TWISTED EMPIRE
Twisted Empire - Episode 45&46
(Her Blade, His Neck )
________________________
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, or reposted in any form, or by any means without a written permission from the author.
Copyright © 2025
__________________________
[Local Healthcare, Symi]
Taking Four to the mainland or Thessaloniki would take too much time, and his shot chest is letting out too much blood, so Teal wouldn't risk that. Else, gawd forbid he dies.
She brought him to the only healthcare in the small island, and she wasn't even allowed into the tiny ICU as the doctors attended to him.
She stood alone in the hall, fingers interwoven and hair scattered around her scalp. Gummy miserable strands covered her right eye, and her hands are dark-red with his blood, reaching her under-nails.
She has called the base, and Kash should be here any moment from now.
But why aren't the doctors coming out?
Why aren't they giving her any news?
They're still rushing about, going in and out of the ICU like blunt novices.
The lights in the hall are too infuriatingly bright that Teal felt the need to squash them off. The cold wind from outside swooshed under her skin, peeving her more.
It doesn't help that this island is colder than the polar region.
Her breaths curled in her nostrils when the grisly scene replayed in her head again like a nightmare.
Uncle Paul, her own uncle... Shot down her betrothed husband?
So coming to this island was the trap.
Why?
Why the hell would her Uncle Paul do such? Has he started taking hire-to-kill jobs too?
Who sent them to hit Four?
As she tried to find a congruous answer in her head, one of the medics rushed past her.
She dragged him back by the polo of his coat, and the man grumbled as she slammed his back violently on the washed wall.
Her bloody hands left prints on his coat, but who cares?
"What's going on! Why have y'all been going in and out of the ICU for more than an hour without a news for me!" She demanded, eyes frostbitten.
"We...we already told you his condition is tough, he got hit on the chest. You gotta be calm and wait. We're not very equipped, so please relax, we'll try our best" the medic explained despite the difficult position she held him at.
Teal stayed adamant even after he said that. She didn't let go of his polo, and she kept releasing series of anxious breaths, tension radiating from her body.
She could see the fear in the medic's eyes, but she doesn't care. Why is Four not stable yet?
If she wants to go face her uncles, she has to know his state of health first. She slammed the medic on the wall again, and the man groaned.
"I...I did nothing...wrong"
"Private Teal!" Sergeant Kash hollered from the main door. It's actually not far from where they're standing.
Teal let go of the medic, and the poor man scurried away from her, then Kash rushed over.
He came with some trusted Senior Sergeants—three of them.
"Sergeant Kash" Teal managed to talk, turning her back on the cold wall before going down in an unplanned squat like a drained tyre.
Kash left her and went to the ICU door, but before he could barge in, he was stopped by two medics who pushed him back by the chest.
Kash instinctively drew his handgun, steadying his aim at the two with dead eyes.
"Get away from the threshold, I need to see my Master" he spat, his pointer sliding under the trigger.
"You can't shoot, sir. The team are working tirelessly on him so please wait..." the lanky doctor said.
"I do not have the long patience to wait, let me in!" Kash insisted, shooting at the wall behind them.
The two medics s went down with stunned screams, and Kash was about to storm in when the oldest doctor came out of the room, blocking his way.
"Don't scare my team, Sergeant. We did all we could" he said. Kash lowered his gun slowly, a scowl crossing his features.
"What do you mean you did all you could?"
"The bullet grazed his heart, and he was lucky enough to cheat death and stay alive, but he landed in a persistent vegetative state and won't wake up except if he's fated to wake" the old doctor said.
"What!" Kash's jaws hit the floor.
Teal stood from her squat, looking aghast as she came closer with the three other Sergeants.
"Vegetative what?" Her eyes dimmed with disbelief.
"He might wake up faster than expected. But the least persistent vegetative state period I've encountered is five years" the doctor continued.
"You're telling me he's gonna be asleep for five years? Are you f+ckin with me?" Teal caught her breaths.
Kash pushed the doctor out of the way, entering the ward to meet the scene he has never dreamt of witnessing before.
