[An YEAR AGO]
[IN A DISTANT NAMELESS ABANDONED CITY]
A masked stranger, carrying a thin, tethered paper, stepped into the isolated, dead town located near the sea, which was left abandoned by its people after a catastrophic hurricane. Since there was no intention of reviving the town and no one considered it habitable, it was taken as one of the 'Event' destinations that come under the jurisdictions of the Underworld and was used to carry out important assassinations and to dispose of corpses.
"The Undertaker. Whisper Of Death. Ghost Whisperer The New-Age Grim Reaper... Another warrior with thousand names. But all those are man-made instead of being given. An antithesis to the Underworld and its system. The weapon who could also bring us closer to the World Domination..." mumbled the Masked Man as he walked through the continuously whirling wind of sand, blowing against his face and watering his eyes.
He reminisced the words of his QUEEN, Catherine, which were fed to his ears and the grandeur of the plan she schemed, which were drilled into his eyes. But what terrified him was her intention to use the 'Ghost Whisperer' - The one-man army functioning against the entire System Of the underworld and their assassination clans system.
'Don't Try To See Him. If He Is Behind You, Don't Turn Back. If He Is Above You, Don't Lift Your Head... Relay Him The Orders. And Leave.'
The words from Catherine whirled around his mind and echoed into his ears. Keeping all the force-fed information in his mind, the lone stranger strolled, and crossed multiple deranged, demolished buildings, searching for a presence. He even called out for the Ghost Whisperer out of desperation. But he couldn't find the cursed legend even after spending months in the distant city with no source of water or food.
And just as he was about to lose hope, his super-trained senses picked up a strange and shuddering presence. In the pitch-dark night, the masked stranger's lamp lent no help to him. With a flinch, the lamp dimmed down and died, leaving the masked stranger to rely on his senses and his assassin instincts.
But little did he know that none was going to help him that night.
"SO, WHAT DOES THE BITCH WANT NOW?" a roaring, grisly voice, heard right next to the masked man's ears. He could feel his bones shuddering and his instincts screamed at him to run for his life.
And that was the night Catherine and her partner Lance, through their men, finally found the legendary traitor of the 'Underworld', 'The Ghost Whisperer'.
--
[PRESENT -]
Soon after their chit-chats, Yohan requested a ride and Diana immediately accepted it. Both of them jetted off, while Sana and Ramika were left under the care of Anya.
Though she obediently accepted it, her hands and feet still trembled, thinking about what was unfolding in front of her.
'Miss Diana and the King Of Assassins, Yohan in the same space... ALONE?? GOSH!' she freaked out internally while the car vroomed away at full speed.
--
Minutes passed, but no word was spoken.
The atmosphere was silent as a vacuum and both Diana and Yohan remained tight-lipped, pretending to be chill and casual. Despite Diana's usual air of superiority, being alone in the car with Yohan did flutter some unwanted feathers inside Diana. She found herself breathing heavily and taking numerous deep breaths, all the while grappling to maintain an upright posture.
Yohan caught this with his side eye and awkwardly sighed, feeling bothered.
"Am I getting on your nerves?" he asked, with a concerned tone. Diana looked puzzled. She felt mildly angered and mildly saddened.
"What? Why—Why would you ask that? Why would I—"
"My presence always irked you, right? Like I'm... I'm an inferior being to you... A royal like you, probably wouldn't want to share space with me... If I disgust you or something, I can drop off and take a taxi—"
"YES! YOU DISGUST ME!" Diana coldly said, interrupting Yohan's self-pitying rant. She kept her face turned away and snapped her fingers at the driver to drive fast.
"Reach the location quick, Abraham... I don't want to share the space with this filth any longer... I just want to use him and dispose of him. ISN'T THAT RIGHT, YOHAN?"
Hearing from Diana and her weirdly upset tone, Yohan understood nothing, so he nodded for the sake of it and returned to gazing out of the window; while Diana sulked for reasons best known to her.
Another round of minutes passed and Diana couldn't hold it any longer. Her lips twitched to speak and her eyes fluttered towards Yohan; which made Yohan even more uncomfortable.
"Just say it..."
"I have to show you certain things, which... I don't mind sharing it with you."
Yohan looked up and down, confused. And seeing Diana, in a conflicting mood as well, he reached out his hand.
"Give it to me..."
Seeing Yohan volunteering, a smile appeared on Diana's face and with her pouted face, she placed the cherry-picked files she gathered, on his hands.
"All of these were reports of unauthorized assassinations... which means, they were green-lit and had nothing to do with the Underworld."
"That's a good thing, right? It doesn't have anything to do with the Underworld—"
"Go through the documents, first!" Diana with a strong tone, said, looking deep into Yohan's eyes, unnerving him.
Receiving the file, Yohan stumbled upon the number of photographs pinned in the folders and it immediately intrigued him. He ran his hands through the murdered victims' photos and buried every detail in his eyes, instinctively.
Seeing Yohan silently going through the photos, Diana tried to summarize them with words.
"No signs of struggle. The victims were... smiling. Which means—"
"Whoever killed them, they killed them while they were smiling. Cause, a smile is a 'lively' emotion. Only living humans are capable of that. So whoever carrying these assassinations, murders are capable of making the victim smile... Or let's say the victim was simply smiling while her throat was getting slit."
Said Yohan, as he pressed his finger hard on one photograph of a naked woman smiling ear to ear with her throat slit and lying in a pool of blood.
"Is the human world looking into it, too?" asked Yohan as he shuffled the photos and started forming a pattern in his mind, reading into similar details.
"Yes. The issue is too big for the human world to turn a blind eye. The major reason, why the 'Elders' are choking my throat to resolve this."
"See... There are totally two sets of patterns here. One has the victims smiling... The other has severe heads with the back of the skull crushed open and the brains were replaced with dirt."
"Okay... So? I know both are the same—"
"No! The ones with the victims merely smiling has a separate connection and the ones with missing or damaged brains have a separate one."
Though Yohan doesn't feel the same way, Diana cherished every second of the discussion, treasuring the moment of her sharing some 'raw' conversations with him. She held back the blossoming smiles and kept a straight face as hard as possible. Even after repeatedly affirming her dislike for him throughout the five years, her infatuation remained unchanged; an unhealthy obsession she couldn't shake off.
"Can I say something, Yohan?" her lips moved on their own and asked in a low, auto-piloted voice.
Yohan nodded and Diana continued, "Why do you always look hot when you are talking about murders?"
A grave silence hit the roof, and Yohan turned towards her, horrified and panting.
"Huh?"