Step by step, Michael moved toward the thug, making as little noise as possible. He held the rusty knife in one hand, and a polythene bag used to contain a pistol in the other. When Michael was just a meter away from the thug, he halted his steps, looked around, and took a deep breath, calming himself down. He slowly stood up to match the thug's height. Slowly, he walked toward the thug before plunging the dagger into the thug's throat as fast as he could. Despite his scrawny figure, his strength surprised Spectre. It wasn't easy for a kid like him to penetrate the thug's thick skin with a rusty knife. But Michael made it look so simple and easy. As soon as the rusty knife entered the thug's throat, he growled. Blood spurted out from the wound, but before it could spray over the table and the floor, Michael put the polythene bag around the thug's head.

The thug violently struggled. Due to his drunk state, the thug wasn't as strong as he would normally be. Michael wrapped his thin hand around the thug's neck, siding the rusty knife from one end to another. When Michael's knife reached the larynx, his rusty knife met resistance. As an assassin who slit countless throats, Spectre knew how hard it is to actually kill someone by cutting human throats. It wasn't as easy as the movies showed them to be.

"Sonof" The thug tried to turn his head, grabbing Michael by his neck. However, Michael began to stab the thug's eyes. The thug squirmed, frantically shivering. After stabbing the thug's eye through the polythene bag, Michael immediately followed up by stabbing the thug's throat right in the center.

The blood loss, coupled with Michael's surprisingly strong grasp, made the thug slowly lose consciousness. To Spectre's surprise, Michael did not stop stabbing the thug. He ensured the thug stood no chance of surviving or fighting back.

Thud!

Finally, the thug fell to the ground with the chair. In a blink of an eye, Michael got on top of the fat thug. He plunged the rusty knife through the thug's chin, making sure he didn't yell or scream. Eventually, after so many stabs and much struggle, Michael rolled down the thug's body to the ground. His little chest rose and fell repeatedly. The polythene bag around the thug's head ensured blood from forming a puddle on the ground.

Taking a few minutes of rest on the ground, Michael pulled himself to his feet.

"This is what you get for hurting Ruby," Michael kicked the thug right between his legs to vent the remaining anger in his heart. Silence fell over the warehouse for a moment. In an utter silence, Spectre watched everything with an amused smile on his face. Finally, he had found a proper prodigy to train and impart his skills. He had seen many children of famous killers. They were trained from a little age to become the next generation of killers. But Spectre hadn't seen an intense murdering aura from them like he had sensed from Michael. He was a natural-born killer.

With the remaining strength, Michael tried to pull the body toward the large hole on the other side of the warehouse. At the same time, Spectre noticed a few shadows when lightning flashed across the sky. Michael's body tensed when he heard the footsteps. He panicked as any kid should. He hastened his steps, but the thug was heavier than he expected.

"Why do you have to forget your wallet today of all days, Jamie?" The two guards opened the door on the other end. They were on their way to Michael and their colleague. Now that Michael had killed the thug, he only had two choices. Leave the body and run away or try to kill the other two guards. The latter wasn't possible for a scrawny kid like Michael no matter how much of a prodigy he was.

So if Michael had to leave the body and run away, the two guards would see the dead body. Of course, at that time, Spectre wouldn't be surprised if the thugs decided to torture each and every kid individually to get the truth. Luckily for Michael, Spectre decided to help his soon-to-be disciple. He simply jumped down from the beam and landed a few meters away from Michael without making a noise.

"Do you need help with the kid?" Michael's muscles went rigid. His eyes opened as wide as they could. He looked up with utter shock to see Spectre walking toward him. Due to the darkness, Michael couldn't see this man's face but one thing was certain: he didn't belong to this gang, at least he didn't dress like one.

"There are two guards on their way to right this spot as we speak," Spectre said silently, just loud enough for Michael to hear him.

Michael clenched the bloody rusty knife tighter, threatening Spectre to kill him with his eyes. His eyes were predatory instead of fearing Spectre.