Four, unconscious in bed, getting transfused by blood, and surrounded by small cardiovascular and respiratory machines producing slow, faint but aligned sounds.
His chest is bandaged, probably after the medical team finished removing the bullet he was shot with.
His hands—unmoved.
Legs—unshaken like rooted rocks.
Eyes—hidden behind his tightly closed lids.
Whole body looks paralyzed.
"Master?" Kash's voice came out like he stole it, like he's not believing this cooked up shit at all.
The other three sergeants looks dismayed, and they just stood by the door, staring at the inert body in bed.
"Master!!!!" Kash screamed into his ears, but Four lay there like a corpse.
The old doctor rushed in.
"You brought him here, so he's our patient, and you have no right to do this. Please leave the ward and don't jeopardize him further" he warned.
Kash looks like he's gonna cry, and Teal stood right beside him, staring down at the lifeless body with empty eyes as if her soul got drained out with the blood he bled.
She left the ward, and Kash followed her out.
The three senior Sergeants stood guard in front of the ICU ward as the door went shut.
"The bullet?" Teal asked the old doctor, and the bullet was brought in a kidney dish.
Kash picked the bullet, examining it to see the origin, but he got nothing.
Teal's fingers stiffened like branches.
Of course he's gonna get nothing, cos it's her uncle's, and their products are highly discreet. Only few know about The Sovereign, but at the same time...many people know.
They operate carefully, and that's why the two uncles look like ordinary peasants on a normal day.
"I need to visit my hometown" she suddenly spoke.
"Why would you visit your hometown when we're in a difficult situation here? Master is gonna spend almost five years vegetatively on that bed and you didn't give me the full explanation yet! Who shot him? You should have seen the face. Who did?" Kash grilled her aggressively.
"I didn't see the face. The hit was planned well, so our guards were down" Teal replied as carefully as possible, but Kash looks like he caught on.
He came closer.
"You're a bag of emotions, Private Teal. You can't hide your facial signs and it's so obvious you're lying right now. Tell me, who shot Master?" He demanded harshly.
Teal stayed silent, the first part of his words hitting her hard. She's a bag of emotions?
"Are you working with the bastards?" Kash's brittle voice brought her back to the present, and she pinned him with a direct stare.
She could see his despair, the desperation to know the truth, but too bad he won't be getting any.
She's never telling anyone that one of her Uncles is behind the hit.
"Did you bring him to this island so your cohorts would attack?" Kash continued, getting more aggressive as she kept up the prickling silence.
"Stop making assumptions, Sergeant Kash. I don't know what you're talking about. Like I said, I need to visit my hometown, and don't alert anyone else from the base. Not even the General or Lady Yulia" she replied, made a smooth turn and walked out of the building.
She waved down a taxi, and she hopped in fast.
By flight, Kalynda is an hour from here, but by road, it should be an hour and thirty minutes or more.
Immediately the taxi left, a silhouette materialized from a dark corner in the healthcare premises.
He lowered his hoodie when he entered the road, revealing his face as the President's secretary.
He dialled a line as he entered a parked car beside the road.
--
[President's Mansion]
Xanthe is just getting back home.
He insisted on getting discharged immediately he got a little rest.
President Spyros had to reluctantly allow his discharge and also followed the guards who brought him home.
Xanthe was getting placed in bed when the head butler came inside with a soft rap.
Xanthe and the President faced the obese man, and he spoke with a bow.
"The secretary is on the telephone downstairs, sir"
President Spyros understood immediately. He began following the butler out of the room.
"Is this connected to Teal and Sergeant Four?" Xanthe spoke from the bed, and the man craned his neck to look at him.
"I already told you I lost interest! I lost it! How else should I say that for you to understand!" Xanthe raised his voice, anchoring his bandaged arm with the fine one.
"You do not have a say in this again, son. If you had gotten married when I was pestering you, then I would have stayed out, but now that she's involved, it's her or no one. I wasn't bluffing when I said I want the Ambrose bloodline in my family" President Spyros replied resolutely.
