The girl in the photograph

Neil entered the university counselor's office, where he had been summoned few minutes after he'd left the hallway with the photo. He was greeted by the icy stares of Alaric and a man who seemed to be his father by the slight resemblance in their eye color. The brat's arm was already bandaged, and his handsome face looked so red and swollen like a new born pig.

And Neil couldn't feel more satisfied at the outcome of his handy work on the boy's face. He wished he had broken his teeth along with that darn mouth of his. He wasn't the kind to tolerate disrespect and foul-mouthed young men like this brat, who was obviously too spoilt to be a man. What a pity.

The counselor, Mr. Harry Andeson, who was also one of the prime suspects for Neil's mission to uncover the man helping in shipping the bombs, sat behind his desk with a stern expression. He eyed Neil with disapproval. "Mr. Bennett, is it true that you are the one who did such a thing to Mr. Blackwood?" he inquired, the weight of accusation in his voice.

Neil scoffed, a satisfied faint smirk playing on his lips. "Yeah, it's true. Maybe Alaric failed to mention what he did to deserve it."

Alaric interjected quickly, his voice strained, "I didn't do anything to the this fucking professor_"

"Watch you language, young man." The counselor gave him a stern look that made him amend his words.

"I didn't do anything to him, he just came at me at the hallway and twisted my arms. This isn't the first time he has done this, he sends me out of his classes everytime as well like he fucking owns the school!"

Mr. Blackwood, a middle-aged man with thinning blonde hair and flashy green eyes, jumped to his son's defense. "My boy wouldn't lie. What kind of a teacher beats a student without cause? And who gave him the right to send my son out of his classes after all the money I invested to the university!"

Neil leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms defiantly. "Well, maybe if your son wasn't such a pain in the ass, and if you'd given him a nice home training, he wouldn't find himself on the receiving end of my fists." He remarked nonchalantly as he looked at the middle-aged man whose face had turned red in rage. Men like this were the reasons their children were brain less. Neil thought, he had a lot of things in his mind that needed to be solved, but he had to stay here and listen to some middle-aged man defending his brat of a son.

"Mr. Andeson, if you don't fire this professor from this institute, you will all pay dearly for this!" Mr. Blackwood rebuked harshly as he stood up to his feet. Glaring at Neil, he said, "I will make sure you pay for this."

"Calm down, Mr. Blackwood, the professor is not a permanent teacher in our institute, he is just a substitute. But rest assured we will address this matter seriously." The counselor tried to reassure the enraged man, who seemed not to care and stormed out of the office along with his son following closely on his heels.

The counselor's stern eyes turned back to Neil, who still looked undisturbed leaning against the wall, he then said, "I will get back to you after we decide to find a replacement for you, Mr. Bennett, but you can no longer continue to teach in our institute."

Neil didn't say a word and left the counselor's office, but when he returned to his office, he cursed under his breath and slammed the door with so much force that shook the walls. He couldn't leave the university without completing his mission, he just couldn't. He couldn't leave for a lot of reasons.

He wanted to see the end of da Kroll and all his helpers hiding undercover, and he wanted to repay the world for his mistake two years ago. A mistake that wasn't known to the world yet, but once it became known, it would be the end of him as well as his uncle.

Nonetheless, he still didn't regret hitting the boy, if he were to do it again, he would do it with so much pleasure. Neil ran his fingers through his hair as he began to pace around the office. He took his phone out of his pocket and sent a message to one of their military informants to look for a way for him to solve this. Neil wasn't good at solving things that didn't involve his fists.

As he was thinking about a way to fix his mess that could call an end to his mission, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Neil recognized the number even before he picked it up; it was etched in his memory like a code of urgency. His uncle must have been informed by the informant. As he answered, his uncle, General David's stern voice reverberated through the phone, "What have you done, General! You were supposed to stay out of any body's business until you've uncovered the rat in that school!"

Neil stood straighter out of habit, as if the military discipline automatically clicked in, facing his uncle's reprimand. "Sir, I was—"

General David's voice sliced through the line with military precision, cutting him off, "Major General Wayner, you were entrusted with a mission of utmost importance. Uncovering the rat in that school is the only way we can get our hands on the mastermind behind da Kroll. it's a directive that goes beyond personal desires. Do you understand the gravity of what you've jeopardized?"

Neil tightened his grip on the phone knowing what his uncle would say next. And General David surely didn't disappoint him as he reminded him for the hundredth time.

"Your parents' death should be a constant reminder of the stakes involved. You have to learn to keep your fists to yourself and stop slamming them on people's faces. I will fix this mess and let the school let you stay for as long as we've planned. This mission is paramount, and you will not let personal emotions cloud your judgment again."

There was no familial warmth in the General's tone. Neil, accustomed to the strict military discipline of his uncle, unemotionally responded, "Yes, sir."

General David's stern voice echoed through the phone, "You better, General. Lives depend on it, and we don't have room for mistakes. Carry out your duty, and remember the consequences of failure." The call ended abruptly, leaving Neil feeling even more detached from the only family that accepted him after his parents were killed.

He wouldn't say he hated the man for always reminding him of his past and what would happen if he made a mistake, but sometimes...

Neil's thoughts were cut off when his eyes fell on the photograph laying on his desk. He picked it up and stared at the girl in a pink dress. No matter how much years that had passed, he would never forget the little girl in the picture. The girl with two braids that always ran around him like a little mischievous rat. The girl his younger self had sworn to marry when he grew up, not knowing when he grew older he would no longer believe in that bullshit called love and marriage, nor would he have the desires to see himself settle down with anyone.

'Xavier, Xavier, look what I made for you. Do you like it?'

An image of a little girl no more than five years old flashed to his mind. Her cute smiling dimpled face as she handed him an ugly looking rag doll she'd made for him. She was always making things for him and trying to impress him regardless of how much he told her to leave him alone. Though, he didn't know her family, he knew she was living in one of the mansions next to their own mansion when his father was still alive.

The day she warmed her way to his younger self's heart, was when his dog died and he was sulking in the corner, but the little girl walked to him and gave him a hug while trying to console him with the promises of asking her mother to get him a new dog. His younger self had been embarrassed that a girl was consoling him and impulsively pushed her away. He hadn't expected his push to make her lose her balance and fall backwards on her butt.

The little girl had looked up at him with teary large brown eyes and cried out, 'You are being mean to me like papa. I am sorry I didn't mean to anger you, I just want to make you feel better.'

When Neil saw how he had hurt the girl's feeling, he had felt bad and apologized, he also consoled her with a chocolate he stole under his mother's nose from the kitchen. After that day, they became inseparable until the day he'd lost everything...

Neil ran his fingers across the girl's photo. How did this girl turn out to be Mia Harrison? What went wrong that made her family become...poor? In the past, she lived in a grand house that was as huge as a President's estate. But now....he had seen the place she lived in when he dropped her off that night at the whispering way street, the poorest town in Zen.