Reborn Heart of Steel

Realizing the world came back into focus slowly: my head was pounding in accordance with the beating of my heart. Waking up, I saw that I was in a poorly lit room. It smelled faintly of old wood and iron. Beside me, Chase’s brow was furrowed, and his eyes wide with apprehension. “Bri? Are you okay?” he whispered, his voice shook. I never had the chance to answer back, for a door to a nearby room opened with a loud groan, and the light of the lamps outside lighted up the interior. Then a very tall man entered and, since the light was behind him, we could only make out the shadowy look of his face. But, I didn’t have to turn and look to find out who it was out there: it was him. At last the Raven had deigned to present himself. “Welcome, my young detectives,” he said, extending his right hand, silky voice and well-dressed in sharp contrast to the evil aura the man was projecting. “You did not lose, you lost your way, and you persevered even with that. ” Soon enough, I was able to gather more details, although it was still dark where I was. The Raven was a man who appeared to be in his forties, dressed in a stylish underwear-like suit. He had silver gray hair, almost crew-cut, neatly combed… His eyes, however, were sharp and lustful, much like those of an animal that has sighted its prey. “What do you want from us?” Chase bluffed, attempting to remain calm despite the fact that I could hear that he was scared. The Raven chuckled and echoed through it and I felt a chill down my spine. “Desire? My sweet lad, I desire nothing from you anymore. In fact, you have provided me all that I ever desired. ” He took a thin and shiny tablet, swiped it a couple of times, then flipped it towards us to reveal the screen. I saw what was inside, and it devastated me the map, notes, all the data we had gathered during the weeks of investigations. “You see,” The Raven went on and in his voice there was mockery, “while you thought you were so sly with your little research, you were in fact helping me do my job: figuring out where there might be holes, where there could be betrayals…” It was horrifying. I felt so sick in the stomach. In all our activities, all the calculated gambles that we have made hitherto, have but placed The Raven in a position of absolute dominance. “That, however, is not why I brought you here. ” The Raven said in a stern tone. “Oh no you don’t,” and “I have a much more urgent thing to address. ” He touched his tablet and pressed something, random noises of the police officers, other unknown voices filled the room. The codes of the locations went there and there, and with increasing dismay I saw what was going on. The police were organizing themselves in preparation for the raid on The Raven’s nest. “It appears,” The Raven said with a sinister smile, “that someone has been chattering to the police. Now who can it be?” I looked sideways at Chase and we both exchanged a worried look. It had, too, our anonymous tip and from the look of things now, it had rattled the rank and file of the agency. But how did The Raven know it so soon though?

Quite as if sensing we were thinking of him, The Raven bestowed on us a scornful smile. “You really believe your current secret message was encrypted? Let me remind you, young men, I have my spies here and everywhere! Nothing happens in this city and escapes my attention. ” He looked at us dourly then moved forward until he was right in our faces. “So, listen to me very well because I will not repeat myself … this is your last chance. ” Thus, The Raven remained holding the cigarette and, after some deep thinking, pulled out a small remote from his pocket and pressed one of the buttons. All of a sudden, the walls of the room were filled with projections from surveillance cameras throughout the city. I saw both my parents at work, Chase having his sister at school, Agent Harris in the hospital. Consumers whose every move and action is exposed. “I know all your moves,” The Raven stated, lifting his voice to a growl. “Every person you have around you is under my supervision. Now, if you dare say one more thing about me or my business to anyone else…” He did not have to complete the threat as everyone understood it. “You can’t do this,” I said, rather timidly, though for some reason my wetsuit seemed to have given me my confidence back. “Well, Raven, you cannot just threaten us and get away with it. ” The Raven then let out a laugh that was emotionless at best. “My dear, I already have”, he continued his opera work for years in the dark alleys of his city while others pretended not to know me was I was always a step ahead and never got caught. “Because I realized that there something I really know about the world. And this is: people will do anything for their families. ” He returned to his tablet and there were more such photographs, moments that were captured secretly from our lives. “That is what is going to happen,” he said, gritting his teeth painfully, “If you do not get out of my sight right now, I will personally make sure that you go down for assault and battery, and the rest will go to prison for statutory rape. ” Chase and I looked at each other in utter disbelief and helplessly shook our heads as if just finally realizing the pull of what we were at. Fine,” echoed The Raven, and he turned all professional all of a sudden. “Well, time to govern a city and, as they say, deal with the necessary consequences of actions. This ends as you will and have the rest of the evening to yourselves. ” With that, he alighted from the chair, rose and left the room. A few minutes later, we heard sounds of a starting car engine and the sound getting lower and lower. Finally, Chase and I just sat, staring blankly at the screen for a few minutes as The Raven sank in what he said. It was too late for sentimentality, and we were in way over our heads; it wasn’t enough to love people and care about them. They were now in danger, too. “Now what?” answered Chase, as his words’ strength carried despair within them. I was unable to say anything to him and cut my eyes, fending off tears. “I just do not know,” or “I can’t understand this,”. In a manner that only seemed timed to perfection, both of our phones rang at the same time. Fearfully, we looked at the messages that were sent to us. They were from an unknown number, but we knew instantly who they were from: “Hey you tiny twits, don’t forget that I am always observing you. Now sleep tight. ” With the picture was a picture of us, captured here in this room more or less a few moments ago. We simply exchanged a look, as we saw the same thing in each other’s faces. The Raven could not help but stare back when he looked into its eyes. His thinking process was always ahead of ours, it didn’t matter how hard we tried to outsmart him or even deceive him. We came out of the building in which we were kept for days, and the fresh night was able to provide us with no comfort. The city lay out in front of us. Its illuminated portion now looked anything but hospitable. The suspense follows the protagonist and increases with every passing car as well as every shadow that could be a member of The Raven’s team. We were just sitting there pondering on how we were to get transport back home when Chase suddenly clutched my arm tightly, his face as white as a ghost in the lighted-up street. “Bri,” he said, softly, almost a whisper. “Look. ” I was shocked when I shifted my eyes to where he was looking and my blood froze. Outside, to be precise, across the street, half of the person was camouflaged by the darkness of the alley. Agent Harris, whom we expected to be resting in the hospital, was rather actively arguing it out with a man dressed in a black suit. Taken before we could even blink our eyes, Agent Harris took an envelope from the man and placed it firmly in his pocket. They did say hello with a handshake and then the stranger simply disappeared into the darkness. Agent Harris spun around suddenly and for one moment I held my breath, expecting him to look in our direction. But fortunately his eyes did not stop at our hiding place, he continued to walk away in the opposite direction. Chase and I shared a glance and in the eyes of the other was the same terrible question. Was it true what The Raven had been insisting on? Was his authority’s reach of influence so great? And what if Agent Harris, the one individual in whom we believed we had our authoritative honest man, was captured? Now where could we go? Finally, when the gravity of what we would have just witnessed started to dawn on me, my phone beeped for the final time. With a sense of dread, I opened the message: With a sense of dread, I opened the message: Just before the end of it all, I could remember what he said.

“The game is changing, little detectives. Are you sure you know which side you’re really on?” The night appeared even darker than before, the silhouettes were sharper, and the prospects seemed even vaguer than before. We were in a deadly network and there was no way that we could escape.Text content © NôvelDrama.Org.