“Please everyone, stand up and let us welcome the guest speaker for tonight.” The collective murmurs in the half-oval shaped hall finally died down after the host spoke to the mic. The giddy smiles of the students wearing their maroon graduation robes set the place with such a triumphant and euphoric atmosphere. The crowd followed the order to stand up, clapping as the guests sauntered up the wide and bright stage with grand curtains behind an enormous screen. There were six chairs elegantly lined up on the stage, two were vacant while the other four were occupied by three old gentlemen in their black suits looking all debonair while a sophisticated looking middle-aged woman sat at the center, her dark hair with big curls cascading over her shoulders, making her look younger than her age.
Iris almost couldn’t feel her lungs as she runs out of breath arriving at the hall. Her eyes quickly roamed around the hall glistening in differ
Betrayal is a strange word for Iris. She neverdeceived anyone nor was deceivedbecause she didn’t had any friends she can trust and so no one hurt her like what betrayal does to people. Williamwas the closest on the line she made separating herself from everyone, but she just kept him close not because she needs him but because she knows he needs her.She was his most prized possession, if he was to choose between the gang or her, she is certainthat he’d choose her. His power was advantageous for her side, and so was her power to him. But between them, William is the one more at risk of getting betrayed. ButIris didn’t anticipated the other way around—that as she expands her world to seek for her revenge, she will gain someone else’s trust and she’ll be the one betraying them.After William defused the bomb wrapped on Max’s lap, Ir
Iris drove Max to his home in an awfully quiet ride of thirty minutes. To prevent further mistakes coming out from her mouth, she just let him sleep the whole time and didn’t bother to initiate a talk. His house was along from one of the suburbs few blocks away from the St. Valen’s unit. It was a humble home of a single floor built with a yard and a parking garage. Iris concluded he was living alone. But as she help Max get out from her car, a young girl came running out from the house with horrified expression upon seeing them. “Max!” she yelled with a tiny, shaking voice. Iris was stunned when she approached them and jumped to hug Max sobbing. “What happened to you?!” she asked. Max gave her a weak smile, his gaze turned back to Iris. “My sister, Georgia,” he said. The girl peeked from Max’s arms. “She’s a little shy around people.” Iris saw the resemblance of their eyes, both as if glazed with honey that glimmer when th
Max’s eyebrows flinched, slowly, his eyelids moved as he opens his eyes. He felt something brushing against his forehead. He turned his gaze to his side and saw Iris’ face. “How are you feeling?” she asked, her fingers trailing on his skin, brushing off the stray strands of hair from his forehead. His lips curled upward, feeling a lot better for the first thing he saw was Iris.“I’m fine,” he muttered, his voice barely coming out. “Where’s my sister?”“She’s asleep. It’s already one o’clock midnight.”“Oh, aren’t you going home? I’m so sorry, Anderson. You should’ve wake me up.”Iris’ hands reached for his hand, she held it there, enveloping it with her warmth. “It’s fine. I can’t just leave you to your sister all by herself. She’s really
The door burst open and the Chief slid through. He sighed upon meeting her gaze, and walked towards the metal chair facing Iris. He slammed the notepad he brought on the table and sat down without a word. For a whole minute, they were sitting in silence, as if waiting patiently for a bomb to explode that was the Chief.“You may start, Detective Anderson,” he announced, his unusual cold voice lingered in her ears. He clicked the button on a small tape recorder and the red dot started to blink. He put his hands on the table, cupping it together at the center as he bore his grudging eyes on her.“First day,” Iris muttered, resting her back against the chair displaying no penitence. “I moved according to my plan. I managed to get information about how their organization works from a common friend which is one of them. He gave me the instructions on how to apply for the position of a hunter. A hunter is
“Mom, someone spilled choco milk on my shirt.” Little Madelaine pulled her shirt to show the brown stain on it. Her eyes were red and puffy as she looked up to her mother who gave a sad smile. “It’s okay honey, no harm done. Let’s just wash it off at home, okay?” her mother answered, grabbing her hand, guiding her out from the school. “But she intentionally poured it to me! And…this is Mickey,” she insisted pouting her soft pink lips, her fingers trailing over the sequence design sewed on her shirt that followed the shape of her favorite cartoon character. “This is my favorite shirt…” “I’m so sorry about that, Mads. I’ll talk to your teacher and she will handle whoever did that, okay?” “Why don’t you just scold her yourself, Mommy? I had one classmate who accidentally hit her face the
The red sedan car ahead decelerated and slowly turned to the right where the road leads to the city. Iris stepped on the brake, bringing the car to a halt, looking at the sedan slowly blur from her eyes as they take the detour. She stepped out of the car, the little hairs around her nape raised from the cold breeze that hit her skin. The month of iced coffees and tan lines had gone off and the raging storms and almost negative degrees celcius weather took over, one which Iris loathed from among all seasons in her life.She grabbed the freezing metal bars of the “DEAD END” barricade placed at the center of the unpaved road which was just a few steps away to an unfinished residential location built for the homeless people but was just used as a front act during the election of officials—one for sure to gain their vote, and two to show fake humility to the people.Max got off the car following her, frowning on wh
The assassin assigned to the back door stepped out to greet her. With a cocked eyebrow, his calloused big hands reached for the machine gun hanging around his barrel chest. “What are you doing here?” he asked when Iris finally approached him. She noticed the eerie silence around, her eyes flickering on the window upstairs.“I need to check the officers,” she answered boldly, narrowing her eyes on the Nightcrawler trying to recall who was in front of her. Barely knowing all of their faces, Iris had gotten used to seeing only two to three assassins that she usually meet to hand over their rivals and gang chickens back on when she was just hunter. She noticed that there were new faces like this man, ones that were grubbier than those she knew. She barely knows their gang members but if there is one thing remarkably common about them is that they always let their guards down around themselves. “You all will be fuc
‘I told you there is a proper way to deal with it, haven’t I?’Iris was afloat. She knows because she has been looking for a concrete surface below her feet but she couldn’t feel anything. She wanted to open her eyes, but every time she tries, her eyelidsfelt like tearing apart. ‘You didn’t listen to me, Madelaine. I have told you a hundred times not to use your power against anyone.’‘But Mom…’ she sobbed, not really parting her mouth to utter the words. She said it aloud in her mind instead, in where the soft soothing voice of her mother lingeredto talk to her. ‘They killed you…I’m lost too—I don’t know who I’m supposed to side with anymore.&