At the hospital's security room, the 3 agents watched the footage showing the outside of the back door of the hospital's morgue.
.. A fit young man with wet messy hair barged outta the morgue and slipped away under the noses of the nurse and the other employees. He kept walking across a sub-street in his Johnny gown without getting his face caught on any of the CCTVs in the street either.
John asked, "where does that street lead to?"
Lucas said "to the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir"
The 3 men followed the trail of his digital footprints from the CCTVs in the street to the end of the marine pavement where they stopped as the trail ended.
Lucas looked right and left then watched both of his new team members glaring at the other side of the reservoir. He said "No way, no man can take it swimming in this cold water at such an hour"
John said "No sane man could, but that man would"
"He is gone now but do you really think it's him!"
John turned to Lucas with noxious eyes "Believe me, he is the real thing, The Goblin"
On the other side of the reservoir, teetered a half-naked shivering man with frostbit numb-limbs, out of the water. He crawled on the rough asphalt to a back bag on a moto near the shore... he barely pulled a syringe out of the bag with his trembling hands but before he could shot in his vein, he fainted.
(("Mom, I'm back. Is dad home?" The young Rai knocked on the door but it opened suddenly on a horrendous sight... his slaughtered mother lying on the floor, beside her, his head-shot father dead on the ground and his little sister girl sleeping in her blood... all in the living room.
"Fa..ther..__ Gyaaah" Out of blue, a strange demon mask pulled the startled kid, -still uncomprehending the figureless situation before his young innocent eyes- instantly diving into the darkness, kidnaping him away, carving in his mind the last sight of his home, is the smoking ashes rising from his burning house))
"Aarrrgghhh" roared the lone wolf at the piercing of the syringe through his ribs
Rai screamed "like hell" feeling the strange shot like liquid fire flowing in his veins.
He sat breathing like howling with a dead glare at the woman who snatched him back from the dead.
She stood emotionlessly and threw the back bag disgustedly at him "the money you asked is in your room"
"lady Sakura…" Laughed the man lunatic guffaws, pulling out large blue jacket & dry black jeans then with semi-closed snake eyes, he growled "Tell the old man. I kill him tonight"
-Sakura, a tall, slender woman with shoulder-length black hair. Dark single lid eyes with wide pupils, wearing dark coloured clothes (often black or dark purple) made of leather, latex pants. She is also fond of high heels, and they do not seem to affect the way she walks or her speed-
That ruthless cold-hearted woman walked away unaffected yet harbouring heavy loath and hatred towards the youngster. She walked deep inside Chinatown till she arrived at a strange abandoned old hotel just to the outsiders but as she furled to the backdoor, she put her hand on a fingerprint scanner and had her eye swept by another scanner hidden in the wall. She entered to a much high-tech place... composed of 4 floors underground, she walked to the deepest one and did the same, a heavy metal-rods door opened vertically then another 12 cm thick missiles-proof glass door opened horizontally.
She stepped in to see a bald old man sitting on a wheelchair breathing by the help of various machines adjusted beside him. The old man turned his scarred mutilated face to her.
The woman shouted "I won't do this anymore... this is the 3rd time I resurrect him in 2 months. This kind of madness should be erased for good"
The man just raised his hand and the woman ran to back him up to his bed with difficulty and in slow motion.
"Just give me the order, you know I can take this upon my shoulders. I can finish them all. We don't need him, At least I don't. You have no idea what he did on the last mission... He gave the gun to a 9 years old girl offering her to shoot the slave trader who abused her"
"Even in his madness, there is passion for the victims that need closure to their suffering"
"I didn't sign for this. I kill people not babysitting some whack-job trying to be a saint"
"What saint, Sakura? You sent him on his first mission to the top of a mountain to shoot down runaways. What did you expect would come down? A demon... and that's what I need"
Two nights later, at the front gate… of the gruesome corrupted -to the teeth- city, that most of Manhattan habitants wouldn't dare to step near its edges. Stood our young lead watching the change of the roads and breezing the ill atmosphere announcing the entrance of Chinatown.
Claire stood there arguing in her phone "Please Dinah, I won't get hurt"
"No, Claire. Listen to me, you've no idea what is it like in there, people get killed in this town like everyday, no cop dares to walk in even in day light"
"I know that's why I have to see it with my eyes, I have to do this for my project beside Maggie said she had friends here. I'll be safe"
"Oh, that's what is about. Claire, that girl will get you hurt. I don't want you to go through something you'd regret"
"I'll be safe, I'll have dinner at some stand then capture some photos and leave... okay bye"
"Claire. Wait... at least call your dad" sighed Dinah as the rushing girl already hung up dived into the city of madness.
Claire walked excitedly on her toes, with bulging eyes, she kept watching what proved the city to be the worst of them all and feared by many. By every street, she thought that people are evil and that's the limit of their carnage and nothing would faze her any further. However, by passing the next one, all her beliefs and thoughts were betrayed and the town proved to her that the evils of men really never end and the sins of humans are infinite for what they can do to others without a single shred of humanity.
