[VI] Meaning...

Port Blazefall, SouthSide Neighborhoods.

Ravinder "OWL" Dennell

Pain changes people, in most cases pain helps you grow and it isn't always fatal. No one has ever died from a bruise and once it heals. The pain goes away but for the OWL, all the pain seemed necessary. He had deep fatal scars that most people believed, he had died a while ago but the man who sat in the middle of the very dimly lit room staring at the wall that had 21 identical, white masks on it all neatly placed in rows of 5's for no apparent reason. He looked at them ALL like they had too much meaning. One would assume that it was clearly pointless but for OWL it meant EVERYTHING. ALL 21 of the identical white masks had a name and for every mask. He knew its story personally, this was part of his daily routines, but to him it was pointless. He enjoyed working at his Tattoo parlour called Nest that wasn't far from the beachfront and a local diner, he would open shop every day at 9 am and work till 6 pm and though he loved his job more than anything. Not many people came into the shop anymore and for him every day felt pointless. He believed in living life in routines and he would strictly obey them every day. But it meant nothing to him and every day of every single week, in every single second felt like a burden. He yearns and waits for 6 pm to strike because that is when he began his routine he would take a bath around 6-7 pm after work, cook himself a full meal that had all necessary proteins and exercise while listening to music until 10 p.m, he had a thing for listening to blues as he waited for the only time of the day that mattered to him, he lived life for 10 pm and once it hit. To him, it is the only thing that gave him meaning in life. The pain was the only thing that reassured him of his existence, self-inflicted pain as he would reopen those deep wounds every day and pour salt inside. He was addicted to it and without it. He would be dead, it was the only thing keeping him alive but it was proof that the famous tattoo artist is known as SouthSide's da Vinci had died and corpse, a whole new was reborn and he named himself OWL... OWL sat on a stool in the centre of the room, the light from above him was swinging in slow circles and the shadows made by the light made the Masks seem alive like they were trying to come out of the wall but he just took his time staring at them each while tattooing his left arm in a very strange tribal... To him, this was his favourite form of entertainment and he considered it a game he would stare into the eye holes of every mask and he would put the puzzle together. He knew the eyes that wore the Masks and that is exactly what he had tattooed on his left arm, in tribal it was the exact tattoo of their eyes it covered half of his forearm and this would be the first move of the moves he played at night. Then he would take 6 milligrams of Blue Ticks Pills which was 3 times higher than the prescribed limit and he would pull out a small, notebook that was nearly full. On every line, there were 3 numbers and now he was Adding another 3

3, 14, 21

These numbers were from the Masks on the walls and they revealed the location of the other puzzle pieces. He could see everything. He had seen through the darkness that was placed on their city, he knew everyone the Masks knew and he knew that there was a game to be played but what got him most excited was that he knew that there were other key players in the game and most had already made their move, he knew them all by name but they had never met them, he wanted to. But most importantly he knew who was in the lead and he was challenging him but no one else knew who he was, yet he saw the game clearly, in every little detail but just as an OWL in the wild, he remained unseen and he only played the game after 6 p.m. but he was prepared and tonight he found another who made their whispers in the dark. Prey that gave away their locations. The darkness is what he loved wholeheartedly and the old wooden clock alerted him that it was 11 p.m. and he had found his meaning and as always he grabbed his dusty, black coat and the 3 surgical knives for each mask and as he walked out the parlour he had a grin on his face. He had found more...

Another 3 have found their way...

SO a new 3 Will receive my understanding...

OWL walks off into the empty, yet misty streets of the coastal area of The SouthSide Neighborhoods... as he reaches the shadows made by the tall buildings, he is engulfed in darkness and disappears completely...

An hour later

A man, dressed in all black wearing a black snapback that covered his eyes completely, carrying a brown knapsack walks into the tattoo parlour and heads straight to the back room, his eyes are completely concealed by the cap he is wearing. On arrival in the room, he reveals himself to be OWL after removing the cap, opens up the knapsack and pulls out 3 identical masks he puts on the wall and opens his tiny notebook to the front and writes down their numbers...

22, 23, 24...

The clock rings a bell alerting him that it is 12 am-Midnight, OWL takes 9 milligrams of Blue Stabilizers and another 6 milligrams of Blue Ticks Pills and heads off to bed after taking a cold glass of water... his move is done... for the day...

But to any normal person, this man's motives, routines, and actions would seem rather meaningless, but only those with the bloodthirsty eyes of a predator that understands the full extent of their bloodlust would be able to decipher him...Ravinder "OWL" Dennell was the perfect, naturally gifted apex predator of darkness who had long mastered the hunt and admires those he had chosen to be his prey... He sees their moves and knows the name of every single player in this new game but plays it all neatly, every single day for 1 hour. He collects information in the day since most of the local gangsters come to his store to get their "flags" but he makes sure to remember one detail about them all...Their eyes... The eyes, he would tattoo into the tribal on his left arm, so perfect. Then begins his game of kidnapping, torturing and killing 3 members of their secret, criminal organization called Masks that specializes in extortion and murder, spending their nights causing chaos in all the districts of Port Blazefall yet, they go unpunished, they appeared about 3 months ago and they appear usually at nights, they are well armed and they began their spree of extortion, rape and killing indiscriminately. Those who refused their fees and demands are publicly executed and their bodies are eventually found in the morning. During the day Ravinder learns about his pray by night time, he knows where they stay, collects information about the other targets while disguising himself as them, his reward is their masks and their eyes that he would always cut in such a way that it would almost pop right out but the victim would either bleed to death or die from the trauma. He does all this in an hour. But to him it all meant nothing. ALL he desires is to do is to find a reason to live. So to him, finding someone he would be forced to fight to his full extent was his only salvation. Placing himself at death's door from overdosing while going on a mass homicide every night just to put their masks on his wall as trophies. Seemed like an interesting way to keep himself busy while waiting for their inevitable appearance but honestly he did all this to clear the playing ground of weaklings so he could begin the real battle and defeat the final player standing... But Ravinder wasn't always like this... this was the effects of the series of intensely traumatic experiences that had begun 6 years ago, to a young man who had just begun to make his life in a new city that forced him to be this way...

