Gabriel casually sat down behind his desk, gesturing for me to take place in front of him.
"How long has it been? 7 years?"
I didn't trust him. After all this hate lingering between us, building up over the years, there's no way for him to forget what happened between us.

"I guess. Seems like you've developed the Dead Angels into an industry."
"Obviously.", I clenched my fist under the table, remembering all his hypocrisy and foolery. I wonder how Grigori, Mahit, and Ryan stayed by themselves.

"I'm sorry to hear about the tragic news."
That's odd. Something was wrong. I'm definitely going to die in the next five minutes. Gabriel wouldn't feel bad for my failed marriage with Lara. His uncanny smile was self-explanatory. His teeth sucked his lip in. That's what he did when he let the person he was about to kill say their last words.

"I never wanted to hurt her."
"You should've never been with her in the first place.", he rose from his seat and towered over the desk, "and now, you've crushed her heart."
I didn't have the power to argue. He was right. I broke her and lied to her all the time. I wish she would give me another chance and I would have time to speak the truth. She can't trust me, but Gabriel will hurt her physically.

"You manipulated her into loving you, Díaz. Just like you manipulate everyone. I feel empathy for my little sister. I fell as hard for your lies as she did. I really thought we were best friends."
"It was you who manipulated her!"
He suddenly drew a gun and shot, failing on purpose by one inch. Gabriel over-shoulder rolled over the desk. I jumped off the chair and stormed out of the office. I stood no chance against Gabriel without a weapon. Grigori and Ryan casually chitchatted with joints in front of the office, confused at the sudden outbreak. I rushed towards the elevator, pushing the bottom a hundred times.

"What the hell?", Grigori's voice artificially unbothered.
Suddenly Ryan burst out laughing.
"Why is he levitating? HAHAHA."
"YOU FUCKING IDIOTS! GO GET HIM!"

The elevator door opened at the right moment and I could evade more bullets from Gabriel, which shattered the mirror. I quickly pushed the knob for the door to close, and thirteen stories below. With shaky hands, I activated the hidden microphone beneath my collar.

"Leon...?"
"He's trying to kill you, how surprising. Which floor are you on?"
"I'm heading towards 57."
"Great. Jump out of the window of the last office on your right side."
"WHAT?!"
He ended the transmission.

I freaked out, not knowing what I was supposed to do. One thing in me left was my trust in Leon. He always had my back and never lied to me.
And wasn't a hypocrite like Gabriel.
Suddenly an alarm went off. Mahit announced:
"We have an intruder in this building. He's currently in the elevator heading towards 57. Long blond-haired male. Authorities and workers are allowed to put him to death." His voice trembled as if someone held him at gunpoint.

The elevator doors parted and I followed Leon's instruction. I sprinted through the endless hallway until I reached the door on the right. The businessman was ready to attack me, but I was quicker and smashed his head onto the desk's edge.

Faint gunshots and yells from the outside were hidden by the monstrous loudness of the ascending helicopter's propellers.

Panorama windows. I had to break through them. Upcoming footsteps neared the office.
Fuck

The helicopter's cabin door opened. Joseph leaned out of it, stretching his hand out. The distance between the helicopter and the window was possible to jump with the support of Joseph's hand.

The window damped his shots and the bullets hit the baggage compartment from above. I took a deep drag of oxygen and enough start-up. The only motivation to save myself was my Lara.

I won't die without giving her my apologies.

I broke the window with force while jumping against it shattered. My heart dropped together with my body. I saw the large parking lot, between dunes, until someone grabbed my arm and yanked me upwards.

One look up, Joseph prevented me from falling with his whole strength. His face distorted from trying. Only with an effort I was able to give my legs an upswing to reach the landing skit and climb into the cabin.

Leon immediately slammed the door shut, dodging bullets, which came from Gabriel. He stood on top of the building with a machine gun, aiming alternating at the engine transmission and cockpit.

