Silent. Unnoticed. Cursed.

Shadows.

Silhouettes.

A silver moon.

The night was rendered in charcoal as the inkling specks filled the night. The moon was hanging low at this time with its full circle shape.

I was back in this place as I was seated on the ground, my back rested on a tree. This place was bed for a dead person—a place where my mother's remnants were being hidden on the ground.

A lonely smile was etched on my lips. I watched her name written on the gravestone. It had been years since she left.

Her death caused a great tragedy to me. I felt like I died as well. I thought . . . the life in my eyes would never bring back again.

Not until she came, the lady with a hope in her name.

I had it coming. Betting my life in a lion's den would be a dangerous game. A mafia was a place where death was lingering all the corner, where vile creatures were living.

She was one of them. I never minded her pasts and flaws, so I fell in love with her.

Her strong will to have a new life astonished me. Unlike I, soon as my mother died, lost my will to live.

I was warned about the threats about her. But I was struck whenever she smiled. Her smiles are the rarest of all, but they were priceless and precious as though the rays of colors flew and ran in every direction. She painted the blank canvas in me with the colors on her fingertips.

She was beautiful, yet poisonous.

The strange darkness of that night never left my memory. I remembered how the blood draped her whole being. I watched her how she cried, bled, and almost died. I was in the corner of her eyes, but she was not looking at me.

"Tell me, is it wrong to live . . ? This is the life that the heaven gave me, then no matter what, I need to live this kind of life, right?"

Her words were dwelling in my mind. I knew all along that she suffered more than of any of us. Yet I couldn't forgive her.

"Hey . . . do you understand? What I'm trying to say is . . . this is my only life, right? That's because . . . when I lose this existence of mine, then it's all over. I can't get it back."

I couldn't forgive her, for killing the only woman of my life—my mother. Even her, she couldn't bring the life of my mother that once was she held.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to the grave. "for loving the one who murdered you."

It was all a mistake.

I sighed heavily and closed my eyes frustratedly. Damn this.

"I knew that I would find you here." a male voice said in a hushed tone.

I eyed the man sideways. Nathan. He was here. I never said a thing, only letting him stay here. He sat beside, a meter apart.

"I apologize, Chance," he started, "about your mother."

"Should I say 'thank you'?" I retorted, sighing.

I hear Nathan collected air inside and puff it out slowly. "Neither I nor Hime knew about it."

"How come you never knew?"

"Scrutinizing her brain, I suppose." he answered with a shrug. "You knew about it. But if my parents would know such as that matter, well, I haven't asked them."

Funny how this story became so twisted. It was ironic that the time my mother died, I asked Nathan to teach me how to be strong, so that I could, someday, avenge her death. He taught me. He selflessly taught me. I was grateful.

But this time, I discovered that the one who killed her was Nathan's sister (though they were not connected in the blood, but tied in their souls); the one lady who once I cherished and loved.

"Do you still need a revenge, Chance?" he asked, as if he read my thoughts.

"How could I supposedly get my revenge?" I returned the question.

Then he chuckled with a melancholic tune, "You don't have to." and sighed.

I knitted my brows slightly. "What do you mean?"

In my peripheral view, I saw him pulled his head up and dolefully looked at the grey moon. "Last two nights ago, Hime went to the Black Society's Don to seek answers from the past. My father arranged the private meeting and surprisingly, the Don accepted it. There was a one-day truce between our families."

I only listened. How strong enough of her, entering the enemy's house.

"Then they sailed on the sea, having a luxury liner." Nathan said shortly. "They talked, yet the words they exchanged are still mystery. They became unspoken truths . . . because," he paused. I saw him gulping his guts up and clenching his fists tightly. "Because once the Don left her, someone tried to assassinate her."

Assassinate her? That was not really new. She said it herself that she had spent her life running in circles, trying to run away from death and chase those people who deserved death. It was really twisted; very paradoxical.

