Chapter 12 Back From The Dead

[Vrrmm!] The monstrous gangster who had abducted Tavares along with his daughter was driving up a steep narrow road along a mountainside. The terrain was so rough, it continually caused the vehicle to shudder. This shuddering also affected the unconscious passengers who were locked away in the trunk, making them slowly regain consciousness.

“Erm…?” Little Anna opened her eyes to identify an embodiment of darkness. “Huh, why can’t I see anything, am I blind? Ouch! My arm hurts! Where am I? Where is papa?” As she fumbled around the darkness, Anna discovered a corpse which felt like her father’s and began calling out to him. “Papa! Papa, is this you? Wake up! Papa!”

Tavares began to rouse from his unconscious state. “Huh, sweetheart…? Is that your voice I hear, Anna?

“Yes! Yes, it’s me, papa! So it is you!”

“Anna, why are you here? Didn’t I tell you to wait upstairs… huh? Why does it feels like we’re in a moving vehicle? What happened after I blacked out?”

“Papa! I’m so glad you’re still alive! I think that bully man kidnapped us.”

“Kidnapped?” [Sniff! Sniff!] Tavares started realizing that something was off with his daughter’s constitution. “Anna, are you hurt? Why is your voice so shaky? The scent of blood is really strong.”

Poor Anna didn’t want to worry her father further so she answered by saying: “Papa, I’m fine. You must be smelling your own blood from where you got hit on the head. Does it still hurts?”

“Ah…”

[Screech!] After driving for an hour up Arak Gold’s mountain range, the gangster had to stop his vehicle mid-way due to his motor which wasn’t built to climb rocks and trees. Where he parked overlooked a dark abyss of Mt Venom. He got out of the vehicle and motioned his huge legs to the trunk.

“The mistress said to thoroughly dispose of the corpses and leave no trace of their existence. What better place is there than this bottomless scorpion pit. The giant scorpions below will get rid of everything with their rapacious venom. Anything that falls into this pit will disappear overnight, not even a skilled monkey couldn’t climb out from there and even if it did, it would take weeks. By that time, it would have already died from starvation.”

Arak Gold’s bottomless scorpion pit was such a deadly place not even the authorities were willing to sacrifice their forces to search its dark hole. Even though they had received many reports in past which stated that bodies were constantly being dumped there, all they did to prevent this from happening was labelled the area as restricted and fenced around its edges.

When the gagster opened the trunk of his vehicle he noticed that his uncomfortable passengers were awake. “Oh, you’ve regained your sanity already. I don’t have any grudges against you two but I’m going to need you to go back to sleep for me, sorry.” [Boom! Boom!] He bashed Tavares and Anna’s head with his hard fist that knocked them out instantly.

Before taking out the corpses from his trunk, the gangster retrieved a fence-cutter from his toolbox, he used it to cut open a suitable gap in the fence that cordoned the entrance to the bottomless scorpion pit.

“Now to dump the bodies.” The gangster went back to his vehicle; picked up the bodies. “I feel bad about disposing of this little girl but it can’t be helped in my line of work. Sympathy and other bull crap emotions had never brought me any fairness in life that’s why I willingly embrace the dark side of reality, not caring for the people that I hurt.”

Now that his consciousness was free of guilt and regret, the gangster forced little Anna along with her father through the fence’s gap then kicked their asses over the edge. [Whoosh!] They had a rough journey going down. Both father and daughter tumbled over pointy rocks, crashed through virulent orchids, bruised their skins and broke their bones. When they hit rock bottom one of them had already succumbed to eternal sleep. You could guess who this person was.

During their vehement descent into the poisonous abyss, Tavares regained consciousness part way and managed to protect his baby girl by locking her in his fatherly embrace. Hence compared to Anna, he suffered most of the brunt force trauma which led to his immediate death.

“Pa…pa…?” Albeit little Anna was still alive, she was in no condition to move her limbs nor even speak. Anna’s lungs were ruptured; she suffered multiple fractured bones to her ribcage; her fingers were broken disgustingly; also her frail neck was twisted 180 degrees. It was a miracle that she was still alive.

“Pa…pa…” With her eyes now facing her posterior, Anna glanced above the bottomless pit. The last thing she saw before passing out was the head of the gangster which was so tiny due to how far she was viewing him from. [Flashback End.]

