Cedric stood composed as he got dragged into the building by the guards that were sent for him. The leader in particular had sent almost everyone in the room to go and grab the culprit who wanted to shoot him down. The entire of the estate was armed and had security in every corner of the area, starting from the lawn all the way up to the attic.
The mansion was huge and luxurious, made with all the money stolen from the people they kill and give a false sense of security. Everyone of the security officers were wearing formal attires and had a pair of sunglasses alongside a communication device.
As soon as Cedric was brought towards the opened entrance doors, gun shots fired from every inch of the room. It raised awareness among everyone of the security officers and they scammered downstairs to see what all those commotions were about. As soon as both sides started fighting, the first prisoner grabbed Cedric and pulled him aside as the gunfires continued.
Cedric stared for a minute, and saw the familiar face within the dark area they had entered. "We were instructed to reach the boss's office within the next minute, which is most definitely impossible. But one thing else we can do based on what she said, that we could split up and take alternate ways to confuse the two crowds and reach the boss's room in time." The prisoner spoke.
"And who is the 'she' that you are speaking about?" Cedric asked while holding the sniper and running behind the prisoner. For a few split seconds, the prisoner seemed shocked at the words that was hanging in the air, waiting to be noticed. "We can't say her name out in public, so we can say the one who is controlling our side of the chessboard. Do I need to explain more?"
"You mean the girl who sent us to deal with this half of the matter?" Cedric asked as a confirmation. "Yes, that's the person who had given the instructions." The prisoner nodded while taking a turn. "And I wonder how she is about to place her pawns, bishops and castles in the board."
Cedric's mind ran around the same question that the first prisoner was thinking. She is calculated and all, but I wonder just how she is about to carry out the next step. It seems like she is looking forward to directly taking out the boss. But is it really what she is about to do?
They reached a door that led towards the library inside of the estate, and that room was around the same corner as the target area, it was just upstairs. Cedric turned the vault-like door lock and pulled it backwards while clicking a few switches on the final layer of door.
The key to the door was almost like a puzzle itself. Left switch before the fourth switch in the right is like saying they took one left turn and four right turns before reaching this entrance. The sliding door opened itself and he pushed the shelf beside to enter the library.
Before taking the next step, Cedric turned back and glanced at the first prisoner as he took hold of a metal pole. Footsteps could be heard approaching from the other side of the passageway, where he was supposed to leave this tunnel from. The prisoner breathed out and spoke with hesitation alongside a smile.
"I hope you will be able to reach the room in time. You know that you don't want anymore family members to get killed, don't you? Otherwise I will take it that you lied to the girl who is controlling us as chess pieces." He tightly held the pole and ran forward as Cedric felt an urge to go after him, but his mission was another that needed completion.
There was sound of gun shots and fighting, as the bullets sounded most likely the ones the higher-ups would use, and this concerned Cedric. He left the door open as it were and immediately rushed forward to help him. The horrific sight of intense battle sent shiver down his spine as he recalled the weak characteristic he had and found the courage to step up and help.
The prisoner was shot at multiple spaces at the limbs and due to his fragile infrastructure, Cedric decided to turn back mid-way. But the guards were approaching from the other side too and he was stuck a few meters away from the door to the library.
They all held their guns up and he dropped his sniper and shut his eyes. A revolver was heard, and multiple splattering sounds came immediately afterwards. "Pathetic...and I entrusted work down to these sort of people. They call themselves Mafias?" Aefia spoke as she winded red strings along her gloved fingers.
In the dark, only a hooded face and a person on her back was spotted along with the bright red glowing wires tangled on her fingers. But the voice and harsh tone was unmistakable, as Cedric had already met her thrice from before. She dropped the body from her back on the ground and threw the hood of her cloak backwards. It was a clothing item worn by the royalty.
A nearby fallen bodyguard tried to get up, but unknowingly fell while noticing his feet tied up with red strings. Despite that, he still held his shotgun out and pointed it at Aefia while speaking out with pride. "What can a royalty like you even do?! Our boss is obviously much stronger than you!"
Cedric expected an argument to immerge, but Aefia got up and held out a pistol upon the guard's forehead and smiled. "Let's play a true and false game before you die." She spoke as her eyes flashed a deep red this time, highlighting her dark pupils as it became a black and red gradient in colour. The guard gritted his teeth while staring with a terrified expression at her.
"I will take that as a yes. Now the game will consist of two questions, and if you get the first one wrong, I will shoot you at your knee. But if you get the second one wrong, I will shoot your forehead." Aefia spoke while lowering her gun. Cedric stared with shock as he raced over to the prisoner's side, but someone else was present.
A very faint lime green light appeared from his palm as he placed his hand against the wound on the stomach and soon enough, all aspects of the injury was gone. At the end of his work, the guy looked up at Cedric as he smiled and pointed at Aefia, while telling him to be silent.
"The first question will be...I prefer guns over swords because they are smaller and lighter, while easier to use, being more durable and precise. Not only that, I had been trained to use a pistol at the age of nine. Is that a true or a false statement? Just nod or shake your head, I will understand it." She spoke while spinning the pistol around her index finger. The guard hesitantly nodded his head while gripping the trigger of his shot gun.
"Well that was most definitely correct." Aefia sighed with dissapointed. "But now for the million angcles question...I was promoted to a very high and powerful position in a Mafia business in one time of my life." She held the pistol against the forehead this time. "Remember...this one determines life and death." Her finger wrapped the end of the trigger's slinted body.
