Accomplice: by Nick Venom (good books to read for beginners .TXT) 📖

Episode Seven "Chess Piece"

Bailey returned to the school during the two-week break and found herself standing in the same hallway where she first made contact with the mysterious girl. A small drop of a red substance was scattered on the floor, blatant among the white floor. Bailey squatted down and wiped a small portion of the floor with her thumb, bringing it up to her face to investigate it. “Blood?” She whispered as she stood up before looking around. “She really did kill that kid, then she…” She said before her voice trailed off.

“I did,” A voice behind Bailey muttered. Bailey spun around to face the mystery girl.

“Why?”  She asked, staring at the girl.

The girl cracked a smile while slowly tilting her head like a dog. “He saw my knife, so… he had to die.” Bailey shook her head as she took a step back. “Are you scared?” The girl whispered. 

Bailey looked at her and nodded. “You’re crazy. Who wouldn’t be scared of you?”

The girl’s smile disappeared, turning into a frown and a raised eyebrow. “He doesn’t like that word,” she whispered.

“Who doesn’t?” Bailey asked.

The girl opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by a gunshot. Bailey watched in shock as the girl clenched a bullet wound on her stomach before collapsing to the ground. Two men in black military gear walked past Bailey and picked up the girl’s unconscious body. 

Another man in black military gear tapped on Bailey’s shoulder. Bailey turned around, with her jaw open and followed the man to the parking lot. In the parking lot was a white van that opened its door as they approached it. Bailey’s mother, shrouded in the shadows inside of the van, motions for the girl’s body to be dumped inside. The two men swung the girl’s body into the van before sealing it up. 

“You’re free today, Bailey. Enjoy your time.” Bailey’s mother shouted from within the van. The van stormed out of the parking lot and onto the nearby highway. The three men then ran from the parking lot and into a nearby truck. The truck roared alive as it lunged into motion. Bailey remained in the parking lot and watched as the van and truck disappeared from her sights.

“She… used me again… “ She whispered. “She used me… “

 

 

***

 

 

A man dressed in black military gear stood in front of the mystery girl, wielding a sledgehammer. The mystery girl was being restricted by handcuffs, locked onto a chair.

The man wore a stern look as he glared at the emotionless girl. “What shall I do with her?” He asked.

“Torture her until she gives up the name of her employer.” Bailey’s mother muttered from one corner of the room that was shrouded in darkness. The man nodded before raising the sledgehammer. He looked down at the girl and noticed a black stare. Irritated at her lack of emotions, the man dropped the sledgehammer on her left arm. Her left arm cracked open with bones splitting in half and blood gushing out. 

Even with the severe injury, the girl lacked any emotions or the ability to scream as she shrugged at the sight of her broken arm. “Miss… it doesn’t look like it’ll work.” The man said.

“Lev!” Bailey’s mother shouted. “Don’t make me repeat myself.” Lev nodded and raised the sledgehammer into the air. He bit his lip before letting the sledgehammer fall with its momentum upon her right arm.

 

 

***

 

 

August wiped his brow, which was drenched in sweat, before taking a swig from his water bottle. He looked to his right at the statue in the middle of the rectangular pond. The statue was a bronze sculpture of a Civil War officer riding a horse. The horse was on its hind legs while the officer shouted orders from atop of it - holding his saber high into the air. 

August ripped his eyes off the statue and continued to run another lap around the pond. August wasn’t overweight in the slightest and was able to keep a thin figure. However, he lacked stamina and strength, which were two things that Jax excelled in.

August finished the lap but decided to do another before calling it a day. He wiped his brow again before taking another swig from his bottle. He picked up his pace as he went from jogging to running and finished the lap a couple of minutes faster than his previous laps. 

Once finished with the lap, August sat down at a nearby bench and took a few sips from his bottle. “I wonder if this will be enough,” he muttered to himself before taking another sip.

“I think it may be enough.” remarked an unfamiliar voice. August snapped his head to his side to see a girl standing next to him. She has light brown hair that was long enough to cover her left eye, but not long enough to go down to her chest. Her hair darkened towards the hair’s tips, but only the last inch. 

She had on big lens glasses that highlighted her big light blue eyes. She wore her school uniform of a white polo with a thin black sweater over it as well. She wore a mixed red and white striped skirt instead of August’s school’s blue skirt. Her tanned skin brightened up her eyes and hair. She had a round face with large eyes and a small pointed nose. “I’m sorry if I scared you.” She said, smiling softly.

