| Fan Fiction |
by x.shuang.dao.x
“Are you afraid right now?” The voice resonated through the empty warehouse, but Owodog couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
He kept quiet as he darted furtive glances around him without moving his head. His legs continued to move in the direction of the opening Owodog entered through.
“You can’t see me, but I know where you are.”
Owodog frowned. He had heard this voice before, even if it sounded echoic and airy now. But no one came to mind. And as much as he would not want to admit it, he was feeling scared. He was alone in a closed space with the one of the most professional and cold-blooded killer, and now that killer had an edge over him because apparently he knew where Owodog was.
Owodog was ready to split any moment, but there was also the possibility that The Rose had already set a trap for him at the entrance. Owodog supposed he had two choices then. One would be to stay in there and end up dead for sure. The other was to make a run for it and hope he wouldn’t end up dead.
Then his ears pricked up. He could hear police sirens nearing. That was his chance. He heard a soft creak in the ceiling right above him. Owodog bolted.
The police cars were just passing by when Owodog dashed out onto the street. Behind him, there was a gargantuan crash that emanated from where he stood a couple of seconds ago. A shudder ran through him. Owodog didn’t want to know what would have become of him if he hadn’t run.
The cars screeched to a halt upon noticing Owodog. Landon and Ben got out of one of them with two other officers. Another four officers emerged from the other car.
“Ao Quan! You alright?” Landon asked as he went to Owodog to help him up.
Owodog nodded. “Yeah. He’s in there.”
Landon gestured to the rest of the men and they moved towards the warehouse. Owodog was about to follow them because there was safety in numbers, after all. But he suddenly remembered Fabien. He grabbed the officer nearest to him and informed the guy that he would not be going in with them. And Owodog was back on his own again.
-----------------------------------------------------------
“Ash!”
Ashley looked up to see Owodog running towards her.
“How’s Yu?”
Ashley shook her head. “Apparently things aren’t looking too good for him. He’s in surgery now…”
Owodog nodded gravely and sat down beside her.
“How were things on your side?”
“Bad,” Owodog confessed. “He almost got me in some creepy rundown warehouse. Thank God Landon and the guys arrived in time. They went in to get him, I left and came here.”
“What do you think are the chances of him being caught?”
“To be honest, zero percent. I guess he would have made a run for it after he missed me. He wouldn’t stay in there too long, unless he had enough fight in him to take on the eight guys.”
“We will get him.” Ashley said confidently.
“Somehow I’m just not as optimistic as you. I doubt we’ll ever get as close to him again. Hell, fuck. He was just right in front of me! I could have got him! I’m such an useless asshole.”
“Come on, Quan, there isn’t a time when you haven’t tried your best to apprehend a suspect or criminal. Like I said, we will get him. We have to. And you have me to help you.” Ashley put a reassuring hand on Owodog’s shoulder and mustered a smile.
Owodog looked up at her and forced a smile as well. Then, suddenly, he gasped.
“What?”
“I know that voice! I kept thinking it’s so damn fucking familiar but I just couldn’t remember just now! It’s Kale Chou!”
“What? What voice?”
Owodog was strangely adrenalized now, and his words came shooting out of his mouth like a machine gun. “In the warehouse, he spoke. And you know, it’s big and empty so his voice resonated. But there was this quality in his voice that I knew I heard somewhere before. It’s when he talks in the interrogation room! There’s this strange airy sound when we speak in the interrogation room. And his voice, it just sounds the same. We have been right all along, The Rose IS Kale Chou. Now I can prove it!”
“Great, now we’ll know where to look.” Ashley looked thoughtful.
“Yeah, but you don’t look too happy.”
“I’m just thinking, what does he want with Yu? Or did somebody send him to kill Yu?”
Owodog ruminated on Ashley’s questions as he stared at the lighted-up sign that said ‘In Operation’. He didn’t take long to figure out why. “It was impromptu. From the looks of it, I doubt he planned it. In the first place, he wouldn’t have chosen such a location. It might be fairly deserted but it still has a considerable number of people inside the restaurant. The backdoor is so close to the washrooms, anyone could have visited them at anytime. He obviously didn’t have time to calculate the risks when he just pulled Yu out of the backdoor. We could hear Yu’s shouts, thanks to us sitting so close to the washrooms. But, anyway, that shows that Kale didn’t have much time to think. All he wanted to do was to beat the living daylights, and probably his life, out of him. He had already become reckless and slack. Something must have pissed him off.” Owodog turned slowly to face Ashley.
