Chapter 650: How Michael became Ghost II
"Michael, what happened to you?" Spectre heard a concerned voice of a young girl. Judging by the voice, Spectre would say the girl was in her teenage years, probably eighteen or nineteen.
"The usual," said the kid named Michael. The other children surrounded him. Looking at the bruises on his face, the young girl knelt down to match his height. Her eyes watered.
"Where is the sister?" asked Michael.
"Inside," one of the children whispered. Silence fell over them for a moment until the thunder rumbled in the distance.
"Here. Eat this," Michael gave the piece of bread he was hiding inside his shirt to the young girl.
"Where, where did you get this? Is this why you're looking like this?" the girl questioned Michael. Tears began to roll out of her eyes. She was an orphan, not stupid. By the bruises and the blood coming out of the cuts on his little body, she could guess where he went to get the bread.
"Those bastards," The girl embraced Michael in a big hug. Her body shivered, crying her eyes out. Although they were orphans, they grew up as a family. As far as she was concerned, Michael was her little brother, and he thought of her as his sister too. That was why he risked himself to steal a piece of bread from the place where the gang members packed their drugs. Usually, those gangsters would kill any stranger who dares to enter their building. But Michael wasn't a stranger to them. They used Michael and some of the children in the orphanage as drug mules. To the outside world, Kind Heart was an orphanage, but in reality, it was a gang hideout where the vilest and the sickest criminals did their business. The orphanage was just a cover-up.
"Okay okay, stop crying and eat this. You haven't eaten anything for three days," said Michael. He smiled despite all the pain to make Ruby stop crying. Instead, his smile hiding the pain only made her sobbing worse. Because of what she did, the thugs kicked them out of the manor as a punishment. One of the vilest creatures went by the name of Orso wanted Ruby to warm his bed. She refused, yet her struggles were futile against him. He abused her despite how many times she begged him. He took pleasure in making her life miserable. A few days ago, he was drunk and wanted to force himself upon Ruby as usual. However, she struggled. As a result, he threw her and the children outside. They were living in the concrete tube for three days.
They did not even give them water. So whenever Michael trafficked drugs from one area to another through the sewers or dark alleys, he would often make a detour to bring the children some food. One day, he would steal from a bakery, and if he was lucky, he would find some food in the dumpsters. He would have shared the one biscuit given to him by the thugs, but if he ever faints on the street, the thugs would not only beat all the children to near death but also kill a randomly chosen kid from the orphanage to make an example and to entertain themselves.
Of course, they could give Michael more than a biscuit. But they wanted Michael to look as pitiful as possible so the lawmen would take pity instead of bothering to search him. More than logic, the thugs went with their instincts to torture them. So they made the lives of the kids hellish.
"No. You need this more than me. I am not hungry," Ruby shook her head.
"I am not stupid, Ruby. Eat this, or I will shove it down your throat myself," Spectre almost chuckled, hearing the little man threatening the girl.
"As for you all, I will go for a run tonight. I will definitely get something from that fat baker,"
Ruby immediately shook Michael's body.
"No. The last time you tried to steal from him, he almost killed you," Her voice stuttered.
To everyone's surprise, Michael just chuckled.
"But here I am. He beats me, but that fatso doesn't take back what I take from him. A pie might be enough for all of you to share,"
"No Mikey. You don't have to do this. We are not hungry," some of the other kids who were old enough to see what was going on shook their heads.
"Just shut up everyone. I got this," Spectre was amazed by the kid's confidence and the way he talked. Just by looking at the beating he took, Spectre could tell how the kid's life must be. Still, he was willing to go through a beating again just to bring some food to the others. Even a heartless killer like Spectre felt pity for Michael.
"Are you going to eat this or not?" Michael asked Ruby. Seeing the resolve in his eyes, she knew there was no point arguing with him. Finally, Ruby took a bite out of the bread. It wasn't a big bite as she had to share it with the others. One piece of bread for seven people. It was hardly enough for anyone, but they managed to share it with everyone. The kids even picked up the crumbs that fell to the ground and ate them in hunger. While they were eating the bread, Michael came outside the concrete tube away from the eyes of everyone in it.
