People say that once someone hits rock bottom, the only way to go is back up. In their world, there was no bottom. A person could only keep going deeper and deeper into the abyss, finding more reasons to end up in Hell and keep going.

Blaine remembered the day he met the minx that lit up his dull and dismal life in that abyss. He had resigned to a life he had been brought up in, a life of crime and blood that washed the streets of the world around him, smothered in the smell of sex and sweat covered bodies.

It was a routine excursion, one meant to just be a collection of payment owed. It was supposed to be just another day, before he got a call from one of his men that several of them had been severely injured trying to apprehend one person.

So here he was, the big boss, sitting in a barren basement that had been cleaned out for the purposes they needed. He stared at the group of people before him, wondering which one had the balls to try such a thing.

There was a family of four, so he figured it could have been the husband who was a long term drug user. Drug users were always pumped with all sorts of things and often willing to get violent.

There was an older man and his middle aged son who had been pushing drugs and stealing money, certainly something the pair of them could manage with the element of surprise.

Then there was a young looking man they had picked up alone in an apartment registered to a guy that had taken off after putting himself into too much debt.

“Alright, which one is it?” he asked. His second in command, Leonard, was prompt to answer by whispering to him.

He was surprised to learn it had been the loner in the apartment. Eyeing this stranger, he noticed how toned and fit his body really was for being so thin and on the shorter side. Or was it only because he was intentionally making himself look that way by scrunching his body up in the position he was in? Seemed this little minx had street smarts.

“Ugh, this isn’t what I wanted to spend my Friday afternoon doing. So, I’ll give each of you a choice.” He motioned for a gun from his bodyguard, who offered it freely. The guard then proceeded to the father and placed it in front of him. “You have a choice, make it.”

“W-what?” he stuttered. The kids cried and his wife pleaded. “What do you want me to do?”

He pulled at his hair, getting frustrated with this fucking idiot and the whole situation. He wanted to be in bed sleeping, not dropping more body bags. To make it worse, kids were involved. While he never said it out loud, so not to ruin his image, he had a code. He never targeted kids unless they walked neck shit deep into it on purpose. Even then, he was reluctant. He eyed the kids, knowing that if they survived this, their life would never be the same.

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out,” he replied, lighting up a smoke.

“Y-you want me t-to k-kill them?” he stuttered badly.

He was growing impatient, patience not being one of his strong suits in these kind of situations. He was a person who usually made instantaneous decisions and lived by them. He knew what he wanted, and he lived by it. Not like these fucking dopes who let themselves fall prey to the first crutch they could grab ahold of.

“If I may intrude?” the young man offered. He shifted his eyes over the man who had kept himself low profile so far. What was he up to?

“Did he ask you to speak?” one of his bodyguards scolded and smacked him upside the head. Still, he didn’t fall down, and spat out the blood from inside his cheek.

“We’re going to be here all night, can I just take care of this for you?” the man asked. His eyebrows rose and he lifted his hand, preventing his bodyguard from striking the man again.

“Can you even do that?” he asked.

The young man chuckled, making him far more interesting than he would have originally thought. He had to admit, after gazing directly at his face, he was pretty good looking.

With striking golden hair and rich brown eyes, seeing his muscles flex to show off just how fine-tuned he was, Blaine felt his mouth starting to water for a taste. This minx was dangerous, he could smell it from him. “Watch me.” His daring tone sent a curious chill through his spine. When was the last time he had such a thrill?

He nodded, motioning for his guard to untie him. He carefully got up and went over to the man who had the gun at his knees. He didn’t even bother grabbing it, just squatted down and stared into this eyes.

“Tell me, if you had to choose who to kill to ask for forgiveness, who would it be?” he asked.

“W-what?”

“It’s simple, would it be you? Your wife? Or one of your kids?” The father’s face paled.

“No, please!”

“You got yourself into this mess somehow, so now you need to own up to it. How are you going to do that? You have a few options, none of them being good though.” He grabbed his chin and made him focus on his words. Blaine was liking this guy more and more, he knew how to hold his attention.

“Pay attention, because I’m only doing this out of convenience since I can tell right off you’re not the type to kill someone you actually care about, however much that actually means. You can off yourself and let your family pay it off. With your wife, probably her body. Your kids, probably being runners or with their bodies too. Who knows? Or, you could kill your wife to prevent her consistent rape and take care of your kids. The likelihood of you actually being able to do that while holding a steady job isn’t high, probably minimum.”

The more he listened, the more he realized that this minx was defiantly trouble. He was rationalizing one of the most gruesome and sickening things a human could do to their own blood. Still, he painted it as the better picture as compared to what they would have to go through. The minx was smart indeed, and experienced.

“So, you could just kill your kids and pawn your wife off? Of course this means you can go back to doing your drugs living with the guilt that you were responsible. Or you could kill one kid and have the other live through hell, probably dealing with your constant abuse because you can’t face the fact that you’re a piece of shit.”

The husband’s face was getting beat red. He wasn’t sure if it was from his anger at the young man or because his grip on the man’s face was tightening harshly.

“You think I didn’t notice her abuse marks? You probably hit your kids too huh?” For someone who wanted to take care of it, he was sure getting worked up. “So, make the choice. Who will it be?”

“Fuck you!” he spat out. He sighed and grabbed the gun, shooting the wife in the head. The kids screamed and the husband was frozen stiff in place. Blaine was surprised too, not expecting such a response.

