Dedication to @its_alyssa1for choosing bad boys. (insert 'bad boys, bad boys. Whatcha gonna do when they come for you' or 'bad bad bad bad boy, wouldn't change you if I coullldddd' song) <Know the artist to any of those songs, you get a dedication ;)

Let's roll out the red carpet shall we?

For yet another unedited chapter...

Boom boom POW!

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My breath dragged into a groan.  It felt like Princess Peach made her squeaky war cry and bashed her hammer against my head repeatedly. 

Eyes shut, I didn't have to see to feel the wave of burning pain sweep from my toes and up.  At least my ears weren't ringing.  Who was I fucking kidding-I was in broken pieces.  Digging the courage to look, I saw my feet chained, arms handcuffed behind my back.  "The hell..." 

I tried to lift my head and struggled, whipping the sudden heavy brain around.  An annoyed huff later, I surrendered and laid there.  People's shoes came into focus and I realized the shoes had legs on them and hips-they were moving?  People's shoes walked past, a wide range of lethal heels and spiked boots.  Chatter was now audible, the nonstop voices confusing my mind. 

"A meat ready to slaughter," snickered a passing voice.  Failing to crane my neck, my ass stung from a quick slap. 

"Watch it, shittard!" I yelled, hearing cackles in the distance.  A cool breeze led me shivering which alerted my senses.  Grasping the current situation, I had to recite the appalling thing that was happening.  In a white bra and panties, I was hanging upside down-I shall repeat-upside down from the looks of a chain in the middle of the Sniper foyer. 

"And she rises from the dead," Levi spoke with a hint of amusement.  I strained to lift my head, seeing the cleaned up gang leader.  Dressed in a leather jacket, he was emotionless at my struggle. 

"Get me out of this!" I seethed.

He stepped forward and brushed a soft finger across my cheeks.  Automatically, I leaned in and quickly scowled, pulling away.  "I will, darling.  But in order for me to release you, you have to tell me what Romane told you at the joint." 

My pounding head not helping, my memory was blank.  "I don't know what you're talking about."  Levi's eyes hardened.  Suddenly a harsh lash whipped across my spine.  I let out a gurgling scream.  Trying to get a look, their identity was hidden behind a black fabric that covered everything but their mysterious eyes.  Fresh blood lapped across the whip in their gloved hand. 

"I thought you said you don't believe in torture, and rather a quick death," I gritted, tolerating the agony striped down my skin.

Levi stroked his thumb along my lips.  "I don't.  But at Snipers, we work democratically.  I might lead, however the Council, a group of vital Snipers including me, hold a vote when making our gang decisions and moves.  Even if I oppose of something, I must follow the majority." 

I tried to bite his finger except he retracted before I sunk my teeth.  I growled in resentment.  "Well, you can tell your Council to go fuck themselves!  So let me go!"

Levi unconstrained a sigh and then what felt like Satan's nails dragged down my spine.  The scream echoed throughout the foyer, some Snipers giving double looks.  He darkly growled, "Don't make this harder than this needs to be." 

Keeping silent, I challenged his stern gaze, narrowing my own.  If I hadn't been so concentrated, I would have noticed the foyer go mute, the clicking of heels and boots the single movement.  "Good," Levi spoke first. 

Holding my tongue from mimicking him, I asked while trying to distract my mind from the pain, "Why make this public?" 

He spread his arms.  "This is my family, darling.  Family doesn't keep secrets from one another."  Flashing a small smirk, he added, "And maybe to humiliate you."  Anger writhed up my mouth, spitting out a vulgar dirty name.  The whip landed again, but I ground my teeth.  My knuckles tightened against the cold silver. 

"If you want to be a Sniper, if you want to train with us, you must learn discipline."  He repeated, "What did Romane tell you at the joint?" 

Shutting my eyes, I dug into my mind for his answer and came up blank.  "I don't know," I said softly.  The harsh snap licked across my back and my lungs burned.  He asked for the second time.  I concealed the swelling tears.  Taking in a deep breath, I sternly told him, "I don't remember seeing him.  I-I remember you leaving with the Seducer, me running out of the joint because it was too loud and standing outside with you and Casper!" 

Whack!  Scream.  My heart was ready to burst out of my chest.  I squirmed at the eerie feeling of my own blood trickling down my neck, into my hair.  "Tell me!"  he was shouting.  Before I could register it, I was sobbing endlessly that I didn't know. 

"Romane deliberately came after you passed out and killed one of our men.  He said you had something to share.  Tell.  Us." 

The phone company?  Why was he talking about the phone company? 