“What?” Ashley said for the kazillionth time that day.
“I’m guessing. He heard something Yu said,” Owodog conjectured. “You guys must have did or said something back there, right?”
Ashley turned away from Owodog. “Yeah. He didn’t want to leave even after he apologized. I guess… I just got mad and kind of scolded him.” She refrained from telling him about their kiss.
“Did you mention that incident… explicitly or did you just refer to it generally?”
As reluctant as she was to revisit that conversation, Ashley knew there was no running away from it because every little detail might be crucial in pinpointing Kale’s motive for Fabien’s attempted murder. “I said that he only wanted sex from me and that he tried to… rape me.”
Owodog pondered for a while again. “I think… Kale Chou… The Rose… He’s your stalker.”
Ashley blinked at Owodog as her brain absorbed what that meant. Then she realized that it made perfect sense. “He got rid of Monkey because Monkey was in his way, stopping him from getting at me. Luna was probably just in his way when he was getting rid of Monkey. And Sam… If Sam wasn’t so elusive, he might have died too… Then, now… Yu… Oh my fucking God. I… I had put everyone close to me in danger.”
Owodog nodded pensively.
“Oh my God. You are probably next on his list.”
“Yeap,” Owodog said with a shrug of resignation.
That gut feeling he had felt about something bad happening to someone or something close to him had really effectuated.
-----------------------------------------------------------
But, Ashley was both wrong and correct. Owodog was next on Kale’s list. So was Ashley.
Kale had obviously gotten away from the policemen after him in the warehouse, though not without a scratch. The right side of his left calf got grazed by a shot when he was running through the tall bushes at the back of the warehouse. He wasn’t so concerned about that small wound. He cared more that the cops would find that bullet and obtain his blood sample. But, fuck that. Some random animals might just trample on it or leave so much dirt on it that there would not be any useful stains left that would provide a clue when analyzed. He had ditched his ski mask in a small muddy pond he had stumbled across in the forest as well, so no worries about that.
He dared not return to his normal house now. But he had another one. Before the cops had time to look for that cartridge, which they probably did not even know one lucky charge was stained with The Rose’s blood, Kale had to get all his necessities and flee.
While the cops were still hunting for him around the warehouse, Kale trusted his sense of direction and made his way slightly deeper into the forested area. He would then make a left turn and continue walking a distance before turning left again. From what he remembered, the outline of the forest was horizontal for a long way.
As he trudged through the dark forest teeming with creatures of the unknown, Kale took his mind off them by thinking about how substandard he had become recently. His late mentor was right. The only things that can overthrow the most cold-blooded killers in the world, are the most manipulative yet impeccable beings on Earth; also known as women. Women obfuscate their thoughts. Women impede their actions. Women disarray their plans. Women curtail their judgment.
And one had landed Kale in such a state. Sure, he brought it upon himself. But that woman… She was nothing good. Kale cursed himself for having carried a torch for her. To think he thought she was such a fantastic woman. Now that he thought about it, he reckoned she was already two-timing Richard Xie with that horrible detective. He snorted, she had some great acting chops; the detective didn’t. And he had thought he would be doing her a favour by getting rid of Fabien. But, no. She was so flustered and comparably shaken when she saw him injured.
Shouldn’t she be happy instead? Fabien Yang had tried to hurt her. Yet she was still so worried for him. How could that be? The more Kale thought, the more furious he grew. His beloved Detective Ashley Wu had to be some conniving, loose woman, clearly contemptible. Perhaps the dumb detective had somehow found out she was then cheating on him with his apparent best friend and got pissed. So she put on that whole ‘you-hurt-me-so-I-hate-you’ show in order to not hurt the dumb detective.
Yeah, it just had to be that way, Kale thought as he fumed. Her innocent act had cheated his feelings. Obviously, she had to pay. Along with that stupid detective.
