There was a sort of sick desperation in the little girl’s voice which made Castielle worry. He was standing in the middle of a park where he could see no one else except for the tiny figure looking scared and anxious in front of him. She looked beaten, bruised and battered. It was a scary sight to see and he shoved his hands in his pockets in a frustrated manner. Castielle exhaled harshly, looking around him suspiciously before he turned his attention back to the frail girl.

“Where are your parents?” He wondered, thinking how shameful it would be to leave a child on its own, especially in such a rough state. Castielle gravely noticed her skinny bones being tortured by the cold, making him frown slightly before taking off his own coat and wrapping it around her bare shoulders. “P-p-please sir… my mother…” Her voice trailed off as the tears from her eyes started to fall down her cheek slowly but surely. “...S-she got taken away by these two big guys a-a-and they shoved her around!” The little girl hugged her waist, looking down at the ground and feeling sorry for her mother.

Castielle took another deep breath, his mind racing with possible outcomes of this situation he entered. He could either choose to take her to the local sheriff police station, or the smarter choice would be to figure out how long it will take to track these two buffoons down and take matters into his own hands. He could always go back to the family headquarters and grab witness statements about criminal events. Maybe they could have some connection to any rival families that Castielle had knowledge of, but he was never really certain about these things. Thus, he would have to be extra careful about this especially if they turned out to be someone he knew from the past. “You will be okay. Just trust me. For tonight you need to stay somewhere safe. I have a friend…” He knew a friend. You know how it goes when someone says that phrase. Castielle had already made close connections with some people from his crew, and he didn’t hesitate for a second when he pulled up at Tigraine’s house in a rush.

The look on her face when he arrived with the frightened girl by his side was the kind of expression you saw when you opened a pack of gum, except she wasn’t hungry or excited, but rather surprised. “Hey Tigraine. Look, I know it’s late but um..” He gestured to the young lass standing beside him, her shoulders still shivering under the coat he offered. “I promise to explain later but I need to get back to the headquarters and get information about some guys who took this girl’s mother.” Castielle bent down, eyes staring into the windows of her soul with genuine concern. He rubbed his chin and stared down at the ground, to Tigraine, then back to the girl. There were many questions that needed to be answered, but he didn’t want to seem interrogative, so he would settle for one very important question that had been lingering in the back of his mind since the drive.

“Do you think your mother has made any bad friends lately? Maybe someone has been coming over a lot, making you feel intimidated?” He coaxed the young female, his eyes landing on the faded bruises on her bony wrists.

It was going to be a busy night tonight.

She had to help a friend out with moving all her furniture from their old house to a newly renovated place. She didn’t mind giving a helping hand, but she couldn’t deny that she was extremely tired and wanted nothing more than to collapse in her own bed. Vela rolled her eyes at herself for being lazy. “This goes out in the truck, or are you not bringing these?” Vela called out from the doorway as she held onto an old, television set that was covered in dust since it probably wasn’t being used much. The friend replied in a gentle tone. “Hm. Yeah. I was thinking of bringing it with me, but I don’t rely on TV for entertainment. Just throw it away hun.” Vela nodded then shrugged slightly. She was about to go walk out on the porch before she stopped herself and turned around. “Uh, where are your bins?” Vela wondered, not wanting to place the box set in restricted area. “Oh, yeah.. about that. You have to do a little walk there.” Vela’s friend added.

A little walk? Vela raised an eyebrow as she stepped away from the porch and looked into the distance. She must have been lazier than usual because she groaned as she saw how far the bins were from the house. “Hm.” She muttered to herself before walking forward, her eyes on the bins. Vela felt a little creeped out walking alone, as there was no one else in sight and the only light she got so she could see was from the dull street lamps. The sky had turned completely black, and her footsteps across the concrete path echoed throughout the neighbourhood. It wouldn’t come as a surprise to her if a ghost suddenly appeared. When she finally arrived to those big, green bins, Vela threw the box set in. It landed with a big ‘smack’ on top of the other rubbish bags, which probably contained a lot of valuable things. That was the life these days. You buy something, you use it for a while then you get bored. The cycle continues.

That was what it was like for her too though. Criminal tendencies were similar. She knew because she remembered her first experience of robbing a store, taking a precious little snow globe and giving it to her younger sister, Aquila. Though it wasn’t long before Vela noticed it being thrown in the trash can. Vela’s train of thought was snipped as she heard shuffling from behind the bin, and her body quickly tensed. She looked around her, but still there was no one in sight. She had to think quick. If someone wanted trouble, she wasn’t armed and would need to handle this situation carefully with provocative words. Vela decided to peek around the bins slowly. As her feet made its way around to the other side, she gasped. Have you ever heard of the saying sticks and bones will break my bones but words will never hurt me?

Vela was standing in front of a bruised and battered woman, her eyes looking lifeless and empty, but a heart made of armor...