My blood sunk from my toes to my brain, upside down for over who knows how long.  "Stop!" I demanded loudly, my running tears dripping onto the floor.  The pain fed at my wall I was using as a shield, each whip and each shout making me weaker. 

I whimpered.  He bent to my ear and murmured.  "Darling, I don't want to do this as much as you do.  But the Council wants their answer.  I'm sorry." 

"I said I don't know!" I cried. 

Hell's teeth scraped at the open flesh, my final scream stretching before I allowed the darkness to swallow me. 

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I woke up submerged in steaming water. 

Shooting out with wide eyes, I coughed bending over the glass tub I was in.  I sputtered, vomiting a clear liquid substance until my chest hurt.  Moving my clunky dirty blonde wet hair, I slowly regained breathing control. 

Surveying the room, I found rows of other glass tubs, naked people inside.  Some glass tubs were covered, looking like tubes.  The patient looked as if they were sleeping, wires stuck to their skin. 

My gaze dropped to my wired wrists.  I tore off the plastic suction cups and ran over my back.  Smooth. 

Sliding a hand over my bare body, the cuts and bruises from haja sangue were gone.  "Holy miracle," I whispered, that saying Isaac used to say.  "Isaac."  Dark shaggy hair waved in the liquid three tubs away.  My anxious heart did a mini dubstep.  I stumbled onto the icy ground, smacking into the cold air and I slapped my hands on the closed tube my friend was in. 

Disappointment smothered my excitement once I realized it wasn't him.  Oh how I missed him...

An immediate draft breezed and I shivered, my gaze searching for clothing.  Finding a white robe hanging off a tub, I tossed it on and fled from this peculiar room, into the underground hallways.  I frantically followed the pipes, wanting to give Levi a piece of my mind.  Screw what the Council said!  He was a gang leader!  He knew better and didn't have to listen to them.  I couldn't believe he allowed the majority to rule him like that.  I couldn't believe he proceeded with the voting result!  Frustration couldn't begin my current state. 

Speeding across the cool cement barefoot, I was now in the foyer.  My eyes laid on Levi who seemed to be in a deep conversation with Casper.  I felt a pang of anger burst through my chest and I shoved a blonde model clear from my path.  I stormed in front of his tanned face. 

Stringing together inventive curses that would have put the Devil in his place and made Heaven a forbidden land.  The curses were beautiful art Picasso could never draw with a pencil because it was too explicit for his Catholic hands.  It was a combination that was too complex for the Oxford Dictionary and a masterpiece that merged Chicago gang vocabulary and a lunatic who escaped from a mental institution. 

Snipers stopped in their tracks, appalled by this mad creature who dared to threaten the great Levi.  Once I finished, my breath came in thin gasps and I was hugging my robe from scratching his face. 

His reaction was stunned to say the least.  Although he towered over by several inches, I hoped he felt insignificant and small, because I was done with being his doormat. 

I left in silence, marching through the halls to my room where I laid quietly on my bed.  An empty feeling settled in my stomach.  Yes-because I haven't eaten.  And how there was relief-I had finally exploded.  The grief of my family, depression of my loneliness, misery of the murders I committed, and irritation of how I didn't know what was coming next, confusion of how I didn't know who I was.  Full blown insanity from haja sangue and Romane. 

Romane. 

Filthy son of a gun. 

Levi. 

Satan's child. 

Who knew such potent hate could get me so wound up.  I turned over and screamed in my pillow.  My lungs ached yet the screams continued until my voice had gone astray.  I spilled the last drops of those outrageous emotions into each chord, soon punching the pillow.  I pictured Romane's face there.  Then Levi's.  I pounded faster, one fist smacking into the cushion before the other could begin. 

Look at you.  You're out of control. 

With one last punch, I dropped my balled hands.  I gulped down a bowl of air, calming my throbbing heart.  "Okay.  Okay, Jessie."

So I sobbed.  My shoulders were trembling, I was curled like a baby in a womb, crying hard.  Snot dribbled and my head ached from crying, but the tears never ended.  My heart burned, crashed and it was as if I was drowning in my salty creations. 

And at last, I was drained.    

Dropping my head into the crinkled silk, I allowed the tension within my fingers to calm.  I had lost something.  Within that last punch.  A part of me.  But I had gained something. 

"Exhaustion," I snorted.  I rethought that. 

"Madness," I clarified. 

Whatever it was-it was refreshing.  I could stretch without having the fear of Levi breathing down my neck.  No fear of breaking because it had already happened.  I didn't have the fear of losing myself.  Because I had already lost everything.  If there was no going back, I must look forward.  Work this game these gang leaders are playing.  Win.  Show no mercy. 