"Tell me how that's making any sense! The country is quaking with the fear of Usman cos no one knows when next the beast is gonna show up, but all you're concerned about is getting me a wife?" Xanthe shouted.
"You will not talk to me that way, Xanthe! You know what's gonna follow if I decide to let the mansion guards handle you, so measure your words" President Spyros glared before stalking out of the room.
He went to the ringing telephone and picked the call—from the secretary.
"Speak" he grunted.
"Her uncles did the job as expected, but he luckily escaped death at the healthcare. He's in a vegetative state and won't be waking for years" the secretary reported.
"Kill him" President Spyros ordered, his eyes rolling wickedly under the almost grey lashes.
"Kill him off completely in that healthcare. I don't want him alive at all. End him, and do it before daybreak."
"On it, sir" the secretary replied, and President Spyros ended the call, dropping the telephone with a sigh as he sat on a sofa beside the glass desk.
"If I didn't get to be with the late mother, my son should at least be with the daughter. She needs to stop being an Ambrose, that disgusting surname. Teal Dimitris, the sound is promising" He muttered.
A maid brought him a cup of bland frappé, and he had a sip, letting the bitter taste spread on his tongue as he awaited the news of Four's death.
--
[Therapeia Mental Institute]
The gym lights are still on, flushing their harsh glow down the figures of mother and daughter.
Sierra has successfully reset her broken arm. As promised, Empress resumed the fight, and it's been an hour on the fruitless attempts.
Sierra was weightless in Empress's snags as she kept throwing her across the room, and the younger lady kept rolling down the vinyl flooring.
She's downright tired, and she could use some rest right now, but why would she rest when Teal is still alive and breathing?
When she's probably in Four's unit right now, getting fucked like a bî+ch.
Or she's probably wearing his clothes again. Maybe she's sleeping in Four's bed right now.
Or his hands are on her ugly body and he's touching her in ways she could only dream of.
Four was the one who ordered the beatings from last time? Even better.
The fact that the order came from him is sugary, and now that she thinks about the beatings, she feels like orgasming in her underwear.
It's the most romantic thing ever.
But the fact still remains that...Teal is a threat, and till she's out of the way, there's no stop.
Keeping that in mind, she stood to her strong feet, doing a bumpy run to Empress.
She took the older woman by the nape, then she elbowed her on the chin just when Empress was about to retaliate.
The elbowing made Empress gurgle, and Sierra proceeded to slamming the elbow on her chest, right in the middle where the blood pumping organ is.
Empress swayed, and Sierra attacked her throat, using her knuckles and jagging it with unyielding force.
Empress landed on the ground with a thud, and Sierra knelt above the woman, grabbing her neck and squeezing it between her palms while imagining her as Teal.
Empress stayed there without making a sound, but her mouth is open as she allowed Sierra carry out her murderous intents on her.
Sierra's hands clipped her neck tighter, blocking her trachea and barricading her air pipe.
Her eyes reddened, and her skin began turning blue. Yet, she lay there.
"Bi+ch!!!" Sierra yelled, pressing her neck harder.
Empress's eyes closed, and that was when Sierra's brain sent a straight signal, reminding her it's her mum, not Teal.
She gasped, quickly taking her hands away from Empress's neck.
"Mum! Mum? Mum!!"
Empress lay there, looking dead.
Sierra raced to the kitchen, bringing a cup of water which she sprinkled on the woman's face.
Empress jerked back to life, and Sierra breathed out in relief as the cup fell from her.
She knelt beside her, and the woman sat up, water soaking her bossom.
"You could have stopped me" she said.
"Why should I stop you when you were doing well?" Empress smiled, dabbing her face with a palm.
Sierra sat on the ground too.
"So now what next?" Empress asked.
"Kill her off in the next mission and bury her without anyone's knowledge." Sierra shrugged.
Empress stroked her hair.
"That's my girl"
"But...you still haven't told me where you got the techniques you taught me from. The only profession I knew with you was that you're a mental health doctor, but then suddenly you became a fighter and began training me too till I became a threat. Who trained you?" Sierra asked.
