Chapter 4: The Bloody Death of Osvaldo Cruz

The next two days went without anything too amazing. The environment of a desert was a big difference to the urban jungle of the city. In the desert, there was no one around, in the city there were too many people around.

It was on the third day that I saw Aleah again. She was with her parents, and it was a Saturday, most families had come to the city for recreation.

I was standing on the top of a short grey building. Well short compared to the skyscrapers nearby. It was maybe ten floors high at the most. It would be too odd to stand on the top of those other gigantic buildings, no matter how attractive the aspect sounded.

From my point, I studied the activity below. And so I saw her. She was wearing common clothes, instead of her school uniform this time. Her hair was also tied back into a pony tail, rather than the loose natural hair style.

It was a pretty big crowd down there, I highly doubt anyone would take the initiative to look up and see me. Besides if they did, what could they do? I didn't particularly want anyone to see me anyway; I was wearing completely black clothes, something I needed to camouflage in the shadows properly.

Aleah was now standing in the centre of a plaza, separated from her parents. She looked like she was searching for something, maybe she was looking for me. I shivered at the thought, she probably was.

I cringed back when she looked up, in the wrong direction. My direction. She looked closely and noticed me backing away. A large smile grew on her face and she jogged towards my building.

"She must be psychic," I muttered and ran to the opposite end of the building. I looked down, too many people; a human would die if they fell from this height. There was only one other exit down, and that was through the stairs. The stairs that Aleah was using to come up.

I cursed to myself. Why was I running? Because I can't get attached to a human, that's why. My mind debated over my options.

The door to the stairs rushed open and Aleah walked through, cool air from the conditioning inside followed her out. She looked exhausted, had she been running?

"Hello," she avoided saying my name. Aleah walked closer to me, her eyes looked cautious but still wide and happy. She stopped within arms reach of me.

"Hi," was all I managed when she stopped moving. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be the one asking you that question,"

I sighed. "I'm here because it's safer here,"

"What, it's too dangerous in the public?" Her smile vanished.

"I guess, in a way," I tried to make Aleah smile again. Aleah looked up at the bright sky, and then glanced back at me.

"What are you?" Not this question again.

"What?"

"What are you?"

I looked at her with a weird look; maybe this girl could read my mind. "What are you?" I asked back to her.

She looked at me with an odd smile. "I already answered that question."

There was silence then. I looked away as if I was interested in another building. This was an odd spot for a conversation. On top of a tall building with people crowded around below. It was also an odd reunion. Aleah continued to look at me.

"So…" she broke the silence quickly, "What have you been up to?"

"Nothing much, just hanging around, you?"

"Oh the usual, school and family stuff," She glanced away on the word school. "Do you have a family?"

I tried to stay calm. It wasn't something I was expecting to be asked. Family was term which I tried to hide.

"I used to have a family…" I made it sound like that was all I was saying.

"Oh alright." She took the hint.

We were silent again. Perhaps it was my turn to ask her a question. I opened my mouth to say something, when suddenly gun shots pierced our ears. Five shots exactly were shot, a human would have said a few, but only the gunman and I knew how many bullets exactly were fired.

Aleah and I fell to the ground instinctively. We crouched down and stared at each other puzzled and terrified.

"Where did it come from?" she whispered. I pointed back down to the plaza, where she had been before.

Aleah went pale, her family was down there. As far as I saw, she only had a mother and a father, but other siblings might be present as well.

I crawled to the edge and looked down. Aleah followed behind me, attempting to crouch as low as possible.

People were all hiding and taking cover in the plaza. Most had stuck to just staying still on the spot, a moving target was sure to grab attention. Next to a bulky white van was a heavily armed man holding a gun up high, pointed at the sky. He wore a bullet-proof vest, and a number of extra guns. The first gun shots were a warning, or a signal. The man hadn't actually shot anyone yet.

I surveyed the scene below and then noticed a group of more armed men run into the building the van was parked near by.

"What is that building?" I asked Aleah. She was frantically searching for any sign of her parents below.

