The Devil's Harem

“Where’s my son?” The old man let go of his grip as he asked the young man.

“Yaannhh... Yaannhh...” holding his neck, the young man sprung up on his feet and distanced himself from the old man, panting for air. For about a minute, the old man had held him by his neck against the table. Now his eight holes were just not good enough. All he wanted was to be a toad and breathe through every pore of his skin.

The old man, on the other hand, picked up his cane and slowly moved towards the couch in the room. All that sudden burst of energy was gone now, and the old man was back to his harmless old self.

Seeing his assistant struggle to breathe, the old man poured down some drink into a glass and extended it towards the young man.

“Drink this,” The old man said, “I... I just tend to lose control when I think about him. I don’t know why? But, other than that, I am very much polite, don’t you think so?” The old man said helplessly.

But to the young man’s ears, it was shameless. His predecessor never told him that getting beat and hearing shameless justifications was there in his job profile. The man stood there, staring at the glass of drink, and then at the old man, but he did not reach out to gran it. His breathing, was slowly getting back to normal, but his veins still hurt.

.....

‘How can someone so old be so fast?’ The man thought, ‘And what’s with that grip?’ His hand made its way around his neck on its own, remembering how the old man lifted him off the ground and smashed him in seconds.

“I don’t enjoy hosting people,” the old man slowly and softly said. nℯd.c

This brought the young man out of his series of thoughts, and he hurriedly reached out to take that glass of the old man’s hands.

“Where is my son?” The old man asked again, pouring another drink for himself.

“He is not here...” The man gulped down the glass in one go and said. he knew another beating was not far down the line, “He had followed Audrey...”

*Smash!

The young man could not even finish his sentence before the glass in the old man’s hand broke into pieces, and the floor was soon covered in blood, “Audrey... Audrey... Audrey... All he does is follow behind her wagging his tail.”

Then the old man looked up, “How long has he been gone?”

“It has been two... three, three days,” the young man replied nervously. Even when the young man saw blood dripping down his boss’s hand, he did not approach the old man.

Hearing the young lad in front of him, the old man waved his hand in frustration, throwing away the glass pieces stuck to his palm.

“How am I supposed to leave all this to him when I know he won’t spare a second to destroy it for that girl?” The old man helplessly leaned back on the couch, thinking about his son.

“He does not even know the effort I have put in to build all of this,” The old man’s voice began to go soft.

“I was nothing but a street thug, killing for money,” the old man continued, “I worked hard to make it an organisation, build an army of assassins. If I had thought like him, I would still be using that knife, looting for chump change and visiting the prison every other month. But I had a vision, a vision to change the worl...” And the old man stopped. He had fallen asleep.

This came as a relief to the young man, all this while he wanted to leave but was afraid of the old man. God’s mill may grind slow, but it surely does.

But now, there was another issue in front of the poor lad. Should he take care of the bleeding or not? To be honest, he did not want to go anywhere near the old man if he could, but the man was not sure about how this psycho would react when he woke up.

Finally, cursing his predecessor and the psycho in front of him, the young man slowly and silently took his steps forward and sat on the table in front of the old man.

‘Look at you, the innocent motherfucker,’ The young man looked at the sleeping face of the old man and cursed, ‘Shit, it still hurts.’ The young man took off his spectacles and rubbed the side of his head but felt something wet.

When he looked at his hand, it was covered in blood, ‘So that’s why I felt somewhat cool,’ The man looked at the old man angrily and punched straight for his nose, stopping inches before he hit him.

“Shit... Shit... Shit...” The young man angrily stood up and cursed, stomping his feet. He could not even take revenge for the humiliation.

“Just bleed to death, you bastard,” The young man grabbed the bottle from the table and, gulping a couple of mouthfuls, smashed the bottle right there before leaving the room.

As soon as the man left the room, the old man slowly opened his eyes and stared at the door in disappointment.

‘Aahh... And they call me heartless,’ The old man shook his head and looked at his hand. The blood had gone dry, and the bleeding had stopped.

‘I really wish you hadn’t gotten too close, Asura,’

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Alex looked in shock at Rebecca, ‘Is this what money can buy you?’

Rebecca, on the other hand, looked at the stupified Alex in disdain. She turned towards the driver who came with her and asked him to unload her luggage.

“Was it your grandfather?” Alex slowly got closed to Rebecca and asked.

“Why do you care?” Rebecca didn’t even look at him as she spoke. This was something unique between Rebecca and Alex. Normally, if you fought with someone, you would stop talking for some time, trying to get some peace. But these two never did that. Afraid that the other might get one over them, even when they fought, they continued to have a conversation. In fact, that was the reason that their arguments never ended.

Soon her luggage was out, and the driver drove away in the car.

“Humph...” Snorting at Alex, Rebecca grabbed her luggage and made her away from him.

“At least tell me what made you late?” Alex still persisted.

But Rebecca left him hanging, and she left with those from Theation, leaving Alex and a few others from ‘AR’ behind.

It took them all about an hour or so to go through the security check and stuff. It was a good thing that they were given a different gate all to themselves for the purpose.

There were thirty-three of them from Alex’s side, excluding him, while Theation had sent thirty of them, including Jessica. With checks done and their luggage being taken away, it was time to board the flight.

Alex had decided to join others from his company in the economy class while Jessica was there in the business class.

“Sir, don’t you think you should apologise...” As they took their seats, the guy beside Alex from his company tried to suggest, but when he saw Alex’s face turn ugly, he changed his words, “You should... Should try and patch up with that girl? She looked kind of a big shot...”

The guy was not loud, but a few from Theation around them heard him, and the smugness won’t leave their face.

“What are you afraid of?” Alex, on the other hand, did not shout, but he did not try to hide it either, “Let me tell you something, Simon. That girl from earlier is none other than the little, spoiled sister of Jessica.

The guy beside Alex named Simon when heard Alex, the frown on his face deepened, and his nerves tightened.

“But remember one thing,” Alex said, pointing his finger at Simon, trying to get his attention, “They were the ones who came to our doorsteps hoping to work with us, not the other way round. And I am the ultimate boss when it comes to overseeing this project. So whoever she may be. She will always be under my thumb,” Alex gave his thumb a nice movement.

“So whoever tries to boss you around. Just remember one thing. Neither look up to them nor look down on them. Just look straight into their eyes without feeling inferior. I will take care of everything else.” Alex told Simon, but it was a warning, as well as a bit of advice to everyone who could hear him.

While Alex was trying to warn those from Theation to be within their limits, the stewardess walked up to him.

“Mr Rutherford?” The stewardess asked, trying to confirm his identity.

“Yes,” Alex nodded politely. All the fierceness from before had dissipated.

“Sir, you have been upgraded to the executive class. If you will please follow me?” The stewardess told Alex.

“Upgraded? But how?” Alex looked at her in confusion. He didn’t remember asking for it.

“Miss Rebecca had asked for the same,” the stewardess told Alex.

‘Looks like someone can’t live without me,’ Alex smiled as he picked up his stuff and followed behind the stewardess.

“Achoo!!”

‘Why do I suddenly feel cold?’ Rebecca thought.

* * * * *