When it became dark, and the street lights turned on, I decided to make my move. I had purchased a small bag that I stuff the things that I thought might be needed, such as gloves, knives, rope, my usual weapons, a club, and several newspapers. Then I wore a coat over myself and pulled the cover over my face to hide it from plain view. Once I felt sure of the time, I left the dump yard.

It took me several minutes to reach the luxury hotel, and by then, I could see the lights streaming brightly from the entrance and onto the street. There was also a wagon stationed a little in front of it, where a person stood wearing a certain outfit that I saw earlier that day.

“They’re here,” I thought, confirming the cleaning service were there.

My plan was to infiltrate into the hotel by dressing myself as one of the cleaning crew. Currently, I don’t have the uniform like the ones they were wearing, so I decided to find an unsuspecting person, knock him out and take his uniform.

As there was only one person stationed at the wagon, I thanked my luck and decided to attack him. So, I slowly sneaked up to him and slammed my fist against the back of his neck, causing him to instantly lose consciousness. But before he fell, I caught him and glanced around before dragging him away to the hiding spot I used earlier that day to spy on the hotel.

I undressed him and quickly put his clothes on before I tied both of his hands and feet with the rope I brought and cut the ends with a knife. His clothes felt a little lose to me because of how skinny I was, but I didn’t care as this discomfort was only temporary. Then I checked his pockets and found an identification card for them to let me enter as part of the cleaning crew.

“Well, this guy’s new to the job,” I muttered when I looked at the date of issue for when he started his employment. “Been only two days. This’ll work for me.”

This made me think of playing out a story if anyone stopped and asked about me, telling them that my previous job went bad, and that I wanted to get the cleaning done so we can go home sooner. I was confident they wouldn’t be suspicious because I expected a lot of workers behave this way due to the low paid salary for all the hard work they do.

Once I was sure, I walked out onto the street, turning to look back to make sure he really was hidden behind the wall and would not be spotted easily. Once I was sure, I made my way towards the hotel and took the side path towards the rear.

As I came to the rear and was about to enter through the back door when someone suddenly opened the door and came out. He looked a little surprised, probably because he didn’t expect to find me standing on the other end.

“Who”

“What’re you doing here?” He asked in an irritated voice. Then he looked quizzically at my face and asked, “and who’re you? I don’t think I’ve seen you around?”

“Um,” I muttered nervously, trying to think fast on what to reply. “I-I recently joined the cleaning after my last job went bad and I was wondering if it’s my turn to clean.”

I rummaged through my left breast pocket and pulled out a card and showed it to him. After

 “Ah. You’re the newbie, eh?” The man responded, looking at me from top to bottom and back. “Well, it’s not your turn to clean, but why are you so eager to work?”

“Crap!” I thought, realising my silly mistake in sounding eager about the work.

So, I tried winging it by replying, “Well, I want to get the work done and go home sooner.”

I was feeling nervous whether he would believe me or not, but thankfully, he did. The unknown man nodded and seemed to look as though he understood.

“Yeah. I hear you, and I feel the same way,” he replied in an understanding voice.

I nodded, and as I turned around to leave to look as if I was going to wait for my turn, he called out to me.

“Hey, newbie,” he said, and I turned around to face him while looking curious. “If you are keen on getting the work done, why don’t you take over for me while I keep watch outside?”

“Oh!” I said, feeling happy at how lucky I was. “Sure! I’ll do it!”

“Good,” he said appreciatively with a slight nod of the head. “I’m in charge of cleaning the second floor from rooms 202 to 206.”

As he was leaving, he paused and turned to give me advice on what I should do to request for cleaning.

“Just knock on their door until they open and check with them if they want cleaning or not. If they want, make sure to clean every spec of the floor and whatever else they want you to clean, like taking out the trash and anything else that needs cleaning. Make sure to wait patiently for them to open their door for you because it’s considered rude to knock too often.”

“Okay! I’ll keep that in mind, sir!” I said, and smiled at him.

He nodded at me and told me that the cleaning utensils were placed right next to the back entrance and left to wait near the wagon. So, when I walked through the back door, I found a bucket, a broom, and a mop that were meant for cleaning floors.

Taking them with each hand, I left for the stairs that were to my right which had the label, “Staff Only.”

“Guess, only staff are the ones allowed to use these stairs,” I muttered as I went up them.

It took me a few seconds to reach the first floor, and then a few more seconds to reach the second floor. As I reached the landing, I breathed a sigh and quickly got the hang of my breathing rhythm back to normal.

“Slack,” I muttered in a disgruntled voice.

Not a single person was around to ask about me, not even a guard to look after the people living in their hotel. On the outset, it looked like a luxury hotel that took itself very seriously, but when it came to security, this place had very poor standards. I wasn’t complaining though because it’s been pretty easy sneaking in here.

Anyway, I walked to the side and passed the staircase that was normally used by the tenants staying at the hotel. Once I reached the corridor that had a window facing the street, I knew along this was where the man I was after stayed in. But, finding him amongst all these doors would take time.

Still, I had time on my hand, so I arrived at 202 and knocked twice on the door. Then I patiently waited for the door to open, and when it did, I felt my heart skip a beat with joy.

“Here he is,” I muttered with a small smile on my face as I stared at the person that I was after.

“What is it?” He asked me curtly, clearly looking annoyed by the disturbance.

“Cleaning service, sir,” I said, holding up the bucket and mop for him to see.

“Oh. Yeah. Clean the floor,” he said, giving me instructions on what to do without me needing to ask.

