[C h a p t e r 5 7]

Everyone watched as Lee Soo Man’s corpse slumped to the ground, a soft gurgling sound emanating from his mouth as the little air that was left in his lungs bubbled out through the blood that filled his mouth. Amber toppled back to the ground on her behind, wincing from the sudden exertion with her heavily bruised body. Henry finally threw Key’s arms off him and came running over to Amber’s side, turning a nervous glance over at Lee Soo Man’s body.

'Josephine… Are you alright?” he asked her with a concerned look on his face, turning his attention back to Amber.

Amber slowly sat up, nodding her head as she allowed Henry to help her. “I’m fine…” Her words drifted off mid-sentence when she realised that Xaphan was still standing there, staring at her. As if some sort of understanding passed between them, Xaphan immediately withdrew a gun from his back and pointed it at Kris’s head while Amber withdrew two of her throwing knives, her arm drawn back ready to throw.

“Amber… How different you are now from that silent girl you were almost ten years ago. I must commend you though; you managed to kill the man who took care of you for all these years. And now I see you want to kill me? If you throw those knives, your dear friend here will definitely not survive to see another day,” spat Xaphan, bending down to pull Kris up, still tied to the chair, and pressing the gun to his temple.

Amber continued to glare at Xaphan, her grip on her knives tightening. Without lowering the blades, Amber said in an icy voice, “You have always been a sadistic bastard, and even if I do let you go, you won’t leave him alive. However, with the state he is in now, I believe it would be best that he dies now, rather than painfully later.” Henry turned to stare at her, shocked that she would say something so heartless, but the slight glistening of her eyes told him otherwise. He turned back to stare at Xaphan with a renewed anger, wishing that he still had his gun in hand.

“Let Kris go. There’s no use in killing anymore people. If you let him go, then perhaps we’ll let you go free,” negotiated Henry, hoping to end this without anymore bloodshed.

Xaphan spat on the ground, sneering. “Do you think I would believe the that spouts from your mouth, ‘Detective’? I know you won’t let me go so easily and I’m determined to take both this guy and her down w-”

A gun was suddenly fired, cutting Xaphan off in the middle of his speech as a bullet buried itself deep into the side of his brain, killing him instantly. The man fell to the ground with a small spin, dropping Kris as he landed on his back. Kris crashed to the ground on his side once more, barely conscious.

Amber turned to look at the one who had fired the gun, and Key met her gaze, shrugging casually. “He was too noisy,” he said simply.

Putting the matter aside for the time being, Amber rushed over to Kris’s side, hurriedly moving to untie him from the chair. Henry came to help her and soon Kris was free, Henry holding him up as Amber peered at his wounds. She held his hands gently in hers, unable to stop the tears from falling as she saw that not only one, but several of his nails had been ripped out, despite the fact that Lee Soo Man had said that it would only be one nail per hour.

Kris stirred slightly at Amber’s touch, barely able to open his heavily swollen eyes to peer blurrily at his surroundings. “Amber…” he croaked, wincing as he re-opened his split lip. “Stupid… girl…”

“Shh…” hushed Amber, his matted fringe out of his eyes. “Don’t talk. We’re going to take you to a hospital now. Just hold on…” Amber bit back her lower lip, fighting to stop more tears from falling down her face.

Kris smiled as he saw a tear trail down her bruised cheek, attempting to lift a hand to brush it away but his hand fell back down limply, unable to muster enough strength. “Amber…” he whispered once more. “You shouldn’t… have come… But… it looks like… you managed… to kill… Lee Soo Man… afterall…” He struggled to take in a deep breath, wheezing slightly at the effort.

Amber held on to his shoulders gently, panicking slightly as Kris seemed to drift further and further away from her. “Please, Kris… Stop talking. Save your energy for your recovery.”

Again, Kris smiled as he softly shook his head. “I think you can tell… that I won’t… make it… But I want to… say this… I’m sorry… Sorry for being… the one who brought you to… become an assassin... You are like the little sister… I never had, Amber…”

Kris’s eyes slowly closed and Amber shook her head in denial, no longer trying to stop the tears from flowing freely down her face. She suddenly started trying to lift Kris up, urging Henry to also help carry him. “Come on, Henry; help me take Kris to the hospital. There’s still time… we can save him… there’s still time…”

Henry pulled Amber back down with his free hand, trying his best to stop her futile attempts at taking Kris to the hospital. He had felt Kris’s breathing gradually slow in his arms, until his chest no longer moved. He knew that Kris had left them, and he tried now to convince Amber of that fact.

“Amber… It’s too late. He’s passed on into the next life…” he whispered, his heart twisting painfully as he saw Amber finally stop trying to drag Kris up, sobs wracking her body.

“Kris… Why…? Why did you have to… die? It was never your fault… never… my brother…” sobbed Amber, leaning onto his chest as she held on to him tightly for one last time.

Key’s footsteps echoed softly in the empty warehouse, hesitating slightly as he tried to decide whether to lay a comforting hand on Amber’s shoulder. As his eyes met with Henry’s, he decided against the action, instead, standing tall with a haughty look on his face.

“I suppose you are free to go now, Amber. You have accomplished your end of our deal, and now I will stick to my word. I pray that we shall never cross paths once again.” He continued to stare at Amber’s sobbing back, but when he received no reply, he decided to walk away towards the back of the warehouse, mixed feelings churning through his mind at their parting, and his father’s death.

Henry watched as Key walked off, wondering what it was that Amber had agreed with Key. He turned back to peer at Amber, who had finally stopped crying and lay with her head resting on Kris’s shoulder, eyes closed. He reached out a gentle hand, the side of her head comfortingly as gazed at her with an understanding look in his eyes.

“We’d better get out of here, Amber… before anyone turns up and finds us with all these dead bodies here.” Henry moved to lay Kris’s body on the ground and Amber finally lifted her head from Kris’s shoulder.

“Let’s go get a car. I want to give Kris a proper burial, and not leave his body out here in the open.” She wiped away the last traces of her tears, taking in a deep shuddering breath as she tried to recover from her short burst of crying. Amber stood, wobbling slightly on her feet as pain suddenly shot up through her leg, wincing slightly.

Henry hurriedly rose to his feet as he came to steady her, confused and worried as to why she was suddenly so unsteady. “Josephine… what’s wrong?” he asked, peering down at her legs.

Amber too, peered down at her leg and found that she had one of her throwing knives stuck into the side of her leg. She realised it must have happened when she still had a hold of the knives, forgetting about them as she rushed over to help Kris. She had dropped the knives on the ground, right where she had been sitting previously.

A small, sad smile spread its way across Amber’s face as she removed the throwing knife from her leg. “How ironic that I was injured by my own weapon in that mess…” she muttered bitterly, throwing the knife to the ground. Amber quickly went to tear at her shirt, removing a strip to wrap around her leg in a makeshift bandage.

Amber then tried to take a step and would have fallen if Henry had not caught her on time. She held onto him to pull herself back up as Henry held on to her tightly. “Josephine… let me help you, okay?”

Amber nodded in reply and together, they limped out towards the entrance to the warehouse, Amber glancing one last time over her shoulder at Kris’s body on the ground.

‘I will come back for you, Kris… But for now, farewell, my brother.’

tbc.