"It's a bank I think," The building was small, but long. It could have easily been assumed as a department store. "But apparently it holds artefacts as well. It's supposed to be heavily guarded inside."

Police arrived on the scene. The first policewomen that got out fell dead on the spot. There were snipers around. The other policeman stayed in the car, and waited for reinforcements, calling repeatedly into his phone. It would a while before more police came, and there looked like there were more thugs in other areas of the plaza.

"Lucius!" Aleah hissed my name.

I turned to face her, she was shaking from fear. I gave her a questioning look.

"Do something!"

"What!?"

"Do something! Someone might get hurt." Gunshots were fired inside the building. More police arrived and a gun fight took place between more marauders around the corner. The crossfire was too close to the civilians.

"Why?"

She stared at me her like I had said something ridiculous. I didn't think it was. "Because you're the hero."

"Saving people isn't my usual occupation,"

"So I guess saving me was just an accident then,"

My fist gripped tightly on the concrete. Who did this girl think I was? I wasn't some heroic superhuman saving people everyday. I just happened to hear her screams more openly than others, and couldn't resist the urge to save her. This event was entirely different.

"Lucius, you need to do something,"

"I can't, there's too many, and they have guns." I won't die from a bullet, but a human would and should. "And besides it isn't exactly a common thing for a teenage boy to run in and bash up some heavily armed criminals."

"You could just do it inside the building, where the public can't see you,"

"How do I get past that guy?" I pointed at the man who had fired the first bullets. He stood guard outside the entrance to the bank.

"You need a distraction,"

"And I guess your miraculously going to give me one," I rolled my eyes.

She glared at me. She was serious.

"Wait for the police to fire on that guy, and then run in and do what you usually do."

It made sense in a way, more to me than her I guessed. If I was inside then the only thing that could be witnessed from the outside was the screaming. I wouldn't kill the thugs, unless I was put in a situation where I was forced to. Aleah had this odd effect on me, like I was commanded to do anything she said; she had a devoting aura around me.

But the less blood the better, I wouldn't kill.

A squad of police arrived within shooting distance to the solitary guard; they fired upon the one man.

"For an innocent human, you sure can think like a soldier," I smiled at her. Then froze, what had I just said? A cold breeze shivered down my spine.

Aleah stared at me with her jaw open. I had just confirmed her suspiciousness.

"What are you then?" She whispered.

I didn't answer, I ran. To the edge of the building and then over. I caught a railing on my way down; any witnesses including Aleah would have expected death if I fell all the way down.

I raced across the open plaza, along the hard sunbaked concrete. Human civilians stared at me with shock as I passed them. I was either crazy or brave. Courage could very well be insanity though.

The hostile guard was firing at the police now; he didn't notice the boy run past him. He didn't notice that I took one of his many daggers along the way. He didn't notice the stares of apprehension from the police as they saw a rebel kid attempt to be a bravado without them.

I moved into the building. The furniture had all been turned over, with bullet holes punctured all over them. Probably been used as shields. The counters were all nearly smashed, lights flickered above me.

A stack of documents were being burned in a pile by a small flame, and a few murdered bodies were lying around in crumpled positions. I followed the destruction to its source.

There were about ten of them. All armed with rifles or shotguns. One of them carried a Japanese sword by his waist. They all stood surrounding a man in a suit. The man had his hands on his head, and looked completely freaked out. He was probably the owner of the building or bank organisation.

In front of the humans was a giant metal door, something that looked like it needed a code to enter. The purpose for the man to still be alive.

"Tell us the number now," The sword wielding one bent down and looked at the terrified man. He had gelled his black hair back, an Italian look to his face. I hesitated to help, I couldn't kill or even harm with the bank man as a witness.

The man mumbled something, he had surrendered. The sword thug, who looked like the leader of the group smiled and unsheathed his sword.

A slice echoed the metallic room and blood splattered onto the clothes of the thugs. A few of his henchmen winced at the scene.

The murdered man's head rolled and stopped against a wall, his same scared look still printed on his face.

The leader walked over to the door and started to enter a number in to a console. Now was my moment to act, no witnesses alive.

