Page 319 of Eternal
They were close, unnaturally close for two people who should’ve hated each other since birth.
Maybe even dangerous because of it.
The target was unclear. At first, they thought it might be the friend, or maybe the next name on the list. That list was paid for, funded by a woman, old, cruel looking, the kind of rich that smells like blood. She paid enough that no one asked why. So I stayed.
Two years.
I trained with them, bled beside them and in the fake team, learned to move like one of them. I became what they were becoming. But I never belonged.
They went back to the States. Got promoted, protected, and respected, I didn’t.
Got picked up in a minor bust, only a footnote on the official report. They arrested me in silence, there was no extraction, no medal, no “good job, soldier.” No one ever told them the truth.
To them, I was bratva.
One of their own, and maybe I was.
But I was never someone they could trust, not really, not even back then.
Because the truth is... I didn’t know who I was working for anymore. The government? The woman who paid them? Myself?
I didn’t know where I belonged. All I knew was the code they gave me.Viper.
And I guess the thing about being a ghost is... eventually, even you forget if you were ever real.
“It's been a long time, hasn’t it?” Elijah barely smiles, takes a slow sip from his drink.
“You finished your training in Russia?”
I shake my head just before Nikolai laughs.
“I was surprised to hear you’re an enforcer for the Vegas bratva now. What made you come back? I thought prison had broken you. You disappeared for years.”
When I think about it… I’m not even sure how to explain what really happened. We were building ourselves into weapons for the bratva.
Back then, youth almost felt hopeful.
Like we had a purpose. And then I vanished. I ended up in prison. One year. And honestly… I don’t remember much of it. Not because it wasn’t real. But because it was. Too real. Too silent. Too brutal.
Alone again like always, like before, no name, no family, no one was coming for me.
I guess when you’ve never had a home, being locked in a box feels like a return to normal.
Eventually, they pulled me out, another mission, bigger. And another one again and again. Until I lost my team. Until I started being alone again. Untilher.
“You came back only to be an enforcer?” Elijah asks.
I glance at him, then search the room for the real reason I’m here.
The strange person who makes this loneliness worth it. My last mission. The only one I failed.
“I'm here forher.”
Niko gives a knowing smile.
Elijah nods slowly. “I see. She’s got a purpose. You’re here to help her, aren’t you?”
How could I explain that I was supposed to stop her? That everything is fake now, blurred,broken. That since her… nothing follows the rules anymore.