It took a little while for the little girl to speak up again as she was still in a state of panic. Castielle tried to be patient with her, as it was never easy losing a loved one, but he had hope that he would help this tiny soul find her lost mother. Scratch that. He was certain that he would find the ones who took her. It wasn’t that hard to spot two clowns from a sea of angels, was it? There was only one way to find out, as he rose from his position and suddenly found himself towering over the young lass, whose eyes looked miserable as ever. There was a conflicted expression on the girl’s face as she covered her eyes with her small, bruised fingers and out there came those drops of misery. Tear after tear. The sound of her sobs was hard to endure for both Tigraine and Castielle. “Please, take her inside. I’ll be back here later with good news hopefully.” He consoled, putting a hand on the girls shoulder and giving her a gentle squeeze of reassurance.

This predicament could be a lot worse. He could have found the girl lying dead next to a waste tip. He could have seen a knife stabbed into her throat. He could have-... Nevermind. Castielle shook his head, thanking Tigraine for her hospitality before he took one last look at her tiny wrists which were stained with small scratch marks and blue-ish, purple bruises. As he made his way off Tigraine’s front porch, the girl shouted to him in a tone of agony, wallowing in her own world of destruction. “Someone p-p-put their hands on me last night a-a-and… told me to not to say a word about his name..” The young starlet murmured, her attention on the faded wounds on her own wrists. The words never left Castielle’s mind as he proceeded to walk to his vehicle and head straight for the family headquarters. First, he would gather the witness statements for all criminal events in the last 24 hours. From there, he could get leads.

His hands gripped onto the steering wheel as the car drove along the long, winding road. It wasn’t long before he pulled up in front of the family offices, the tall building that he took pride in every time he saw it. Castielle shut off the engine, looking around for anyone passing by. He never knew when someone might be following him, and there was always that possibility that he could have made some enemies in the past few days. If there was one thing to know about him, it was that he didn’t settle for less. Whether it was a game of dice, blackjack or roulette, he was a good sport and a well known participant for his winning streaks. People may see him as greedy, but greedy people live longer don’t they? However that wasn’t his priority right now, as he suddenly noticed a black car in the rearview mirror. Castielle stiffened, before taking a deep breath to get himself back on track. Castielle gravely took his pistol from the glovebox, but he stopped when he realized he had brought along his handy-dandy shotgun axe from last night’s organized scandal. Success.

“Miss, oh god… you need help badly. Please hold on for a little longer, I will get a first aid kit from a friend down the road.” Vela was on high alert as she saw the woman hiding her face with her long hair to shield the result of the beatings she endured, but Vela didn’t know that. Yet. She turned around quickly, running as fast as she could back to her friend’s place and screaming like she had just seen a zombie. “Do you have a first aid kit?” Vela took deep breaths, trying to make sense of the situation. Who was that woman and could she have any ties to the mob? She tried to think back to the last few days in Corktown, Detroit. Well there was always the usual street pharmacists hanging around the more ghetto corners of the city, but other than that, she could think of no one that would’ve done this. Or maybe she had been naive to think there really was someone out there willing to beat a woman.

The furiousness in her eyes never left when she finally came back with the first aid kit. She took out a bottle of alcohol and used a tissue to dampen the woman’s wounds with the liquid. There was a long, bloody cut just above her eyelid. Someone seemed to be good with knives, Vela thought sadly. She continued to dab the tissue above her eyes before asking a question that she hoped wouldn’t trigger the lady too much. “Do you know who could’ve done this to you, ma’am?” Vela queried, using her free hand to massage the lady’s back in an attempt to calm her down. The woman’s face was stained with tears, and now her lips were puffy and swollen from the additional flagellation she had probably received prior. The woman unnamed, flinched as her body was being touched, but she stayed quiet. Vela didn’t want to intrude any longer, so she just stood up and helped the lady get on her feet again, but it was hard with chains wrapped around her ankles.

Vela had a tiny figure herself, so it took multiple tries until she could finally get the woman to stand up. She brought the woman’s arm around her neck to support her, and Vela lead her back to the house where she could properly inspect the marks on her body. She now had a duty of care to the lady, and she wouldn’t be going anywhere until she could get information from the helpless woman. “Please tell me everything.” Vela gently squeezed her hand as she made her sit comfortably on the couch, before grabbing a nice warm blanket. Vela wrapped the woman in it, and asked her friend politely if she could fix up a hot mug of tea for the bruised woman. She was clearly in pain so Vela didn’t want to push the situation on her much, so she waited patiently for the answer to her last question. There was a moment of silence as Vela’s friend came back with the tea, offering it to the lady, but she shook her head and waved her hands in the air. “I am Jack’s worthless slave. I am not worthy enough to receive pleasures of this life.” She croaked, clasping onto a necklace that was around her neck, a picture of a little girl in a tiny silver frame, which was shaped into a heart.