Once we dropped everything off, I asked the others to give me some privacy. Tóxica left to take a shower, still dripping with blood, and Reload went to watch some Spanish show. I entered the bathroom of room eleven, where Squirm was tied up, left in the bathtub. I ripped off the duct tape covering his mouth, making sure not to touch his skin, only to find a bloody pair of underwear stuffed into his mouth.

  He shouted the second his mouth was free. “What in the scaly fuck do you think you’re doing, Taker?!”

  His voice was nasally, with an Italian accent that made him sound like a neutered version of Luigi. He glared at me, doing his best to look intimidating. “If you don’t let me go right this fucking second, you’re going to fuckin’ regret it!”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at him. “Are you actually threatening me? You can’t possibly be that fucking dumb. You should be begging for your life right now.”

  “What the hell did I do to deserve this? When Poly said you lost it and made Surge Gang attack us, I thought he was full of shit. We treated you like family!”

  “Like family? I was a fucking joke to you guys! And you were the worst of them all, always showing off how much better you had it! It’s like you got off on reminding me that I was worse beneath you!”

  “I didn’t mean to upset you, I thought we were just joking around! I could be a bit of an ass at times, but I was still there for you.”

  “No you fucking weren’t!” I screamed, silencing him. “I was a super like the rest of you, but not a single one of you respected me! You let a damn ordinary be a lieutenant before me! I joined before he did! I mess up a few jobs and you all want me dead?!”

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked, screaming back at me. “I don’t choose who becomes a lieutenant, that’s Agony’s decision! It wasn’t my call to take you out, Agony and Polymeniac decided it!”

  “Oh, don’t you worry. I’ll make sure they pay for turning their backs on me.”

  “Get real, Taker! You can’t take down the Disciples. You only got this far because we didn’t see you as a threat, but news flash, I’ve already messaged Agony every single detail about you and your wack job crew!”

  “Oh, you want to get real?” Rage pulsed through my veins, burning against my skin. “You’re going to die tonight. The biggest honor of your miserable life is the fact that you’ll die by my hands. So make your peace with the Dendra up above, because they’re the only ones left who could save you.”

  I stormed out of the bathroom, headed to room eight. After a few knocks, Reload opened his door. He already knew what it meant for me to knock, and he pulled out a glowing tire iron from behind his back.

  When I got back to the bathroom, I saw blood smeared across the bathtub. Despite his big talk, Squirm tried to escape the second I left. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he was scared. Not that I could blame him. I was scared too.

  I walked up to him, and before he could say anything, I brought the tire iron down on his knee. Despite the amount of strength I put behind it, the first hit bounced off of him. He had more super resistance than I expected, but it didn’t matter, because I had all the time in the world.

  “Wait, Taker! We can talk about this! Let me leave and you can have everything I got. I won’t say another word to nobody about this, I’ll even try and get them on your side!”

  I smashed the tire iron on his knee a second time, feeling his bones fracture through the metal. I stared at him as he cried out in pain. “I already have your money, why would I need your permission? And I think we both know it’s too late for them to not know.”

  “What about information on the other safehouses? I’ll tell you everything, where they are and how to get past security,” he pleaded, tears forming in his eyes.

  Chunks of bone and blood flew into my face as I shattered his other kneecap. “I already know everything about them! Who do you think dropped off your cut of my work, having to get by on scraps while you assholes were living it up!”

  His body was shaking, his voice uneven as he spoke. “What if I work for you? You know how useful I can be. If me and your crew worked together, we could take down the Disciples.”

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  I needed to stop wasting time. I drove the tire iron into his chest, cracking it open. Squirm screamed, violently throwing himself forward, one last attempt to escape. He was always a coward, but he never dropped that confident persona of his. This was the first time I saw him truly afraid.

  “Please, Taker, don’t do this,” he begged. “I have a family, they need me. Don’t make me leave my daughter behind. My name’s Marco, I was supposed to go to college before these fucking powers cursed me!”

  My resolve wavered for a second. I was dragging this out, hesitant to actually end things, but I needed to. It was too late to go back. “I’m sorry, Marco.”

