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🔥The Death of Peace of Mind - Bad Omens

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The tunnel was old, murky, and very poorly lit by the few remaining lights that lined its expanse. It's because this was actually an old alternative passageway during the initial construction of the underground dumpster, but was then eventually abandoned and forgotten as soon as the construction was completed.

How did I know about this tunnel, you ask?

Let's just say I had a habit of hiding my stolen packages through garbage chutes in cases of emergency, so I've actually been here a couple of times to retrieve them. The only difference is I usually was able to retrieve them immediately, so I knew I was going to be able to find them. However this time, five days has passed so I was worried that I would not be able to find the Holocron at all.

I eventually reached the end of the tunnel and was faced with three rusty steel doors. Despite the lack of signages, I knew what they meant and where they lead. These three doors actually lead to three different sections of the dumpster: Biodegradables, Non-biodegradables, and Electronic Wastes.

This was because as soon as the garbages were disposed through the city's garbage chutes, they are automatically sensed and segregated along the tubes before falling into the dumpster instead. I knew that I had to take the middle door for the electronic wastes, but just to make sure that Qimir will be able to find me, I grabbed the dagger he had given me and marked an 'X' on the steel door.

I could've been marking it for other bounty hunters to find me instead, but I could only hope that Qimir would get here faster than they would.

With a bit of force, I shoved open the steel door and was met with the heavy scent of smoke and oil, and the deafening sound of mechanical whirring and tubes constantly clanking. Although I knew I went through the back entrance, I still carefully treaded across the steel grating platform, making sure not to be seen by the few workers that checked on this area once in a while. I looked at the humongous pile of trash down below, and I could only think how the hell I was going to be able to find that goddamn holocron. It will be like finding a needle from a haystack.

As I reached the second stairway, I was stopped in my tracks as a voice boomed over the industrial noises.

"Oi! What the hell are you doing here?!" I turned around to see two men emerging from a nearby door--probably workers--looking at me questioningly. I flashed an innocent smile and raised my hands in submission.

"I accidentally threw away something important. I just need to find it here."

"Well you're too late then. We're going to dump everything in a few minutes. It's not safe here."

His co-worker shifted closer and whispered something into his ear. This caused his eyes to widen in shock, before turning back to me with narrowed eyes as if trying to recognize me.

"Hold on.... you do look like that ten thousand credit girl." He took step closer, a menacing smile slowly stretching across his face.

"We could do a lot with that money, we could finally quit this god awful place." The other guy rubbed his hands in excitement. I gulped as I slowly backed away from them, not liking the way they gripped their wrenches as they stared at me like hawks.

I immediately started to run down the platform away from them, unfortunately only having one direction to go to because of the single zigzagging platform. Being larger than me, the first man was able catch up and grabbed my coat, yanking me backwards and slamming me down the floor. He raised his hand to hit me with the wrench, but I was quick to kick him in the face, causing him to stumble back to his companion. I slipped out of my coat and started running again, aiming to reach the platform low enough where I can jump down the mountain of trash safely.

However as I descended the third set of stairs, the other man jumped right in front of me, causing me to backtrack. They were able to corner me on the platform between the upper and lower staircase, wherein I still couldn't jump off because it was still too high.

Fuck. I had no choice but to fight.

As they charged towards me at the same time, I decided to kick the one by the descending stairs, hard enough to cause him rolling back down. Then I sidestepped the second man's attempt to hit me with the wrench, and I grabbed his arm, using his momentum, to flip him over. He was quite heavy, so I was honestly surprised that I was able to do that. I proceeded to kick him across the face hard, successfully knocking him unconscious.

All of a sudden my right leg was pulled, causing me to bang my head a little too hard on the ground. I quickly turned around to see the remaining man crawl up the stairs and climb on top of me, his eyes crazed as he aimed to hit me with his wrench. I struggled to fight back against him from my disadvantageous position, as he was too heavy for me to shove out of the way. Having no choice, I grabbed the dagger from my hip and stabbed him in the stomach several times until he stopped moving.

As his weight dropped on me, I pushed him off with all of my strength, and I quickly stood up to stare at the stab wounds on his lifeless body.