“No, you didn’t scare me.” He said, shaking his head. He stood up from the bench. “I’m August.” He said before extending his hand out to her. She took it and smiled at him.

“I’m Sarah, nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

“Sorry about disrupting you. I kinda wanted to talk to you, even for a short while.” She said with a shy smile. August’s heart skipped a beat.

“U-U-Uh, no worries.” He stammered.

“Well, I have to leave soon, but… “ She said while taking her phone out of her pocket. “Can I get your… n-number?” She asked, blushing hard. 

August, at a loss of words, nodded before digging out his phone. He unlocked his phone and revealed his phone number, handing the phone to her. She grabbed it and typed in August’s number into her phone while adding her number onto his. After she finished, she handed his phone back to him. “M-Maybe, I’ll see you later.” She whispered before turning around and running away towards her friends. August stared at her as she ran from him, with his jaw slightly unhinged.

“Was I just hit on? And a girl wanted my number?” He said. He looked down at his body. “Maybe I should be training more often.”

 

TBC…

Episode Eight "Murder Threat

Angelica Flower, a petite dark-skinned brunette, is the owner of a small business known as Heights Insurance. Heights Insurance appears like a “clean” and safe business on the outside but holds a creepy and disturbing secret - hidden within the company. Heights Insurance was a fake business created to cover the information trafficking and murder that Angelica’s Private Eye team did. They absorbed every piece of information and used it to figure out the threats of the city. 

Irongate was a rather large city that housed many threats from common muggers to murderers and rapists.  Angelica’s Private Eye was scattered all over the city and dealt with these threats to ensure Angelica’s spot on top, hovering over everybody else, continued to exist and thrive. She was the Queen of Irongate. 

Angelica sat in her office, staring at her computer. Displayed was a new page of targets. The targets included a variety of threats, but two of them stood out. Pictures of Jax and August were on the list, marking them as dangerous and near-harmless. Jax’s picture’s outline was red while August’s was gray; the colors confirming the threat rate they had. Next to each photo were a series of notes, detailing much of what had been observed. 

Bailey’s notes about August were next to his photo, marking him as a low threat. However, Angelica, Bailey’s mother, wasn’t sure if her daughter was telling the truth. It seemed like Bailey wanted to leave the underground world and live a normal life, but Angelica wasn’t going to let that happen.

She rose from her seat and left the room, entering the biggest room on the second floor; filled with cubicles. Filling the cubicles were fake employees only hired to deceive the government. The real employees were in the offices against the outside wall and below in the basement. The others were pawns in the game of dominance. 

She left the second floor and descended into the basement, the walls going from a mix of yellow and orange to bare concrete. The farther she descended, the more differences you could spot. It began resembling a medieval dungeon. 

After descending for what felt like hours, Angelica reached the basement. Her high heels chipped the concrete as she walked towards a closed-off room. She passed the boiler and electrical panel, reaching a locked room. She knocked on the door five times before taking a step back. 

“Password,” A familiar voice muttered.

“It’s me, Lev,” Angelica responded. 

The door instantly opened, revealing a worn-out Lev. He motioned for her to enter before shutting the door behind her. Once inside, she was hit with the sight of the mystery girl with her legs and arms broken. She sat emotionless in a puddle of old blood. Her clothes were drenched in her blood, which stuck to her after drying. She looked awful - her hair dirty, her face ghostly pale, and her body stained with blood. She wasn’t a pleasant sight to see.  

“She revealed something?” Angelica asked.

“Nothing, she’s been airtight about her employer. I’ve gotten more emotion out of her than words,” Angelica looked at the girl who looked as if she didn’t mind not having her arms and legs anymore. She was eerily emotionless. “And she shows no emotions,” Lev added.

“Um, do you mind If I leave?” Lev asked, his body slightly trembling. “My mind is getting closer and closer to insanity every moment I’m here.”

“Grab Gem and assign him to look over her.” She ordered. Lev nodded before opening the door enough to poke his head out. He noticed somebody else. It was Gem, a frail and young-looking guy. He was in his twenties but looked eleven. He wore the same black-plated military-grade armor that Lev had. 

“Found him, Miss. Gem, I need you to guard MG-1.” Lev ordered before leaving the basement in a hurry. He raced up the stairs as quickly as he could before the noise of him hurling floated back down into the basement. Angelica shrugged the sounds off before closing the door. 

“Gem, you want to try?”

“No, thanks.” He said, looking away from the girl. He looked too young to be working, more so with the