CHAPTER 1

*SPLASH*

In the lonely night of the city of Dell, puddles rippled throughout the dark alley caused by the man who is fearing for his life running in between the alleys *HUFF* *PUFF* he is almost out of breath, the two men that was chasing him, their footsteps is getting closer and closer. The man abruptly stops as he has finally reached a dead end, he is holding his knees and catching his breath.

The lone pole light shine on the man and his appearance is clear. The man is young, his hair is dark as a shadow, the color of his eyes are blue like sea, his face is what someone would say beautiful, his body is slim not very muscular, wearing a simple black shirt with a dark jacket over it and black pants. Right now , He frantically searching for a way out , any way out of the miserable torture that will inflict upon him if the men finally catches up to him. Two shadows are getting closer and closer and the dark haired man looked to the sides of the numerous abandon stores that were closed praying that one of the gates has a little opening.

Finally, the final store near the dead end with boarded up windows right beside the closed salon shop, the front was vandalized and the entrance is gated. Fortunately, the gate is opened though it is only open enough for him to slip through, he goes inside the store and shut the gates carefully.

The dark haired man sigh in relief and begins to observe his surrounding. The only light inside the store was across the interior the lights from the streets shone through the small upper windows, the sound of cars and light footsteps from the citizens can be heard inside the store but only lightly the sounds were overshadowed by the man's footsteps, dusts flew everywhere as he walked and breathe. The lights show the store's many items and it seems the store sell old artifacts and other unusual trinkets there's even a huge floor mirror with a large text above it says 'THE MIRROR OF THE FOOL' , all of the items in this place are dusty signifying this stores age and how long it has been abandoned. One of them seems to be a figure of a monster told in children stories… it looks familiar.., he could barely see the name of the figure and upon taking a closer look its says… AHM-

*STEP* *STEP* *STEP* Then the footsteps outside came to a stop

"WHERE THE FUCK IS HE!?" One man said in an out of breath tone.

"IT'S A DEAD END, HE'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE AND HE'S AROUND HERE CHECK THE SHOPS." The other man said.

"BUT MITRI ALL OF THE STORES AROUND US ARE LOCKE- "

"ONE OF THEM POSSIBLY HAS AN OPEN GATE THAT HE CAN SLIP RIGHT THROUGH!" Mitri interrupts him. "BESIDES, WE KNOW ALL OF HIS SHITTY TRICKS AND WE KNOW THIS STREETS BETTER THAN HIM, HE CANT GET AWAY NOW THAT HE'S TRAP!" Mitri says with a confident tone. "Dolva, You check the right side I'll check the left." Mitri says to his partner.

'SHIT' The dark haired man panicked, 'I need a way out of here!' He starts to run to find any door that lead to an exit out of this ancient store but this place seems endless 'How long is this store?' from the front of the it looks like any other small store around but now after frantically running from aisle after aisle. He started to think 'This place… is it a warehouse? There's no way its this long. What's going on?' He stops running and check how far he has ran.

He looks to his left saw the figure, it's the same figure he inspected moments ago.

"Wha..?" he whispers. Confused at the moment 'isn't this the… what the hell is going on here' he looks around dumfounded and saw the exact same aisle of artifacts, trinkets and even the large floor mirror.

'No…no no no…'

"MITRI! I HEARD FOOTSTEP IN HERE." Dolva shouted "HE'S INSIDE!"

'I NEED TO HIDE!' The dark haired man distressingly searching for a place to hide, aisle after aisle he then found a dusty sarcophagus way up the the third aisle. He quickly climb up on the aisle to hide in the ancient coffin.

*CREAK* *CREAK* *CREEEEEEAK* The gate store slowly opened revealing a silhouette of two large men, each one carrying a weapon. The left man is holding a crowbar and the right man holding a bat. Both of them donning simple black clothes.

The dark haired man hurriedly trying to open the sarcophagus but unfortunately, it won't budge. Feeling frustrated, in a moment of distressed he decided to hide on top of the coffin. His body feels the cold rough dusty exterior of the sarcophagus, this didn't help as his body is shaking in fear, dust flew everywhere he have to close his nose and mouth to prevent sneezing.

The lone pole light from outside reveals the store's interior in a much brighter light and as the two men started to look around the light reveals footprints on the dusty floor the two men quickly saw this and the other person who's hiding himself realizes it, his eyes widened realizing that he is indeed fucked.

"He's here" the man with the bat tells his partner.

"JAMES NOVA!" The man holding the crowbar shouts angrily while his partner turned on a small flashlight from his pocket.

"Mitri I'm gonna follow the trail, you stay here and guard the entrance." Dolva says to the angry man

"JAMES JOHANNES NOVA" Dolva shouts the name of their prey.

Meanwhile the dark haired man shivers as his name was called out, from this height he can only see two men by the entrance, the cash register and s trying his best to make himself small and hid himself from their view.