Pain changes people

Ravinder had graduated from high school, back when he still lived with his parents on the farmlands far away from the evils of the city but due to the distance, his opportunities were very limited and was looking into studying further, So only way he could do that was by moving to the city but luckily his older sister Stacy Dennell, had a flat in the southern part of the Port and she lived close to a college that had Computer Programming as a course. A subject he happened to be good at. He had many talents and hopes of creating games and advanced algorithms that would be used by banks or the mafia and big financial companies, he was also amazingly talented in painting, too, he always aimed at capturing every, exact detail of what he would paint. This gave him the nickname of SouthSide's Da Vinci

So in about 3 months in he was attending South Fall University and everybody knew about their boy Ravi. He would always come into the local diner where his sister worked and ordered a meal from "The Special Menu" which was 3 waffles with honey and a side of the coffee Stacy was so good at making. 'coz every day at that exact time people would come in for that coffee. This made the whole place seem more like a second home because the diner was owned by a family that they were good friends to. She has been working in the city for a while and this happened to be the most stable job around these parts if you were trying to avoid the local criminals of the city and the SouthSide happened to be safer those days. But one-day news came in about an accident that killed a couple in the farmlands. Rumour was that it was a gas leaked that set the house ablaze and burned them to death. So people used to always share their news around the diner and if you listened well enough, you could feel the city breath and observe how it moved and how all the inhabitants were different in their ways. So eventually word came across Stacy and once she heard it, She had a feeling it sounded too familiar and after enough thought, she knows she had to go home to check. When they went home they were met by the ashes of the Dennel's farm. But they couldn't find their bodies, they needed to be laid to rest but there weren't any. Their bodies were a part of the ashes of their home...

When they got back to the South. Things weren't the same, none of them knew how to deal with the pain, naturally, Stacy put in the extra hours to try to assist in feeding the emptiness with the extra money but Ravi was all alone, eventually got into some bad company and things started getting bad.

"First time for everything" was Jess's words when he had finally convinced him to take Blue Ticks Tabs with him. He was the new friend that had a rather shady past, people knew about it and it seemed he was affiliated with the Eastway Families and was trying to make his way up in their business. They had been feeding their lethal contraband into the South for a while now and Blue Ticks has claimed many victims around there. Ravi would be one of them.

Stacy got home to find him on the bloody kitchen floor of their flat with a broken, porcelain cup he had badly cut himself with. He had just overdosed and if she hadn't had found him. He would've died so she got a few connects, worked every shift and used every last penny to get her Lil brother back... And by some luck, there was a rehab recently opened that was assisting returning soldiers who were used as test subjects of the Blue Ticks in the war. But they agreed to do their best as long as Stacy's money was good. She would do anything to save him and that's exactly what she did. For the past 3 years. Just so he could come home to her and so she could support him with all the pain they had because of their parent's death, she regretted how she neglectful to see how it all affected her little brother...

At some point, Ravi came home but he never went back to attend at South Fall University and he rarely came around the diner much. Jess was nowhere to be found. People said he joined in one of the gangs and even though everyone was glad he had survived somehow deep inside they knew he had died. And he spent his days in the flat working on his art. Never came out or spoke much either.

Till that night on the 3rd of July, the diner was robbed at midnight by 3 masked assailants. In the report, they say she resisted but they knew she was paralyzed by the fear and because of that, she had been gunned down by the lead assailant...

Till that one night where Officer Naomi found them, as firewood for a raging hellfire in the Eastway District. Two bodies were burned beyond recognition but they didn't die because of the flames. They had been brutally tortured for hours beforehand then placed into the house that was filled with gas tankers... She was really good at reading these situations and these weren't the actions of a mafia paid killer. It was the actions of someone who wanted a revenge with all their heart. And she knew that the killer wasn't far off as she set out to search for them. 30 minutes away from the scene is where she found Ravinder Dennel and Jessie Binici. But something was wrong with Mr. Binici. He was covered in blood, that all seemed to come from one source. His eyes had been cut out. As Naomi turned to find Ravinder, in tears.

"What happened?"

"PLEASE... Just save him. He is hurt and I don't know what to do"

But Jessie had died a long time ago. He had either bled to death while being carried all the way here. Or he had died of the trauma of having his eyes cut out. Either way, Ravinder was carrying his dead body ever since because of the bloody mask he had in his left hand. He carried it around like a trophy trying to explain the need to save his dead friend. Naomi knew exactly what had happened and she knew that Jessie deserved what he got. She believed in justice. The justice that she never had in the war. And in one look at it all. she knew she needed to say something.

"Go..."