December 31st, 2024, 23: 55 PM

 

Asami, locked in her car, drank the last drops of a whiskey whose bottle had no label, while her admired Beabadoobee was singing on the car's player. Although she wasn´t still fully recovered, she was waiting in her vehicle parked in front of the pub, where Abdellah´s party was held.

 

Her face was still bruised, and her body covered in wounds, but she wasn't afraid of dying. She knew she was taking that risk, but she wasn't going to leave that place without taking Ibtissam with her.

 

She opened the glove compartment of the car, and took out her knife, looked at her reflection in it, and blessed it by licking its edge before putting it away in her jacket. Then, she took out three pistols which she assembled, loading them before putting them away in the inside pockets of her jacket.

 

The clock struck twelve, London welcomed 2025, and fireworks began to flood the city skies.

Asami got out of the car and walked determinedly towards the entrance of the pub where Abdellah's party was being held. At the entrance, the two thugs who had beaten her and left her for dead were escorting the entrance. Asami prepared one of her pistols to force her way through and exact her revenge. One of the thugs seemed to recognize her but a bullet lodged between his eyebrows, not giving him time to react. The other, reacting upon seeing his partner fall down, reached for his jacket looking for his weapon but a bullet from Asami's pistol lodged in his heart, killing him instantly.

 

The gunshots mixed with the fireworks,  Asami searched the corpses she had just beaten, confiscating their weapons. Fully armed, she entered the pub looking for the saloon where the party was being held. A bouncer stood in her way, asking for an invitation, Asami shot him twice in the heart, clearing her way. That alerted another bouncer who was nearby, causing a shootout between the two. One of the bullets grazed Asami's shoulder, but her bullet was more accurate, destroying the bouncer's knee, who fell to the ground wounded, being finished off by another bullet that lodged in his forehead.

She came across a large sign that read:


"Welcome to Abdellah and Ibtissam's engagement dinner"


She burst into the room where the guests were celebrating the arrival of the new year to the rhythm of loud Arabic music. She shot at the television monitors and the neon lights alerting the attendees to her presence. The guests began to flee in alarm, while Abdellah and Ibtissam looked at her as if they had seen a ghost. "She's alive!" - Ibtissam exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. Abdellah, furious at the intrusion, pushed her, forcing her to take shelter in one of the adjoining rooms, while ordering his thugs to finish her off.

Asami managed to spot Ibtissam but avoided shooting at Abdellah for fear of hitting the girl, but she headed towards where they were, finding opposition from the host of the party's thugs on her way.

A bullet grazed his cheek, making it bleed, the smell of gunpowder seemed to set her character on fire, and the room was plunged into a fierce exchange of gunfire.

 Asami looked for cover behind some tables and managed to get rid of a few of her attackers, as the consumption of alcohol that night had made them less accurate. Abdellah grabbed a gun and, hiding behind his table, began to open fire on the girl, who, much more skilled in the art of murder, shot at one of the spotlights on the ceiling, causing it to fall on his head, leaving him stunned.

Having cleared her path, Asami came out of her hiding place ready to reach Ibtissam, but her path was cut off by one of the thugs who began to beat her. Unfortunately for her, she had exhausted her ammunition and had no choice but to exchange blows with that thug.

During that exchange of blows that seemed to lean in favor of the girl, Abdellah managed to recover, grabbed a sharp Arab sword hanging on the wall and attacked Asami with it, wounding her in the back.

Asami screamed in pain but was able to avoid the next stab that sought to cut off her head, dodging the blow, causing Abdellah to decapitate his thug.


"You never die, evil demon!" - Abdellah shouted before feeling the cold steel of Asami's knife penetrate his side.

Out of sheer survival instinct, Abdellah punched Asami in the face, causing her to fall to her knees on the ground, spitting blood from her mouth. However, that did not prevent her from continuing to fight, and she immediately stood up, hitting Abdellah who was trying to pull the knife out of his side. Abdellah fell wounded to the ground, writhing in pain, feeling his strength falter from the stab wound. Asami took charge of pulling the knife out of his side, and climbing on top of him, she was about to finish him off when Ibtissam appeared on the scene, stopping her, hugging her and pulling her away from her fiancé.

“Enough, Asami, enough!! No more killing!!

The warm had the ability to calm Asami´s rage, who stared at the woman she loved eyes with the calm of crying baby being rocked by his mom.


“I´m here for you.”

“I know” -Ibtissam replied, grabbing his knife covered in his fiancé's blood and giving her a passionate kiss that made her lower her guard.

“It was me who hired you that night to kill the man in the pub.” -Ibtissam confessed in tears after the kiss.

“The night we met?”

“Yes, that man you killed betrayed my brother, he´s the one who ordered you to kill my brother!!”

“I did kill your brother?!”

“You´re careless, you never get to know people who hire you… That´s why I contacted you, I wanted to know who you were, I wanted to kill you myself.”

“But I want you, and you desire me.”

“That wasn´t on my plans…I was looking for the right moment to kill you, I had the chance, but my feeling got in the way…”

“Let´s elope, let´s leave everything behind.”

Asami couldn't finish her sentence, when the cold steel of her knife in Ibtissam's hands penetrated her heart that only processed love for her. "I already told you; I wanted to rip your heart out."

Feeling the cold razor in her chest, Asami burst out crying like a little child.

“I refuse to die; I have a reason to live.”

“Maybe in another life.” -Ibtissam replied with tears in her eyes twisting the knife before kissing her victim´s lips.

But this time, Asami refused to die for real. The knife had stabbed her chest, but had not reached her heart, so she took out a small dagger that she had hidden in the sleeve of her jacket and stabbed Ibtissam in the back of the neck, killing her instantly. She died without even realizing it. Her head, which remained rigid, kissing her victim, collapsed on the Japanese woman's shoulder, resting forever in eternal rest that only death can grant.

 

Asami, broken from physical and emotional pain, cried out to the heavens in despair, but gathered her strength, and carried Ibtissam's lifeless body in her arms, fulfilling her promise to elope.

 

Stumbling and bleeding Asami vanished just as the year ended, carrying on her arms the lifeless body of the only person she ever loved, and carrying a hole in her chest from which all the love she had put into was falling out.

 

                                     THE END