Arrogance swept over and I smirked.  That must have been it. 

"Fearlessness."  I no longer had the urge to hesitate.  I was a newborn Jessie.  My breakdown was the release of the old Jessie.  The tide that swept the broken pieces and left nothing but a fresh start.

I was Jess now.  Squeezing my eyes shut, I nuzzled close into the pillow and told my body to sleep.

It did. 

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This morning, the shower's hot beads dug into my skin, burning any remnants of grief.  Feeling renewed, I slid into a leather corset and tied a bow, dipping down to tie my combat boot laces and to buckle up the silver belt wrapped around the black snake skin pants.   

Eggs.  I could smell eggs.  My ghostlike footsteps left the room, tracking the delicious scent into a grand dining area.  I failed to see the end of a Nile River sized glass table, it stretching farther than I ever imagined.  Hundreds-possibly thousands of Snipers were eating and chatting to their shoulder partners, like a big happy family.  I searched for Casper. 

Running a hand through my damp hair, I made my way over and plopped beside him.  "Isn't it the witch herself?" Casper smirked and reached the bread basket.

My lips pulled upwards.  "Why good morning to you," I responded.  Overwhelmed by the food, I scooped everything in sight, wanting a taste of all the delicacies. 

"Hey losers," Cray announced, taking a seat across from us along with Snapback.  I drank my orange juice as his gaze grew wide at the food mountain on my plate.  "You really want to make your last breakfast worthwhile, huh?"

I choked on the pulp.  "Last breakfast?" 

He laughed, munching on a bacon strip from Snapback's plate.  "Yeah.  Haven't you heard?  Levi is going to kill you." 

My stomach churned.  "For humiliating him in the foyer?"

Snapback swallowed a grape.  "Nono.  He let that one go.  He has this thing for letting small things go." 

My gaze dropping, I knifed my scrambled egg and asked, "Then what did I do?" 

Cray shrugged.  "I just saw him chewing on his lip in his office when coming for breakfast.  Levi chewing his lip means he's frustrated.  Usually frustration builds into murder." 

I dropped my fork and pointed a blaming finger.  "You said he was going to kill me!" 

"He is."

Snapback raised her arm. "I vote change of subject."  She directed her attention at me and waved the stabbed bacon.  "Congratulations on winning haja sangue!" 

The hot anger transferred to my cheeks, and I buried the thought of Levi killing me.  Plastering a huge grin, I popped a grape in my mouth.  "Thanks." 

Cray turned his neck and sceptically stared.  "So how does it feel to eat your last grape?"  Snapback hit his skull with her palm and I chuckled, enjoying his loud wince. 

He flicked a crumb off his plate.  "Just letting you know, I took it easy on you, Jessie." 

Amused by his lame excuse, spoke a, "Sure," and nudged the quiet Casper.  "What about you?  Are you going to tell me you took it easy too?" 

Casper stopped his diving spoon, and looked up, catching my gaze and held it.  "No.  You won fair and square and I'm man enough to admit I did not take it easy, unlike dingle ball over there." 

"Dingle ball?" I grinned.  Snapback and I exchanged snickers, eyeing Casper who seemed to viciously slice his omelette. 

"You better eat those last words, Jessie," he grumbled.  "Bitch." 

Lifting a challenging brow, I kicked my feet up and slammed my heel on his plate, breaking it in half.  My legs crossed on the table, he stared mortified at his squished food, egg yolk splashed across his chin. 

"Did you say something?" I asked sweetly.

"My egg!" 

Casper contained his mirth unlike Snapback whose face dissolved into a fit of giggles.  That is-until the entire table fell silent.  Their amused reactions melted to the ground and I kept eating with my legs up. 

"You're wanted all over Hong Kong," Levi growled, slapping the newspaper on the breakfast table.

I didn't bother to answer and moved the bowl of chicken soup in front of me.  He poked the paper's headlines, his voice dripping with exasperation.  "This is what happens when you don't listen to me." 

Diverting my gaze to the newspaper, I scanned the photo to see my fist go flying into a man's face when circled in Temple Market, the time when the boys had left me.  My fingers brushed against my opened lips.  Colour was sucked off my face.  "Oh no."  I frantically picked up the article.  "Nonononono.  This can't be happening."  I looked over the photo again.  "They got my bad side!" 

A snort escaped from Snapback and she quickly lowered her head.  The grinding of his teeth was louder than my chewing, and I turned around.  "Do you mind?  I'm trying to eat." 

His thick brows met and he replied icily, "Of course I don't mind.  I don't mind the fact your legs are on our table, and the fact you broke one of our plates.  Or how you beat me in haja sangue or how you yelled in my face yesterday." 