“She was better off. If she had lived, she would have abused the kids because she couldn’t live with herself and the mess you left her in. Of course, that doesn’t mean you’re spared either.” He lifted the gun and shot him in the head, his body dropping to the floor.

He turned towards the kids and eyed Blaine. “I don’t kill kids, can I get a smoke?” Blaine was interested in full now, offering him one from his pack before lighting it for him. He took a drag and looked down at the children, no older than eight or nine.

“One day, when you look back on this, you will thank me. Although I know you’re going to hate my guts and probably try to find and kill me, it won’t work. It never does.” He turned his cold eyes to him and motioned to his jacket on his body.

“In my side pocket is a checkbook, you can have one of your guys pull it out.” Blaine chuckled at his confidence, liking it.

“What would I do with your checkbook?” he mused.

“Write down whatever he owes you, I’ll clear the kids debt and add in a bonus for you to set them up somewhere decent.”

He nodded and the bodyguard reached for it, pulling it out and offering it to his boss. Odd, it was blank, no notary on it or mention of a bank name.

“Do you even realize I could write whatever on here? How am I supposed to cash this?”

“You seem like someone who goes with eye for an eye standard, am I wrong?” He glared at the young man, not liking him questioning him so openly.

“I suppose not.”

“You walk into any bank and they see that, they will cash it without question. You can do it right now if you want.”

He eyed him suspiciously and then wrote out the proper amount along with a fixed amount. He wasn’t about to swindle a man he knew nothing about while he was holding a loaded gun he clearly knew how to use, and was sound enough to kill on the spot. He handed the check to Leonard.

“Take this to the nearest bank and have them deposit it. Call me when it’s done.”

“Yes, sir.”

The young man continued to smoke the cigarette and then spoke casually, but careful enough not to piss him off. This minx was making him hungry for something that wasn’t money or blood. He could see just from looking at his posture from the side, that he was well trained.

“What did these two do?”

“Why don’t you guess?” He shrugged and looked down at them. They were scared, but not enough to freak out like the other man had.

“Probably stealing money. It’s usually one of three things, money, sex, or drugs, and not necessarily in that order.”

“Indeed.”

“What do you want to do with them?”

He was intrigued that he was asking for permission first, something that made his senses tingle with anticipation. If he asked for permission to kill people who wronged someone he didn’t know, he wondered what he would do for someone he did know. The spark in Blaine’s eyes didn’t go unnoticed by the young man who stared back, sucking in another drag.

“What would you do? I’ll leave it up to you, I have high expectations.”

The young man didn’t hesitate and turned around. He stared at the old man who stared back at him with no sign of wavering.

“You know human being’s need their hands to do so many things. But you know what I believe?” He didn’t answer, his mouth shut tightly in a grim line. “I believe, the feet are far more crucial. Not only do they connect directly with a larger artery, but if you damage your foot you always have this uncomfortable feeling at the bottom of your feet to remind you about it every day.”

He then proceeded to shoot his left foot without hesitation. The old man screamed out, his son cursing at him in a foreign language. “Were is the money you stole?” The old man remained silent as the son cursed at him some more.

Blaine couldn’t help but smirk, and be a little more than surprised, when he turned and started talking back to him in his own tongue. It was now clear that this minx was just a tad bit more than a little dangerous.

When he didn’t get an answer, he shot his other foot and then aimed at the son’s feet. The old man spoke up after catching his breath, letting out prolonged sounds of agony first. He then proceeded to tell Blaine the location, which he motioned to have one of his men check out.

“Take them somewhere else, if it falls through kill them both. If they are telling the truth, just shoot the son’s feet and send them off for now. Keep tabs on them though.”

His bodyguards hesitated and he stared at them, making them flinch. “LEAVE.” They nodded and proceeded to leave with the two men. It was shortly after they began to exit that he received a call verifying the bank transaction from Leonard. He hung up and looked to his other bodyguard, motioning to the children.

“Make sure they are taken care of, and make sure my deal is honored. Any harm comes to those kids, I’ll kill whoever’s involved myself. Understand?”

“Yes sir.”

The man coaxed the children, still terrified and alert, into a hold as he took them from the room. Then Blaine turned his attention towards his last trouble for the night. They were alone, so what would he do now?

The man unloaded the clip and popped the shell from the barrel before placing it next to him on the small stand. He didn’t waver his gaze, figuring the young man was trying to appease him in some way.

“Now what about you? What should I do with you?” he asked. The young man looked at him and smiled seductively, catching his attention and piquing his interest again.

“I can name a number of things actually, but ideally, I’d like you to make a deal with me.”

“I’m listening.”

“Let me walk out of here, and I’ll give you something few have ever had the honor of saying they have had over me.” Blaine chuckled, amused.

“And what’s that?”

“A favor.” Blaine paused, hesitating as he saw that the man wasn’t joking. He was dead serious. “In my line of work, a favor can mean the difference between being a homeless man on the run or an overlord of some territory.”

“Roughly, what would that be?” Blaine asked, knowing better than to get too hooked.

“The kind of work where I can go anywhere at any time and do anything without anyone ever tracing it back to me. The kind where I can easily just kill you and everyone in this building before walking out of here.”

This punk was sizing him up, threatening him but offering him something better in return.

“I will also do you a solid for the four men I put in the hospital and track down the man you were looking for and whatever else he took from you.”

“Who said he took anything?”