In that moment, hearing the knife sink deeply into the flesh, I was brought back to an old childhood memory. It was my first camping and fishing adventure with my parents. My father caught a huge bass and was cleaning it out, but I was hiding behind my mom, afraid of the knife.

"Kyne, you can't be afraid of these sorts of things," My father said, holding out the knife.

"Go on, sweetie, it's going to be okay," My mom reassured me, pushing me forward.

I grab ahold of the knife, it's heavy as it shakes in my hand. I look up at my dad, and he nods, bringing me up to the fish cleaning station. I raise the knife above the fish and attempt to steady it.

"You can do it," My father says, encouraging me.

I drive the blade into the fish, cutting the gills and splitting it in two. The flesh squelches as it comes apart, and I whimper but continue the cut. My father and mother nod approvingly.

"See, that wasn't so bad!" My father says, smiling.

My mind returns to reality, the blood from my chest leaking over my sides, the pain of being stabbed isn't as bad as I expected; it's not painful at all. I slowly open my eyes, and my heart drops. The reason why it doesn't hurt is that it wasn't me who was stabbed.

Anshi stares down at me, and all the life that filled her eyes is gone. A Bowie knife sticks straight through her neck, and the blood pouring out of her pools on my chest. On the other end of the knife are two hands with thick brown gloves on them. I look further up and see an older man with white, slicked-back hair and a curvy mustache.

"My, my, quite the troublesome brat, eh?" The man says with a thick accent.

He pulls the knife out of Anshi and shakes the blood off it before returning it to its sheath. I quickly push Anshi off, and I stand up, hyperventilating. I grab my knife from her hands and point it at him, my hands shaking.

"Who are you?" I demand, my voice cracking slightly.

"Oh, please, if you didn't use that on her, you won't use it on me," He says, kneeling to Anshi's body.

"Fine, you're right, but who are you?" I say, lowering the knife.

"I'm the Coyote, but just call me Coy. I'm with the Organization," He responds, pulling out pliers from his back pocket.

I watch him tweak the pliers and stick them into Anshi's mouth. I turn away as I hear the crunch of teeth being pulled. Each sound sickening than the last, after what feels like an eternity, he drops the body with a thud.

"All right, come on, Skill and Snatch can take it from here, let's go, Kyne," Coy says, pocketing the pliers and walking to the front door.

I look down at Anshi and shudder. Coy must be some sort of hitman, and Skill and Snatch? Those names sound familiar. In any case, this guy is dangerous; I should do what he says. I step over Anshi's body and head towards the front door.

"So, have you been to the East side of town?" Coy asks as I step out with him.

"No, never, my parents always warned me it was dangerous, especially the coastline since the currents to the ocean are so strong," I respond.

"The East side of town is run by the Organization, that's why your parents made sure to keep you away from it, but I wanted to show you something," He says, leading me to a blacked-out car.

I reluctantly sit down in the passenger seat, and he looks over at me from the driver's seat and shakes his head, laughing to himself. I raise my eyebrow as he starts driving towards the East.

"Normally, you don't sit in that seat," He says.

"Why?" I ask, confused.

"It used to be a mafia tactic, sit behind someone sitting in the passenger seat, put a wire around their neck and pull it tight, strangling them," Coy responds.

My heart skips a beat, and I turn around, looking into the backseat. Nobody is there. I let out a sigh of relief as Coy laughs. I shoot him a glare and sink back into my seat, looking out as we pass into the East side.

"Trust me, if I wanted you dead, I would've killed you back when I killed Anshi, don't worry, Kyne. No reason to kill you...Yet," He says.

We arrive at the edge of the mountain, overlooking the ocean. We get out of the car, and Coy leads me down a staircase leading to the beach at the bottom. We pass a few men in deep purple suits on the way down, and they look at Coy and nod, stepping out of his way.

I look down at the beach. Aside from the presence of several armed people in the same purple suits, there's another feature of this beach that catches my eye. A large wooden ship, which looks to be very old, washed up on the shore, cracked in two. The side of the ship reads, Emmalien's Constellation. Huh, I wonder what that could refer to...

"The ship is where we keep some of our goods, drugs, money, you name it, and it's probably there. This is just one of our storage areas," Coy says, stepping onto the beach.

"Who's Emmalien?" I ask.

"No clue, there's no history on that vessel, creepy right?" He smirks.

"Why are you showing me this?" I ask.

"It will matter in the future, but all the money you have earned for us has ended up here; you're short quite a lot," He says, staring at me.

"I still have six days, including today," I respond.

