Anwir shook the bodyguard's hand, "You good, fam?"
The Italian responded with a fat smile, "Good to see you, Anwir, I remember little man Anwir. Big man now look at you." He clapped him on the back, "Valen Sultanas lookin' like a fine family an' everythin'."
Anwir offered him a fag, "Yeah, feelin' good about it and that."
The Italian took it, "Cheers."
Anwir lit it for the man, "All g, bro, all g." He looked up the block of flats, "Seen Enz and Ghaada up there?"
"Yeah, them fellas came by earlier, said they were gonna wait up there for you to go deliver the good news to the Don." he took a long drag of smoke, "Good shit."
"Yeah, got 'em from Athens, fresh import."
"Nice, nice."
Anwir gave a casual salute, "Be seein' you."
Anwir made his way up the dark stairs, too clean and free of chewing gum to be a place that belonged in Pur Uric South West. A quiet thud from the bodyguard followed after he'd already gone up the stairs. Shouts came as people rushed to him, opening the way for others to take out the remaining bodyguards and make their ways up. Patterned out, perfectly.
He rounded the first corner to another set of stairs. At the end of the staircase that smelled of air conditioning he took a right with his trainers barely making a sound on the concrete with skids from kids playing tag. He found Enzo and Ghaada standing by the safehouse.
"All's in place, patterned and that." Ghaada handed over the burner phone, "Mandem are all set, few civvies needa get duppy though."
"Sorry for 'em," Anwir turned on the phone, Elkay's number was in, "Enz?"
Enzo nodded, "It's all ready."
Anwir's eyes trailed off to the far side of the block, in a corner some kid huddled, shadows were way too dark and thick. Middle o' the day and she was sittin' there like midnight.
"Whore's kid got thrown out again? This place I swear..." Ghaada lit a fag.
_Nah, this is worse._ Anwir took a deep breath, made out her head, body, she had a cigarette between her thin cracked lips, eyes sunken halfway. He drew quickly and fired three silenced shots. One for the head, two for the chest. The sound of squeezing liquid chilled his flesh, black blood spurted out of her like a garden sprinkler, her face contorted in on itself into a whirlpool that pulled her inside. Skin tightened all over her body, bones and muscles were broken. Her eyes plopped out of her head and landed with a squelch of mud thick blood. Steam rose from the puddles.
_Witches here too, we gotta get this shit done. Fuck you Jacobi._
"So what's that all about," Ghaada took a hard draw of smoke, "Fuck do they come from?"
"Born with omens of bad luck, some false god—"
"Not now, Enzo." He started the walk down the block past the corpse. _Rda and Winta'll witch up this place, or we'll burn it to the ground. We don't need more anomalous shit or witches..._ he scowled at the realisation that thing wasn't just a witch.
When they were a few doors down from Jacobi's he dialed Elkay. They made their approach, hoods up, the door quietly swung open with Tara, Jacboi's wife, smiling a giddy wave turned to horror. Anwir covered her mouth, gut punched her and threw her to the ground. On the other side of his triple-flat doors were shotgunned open, windows were broken, shots were fired. Hard bootsteps followed by gunshots, shouting in Italian, English and Arabic all at once with Tara pooling tears in her eyes. Anwir took the time to feel her chest up. _Today at last._ Children came flooding the halls, quickly turned stone still by Ghaada and Enzo's guns pointed at them. Anwir took the time to handcuff her hands and legs.
"Round 'em up, time's come. Today's the day." Anwir put down the phone.
"Get this over with quickly." Enzo growled.
Anwir picked up Tara by her hair, "Get everythin' ready."
"An-Anwir p-please—"
He squeezed her neck, "Shut the fuck up." She knew, she was a smart enough woman who married a gangster. He gave a nod to the brothers filling the room slowly as bodies were taken out to be stored. He kicked open one of the children's room and dragged Tara inside. Threw her on the floor and locked the door behind them, he pointed the gun at her. his heart thundered with the heat.
He swung open the door, thoroughly satisfied with Tara's performance, he looked back to see her wimpering in the corner, empty eyes.
"She's ready, you boys get ten minutes each with 'er, no breaking. She's going too."
"Fuck yeah brudda." Five of them went in at once.
"JACOBI!" Anwir triumphantly bellowed.
