Chapter 7: Bounty and Reward

Brandon walked back to his Japanese traditional house, which had a pebble path to the entrance and a lovely green lawn. On the porch of the house sat two women, a continual reminder of what the original Brandon had been doing during the short holidays as a spotter for the Agent 6 organization.

This woman had long pink tails and orange hair. She wore black leather pants, black boots, and black shades perched atop her head, revealing her round, soft eyes. Her figure was alluringly thin.

Another woman with long blonde hair wore a white outfit embellished with various colored flowers. She appeared to be in her mid-20s, and her trembling hands indicated nervousness.

Brandon grinned and sighed as he turned to face them.

"How have you guys been, before we start can I take a shower?"

When she heard this, the dress-wearing woman answered,

"You may"

However, the orange-haired woman simply shrugged her shoulder, perhaps saying, "It's okay, but don't take too long."

Brandon entered the entrance to his residence and removed his shoes before entering the restroom. He asked, as he knocked on his father's door:

"Need anything?"

A faint but distinct voice said, "Not right now, Ashley just fed and dressed me. They expressed their want to speak with you.

"I know," Brandon retorted.

He then used the restroom next to his room, removed his stench-filled garments, and placed them in the laundry basket. The shower was short and sharp, leaving just the right amount of steam behind.

He walked to his bedroom, changed into a black T-shirt, shorts, and a pager that he placed on quiet before dropping it on the bed. He covered his privates with a towel.

The two women had sat down and stood when the door opened, so he inhaled and moved to the front porch. Brandon gazed at them and remembered their names, which the original Brandon had written in his diary.

"Hello Ashley, Alice what brings you here?"

With a smile, Ashley continued,

"I am here because I take care of your father when you are away, meanwhile Alice here wants to talk"

Alice leaned slightly toward his face but said nothing as Brandon glanced at her. She withdrew and removed her smartphone, which showed a reward notification on the screen.

She tapped the notification screen, causing the following to appear on screen:

Name: Not specified

Code-name: Moody

Working as a spotter for the Agent 6 group

Description: Elf ears, milk white skin, and common height.

Live or Die

Rewards for bounty: B15,000 bards

Bring a bounty to the Agent 6 organization, and if you perished, bring your head.

Risk: Minimal

Method of handling: Proceed with caution

When Brandon realized this, he simply asked Alice, casting an imprudent glance at her,

"What am I looking at exactly?"

Alice's eyes abruptly turned a faint red:

"Are you plain stupid or are you just ignorant?"

With a smile, Brandon folded his hands and said,

"The latter, merely to aggravate you. Oh my, those eyes are really beautiful"

"Brandon focus"

"I apologies, your eyes do look good though"

"Thanks, back to topic"

Alice's eyes darkened and became deadly once she finished her sentence. From the flashbulb of memories that awoke in his sleep, Brandon realized that Alice would always provoke and elicit every feeling in his body.

Sometimes, she would make crude jokes or impressions of himself in an attempt to make him uncomfortable. There were also occasions when she would persuade him to do something out of the ordinary and tell him it was vital, only to discover that the task was a prank to get under his skin.

Brandon was a little too gullible and naïve to be Alice and Ashley's spotter before they met. A spotter is an illegal employment that most criminal organizations spend a lot of money for. The organization's duty is to examine into everyone's routine, locate their illegal blackmail chances, blackmail them, and then trap them in an infinite loop until they give up and join the group.

Similar to recruitment, the task is low risk but, if discovered, will result in a riot in jail for those who can be used as scapegoats. Because Brandon tried to be a Spotter out of retaliation for the world rejecting him, the authorities view Spotters as threats to the community. He had only worked as a spotter for the three-month school break before quitting due to an incident.

At the remark on her eyes, Alice grinned and continued,

"If you wanted to see them again, piss me off again?"

After hearing this, Brandon raised his hands in a "let's not go there" motion. Brandon cautiously posed the question:

"Do they have a clue of who I am?"

Ashley in response:

"Alice has been keeping them off your trail, so not yet. You made a wise decision by not picking up on your neighbor.

"Yeah, but why the bounty?"

Alice responded:

"The boss said you saw something, did you see something?"

Once Brandon heard this, he tried to stretch his head to check if the previous Brandon had seen the memories. Eventually, a memory of him breaking into an office late at night came back to him.

As he was looking through the desk and office cabinet drawers for something, he unexpectedly came across a stack of papers with names and descriptions on them—bounties for certain individuals along with their prizes.

However, Brandon's memory has vanished into the deep abyss while he attempts to recover it. The memory does not appear; Brandon had perceived the closed hole in the back of his head as a memory switch or button to be utilized when he wants to recollect something from his old Brandon memories.

Now that it had failed me, he took a deep breath and remarked,

"Does he know; I am still alive?"

Alice enquired, "What do you mean?" As he spoke, Brandon turned his head toward the woman and separated his hair to reveal a minor scar that appeared to be sawed back together without stitches.

"Oh my gosh, what happened?" asked a shocked Ashley.

"I don't know, there only guess is that someone knew and jumped me on my way back from the drug store and the doctor" answered Brandon.

"Did you get a good look at them?" asked Alice as she looked the scar with distain

"My memory is a bit fuzzy at the moment, I can't remember much"

"What do you remember?"

"Four guys hidden by the shadows, one stabbed me with a silver pike to the back of my head"

"How can that be, who did this and more importantly who healed you?" asked Ashley as she looked away from the scar, Alice looked at it for a bit and then stopped. Brandon turned to face them and added:

"I healed myself"

"Haha" Laughed Alice, "How can that be, doesn't you curse surpass self-healing?"

"It does, but something else happened. It's like as if the blow rewind like a clock and fixed itself, you should have seen it. The blood retreated into my wound and patched me up"

"That is both weird and impossible, Aren't you half-breeds basically Husks when the curse is active" asked Ashley.

"Yeah I thought so, Alice is there a vampire healing technique like this?"

"Not that I know of, we heal by consuming blood of others apart from ourselves. I never heard of such a technique, but I will look into it"

"Brandon that could have killed you, you did the right thing by leaving before they knew you"

"I wasn't discreet, someone knew me and ambushed me. Alice how long will it take for the Agent 6 to find me?"

"It will take a month at best, they have bigger fish to fry apart from you. The boss said you saw something but didn't say you stole something. So they may take some time to find you, in the meantime lay low until you remember those guys" explained Alice, Ashley who remained silent in this interactions added:

"I will look into that spell or technique you just described"

"Thanks Alice, Ashley where would I be without you?"

"Laying in a ditch somewhere while your father chocks on blood and I drink it"

"Alice" yelled Ashley.

"I am joking alright, I just saying that we are here for you" said Alice in an apologetic manner.

"Yeah, I am blessed to have you guys. Well I have somethings to do, He will call you when I leave again"

"Aren't you going to lay low?" asked Ashley

"I will, but right now there are something I have to deal with"

"Like exercising?" said Alice as she sniffed the circulating invisible air, "I smelled you when you got in, working up a good sweat there keep it up" as she said this, she waved as she pulled Ashley as they walked out of the gate.

Brandon waved back and entered his residence, Ashley and Alice walked the quite suburb that had some people know going about their lives.

"Huh mhmm" thought Alice out loud.

"What are you on about?"

"Is it me or did Brandon grown a bit taller since we last saw him"

"Not really, we saw him a month ago. But… you may be right he did grow" said Ashley as she analyzed and added:

"And so did his emotions, they are no longer mixed up like last time when he wanted to quit being a spotter"

"Yeah, maybe the death experience gave him a whole new perspective in his teenage life" said Alice.

"Maybe Alice, maybe"