Chapter 1- Double-Crossed

TWO WEEKS AGO...

JUNE 5th, 2096.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

(MEL'S POV)

I pull my hand back, releasing an arrow and watching it hit the man straight through the neck, not before quickly repeating the process at least five times.

There's too many of them.

They keep coming.

Where's Ray?!

I duck right when a black laced arrow flies over my head, quickly shooting again over the edge of the building.

"Mel!"

I look over, and Ray motions I come over, pointing quickly behind me.

I notice three men rounding the corner, quickly teleporting over to him.

We both hide behind a tall wall, and I give him the side eye.

"You're never here when I need you! Where in the world did you go this time, Levine?!"

Ray gives me a sheepish smile.

"Killing other people Mel. You can't do the job alone."

I sigh.

"Well, we can't just sit here and wait for them to pass. I'm going out. There's only three of them. I can easily knock them out with my dagger."

I pull a small but sharp knife from my belt with a smile, standing up.

"I'll be back. You'll know if I need help. You can just shoot them with your arrow from up here while I take care of everyone else."

Ray nods, and I smile.

"Good. I'll be back."

I quickly lift myself over the wall, landing on my feet before standing up.

"Hey! Were you looking for me?"

The three men turn around, and grins stretch across their faces.

******

(FOX'S POV)

We all turn around, and my lips spread in a smirk.

Melanie Bronze.

Notorious hitwoman from Chicago who's been easily avoiding the cops and secret service, aka me and my team, with her partner Ray Levine, for the past six years.

Except she isn't paid for her hits, she just does it for fun. Sick little fuck.

Ray works for us.

An undercover agent.

What the girl doesn't know won't kill her.

But in this case that's completely wrong.

She can rot away in hell for all I care.

"Melanie Bronze. You'd be surprised how much I hear about a little pipsqueak like you."

She smiles, her one bright orange eye boring into mine.

She has an eyepatch over her other from getting shot in the eye with an arrow. Levine told us.

She spins the knife by the blade in her hands, unbothered by the small amounts of blood spurting from it.

"Fox Gunner. Aaron Blanc. Devin Alvarez. Pleased to see you and your team. I killed most of them. You'd never know how much damage an arrow could do. Especially if laced with what was it? Oh. Sarin!"

My smirk drops and I raise my gun, pointing it at her.

She raises her bloodied hands, shaking her head.

"Drop the gun, Fox. I only have a knife. Would that be a fair fight? I'll loose the dagger if you get rid of your weapons. Let's fight with our hands, shall we? It won't be uncomfortable, don't worry. My skin is exceptionally soft."

She lowers her hands slowly, dropping the dagger and kicking it towards us.

Aaron gives me a sideways glance.

"Are we really fighting her, Gunner?"

I shake my head solemnly, looking at him briefly.

"Do you think I'm stupid, Blanc? We're just going to go along with her little game first before finishing her off, alright?"

He nods.

"Alright."

We both drop our weapons, and Devin rolls his eyes before dropping his gun as well.

Melanie smiles.

"Who's doing the first move? I assume it's me. Ladies first, you know?"

She literally teleports a few feet away from me, cocking her head to the side.

What the fuck?! She can—

"I can teleport. I know what you're thinking. It's 2096, Fox, not 1996. Anything's possible."

I hear the small echo of a voice, and notice it's coming from a small device attached to her ear.

It looks like an earring.

There's multiple of them.

What is that?!

As my eyes scan the multiple earrings on her ear, I realize ones a camera. A tiny camera.

Another one.

She disguised her microphone.

I grab her by the back of the neck, ripping both small devices from her ear.

She lurches slightly, but doesn't make any other reaction as her ear begins to bleed profusely.

Some of the splatters hit the white of the side of her eyepatch, and she raises her hand to her ear with a small smile before looking back at me.

"That was a little uncalled for, wasn't it? Look what you've done..."

I release her, and Aaron and Devin watch her closely as I stare into the camera.

"Who's watching through this?! Who's listening?!"

My eyes shoot back to Melanie, who's now laughing.

"Maxwell Trinidad."

********

(MAX'S POV)

I see the one and only Fox Gunner staring at me through Mel's earring-camera I made for her, and let out a grunt.

What is she doing?!

And where is that redhead Ray when we need him?!

He's always gone.

"Mel?! Mel!"

The camera goes black and bums out when Fox drops it and stomps on it, and I hear his voice through the microphone with Mel's laughter echoing in the background.

Goddamnit.

"Maxwell Trinidad, successful bomber and computer hacker...what makes you work for someone like Melanie, huh?"

"Mel works for me, Gunner."

"You're going to tell me where the bomb is, right?"

I hear a small yelp, and then his voice again.

"If you don't I can easily throw your toy off the roof. Actually—Ray would."

"What?!"

I yell into the microphone, and I hear his laughter.

"Ray works for us, Maxwell. I thought you'd figure that out with your level of intelligence. Don't worry, Max. The police are already at your door."

I hear pounding on my front door, watching it fly open.

Tons of officers and SWAT members raid my home, pointing their large guns at me.

I immediately pick up a small bomb, grinning.

"Come any closer and I'm blowing myself up."

I hear Fox's voice through my ears, and press the button, throwing the bomb, laughing as the small device blows up in their faces.

I get up, running out of the house before I myself get set on fire, cursing myself in my head when I see a shit ton of cop cars swerving down the road.

*********

(MEL'S POV)

I'm getting held against Fox by my neck, and hear explosions coming from the microphone.

Fuck.

I throw my head back as hard as I can,  hitting him in the chest.

He stumbles back a little and I lurch forward, falling onto the floor and grabbing one of their guns.

I quickly drag myself off the floor, winded by the amount of blood still coming from my ear, hands, and now cuts on my arms and legs.