"The news quickly spreaded out." he stated. I had not watched any news yet. I had stayed in my mother's grave since yesterday. "There was a ship wreck, and father was assured that it was the Don's liner. Of course they blamed Will Nakajima, the Don's name, for assassinating the only adopted daughter. Yet Will Nakajima strongly objected it, saying that Hime and him talked in peace, and left her in peace."

Another long sigh was exhaled out from him. He was frustrated, I could see it.

"Then, where is she now?" I questioned him.

"Although it is still a mystery who shamelessly tried to assault her," stated him, "she is missing. No sign of her, even finding her body on the depths of the ocean. Both on land or under the sea, we tried to search for her, but still, we saw nothing. It is either her remnant is drifted far away by the ocean or the one who killed her took her body."

"Killed?" I repeated. I wanted a better explanation for it.

"That is only the worst thing we can ever think of." then he stood up grunting. "I only came here to tell you the news."

I had no intention to reply. After what he had said, I didn't know what to return.

"Man up, Chance." he sputtered and turned his heels to me. "You had what you wanted, without coloring your hands in red. The retaliation of her sinner's life have backfired earlier than we thought. That is why you don't have sulk in this hellhole of place, you immature prick."

"Then, congratulation for me." I smirked, trying to provoke him. "That's really meant for y'all ruthless sinners, huh? What a shame."

I heard him scoff, "You don't really knew everything, right, Chance? Do you know why your mother is killed?"

"Because your sister did so." I countered back with clenched jaw.

"Right, someone might deceived her to kill your mother, but there is a greater explanation for that." then he turned around again, facing me. He walked closer and pulled the collar of my polo. "Haven't you been told that someone tried to assassinate your whole family that time? My sister was just a tool, but there was a mastermind. Do you know who? It is the Don of the Black Society. Why would the Black Society chase the Cain's to death? Because they are rats."

"What the hell are you saying?" I exclaimed and attempted to give him a punch. But he dodged it and let go off my collar. "Are you saying that my parents were part of that damned mafia?"

A corner of his lips arched up. "Consider why your family was living in a secluded place, where my family was living in our childhood times?"

I get what he meant. I discovered that truth, when I asked about it to my father. We were living inside the range of the Twain's property back then. But why?

"Because your family was running away from the Black Society." he answered. "The best solution was to hid behind the mortal enemy of it, the White Nation. But why were they hiding?"

"Shut it. I don't wanna hear, you dumb bastard."

His smirk resounded. "Because they betrayed the Don. Their hiding was not enough. Someone really must have to pay for it. And your mother was the sacrificial lamb. What a shame."

"The same goes for you." I spat in anger. "Your sister paid for it! My mother had nothing to do with this."

"Tch." Nathan hissed, "Your mother and father were both Executive Members of the Black Society. Meaning, they were highly skilled reapers. Killing was only their life, not until they fell in love." and he scoffed.

"Like I would believe in you." I said. Executive Members? Like I gave a fuck.

"I have my evidence." he replied. "It is hidden inside the room of the Grim Reaper full of Archaic Records. I can show you the book." and then Nathan started to walk. "Don't insult us, Chance, for being sinners. Your parents were one of them. Don't let your mother be ashamed of her past self, you'll make her sad, you idiot asshole. You also came from the blood of sinners, Chance. You reek of shame in this society."

Maybe it was the best time to know about it, if that bastard Nathan was saying the truth.

"Don't suck in the past, dimwit." he added. "Your mother will not like it if you succumb in her death over and over again. And besides . . . you only have one loss, Chance. Only one fucking loss." he emphasized and left the place.

I sighed and fell my back on the ground. "Not only one, damn it. It is two fucking losses." Then I look at night sky, "Miracle . . ." and whispered her name and closed my eyes tightly. "Fuck this."

↭ ♡ ↭

after all the chapters, let's have a point of view of Chance. I wrote this to know what did Miracle's family when they discovered that she was assassinated.