Empress dropped her hand, standing up with a grunt.
"If you kill your opponent like you promised in the next mission, then I'll tell you" she said.
The sudden barking of the dogs at the annex broke into the discussion, and she dropped her face towel before leaving the gym.
"Wonder what she keeps in that annex" Sierra murmured.
She took her belly bag that's in the middle of the gym, and brought out a really pretty snow globe.
She was smiling fatly as she admired it like her biggest treasure.
It's her first and only gift from Four when she was in primary school.
She could remember that a girl stole this globe in her class back then, and when she caught her, she killed her.
It was her mother who buried the body for her—her first kill.
--
[Kalynda]
It was some minutes to 10pm when Teal arrived at her hometown, and the familiar smell of the sawdust from the mill, the fermenting smell of wine from the brewery, and the sweet smell of garden fruits welcomed her.
It's been just two months in the military base, and still...this place still feels like home.
It'll always be.
Darkness covered the streets, so she can't see much, but thanks to the flashlight she took from the kind taxi driver, she was able to see her path.
The crowing of crows welcomed her into the Ambrose ranch.
The crows must have recognized her movements even in the dark since she's the one who fed then before she left for military.
She flipped the front door open, and the lights in the ranch came on, showering the faces of her two uncles who're standing at the dinning area.
Teal drew her knife, going straight for Uncle Paul and stabbing him deep in the chest, making sure all the blade went in.
Paul made no attempt to stop her. He expected this.
"Teal!!" Uncle Dave shouted, trying to get her away from Paul, but she stayed glued, removing the knife only to stab Paul again on the same spot.
"Teal stop!" Uncle Dave pulled her off, blocking Paul from her as Paul's blood soaked his multicolored shirt.
"Stop?" Teal laughed with an humourless sound. "Stop? Are you also in on it?"
Uncle Dave sighed, and Teal's eyes darkened.
"You both knew about it? But you choose to send Uncle P to do the hit cos he's the sharpest shooter, right? What did they offer you? Tell me! What did they offer you? Who ordered the hit? The President?" She madly yelled, breathing raggedly.
"Calm down, Biglady" Uncle Paul said, not bothering to hold his bleeding chest as his blood wasted on the carpet, flooding under the floorboards.
"Don't give me that crap! Why would you use me as a trap to bring him to that island? Did you even think about it at all? I'm in the military, and they're strict with offenders and rules! You want me dead, isn't it? Lady Yulia will kill me without waiting a blink!" She yelled again, Uncle Paul's blood mixing with Four's dried one on her palms.
"Yes, the President ordered the hit, but we couldn't turn him down cos he knows about our sovereign artillery! He knows about our business!" Uncle Dave yapped.
"You could have told me first, I'd have told Four and he'd have handled it with me! You said I'm betrothed to him so why? Why can't you trust him!" Teal shouted angrily, all her veins running.
"He's not who we think he was, he might be involved in your parents death in one way or another" Uncle Dave said, and Teal bursted into a contemptuous laughter.
"Did the President also said that? That man would say anything to get what he wants! I've only met him twice but I know how he works and how obsessed he is with getting me for his son, so he told you Four is involved in my parents death and you believed? My parents—Rue and Vaughn Ambrose died in an accident, inside a forest, on top of a cliff!" She snapped.
"Teal..." Uncle Paul came forward.
"Don't come close, or I'm gonna have to wound you more! And don't ever show your face in front of me!" She snapped.
"You can't return to the base, or to him. After all, he's in a vegetative state and is useless like that. The President wants you to stay here and he'll send someone to come pick you tomorrow. You're going to stay at the president's mansion with Xanthe" Uncle Dave said.
Ten guards from the president's mansion entered the ranch, filling up the entrance, the front porch, the dining and the living room.
Teal's disbelieve was huge.
"Seriously? Uncles? You forcefully sent me to the base and I'm still mad at you for it, but now you're conniving with the president to force me out?" She smirked, disappointment owning her voice.
"Fine, let's get down to it. You know the madwoman you trained" she said, charging towards the guards singlehandedly.