Spectre peeked outside to see the kid looking at the sky with a wide open mouth. Spectre wondered why he was doing that. In a few moments, Spectre got his answer. The kid was waiting for the rain droplets to go down his throat. Obviously, they wouldn't be able to drink the sewage water in the river, so the only clean water source was rain. Spectre waited patiently, looking at the kid catching the rain droplets with his mouth. Slowly. Seconds turned minutes, and minutes turned hours.
Eventually, the drizzle became a heavy downpour. Even Spectre, who wore clothes from head to toe, shivered in the cold. So it wasn't a surprising image to see the children shivering in the concrete tube. They only had each other to get some body warmth. At this moment, everyone closed their eyes, having dreams and nightmares except two, Michael and Spectre. The latter's eyes were fixed on Michael. As an assassin, Spectre had excellent eyesight, even in the dark. He could see the kid sharpening a rusty knife. Spectre didn't know where Michael managed to get the knife, but that wasn't the point. He was more curious why the kid was sharpening the knife this late in the night.
"What are you up to kid?" said Spectre. He watched Michael like a hawk. Eventually, he saw Michael crawl out of the concrete tube. He looked at the manor until the last light in a room snuffed out. After darkness completely surrounded the manor, Spectre saw Michael hasting to the manor. Despite the bruises and lack of nutrition, Spectre saw Michael run and parkour over the concrete materials like an expert runner. It was as though the darkness had boosted the kid's power and healed his wounds.
Spectre followed Michael, hardly making any noise, and saw Michael climb up the manor as swiftly as a monkey. Standing on the ground, Spectre saw Michael slowly opening a window as quiet as a ninja.
"That kid is a natural," Spectre's brows arched. Michael even used the thunderclaps to mask his footsteps and movements. It was simply genius.
After Michael entered the manor through the window, Spectre climbed the manor in a few blinks of an eye. He slowly followed the footsteps of Michael into the mansion. As soon as Spectre entered the manor, he was stunned by what he saw. A spacious hall filled with wooden boxes containing high-grade weapons and armor. They had enough weapons to arm a small militia. Every single weapon was military grade worth millions. To Spectre's surprise, there were not as many guards as there should have been. Crouching on one of the ceiling beams way above the wooden crates, Spectre managed to locate Michael and the single guard snoring. Like the other thugs who beat up Michael, the guard snoring also had several tattoos on his body, including the black mamba on his neck. He was a big bald guy with a huge belly who could crush a scrawny kid like Michael with his one arm.
Judging by the empty glass liquor bottle around the big thug, Spectre could tell unless a grenade went off near him, nothing could wake up the big guy. Michael slowly crouched to the big thug from behind, as quiet as a mouse. Something told Spectre that Michael had done this before.
"Grrrghh," Suddenly, the big man growled, swatting the mosquito on his cheek. Michael halted his steps, hid behind one of the crates, and waited for a few minutes to confirm the big thug was still asleep. A few minutes later, he resumed his steps toward the big thug. Currently, there was at least five meters distance between Michael and the big thug. Spectre curiously stared at the scene unfolding. Unfortunate for Michael, there were no knives around him except the one in his hand.
Even to this moment, Spectre couldn't figure out where the other guards were. But Michael knew. Once a month, all the thugs would leave the weapon depot for an hour to treat themselves to drinking, whoring, and beating out poor kids in the name of entertainment. He had been waiting for this day for a long time. Finally, it was time to make Ruby's life a little bit better.
The closer Michael got to the thug, the more Spectre felt excited. Anticipation was killing him. He couldn't wait to see what Michael was capable of. If Michael really did manage to kill the thug, Spectre wanted to know what comes after the killing. The answer to his question was just a few meters away from Michael and the thug, a large pipe big enough to fit the thug ran from the manor to the river outside. Whenever there was heavy rain, the city would open up the floodgates. Once that happens, the flood would sweep anything in its path to the ocean.
Looking at the large pipe and the polythene bag Michael picked up from one of the crates, Specter figured out the little kid's plan.
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