"You have glas splinters in probably every body part of yours, Teo."
Joseph stressfully searched for a first aid kit.
"Skill issue.", Leon whispered into my ear.

‎𐦍༘⋆.𖥔 ݁ ˖₊ ⊹⟡ 𐦍༘⋆.𖥔 ݁ ˖₊ ⊹⟡ 𐦍༘⋆.𖥔 ݁ ˖₊ ⊹⟡

flashback nine years ago

I felt like a kid picking the daisy blooms, questioning whether a girl would love me back or not. But not with daisies. I was trying to pick a side. Wait for my parents to find a job and get us a house, or do it by myself.

Should I accept Gabriel's offer and join a gang with dangerous people?
"Where are you going again, Adrián? You're leaving us again?"
"I found a friend last night who secured me a job today. I'll work."

I left my confused father and headed towards the woods. I orientated myself by the white hand prints on the trees to find the church.

There he was, leaning against the nearly collapsing wall, with leathery fabric clutched beneath his arm.
"I knew you'd come."
"I want to join you, Gabriel."
He grinned smugly and handed me the fabric.

A leather jacket. The same seraphim as the one on his. Just with the initials "A.R", stitched on it.

"So sure of me joining, that you've already made a personalized jacket?"
"You wouldn't turn down an offer like this."
I put the jacket on, ready to go home.

"I'll bring you to our base and you'd need to pass a certain test."
Which test?
The whole situation was so sketchy, I couldn't even possibly think of the content. Doubting, I climbed on the back of Gabriel's motorcycle and placed my hands on his shoulders. We drove through the city, plagued by sirens, cars, honks, sounds of construction workers and did I mention sirens?

Obviously was the base located in northern San José, on the other end of the city. We stopped by an abandoned underground train station.

The sound of silence was worse than chalk scratching a board. On top of the colorful grafity-ocean, the symbol which was way too familiar now, was sprayed in white. The Seraphim. To be honest, I noticed nothing biblical, Christian, or religious about this gang at all. Even though Gabriel wore a noticeably large silver cross chain.

"Umm...So the base is probably in an abandoned train?"
"Better.", he added with a vicious smirk, taking the lead downstairs.
I analyzed my abandoned, empty surroundings one last time before following.

It was such an obvious scam and I already sensed that I was getting jumped. Instead of heading to the metro's end, he opened the door left from the stairs. It was so well hidden I wouldn't even have noticed it with a lens, except the handle.

The eerie smell of cigars already reached my nose. The room was spacious.

Piss yellow walls covered with barely visible ornaments. Not even a lamp but a single lightbulb, derelict couches with the upholstery oozing out of some places, a coffee table that was probably more often flipped around than the room was cleaned. Of course, they had a television and tons of video games stacked beneath.

The living room (lowkey thankful that I'm homeless if that's what they call a living in the States), was directly connected with the kitchen, parted by a counter. The fridge was spacious and I could bet a million dollars that it was solely filled with beer. Next to the television, the fridge, and the couch were three other doors.

Two boys about my age sat on the sofa, crushing the controllers with the force used in 'Double Dragon'.

Both of them were wearing the same leather jacket. The dark-skinned one wore a typical West Coast outfit. An oversized jersey combined with washed baggy jeans and a golden belt, matching his jewelry and filigree tubes hugging his corn rows.

The boy next to him looked South Asian and wore casual clothes. Golden brown skin, one side parted black hair, and a bit chubby.

"Who's that?", the boy in casual clothing asked.
"That's Adrián, the guy you customized the jacket for."
I trotted towards them, shaking the boy's hand who just spoke.
"I'm Mahit.", he kindly introduced.
The other guy seemed chill as well.

"Joseph.", he sipped on his coke, "Gabriel never accepted someone into the gang before passing the test. You must've left a great first impression on him.", he added in a whisper.

"C'mon Adrián. The test."
My soul left my body as we entered the claustrophobic space next to the TV.
"Take a seat."
I sat in front of him on the creaky chair. He drew a revolver and filled it with bullets.
"Russian Roulette?", I swallowed.
He scoffed. "You wish."

