1 New Year

New Year, 2021

Chicago, IL

Boom!!!

It was midnight.

"Damn! That's some awesome fireworks! It's like we had an earthquake for a moment there.."

Another loud boom followed whereas the colorful fireworks lit up the night sky.

"Ack! Is that still legal?! It's going to knock some houses down, I bet.."

"They probably used so many fireworks at once.."

"Waaaaahhhhhhhh" A loud, high noise of the siren could be heard a few moments later.

"News flash: At approximately 12:00AM, the Chicago Police Department was called to a report of a house fire in xxxxx, Chicago, IL. It's unknown if there are any victims or survivors as the fire department is still on its way."

For everyone who heard the sound of the siren and watched the news, they felt shivers on their spine as they remembered the loud booming sound earlier that coincided with the fireworks.

It's not impossible to think that it was caused by too many fireworks lit up at once, or that the fireworks accidentally went in the direction of the house instead. It's one of the common accidents during the new year.

Nobody could have ever thought that the young woman in a goth outfit driving a black motorcycle down the streets was the one responsible for the explosion. Inside her black bag are confidential documents she took from the target after killing him using her needles.

She parked her bike down the basement of her apartment building then took the elevator to go up to her unit. The people she would pass by didn't even bat an eyelid at her appearance. At this time especially, people were also wearing their new year's eve outfits. There were even some who walked in costumes. Only her hazel green eyes, light brown brows and gray hair were visible. The rest of her face was covered by her mask and hood. They were too drunk to care about her.

"Hey sweetie.. How about a new year's kiss, hmm?" A drunk man holding a beer bottle tried to steal a kiss but she evaded his advances easily. "Aww.. don't be stingy sweetie.. Come on.. Kiss meeee.."

He jumped on her, trying to grab her. But once again, he was unsuccessful. And this time, he earned a bruise on his gut when she elbowed him fiercely.

The drunk man clutched his chest as he made hacking sounds when he coughed. He was about to get revenge when her cold gaze stopped him in his tracks, making him fear for his life.

"Aaagghh! I'm sorry! Sorry!" He ran away in the opposite direction.

She entered her unit that was decorated minimally. What one would notice though are some Asian antiquities. It's not that she's an avid collector. She would only buy and keep those which she felt she had affinity to. She didn't mind much if it was some treasure or trash to others. What mattered to her is that she liked to have it. She took the confidential documents from her bag, she read it fast. There was also a flash drive.

This was the reason why she became an orphan. It's a list of transactions of smuggled drugs by her father's former business partner. Her father, Nicholas Spencer must have accidentally found out about it and tried to cut off all ties with that person and attempted to report it to the authorities. Unfortunately, the whole family was exterminated instead, including her grandparents and uncles: Ex-military Elijah Spencer, entrepreneur Bethany Quinn-Spencer, Engineer John Chang, Veterinary Doctor Alayna Griffin-Chang, Architect Mason Chang and Surgeon Braden Chang were also killed when they gathered for Selah's coming home party. She was only a few days old when she lost everyone.

Taking the next step of her plan, she turned on her computer and loaded up the contents of the flash drive to it. She then posted anonymously to the internet, exposing their deeds. The document was too large and it was taking a long time to load. She took the other documents and read them one by one. She was surprisingly pleased at her discovery. Those were methods in chemistry and tests conducted in that laboratory to create drugs. The laboratory that was owned by her family before.

Her computer showed a black screen as her screen saver as it uploaded the post.

Sitting on her swivel chair, she toyed with her jade pendant necklace. Months ago, she didn't know that it had any connection to her identity. She thought that this was just jewelry her uncle picked up from the flea market in the past.

The uncle that she grew up knowing was not biologically related to her. He was not even a family friend. To her shock, he was actually one of the assassins hired to kill her whole family. If he didn't take her infant self back then, she would have ended up the same way as her grandparents, parents and uncles.

If not for those who hired her uncle and his colleagues, she wouldn't learn about her real identity. She found it strange why some people have started to follow her. It seemed like they were not aware of her being the number one genius assassin in her generation, Luna of Black Moon Organization. However, they have followed her during her regular job as a physician at the Genesis Medical Clinic.

