A Little Death

Jon stood there in silence, lost in thought at his sister's words. He thought that what he had heard was wrong, so he asked his sister to repeat herself.

"Come again? I almost thought you said that Gramps died." He said with a smile on his face, but the look in his eyes was that of disbelief.

He watched as his sister got up from her seat and started to walk toward him. She had tears in her eyes as she slowly approached him.

"You're kidding, right? This got to be a joke because there's no way that old monster could just up and die; he's more healthy than the both of us, and you know it." He said with traces of the earlier smile on his face, nowhere to be found. His eyes grew dark, and his mind was in disarray; he couldn't make sense of the current situation. His grandfather's death just didn't make sense to him.

Natasha saw the shock in her brother's eyes and couldn't help running to him and embracing him in her arms. She hugged him tightly as tears started to fall from her eyes. She knew how much her grandfather meant to him; after all, he was the one who saved them and gave them their current lives.

"I'm sorry," She whispered while crying, hugging him tightly as if he were going to fall without her support, but she couldn't help but wonder if she was the one who needed support. 

"I see… So he really is dead." Jon said in an emotionless tone that made his sister start to cry even more, her tears soaking his white shirt because only she knew that the more distraught Jon felt, the more he suppressed and hid his emotions. It was a coping mechanism he developed when he was younger, and their grandfather encouraged him to use it throughout his martial arts training, telling him that it was a good habit to remain calm in every situation.

She suddenly felt his hand rubbing her back as if to comfort her and let her know he was okay. She pulled herself out of their embrace and looked him in the eye, to which he gave a brief smile to reassure her that he's alright.

"I'm fine," he said, giving her a small smile before the two of them headed back to the sofa to sit in front of their guest.

"Tell me, how did my grandfather die? My grandfather wasn't sick, and he wasn't so weak that he would just get himself killed by some random," Jon asked, glaring at the elderly man sitting across from him. 

"So you must be Jonathan Tier. You have a good look in your eyes. I am a long-time friend of your grandfather, Xing Xin. You can call me Mr. Shin." The old man introduced himself to Jon.

"Your eyes kind of reminded me of him a long time ago." The old man said with melancholy, reminiscing about something.

"Not to be disrespectful, sir, but can you just hurry up and tell me what happened to him?" Jon tried to say as calmly as possible, but the impatience in his voice couldn't hide itself. He felt a glare from his sister, which he ignored, focusing his entire attention on the old man across from him.

"Your grandfather's death was caused by the will of the people who control human society. They have the power to decide the faith of such a small country at their fingertips, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. So tell me, what can you do with that information?"

"I'll make them pay for what they did!!" Jon roared out to the old man, glaring at him as if the old man were asking him the most outrageous question.

An amused chuckle could be heard from the old man as he looked at the anger the boy was trying to suppress but failing miserably at. 

"You? What can you do to get back at them? What power and influence do you have to pose a threat to these people? Don't make me laugh, boy. I was wondering what kind of secret Hugh was hiding in this third-world country, but I guess my expectations were a bit too high." 

Mr. Shin's gaze alternated between the siblings before he gave a brief sigh and then turned to look at the man who accompanied him and gave a nod.

"Marcus, give them what belongs to them. I'll be waiting for you outside." He said this as he got up and started to make his way to the door, but before he left, he stopped and turned to look at Jon before speaking once more.

"If you're serious about your earlier statement, then gain enough power and influence to stand before me. We'll talk then." Mr. Shin turned around and exited the house after he finished.

"Ahem," Jon heard a cough and turned to see the man Mr. Shin called Marcus with what seemed to be a black metallic briefcase with goldish outlines.

"Hi, you might have heard of me before, but I am the mayor of this city, Marcus Reed. It's nice to officially meet you both." He said to us, with a smile on his face,

"Mayor? No, wait a minute, did you say your last name was Reed? Does that mean your-" Jon exclaimed in surprise before he was cut off by Marcus's voice.

"Oh? You seemed to have heard of me before. Oh, that's right, today was your first day, huh? Since you've heard of me, that means you've met Victoria already."

The mayor said with a questioning look before he nodded in understanding, as if he figured out how I came to know of him. He then sighed heavily before he continued.

"That girl is as impatient as always, I swear, but your earlier conclusion is correct; she is my daughter." He said this while looking at Jon with a small smile. Hearing his confirmation, Jon's mind became more chaotic since he couldn't figure out what this man's intentions were, so he glared at the man with distrust evident in his eye, not even bothering to hide it.

"No need to look at me like that. Whatever business you and Victoria have at school that's between you children, my purpose for being here is because I promise your grandfather that I'll keep an eye on and help out both of you when he's not around, and since I owe a lot to him, I intend to keep my promise." 

"Still, nothing in this world is without cost, so what do you want from us?" Natasha made her voice known for the first time since she regained her composure earlier. She looks at the man with blatant distrust before continuing.

"Our house, the transfer to Jon's new school, my new job at the law firm, and even Jon's previous charges that he had were all taken care of by you, right? I knew things were going a bit too smoothly, and my suspicions turned out to be true, although I hoped that we were just finally getting a tough break from our shitty lives." Natasha finished with bitterness evident in her voice as she glared at the man across from her.

