Meeting lotus

(Earlier)

The nurse at the reception had almost finished her report, feeling exhausted she looked up from her computer and was surprised to find a blue-eyed woman with blonde hair sitting at the top of her counter.

Feeling startled the nurse quickly stood up, "Good evening madam, how can I help you?" She asked.

But the blond-haired woman didn't answer; she just kept staring at the nurse with her calm blue eyes.

Watching the blue-eyed woman who didn't seem to have any intention to get off her counter the nurse said, "Madam I'm sorry but you can't sit down on-"

"Do you recognize me?" the blue-eyed girl asked in a Western accent.

"No I don't," the nurse replied instinctively before snapping out of it.

"Madam if you refuse to get off the counter I'll be forced to call-" The nurse had to stop talking because the woman she was talking to had unknowingly disappeared.

the nurse felt a chill run down her spine, and she quickly called the management to inform them of what just happened.

(Present)

"You should leave now, or else you might die," Lotus said indifferently, a hue of mystery coating her as she walked away, hurriedly chasing after her Aiden asked; "what do you mean?"

"You should find out soon enough," Lotus said in a calm tone, and just as Lotus finished talking the sound of extremely loud sirens filled the city, a robotic voice sounded out, "An abnormality has been detected at the second block of the 36th street all citizens are advised to evacuate immediately, the estimated threat level of the threat is level thirty."

It was like a bomb went off in Aiden's mind, a demon with a threat level of thirty; fortunately, it was tens of blocks away.

Hearing the announcements of the siren Lotus raised her brows in surprise gently turning to Aiden she said, "Forget what I said about you dying, it seems our calculations were wrong this time."

As she spoke she put her hand on her left ear, looking closely you could see what seemed to be a small black earphone on her person, a respectful voice called out from the earphone.

"Miss Lotus our calculations were wrong, the rift appeared inside an ice cream store 3017.52 Meters west of your current location, local authorities have already sealed off the perimeter and the team is waiting in the shadows for your command."

"Got it," Lotus said before darting in, "get the local authorities to redraw, I'll be there shortly, " turning to Aiden, she waved him goodbye, "see you around Aiden," she said before opening a random room door.

"Wait," Aiden yelled as he followed but Lotus had already broken into a mad dash, she was too fast like a speeding bike, and right before Aiden's widened eyes she did something extremely crazy.

"Bang, Shatter," the sound of a loud bang followed by the sound of glass shattering could be heard, Lotus had jumped out of the window on the tenth floor of a tall building, the iron bars and glass windows seemed like paper to her, easily breaking and shattering before a small discharge of energy from her person.

Aiden ran towards the window and time seemed to slow down, Lotus was rapidly falling head first to the ground, a commotion like this was easily noticed, some people who were evacuating heard the loud sound of glass shattering and looked up.

People yelled and screamed as they watched a woman plummeting head-first to the ground.

"Boom!"

Suddenly a sonic boom came from the distance as shockwaves spread, a flash of dark light caught the falling Lotus saving her in time.

Shatter!" the loud sound of shattering glass echoed everywhere, every window in the surrounding buildings and skyscrapers had shattered due to the shockwaves and shimmering pieces of glass rained down on the observers below contributing to the chaos.

"Caw," the piercing sound of a crow's call canceled out every other sound, most people covered their ears to avoid getting hurt by it, but some who weren't quick enough held their heads in pain, amidst the disaster people who were knowledgeable yelled in surprise.

"That's the blood demon crow."

"Shit there is only one person who is crazy enough to contract that threat level forty-two demonic beast, that is Miss Lotus, Vice-captain of the Silence main team."

"What's she doing here?"

"Are you dumb of course it's to kill that threat level thirty demon?"

"But isn't that too low a level for the main team, why didn't they send other agents?"

"I want to see what it looks like I hope they upload a picture of it after killing it."

The people around seemed sure that the demon that was about to appear would die, and how could they not be sure, that was Miss Lotus, vice-captain of the Silence main team.

Aiden who experienced this crazy situation firsthand felt deeply shocked, "so this is the power elite Contractors wield," he mulled, thinking about it now Aiden wondered about the true origin of Contractors, a question that remained unanswered.

Aiden who grew up in the seventh shelter was told that an intense battle for survival was fought a long time ago, there was once a time without demons, contracts, or rifts, man could freely move around the world without having to worry about being eaten and new technology and advanced weaponry was at its peak.

But with the debut of demons appearing straight from hell itself, humanity was plunged into the beginning of the end, the arms they were so proud of couldn't do anything to the demons who could withstand hell itself and in days countries fell like flies.

