Don: The Blood Chains

The thing that hit Joseph the hardest was the idea of bodies hanging from the bridge. It could be a terrible and loud message to scare people, show power. He even started to picture heads missing, arms missing even limbs… just a fucking potato hanging from a bridge… yeah it could be a terrifying image..

Though on the other hand he had heard the story before. He could remember bits of it from back then, but to be honest, he didn't really care at first. He could see how Hana felt about it the guilt and the fear she lived with. He even knew how the families expected justice, how they wanted revenge… and she stayed silent about it until the breaking point came.

In her mind she had been betrayed by her own family and by the friends she trusted, but she deserved that kind of treatment. She had stayed quiet the whole time, she never said a word, even though she was the only one who lived. She stood there, giving comfort for the families and they treated her like one of their own. They helped her, they hugged her. they trusted her… she was the only one that was left alive…

Then the truth came out that she watched them die and she ran and since then she had only been pretending. She acted like she belonged, and they didn't notice, they never saw through her act.

She knew it was wrong, but what could she do in a world where everything was eaten up by corruption and ruled by the underworld? If she had gone to the police, then in only a few hours, maybe even less she would have been killed.

So she did the only thing she could. She ran. She didn't look back. She almost forgot she had even been there with them. Life became easier after that, almost normal, as long as she kept lying. She lied to herself, to the people she cared about, to everyone around her.

But the truth never really left her. It stayed inside, waiting for the right moment to break out. Every smile she gave, every word she said, was built on those lies. She knew one day the truth would return, and when it did, it would not ask her if she was ready. It would crush everything she had built since that night.

Still, she stayed quiet, she told no one, because silence felt safer than speaking, and running felt easier than standing still.

But at least she had truly become somebody on her own. With all the experiences, all the blood, all the suffering, she carried it herself. Funny, in a dark way, to even think about. She was the one suffering, yet how much suffering had she caused by killing people for money?

Who could even say if those people were really guilty, if they were true criminals? She didn't know. The only ones who knew were the people who paid for the hits. She never went out to search for truth or justice; she just picked up the gun, did the job, and left. That was all.

And then there was the PMC. What she had done there was no different, killing men who were simply defending their country from outsiders. They weren't monsters, they weren't devils. Maybe they were just soldiers like anyone else, ordered to fight. But she pulled the trigger anyway. She became a devil on her own, while on the outside she pretended to be some innocent lady whose emotions had been wounded.

It was messed up and Joseph knew it. She knew she had blood on her hands that would never wash off, no matter how much she tried to act normal, no matter how much she lied to herself.

And today, it was too much. What started out as a day for quiet turned into something else entirely… a day filled with all the bullshit.

"Well, everybody has their own little darkness, I guess, so you have your own." Joseph said as he looked at her. "But this is not the past, Hana, and you are working for me for a mafia that is going to kill many people, even innocent ones, because everything comes with a price."

"I know it." She said almost immediately, but that thing was still in her eyes.

"Then please, just forget it, because right now you can't operate how you're supposed to. I pay you a lot of money to be able to protect me, but if your emotions take over when a teenager stands in front of me with a knife, you're everything but what you need to be… you are dead weight." Joseph said, though he knew he needed to be careful with his words… he switched it up.

Yeah, this bullshit, "I understand, I feel you" thing doesn't work in a situation like this, because it just gives more fuel to her emotions, but that's not what Joseph needs. He needs a killer, he needs a guard who will protect him… and that's what Hana said, they protect for every danger, even if it's their life… but in a state like this, she can't do shit.

She felt it… more like she knew it. What Joseph said was the reality of her situation, kind of the exact opposite of what she needed to be…

"I understand and I'm sorry." She said, which was surprising to Joseph. He thought she would start with another mental speech, but now she actually accepted the fact of the matter.

"Good. Then what about you, Amine? You too have a traumatic past?" He looked at her.

"Not really… just that Rio boy, reminded somebody to me… from the past."

Ahh, past once fucking again.

"Reminded what?" he asked back.

"My first kill was a 16-year-old dealer… he kinda looked like him."

Now it was more than surprising for Joseph and confusing… because she had that disappointment in her eyes, but then why the fuck did she have that?

"You look like you are angry about it… why did you look at me that way then?" Joseph asked, as he was truly lost about all of it.

"Because I think you made the wrong decision." She said, and her eyes as she said it… she wasn't that innocent, but was something more than that… a real killer.

It made him excited… yeah, finally she too showed herself… finally somebody spoke against him with eyes that were certain about something… how good it is.

"Wrong choice?" He asked back as a smile curled on his mouth. "Can you elaborate on it?"

"Yea." she said back simply, didn't even fade by how Joseph looked. She was utterly certain about something. "I think the best option was to kill them all, because they are just going to cause more trouble… and second, they are already dead."

"Ohh, what do you mean?" Joseph asked, as his smile just got bigger hearing it from her… that he made the wrong choice by not killing them on the spot… how strange it is… like Hana and Amine though their worlds collided.

One of them was disappointed because of what he did, and the other was disappointed by what he didn't do.

"You didn't kill them, which means they will die a terrible death by their gang leader. Like, think about it, little boys with a bag of weed, and the deal went wrong… then you show up, stab one of them, destroy the weed, and leave them." she explained. "They will die, and in my opinion, it would have been better to just kill all of them on the spot, then let them go back to their boss and tell exactly what happened and who did it… they are going to cause a lot of trouble in my opinion, and we need to clear the streets anyway from this shitty dealers."

She was right about it, and to be truthful, Joseph knew it too. There will be consequences of it, because street gangs are like little parasites, like cockroaches, and more importantly, they hate it when their pride and ego are shattered… and Rio and his little friends will definitely die because of their fuck-up… not just that, but this whole thing is exciting..

To have more and more war… how good it can be to wipe out a street gang. At least he can test out the Cassian family, see what they are really capable of, what Pablo and his men are truly capable of… yeah, he truly made war with everybody and will make war with everybody… and the DSA will be very much happy about it.

That's what they need. Joseph finally started moving and became, in their words, the villain of the underworld. Yeah, in that way, they don't need to do shit, just fake investigations, fake evidence, and say it was them… yeah, there's no need for order, no judicial decision, or from the higher-ups, no search warrant, nothing in that way… finally everything can be cleared.

And that's exactly what is Joseph doing right now.