The Deceitful One

Bryan and Hailey traversed the narrow streets of the slums as they looked around and scrutinized every nook and cranny of the place.

This was the first time that Hailey had ever been to the slums, hence, she appeared to be quite disgusted by it.

Looking at the dirty streets and the sewage water that overflowed from the drains, she frowned from time to time.

Looking at Hailey's expression, Bryan smiled faintly, "Repulsive isn't it?"

Hailey covered her nose with a white napkin as she nodded, "Very!"

A helpless sigh escaped Bryan's lips, "That's because no one cares about this place, to begin with. The people here are all abandoned."

Sensing a hint of sentiment from Bryan's voice, Hailey looked at him and asked in confusion, "You seem to care a lot about this place and its people. Is there a reason?"

Unknowingly, the duo had already arrived at the Manush area of the slums. Bryan was about to reply to Hailey but right at that moment, a familiar one-story housing unit came into his view.

Narrowing his eyes, Bryan thought, 'Isn't that… Jamie's unit?'

His eyes then fell on the broken door of the unit and an extremely terrifying sense of foreboding emerged within his heart as he dashed toward the housing unit.

'Please! No, no, no! Please, be safe!' Bryan thought hopefully in his heart but the sense of foreboding only grew stronger, the closer he got to the house.

Hailey was taken aback at Bryan's sudden reaction. She ran after him and yelled, "Bryan, what happened? Wait!"

A few moments later, Bryan finally reached the entrance of Jamie's unit and the first thing he saw, sent shivers down his spine.

He saw a blonde youth, the latter's back facing toward him, on top of a girl. From his point of view, he couldn't exactly see what was happening, but he saw that the girl's feet were twitching from time to time.

Bryan stepped inside the house and he could finally see what was happening. The blond youth was biting the neck of the brown-haired girl!

The girl, on the other hand, was crying in pain. Tears streamed down her face as her sobs continued to get softer and softer.

Bryan then heard the sound of soft whimpers coming from the right corner of the room. He turned his head to see six little children huddled together as they hugged each other and cried uncontrollably.

However, they made sure to make close to no sound, afraid that the monster in the room would take notice of them.

Bryan's gaze then swept past the other corner of the room where he saw a familiar figure lying on the ground. His head was bloodied and it looked like he was on his last breath.

'Jamie!' Bryan's heart sank at the scene of Jamie's condition. His eyes became bloodshot as his anger boiled over. Piecing together everything, Bryan soon realized what had happened.

He gritted his teeth as he looked back at the blond youth, who was completely oblivious to the fact that another person had at some point entered the house, as he continued to bite on the girl's neck in ecstasy.

Bryan took out his gun from his underarm holster and aimed it at the blond youth in a fit of rage. However, he still made sure to aim properly so that he didn't end up shooting the girl underneath.

BANG!

The bullet accurately hit Anthony's ribs as he was thrown off of Ella. Grimacing in pain, Anthony touched the area where he was shot and grunted, "Ughh, Fuck!"

He then looked at the person who shot him and his eyes widened when he saw the gun the other person was wielding. At the same time, Bryan was also taken aback when he saw Anthony's face, making him even more furious.

Both growled at the same time, "It's you!"

Without hesitation, Bryan emptied out the entire pistol chamber.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

Anthony, who had now fully come to his senses, nimbly evaded all the bullets as his body kept moving from one place to another like a shadow. Soon he exited the house and sprinted towards the outer periphery of the slums.

Bryan ran after him as he reloaded his Hand Cannon. Once he exited the house, he yelled, "Hailey, shoot the signal flare! Look after the kids inside!"

With that said, Bryan vanished into the night as he nimbly ran through the narrow streets of the slums in pursuit of Anthony.

From Bryan rushing into the house, to the sound of gunshots, and finally Bryan rushing out of the house chasing after the blond youth.

Everything had happened so quickly that Hailey was still in a daze. However, she still did as Bryan instructed. She took out a bronze cylinder, the length of her forearm, from inside the satchel she was carrying and pointed it at the sky.

With a click of a button at the base of the cylinder, a red flare shot out of it and flew about 500 feet into the sky. The next moment, the dark night sky was illuminated by a sudden burst of red-colored fireworks.

This was the standard-issued flare stick that was given to every member of the Silver Owls when they went out on night patrols.

A red flare meant that the person had encountered danger and required reinforcements. Hence, any member who saw the red flare shot out in the sky would immediately rush to the location where the flare was shot from and provide support.

After firing the signal, Hailey rushed inside the house where she saw a brown-haired girl lying limply on the floor, her eyes lifeless.

She walked towards the girl and checked her pulse and breathing. After a few moments, she concluded that the brown-haired girl was dead.

Hailey then walked to the left corner of the room, towards the boy whose head was twisted at a strange angle. Even before she checked his vitals, she already knew the outcome.

She crouched down by the black-haired boy and checked his pulse. A few moments later she shook her head as a sigh escaped her lips.