Muffled shouts followed up the hall. Anwir buckled up his belt while he walked up the hall, the children were all ordered, sleeping with chloroform rags. Nobody touched them nor were they allowed to today. Tara's screams followed him up the hall, he felt himself get erect again from the thrills she'd given him earlier. Her tearful eyes and teeth clenching as she took it like a woman. A few of the guys sniggered with excitement.
Today, Barista Segreta met its end by the Valen Sultana. The remaining man were being fished up on the streets, even the one's who weren't drawn out but had enough affiliation to be a problem. No more opps, no more Italians that weren't loyal dogs on _his_ streets.
Inside the pretty living room donned in wood, gold railings and white carpets stained with blood, shells and bullets, Jacobi was in a pool of his own blood on his knees. He glared at Anwir with an Italian dog's eyes.
"Fuckin' 'hells, this carpet's filthy ain't it Jacobi?" he snickered. He gestured for Enzo to remove the gag.
"If you're gonna do it, do it then." Jacobi spat.
"Nothin' to say about your wife, mistresses, kids?"
He smiled with black teeth, "You know what I was gonna do."
"Sick fuck."
"So says, the rapist raghead fuck, don't worry you stupid cunt, the Japs and the Gooks are gonna rip you a new—."
Anwir pulled the trigger, drilled a hole through Jacobi's head. "Your wife's tight, mean's your dick's small." he holstered the pistol.
"How many kids?"
"Twenty five fromt he entire block in total, all highly likely virgins." Enzo reported.
"Right, let's go get the twenty-sixth." He spotted movement in the corner of his eye by Jacobi. Swung round and pointed. Ravens out the window a few hundred meters off started flocking together into a huge shadow heading west. Anwir didn't care for the omens of other gods, but that left a sulfuric taste in his mouth. He wondered, _what god is luahing at us now..._
Blankets of bleak cloud blocked the comforting sight of the sun again, out on Devil's Sea the thunderclouds hung low like they were ready to suck up the dead water. Like they were metals on dad's forge, but this time the hammer belonged to God and he was going to smash the clouds into the sea, ending the evil water for good. He sighed over the stink of fish from their bags and the taste of porridge still on his teeth. He took a deep breath but the rot and salt tasted worse, his lungs were definitely corroded—
"Ricky I got our last catch for the day."
"Yeah, dad, alright." Chifferic replied blandly.
"You seem down again, need more fish?"
_No,_ "Something like that..."
"My boy's hungry for somethin' other than fish, what's on your mind."
He shook his head, "It's hormones."
"Ain't that a thing for girls?"
"I dunno." he shrugged, "Mum says that's what we go through."
"That stuff's for girls, Ricky, leave women to their stuff and crumbs."
"When can we eat something better than fish?" he pulled his eyes off the sea, looking at dad's infinitely strong back.
"Don't look at it like that son."
"Then how?" he looked up at dad, he wasn't that tall. Only a few hands above him now.
"You eat some of everything not too much of one thing, variety is the spice of life." he winked, "Oh remember, the surprise?"
"Yeah..." _another fish recipe._
"Good, let's march up, boyo." dad started a hard pace and bumped his shoulder with his own. They started a hard march across the grey sand drained of life. Crunch, crunch, under his boots.
"Remember, Ricky, keep marchin' through everythin' even when we're gone."
"I remember, especially when we get out of here."
"Absolutely, kid." he nodded, "Absolutely."
As they neared their home, the sound of warring waves traveled through stagnant air. Their sacks of fish were stocked with tuna and salmon that had lost their colour when they crossed between the Atlantic and that bloody devilish sea. He wondered if they noticed the change sometimes when they threw out their nets until he saw the schools mixing. Maybe animals were too dumb for anomalies, or just fish.
"When I was a boy, my uncle would take me to an old churchyard and talk about going far east to where Armenia was, he wanted to live there. Build his own churchyard, live off the land, raise a clan— family."
"You wanna do it in Athens, dad?"
"No boyo, Christianity's a crime against every gov and corp." he rolled his shoulder.
"Why was it outlawed dad?"
"Bad people did bad things to other people, Reignpainter daemons were their greatest weapons."
"But dad, there's more right?"