"Yes, I called in a few favors from a few people—nothing much, but you don't have to worry about all that. I'm just fulfilling a promise to your grandfather, as I said earlier, although I must say you're quite sharp, Ms. Tier, to think you would have already caught on to me, as expected of that man's granddaughter." The mayor said with a mischievous smirk that Jon couldn't help but notice its resemblance to Victoria's.

The mayor then took a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Natasha. He then handed Jon the black briefcase before continuing.

"That's my business card; you can use the number on that to get in touch with me if you need anything, and that briefcase is what your grandfather left with me the last time we met. I can't tell you what's inside though, since he told me to only give that to you if something happened to him." The mayor said this as he dipped again into his shirt pocket and took out a white piece of paper that had been folded several times, holding it between his index and middle fingers. He held it up to his face, and when he saw that the siblings were paying attention to his actions, he continued.

"And this is what your grandfather had me do for you as well. He had me prepare an account where he left some of his savings for both of you. His instructions were for the both of you to split it evenly. The account information is written on this paper, and in between that paper is a debit card." He finished and handed the paper with the card to Natasha once more.

"I'm afraid this is as much time as my schedule has allowed me to spend here, but I'll come to check up on you both again." The mayor said that and turned to leave, but before he could, Natasha got up and called out to him.

"Wait before you go. Tell me something. Did that old man know all this would happen, and if he did, why didn't he tell us himself?" Natasha's voice echoed in the room, and the mayor stopped in his tracks and turned his head to look at Natasha, then let out a brief sigh.

"Although I don't know the specifics, to me, it looks like he knew what was going to happen to him, and he didn't want you both to get caught up in his business. Enjoy the rest of your evening, Ms. Tier," the mayor said as he walked towards the door and left.

Natasha stood there quietly before turning around, silently walking towards her room, and closing the door behind her. Jon silently sat there and listened for a few seconds until he could hear loud sobs coming from her room.

He sighed and stood up, pondering if he should go to her, but then he thought she should let it out of her system before he took the briefcase and headed toward his room.

Once he entered his room, he closed the door behind him, rested his back, and a heavy sigh escaped his mouth. He raised his head to look at the ceiling of his room as if he could see beyond it.

"That stupid old man"

He muttered to himself as he slowly slid down to the floor. He held the briefcase in his arm tightly as he remembered his not-so-pleasant childhood. 

He was about 5 years old, and his sister was 13 years old. Their father had just died, and no one wanted to take them in. He remembered the scornful looks they gave him and his sister and how they whispered behind their backs. 

After all, the cause of their father's death was patricide, and no one wanted to take such a risk, so they were about to be split up and sent to different orphanages. However, someone intervened at the last moment, and it was the first time they met their grandfather, Irvin Tier.

Jon felt something wet on his hand that snapped him out of his memories, and looking down to see his hands folded in a fist on that hand, he saw what appeared to be teardrops. He lifted his arm and used the back of his hand to wipe the tears falling from his eyes, but he felt a slight pain from his hand, so he brought it up to his face, turned it around, and opened his palm. He saw that his palm was cut due to his fingernails digging into his flesh due to how hard he was clenching his fist earlier.

'I got cut, huh?' He thought to himself as he watched the blood slowly run down his hand until it dripped on the briefcase. He didn't pay it much mind; he just sat there, lost in his thoughts, while watching the blood drip from the small cut on his hand. However, he glanced at the briefcase, specifically where his blood dripped, and he saw something that caught his attention: his blood was being absorbed by the briefcase.

The briefcase was hard; it was almost metallic, so there was no way that his blood should be being absorbed by it. He watched as the briefcase absorbed the droplets of blood until they were completely gone. Intrigued by what was happening, he brought the briefcase closer to him to get a better look at it.

Click

He heard a subtle click, and the briefcase was unlocked. He placed it down on the floor and then opened it up. He didn't know what he expected to see in the briefcase, but he surely wasn't expecting what he saw. 

In the briefcase, seven vials were neatly arranged beside some syringes, along with a flash drive. Jon took up one of the vials to look at it; it was a 20-ml-size vial that contained transparent goldish-looking liquid inside. He held it close to his face to try and determine what was inside the vial, but he couldn't make a guess about what it was.

Jon then glanced at the flash drive that was in the briefcase and took it up. He examined it for a few seconds and turned his head toward his laptop that was on his study desk.

'Maybe more information about these vials is on this flash drive. He thought to himself as he got up and made his way toward his laptop.

He turned on his laptop and inserted the flash drive into it. What he found on the flash drive was several different folders, but the one that caught his attention was titled 'Dear Family' Jon scoffed at the title before clicking on that folder, and what was inside was a video that his grandfather left for him and his sister.

Jon pondered whether he should go and call his sister so that they could both watch the video, but he decided that he could always show her later, after all, she needed some alone time right now. So he clicked on the video, and it started to play.

"Dear Jon and Tasha, if you are seeing this, that means I'm already dead. For that, I'm truly sorry, but listen closely to what I'm about to say."