The only weapons that were strong enough to shatter these demons to bits were nuclear weapons or weapons with extremely high firepower like missiles.

But after being shattered their bodies would just reform, in a sense if they weren't hurt by hell energy, demons were practically immortal.

The human population was reducing at a horrifying rate and since guns, nuclear weapons or any type of arms didn't work on demons, humans were forced to do the only thing they could, run and hide.

But such an age wouldn't last for long, if anything humanity could be commended for its ability to evolve and adapt, in a race for survival the first to adapt would be the winner.

The first person that could hurt these demons finally appeared; his means were strange and unknown and few knew where he came from, he called himself a Contractor with his name derived from his ability to control demons.

He wasn't stingy with his knowledge nurturing groups of hundreds of followers, but his training was too extreme, and only ten-odd people remained till the end, the rest were either dead or had given up midway.

These ten would become the pioneers of the new age, by creating factions of their own called hunting families humanity was able to manage ten independent strongholds called shelters.

But humans were greedy, some students of these top ten hunting families broke off to establish their own families wanting to become independent, in the world today there were hundreds or even thousands of hunting families across the shelters and although their overall strength was still much weaker compared to the might of the top ten they were still formidable in their own right.

One of these hunting families ranked seventh in the top ten was the Silence family with over three hundred sub-minor divisions, a hundred sub-major divisions; fifty main minor divisions, and ten main major divisions.

All these divisions were individual teams with at least ten members, spread all over the seventh shelter, the Silence family lived up to its name as the most dominant power in the shelter.

Of course, this was just a theory as there are many different stories, in a sense the appearance of Contractors would forever be a mystery, an unanswered question lost in the pit of thousands of unanswered questions of the events that happened in the great war.

"BOOOOM!" the sound of a loud explosion startled Aiden out of his thoughts, the explosion was coming from the direction Lotus's demonic crow had headed.

The first explosion seemed to serve as a green light for more "Boom, Boom, Boom," continuous explosions sounded out as the buildings in the area trembled.

Suddenly a large purple flash of light could be seen from the west followed by an extremely loud screech.

After this the explosions quieted down, Aiden looked into the distance through the broken window and wondered about the details of the epic battle that was going on in the distance, it appeared that the Silence had won.

But as he looked at the broken windows around him Aiden quickly realized something, rushing towards room 905 Aiden quickly swiped the keycard, his heart beating eraticly as he opened the door, he hoped that his mom was safe.

Fortunately, the room remained the same, he didn't regret spending his savings to pay for the reinforced soundproof room.

The hospital was in a state of lockdown and all guests had to leave, the explosions resumed once again, and just by the sound one could tell that the battle was intense, if you paid close attention you would realize that the hospital was the only building in the surroundings that didn't have all its windows shattered, this was because some of the rooms inside where reinforced.

Aiden felt exhausted and excited at the same time, as he walked out of the hospital he realized that the streets were empty, the disturbance in the distance had scared some taxis off, and most people weren't aware that the rift was being handled by the Silence's main team.

A few cars could be seen on the street, these cars had various logos of news station pages and popular blog pages on them, Aiden didn't look too surprised, most of the time these news stations would spend a fortune to hire formidable contractors to stand as cameramen as they were the only people that could get close to a battlefield of this level.

After walking for a while Aiden finally found a taxi, getting in Aiden told the driver his Address, "That would be 307 Creda's sir," the driver said with a smile.

"That's daylight robbery," Aiden thought, seeing Aiden looking at him as if he was a thief the cab driver said.

"Sir look around and tell me if you see any operating taxis," Aiden suddenly understood.

The cab driver was taking a risk by driving this close to a danger zone this way he could charge astronomical prices to any civilian who required his services, truthfully it was a brilliant idea, but he wasn't the first to try it, most people who did end up as one of the casualty counts in a disaster like this.

"Fine," Aiden said begrudgingly, thank goodness he had just been paid recently so he still had money to spare; the ride was a silent one as Aiden was lost in deep thought, the taxi stopped in front of a slightly rundown apartment building.

Walking towards his apartment Aiden was stopped by an old man with grey hair and black eyes, "hello Mr. Turner," Aiden said with a smile.

"How are you Aiden, I've been looking for you," the old man said.

Feeling confused Aiden asked, "Is there a problem?"

"Not at all," Turner replied with a smile, and before Aiden could reply he darted in, "I just need you to help me deliver some apples tomorrow, I have an appointment with my wife if you know what I mean hahaha think about it, you can earn a few Creda's while you're at it."