I don't know which game we were about to play but if it is worse than Russian roulette, I want to quit right now.

"I'm going to ask you ten questions you're going to answer them truthfully corresponding to your ideologies. There is no right and no wrong. You say yes or no or give reasons for your choice."
"So why do you need a gun?"
"Just in case. Ready?"
I shifted in my seat but eventually gave in to it.
"Ready."

"Let's start off with the first question: What do you think of criminals?"
"I guess everyone is at some point a criminal in their life. Some crimes have in my opinion a greater weight than others. But it's not our action that defines a criminal. It's our minds, which lead us to said actions."
He rose a brow in surprise.
"The most interesting answer I've heard by far."
I am not a criminal by choice. I didn't steal for the sake of greed. I did it for my family.

"Now talking about certain groups of criminals. What about rapists?"
"They should burn in hell."
"So you'd never touch a woman against her will?"

I hesitated. What if Gabriel was a sexist, even worse a rapist? Would lying help me out?
Not my mentality. These disgusting words wouldn't even leave my mouth to save my life. This test is about my ideologies not his. So I might get shot in peace without lying about being a rapist. If Gabriel has that view on women he's nothing but a son of a bitch.

"Never. I don't believe anyone should be sexually assaulted or raped, regardless of their gender."
He raised his hand and aimed between my eyes.
I knew it.

"Not even when you crush on a girl and she doesn't like you back?"
"I don't plan on taking advantage of someone, just because she doesn't like me back. That's gross."

Gabriel put the gun back on the table.
"Your opinion on genocide?"
"Uhh, horrible, what else? I don't know how to justify my choice, that's common sense."

"What about children?"
"I want to have children when I grow up."
"Children taking part in adult movies."
"Horror movies are pretty terrifying and I guess-"
Gabriel rolled his eyes.
"Adrián. I'm talking about porn."
"What?", I processed his information, "OH HELL NAH! WHAT DO YOU EVEN THINK OF ME?!"
"That's what I'm trying to find out."

"What if you switch children with animals?"
"Gabriel. You start to piss me off."
"So you support it?"
"Obviously, clearly fucking not."
He bit back a laugh, entertained by this conversation.

I get his game now. He wants to sort out problematic things about me...

"Your opinion on domestic violence or parental abuse?"
"Abuse in general is morally unacceptable. Don't think you can lure me into being evil."

"Murder."
"If someone threatens my family I'd gladly take a life. But murdering the innocent is terrible."
"No shit Sherlock.", slipped out of his mouth.
So he is just testing me...He might be on my side.

"Women's rights?"
"Without women, we wouldn't be alive. Yes. Equal to men."

"Would you judge anyone by their sexuality, race, body, gender, or religion?"
"No. I have a life. Thanks."

"Would you ever break the silence when held at gunpoint and betray the dead angels?"
Depends on the occasion, but the safest answer is...
"No. Never. I'm not a traitor."

Gabriel rose from his seat and shook my hand.
"You've passed the test. You're an official member now."

"What was this test even about?"
"The Dead Angels stand for safety and protection of the innocent. We execute what the government can't. A rapist is better in a coffin than behind doors for a couple of years, just to get released and find more victims. The test is a method to easily kill people who are for example predators, by letting them speak up on the topics."
"What would've happened when I answered wrongly?"
He grinned.
"Your death."

"I was close to lying about touching a woman against her will, just to save my life. I can't imagine how many people lied about those questions to save their lives because they didn't know what you wanted to hear."
His eyes darkened.
"This isn't about what I want to hear. That's common sense. If you lie about willing to rape a woman to save yourself, you're just weak. Lying about these topics is fatal."

We stared at each other for a second.
"You're allowed to leave the room now. The other members will return soon. You'll get to know them."
I got dismissed and made my way to the living room until he talked again.
"And Adrián?"
"Yes?"
"I'd rather see one man dead, than ten children."