Kale made do with whatever he had on him to get through the forest. That Swiss Army knife he always had on him had proved to be really useful and convenient. He slashed away at the thinnest strands of hanging roots or the finest stems and stalks. He was outraged and he desperately needed an outlet for his anger. So he took his rage out on whatever was in his way.
He had to formulate a plan as soon as he got to his secret refuge. He needed to plan his comeback as fast as he possibly could, and make it good as well. Once he finished off the dumb detective and Ashley, he would be free. He would return to his native country, take on a few more jobs and quit in a few more years.
By that time, with all that money he had, it wasn’t hard to spend the rest of his living days lavishly. He could afford it. Perhaps he would just accept job offers once in a blue moon for fun. And he would train and groom potential murderers just like his mentor did. Except, he would emphasize how important it was to stay clear of women. He was a living example of what would happen if they didn’t. If it weren’t for one, he wouldn’t be on the run now.
It was a few more hours before Kale made it out of the forest, not knowing how far he was from his starting point or where exactly he was then. The road was empty. Not even a single vehicle passed. Kale muttered a curse under his breath. He had to think of something fast.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The “In Operation” light went off, but neither Owodog nor Ashley noticed. Both of them were asleep. The doctor asked one of the officers around to request to speak to someone related to Fabien. It was only when the nearest officer to him shook Owodog by his shoulder before the two of them stirred and woke up.
“Are you Fabien Yang’s friends or relatives?”
“Yeah!” Owodog answered anxiously.
The doctor pushed his spectacles up his nose absent-mindedly. “He is currently still in critical condition, and should be fine if he can survive tonight. The back of his head had been hit by repeated blows and so he will suffer from concussion. There is no obvious skull fracture, but we will send him for a CT scan later to check for possible fractures and blood clots. He’s in the ICU now, but you can go see him for a short while. And, one more thing, the trauma his brain went through was very huge… We are not sure when or if he will wake up.” The doctor nodded and walked away after Owodog and Ashley muttered their thanks.
They looked at each other for a brief moment before they turned and headed in the direction of the Intensive Care Unit. Owodog gestured to the officers to follow behind but not too closely. But one of them caught up with him and told him softly that The Rose had gotten away. Owodog sighed and nodded. He had expected that to happen. Then he ran forward to fall back into step next to Ashley.
“What if he never wakes up?”
“He won’t do that. He won’t abandon us like that.” Owodog said gravely.
They reached the ICU where Fabien was in an individual ward. But both of them were reluctant to go in. Owodog and Ashley loitered around for a while before Ashley decided to make the first move. She pressed on the switch that opened the automatic sliding door and stepped in. Owodog followed behind her.
Fabien was lying on the bed with his head in bandages. The rest of him appeared normal, like he hadn’t been in any fight at all before. There were faint red marks around his neck, but that was it. All the blows had been focused on his head, just like the murder at 67 Activus Drive.
Ashley wanted to cry. Technically, if it wasn’t for her, Fabien wouldn’t be in this state. She sucked a mouthful of air quietly and tried to keep the tears at bay. Directing her words at Owodog but looking at Fabien, Ashley said, “I don’t want to cry. I’ve been crying too much lately… But… I can’t help it.”
She turned towards Owodog, flung her arms around him and sobbed plaintively on his shirt. Owodog didn’t say anything; just simply put his arms around her and hugged her tight.
“It’s all my fault. I won’t ever forgive myself if he doesn’t come round again.”
Owodog knew there was no point trying to console her so he remained silent, his brain filled with thoughts of Kale Chou and how close he had gotten to him. He was wrong, if he could get so close to him once, then there was no reason why he wouldn’t be able to do that again. After all, he was Kale Chou’s next target. Getting close to him should be a piece of cake.
Because Kale would definitely be coming close to him.
That thought sent shivers down Owodog’s spine and he hoped Ashley didn’t feel that. Kale was as cold-blooded as any murderer could get.
Fabien would be quite safe here because there would be round-the-clock protection by the police. Owodog knew that his own situation was either as bad as Fabien’s or perhaps even worse. Fabien was in critical condition but in safe hands. Owodog was alive and running but The Rose could be anywhere.
-----------------------------------------------------------
->shuang.dao
YAY! see, i said you didn't have to wait long right? :D wheee. thanks to all my beloved readers for staying with me! :D love y'all!!!