Saving the Villain

"Mhm. I did, Remo. I did. I even pulled the trigger, leaving a hole in someone\'s head."

"Oy!" Remo aggressively leaned forward, speaking through his gritted teeth. "This isn\'t the place for you to say that!"

"Huh?" Maxen cupped his cheek and quirked a brow. "Not the place to say what?"

He looked around the visitor\'s area. A few inmates and their visitors were around, some police officers standing on the corners staying on their toes lest something unprecedented happen.

"Hey, I put a bullet in someone\'s head the other day!" Maxen raised his voice, catching everyone\'s attention. "It was fun… a bit. It made me feel something! Will you arrest me?!"

The inmates and their visitors looked at Maxen\'s smirk with mixed emotions in their eyes. However, the officers on standby didn\'t even flinch. Maxen detailed what he did, followed by a burst of misplaced and sinister laughter as if he was simply recalling a funny memory.

Hearing and seeing the police\'s lack of reaction, Remo\'s pupils dilated. His eyes remained on Maxen, making his heart thud.

\'This…\' Remo\'s breath hitched while all the hairs across his body raised. \'This guy… had lost it, huh?\'

"See?" Maxen looked back at Remo after a few minutes of a good laugh, yet, even though he looked very pleased and entertained, the emptiness in Maxen\'s eyes remained. "They don\'t care."

He cupped his cheek lazily, waving his other hand as if to signal something. After that, a police officer yelled that the visitation was over, and dragged the young criminals back to their cell while the rest of the visitors left the area until there was just Remo and Maxen.

"Power," Maxen remarked. "Influence, money… they sound fun, right?"

"Oy, man…" Remo breathed out incredulously. "Did you actually lose your mind?"

"Maybe? Maybe not. Who knows? I mean… right now, I don\'t feel anything anymore." Maxen shrugged. "But it kinda feels nice that nothing restricts me. Not the prices, not the rules, not emotions or any puny hope, and not even a fucking cop… or God."

Remo held his breath, balling his hands into a tight fist. He wanted to leave Maxen alone as the latter was sending a chill down his spine, but he couldn\'t. His body wouldn\'t listen to him.

"So? Should we transfer your old man to a better hospital?" Maxen asked, going back to their initial discussion. "Just one word from me, and he\'ll receive the best treatment to extend his life."

"Why… what do you want in return?" Remo breathed out, changing his question to a more direct question.

Maxen hummed as he looked up, mulling about an answer to that question.

"Don\'t know?" he replied when he couldn\'t think of anything else. "I didn\'t think that far, honestly."

"What…?" A dry laugh escaped Remo\'s mouth.

"I mean, maybe become my right hand? My old man said I might need to start surrounding myself with the people I can trust. You\'re here because of me, so one way or another, I can trust you. If you betray me, I\'d just kill you or maybe chop off your old man\'s limbs right in front of you before killing you."

Remo\'s entire body trembled in anger, reaching his hand out to grab Maxen\'s collar.

"Oy!" he growled through his gritted teeth. "Say that again and I\'ll fucking kill you."

"What?" Maxen frowned. "You don\'t need to worry about that if you don\'t have plans to betray me."

Remo\'s grip on Maxen\'s collar tightened. "You… you\'ve changed."

"Change is the only constant thing in this world, Remo. Everyone needs, uh… character development?"

"And yours definitely went downhill."

"What did you expect?" Maxen smirked. "Wasn\'t my life headed that way, anyway? Why are you so surprised? It\'s either I will become a foot soldier and a pawn, or become the boss. I\'m lucky. My old man is someone who already had a strong footing in the underground. Why waste this sort of opportunity, when in fact, this was the only opportunity that came into my life?"

Remo wasn\'t a good guy, but he definitely knew Maxen had just become a hundred times worse than him. But who was he to judge? Their lives… only had a bleak future. Right now, if someone asked Remo what he would do once he was out of here, he didn\'t know because he didn\'t have any concrete plans.

Remo just wanted to earn a lot of money so he could support his grandfather\'s medical needs. But knowing at his age and with his records, no job that would pay well would accept someone like him. Just thinking about it seemed like his life was hopeless and a waste. The sheer thought of it was too heavy for anyone to carry.

Remo kept his eyes at Maxen\'s eyes and carefully released him when he had calmed down.

"Can you get me out of here?" he asked, and Maxen nodded.

"Of course." Maxen\'s smirk remained, just like the emptiness in his eyes. "Prepare your grand reunion with your old man. You\'ll be leaving this place in a week."

Remo lowered his eyes, linking his hands over the table that was separating him and Maxen. His expression didn\'t show any sign of relief, knowing he just sold himself to the devil\'s heir, walking to hell on his own two feet.

"Hey," Maxen called, waiting for Remo to lift his eyes at him before he spoke. "Don\'t be sad. You\'ll get used to it. Smile for me, yes?"

"I want to see him once I get out of here."

"Don\'t worry." Maxen chuckled, pushing himself to stand up. "I\'ll give you plenty of handsome rewards and day offs. Your old man isn\'t getting any older, yeah? I\'m not that heartless."

"Anyway, I\'ll see you in a week." He turned his back on Remo, waving indifferently. But just as Maxen walked past a police officer standing on the side, he stopped.

Maxen looked at him from head to toe and then pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "Oy, will you just let me go even when I said I killed someone?"

The police officer didn\'t respond, but he looked Maxen in the eye. Remo couldn\'t tell what irked Maxen, and the next thing he knew, Maxen snatched the police officer\'s baton and beat the police with it.

"Aish… where the fuck is justice here, eh?!" Maxen spat saliva at the police officer, bleeding on the ground, clicking his tongue in irritation. He tossed the baton and glanced back at Remo\'s pale complexion, only to offer him a smile as if he didn\'t just beat a police officer inside this place.

"Next week." Maxen waved and then looked away, launching another kick at the police officer before he left, just like that.

"That guy…" Remo mumbled, his eyes falling on the police officer on the ground. "... really lost it."

That day, Remo feared Maxen for the first time since meeting him. And that day, Remo knew his life will be filled with nothing but violence… and he wasn\'t wrong, because as soon as the following week rolled in, Maxen picked him up and Remo\'s life was forever changed: at first, for money, but then, for loyalty.