She saw mugging, theft, murdering, kidnapping, rapping, slaughter, raiding, burning, torturing, drug dealing… all of these and more and so visibly that no one can stand in their ways. She promised herself that no matter what she sees, she would never interfere but in this town all what it takes is one look and desire.
A Group of 5 men glimpsed the lone pretty brown-head staring at them while they were beating some man to death after mugging him. She instantly ran but to where. She got trapped in a dim-light closed alley. They cornered her.
"Come here, pretty girl. We won't bite" approached her one of the thugs but she instinctively waved her bag in his face.
Laughed his friends "Oh, she is a wild one"
Stood the man furiously but his eyes smiled devilishly "I like them wild"
"Boys, hold her down" the men pinned the trembling girl down. She struggled but for no gain, she screamed, but for no uses. One on each limb and their boss standing up. He pulled out a short sharp Swiss knife and leant to her "Now, don't move, I don't want to scar this pretty__" Terror was slowly creeping up to her mind and she was still delusional of her situation, feeling so surreal that the whole event happened so quickly and her calm life turned drastic in a single moment.
-BAAAM-
Out of blue, a man landed from above on the thug pinning her right arm. The other thugs freaked back shouting "Who. Where did you come from?"
"It doesn't matter, you play hero, your role ends now"
The strange fellow pulled out two short blades from under his hooded shirt silently. The blades glittered in the depth of the darkness of the alleyway. One of them stumbled back in fear, stuttering "YOU??"
"What are you talking about, bastard?" their gang leader shouted.
"No, I don't want to die" the frightened fellow ran like hell as a beast was preying on him endlessly, they turned to him but they soon froze in position as they saw him fell to his doom with a short blade stuck in his back.
It didn't pass a second until the boss turned on a scream of another man on his left side crumbling in blood and clenching down on his knees while having the other blade piercing his chest.
One man jumped to the poor girl who was still in daze uncomprehending the devil before them. The man held her up shielding himself by her while the boss kept shouting "come out, you creep fuck. Don't hide like a coward. You bastard. Do you think, I believe in those kid stories? They used your name only to scare children but we... the Triads, we brought order to this city" the man kept turning in circles, watching over his six, till he heard his underling shouts "Behind you" The man turned to have his Swiss knife rapidly tackled and pierced through his neck, held by the man hiding under his hoodie and behind his scarf.
The man under his hoodie hiding his face behind his scarf looked to the last one of them. The man instantly threw the girl and knelt down begging for forgiveness "please, I know who you are. I swear, I didn't touch her. Please let me go __ Ahghagh"
The young gangster was dragged up from his neck suffocating and trembling. The hooded man leaned to his ear "I'm not here for her... I'm here for you. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, Evil for evil. __" -pump-
Before he could finish him, pumped the scared girl into her saviour allowing the man to escape.
The man looked to her and was about to attack but he instantly knew her...
He knew she wasn't from Chinatown "you bitch... outta my way" he grunted menacingly. The girl raised her finger while kneeling down taking her breath First "stop killing... stop it"
"… Don't be misled. I wasn't saving you. What a naive girl like you doing here!"
"I am a researcher; I'm working on a project about__"
"get lost & don't ever come back. You are lucky, you caught me in a good mood otherwise, you would be joining them," he swayed his eyes towards the corpses aside, "you really though they would let you go after they are done with you... they'd have shipped you away or killed you. You are from the outside. You can't abide our rules" He turned but he felt a grasp on his sleeve. "What!" he snarled at her face.
With a sheepish smile she answered "... I don't know the way out"
The man rolled his eyes vexed and with a long sigh he said "Take this street then left and left again" then he turned to leave, but "Please" she grabbed him "I get lost easily"
He looked strangely towards her. At the end, he walked her across the streets bearing with all her questions and all her chattering "I'm doing a grade project about the crime life in Chinatown, you know the Manhattan Chinatown in New York city contains the largest Chinese population. While the Chinatown in San Francisco is one of the oldest in the country... I work with my friends about why the crime rate is in a gradual increase and no one can stop this mess... I study criminology aside from law of course_"
"We're here, now get the hell outta my town"
"What is your name? I'm Claire"
Rai stopped as the name rang in his head for a second but faded the next one.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"I'm going to do what I do... Hunting the fucker who ran" he bluntly stated his business and vanished after a corner.
She was about to follow him but her phone rang "Hello, Yes Dinah. I'm fine. I'm safe really.... you did what! Damn it, Dinah, I gotta go... he is here" Claire hung up as the red & blue light sirens of NYPD cars had come to the edges of the town and of a police car stepped out agent John, who looked furiously annoyed. "Claire" he called roughly.
She walked inside the car silently like a grumpy grounded teenage girl.