"SEVEN MONTHS OF CAT AND MOUSE, ONE HOUR TRYING TO CHASE YOU, YOU SLIPPERY BASTARD." Dolva exclaims as he hit the cash register with his crowbar causing the sound be heard loudly, his gruff and scratchy voice fits his appearance of a large burly man who looks no more smarter than an average 6th grader. But he's also intimidating as there were a large scar protruding from his forehead through his left eye all the way to the side burn facial hair of his face. One thing that James know for sure is that he is not to be underestimated.

"THE PEONES IS STANDING GUARD OUTSIDE OF THE ALLEY AND IN THE ALLEYS!" Mitri's voice echoes in the building. "IN OTHER WORDS, YOU ARE TRAPPED FINGERFUCK, SO STOP WASTING OUR TIME AND SHOW YOURSELF" Dolva continues his vulgar shouts.

James tries his best not to make a sound but the amounts of dust that got to his eyes, nose and mouth forcing him to pinch his nose and biting his lips hard, he takes his off the large man by the entrance to search for the other who's following his trail.

Mitri's light from his flashlight is visible seven aisle away from his position. 'What the hell?, did my trail really go that far?' James is more confuse than he is supposed to be 'This store… is unusual, if the building is that long we would be in the salon shop' He looks dazedly at the light bouncing far away from his position further and further… His trail probably will be cold if he goes any further 'Good more time think of a plan' As he breathe quietly and steadily so he didn't inhale much of the dusty air. Now that he took a bigger look at the place… 'it looks like a reflection…'

He shakes his head 'What the hell am I thinking!? I'm supposed to be thinking a way out right now!' He looks down the face of the sarcophagus on top him. Dusty gold cold face with dim blue eyes appearance akin to an ancient Pharaoh King, its has three eyes possibly five? One on the forehead and two other on each cheeks, the expression of the face looks like its smirking at James despair and its two eyes on the cheeks judgingly stares at James as if its telling him to look back at all the regrets and decisions he made.

He begins to feel irritated by the face and tried to wipe the smirk out of it and as expected he fails, leaving a coated dust on his hand and more dust flies off the air, he looks closer at his coated hand 'No no no! I need a plan-any plan so I can LIVE I WANT to LIVE no moping around what happen happened nothing will change' James finally divert himself to focusing on the two men. He looks at the one by the entrance 'I heard from the other peones that he's dumb and short tempered I could distract him by throwing something far enough from the entrance so I can slip past him unnoticed…hopefully' he then search for the other one that has been following his trail 'Wait, where did he g---

Suddenly a large hand grabs James by the legs and threw him down off the coffin bringing him down harshly to the stone hard dusty floor with the store's items fell down to his body as its cold stone and metal surfaces hit him like a brick.

"I GOT HIM!" Mitri shouts. Gritting his teeth in satisfaction.

James in a panic uses his left leg and tries to kick the man holding his other leg, his kick hit the man on the ribs, Mitri flinched lessened his hold of the leg, James took this opportunity and get back up ready to run away.

'I can use the store's weird interior to distract them, if I run far away from the entrance' James thought as he sprint past 3 aisle away 'And when the brute from the entrance tried to cha—

*CRASH* James collided with the man he kicked moments ago, the collision hit them hard and sent James flying forward the end of the aisle's shelf hitting his head in the process causing more objects to fall.

With his head ringing like crazy, his vision blurs and see a blob of silhouette lay down signifying the man too feel the harsh collision. James need to quickly get up before the man realizes, he raise his left leg to stand up legs shaking doing so—

*SMACK*

James screamed in agony, a crowbar smashed his leg HARD breaking the leg in the process. In front of him the brute from the entrance finally got him. James lie back down, screaming out his pain.

Dolva looks tired sweats pouring down and staining his black shirt possibly after running through out the whole store to find James and Mitri. He catches his breath then he looks down at the pained fool, reveling the noise he made feeling like it's music to Dolva's ears. He giggled.

"THIS PLACE IS HUGE." Dolva exclaims while smiling. "THANK FUCKIN GOD I HEARD THAT NOISE YOU MADE, YOU SNEAKY RAT, I RAN PAST YOU AND I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE IT." He says, never questioning the oddity of the store. In the middle of his rambling he saw Mitri down near James, he quickly helps his unconscious friend. "MITRI!" He loudly says in concern shaking his body violently. Shortly after, his friend is now slowly opening his eyes to conscious.

Meanwhile, James tries to crawl but only slowly as his left leg is busted and his right leg still shivers from the adrenaline. In the dark, he can see the zigzag outline of his broken limb, the thing move like a wet noodle and feels excruciatingly painful. He can only crawl so far, he stops in front of the large floor mirror and sits up looking back at the two men slowly getting it together, the one that fell down slowly rising up and trail of blood that comes from his leg. He has no where left to go and slowly accepted it, the torture that will come for him, the last breath that will exhaled from his lips…

Holding the pain, James starts to shakingly stand up using his right leg and gripping the aisle beside him, with steady breaths he looks at the two men with a glare. They too stands up, though he cant see their expressions but he knows, it's the face of satisfaction on finally cornering…

THE SILENT DAHLIA.