"You still owe fourteen million," He responds flatly.

"I know," I say, looking him in the eyes, my expression unflinching.

"Are you confident you can pull through?" He asks, his glare like cold steel poking its way into my heart.

"Yes," I respond confidently.

He glares at me, his irises like two steel balls bobbing and floating in an endless white void. The longer I stare into those eyes, the more I feel myself drifting away from reality. I stand my ground and don't break eye contact. He smirks and nods, looking off and stepping past me back up the stairs.

"I'm rooting for you, Kyne. Don't disappoint me, you've caught my interest. Mr. Giles will be along shortly," Coy says, before stepping into his car and driving off.

I stand there awkwardly for a while as I wait, and I glance around what I can see from the East side of town. Among the very nice buildings and some expensive-looking housing, one building catches my eye. A large church, situated on a tall hill, it's far enough away that I can't make out any fine details. I squint my eyes to get a better look and hear a honk behind me.

I whip around to see Mr. Giles quickly waving me in. I take one more look at the church and run over to the passenger side and slip in, looking at him. He looks pale and nervous as he carefully starts driving off.

"You're in deep, kid," Mr. Giles says, biting his bottom lip, looking in his rear-view mirror.

"I've been in deep for a while," I chuckle.

"No, I'm serious. The Coyote means business; he's the hitman the Organization trusts the most," Mr. Giles snaps back.

"What's the real name of the Organization? It can't just be called The Organization, right?" I press.

Mr. Giles sighs and checks behind us again, presumably making sure we're not being followed. Once we get out of the East side, he relaxes and shakes his head, taking the time to reach over and smack me upside the head.

"Idiot," He grumbles.

"Hey! It was just a question," I mumble, rubbing my head.

"It's a dumb question, but I'm also an idiot, so I'll tell you. Never repeat this, but we're called the Assembly of Silence. Nobody knows why, we don't question it. We're ordered to just call it the Organization," He says, sternly.

"And what's so dangerous about Coy?" I ask.

"He's been trained by Mary personally." Mr. Giles says.

"Kind of a dumb name, did he pick that?" I ask, and he shoots me a glare.

"No, Mary picks everyone's titles, so we don't use our names," He says.

"You use your name," I point out.

"Only my last name," He shoots back.

"That's not a title. Unless your title is Mister," I scoff.

He goes silent and focuses on driving.

"Is it?" I ask.

"No, of course not," He grumbles.

"Then what is it?" I demand.

"Ugh...fine, it's the Caretaker," He says, defeated.

"Haha! I knew you were a softie!" I chuckle.

"I'm driving, ya know, I could throw you out and make you walk back!" He scowls.

"That wouldn't be very caring of you," I snicker.

He just rolls his eyes, but I see the faintest smile cross his face. Underneath all that sass and complaining, he's not a bad guy. Nothing like the others in the Organization.

"So is Mary actually her name?" I ask.

"Of course not, that's her title," He says.

"Mary isn't a title, it's a name," I say.

"Mother Mary, that's her title," He responds.

"That's arrogant, not to mention insulting. She's not pure," I say.

Mr. Giles shrugs and pulls in front of the store. He looks at me and unbuckles before saying.

"Is anyone alive actually a pure human being?"

I look down and think for a while before arriving at my answer.

"Nis is," I smile.

Mr. Giles freezes and looks at me. He smiles and nods, patting me on the shoulder before turning back to the car door and exiting. I follow behind him and walk inside. Nis is there holding Mr. Buns. I smile and pick them both up, twirling them in the air.

"Yay! Where were you, Kyne?" Nis beams.

"Oh, you know, just looking at a cool pirate ship," I say nonchalantly.

"Really?" She asks, her eyes lighting up with awe.

"Really, really," I respond.

"We should go there! Bring your girlfriend too!" She smiles.

The image of Anshi flickers in my head, her bloody, lifeless body on the cold wooden floor. The crazed look in her eyes while holding the knife over my body. I shake my head and set Nis down.

"She left town, Nis, we won't be seeing her again," I say and rub her head.

"Aw, I liked her..." Nis says.

"Me too, Nis. Me too," I give her a sad smile and hold out my hand.

"Let's go have a playdate with Mr. Buns, maybe he'll know something about the pirate ship!" I suggest, and Nis nods, grabbing my hand as we head upstairs.

Tomorrow I'll meet up with the Patron and get this debt settled, but for tonight, I'm not going anywhere. I'm right where I need to be. Here with Nis, watching over her. Once this is all over, I'll take her far away from this place. Just hold on a little longer...I can do this.