was scared for a second that she would go through with it, but he forgot he was dealing with children. They were nothing but sharp mouths with no actions.
"But you are fortunate. If you had killed me, the Krabers would have found out through their Miracled."
Berk continued on.
"Let me give you advice, Caesar. Don't anger the Krabers. You are nothing compared–"
He didn't even finish his sentence as he felt an intense and sharp pain in his chest. He looked down and saw his shirt flooded with red, with a thin crevice looking down his heart.
He looked up and saw Caesar holding the bloodied knife, with his eyes coldly looking down at him. There was no hesitation, no wait, and no remorse as he split Berk's heart in half.
The last thing Berk saw as he fell down was the sight of light hitting Caesar's face as lightning passed by. He swore he saw the devil.