"S'what we travelers know, we kept our noses out of their wars. And I didn't really listen in history." he looked out over the sea, "Come on, let's march this fish and get tea ready."
"What's the surprise dad?"
Dad hummed in thought for a moment, "Oh alright, we're leavin' today, headed out east and then takin' a boat across the channel to the cheese eater's land."
Chifferic nearly exploded in excitement but the thought of fish spilling out and ruining tea kept him in line. _Yes, yes, yes, yes,_ "YEAH!!!"
Dad laughed with him and bumped his shoulder to keep marching.
The ravens flocked this far west in swarms of murder, stripping bones and dried corpses from blighted Earth, the corrupter's influence was stronger here. He took up some of the dead dirt in a gloved fist and let it blow away in turbulent winds, white grime or soot or just _death._ Whatever the dirt had turned to it blew away quickly becoming invisible.
"Send some men to shoot these fuckin' birds, I think it's that raven bitch." He said to Enzo.
"Is that wise? she could spite us."
"Don't care, we got what we want, now we need the last one to feed the sea." he cleared his throat and spun round to address the men, "Gentlemen, when the order was given to break our temples, our homes, the devils and Reignpainters feasted on our women and children. The Christians were nowhere to be seen but the grave. Our forefathers were nearly wiped out, their books burned completely, there's _nothing_ left of our history, we're lost and outcast." he took out the twelve gage, "I promised you redemption, a relinking of our history and we will get there, but first we do what they couldn't do. We'll build our wealth, strengthen our position and when the time is right. We will return to the deserts, to the sacred and holy lands from the scraps of history we have left. And _when we build,_ they'll respect us and kiss our feet, give us _their women,_ and we'll say..." he gestured to them.
"No peace, no outsiders, no traitors!" they chanted.
"Do whatever you want with the woman after I'm done with the place, let's catch some fuckin' fish." he shot the gun into the air.
As they started got into their vehicles, for wheelers, bikes, and the few trucks carrying the sacrifices and bodies Anwir stepped into his jeep with Enzo in the driver's seat.
"Told you not to bother reading those diaries our parents left behind."
He sighed, "Enzo, bro, what am I gonna do, pray to _their_ gods to help us be free? Ask The Ravennette, The Swordbringer, tha ancient fucks who govern every idiot's theory of freedom like some game master playing rulebreaker?"
"You're wafflin', look, bro, _we'll find a way._ First we focus on basics—"
"Enzo Sayyid, you are always so focused on your _basics,_ so many _basics,_ you keep falling flat on your face when shit ain't basic anymore. Look at our riff raff, look at what's hapepned, look at Jacobi, and you said to wait. Look at us now, can you even say shit about my leadership?"
"Consequences—"
"Don't say that stupid sentence." he started the engine, "That's what every lost dick head says to a man walkin' his way, find your own or follow me."
"I get it bro, I support you, but caution's always necessary."
"Caution has its time, Enz, now's the time for hard _action._"
Enzo nodded, "But _don't_ rape that woman. I had a dream of a woman falling off a cliff, some shit flies up and swallows a ghost that came out of her. Takes it and runs away with it. I don't like that shit." he took out a pack of cigarettes but the booming of the thunder overhead seemed to make him put them away.
"An omen from who?"
"Don't know, maybe the ravens."
Anwir looked to the raging cursed sea, "We're here to beat every god that'll try to fuck with us today, we gotta beat them and the real monsters out there. Light that fag up, and smoke it."
Enzo reluctantly did it.
"Good, we're gonna be free." he hit the accelerator and started driving at the head of the pack.
The vehicles quickly formed up around Commissioner Hill where the crumbled tower stood, bomb holes all around it from the dark age. Rain pattered across the dead ground, puffs of white dust fluttered into the air, dissolved into the rain and started forming some kinda alien mist. It wasn't acidic rain, but _something else._ They didn't care for measuring rain, but better not drink that cursed water.
"They're Christian, she says, last of they kind. Don't curse mosquito if it killed their grandmother," Enzo said.
"Man and woman don't matter dead, just don't kill the boy." his hands gripped the steering wheel harder than before, he was almost at the end. He could feel the tension like he was nearing release. If everything went right here, he'd be able to get everything in motion for them to rise and leave. Enzo was quiet for the rest of the ride, Anwir felt a drip of cold sweat with his heart louder than the thunder outside.