[Whoosh!] Tainted Scorpion burst out of the bath of darkness. Her eyes were staring wide opened, coupled with onerous pants. “Ahf! Ahf! Ahf! What was that a nightmare?”

“Anna! You’re awake!” Ember was elated that her mentor had resurrected successfully, she didn’t mind the water which had splashed all over her expensive apparels. “I’m so glad!” to further showcase her feelings, Ember grabbed Tainted Scorpion’s head, pressing it firmly between her bosom with tears of joy flowing out of her eye corners. [Sob! Sob!]

Tainted Scorpion felt repressed. “Ember? What are you doing to my face? Are you trying to suffocate me with your big lemons?”

“Oh, sorry!” Ember quickly withdrew her stifling bosom from her mentor’s face. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No, you only caused a slight disfigure to my nose.” After straightening her nose, Tainted Scorpion began assessing her environment. “Huh, I’m back at my apartment? How did I get here? The last thing I remember was being run over by those Demon Triad’s vehicle…”

“I brought you here, boss after faking your death.” Ember said boldly.

“Faking my death? What do you mean, Ember?” Tainted Scorpion was puzzled.

“The thing is, that evening when you left for your bonus job at the police station, I secretly tagged along. I arrived at the warehouse a little bit later to discover your broken body sprawled out on the floor, bloody all over. Due to your severe condition, I knew that you wouldn’t be able to last long nor handle the rough ride on my bike. Because the cops were already closing in on the warehouse, I had to rack my brain to come up with a solution which would get you out of there safely without garnering the cops’ suspicion. So I stripped you of your gold cloth and disguise one of the dead demons to impersonate you.

Before the cops came, I hid your body inside one of the old containers nearby. The woman I disguised to look like you drew their attention, fooling in believing that they’ve have caught up with the assassin who broke into their station and abducted the little girl. Weeks have passed since then. By now the entire world thinks that the infamous assassin of the underworld is dead. Only Master Odok among the Assassin League of Black Scorpions knows that you are still alive. That Crimson Scorpion also suspects something is amiss. So what do you think, boss? Did I do a great job or what?” Ember waited for her mentor’s praise like an adorable little girl.

“So every one of the underground thinks that I’m dead? Fhm… Fu-hu-hu-hu! Ember you did a great job nursing me back to good health. Should I give you a raise now that you’ve proven your loyalty?”

Ember quickly refused her mentor’s offer. “No! No! No! That’s not necessary, boss. You’ve already done so much for me. Because of you, I levelled up recently.”

“What do you mean you levelled up?”

Ember smiled satisfyingly as she took out a purple necklace from her bag and showed it to Tainted Scorpion. “Due to the league thinking that you were dead, a tournament was held to decide the next Coloured Scorpion to fill your shoes. I employed everything that you’ve taught me and won the promotional tournament. Now I am also a Coloured Scorpion just like you. Here is the proof.”

Tainted Scorpion observed the arcane necklace. “Hmm… this is Amethyst Scorpion? Congrats Ember, I’m glad that you profited off of me being dead.”

“Come on Anna, when you say it like that it makes me feels bad.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I’m genuinely happy for you.”

“Ahhh, you have no idea how happy that makes me feel. Now that we are both Coloured Scorpions what should we do to commemorate this occasion? Should we have a girls’ night out or something more fun?”

“I’m still not 100%. My body still hurts like hell. Why don’t you go celebrate without me?”

“I understand. Then I’ll leave you to recover. I’ll swing by tomorrow.” The moment Ember stepped out of the room she remembered something of importance. “By the way, your loyal customer was worried about you. He told me to give you these.” Ember handed over the rare flower bundle to her mentor.

Tainted Scorpion inspected the bouquet’s nature. The fragrant flowers stimulated her sensory perception. “These are Aquatic Tailons. Which loyal customer did you say brought these?”

“Don’t play dumb, Anna. Just look at the quality of that bouquet. Who else could it be other than your admirer? Alright, see you later.”

When Ember vanished out of sight, Tainted Scorpion smelt the pretty flowers again. “That weak man doing useless things again. Does he think that flowers will make me hand my virginity over to him? Not even in your dreams.”

[Bubble! Bubble!] Tainted Scorpion sunk her head underneath the medicinal bath. A lot of bubbles were produced due to her blowing air through her mouth. Whilst underwater, Anna still had the Aquatic Tailons secured in her grasp. This highlighted her appreciation for it.