NIKAELEON***“Is the damage that bad?” Aina asked as she came to stand behind me.“The entire hardcopy has been compromised, I just want to check the soft copy to make sure it wasn’t tampered with. I also had slides prepared so I need to cross check those too." I replied to her as I opened my laptop.“And did anyone ever tell you that you would make a good military officer? You handled Connor like he was an unruly recruit.” I said and she laughed.“I actually wanted to join the marines once but my father wouldn’t have it. I was grounded for weeks after I made my intention known, he knew how impulsive I could be, if he hadn’t done so, I would have signed up without his knowledge. When the recruitment period was over, that was when I was allowed to leave the house.” She said.“He was just afraid to lose his only child.”“Did Connor really think you wouldn’t notice the discrepancies? The guy is a serious nutjob.”Aina said.I knew she was just trying to change the topic because it was st

NIKAELEON *** I remained frozen by the door for several minutes as I stared at Sophia’s bare feet. I tried to convince myself that I was hallucinating, that I couldn’t possibly be seeing what I was seeing. But even after shaking my head and blinking my eyes severally, the image remained right in front of me. From the time when I had found my real father, and we became close before he was hurt and went into a coma, he told me some stories about our heritage. For generations, anyone born of our bloodline always had a particular birthmark. My father said that sometimes it appeared in the most ridiculous of places, my grandmother’s had been right above her eye, his was between his thighs and very close to his testicles, I knew mine was at my lower back. That same diamond shaped birthmark was on Sophia’s big toe, and seeing it shook the foundation of the world I thought I knew. “Who is at the door, can you come closer so I can see you? Mummy, is that you?” Sophia called weakly and that

NIKAELEON *** As much as I tried to keep the thoughts out of my mind as I settled into bed, I couldn’t seem to do so. I tossed and turned on my bed, tormenting myself with questions that had no answers and various scenarios. After getting back, I was informed that the Black Knight had taken down the largest Irish mafia family in the country. They were having their annual meeting where families of the Irish mafia came from all over the country to meet in a designated city to discuss strategy, negotiations and more. They had all been assassinated and from the information we gathered, the traitor had been the head Don’s most trusted man. It irked me how easily the Black Knights could slip through the defences of some of the most powerful people in the world. They almost wiped out my own family if not for my quick thinking and intervention. The Russians and Mexicans were barely holding on, and now the Irish had been cleared out in one day. It wasn’t just those at the wrong side of the l

NIKAELEON***When I woke up, I was surprised to see that it was almost noon, two hours past the time I told Aina that I would wake up. That was very unusual, it couldn’t possibly be because I was tired. What I said to Aina is the truth, no matter how tired I get, I can only sleep for three or four hours at a stretch before automatically waking up. It’s one of the habits I picked from prison.In there, my sleeping habit was even worse, I could barely sleep for an hour straight and the slightest noise, even the sound of someone breathing a bit out of proportion could wake me up. I was always alert, ready to fight in case of any danger. It messes you up pretty bad, and if I were weak minded, I would be deeply traumatised for the rest of my life, kind of like having PTSD. Luckily, the only things I got when I left prison was a little paranoia, the ability to function with less sleep, a few contacts, and some less useful things like how to make a slingshot with a plastic fork. The longest

NIKAELEON***“It’s rude to speak about me in the third person when I’m seated right here.” Aina said with a frown as Manolo asked his question.“If you want to know why I’m here, you should have just asked me.”“The Boss is the only one that can say if it’s okay to speak to you or not. I do not know your purpose here, you could be a prisoner, he could have declared you off limits prior to my arrival or maybe you are under punishment.” Manolo replied to her.“Then you should have asked him for permission to speak to me, instead of speaking about me like I’m not here.” Aina said calmly.“I just asked a simple question. If you’re so concerned about manners, and if you were taught them properly, you would know that it’s rude to speak when you weren’t being spoken to, especially since the question I asked was for the Boss, you basically just disrespected him.”Aina opened her mouth to respond, and from the look on her face, her reply would not be a pleasant one. I cut her off before she c