Since money was involved Aiden didn't feel the need to reject, Mr. Turner was the owner of this apartment building, and he was fond of giving Aiden random tasks but Aiden didn't mind since he always made a hefty sum at the end.

On the second floor, Aiden searched his backpack and found his keys, he stopped in front of his apartment and unlocked the door, silently reorganizing his empty schedule, turning the nob Aiden discovered that the door didn't budge, it was locked from the inside.

Someone was in his home, but Aiden didn't panic, there was only one person who had access to his apartment "Knock, Knock," Aiden knocked on the door a few times "Yes who is it," a muffled female voice came from inside.

"It's me," Aiden said, "Click, Click," the door was unlocked allowing Aiden to open it.

Upon entry Aiden walked into his small apartment and was welcomed by the sight of an innocent-looking girl with dark hair and brown eyes, she was dressed in a loose white top that exposed her lower stomach paired with white sleeping pants, any guy seeing her for the first time would gulp.

This girl sat on the sofa with a bowl full of popcorn on her lap, she seemed to be enjoying a movie.

"What are you watching?" Aiden asked as he threw his bag to the side.

Stuffing her mouth Mary replied, "It's a new movie that just came out, it's supposed to be a horror movie but it seems more like a comedy show frankly speaking the special effects are lacking compared to the old movies from before the war."

"Mary, do you only know how to make a mess of things?" Aiden who was partially listening asked referring to the bag of popcorn on the table.

They had met in college, at that time Mary was an art student and Aiden was majoring in business they met by chance when the drunken Aiden came across a bunch of rich snubs trying to force themselves on an innocent girl he had blindly jumped in to save her.

Of course, he was outnumbered and beaten to a pulp but the commotion attracted the attention of nearby pedestrians who called the authorities, one thing led to another and the rest was history.

Thinking about it now he had met most of the important people in his life in a drunken state, Aiden still felt a pinch, going to college had placed him in massive student debt and if not for Bruce's help Aiden wondered where he could have been by now.

"Take a picture it'll last longer," Mary said as she looked towards Aiden who was staring blankly at her, with a sheepish laugh Aiden proceeded to clean up the table, walking into the room Aiden quickly took a shower.

His apartment wasn't that big with a small living room, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a small bedroom.

Sometimes Aiden wondered how the kitchen could have more space than his bedroom.

Looking at the time Aiden discovered that it was already 7:00 pm "It's time for dinner," he muttered as he went into the kitchen.

Slicing three onions he went on to add a set of other ingredients.

"Three teaspoons of curry powder, one teaspoon of ginger powder, minced fresh parsley, one cup of chopped carrot, one cup of chopped celery, one cup of chopped green pepper, one cup of chopped peeled apple," you could see Aiden's hands moving around the kitchen like a professional chef.

Meanwhile in the living room perceiving the remarkable aroma coming from the kitchen Mary who had finished her movie felt her stomach grumbling.

Dinner was short with Mary wolfing down most of the food while complaining about her boss; she worked for a small fashion company and was the personal assistant of some guy named Vision "Or was it Vinson?"

"Vincent is such a jerk," Mary grumbled telling him about her workload today, "Vincent yeah that's his name," Aiden thought as he nodded his head once again partially listening.

After dinner Aiden who felt tired slept on the sofa while Mary was busy with her phone, she seemed to be talking to her mom, and after a while, she slept in the bedroom.

Frankly speaking, the relationship between Aiden and Mary was more like a close friendship, due to the experience of almost getting raped Mary developed some kind of trauma, she was scared of intimacy, and both parties had agreed not to have sex till they got married which Aiden regretted the moment he agreed.

In the middle of the night, Aiden was awakened by an irresistible urge to have a drink, stretching a bit Aiden got up and walked towards the kitchen, opening the fridge Aiden brought out the last bottle of beer he had.

Slowly he drank the contents inside while going through his phone, the internet in the seventh shelter was restricted.

If you had a profile you could access one main page that could be used to access multiple pages, these pages were opened by organizations and people who wished to start blogging, these people would pay huge sums of money monthly in other to keep their pages running, apart from that you could message people you knew and talk privately or open a group which also required you to pay.

Anyone could open a page on the internet if they had enough money to pay an astronomical sum monthly, but many people still vied to open a page as they could charge the people who wanted to access their page and go through its content, frankly speaking opening a page was considered a legitimate business that could be used by everyone above twelve.