That saved me quite a bit of trouble, and I quickly went into the room with my bucket, broom and mop with each hand. I was amazed by the luxurious appearance of the room, with the cool lights, the pictures on the walls, and a large bed with a side table attached to it.

The man closed the door and walked over to retake his seat at the table facing the wall. As I went about trying to appear as though I was cleaning the room, I noticed that there were a lot of documents set on the table, and he seemed to be writing down on a separate sheet of paper.

“Those must be it,” I thought to myself when I caught sight of them.

After noticing them, I moved into the bathroom and filled up the bucket with water and brought it out. Then I jiggled my mop in the water before I began cleaning, from one corner of the room and slowly moving over to the other side of the room. This was my strategy to slowly catch the enemy off guard without causing too much suspicious behaviour.

So, it took me around three minutes to clean one side of the room and I reached the other side. I continued to mop the floor, and the man continued to ignore me while he kept writing something on a piece of paper while he kept taking a new page after reaching the end of the previous one.

As I gradually got closer to him, I glanced at him sideways to make sure he wasn’t looking at me. The bastard continued to ignore me even though I was right behind him and still cleaning with the mop. So, I took this as an opportunity to swing the mop in a vertical angle before bring it down hard on his head.

“Gah!”

He yelped in pain, and his eyes momentarily widened before his eyes closed, and he slumped in his chair. I quickly got around him and put my hand near his nose to check whether he was still breathing or not. When I found him breathing, I sighed in relief and quickly walked over to lock the door.

“Don’t need unnecessary disturbances,” I muttered and smiled wryly.

I set the bucket and the mop aside before letting down the bag, that I was still carrying, down on the ground. It still had a leftover rope, and I pulled it out as well as a bunch of newspaper. Then I walked over to the unconscious guy and began wrapping several layers of paper around his mouth before tying the whole thing with the rope I pulled out moments before.

Once that was done, I raised him off the chair and dragged his limp body over before laying him down on the ground. I laid him down gently, and once I did that, I headed back to the table to check out what he had written down on the bunch of pieces of paper that he appeared to have been writing for a while.

What I found out was a shocking piece of evidence that suggested the cruel, unorthodox methods he was going to request the government to conduct. Due to the recent rumours of an uprising about to get started in the west slums because of some surviving revolutionists, he proposed to send in a battalion in the middle of the night, set fires to all of their homes and burn the place down. Then, capture people at random and use them as scapegoats to put the blame entirely on them and make it seem like The Empire was doing a great job of protecting its people.

I was horrified by the details, but the worst part about it all was he had suggested that killing the adults and capturing the children and selling them into slavery or making them do work for them was the best course of saving money and resources The Empire had to spend from its own pocket.

“They are not our families, and as such, there should not be a problem in using them to work for us.”

That was one of the lines written in his documents, and I flared up so much that I instantly crumpled the paper up without hesitation. I knew that if these were to get into the hands of the government, then many people would lose their lives, and a lot of children would be sold into slavery and used as disposable pawns for the government.

“Scumbags,” I muttered, glaring fiercely at the papers before I tore them and crumbled all of them into balls. “How could they be so heartless to do this? It’s insane!”

That’s what I said, but then I reasoned that the society was run by maniacs in power, and they would do anything to get what they want. Even if it meant dirtying their own hands, they would do it without a second thought or any regret of doing it.

Fuelled by my anger for The Empire, I continued ripping the papers apart and stuffing them into my bag. I didn’t want to leave any kind of evidence, or some left over document that could help further the ambition of these people.

It took me several seconds to tear them down and stuff them into the bag until it was nearly full. After making sure there were no other papers left to destroy, I turned my attention to the unconscious guy, the man who was like the mastermind behind all of this nasty business.

I wanted to kill him. I wanted to kill him in cold blood without a second thought. But would that be the best thing to do? Would it be really advisable of me to take his life when he toyed around with the lives of others? No! This man deserved to be punished! This man deserved to be tortured, and endure the pain that others, such as me, felt for everything that’s happened!

“Yes! I have to torture this monster living in the shell of a human being!” I muttered fiercely.

With my decision made, I briefly searched around the room to find something solid that I could lay his hands on so that he was in a siting position. A few seconds later, I discovered a small bed table stowed away in one of the shelves, and I laid it out before making the unconscious man sit down. Then I untied his hands and laid them down on the table.

My intention was to wake him up and play around with for a little bit and relieve some of the hatred I held for The Empire on him. After all, this guy didn’t deserve any shred of mercy because of all the cruel things he had done in the past! But I didn’t want to wake him up gently and face my retribution; I wanted to wake him up with one hell of a painful way.

I brought my bag and sat down facing him before I ruffled through all the paper to delve into the contents to pull out two knives. Then I raised the knives in the air and stabbed them as forcefully as I could into the upright position of his hands.

The moment the knives pierced his hands, blood seeped through the opened wounds and started spilling onto the bed table. At the same time, the bastard woke up and opened his eyes wide as he screamed his lungs out from the intense pain he felt in his hands. However, only small muffling sounds came from his mouth that was wrapped around by several layers of newspaper and tied tightly by rope to keep him completely silent.

Sitting there in front of him, I watched him shake violently in pain and try to wrench his hands away from the table. However, because I had stabbed them with all of my strength, they were pinned to the bed table and made it impossible for him to break free. In fact, he only caused himself more pain by moving his hands as they rubbed against the knives and caused him to feel more pain.

“Hello,” I said, and he turned to look at me with wide eyes. “Looks like I have your attention now, so let’s enjoy a little bit of the time you have left in this world, shall we?”

Then I smiled, and I was sure I was showing him a truly twisted smile filled with evil and madness.