Vampire Cultivation System in a Hidden World of Monsters

"You won't be on B and E anymore," Johnny said. B and E stood for breaking and entering. It involved breaking into houses or buildings and stealing stuff. Pretty basic crime sh*t.

"I won't?" I said. "Why?"

"You aged out. You know I only use people who can't get tried as adults for B and E," he said.

"Right. Then what will I be doing," I said.

"Wet work," he said, handing me a gun with a silencer attached. Wet work meant murder for hire.

"Hmm. I mean, obviously I have to do it, but can we keep it to bad people? No innocents and no kids. I won't do it," I said. "Oh, and I won't need the gun."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"I wasn't planning on having you doing any innocents or kids. Bad people only. Agreed. Why won't you need a gun?" He said, with an eyebrow raised.

"I'm a lot stronger than I was before," I said. "Give me a quarter."

"Ok," he said, taking a quarter out of his change jar and handing it to me.

I took it and folded it in half. Then I folded it in half again and handed it back to him. He looked at it and looked at it, like it was some kind of trick he was going to figure out. He put it down on the desk and then got out a magnifying glass.

"What are you doing?" I said.

"I'm trying to figure out how you did this. It's not a trick quarter, because I can see the date still and it's the same as the one I handed you. Do you have some kind of pneumatic contraption in your jacket?" He said.

"Nope. This is the same jacket you gave me when I was fifteen, completely unmodified," I said, taking it off and putting it on a chair. I took my shirt off to show him that I wasn't wearing a contraption but also to show off my muscles.

"Whoa, you're jacked! When did that happen?" He said, standing back up.

"If I'm being honest, just about a month ago," I started flexing and making ridiculous faces and noises. "Hiya! Wah! Grr! Gachapon! Tissue Paper!" I pointed into the corner of the room and said, "Hey you guy, I'm gonna murder you with my finger!" And I held up my pinky.

"Ok, enough with the theatrics. I know you love all that movie sh*t, but this ain't the movies. This is the mafia. You can shoot a guy or you can break his neck if you want to, but you do it fast and quiet and you get out of there. No bullsh*t," Johnny said.

"Yes, Dad," I said, pretending to be disappointed as I put my shirt and jacket back on.

"That quarter sh*t was impressive but strength don't mean nothing out in the field unless you know how to use it. Prove to me you can do this with the first job and I'll give you tougher ones later," he said leaning back in his chair and throwing a folder onto his desk.

I picked it up and looked through it. Abusive ex boyfriend murdered her parents and is now stalking her. She wants him gone before he murders her too.

"Ok, I'll get it done," I said. "I know you don't owe me any favors, but can you look into something for me? Ask around about this coin and see if anyone knows anything about it. Only use backchannels though. If the wrong people find out you have that, someone will come knocking on your door and they'll knock hard."

I handed Johnny one of my gold giblets.

"Huh. I've never seen anything like this. Is this real gold? Who would have minted a useless gold currency?" He said, looking at it.

"It's not useless. Its only used by a series of secret organizations deep underground. One of those organizations tried to kill me, but I want back in. So if you can find someone else who has a way in, I'll pay you a million dollars in these gold coins," I said.

"Each one is worth about a hundred dollars. But you'll have to melt them down and turn them into bars before you can move them unless you want some very dangerous people on your ass. Oh, and when you're asking around, stay away from anyone from Sanguis Fluid Dynamics. They're the ones who tried to kill me."

"You have ten thousand of these things?" He said.

I nodded.

"Intriguing. And I don't say intriguing very often. I'll ask around about it," he said.

"Back channels," I said.

"Back channels," he mumbled back to me while he stared at the coin.

I went to the club that Chad always came to watch his ex girlfriend dance. He never made overt advances towards her in the club so he never got kicked out, but sometimes he would follow Chelsea home and stand outside her door without knocking.

She knew this because she would look through the peephole and he'd just be standing there. She was deeply afraid he would do something someday and so she hired me to keep her safe, in a sense.

I sat at the bar and ordered a beer. I looked towards the stage at the seats surrounding the stage and spotted Chad. He was watching Chelsea dance just like she said he would be.

Did this guy have no life? He couldn't have a job if he was doing this everyday. Maybe he did have no life. Maybe she used to be his life, until he messed up and got abusive.

Despite how sad and pathetic it was, I didn't feel sorry for Chad or men like him. They all dug their own grave and then refused to lay in it. And they would keep going regardless of who they hurt in the process of trying to make themselves feel better.