I flew into a blur, my lips curled back to expose sharp inhumane teeth and from a small vulnerable teenager; I was the monster from a mythical nightmare. None of them expected my attack. They didn't even know who or what was attacking them.

I smashed the heads of the two men closest to me. I had before planned no blood, but they were cold murders and thieves. And if they survived, they would babble about a crazy boy that beat them to a pulp. I was turning into Rolfus.

The surviving eight drew the weapons and fired in different directions. I was too fast for them to aim in one point.

I threw my dagger at one, and his life faded away as the blade struck his beating heart. I ripped another by the throat, and the rest were killed in a brutal manner. There were two men left now. The leader and another man who had managed to survive to this point. The leader drew his sword and slashed wildly at me. I dodged his blows and stabs, jumped high and clawed his head from above with one strike of the deadly hand. He fell to the ground in his screams of agony. Three large slashes were scarred down his face, passing through his two eyes and nose. I turned to the last man; he was lying on the ground, wounded from one of my previous attacks.

I walked to him, and bent down. I gripped his collar and held him up. He choked on blood and pain.

"Who sent you?"

He didn't respond, his eyes were faced towards the ceiling, but he was still alive. I could tell if he was dead or not.

"Who do you work for?"

The man looked at me, and spat blood on my face. With my free arm I wiped the attractive substance off me and returned a fiery glare.

"The Cruz Clan," he said, with a hint of pride in the name. He couldn't keep his eyes on my face for too long.

"Who is your leader?"

"Osvaldo Cruz," He smiled, and then frowned and his eyes trailed somewhere else. I frowned and then looked somewhere else as well. O.C, the child killer, was Osvaldo Cruz, this man must be powerful, a king of the criminal underworld. From killing young kids to robbing high-security banks, he must be brutal man.

"Where can I find Cruz?" My victim's eyes returned to me for a second.

"You can't, he's dead."

I let go of the man, he fell back down and hit the floor hard. He gasped in pain.

"When?"

"You killed him," he reached his head up towards a body in the room. I turned to what he was looking at. The man with the sword. He was Osvaldo Cruz, the criminal leader.

"That's Osvaldo Cruz?" I couldn't believe I had just killed a criminal warlord.

The man just nodded, then his eyes flittered a bit, and stopped moving forever. I smelt the breath of life flow out of his body slowly.

I walked to the corpse of Cruz. His weapon bore the initials O.C as well, except this time it was written in gold italic lettering.

I picked up Cruz's katana. He wouldn't need it anymore. Where he got these Japanese swords was a mystery.

Why did Cruz kill children though? And why did he need to break into this bank? I stared at the metallic door that remained shut. I didn't need to know, I satisfied myself with the fact that Cruz was dead.

I walked slowly out of the room, with my new weapon as a token reminder of this event. Outside, a battle still wore on, but it would end soon, the thugs outside would be outnumbered soon, and their leader was now dead.

The main shock would be the scene inside the building. No one would know how the bodies were killed, who killed them and how they were killed. Maybe some of the people that had seen me run into the building would suspect me, but they would assume that I wasn't that type, just an idiot kid that tried to be brave and stupid. Probably lost amongst the wreckage.

Only Aleah would know that it was me. She would hear what happened inside, the bloody remains of the bodies, she would watch it all on the news. She would think differently about me, and what's more, she knows I'm not human.

I hope I never saw her again. I hope she also felt that way. Who would want to meet a killer? An alien killer?

I ran through the shadows of the buildings, it was evening, and my black clothing provided extra camouflage behind the building.

The only thing wearing me down was the sword, I didn't have a cover for it and so I had to be careful as I carried it. I eventually reached my apartment, raced into my room and slammed the door. I threw the sword onto the floor with a loud clang and sat down near the wall. I was shaking, something was wrong.

I realised then, that I was a murderer. I had never killed before, even as a vampire. Yet I had killed those men without a second thought. Like it was something natural.

And what's worse, I enjoyed it. The satisfying amusement as I killed helpless living beings, and the screams of mercy, mercy they never received.

I was turning into my family. Even without them, I was still being affected by them.