Once she tracked those people, the clues led to their employer, Ronan Underwood. She then checked every little detail about that man and found her connection to him. It turns out, she bears a strong resemblance to her mother, Doctor Juliette Chang now that she's already in her late 20s. Having collected all of the clues, she finally made sense of her identity.

For 20 plus years, she has lived as Cynthia Dorsey, a distant relative of Arlo Harrell. She has trained to be an assassin since she was a toddler. All kinds of martial arts are already ingrained in her bones. But what set her apart was her natural ability when it comes to drugs, chemicals and the like. Before she got her license as a physician, she was already a master of different kinds of medical techniques. The common civilian however was clueless that she would use her knack in chemicals to create poisons and bombs as well.

She was known as a genius, eccentric, beautiful young woman who was admired in both her average life and the underworld. Alas, the only person she was close to was her uncle, Arlo Harrell, at least, before she found the truth. Now she has no one.

"Bang!" Her door was broken by intruders, snapping her out from her thoughts.

A man was tossed to the floor. His arms were tied. "Arlo."

Arlo Harrell looked up to see the young woman he raised by himself. "Run."

"HAHAHAHAHA" The man's sinister laugh made her blood burn in anger.

"Ronan Underwood. Pfft. As expected." She smiled bitterly at the men in cheap black suits.

"My..oh..my.. You've grown up little Selah.. Too bad your family never had the chance to see how beautiful you turned out to be. You've actually surpassed your mom!"

His lecherous gaze made her want to vomit. She couldn't wait to kill the dirty bastard.

"What do you want?"

"Kekeke.. Just tying up loose ends."

Naturally he would want to kill her to prevent her from taking back everything that was rightfully hers.

"Let's see if you're capable."

"Hah! This attitude of yours must be credited to this stupid man." He kicked Arlo with a small foot, his huge stomach bounced back. He let out a sigh. "How disappointing. And here I thought that I would see a heart-wrenching drama as soon as you find out that the man you've been calling uncle is actually one of the people I hired to kill your family back then. Tsk. It looks like you already know. What are you waiting for?! Kill them!"

The thugs walked towards her unable to hide their lecherous gaze. "Boss, can't we just play with her before we kill her?"

"Tsk. If that's the case, then capture her for me. I'll do her first then you can do what you want." He licked his dried lips as his gaze went up and down her body.

"Of course, boss! Hehehe"

Cynthia looked at Arlo who was still on the floor and looked at her pleadingly, telling her to run. She took backward steps towards her desk. The computer screen came alive and showed that it had been posted. She sighed in relief, her fingers under the desk, searching for the button.

Her gaze towards Arlo was gentle as she pushed the button and instantly, the room was surrounded in a misty fog. Cynthia swiftly took Arlo from the floor. Helping him up, they hid behind the couch. She untied his binds.

"HAHAHA trying to escape?! Shoot them!"

Guns ablaze, the thugs didn't care if they would alert the ordinary citizens as frightened screams could be heard.

Their hiding spots were already ridden with bullets.

"Run." Arlo once again mouthed the words.

She shook her head still trying to think of a way to retaliate. She only needed to get her hands on a weapon. But with the men blindly shooting, it was too dangerous to move. The thugs didn't stand in one spot, they actively seeked them out.

The situation started to become hopeless.

"Stay here." She lifted the rug under the coffee table. There was a small compartment under it. Opening it up, there were two guns, two daggers and some bullets.

Arming themselves, they started to fight back.

"Ack! Boss! They're fighting back. The police are on the way too.."

"Let's just get them next time if they still survive tonight Boss!"

"Tsk. Useless!!! Bomb them then!"

"Quick! Run!" One of them yelled as he threw a bomb towards Cynthia and Arlo's direction. But before they could totally escape, they collapsed to the floor one by one, the misty fog finally took its effect.

As soon as they heard them say Bomb, Cynthia and Arlo jumped out of the building. Whether they live or not, was up to fate.

Boooom!!!!!!