She avoided the kick of the first one with a swift gyrate, then she grabbed that leg, picked a spoon from the dinning table and stabbed it in five delicate places before bending it backwards, easily breaking the ankle and calf. She sank the head into the dinning table three times before spooning his spine, throwing his body back to his colleagues.
It happened so fast, gruesome like a fever dream, and the rest of the guards had to swallow invisible lumps down their throats as she motioned with three fingers.
"May gawd have no mercy on your souls as I send y'all to meet him"
--
[Military Base]
Allegra is the one in charge of the negotiation.
Axel gave her the 1B€ cheque already, so she's standing by the window of the blown building while Paine stood at the other side.
"The video" she said with a scowl.
"The cheque, first" Paine replied, scowling too.
She waved the cheque in the air.
"Here, just send the video!" She snarled.
"Get the cheque on my hand first" Paine insisted, and Allegra slapped the cheque on his palm, then he pulled out Abbey's phone, sending Allegra the video.
Including the one that captured how April entered the male barracks.
Allegra watched the first video, patiently. Skye and April's voices came clearer than day.
"I can't believe our first baby had to go that way. I never thought I'd ever abort" April said.
"When we finish serving in the military, we can go home and have as many children as we have." Skye replied.
His head is on her laps on the pavilion ground.
"But it's difficult to forget, the pain was agonizing after i drank the concoction that day, and I lost blood" April muttered.
"I'm sorry, it's all my fault" Skye replied.
April smiled lightly.
The video ended.
Allegra laughed with a cruel density, slamming her palm on the charcoaled window sill.
"Dumbasses got caught!" She blew the charcoal off her palm. "Finally something to haunt them with"
--
[Sergeant Kash's Suite]
When Axel showed up at the doorstep, he was left speechless at the extraordinary scene he met.
There's a candle path which led directly to the bedroom, tenderly sprinkled red roses, confetti and red balloons too. The house smells like she baptized the walls with perfumes.
Cassie is standing nakedly at the bedroom door, waiting for him to come for her as she smiled like a Cheshire cat.
"The doctor said my father might wake up soon, thanks to the extra charges you payed. Kash's money barely did anything" she said.
"I told you, didn't I?" Axel's eyes didn't leave her pu§§y as he talked. "Your husband doesn't deserve that name, and he doesn't deserve you"
"I know" Cassie chuckled.
"Did you lay the bed?" Axel asked, pulling down his pants.
"Of course, I used Kash's favorite bedspread" she replied.
"Good girl" Axel smiled, walking the candle path to her and pushing her into the bedroom, shutting the door.
--
[Symi Healthcare, 4AM]
Teal's red dress is all bloodily wet, gumming with her skin as she came down from Uncle Dave's minivan in front of the building.
She beat the living daylight out of the guards. She killed two, and she injured eight, then she escaped the ranch in her uncle's minivan.
She drove the silent roads of the town for hours, vomiting on the road various times as a result of after-kill nausea before she arrived just now.
She wiped the sprinkles of blood on her face, and as she took the first step into the hospital porch, she sighed, gathering saliva in her mouth.
She entered a washroom and rinsed her mouth and face.
The doctors and nurses she met on the way looks spooked to see her bloody dress, but who cares?
If anyone tries to question her, she's gonna add them to her to-wound list cos right now, she can't even think straight.
Her uncles are the smartest men she knew—before she met Four, so why did they succumb to the president just like that?
Unable to create an answer for that question, she sprinkled water on her bloody face, but the blood underneath her fingernails refused to wash off as they've stuck there.
She looked at her messy face in the mirror, congratulating herself on her first two kills.
Those guards more than deserved it.
--
Meanwhile... inside the main building, Sergeant Kash is still on standby with the three guards in front of Four's ward.
He's with a system right now, and there are unshed tears in his eyeballs which he's gonna start shedding anytime from now. No way...Four can't be in a vegetative state.
Four might be a mean, ill-mannered, and ruthless enigma, but he's the only one he has formed a bond with, and the only person he can call 'Master' without feeling awkward.
No way.