"That isn't possible! Someone your age is a little too young to be engaged in criminal activities like that! And if it were true, then boss would have told us about it a long time ago!" The guard laughed as he shoke his head. Aefia didn't smile or laugh, and her serious face tore through his instincts as he slowly realized that he had said the wrong answer indeed.
"Sorry...but you lost the game." Without hesitation she pulled the trigger and the body fell backwards while colliding with other bodies on the ground. A few drops of blood splattered against her pale face, which she immediately wiped away with her sleeve. Aefia turned around upon noticing the long silence between the others.
"You were nine when you used a gun?" Cedric asked with fear. "And you were associated with a Mafia organization, at a younger age than this?" He looked towards the guy sitting in front of him, who was looking after the prisoner sitting on the ground.
"Yes, that's true. But I don't believe you have a right to ask a royalty about their background. You may be a royal butler now, but you can't get along with knowing our stories this fast." Aefia spoke as she wiped the surface of the pistol. "Just so you know, that guy is my foster elder brother and he has a healing power, so I decided to bring him along."
Cedric looked towards the blonde-haired person who was getting up. Helio looked towards Aefia while pointing at the drop of blood that fell from her head towards her eyes. "You look pretty injured too, and you are busy asking me to heal some prisoners who you decided to save despite the harsh behaviour they showed you."
Aefia stared into blank space while putting away her pistol and walking forward, taking off the cloak and passing it to Helio as she said, "flip it around and make sure he wears it when he wakes up. They might just be alerting other batch of the forces around the mansion right now. It seems the list of tasks just keeps increasing."
She grabbed Cedric's arm and pulled the sleeve, revealing a small but long red mark on his skin. "Remember to heal him too. Using a sniper with an injured arm is even more painful than suffering an injury with a bullet going into the gut." While letting go of the hand, she walked forward without glancing back another time.
Footsteps neared, multiplying everytime. A serious and blank expression lit up on her face as the strings on her finger slowly dissapeared, leaving nothing but complete darkness with even the dim light fading away. Soon enough, the footsteps stopped and a bright bluish-red light moved along the crowd, and bodies fell with a thud.
Aefia returned with a lighter she had picked up from the fallen bodies and handed one of them to Helio and the other to Cedric. While also using her own flames that stayed atop her fingertips to guide her back. The lighting flicked back inside the tunnel, and the path looked cleared. Just in time, the prisoner started to wake up.
He glanced between faces, just to find a new face and stagger backwards to feel his wound. Cedric sighed a breath of relief as he crouched down to speak with the prisoner, "don't worry uncle, this guy is the girl's foster brother." He spoke with a smile as he showed how his injury was already healed.
"Who? The girl who is leading the chessboard?" He looked confused at first as his vision slightly returned. Cedric nodded and Helio stepped back. "I believe you all have works to do now that there are no injuries and no one following us. And...you might want to check out for who you hit with that pole." Helio pointed towards a scratch on his hand. "You almost killed her and took my hand off. Maybe you should be the one wielding a sniper from-."
"I don't think there is vacancy for that. I need to use the sniper, so they get to choose which other weapons they can use. I believe there are multiples lying on the ground now." Aefia spoke from the distance with a cold expression and picked up the firearm. "And do take into considerations that the lights flickering...is not a coincidence to mafias. No lighting in these sort of buildings have any malfunctions, they are all controlled and they only flicker back on to fool us into thinking everything is alright now."
The prisoner spoke as he stood up. "But what are we supposed to do than?" A concern surfaced upon his face unlike that usually someone would have. "It's obvious that both Aefia and I can wield magic. We are using you as bait for the next step. If you want to rescue the four others trapped, you might as well help along. Sometimes, the leader of the chessboard isn't the person we think it to be." Helio whispered into his ear.
"Then if she isn't the one who is leading us, then who is?" The prisoner spoke with a lowered voice as he stared at the young girl who was picking up a few bullets on the ground. "It's the duchess. In our side of the chess board, the king is the duchess, the queen is Cedric and Aefia is just a bishop." Helio replied.
Cedric seemed a little humiliated due to being called the queen of the chessboard. But instead of actually complaining, he walked forward towards the door he had opened before. While leaving, he turned around to the others, "aren't you coming?" He spoke with a curious gaze at the dissappointed Aefia.
"But you haven't toldwhat we do next." The prisoner spoke out for Aefia, which dissapointed her a little more. Eventually, she spoke. "And you all are willing to leave without a weapon? That's just a dumb way to die at the end of the day. I was going to say, if situation worsens I will change the course of actions. And since...the situation did actually alter..." She trailed off while dropping the sniper with a thud while dusting her hands.
***
The boss panicked while pacing the room. He looked back towards the door multiple times and came to the conclusion that it was just his worries that hallucinated the scenario in his mind. "Hello...boss, we meet for the first time!" A young girl's voice was heard behind him, sitting at the table that was supposed to be his.
"Who the heck are you?! Do you want to get killed?" The boss shouted with arrogance in his voice. Aefia stayed composed as she smiled a very evil one. "Don't worry, I am not the one dying. By tonight, anyone searching up The Banshees in their web browsers, will receive a notification stating 'Business not Found'." She got up and dashed towards him while holding out her knife in front of his throat.
Immediately, the body of the boss fell and the knife stuck out of the centre of his bleeding trachea. Aefia glanced back at him, with eyes glowing an exact resemblance to that of the Torture Cell's leader.