Adele reloaded his handgun, while he took a deep breath to calm his burning nerves. It was a little more difficult considering the wound on his back that was spurting fresh blood continuously while steadily soaking his shirt. It was becoming more and more difficult for him to hold on but he held on,
'Just one more… '
With this comforting thought he opened his eyes. He casually rolled up his cuff and found a tattoo on his wrist still visible though it was considerably faded now. But it was enough for this last leg of operation tonight, he decided.
Adele burst into the nightclub with a stomp over the door, breaking in through the backway of the building. He kept his eyes deliberately unfocused as he walked through the throng of intoxicated crowd of partying young adults. Something on his chest glowed dimly under his shirt, which helped his eyes remain dazed and unfocused.
He moved quickly knowing that it was a sticky situation to operate so blatantly in front of civilians, all the while keeping his gun low and hidden near his pocket. Overcoming the walls of dancing bodies in disco lights while enduring the stench of numerous body perfumes melting together, he finally spotted the red lit room with a sign 'VIP' on its closed door.
'No security in sight' thought Adele as he dashed towards the room and without any delay opened the door and walked in. He didn't even wait to see what and who exactly was inside the room, as he raised his hand and began to fire blindly.
Bang!... Bang!...
Bang!... Bang!...
Bang!... Bang!...
'Click.. Click.. '
Adele finally managed to swim back to clear reality when he felt his gun clicking 'blank' shots. His unfocused eyes focused back like a man waking up from a deep sleep. At the same time, the dim glow under his shirt subsided as the eclipse tattoo on his chest dimmed completely, and only then he looked at his gun and then lifted his head to see the scenery in front of him.
Three dead bodies were lying on the sofa, fortunately none of them were humans. Though he was ready for collateral damage, at least this time it was just the targets…alone without any normal humans in the mix.
'Mission complete' he thought as he rubbed his wrist to soothe the familiar stinging pain on his wrist, as his single eye tattoo faded into nothingness upon finishing all of its uses.
"Is that all? Huh…I am feeling tired now."
While Adele was already thinking of whom to call to clean up these dead bodies, a presence materialized behind him from the darkness. Unfortunately, he was fresh out of juice and also was, finishing his hunt just now - completely unguarded.
"Yes, of course.This will be enough…Adele."
With that… before he could even feel goosebumps rising over his body completely, a sharp pain originated from his chest. He looked down and saw a nondescript dagger coming out of his chest that had pierced his heart from back. He found his life vanishing through that dagger and then darkness claimed him. He remembered the warning he had seen this morning and chuckled in his mind.
'Looks like Death really came looking for me tonight.'
….With this last thought, on this night Hunter Adele's soul vanished from this world forever.
*******************************
Eighteen hours before the above incident
Adele woke up with a start on his bed, while sweating profusely. He took a few seconds to recollect his scattered wits to realize that it was just a nightmare not reality, and finally took a sigh of relief as he jumped out of his bed. He looked at his bedside clock and noticed the time - 8:00 A. M., 15 Oct, 2025.
'Hmm.. Everything looks normal. '
He stretched a little and removed his shirt to observe himself in front of his full body mirror, an action part of his daily routine. It was necessary to check if something happened to him while he was asleep. As in his line of job…sometimes danger is more when you are asleep than when you are awake.
In the mirror, Adele's tired young face stared back, with dark black eyes and long messy hairs reaching upto his neck. There were some faded scars here and there but nothing extraordinary to damp the charm of his slightly above average face.
He then observed his lithe body carefully that was marked with various scary scars running across his body. Though his eyes were not focused exclusively on these scars but were actually observing various tattoos on his body.
Adele's body was riddled with different tattoos at various places.They were of varying shapes and designs. A big faded skeletal claw of a bird was etched on the center of his chest, while near his heart a eclipsed sun was present. On his wrist a closed eye was drawn and on his back there was a snake tattooed which slithered across his spine like a vine climbing on a tree. There was also a small tattoo on his right leg of a human skeleton.
He blinked tiredly upon discovering no anomaly with his tattoos, meaning nothing went wrong the previous night. Right at the moment knowing that Adele was looking at it, his snake tattoo slithered and climbed out of ink into reality as a inky pitch black snake and 'hissed' as a greeting to which Adele 'hissed' back in greeting half-heartedly as he pressed it back into tattoo on his spine.