He can't land in vegetative, and he's gonna wake up I'm five years?
No f+ckin way.
How is Lady Yulia gonna take the news?
General Pedro?
The whole base?
He hit the laptop buttons fast, tapping into the surveillance cameras of the seaside taverna quadrangle.
He tried to see if he'd catch a glimpse of the shooter, but the cameras caught nothing.
The shooter must have used a camera-blind spot, so he found nothing at all.
He threw the laptop at the wall, punching the chair he's sitting on.
At the same time, a doctor showed up, and the Sergeants by the door made way for him as he entered the ICU to check up on Four.
Kash raised his lids, thinking he has seen the doctor's face somewhere apart from this hospital, but the presence of Teal interrupted his thoughts.
He stood and snagged her by the neck, thudding her roughly on the metal cupboard in the hallway.
Teal grumbled, and his flashed with crude hostility.
"Who shot Master? Who was it!!!" He yelled at her.
Teal smiled menacingly, her perfect set of teeth baring.
--
[Inside The ICU]
The doctor looked around suspiciously after the door closed on him.
It's the president's secretary.
Thankfully, none of the Sergeants has noticed him before as he's not the official secretary. He's just a private secretary who runs errands for the President.
After making sure that everything is in place, he turned his back on the camera and walked backwards, fisting a handful of dusty powder out of his coat pocket.
He poured it on the camera face to blur it, then he confidently went back to Four's bed and brought a syringe and needle out of his second pocket.
He loaded the syringe with undiluted strychnine, then he crowned it with the needle and sighed out.
"Time to go to rest, Four DeVille." he inserted the needle into Four's drip cannula.
He was chuckling silently as he placed his thumb on top of the syringe, ready to push, but then...
The scene changed, real fast.
The cold barrel of a gun pressed on his head with a sharp click, and he froze in place, his eyes stretching in abject terror as he slowly peered up to see where it came from.
Four's unforgiving crimson eyes are open, and his hand is holding the gun to his head, his lips compressed in a thin, ominous slit.
"I'm the trap, little boy. Not you." he spoke indistinctly, his voice sharp like a blade as he stood from the bed.
He pressed the gun harder to the middle of the secretary's head, his muscular arm contracting.
The syringe fell from him, and he peed hotly on himself as Four smirked again, painting the room black with the color.
•Yesterday, Four's Office•
He picked his phone with his second hand, dialling a line.
"Flight to Rhodes tomorrow. And a ferry ride to Symi Island. Couple set" he told whoever he's calling.
"Also...," He paused. "A bulletproof vest with inbuilt blood veins."
And then he ended the call.
"A bulletproof vest?" Teal looked him dead in the eyes.
"Your uncles suddenly want us to get closer after you spent two damn months in this base? And that too at Symi island where there's no medical care? I have brains, Teal. And I use them 24/7" his voice thickened.
"Are you saying my uncles are trying to trap you? No, that's bullshit. Why the f+ck would they? They have no reason to" Teal stood from his laps
"Act shocked tomorrow, and do everything I tell you" Four stood too, leaning into her.
She stood there, staring up at the hard frost of his orbs.
His finger slowly traced the curve of her jaw, raising her chin roughly like he's proving a point which he's actually doing.
His eyes seared hers.
"Act shocked, wifey. You can deviate if you want me to kill your criminal uncles, and I won't give you the grace to see their mutilated bodies before setting them on fire" he whispered.
• Present Time •
The secretary froze again when he felt another gun press to his head from the back.
Teal's.
He was even unaware of when the door opened to let her in.
"You wanna die by my hand? Merciless and torturous till the gates of hell collapses on your soul" Four said from the front, his eyes rolling with a murderous wave.
"Or you want me to do it? I'll make it slow and sweet. Choose my death" Teal said from the back, the smell of blood from her dress so sickening.
"Take your pick, motherf+cker!"
From the door, Kash watched the couple with widely open mouth.
His brain tried to process everything, but it failed woefully.
TBC.
Smart move
ReplyDeleteRegards
ReplyDeleteSo sweet
ReplyDelete