"I love how you refer to 'our'.  Makes us sound so..."  I searched the air for a word.  "Close." 

He advanced forward, resting his elbows on my seat.  He picked up a knife, twiddling it between his fingers.  The blade whizzed like a propeller, an inch from my ear. "Yes.  So close." 

I shivered as his hot breath skimmed over my scalp.  He spoke calmly.  "You do understand you're unable to leave the Snipers base.  Scientists and the government are putting out a huge reward if you're found.  Not only are gangs on the hunt for you now, but even simple pedestrians would try to capture you.  They think you're some sort of mutant."  He scoffed.  "I mean, a little girl fighting off about twenty men with her bare hands?  Seems kind of like a mutant to me." 

Flinching at his comment, I collected my thoughts and said coolly, "No, she seems pretty skilled." 

"That's not what the Council says," he breathed.  He looked around the muted table, eyes averting as soon as he met them.  "You may all continue with your breakfast."  As the chatter slowly began to spread, I rooted my gaze ahead, ignoring his presence behind me.  "You did good out there," Levi murmured.  My heart skipped.  "But the Council was disappointed about the newspaper.  You're walking the line, Jessie."

I took the orange juice into my hands.  "So if I step out of Sniper base they'll be furious?"

"Royally," he answered.  "Haja sangue isn't enough to worth your value.  You need to show them you deserve to live.  Look at me."  I obeyed, feeling an odd warmth surge through my fingers as he detained my gaze.  A thin grey t-shirt traced his defined muscles, my eyes making way to his dark bristled chin to the honey irises I seemed to always be stuck in. 

"Now that you know the insides of our base and how we work, you do understand if you fail to prove use to us, we will have to kill you.  What you are exposed to are Sniper secrets which we will not risk of spreading."

My chest clenched and I nodded, "I understand.  But I would like to get out of this hell hole once in a while." 

He placed the knife down, his arm touching my shoulder as he reached forward.  A strange tingle surged my skin.  "You can't."   

A smirk was drawn across my mouth.  "Yes I can.  People have choices.  I can do anything if I wanted to." 

Snapback drew a low whistle and Levi glared.  She aimed her fork.  "You go girl.  Show him whose boss."  

Casper scowled, looking at me, "Who do you think you are? God?"

"No.  She's Jessus," Cray piped. 

Casper frowned.  "Jessus?"

"Combination of Jesus and Jess.  Jessus," Cray said.

I rolled my eyes at his lame humour and still felt Levi behind.  I pushed my chair out, sending him a step back.  "You can't leave the base," Levi repeated.  "And if you did, how would you protect yourself?  You hardly know how to control your skill."    

When I noticed he was correct, I answered subtly, "Then train me." 

"Train you?" he asked, shock sparked in his gaze. 

"Yes.  T-R-A-I-N.  Train.  Me.  Teach me how to fight with and without needing the drug, teach me how to trigger it, teach me how to control it, teach me how to become a Sniper," my tone showing no sign of hesitation.

Apparently it crossed his face, his mind processing this idea.  "But if even if you can fight, you'd still stand out in the crowds of Hong Kong.  You'll be seen." 

An abrupt boost of confidence rattled my brain and I found myself leaning into Levi's ear, speaking just under a breath, "What you don't understand darling, is that as a Sniper, we are hidden within the scenery, where you'd least expect it.  We are trained to kill unseen.  We are trained to be unseen.  We are the unseen."  I was sure my voice dropped an octave.  "I will be a Sniper.  You will train me." 

His body going rigid, I passed him and exited, detouring by Snapback's office which a guard quickly gave me directions to.  It unlocked and I grabbed the supplies I needed.  I hid back in my bathroom. 

Closing the door, I saw the reflection of a tanned 5'2 girl, her chocolate brown eyes tired, but glowing with assurance.  Small pointed nose and soft brows, I touched her full bottom lip and her head tilted.  Straight dirty blonde hair was gingerly spilled across her perky chest, down her spine, innocence and vulnerability like a halo.  

I stood there, just staring as I allowed the final image of me to sink in before I started.  My trembling fingers reached the scissors.  The first snip was kind of jagged, but I kept cutting, the strands falling onto the marble tiles.  Breathing a relieved sigh with the weight off, I slipped my hands in the plastic gloves. 

It was a long process, every stroke reminding me this was my life, and I had to find a way to survive.  Every dirty blonde strand turning black reminding me this was Jess. 

Not the average New Yorker.  Not the killer.  Not the little girl. 

But the Sniper. 

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