Thinking about it now it was more like a forum but was much more monitored; no one under the age of twelve could access it, once you turned twelve you had to create a full profile with your identity card, and coupled with that the internet was really slow except for information gathering, and chatting with friends the internet wasn't really useful for anything else.

It was rumored that Contractors had access to much better internet with a wider range of uses.

In no time Aiden was done with the bottle of beer, but he still didn't feel satisfied, he had a strange feeling, and his body was craving for something.

Opening his bag Aiden brought out an exquisite bottle from inside, and he felt his craving increase; this was what he wanted.

-------------

Meanwhile, in a quiet room, the scribbling of a pen could be heard.

The room was dark illuminated only by the moonlight creating a peaceful atmosphere.

A stunningly beautiful woman surrounded by a glowing purple hue could be seen in the middle of this dark room, her eyes were strangely purple, a purple that seemed to glow in the dark making one's heart skip a beat.

"Tap, tap, tap," her finger wrapped by a thin layer of fabric continuously tapped against the wooden table, in this dark room the atmosphere was rather serious, and if you looked closely you could see dozens of shadows standing around the room.

Looking bored the purple-eyed woman said, "You're all excused, every one of you did great jobs today, this calls for a celebration," a cold and familiar female voice sounded out.

If Aiden was here he would have instantly recognized that voice, it was Miss Lotus from the Silence, hearing this voice the good-looking men and women in the room instantly heaved a sigh of relief, but that didn't hide the look of surprise on their faces.

They did a good job? Why the hell was their usually cold boss complimenting them instead of lecturing them about their shortcomings like usual? Maybe their boss was in a good mood, having this in mind they quickly excused themselves.

"Alex, stay behind" Lotus called out referring to a good-looking blond-haired man who stood still.

After everyone left the man asked, "Is there a problem Miss Lotus?"

The man's question was met with silence, as Lotus just stared at him with her calm purple eyes.

Alex was a well-known Contractor; all the Contractors on the main team of the Silence could be called celebrities.

Alex was known as Gold to the rest of the world, but Miss Lotus didn't like to use code names when talking to her subordinates, even though Lotus wasn't even her real name.

"Tossing a small container at Alex one could see that it contained a strand of hair, "run a DNA analysis, the match should be named Aiden, find out everything you can about him," Miss Lotus said with a slight smile on her face.

Hearing the series of commands Alex nodded expressionlessly, he felt a bit curious about the person he was investigating, but he would find out soon enough.

With this in mind, he turned towards the door, "why the rush" Miss Lotus suddenly said.

Her voice stopped him in his tracks as Alex turned back with an awkward smile.

Looking at him with her calm purple eyes Miss Lotus said, "The rest of the team did pretty well today, their coordination and planning were good, barely above average, but teamwork and rapid switches along with their battle awareness was complete trash, if I hadn't interfered a few times I'm sure there would be a few casualties by now."

Pausing a bit she continued, "Why am I telling you this? Well, it's because you Alex performed extremely poorly today, even the newest members of the team did better than you, I expect much from you so I'm going to pursue the issue, speak now, what made you perform so poorly?"

The room suddenly turned a few degrees hotter for Alex, having his boss questioning him to this degree he had to come clean, with her strange ability to read thoughts she could tell immediately if he told a lie.

"I lost some goods," Alex said with a few drops of cold sweat flowing down his forehead, as expected Lotus immediately narrowed her eyes, Alex felt that if he didn't explain this matter fully he could be severely punished, he might even lose his job.

"It's four bottles of high-quality spirit wine for Contractors, anyone below threat level five cannot drink it or there is a high chance they would explode from the extremely dense amount of hell energy contained within," he said.

"Oh, did you try to get it back," Miss Lotus asked, the chill in her voice lessening, spirit wine was extremely expensive, based on the quality one would have to spend a few million creda to obtain a single bottle.

Even a Contractor would feel a pinch by spending so much.

"Yes I did but the hotel claimed not to be responsible for any lost items after I checked out, I didn't pursue the matter because I didn't want to expose my identity."

Hearing his story Miss Lotus thought for a while, "Hmm, I'll get you five new bottles of spirit wine, but in return, you're going to have to work twice as hard."

Hearing this Alex felt excited, a look of joy could be seen in his eyes, "don't get excited just yet," Miss Lotus said, "getting a gift from me is never easy, so tell me Alex what's the brand?"

Alex was silent for a while contemplating whether to accept such goodwill from his boss, but after thinking it through he said, "Its desert rose wine."