"Who..who are you?" Michael asked. For the first time, his voice had a slight fear. He didn't fear for his life but for the other children. The fear of letting another child turn into a drug mule like him freaked out Michael. Unlike him, they didn't have the brain to outwit the other gangsters, criminals, and police. They wouldn't survive a week trafficking drugs and weapons from one end to the other under these vile creatures.

"I've seen what you can do, Michael,"

Michael was taken aback by shock,

"How do you know my name? You followed me," Michael realized why he felt like he was being followed this afternoon.

"I want you to become my student,"

Michael creased his brows. Despite the fact he had killed a thug in cold blood, he was calm enough to use his brain.

"What kind of student?"

"How do you like to become an assassin?"

Michael looked at Spectre from head to toe.

"You mean a hitman?" asked Michael. He was familiar with the term hitmen because he had seen several in the warehouse. He even made some deliveries for them. They were no different from the gangsters but just better at killing people.

"Potato potato. If you agree, your life will get much better. The way I see it, you have to lose," Spectre looked around for a moment.

"I have a family," Michael growled. Although being a drug mule wasn't what he wanted, at least he could be with the others in the orphanage and protect Ruby to an extent.

"That bastard better be here," Spectre and Michael heard the thugs. Their footsteps sounded louder and louder. Time was running out for Michael. Spectre could escape even without killing the two things, but he doubted Michael could.

"Time is running out kid. It's either agreeing to be my student or getting caught by the two thugs. If you are lucky, they will kill you, and don't touch the others. You're a smart kid, you can figure out what they would do to them, can't you?" Spectre slowly took a step forward.

"I am anything but lucky," Michael mumbled under his breath. He really didn't expect the other two thugs to show up. They should have been out for at least two hours. A single variant fucked up his plan.

"How can I trust you?"

"You can't. But you have no choice either. Tick tok, little guyticktok" Spectre slowly said.

The thugs got closer to the point Michael could see their shadows. Only a few crates stood between him and the two thugs.

"Promise me you will put the others in a real orphanage, far away from here, and I will do whatever you want,"

"You got yourself a deal," Spectre extended his hand to shake Michael's hand. For a moment, Michael looked confused as the man seemed like wanting to shake his bloody hand. With a long deep breath, Michael shook his hand. Just like how Spectre recognized Michael as a killer, Michael also had this weird feeling about the man before him. He had been dealing with murderous criminals his whole life, and none of them radiated such an intense killing aura. Michael felt like he had shaken the hands of an ultimate predator.

"Orso,"

"Where the fuck are you?"

The two thugs finally walked around the crates to see the silhouettes of Michael and Spectre.

"What the?" they panicked.

They reached for the gun in the holsters, but Spectre was faster than them. In a blink of an eye, he took out the silenced pistol on his behind and shot them right between the eyes. Their bodies collapsed to the ground with a thud. Spectre's speed freaked out Michael. He didn't even see what just happened clearly.

"Cool," Michael couldn't help mumbling under his breath. The stranger startled him with his speed.

"What now? We take the kids and drop them somewhere safer?" Michael tilted his head.

"Remember, you can kill me. But I will become a ghost and haunt you for the rest of your life," When Michael saw the man remain silent, Michael threatened him. To his surprise, the man just chuckled.

"You don't need to die to become Ghost kid. From now on, you don't exist. You're coming with me to a place where no one knows you, and you don't know anyone. In return, I will put the others in a much better place, a real orphanage, and put enough money to take care of themselves the rest of their lives, "

This was the first hardest decision Michael had ever taken in his life. He trusted a stranger to leave everything behind, even the one person he loved the most, Ruby, so they could have a better life. As far as Ruby and the others were concerned, Michael died in an explosion in the warehouse. As a result, the police rounded them up and sent them to a much better place where an anonymous donor made a huge sum of deposits in their names to live a lavish life for the rest of their lives.

Even to this date, Ruby visited Michael's grave every month like clockwork and named her first son after Michael. Before Spectre went mad and ordered a hit on an orphanage Michael built, Michael always kept tabs on Ruby and saw her from a distance. Seeing her with a family of her own always made everything he did worth it. Not being able to meet Ruby in person was Michael's only regret on earth.