They arrived half an hour later half a mile away from the old house they'd been told about, Anwir ordered them to fan out and surround the house from the same distance.
"How the fuck does anyone live out here?" Ghaada lit a fag, "Fuckin' tramps."
"The sea's an enigma, maybe it'll bless us, bless them, but no blessin'll save 'em from us today." he raised a fist and dialed Elkay on the burner. They started moving down the hill slowly. Sunshine started brimming in his head with excitement. Just one more job and the rest of their jobs were focused on capital, bricks and foundations to build. The back door to the place swung open and three figures stepped out carrying heavy bags to a shack in what was supposed to be their 'garden.'
A gunshot cracked in the air, ending the silence. Shouting came from the other side, Anwir saw one of his men fall dead. Another shot, another man died. A gunshot from one of his and the kid ducked, then a bolt of lightning struck him clean on the head, his mother screamed and wrapped him up in her arms weeping. The sea waves fell into dead silence. Anwir rushed toward them with the rest of his men.
"DON'T MOVE OR WE'LL FUCKING SHOOT!" he yelled.
When he was close he got a make on all of them, just as that witch claimed her Fomor dreams had told her. Unremakable dim people, plain faced man, middling boy but a striking mother with that hook nose that didn't go to her son. Despite her nose, her pretty face, and voluptuousness betrayed her. All the right curves, full lips, piercing green eyes. The boy's hair was dull, Anwir didn't even care for his eyes or rat coloured hair. He probably won't remember the kid even if he met him again and again. Gunshots filled the air with more crows falling onto the dead sand, ravens were mixed in there too. The woman wimpered, Anwir gave her small comfort, now was the time to build trust. He avoided a grin.
"Don't worry, you'll both be safe, the boy got marked by the demon goddess Morrigan."
"But he would never—"
"What's the boy's name?"
"Chifferic."
He faked surprise, "That's precisely the name we were given, the people in London Tower were coming for him and with him they'd somehow be able to corrupt this land further to mine Galhite."
"That's bollocks," the father said, "my son—"
Anwir cleared his throat with his gun pointing at the father, "No time, before she comes, give your boy to the sea it will free his spirit from her grasp."
More gunshots cracked, ravens and crows fell onto the ground in heaps of blood and feathers.
"I know who _you people are._" she hissed.
"And who are we?" he closed his free hand into a fist. Forden and Alfoy restrained her man, Aabid and Jordan dragged her away from her son.
She screamed, "Liar!" tears streaking down her cheeks, "Fucking liars, my son! Chifferic wake up!"
The body lay completely lifeless, no breath, no pulse. Anwir dragged him across the sand, Enzo took his legs and they hurled him into the sea. It stirred slowly, rising and roiling into a frenzy. They drove the trucks to the sea, opened up the back and started hurling the children in, they woke up with shrieks of horror and panic. They knew death was coming. Gunshots filled the air all the while, ravens raining blood and feathers onto them with the boy's mother's face drained of colour. Anwir hadn't noticed, but someone limb shot the father who was grinding his teeth on the ground glaring at him. He smirked, and walked over to his wife who was too in shock to realised he'd started cuffing her.
Dragged back to the border of consciousness by the dead water Chifferic woke up, feeling electricity pumping through his chest... he couldn't feel his heart but his veins still legged blood along. Dragged through his veins by the electric feeling in him. He felt hazy, like it was a dream but not a dream. He turned his weighty head to the beach and saw the dark man doing horrible things to his mother while he shoved her head into the ground. He was ripping her clothes... she was screaming. He tried to turn away but the sea forced him away, he couldn't cry out. His father shouted and bellowed but the man on his mother took out a gun and shot his father in the head. The waves rose up filled his nostrils and his mouth with corpse water.
Dongfang walked barefoot on Brighton beach feeling the stones under her feet while pulling cards for Sonechka, the old lanky man seemed well beyond the years he deserved. His cold thin eyes watching in a thousand mile stare, the eyes on the back of his head too. She drew another card, then another and showed them to him. His eyes lit up with glee that she hadn't seen in ten years.
"I win again, Sonechka." she said quietly as a boy washed up on shore.
"Reason we don't do deal with Chinese."
She tittered.