"Your reputation truly precede you Silent Dahlia" Mitri says to the dark haired man. Mitri's appearance is not very clear but James can see the dark outline holding a bat and he has a goatee facial hair, he is slightly smaller than Dolva. "One of Puta Madre's Elite peones, took seven months to find you, all of the leads we got turns into a dead end." The two men took a step forward. "It's like you ran off the face of the earth. Hell, on the first three months we thought you were a girl with a name like that and a single blurry fucking picture they gave us." Mitri clangs the aisle with his bat.

James remains silent gritting his teeth only bothered by his pained leg and head.

"We could've gotten our heads cut off if we reported that we still didn't get your body alive, and then a miracle happens." Both of them took another step forward, James back off slightly. "We s----

"SOME RANDOM FILTHY BEGGAR SNITCH YOU OUT FOR 4 DIMES." Dolva interrupts him "PFT HAHAHA " Dolva bursts out laughing out loud and Mitri joins his laughter by giggling, both of them looks at the pathetic man before them.

James still remain silent. Eyes darkened, he backs off staggering until he feel the cold glass of the floor mirror, Ignoring the pain of his leg.

"Betrayal after betrayal… I heard your wife betrayed you too." Mitri says to him, intended to incite any emotion from the man. "Ran off with the bags of money you stole from Puta Madre, A truck load of them." Still nothing. "She's lucky Puta Madre isn't interested on hunting her down." The two men getting closer and closer. "He just want you alive."

James Nova looks up the dimly lighted ceiling, The disgusting feeling of betrayal, heartbreak, distrust filled his heart and stomach, all those years of connection, friendships… and love, all of them goes down the drain, unsalvageable. Even trying to remember it hurts as it blurs his vision. All because he want to retire and live a normal life with his beloved. Even if he don't steal the money he would still be hunted. Nonetheless, all this cat and mouse chase is really exhausting him.

Letting out a huge sigh. He looks at the two men in front him with a calm expression, only his eyes shows a hint of anger, but not to them. "Can't you just kill me here and be done with it" James finally talks to the two brutes.

"The Boss wants you al—"

"You finally manage to corner and cripple The Silent Dahlia." James interrupts Mitri, angered him slightly. "I'm sure it will increase your reputation, especially this brick head here." He rudely says, head gesturing to the dumb brute beside Mitri.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?" Dolva exclaims, voice rising each word. Mitri raise his hand in front of Dolva, to stop him.

"Really?" James says, tilting his face, ignoring the man. "It took you guys seven months to find me?" his head now gesturing to Mitri. "THE POLICE WOULD HAVE CAUGHT ME IN THREE MONTHS! I was literally hiding in a building near your hideout and then all of you goes and fuck off to the other side of the country to find me, it makes laugh so hard I forgot my wife left me!" James tauntingly says but the last words bit his tongue. Fortunately, both of the men's anger is slowly erupting and the tension is rising.

"And yet you got outed by a homeless person" Mitri replies trying to calm down.

James laughs "I told the beggar to snitch on me for 5 Dimes because I was really fucking bored" it's not true, he didn't really told the beggar to do that for 5 Dimes, it really was a coincidence that he saw him. But the two men bought the lie and glared at him furiously. "What a joke the peones has now become" he now looks at the big man "A big man who acts all tough no brains to compensate, so you need someone to hold your big boy hand…"

"like a dog." He smiled

Tension broke as Dolva tries to lunge at James in anger crowbar ready to strike his face and kill but Mitri quickly tries to stop him by holding him down with stretch arms and gripping Dolva's hand that was holding the crowbar. "CALM DOWN!" Mitri exclaims to Dolva as he struggles with the big brute. "You shit! I know what you're trying to do!" He says to the dark haired man.

"IM GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU! IM NOT A FUCKING DOG!" Dolva shouts in anger and frustration, his raging expression can be seen in the dark. He continued his foul shouts, some spits from him lands on James face but his mocking expression towards him lay still.

Mitri thinks that Silent Dahlia would want him and Dolva fight unintentionally and letting their target escape. Except, it's the opposite. James leaned back and feel the cold glass mirror, closed his eyes but only for a moment.

James really wasn't trying to escape, he really do want to die. After all, he have nothing, all of the reasons to live for were all gone, no one to save him or trust him and even if he escaped he will still be hunted until the end, alone for the rest of his life. In the end, he is a worthless pawn, easily replaceable.

"I will always be with you" Her voice resurfaces in his ears

He winced at the memory. What was he thinking, he can never move on, maybe this is why he wants to die. He was afraid then but accepted it now. Opening his eyes, and looked the two men, he decided to add fuel to the fire.

"Heh" James smirks at Dolva. "Look at you, you look and act like a dog being leashed from his master" This increased more profanities from Dolva towards him and the brute's strength inreases starting to push away his one and only friend forcefully and harshly. James watched the two men fight and struggle, their silhouette fights back or forth of almost touching him and receding further away from. He smiles "All bark no bite." The silhouette comes closer to him but before he can taunt any further.

*WHACK*

The butt of a baseball bat hit him in the face causing him to fall crashing into the mirror. The glass mirror broke as well the structure holding it. His head hurts, his ears ringing to insanity, mouth a gaped as his eyes struggling to stay open.

And then, he sees black.