  The tire iron broke through his skull in one swing. Each hit felt heavier than the last, but I couldn’t stop. This man was a mass murderer. I’d seen him make people choose which kid he killed if they didn’t pay off their debts. But, even then, it felt like killing him broke something in me.

  I couldn’t say how long I kept swinging, still going even after the tire iron lost its golden aura. Once my arms were too weak to keep going, I fell down to my knees and sobbed, covered in the remains of Marco. He was dead, I killed him, and he wouldn’t be the last person I killed. The path I was on had to be paved with bodies, there wasn’t any other option.

  I leaned over the railing on the second floor balcony, smoking a cigarette. My mom used to smoke. Said it calmed her. The scent made me feel like I was back home, even if for just a passing moment. The cigarette was stained red by the blood on my hands.

  I heard someone walking up the stairs, and I turned to see Frank approaching me. There was a new look in his eyes, as if fear had embedded itself into him. He stopped next to me, holding a hand out for a cigarette. After I handed it to him, and lit it, we both gazed out over the parking lot.

  He paused in-between puffs of smoke. “Did you kill him?”

  I nearly dropped my cigarette. The vision of Marco’s tortured face as I bludgeoned him to death raced through my mind. “Yeah.”

  “We’re not going to be done anytime soon, are we?”

  “No, we’re not.”

  “I should quit. I don’t know how quitting from a gang works, but I promise I won’t tell anyone anything. I just don’t think I can do it.”

  I turned to him, catching his eyes. “How much do you need? I could give you more money than you can dream of.”

  He looked away for a second. “It’s not about the money. I just don’t know if I can handle this type of work. I’d only slow you guys down.”

  “We need you. If you weren’t with us, we wouldn’t have been able to pull off what we did tonight. You’re a part of this team, and we all want you to stay. I want you to stay.”

  He glanced at me for a second, the look in his eyes shifting, before he stared back at the parking lot. He took a long drag of his cigarette. “I won’t do something like that again. I can’t shoot at a crowd of people, not knowing who I’m killing, ever again. If I kill someone, it’s on my own terms. That’s my condition.”

  “That’s good enough for me.”

  He ashed his cigarette on the railing and left for his room. Before he entered, he called out to me. “Goodnight, boss.”

  “Goodnight.”

  I finished my cigarette and went back to my own room. There was still so much to do, and I was the only one who could do it. I took a shower, letting the scalding hot water wash over me, removing every trace of what I did.

  After I got dressed, I went through my phone. There were already news articles talking about what happened, which was to be expected. Even if the police were hesitant to show up, the news loved showing off just how shitty our part of the city was.

  Nothing I could find mentioned the ice cream truck, which was a relief. The Disciples knew about the truck, but that was it. If the cops were aware, then there was a chance that it could be traced back to us. If that car salesman ID’d me and Frank, it’d be hell trying to stay undetected.

  The news chalked the incident up as the latest attack between Surge Gang and the Disciples of Agony. Surge had been exhausting the Disciples' resources by having his henchmen use hit and run tactics in their territory, chipping away at their control.

  The Disciples just lost dozens of their best henchmen alongside Marco, while failing to catch the people responsible. They looked weak, and every villain in South Rain city was paying attention.

  Even if we stopped attacking them, others would move into their territory. But I refused to sit back and leave this in the hands of The Performers, Surge Gang, or any other assholes. The Disciples were mine, and I was the only one allowed to take them out.

  We still had two more lieutenants to take down, three if you counted the ordinary. While our first was easy, the other two would be an uphill battle. Marco was an idiot, as long as you avoided skin contact then you could easily take him down. The others were not only stronger, but they would have their guard up.

  Even if we took them down, that wouldn’t be it. We still needed to deal with Agony. I’d only ever seen him a handful of times, and every single time, I could tell that he wasn’t like the others. If we were supers, he was something beyond that.

  Out of the villains in South Rain, he was the strongest without a doubt. Even with all of us working together, I wasn’t certain we could take him out. He was a man that needed an act of God to put him down.

  But that was a problem for the future. I started working on our plans for the upcoming week. We needed to ride this momentum, not giving the Disciples a single second to catch their breath. And not giving ourselves a single second to feel regret seep in.