I point the gun at them, and their eyes widen.

"Stay back! Ray will come soon, but until then, it's time to have fun.

I pull one of the bullets out, still staring straight at them as I lick it, inserting it back into the gun.

"That was for fun."

I then pull the trigger.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

I laugh as one of them falls face first into the ground, reloading the gun right when I feel a sharp stab of pain in my stomach, looking down to see the blade of my dagger staring back at me from through my abdomen.

How—?

The person yanks the dagger out as quickly as they inserted it, watching as I fall forward onto my knees.

The gun clatters away and I try to grab it, only to be yanked backward by my hair.

The blood soaked dagger is shoved uncomfortably close to my neck, and I recognize the strong aroma of cedar wood over the coppery scent of blood.

Ray.

I lift my hand up, grabbing his and struggling to yank the knife away from my throat.

Why are my limbs getting so heavy?

"Mel. Stop struggling. Don't make it worse for yourself. You don't want to rot in prison like Max is going to. You're getting the easy way out. Just stay still."

My eye focuses on his face, and sure enough it's the soft facial features of Ray, except his sweet blue eyes have a hint of disgust in them.

He is the rat.

"Ray...let...me...go!"

He drops the knife, dragging me to my feet.

He pushes me backwards until I'm right at the ledge of the building, cocking his head to the side.

"I'm afraid I can't let a criminal as horrible as you back into the world. Goodbye, Melanie."

I let out a scream when he pushes me off the edge of the building, falling at least fifty stories before landing with a loud crack.

*********

PRESENT.

THE AFTERLIFE.

I jolt up, once again reminded of how I fucking failed.

Even in the afterlife I'm cursed with this one eye.

I stand up, looking down at my hands that still have little slash marks from tossing a knife back and forth by the blade.

I bet you didn't know that you die with all of your scars.

And all of your sins.

You're basically categorized down here by your danger level, to see who you can hang around.

There's no heaven and hell.

Whoever told you that was lying.

It's just one big place, where it's sectioned off into different towns for different people.

The worse you are as a person the worse you'll be staying.

I'm a shit person.

So I have a shot living situation for all of eternity.

I live in Town E.

That's the lowest. Out of everything.

You'd be surprised how many people are in Town E.

We just know how to hide it.

Some of us at least.

All the prim and proper little bitches live in Towns A and B, middle classers live in Towns C and D, while the worst of us live in E and F.

I haven't gone out in at least a week.

I have to today,

I'm hungry. Really hungry.

You still have to eat in the afterlife, no matter how stupid it sounds.

I'm dead.

Why do I still have to take care of myself?!

I would rather be frowning in pits of lava in hell then take care of myself in Town E.

Not a good look.

I stand up, leaving my small room-house-thing before walking down the dark one lamp lit road.

We get to stay in darkness.

It's never really sunny.

Also...we can't die. But we can get tortured.

People believe there isn't much to loose since we're already stuck in this never ending cycle of a sad loser's life.

I could still be alive killing people if it wasn't for Ray.

I want to kill him more than anything.

Max is probably still in jail, if hasn't been that long, has it? There's no time here.

I walk into a corner store, where I grab a selection of cheap junk and place it on the counter, giving the dead person three coins.

Each worth ten earth dollars.

We still have to pay.

But are given ten coins a week to survive.

The person nods, handing me back my stuff with a yawn before going back to sleeping.

I wonder what they're in here for.

As I walk aimlessly down the dark road, I trip over something and fall face first into the ground, my food scattering across the floor.

Ugh.

What did I trip over-?

"Sorry about that, darling."

I look up, my eye focusing on a teal haired man with almost black eyes.

"Darling?"

He smiles.

"You have a problem with it?"

I raise an eyebrow, before lifting myself off the ground, turning around to grab my groceries and walk away when I feel a cold grip on my wrist.

"Hey. Wait."

I turn back around, cocking my head to the side.

"Yes...?"

He grins.

"What're you here for, Mel?"

"What?"

I feel a sharp pain in my head when everything goes black.

********

(HIS POV)

I watch her squirm around in the chair she's tied in, mumbling things through the tape over her mouth.

Odd girl.

Maybe she's having a nightmare.

She jolts awake, panting.

Her eye shoots to mine, and she narrows hers.

She makes a few muffled noises, and I walk over, lifting my hand to pull the tape off my mouth when her hand shoots up, punching me in the face.

My head snaps to the side, and I soon start laughing.

"Ah. You're funny."

I undo the belt on my pants, tightening it around her wrists.

"Difficult girl you are. Must've been, important if you could say, back on earth? Is that true, Mel?"

I pull the tape from her mouth, and her orange eye stares angrily into mine.

"Who the fuck are you?! Let me go!"

"If you must know my name is Lars Whitman."

Her face drops.

"Serial killer. You died ten years ago!"

"And I'm still here. The same age as you. 23. Am I right?"

"Yes...?"

"You're Mel Bronze. Hitwoman. Except you killed for fun. Not for money. I also heard you could teleport. Are you a magician as well, Mel?"

She narrows her eye.

"Melanie to you. Once you let me go we can talk, bastard."

I cock my head to the side, lifting her chin and touching her lips with my thumb.

"Such poisonous words coming from such lovable lips. I think you should be quiet. I have a deal for you, darling. You want revenge on him, right? Ray?"

Her breath hits my thumb as she gasps slightly, before exhaling.

"Yes. How did you—"

"Enough with the questions. I'll help you get out of Town E and into Town A, so we can both get out of the Afterlife and back onto earth. But for me to do that, you'll have to stay with me so I can get my endgame as well. Deal?"

I drop my hand from her face, and her eye gleams with an unknown emotion before it turns a more reddish color.

"Deal."