Out of all his tattoos, only his eclipse on heart and the snake on his spine was etched in deep permanent ink, where one represented spiritual protection and the other fighting partner. All other tattoos though looked permanent, were actually some shades lighter like they have already faded with time with repeated use and would disappear completely once used completely. With the 'bony bird claw' on his chest, who was the most faded of all of them.
'I think I just got one more claw action before it disappears for good. I should get inked again soon.'
With rough plans for the future, he ultimately shrugged his shoulders and went to the bathroom to freshen up. It was when he was in the shower, he felt the entrance of a sudden disturbing presence in his house. An invisible hand seemed to have grasped his heart as he looked down and saw his eclipse tattoo glowing brightly on his chest.
Adele stopped his shower and stepped out in a wrapped towel. He casually tapped the fogged mirror of the bathroom to magically retrieve an ebony dagger from inside of the mirror like magic.
He tiptoed with light steps and peeked out to observe his apartment. At this moment, the eclipse tattoo had long dimmed back in response to the departure of foreign presence which means that danger had passed probably but he was still high on alert. His eyes were calm and with an appropriate caution he walked out slowly keeping his grip tight on the dagger in his hand.
It was only then he noticed a folded paper on his dining table. He didn't reach for it immediately but first made sure he was really alone in his room with everything else undisturbed. Only after that, he came back to the table and casually picked the paper to unfold it.
"Death will be looking for you tonight.
BEWARE Hunter Adele.
Warm wishes
From someone who doesn't want to see you die yet. "
*************************
Few hours later, In the public museum of the city Adele was standing before a portrait that depicted an old man in varied colors of century old painting style. On the board below, it read 'Regal Old Noble, painted by Sir Angola in 1760. '
While keeping his eyes on the cameras, he half heartedly tapped on his wrist, and the tattoo of the closed eye on his wrist suddenly came alive.
It wiggled like a closed eyelid straining to open its eye and after half a second, it opened to reveal a beautiful colored eye with a pristine pupil inside. Taking the chance, Adele acted quickly as he pressed the display glass of the painting with a polite knock.
Knock knock knock!...
After three knocks, the old man in the painting suddenly came alive and frowned after seeing Adele standing before him. Owing to their past relationship, without wasting any time he lifted the freshly received letter and presented it before the old man.
"Is this curse, warning or some kind of prophecy? "
Old man wanted to chide the young Hunter before him for his lack of manners but upon gazing at the message he understood his disturbed emotions and sense of urgency which led to this lack of manners. He forgave him silently as he coughed and answered slowly.
"Ahem! You tried to track the sender?"
"I tried. But it is not trackable and actually I don't even know how they delivered this letter to my warded apartment. Did they… "
Old man sighed and lifted his finger to Adele, interrupting him at the very start of his attempt to make educated guesses.
"Young man, this would be your last request. After this, I will not owe you anything."
Adele nodded sympathetically, remembering that the old man was embroiled in dues all over the city. He was too deep in the sea of debts to various individuals, and seldom there comes an opportunity for him to even his dues to someone.
Old man sighed in relief, like he had finally put aside some of his burden. Afterwards realizing the graveness of the situation, he looked once again at the message and then closed his eyes to connect to the other dimension to gather knowledge 'which might be hidden to this world but not to that dimension'.
But unexpectedly his painting soon began to vibrate weirdly. But before Adele could think of anything, it stopped as abruptly as it started. Old man smiled as he opened his eyes again.
There was a blank look in his eyes as he gave Adele a pitiful look and shook his head,
"Looks like someone is trying to curse you. I had to strain my connection to limit but wasn't able to find their identity.
Don't worry though, they are overestimating themselves and underestimating you. But you still need to reinforce your spirit defense in case anything goes wrong. And be a little more… Wary tonight."
Adele frowned as he took back his letter and murmured to himself,
"A curse? But why…."
He then suddenly shook as he realized the eye on his wrist was straining to keep itself open anymore, with tears forming on its edges due to it being open without blinking all this time. It was about to close itself which means the veil will lift soon and he will soon come back in the view of cameras. Wrapping up he waved to the old man.
"Anyhow thanks old man. Will visit sometime again. See you."