🌿💀🌿

Witch-Hazel uses her magic to wake Newt up. I’d asked how exactly it works but I’m guessing it’s a long explanation. I don’t have the time and it doesn’t matter.

Newt wakes up groggily. Seeing this piece of shit draw breath pisses me off. When he realizes where he is, he starts freaking out.

“What do you fuckers want?!” He screams and flails around.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” I tell him. “Seven stories, more than enough to kill you.” He calms down somewhat. “This,” I gesture to the cable holding him in place. “Is your lifeline.” I pull out the knife and rest it against the cable.

“Lie to me, tell me something I don’t want to hear, make a corny joke.” I slowly saw the cable. “Get it?”

“FUCK YOU,” he tries to spit at me but it falls short before my feet. If it had reached me, I’d’ve killed him right then and there.

“So you want to die, is that it?” I start moving my knife up and down.

“Look, if you want money, I got plenty of it!”

“I don’t doubt it. How much did those kids pay for the guns?”

“Hundred bucks,” he answers.

“A hundred for two guns, to kids who never used them before? That’s bad business. There’s no way you need the money that bad.”

“Well, I have a couple of child support payments to make,” Newt jokes. I resume sawing the cable. The knife makes little progress into the metal rope, but the vibrations are what’s really scaring him. “Wait wait wait!”

“I already said I don’t like bad jokes,” I remind him. “Don’t bullshit me.”

“Okay, okay, just put the knife away!”

“You think you’re in a position to negotiate?”

“I remember stuff better when my life isn’t hanging on by a thread.”

“Fine.” I tuck the knife back into my boot.

‘Not like it was doing much anyway.’

“Why sell guns to kids? You must’ve sold a bunch for those kids to have heard about you.”

“Here’s a better question,” he proposes. “How do you even know about it and why do you care?”

I forgot that I was wearing a disguise. Turning to Witch-Hazel I ask her to drop it. I think she knows what asking this actually means, but she obliges anyway. The witch waves her hands and whatever magic shrouded my face dissipates. I rip the chameleon patch off my shoulder and put it into my pocket.

Newt doesn’t recognize my face, but my tattoo sparks familiarity in him. If he thinks it's strange that my appearance changed, he keeps it to himself.

“Okay, you’re a Bay Leaf, that’s the how. Doesn’t answer the why.” He’s trying to act calm, but there’s an unmistakable strain in his voice now that he realizes who he’s dealing with.

“I answered your question. You don’t need the money, so what’s the bigger plan here?”

“Anyone ever tell you that you’re paranoid?”

I take the knife back out.

“Hey hey hey, no need for that!” He pleads. “It’s an optics thing. We give some dumb fucks guns, drugs, whatever other bullshit that's illegal and the HCPD gets some easy busts.”

‘The HCPD. Why am I not surprised? Every gang in the city has a precinct in their pocket. They’re greedier than a swarm of locusts.’

“So you raise a little hell, HCPD gets to swoop in and look like knights in shining armor. What do the DeadNettles get out of it?” I prod.

“I really can’t say. They’ll kill me if they find out I told you,” he begs.

“I’ll kill you right now if you don’t!” I explain to him.

“If I tell you then I can’t go back to them! My life will be over!”

“Then I hope you can survive a seventy-foot drop!” The sawing continues.

“Stop!”

I keep at it.

“STOP!”

The cable starts to split, Newt teeters further and further back.

“IT’S A SCHEME! IT’S A SCHEME FOR ORGAN HARVESTING!” He confesses. I stop my blade.

“What?!” Witch-Hazel asks. Even she can’t be indifferent to what he said.

“We got this scheme to get a bunch of nobodies arrested, they go missing with our contacts in the police, and we take them and well, you can figure out the rest,” he explains, like it makes this all better.

“So those two kids you sold guns to; you were hoping the cops would arrest them, just so you could steal their organs later?”

“Actually I was gonna snitch on ‘em. The organ game is a pretty penny. You know how much rich fucks who don’t like waitlists will pay for a fresh kidney? Or a clean liver?” Newt replies with almost enthusiasm in his voice. I’m not sure if I’m angrier or revolted by what I just heard. A brief glance at Witch-Hazel confirms she has a similar dilemma.

“Now let me go!” He demands.

‘Poor choice of words.’

“Sure,” I reply.

“Thank you.” he heaves a great sigh of relief. “This is killing my back.” I make my way over to the pillar where the rope is tied.

“Yeah, I bet.” That’s when he pieces together what’s about to happen.

“What are you doing?” He stupidly asks. I tilt my head at the question.

“Letting you go.” I pull the knot the cable was in and gravity does the rest. The cable whips away from me and Newt plummets to his death, screaming all the way. I hear the crash of his body on the ground, then the silence of the city.

It’s not a good, decent man I killed. He was a true piece of shit that wanted to ruin the lives of at least two young men. Who knows how many more. It could’ve been Rye and the rest of his friends that got caught up in this foolishness. So no guilt or remorse grips me thinking about the death I caused; instead, a deep relief washes over.

I can’t say if Witch-Hazel feels the same. She’s definitely disturbed. The more time she spends with me, the more I show her how horrific and ugly this world is. Like an unnecessary truth that I’m forcing upon her. She doesn’t say anything as we both head to the elevator. The decrepit, rusty death trap takes us back down.

“Killing him may not stop this plan at all,” Witch-Hazel suddenly says. “But it spares two victims for now.”

A bit of silence comes.

“That’s more than enough sometimes,” she imparts. I don’t know how to respond, or if she even wants a response.

‘What has happened to her in her past?’ A question for another time. The elevator reaches the ground floor and we exit. The corpse of Newt isn’t too far from us but I don’t bother to look at it for more than a second.

Now that I’ve had time to think about it, Tamara’s probably gonna be pissed that I did this. My phone vibrates in my pocket and I can only hope to god it isn’t her.

I look at the screen and thankfully, it’s not. Instead, it's Kadupul calling. I answer it.

“Hey, you know that weird favor you asked about dead bodies? Turns out my contact at the morgues found a stiff that matches your description. I'll text the address. Better head over there quick.”

“Thanks,” I reply. “Sounds like we got a lead on your necromancer. Someone found a body that matches what you said,” I explain to Witch-Hazel. Her face lights up at the news.

“Take me there! It’s about time you step into my world.”

Ch. 9 End