I actually killed a man.

I thought as I looked at my shaking hand that held the bloodied dagger. I didn't know whether to be horrified with myself. I felt nauseous.

However, I knew I had no time to lament over my first kill.

I snapped myself back to reality and hurried down the platform. As soon as I was low enough, I jumped down the mountain of discarded electronics, constantly trying to keep my balance as the weight constantly shifted beneath my feet. I looked up at the tubes to find the one marked "99-08", as I made sure to remember that marking on the garbage chute at level 99 before throwing the holocron in it.

I went to the pile right under it and tried to sweep away the garbages one layer at a time, but the pile was already to deep. I grabbed my hair in frustration, knowing that I cannot just blindly look as I only had a few minutes left.

Suddenly, I remembered that the holocron could be felt through the force, the same way I felt it the first time I saw it.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus, tried to feel for any powerful energy underneath this big pile. And indeed, I started to feel it from a certain direction.

I hurriedly crouch down to that area and dug with all my might, and sure enough, I eventually saw the familiar black box near the bottom. My heart was racing in my chest as I opened it just to make sure it was still there. As the bright red light shone on my face, the small pyramid still buzzing powefully, relief enveloped my body.

"Eli, you found it."

Qimir's voice echoed from behind me, and I saw him just in time as he floated down the platform, gracefully landing down the pile of trash several feet away from me. Long gone was his black coat so he was left with his sleeveless robe, so it was easy for me to see the large blood splatters on his arms and on his face. He looked eerily calm despite looking like he just came from a bloodbath.

To add to his sinister aura, the red lightsaber still shone brightly in his hand, and I looked at it with caution.

He must have noticed my discomfort at the sight of it, so he quickly retracted it and put it back on his belt. He stepped forward to approach me, but I found myself stepping away.

His brows furrowed in confusion.

"Eli, what's wrong?"

"You're a sith." I whispered, my voice shaking at that word alone. I've always heard about the sith being cold, evil, and ruthless killers. They were the stark opposite of the Jedi, being weilders of the dark side of the force and donned with red lightsabers.

Which is why seeing Qimir--the charming, alluring, and gentle person I've come to know the past few days--standing back there with a red lightsaber, ready to massacre a mob of men, came as an absolute shock to me. I wanted to deny it, but at the same time, it explained so much about him. How he was so powerful, cold and calculating, and could kill multiple men without any hesitation.

"It's more complicated than that." He tried to reassure me, but as soon as he realized it didn't ease my tension one bit, his expression became cold.

"Are you afraid of me?" His voice was emotionless. Distant. My lips pressed into a thin line as I found it hard to answer.

Yes, I'm afraid of you.

Would he kill me if I answered that?

"Eli, we don't have time. Give me the holocron so we can leave."

I looked down at the box in my hand. For the first time, I doubted about Qimir's true intentions with it. Knowing that it was a sith holocron, was he really so willing to destroy it? Wouldn't he succumb to its temptations of absolute power once it falls in his hands?

"Eli please, talk to me." His voice softened as he reached out his hand towards me. For a moment, I saw the Qimir that I knew, but I started to doubt which side of him was real. "You don't have to be afraid of me."

A loud buzzing sound suddenly echoed all throughout the chamber, and red warning lights started to flash at quick intervals. The entire floor groaned and started to shift, almost catching both of us out of balance.

At my moment of distraction, Qimir suddenly snatched the box from my hand using the force, then swiped his hand to made me float away back to the platform where I initially entered. I hit the wall a little too hard due to the speed, and I dropped to the platform sideways with the same force. I momentarily groaned in pain, at the same time questioning why Qimir had to do that to me.

I looked back at him from the pile of garbage below, just in time to see the floor of the entire chamber swing open.

"NO---" My scream was cut off as I felt a cloth cover my mouth, filling my lungs with an intoxicating chemical. I watched helplessly in horror as Qimir got sucked out along with everything else, his forlorn eyes locked on me as he drifted away into space.

Meanwhile I felt my consciousness quickly leave me, and I fell into unknown arms.

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[A/N]:

Miss maam why you gotta treat our husband like that :(